Psychedelic rock is a sub genre of rock music that originally emerged during the mid-1960s, inspired by psychedelic culture and primarily centred around the influence of psychoactive and hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound effects and recording techniques, extended instrumental solos, and improvisation. Many psychedelic groups differ in style with the label often applied spuriously.
Originating in the mid-1960s among British and American musicians, the sound of psychedelic rock invokes three core effects of LSD: depersonalization, dechronicization (the bending of time), and dynamization (when fixed, ordinary objects dissolve into moving, dancing structures), all of which detach the user from everyday reality. Musically, the effects may be represented via novelty studio tricks, electronic or non-Western instrumentation, disjunctive song structures, and extended instrumental segments. Some of the earlier 1960s psychedelic rock musicians were based in folk, jazz, and the blues, while others showcased an explicit Indian classical influence called "raga rock". In the 1960s, there existed two main variants of the genre: the more whimsical, surrealist British psychedelia and the harder American West Coast "acid rock". While "acid rock" is sometimes deployed interchangeably with the term "psychedelic rock", it also refers more specifically to the heavier, harder, and more extreme ends of the genre.
The peak years of psychedelic rock were between 1967 and 1969, with milestone events including the 1967 Summer of Love and the 1969 Woodstock Festival, spearheading an international phenomena that birthed a widespread counterculture and the hippie movement before declining as changing attitudes, the loss of some key individuals, and a back-to-basics approach led surviving performers to move into new musical areas. The genre bridged the transition from early blues and folk-based rock to progressive rock and hard rock, and as a result contributed to the development of sub-genres such as heavy metal. Since the late 1970s it has been revived in various forms of neo-psychedelia.
Links to Peel[]
When Peel arrived back in the UK in early 1967 after several years in America, the word "psychedelic" was in fashion, with music papers like Melody Maker and Disc & Music Echo using it, without having any clear idea of what it meant. It was applied to a wide variety of music, from pop singles with novelty "weird sounds" to more complex styles, by bands like the Mothers Of Invention, Soft Machine and Pink Floyd, even if these owed more to contemporary classical music or jazz than drug experiences. But the Beatles were in their psychedelic phase and because of his experiences in California Peel was aware of the new music emerging from the West Coast, much of which was more directly related to the hippy culture based around the use of LSD and marijuana.
Because of this, Peel was a pivotal figure in the popularisation of psychedelic rock in the UK, even if he admitted to only having deliberately taken "acid" once, and, in contrast to the enthusiasm shown by the likes of Paul McCartney and Eric Burdon, being unimpressed by the experience. Nevertheless he was sympathetic to the hippy culture and was the first British DJ to champion the genre on the radio. His influential radio shows provided an essential platform for both American and emerging British psychedelic bands, giving them national exposure they often struggled to find elsewhere.
During his time at the pirate station Radio London, his show The Perfumed Garden exemplified the spirit of 1967 and the psychedelic music that was a part of it. The show was instrumental in introducing British audiences to West Coast American psychedelic acts such as the Jefferson Airplane, Love, the Grateful Dead, Country Joe & The Fish and Captain Beefheart. It also featured British bands like the Incredible String Band and Pink Floyd. The PG was a vital outlet for the UK underground scene, with Peel discussing events like the UFO Club and the 14 Hour Technicolor Dream between records, all of which helped foster a community around the music. The DJ also wrote a column for the underground paper International Times between 1967 and 1969.
Later at BBC Radio One, Peel continued to play music from the underground scene, with a strong emphasis on psychedelic rock and pop in 1967-68. What later became known as "Peel Sessions" featured many psychedelic bands recording live in the BBC studios, which often provided their first major national coverage. Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, and Soft Machine were among those to record sessions for early editions of JP's programme Top Gear, along with established acts like the Who and the Hollies who were experimenting with psychedelic effects.
His favourite band of the era, the Misunderstood, played in a psychedelic style and their single "I Can Take You To The Sun", which Peel played repeatedly, was very much in the mood of the time. (When they re-formed in 1969, playing in a more conventional rock style, he was less keen on them). However, by 1969 the psychedelic scene had peaked and in the 1970s Peel gradually paid less attention to it, as, apart from a few exceptions like Hawkwind, Gong and Steve Hillage the genre disappeared from the rock mainstream, and the related hippy culture also went into decline. Still, there were elements of psychedelia in Krautrock and in some of the first wave of artists to record for the Virgin label.
In the 1980s and thereafter Peel was sometimes critical of his earlier enthusiasms, on one occasion telling Tony Blackburn that he (JP) had been wrong to prefer Quicksilver Messenger Service to Blackburn's favourite genre, Tamla Motown, which he now thought had stood the test of time better. However, psychedelic rock proved to be of interest to later generations[1], in the 1980s inspiring what the Wikipedia article on the genre refers to as "neo-psychedelia", which included some acts JP played (Teardrop Explodes,Echo & The Bunnymen, Inspiral Carpets). But it was noticeable that many of these artists were inspired by short, sharp psychedelic rock or pop singles recorded in London or Los Angeles rather than the lengthy pieces favoured by San Francisco bands like the Grateful Dead.
In the 1990s and 2000s a network of fanzines, online discussion groups and psychedelic revival artists emerged (notably Robyn Hitchcock) and Peel sometimes did interviews in which he discussed his early radio career in the late 1960s. Despite his keeping up to date with changing times and encouraging new styles, JP would regularly revisit favourite tracks from the late 1960s in his shows of later decades, and occasinally described himself as "something of an old hippie".