Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's attending the love-in from 425 to 401...
425. Os Mutantes- "Bat Macumba" (1968), in which mid-sixties Batman Fever reaches all the way to Brazil.
424. The Byrds- "Psychodrama City" (1966), in which David Crosby insists he does not want any psychodramas and the irony clearly flies right over his head.423. Blossom Toes- "What On Earth" (1967), in which Blossom Toes declare themselves clean.
422. Jefferson Airplane- "The Last Wall of the Castle" (1967), in which Jorma Kaukonen sings about discord in his marriage, which is not something you'd expect from a twenty-something psychedelic revolutionary.
421. The Doors- "You're Lost Little Girl" (1967), in which the atmosphere is effectively spooky enough to distract you from how unbelievably lazy the lyrics are.
420. The Action- "In My Dream" (1967), in which we hear a bit of what George Martin would have done with The Action and we long for more.
419. The Creation- "Through My Eyes" (1967), in which The Creation get as psychedelic as they ever would.
418. The Beatles- "Fixing a Hole" (1967), in which Paul McCartney isn't even singing about shooting up heroin, so get over it!
417. Dantalian's Chariot- "World War Three" (1967), in which we spy the Nehru jacket-wearing imp discharging those crazed wah-wah chords and whisper, "Hey...isn't that the guy from The Police?"
416. Caleb- "Baby Your Phrasing Is Bad" (1967), in which I can't make the "Baby Your Phasing Is Bad" joke because whoever wrote the liner notes to the Nuggets II box set already made it.
415. The Monkees- "Words" (1967), in which Peter has Micky's back as the latter complains about being mistreated by his girlfriend.
414. The United States of America- "Coming Down" (1968), in which The United States of America sing about doing something that they probably never did.
413. The Eyes- "When the Night Falls" (1966), in which a band who thought wearing matching striped shirts with eyeballs painted on them was a good idea create some very eerie and menacing mod-psych rock.
412. The Action- "Icarus" (1967), in which we hear how The Action managed without George Martin's production, and it's still pretty great.
411. Family- "The Chase" (1968), in which Roger Chapman is all like, "Aaaah, aah! Aaaah, aah!"
410. The Kinks- "Phenomenal Cat" (1968), in which Ray Davies duets with a magical tree cat and we lament the lack of video footage.
409. Tyrannosaurus Rex- "Salamander Palaganda" (1968), in which the listener suffers an aneurysm while trying to figure out that title.
408. The Yardbirds- "Happening Ten Years Time Ago" (1966), in which The Yardbirds sink quite deeply into the well of time.
407. The E Types- "Put the Clock Back on the Wall" (1967), in which The E Types are like, "You left my Timex on the duvet? What the hell were you thinking?!?"
406. Pink Floyd- "Fat Old Sun" (1970), in which Dave Gilmour reuses the clock chimes from The Kinks' "Big Black Smoke" and two-thirds of the title of The Kinks' "Lazy Old Sun".
405. The Beatles- "Blue Jay Way" (1967), in which George Harrison sings the phrase "don't be long" twenty-five times. Twenty-five!
404. Pink Floyd- "Vegetable Man" (1967), in which Syd Barrett finally writes a song too weird for his bandmates.
403. Simon & Garfunkel- "Fakin' It" (1967), in which Paul Simon implores you to "treat your friends and neighbors honestly," which is probably the best advice you'll find in any song on Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500!
402. The Seeds- "Evil Hoodoo" (1966), in which The Seeds play the same two chords over and over for over five minutes, and not a second of it is anything less than molten hot.
401. The Creation- "Ostrich Man" (1968), in which The Creation promulgate a false and ugly myth about ostriches in order to make a point about one of those boring straights that hippies loved to sing about.
