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 smoking a number from 325 to 301...
324. Jefferson Airplane- "Wooden Ships" (1969), in which Jefferson Airplane watch the punters flock to Crosby, Stills, & Nash's homogenized version and shake their heads muttering "pearls before swine."
323. The Jimi Hendrix Experience- "May This Be Love" (1967), in which everyone who hears this lovely song responds, "Yes, it may be."
322. Os Mutantes- "A Minha Menina" (1968), in which Os Mutantes sparks a little psychedelic dance party.
321. Cream- "Dance the Night Away" (1967), in which Cream happily joins in.
320. The Beatles- "Baby, You're a Rich Man" (1967), in which some lazy lyrics are pounded into acceptability by one of the funkiest, heaviest rhythm tracks The Beatles ever recorded.
319. Pink Floyd- "Arnold Layne" (1967), in which the wearing of clothing without regard for gender norms in not the issue here; it's the stealing that cannot be abided.
318. The Rolling Stones- "In Another Land" (1967), in which Mick and Keith don't show up to the studio so Bill gets a song on a Stones album for the first and last time.
317. The Creation- "Life Is Just Beginning" (1967), in which The Creation spring for some violinists.
316. Cream- "World of Pain" (1967), in which having a nice tree outside your window is somehow an indicator of a global agony.
315. The Beach Boys- "Transcendental Meditation" (1968), in which the Maharishi's most reverent devotees pay homage to achieving restful inner peace by squealing over a farting acid-jazz sax.
314. Pink Floyd- "Scarecrow" (1967), in which inspiration strikes while Syd Barrett spends a quiet Saturday picking corn.
313. Sharon Tandy- "Daughter of the Sun" (1968), in which South African chanteuse Sharon Tandy provokes Matthew Hopkins without fear of reprisal, probably because Hopkins had been dead for 321 years.
312. The Beach Boys- "Little Pad" (1967), in which Carl Wilson sings so gorgeously that you barely notice how tossed-off this recording is.
311. Donovan- "Three Kingfishers" (1966), in which Donovan finds blue water birds to be appropriately psychedelic and one can hardly argue.
310. Pink Floyd- "Chapter 24" (1967), in which Syd Barrett sets a bit of the I Ching to music and every other hippie songwriter shouts, "Fuck! Why didn't I think of that first?"
309. Small Faces- "Green Circles" (1967), in which some guy dreams about green circles and we can only assume that "green circles" is code for drugs.
308. The Pretty Things- "Can't Stand the Pain" (1965), in which The Pretty Things introduce the world to both psychedelia and The Doors' signature sound well ahead of schedule.
307. The 23rd Turnoff- "Leave Me Here" (1967), in which there's finally a decent psychedelic record by a band from Liverpool.
306. Love- "Live and Let Live" (1967), in which Arthur Lee finally works the phrase "the snot has caked against my pants" into a psychedelic tune.
305. The Pretty Things- "Talkin' About the Good Times" (1968), in which The Pretty Things are all like "Gooooooood times!" but their song is actually kind of sad.
304. Love- "The Castle" (1966), in which Love plays some serious proto-prog rock so effortlessly that they make Genesis look like a bunch of chumps.
303. Jefferson Airplane- "Eskimo Blue Day" (1969), in which Grace Slick gets righteously pissed off on behalf of trees.
302. The Temptations- "Cloud Nine" (1968), in which The Temptations suggest that doing drugs is a perfectly reasonable way to escape the hardships of inner-city living.
301. The Pretty Things- "Balloon Burning" (1968), in which S.F. Sorrow stands by helplessly as his girlfriend dies under some pretty weird circumstances.
