Class Notes - 11 - Instructor Josh Davis PDF

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Class Notes - 11 Chapter 7 – Psychedelia Summer of Love – 1967  Though psychedelia had certainly been apparent in music prior to 1967, this summer marks the point when psychiedia would make it into mainstream  Several events signaled this breakthrough o Emerging hippy culture and flower power in san Francisco o Beatles are going to release a good album, sargent peppers lonely hearts o Monterey pop festival, first of its kind o Jimmy Hendricks had a virtuosic show at the festival  Psychedelic music and culture can be traced back to regional underground scences in London and san fransico  Psychedelia begins to exert its influences in two ways o Ideas or groups of the underground would make their way to mainstream o Currently established major acts began to sound more psychedelic Psychedelia and the Counterculture  At its root, the psychedelic movement was concerning people with exploring new ways of thinking and seeing the world  In the mid-60s, San Francisco became a melting pot, disillusion of the war and politics, a lot of people questioning things and authority  The making of the counterculture was based on rejecting of the competitive achievement orientated culture “why do you have to be the best at something” free living community driven  Their philosophy challenged starting to challenge middle class values, sexual freedom at the heart of their concerns.  It was at this time that the term establishment would start to be used, defines any authoritarian (government, military, boss, schools, est.)  Increasing suspicion of this establishment was spurred on by: o Civil rights movement o Vietnam and resistance to the war o Youth culture separating itself from the adult culture  Young people began to believe that anything that had to do with the establishment was a lie  Mind-expanding, psychedelic drugs went with the music and the thinking, to think further into this way oyu had to be under the influence of some kind of drug (LSD and MJ)  This was spurred on by former Harvard professor Timothy Leary’s experimentation with LSD this social order he created, “turn on, tune in, and drop out” certain way of thinking, make sure you’re thinking to the right stuff  College-aged young adults embraced this new “counterculture”, more than anybody else experiment wtih radical philosophy’s and drugs and eastern culture  However, while Eastern gurus sought truth through spiritual discipline, hippy world view, conquest for higher consciousness, hippies seek it through drugs,  A philosophy of existentialism would thrive, attitue of freeing individual from hositility form the outside and traditions that were binding Two Psychedelic Approaches to Music  Music is secondary – the important thing is o Drug experience providing a priority role o Without drugs most people thought the music was werid and couldn’t get hip with it  Music IS the trip – it is the primary aspect o Oral journey enhanced by the drugs, sober or under the influence, music is the importance 1

 Essential to both cases are the o Musicians are more experimental with their writing and performing o Music would plow through the 2-3 minute radio format, longer format Psychedelic Ambitions – The Beach Boys and the Beatles  As the 60s progressed, both the Beatles and the Beach Boys’ music became o Lyrics are going to start to address more serious topics o Wider range of instruments were used o Harmonic language would become more innovative, you don’t have the same 3 or 4 chords, more colorful ways of putting music together o Forms are going to be constantly modified or abandoned o More foucs on studio work producing tunes that weren’t possible to perform live without extra support  Both bands were represented by Capitol in the U.S. leading to friendly but mutually beneficial commercial rivalry,  In the hands of these two bands, rock ‘n’ roll was taken away form the dance floors to listening music The Beach Boys  Following the release of Pet Sounds, the Beach Boys released their biggest selling single of all time  Good Vibrations took over 90 hours of studio time, 50, 000 studio costs now that would be 300,000  The song hit #1 on the National Singles Chart and quickly sell over 1million copies  It is considered a milestone as it strays away from usual forms and chord progression and textures  Employs an instrument called a theremine Song: Good Vibrations (FORMAL ANALYSIS) could be on the listening  Starts with a clear A-B-A-B form – it then proceeds through three different sections (C-D-E), the last of which is reminiscent of the B section  A Section o Solo vocals (use of falsetto) o Accompanied by bass and Hammond organ o Drums and tambourine enter o Triple division of beat on snare leads to the B section  B Section o Theremin enters o Solo vocals to begin; backup vocals enter singing a mixture of nonsense syllables and lyrics – backup vocals use falsetto  A and B section are repeated  C Section (1:53) o Beat changes – this in an instrumental section with backup vocals o Includes tack piano, Jews harp, harmonica, bass, tambourine, sleigh bells and organ  D Section (2:15) o Begins with organ and tambourine o Bass and percussion join in o Bass voice enters first; joined by falsetto voice o Organ plays a theme – vocal “ahs” lead into the last section  E Section (2:56) o Beginning is reminiscent of the B Section o Characterized by a polyphonic texture o Maracas and bass come in and are joined by cello, drums and tambourine 2

o Theremin solo ends the piece  The album Smiley Smile was released in August of 1967 was a stripped down version  The follow-up album to Pet Sounds was called Smile, plans a December but wasn’t released until 2004 it was called smiley smile, alblum  The complexity of Good Vibrations can be found in the song written by Brian Wilson  Heroes and Villains was intended to be the center piece of the new smile album Song: Heroes and Villains  Begins with clear, melodic lead vocals backed by harmonized backup vocals, drums, guitar and bass  Outside sounds are incorporated – backup vocals become more active  A short break precedes a new section – organ, glockenspiel and very contrapuntal vocals – no clear lead vocals but rather a number of different vocal lines  The texture is reduced to just organ – then the first section returns  Much of the emphasis is placed on the vocal complexity and harmonization  The recording of the original song was difficult, despite holding 20 different recording session and he was never happy and sheveld the song  It went through a number of transisions before being on smiley smile  This album showed a significant return to simpler more commercial brand of pop rock, (went far and then came back)  Though their studio experimentation places them in the forefront of early psychedelia, later bands of this style referred to them square, they were pioneer but didn’t take it that far The Beatles (1967-1970)  1967 was a year of many changes for the Beatles – in essence, it was the beginning of the end  A number of occurrences led to the inevitable breakup of this band: o The death of Brain Epsteen (tour manager) stopped touring and focusing on album, becomes heavily addicted to drugs, depressed to uselessness and homosexuality, he was the business genius and without him they had affairs, committed suicide o Indian guru, lecture on spiritual regeneration, more and more involved in the teaching, turning attention to that o John meets Yoko Ono, soon after divorcing wife, includes her in all of his musical ventures, did not do well for anything with John Lennon for that time o Apple boutique, studio that released 64 albums, causes a riff between band member to even deepen, Try to sell everything, after a huge amount of theft and lost a lot of money decided to give the rest of the inventory away o Release of their greatest hits album sgt peppers and lonely heart club and their biggest failure, first failure as a group when they attempted to pull off the magical mystery tour Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band  The Beatles reach the pinnacle of their legacy  It recorded between December of 1966 and April of 1967 and is important for a number of reasons: o Theme album, the entire album is centered around a imaginary band, also set up to be as a musical hold, concert circus like atmosphere o Album cover art, are going to be featured twice on the album, them and then wax figures and other important people o Inclusion of song lyrics, the lyrics were printed on the back cpver for all people to see o Inclusion of souvenirs 3

o Presentation of the album as a whole: this albums was meant to be listened to as a unit and not just a series of singles

Song: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds*  This is the epitome of a musical rendition of an acid trip  Has two distinct sections each of which has its own Time Signature  A section o Starts in triple time o Characterized by a guitar ostinato (riff) o Instrumentation includes bass, guitar and drums with a shuffle beat o Dreamy vocal style  B section o Introduced with four strong drum beats o Moves to quadruple time – more of a rock ‘n’ roll sound o Strong backbeat; Hammond organ; guitars and walking bass o More of semi-shouting vocal style – narrator describing the tripper o Lyrics speak of an acid trip Song: Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite  Instrumentation includes harmonicas, Hammond organ, Wurlitzer organ, lead guitar, bass guitar and drums  Melodic vocals – they have been electronically altered  Backbeat emphasized on the hi-hat  Sounds are taped, electronically modified and inserted into a composition  Harmonized vocals enter briefly at the end of the verse  Wurlitzer imitates a steam calliope (circus sounds); lots of tape manipulation of the organ  The song A Day In the Life is written in ABA coda, not a standard musical form  The first two sections are delineated by orchestral pitches, a whole cluster of sounds  The B section is dream -like and spacey Song: A Day in the Life (FORMAL ANALYSIS)  Segues in from a reprise of the title track – includes crowd noises – strong backbeat, electric guitar and bass – harmonized vocals sing the chorus  Song is in compound ABA, also known as ternary form – A transition B transition A coda  A section o Begins with acoustic guitar – piano and walking bass enter o Maracas enter with solo vocals o John sings of occurrences in an everyday life – reading the newspaper; going to movies o Drums enter in the second verse; become more active as the song progresses o Lyrics “I’d love to turn you on” (reference to drug use?) signals the transition  Transition (1:41) o A 40-piece orchestra whirlwind - overdubbed four times so that it sounds like a 160-piece orchestra o Leads to B section – characterized by a much sparser texture  B section (2:16) o Orchestra drops out leaving piano, bass and drums playing a very insistent, steady beat o Alarm clock sounds 4

o Paul sings – describes a typical morning in a day in the life o Accompaniment is more typical of a jazz combo than a rock ‘n’ roll band o Lyrics “Somebody spoke and I went into a dream” signals the transition  Transition (2:49) o Vocal aahing with strings – strings become more and more prevalent, eventually taking over the melody o String “fanfare” leads into the repetition of the A section  A section (3:18) o Returns to the previous instrumentation of piano, walking bass, drums, maracas and guitar o Section is truncated – there is only one verse this time o Vocals speak of a newspaper article – the topic material is rather irrelevant and meaningless – so what is the point? o Lyrics “I’d love to turn you on” signals the coda  Coda (3:46) o Orchestral whirlwind once again builds up o It abruptly stops and a piano chord is struck and held for approximately 40 seconds Magical Mystery Tour  Was a fine concept – get a bunch of friends together; buy a bus; paint it psycheldic, tour England and film everything  The “results” were poor – Epstein had o Passed away, no body taking care of the business endeavors  Some of the details that Brian would cover, didn’t seem like an issue, where they would stop and eat, sleep, and where they would record o Forgot they were the Beatles, anytime they stopped were overwhelmed with press and fan, making down time impossible o Movie would be a bust, album would do better, shooting to #1 in England and the US. o One of john songs was inspired by a student writing about hidden meetings in their songs, odd lyrics that make no sense at all Song: I Am the Walrus  Opening instruments are an electric piano and maracas  Strings enter next – they are bending pitches  Bass and solo vocals enter – semi-shouting style  Horns play fills at the end of verses  Second section indicated by what sounds like a ringing telephone – characterized by heavy strings and drums – more melodic vocal style  Martin brought in a choir to sing in the later part of the song  In December of 1967, they open the apply boutique and studio, produced 64albums and products and their own album called the beatles or the white alblum  The company folded 1 year later  The White Album  Released in November of _1968___ shortly after the band returned from a trip to India  By this time, they had (supposedly) written the tracks in India, mostly acoustic they had given up drugs apparently  In direct contrast with the Sgt. Pepper’s album, this album cover stark white with the BEATLES written on it  It was a double album containing four 5

 The band was  First album where all four members contribute songs and you can definitely hear it, were trying to push their material forward, stark differences between song  One of John’s contributions to this album is sometimes seen as purposefully uncommercial (revolution number 9 ) fixation with the number 9 and use of the avanguard techniques  Revolution #9 was not just a display of Lennon’s fixation with the number 9, but also shows the use of such techniques as  In a poll done by Village Voice, this was voted the this the most unpopular Beatles song ever Song: Revolution #9*  Starts with a piano solo  Vocals enter repeating the words “Number Nine” – this will be said nine times throughout the course of the song  Tape looping begins – spliced bits of tape with backward masking put together and played over and over again  Also includes an orchestral warm-up and chord from Sibelius’ Seventh Symphony that had been spliced in and repeated Song: While My Guitar Gently Weeps  Starts with Clapton on lead guitar  Bass and drums enter – drums emphasize backbeat with the hi-hat  Second guitar enters with vocals – melodic vocal style  Clapton provides fills  Piano and Hammond organ enter at the bridge  George including Eric Clapton on this song  By 1969, the Beatles were in financial chaos, managed to get together for one more album, named for the road that the EMI was used on, (abbey road)  They managed to get together for one more album, 1969s  The album was meant to be return back to basics  The album ends with the tune The End, a prophetic tune one of the very last things they would do together , was the only drum solo that ringo would ever get Song: The End  Starts with heavy drums, guitar and bass  Shouting vocals enter briefly  Drum solo follows  Guitar and bass return with harmonized vocals  Guitar dual – with three players – George, Paul and John all take turns in here  All drops out but piano – solo vocals are soon joined by harmonized backup vocals  Brass and strings enter  That was pretty much the end for the beatles, each would go their separate was  A final album, Let It Be was pulled together by Phil Spector containing taped songs, was the last sent out album of their pater  The later works of the Beatles proved more influential to later musicians, prove that rock could be seen as a serious genre  Their success prompted Capitol to allow them, and by extension, upcoming bands, a lot more creativity in the studio

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San Francisco and Haight-Ashbury  The psychedelic scene had been developing since >>> san Francisco  This grew out of the earlier bohemian beat movement  Celebrating the writings of Giinsberg and Kerouac  While there were many similarities between the beats and the hippies, there was marked difference in musical different. Beats like Jazz and hippies like Rock  The LSD-oriented music performances taking place in the Red Dog bar in New Mexico became the model for the similar style that we will see in san francison  Ken Kesey and his group of beat friends (known as The Merry Pranksters) hosted number of trips festivals  In January of 1966, this was a a three day music fest and drug soaksed, 6 600 people, 5 movie screens with picture kaleidoscope, spiked the punch with acid,  They enlisted the use of two up and coming psychedelic bands – greatfull dead and the big brother and the holding company  For the bands, this was a chance to prove themselves and improve their improvisation  It was an attempt to describe the unreal and rather dream-like connection between of hallucinations a common side effect on LSD  By 1966, the hippie underground movement in San Francisco had settled into district the height ashbury district,  Psychedelic shows were promoted in area Ballrooms and shops opened up that support the new counter culture of the hippies  The San Francisco Oracle became the first hippie newspaper in 1966, beat the rolling stone magazine to the punch 1967  The freedom felt by the hippie generation celebrated at the first human Be-In festival, would draw 20, 000 people to san fransico golden kate park  The one place where psychedelic music was absent, on the radio

FM Radio *** short answer  Psychedelic songs were often way to long to fit into the constraints of the top 40 format, not 2-3 minutes songs  In the mid to late 60s FM radio expanded to include rock ‘n’ roll – for years, it had been the home of really just traditional classical, jazz, foreign language shows, college lectures  Tom Donahue, a DJ in NYC became familiar with what was called contemporary music format,  Disgruntled with the AM format, he decided to try this new, free-form approach to radio that featured longer tracks placed back to back and more freedom for the DJ’s  The success of this format on KMPX-FM became the impetus for a plethora of FM rock stations would spring up across the nation  Top 40 Radio o 2-3 minutes songs o Chatty, entertaining DJ o Commercials, hourly newscasts o Featured groups that had already made it o On the AM dial  Contemporary Music Format o Played entire albums 7

o o o o

Calmer and more sophisticated Longer uninterrupted set, hourly newscasts New and non-commercial bands On the FM dial

 By 1967, the San Francisco radio scene would also start ot see this and would be revolutionized  Most San Francisco bands had never been Top 40 fans nor were top 40 groups at all and neither did the fan listen to them  Since the Contemporary Music Format concentrated more on playing entire albums, the San Francisco Sound ,blend of folk and R&B music, thrive in this new format, gives birth to the new psychiadelic rock

Typical Features of a San Francisco/Psychedelic Band ** Short answer  Psychedelic Drugs o The music was referred to psychedelic rock o The use of double entendre fades away, lyrics were direct and explicit o Use of drugs is reflected in album cover art is going to show case the drug use and psychedelic movement o More and more bands used extensive light show as a part of their live stage, was about the experience or trip  Volume Levels o As technology advanced bands speakekr were capable and sound, more and more bands would play more open air venues (parks) o More and more, bands were o Generally, communication band would fcus on the crowd and the music, huge open concept, wasn’t interaction between band and audience  Emphasis on the Whole Band o Up until this point, r’n’r had almost always had the group in itself not someone plus the band o There is somewhat of a move away from that in group sound as a whole, how it would all go together and improving often it would be one person and the backup group, o This is also shown in the names, rather you would have bands as ...