Some while ago I promised someone here that I’d do this piece, and I have to admit it’s possibly the most difficult thread I’ve ever tried to start, even though (or possibly because?) it’s a subject close to my heart. For a start, what do you define as Psych-Pop? When do you start and when do you stop? How can I possibly include everything I’d like to, let alone stuff that others would deem essential to the genre?

Well, it’s my thread, so I’ll go where I please and leave it to others to include their definitions as well as their likes and dislikes. I also accept that for the vast majority of readers here this will be nothing more than the maunderings of an old hippie. All I can say to them is read and listen – there might be something of value…though even I will admit that there’s good psych, bad psych and psych so bad it’s good.

Right then, let’s start.

The psych-pop thing was part of the splintering of pop music from the dominant genre of the early to mid-sixties music scene in the UK – the beat group. At this point there was pop and that’s about it. Rock’n’Roll was something your parents or elder siblings listened to and was hopelessly weedy and out dated, but from 1966 through 69 pop split into three – bands like The Who, Cream, Stones and latterly Led Zeppelin developing the harder sound that came to be Rock, and the weirder more experimental branch that formed psych-pop which in turn morphed into Progressive, leaving pop behind as something that would often wrongly become used as a pejorative for what was no longer cool.

Time to get my definitions out then. Well, we’re talking tuney – often unbearably jaunty {Idle Race – Skeleton And The Roundabout} (note Jeff Lynne’s first brush with the charts), though there are darker strains in there too. The lyrics are not your usual boy-meets-girl, boy-has-road-traffic-accident sort that had dominated to date – anything goes really, but especially if it involves household objects. And, of course, the arrangements are well out-to-lunch, though generally falling into the hyper-Baroque or Eastern-influence camps.

What’s not included is Jimi Hendrix (is his music American, British, or from a heavenly plane? Is his music Rock, Pop or some genre he alone invented?) or bands such as Cream – even though Disraeli Gears is pretty psychedelic in it’s own way, it was well on the way to Rock and not Pop.

Personally I believe it starts with The Beatles and 1966. Yes yes, I know they were utterly talentless and had no worthwhile influence on anything, but the string quartet arrangement on “Eleanor Rigby” and the prosaic lyrics about ordinary things are a clear influence on things to come, as is, of course the Daddy of early, more hardcore, psychedelia “Tomorrow Never Knows”, which has the bloody lot. But having said that, in doing research in my own collection for this piece, there’s also a very good case for The Yardbirds – the monkish chants on “Still I’m Sad”, the harpsichord on “For Your Love” etc., though there’s probably a stronger case for them founding the Rock-as-we-know-it branch, starting way back in 65.

But if in doubt, if it’s got phasing, backwards guitars or scrapey cellos (preferably all three) then you’re in there.

So, let me pick out some examples of what psych-pop means to me…

The Words

It’s a funny old thing, but hitherto just about everything was sung in some sort of mid-Atlantic (at best) accent. Now, pretty much everyone seemed to want to sing in English. Take Steve Marriott - he’d been cheerfully drawling away in American on great singles like “Sha-la-la-la-lee” and “All Or Nothing” until he suddenly discovers he’s a Cockernee {Small Faces – Lazy Sunday}.

As mentioned above, just about everything became a subject for a song. Take this song {Pink Floyd – Apples And Oranges} about fruit by a combo that made two stunningly innovative albums, then some excellent prog albums before disappearing up their own self-important fundaments.

Alice In Wonderland also became fair game (on both sides of the Atlantic). {Boeing Duveen & The Beautiful Soup – Jabberwock} was much loved by Kenny Everett.

And of course The Beatles showed with “I Am The Walrus” that singing absolute cobblers was totally acceptable. And when it came to this sort of thing, it also became cool to talk your cobblers rather than sing it – we all know about that bit in “Hole In My Shoe”, but others were at it too, notably {Simon Dupree – Kites} and [URL={Simon Dupree – Kites}]{Donovan – Atlantis}[/URL] (though to be fair to all of those, the music made up for the eccentricities!). The bestest cobblers of this sort isn’t included here - even though it was spoken by a Geordie, it belongs spiritually in an American equivalent of this thread.

While I’m on the subject of gibberish, I’d have loved to have given you a sample of Pregnant Insomnia’s “Wallpaper” – anyone got a copy? Top stuff.

Backwards Is The New Forwards

Having been shown the way by “Tomorrow Never Knows”, backwards everything was in. Here ‘s {Tomorrow – My White Bicycle} with an up-and-coming guitarist who ended up having to listen to Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman for a living. BTW the singer ended up doing this {Keith West – Excerpt From A Teenage Opera} in his spare time. Here's {Pretty Things – Defecting Grey} doing backwards sitars – yum. Drums could be backwards also {Traffic – Hole In My Shoe}, to great effect.

The Cellos, the Cellos…

You just can’t beat a bunch of cellos scraping away, can you? Top of the all-time list has got to be {Spencer Davis Group – Time Seller}. Though ultimately swapping Steve Winwood for a string section was a terminally bad career move, this is the dog’s. {The Hollies – King Midas In Reverse} also co-opted cellos, but in the end decided that nothing short of the kitchen sink would do. The Irish/Greek duo that was the original Nirvana here use them more delicately {Nirvana – Tiny Goddess}. See also The Move’s “Blackberry Way”.

Phasing Set To Stun

I don’t know who invented phasing, but I’d certainly like to buy him a drink (or roll him a spliff). Back then, almost everything was phased to buggery and back. Wonderful. Here are just a couple of my faves… A man formerly known as Colin Blunstone of The Zombies {Neil MacArthur – She’s Not There}, and more {Small Faces - Itchycoo Park}. And here’s the difference it could make - {Nirvana – Rainbow Chaser} and {Nirvana - Rainbow Chaser Unphased}. Hell, it could even make Dylan sound good {Julie Driscoll/Brian Auger – Wheel’s On Fire}

Baroque and Roll

Procol Harum’s “Whiter Shade Of Pale” is perhaps the most famous example of this along with the famous cornet solo in “Penny Lane”, but there was a general movement towards using what sounded both quaint and cool at the same time.

Let there be trumpets! {Eclection – Mark Time}. BTW they only had one Englishman in it (Gerry Conway, the drummer). And a nice bit of harpsichord, Mr Emerson {Nice – The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack}, likewise {Donovan – Sunshine Superman}}, was an early adopter of the harpsichord (though later Donovan belongs stylistically more in the US psychedelic camp). Emerson, of course went on to plunder the whole classical catalogue but {The Move – Night Of Fear} beat him to it to some extent.

We’ve already heard the choir in the Keith West track and here’s more of Nirvana’s equivalent trilling away {Nirvana – Pentecost Hotel}. And even The Stones were at it with “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”.

Eventually, of course, excess will have its way and arrangements on a more Wagnerian scale appeared {Herd – From The Underworld} and the classic {Barry Ryan – Eloise}.


Eastern Promise

Again preceded by guess who…yes, The Beatles on Revolver’s “Love You To”, sitars were another way to bring instant psychedelic chic to your single. Apart from any number of the above samples, take classic one-hit wonders {Virgin Sleep – Love} (combining sitars with instant sing-a-longable lyrics), or Traffic’s classic debut single {Traffic – Paper Sun}.

The Latter Days

Most of the stuff above dates from late 66 through to the end of 68 and by 1969 The Beatles were getting back to basics with the likes of “Get Back” and the whole Let It Be thing, The Stones had had their dalliance with it through the much (wrongly) maligned Satanic Majesties and even “We Love You/Dandelion” but were returning to their roots with “Honky Tonk Women” and Beggars Banquet. Even Pink Floyd levelled out to some extent, with the departure of Syd.

The later efforts in the genre were definitely showing signs of “Progressing” with a capital P though. I think the two Jethro Tull singles from the period – “Witches Promise” and “Sweet Dream” - and much of the second Nice album, Ars Longa Vita Brevis are definitely pointers to the prog movement of the 70’s, as is {Family – No Mule’s Fool}.

The Recommended Albums

There’s some wonderful music out there from this period, but the trouble is that it’s rather fragmented. There are a handful of top quality albums that have stood the test of time.

For example: The Zombies “Odessey & Oracle” (yes, apparently deliberately misspelled) is superb piece of mellow psych-pop with any number of classic tracks including Care Of Cell 44 {Zombies - Care Of Cell 44}, Time Of The Season and more mellotrons than you could shake a stick at.

The Pretty Things “SF Sorrow” (arguably the first Rock Opera) {Pretty Things – Private Sorrow} is still brill and the CD re-master includes singles from the period including the excellent “Defecting Grey” and {Pretty Things – Talkin’ About The Good Times}.

Traffic’s “Mr Fantasy” is excellent by any standards today and the remastered CD includes the early singles not on the LP and mono mixes which were often very different (and better).

The Easybeats “Vigil” is closer to beat than psych-pop but it has excellent examples of both genres, for example the wonderful {Easybeats - Music Goes Round My Head}, plus gems such as {Easybeats – Falling Off The Edge Of The World}, Hello How Are You, Good Times, and Land Of Make Believe. Again, the re-master has excellent alternative takes of songs (as mentioned above, many songs emerged in very different guises). Oh, and by the way in case anyone’s being picky I’m claiming the Easybeats as mostly English (Wright, Young) and Dutch (Harry Vanda and Dick Diamonde ) by birth.

There’s an Island compilation of Nirvana called “Forever Changing – An Introduction To Nirvana” which is excellent with one resounding caveat – the Rainbow Chaser on this album is the unphased one – a shockingly bad decision by someone.

You also can’t go much wrong with The Very Best Of The Move.

Otherwise fans are reliant on compilations, for example the exhaustive Rubble series, though this originally stretched to at least 14 albums and included all sorts of stuff other than what I’d consider psych-pop, not all of it good.

An excellent place to start that doesn’t involve building an extension to the house is ”Acid Drops, Spacedust & Flying Saucers: Psychedelic Confectionery”, which runs to just the four discs.

I’d love to hear of albums of this ilk that I’ve missed out – one’s that can be rated without having extenuating circumstances used as an excuse!

Finally, it’s really hard to overestimate the magic and innovation contained in those first two Pink Floyd albums. They don’t feature the singles, but this is pop being truly bent out of shape forever. “Relics” gives you a few of the singles, but they were all so good…

I’m sorry if this has gone on a bit and I know it’s not as shapely as it might be, but on the other hand I didn’t expect it to run to 2,000 words and close on 40 samples.

Many thanks to djc for the inspiration and loan of the CD Recorder, and John for the web-space and editorial stint (did I end up ignoring too much of your advice?).

nick.lees at btinternet.com

Wow a regular war and peace post that one well done.
What next a book Nick Lee's ##### trees (enter required genre)?
Its a bit late now will study at leisure later.
Thanks

Howard

Excellent. Cheers for that Nick.

KUDOS TO MR. LEES!!!

This genre is my absolute favourite; in fact, if forced to, I could happily listen to nothing else. Other tunes Nick Lees undoubtedly owns already would include "Armenia City in the Sky" by the Who, "I See the Rain" by the Marmalade, the Dave Clark Five's(!) late singles, etc. I should mention (and am doing) great compilations like Nuggets Vol. II: The British Empire and Beyond(not sure of exact title) that gather a great cross-section in a 4-CD set.

I must stress that this was 98% a British form, U.S. musicians were shaped by different social forces and school systems. Andy Partridge said (I'm paraphrasing here) "American psychedelia seemed to be about buckskins and violent revolt, Viet Nam etc., while English psych was about walking backwards through a purple fog at a Victorian garden party" (or somesuch). One notable exception to the rule was the Nazz from Philly (Todd Rundgren's band) who nailed that early Brit-psych sound.

I don't know what I would have done back in '66-'69, being a teenage pothead, without "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake", "Odessey and Oracle", "Piper at the Gates of Dawn", "Shine On Brightly", "Days of Future Passed" etc. Or for that matter, now.

Although not strictly part of the genre, I should also mention the Dukes of Stratosphear's "25 O'Clock", which, although recorded in 1985, was a perfect evocation of the period, with note/sound-perfect channelings of the Electric Prunes, Yardbirds, Syd's Floyd, Beatles etc. The Dukes, in their paisley shirts, beads and kaftans, looked suspiciously like XTC.

Cheers Guys.

There was a lot left on the cutting room floor, including more Procol Harum, and I almost included The Who - apart from Armenia, Happy Jack's got that sound - but in the end they were a bit too Rockist

I'd say that Nazz were a good link to an equivalent American thread - I've got the raw material lined up, but to be honest I'm too exhausted by this to even contemplate another one (if ever!).

And yup, The Dukes and Nick Nicely really carried the flame into the 80s, along with The Bevis Frond (on the heavier side of psych).

Much of what I've heard of contempory psych pop has been rather limp and feeble, but I'd love someone to prove me wrong.

nick.lees at btinternet.com

Nick The Old Hippie said:

"Personally I believe it starts with The Beatles and 1966. Yes yes, I know they were utterly talentless and had no worthwhile influence on anything,"

I knew you'd eventually get it right.

Seriously, I have no idea what you're talking about in this thread but when I get some time and patience I'll give a few tracks a listen.

Ludwig in Paisley Pants and Floppy Hat

A brilliant summation , Nick - and bhazen, you're just so right - 'English psych was about walking backwards through a purple fog at a Victorian garden party' - spot on.

The American variant was largely much more sensible [United States Of America et al.] although there were a few dafter wobblers [Lothar And The Hand People, Daughters Of Albion and even the peerlessly loopy Lemon Pipers ' ....The Jagged Edge of Insecurity, - the Tangled mass of Membranes that Used to be Me - is .... a Memory' [Love Beads & Meditation - no apologies for ungrammatical caps- some things deserve it].], who I think for better or worse [usually worse] took their cue from the Brits.

I also think it worth mentioning that graphic design reflected the zeitgeist in a way that was not to be repeated until Jamie Reid did the same for punk. Fat sub art nouveau hand drawn lettering, pseudo Beardsley/Mucha cobblers with generous spashes of those recently devised fluorescent inks.
All the Hapshash and The Coloured Coat silk screen posters I used to have..... why on earth did I get rid of them? [let alone their eponymous album on Minit .... first use of multi-coloured vinyl noted in captivity, I think]. But then, no matter how cross I might be with myself, those Stateside owners of original Rick Griffin posters which they consigned to the trash must hurt so much more...

You're right Nick - the first couple of Floyd albums were and are astonishing, and if you consider that Piper was being recorded exactly contemporaneously and just down the corridor from Sgt. Pepper [Norman Smith doing a bit of moonlighting between sessions] you wonder sometimes whether history's laurels are correctly apportioned. I agree - Eleanor Rigby is definitely where the British stuff stems from, but by the time of Sgt Pepper, Piper makes the Fabs look a little safe, dreary even ... [and if you listen, Revolver does have the edge in so many ways].

There's a streak of the Music Hall to some of this stuff [Idle Race / Move/ Herd/ Floyd /Virgin Sleep / Yellow Submarine, really - also Anything That Kenny Everett Used To Play on his Saturday show] that stays strictly on this side of the Atlantic. It's a bit naff, but is in some ways is my favourite expression of the period. Why are Idle race so poorly served by CD, BTW? - there was a very short period when Jeff Lynne was really really triff [hard to imagine I knoew, in the view of later events, but true. Listen to the lyrics of Nick's sample to see why]. Mr Lynne's output from this period [replete with the most bizarre production] should be celebrated and freely available, not consigned to lucky strikes at boot sales and stupid things on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000024H5U/qid=1097179700/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/026-3322158-9950055.

£184.99 - honestly, - have you ever seen the like????

Even within the ridiculously fruitful year of 1967, this music is inifitely interesting and under discussed. It should be explored at length, and in book form.

You have my permission to give up paid employment in pursuit of same. Bugger Mrs Lees and the mewling babes.

throb

I tried to pass it by, pretend I hadn't seen it, but I thought 'one last fix, what harm can it do'.

I may have to get the scissors to the credit card after this one, although this is probably a great thread for utilising the benfits of local Oxfam shops, s/h dealers and similar, maybe we'll still eat after all

Seriously though, a wonderful post that will take me some time to fully investigate but thank you for taking what must have been some considerable time to compose it.

Andy.

[This message was edited by Andrew L. Weekes on Fri 08 October 2004 at 0:17.]

quote:

---

Originally posted by throbnorth:

All the Hapshash and The Coloured Coat silk screen posters I used to have..... why on earth did I get rid of them?

---

I have two framed Hapshash posters in decent shape, one a psychedelic promo for "I Can See For Miles" by the Who (which, given the Whos' hard-Pop image, is a bit strange), the other for a Pink Floyd gig at the UFO club. They are both extraordinarily beautiful, and I don't wanna know what they're worth, 'cos I'd never part with 'em. They help me fantasize about being a London scenester in '66-'68, which has been a hobby of mine since childhood.

BTW, thee is an art shop in San Francisco (forget the name of) which sells immaculate reproductions, sanctioned by the artists, of Avalon/Fillmore posters, as well as Hapshash and others. They have a website, Google some keywords like "Mouse", "Rick Griffin" "Hapshash" "posters" etc. should take you there.

Nice one Nick. I was listening to the Electric Prunes 'Too much to Dream' at unholy volume only yesterday.

Must echo the general back-slapping - triffic, Nick.

Nick
I have studied your missive and am very impressed. I didn't realise that those sorts of records formed their own genre. Several of your choices where even club ("discos"as they were just starting to be called) fodder in the '60's. I used to frequent them then. Not many threads get Dave Clark Five and Pink Floyd together in a complementary way.

Thanks

Howard

[This message was edited by BigH47 on Fri 08 October 2004 at 18:43.]

[This message was edited by BigH47 on Fri 08 October 2004 at 18:44.]

Thanks again guys. The intention was to inveigle some of the non-greybeards (pace Andy, I know you're not grey yet!) on the Forum into trying some of it.

Deluded or what?

Howard,

I do remember going to a disco once in 1967 and they did play this sort of stuff. Didn't do it again though. The genre thing has only relatively recently emerged I believe. There is quite a little market for it, especially in Scandinavia it would seem. By tracing various bits of information back you seem to inevitably come across Scandy internet radio stations that specialise in psych and they in turn lead to reviews of current Swedish/Finnish/etc. psych bands that sound enticing from the descriptions, but don't offer samples. I'd be grateful for recommendations from anyone up there!

Oh, and as mentioned in the Freak Emporium thread there's a growing tendency to describe everything that was released back then as a lost classic.

And I have to say I msut have missed the psychedelic Dave Clark phase

nick.lees at btinternet.com

bhazen

Does your Who poster have Pete Townsend in a cloak, star [or something] materialising between his fingers with a background of stars and [possibly] a castle on a cliff? If so, it sat over my bed for a few years until I went to art college and attempted to paint my bedroom black [my father objected [talk of opium dens etc.], so we compromised on very dark brown - possibly even more fashionable, if he had but known it]. My other favourite poster was for the UFO club, perhaps for the Floyd, with a woman and hookah. I also had this one:

http://www.whocollection.com/MiddleEarth2.jpg

but I think in different colours. At the time, the Beardsley influence captivated me [I had persuaded my mother to take me to the Tate exhibition in '67 which had sort of started the whole thing off] but with hindsight I think that the Hapshash work, although undeniably beautiful and with the fluid line & composition I tried so hard to imitate is too much of a knock-off compared to the equivalent US Griffin et al. work, which is truly original.

At your suggestion, I did a bit of Googling, and inadvertently came across this site:

http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/

which is really rather spooky. The 'Book Of Seth' is pretty much Nick & my record collections around 1968-70 - even down to David Peel, Morton Subotnik & Cosmic Sounds ...... [Nick & I went to school together, BTW - which is why I know his collection so intimately!]. It would be nice to pretend that we were untouchably cool with our exotic tastes in music & bedroom decor, but reality was far more dreary. It's hard to be hip on 10/- pocket money [especially if you live in Birmingham].

The Hapshash posters were purchased at a local head shop called 'Tea & Symphony', which was in some way involved with the band that recorded the eponymous Harvest album [which was OK, if a bit 2nd rate - although worth a bit now , I expect]. London was rarely visited, and when it was, a shop called 'One Stop' in South Molton St was the first port of call - it stocked imports [63/- gasp!]in those fabulous US hardboard-stylee gatefold sleeves, which could be gems or gibberish. I went mostly on the sleeve design, which was sort of trustworthy.

If Nick could ever be persuaded to do a complementary US thread, there's an interesting sub-topic to be explored - black psychedelia ..... Rotary Connection's Aladdin is the most glorious example, but lots of people had a go [Chambers Brothers, Supremes [vaguely[ etc.] I notice iTunes has just acquired Muddy Waters 'Electric Mud' and some Minnie Ripperton stuff including a few tracks from Aladdin - listen to the odd 30sec trailer to see what I mean. Gosh - I've just downloaded some of it, and I swore I would stop doing that....

throb

quote:

---

Originally posted by throbnorth:
bhazen

Does your Who poster have Pete Townsend in a cloak, star [or something] materialising between his fingers with a background of stars and [possibly] a castle on a cliff? If so, it sat over my bed for a few years until I went to art college

---

That's the one! The other Who members are in the background; a very hippie-ish conception, which I thought a bit odd considering Pete's opinion of the "underground" in general.

I picked up the recent re-issue of the first Small Faces album on Immediate from HMV's sale, and can heartily recommend it. It catches them nicely in the transition from beat/R&B group to their psych-pop phase.

The album itself is not quite as good as Ogden's but has a lot of very good tracks on it and the bonus material is excellent, including all the non-album singles of the time - Here Comes The Nice, Itchycoo Park, Tin Soldier plus a second CD of mono mixes. For £4.99 it's unbeatable value.

And while I was at it in the main post, I should have recommnded the first Nice album "Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack". It works better as an album than Ars Longa and Dave O'List's poppier songs fit the bill better (though his attempts at being a bit of a Hendrix are rather embarrassing).

nick.lees at btinternet.com

Further to Nick's recommendation there is also an excellent Small Faces BBC sessions CD, which not only has some great music and good sound but some wonderful period introductions -'For all you cool cats out there'. While wer're swinging the lamp my partner Jan has the fond memory of being told to 'get off that fucking orgen' by Steve Marriot when they played at Barry, South Wales in the mid-sixties. Those were the days...

Andy

Nick,

Missed this due to being in the USA. Completely wonderful and I haven't listened to half the clips yet. I have a feeling this is going to be expensive.

duncan

Email: djcritchley at hotmail.com

Hi, Nick.

Thank you for all the links, i have sometething too do this weekend, scroll too all the links,
I will give response later when i see them all.

Maria