8 Great Psychedelic albums

[hippypants]

Here's someone's list of the 8 Greatest Psychedelic albums of all times, what would you include, exclude:

I'd never heard of Of Montreal, but upon hearing the clip, I'm unimpressed. As much as I like Quicksilver, I don't care for Happy Trails as much as some of their other efforts, like Just For Love.

The other albums they listed are fine with me. http://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainm...tml/?a=viewall

My list would look something like this, although I'm probably overlooking something. For whatever reason I tend to listen to more psych in the summer months.

1. Doors--Strange Days
2. Big Brother/Janus--Cheap Thrills
3. Grateful Dead--Anthem of the Sun
4. United States of America
5. Strawberry Alarm Clock
6. Iron Butterfly - Ball
7. Pink Floyd - Piper
8. Soft Machine - 2nd lp
9. Country Joe & Fish--Electric Body
10. Spirit- 1st lp & Clear
11. Love-Forever Changes
12. Hendrix--Are U Experienced
13. Red Crayola--Parable of Arabic Land
14. Stones - Their Majestic Satanic Request
15. Beatles--Magical Mystery Tour
16. Beach Boys--Smiley Smile
17. Donovon--Greatest hits
probably overlooking a bunch

[mogrooves]

HP Lovecraft - Vols. I & II
Neon Pearl - s/t
West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band - Part I
Kaleidoscope - Side Trips
13th Floor Elevators - Easter Everywhere
Aorta - s/t
Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold As Love
Dr. John, The Night Tripper - Gris Gris
Fifty Foot Hose - Cauldron
The Misunderstood - Before The Dream Ended
Gandalf - s/t
Love - Forever Changes
Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn
The Zombies - Odyssey & Oracle [/quote]
Mad River - s/t
Family - Music In A Doll's House
Pretty Things - S.F. Sorrow
Jefferson Airplane - After Breathing At Baxter’s
Small Faces - Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake
It's A Beautiful Day - s/t
Pearls Before Swine - One Nation Underground
Kaleidoscope - Beacon From Mars
Ford Theatre - Trilogy For The Masses
ISB - The 5000 Spirits/Layers of The Onion
Blossom Toes - We Are Ever So Clean
United States Of America - s/t
Red Crayola - Parable Of Arable Land
Joe Byrd - The American Metaphysical Circus
Creation - We Are Paintermen
Deviants - Ptoof!
Electric Prunes - Underground
Creation - We Are Paintermen
Yahowa 13 - s/t
Skip Spence – Oar
Blue Cheer - Outside Inside (half of it)
Van Dyke Parks - Song Cycle

[hippypants]

Yeah, I forgot Cream, for sure, Peter.

And Blue Cheer & Airlplane, & many others.

Try as I might, I could never get into Oar by Spence. I'll have to try it again.

[progeezer]

Love - Forever Changes

everything else

j/k

Quicksilver - s/t debut (The Fool may be one of the 3 0r 4 most psychedelic pieces of music ever)
CJ & The Fish - Electric Music For The Mind & Body
Pearls Before Swine - can't remember title (maybe s/t?) Had a Hieronymous Bosch "Garden of Earthly Delights" cover.
Fever Tree - s/t
The Doors - Strange Days
It's A Beautiful Day - s/t
Sweet Smoke - Live

[PeterG]

Yea, that's what I meant, I always mix up that Love song and album title.

[grego]

Love Forever Changes
Doors - s/t, Strange Days
JHE - Are you Experienced?
Beatles - Sgt Pepper, MMT
JA Surrealistic Pillow
Crazy World of Arthur Brown

[Fracktured]

Bubble puppy - A Gathering of Promises
The Great Peanut Butter Conspiracy

[strawberrybrick]

Love - Forever Changes

Try as I might, I could never get into Love's Forever Changes.

[Digital_Man]

Try as I might, I could never get into Love's Forever Changes.

Me neither.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Love - Forever Changes
The Byrds - Notorious Byrd Bros.
QMS - Quicksilver Messenger Service
Country Joe & the Fish - Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'... (closely knit with EMftM&B)
Mad River - Mad River
H.P. Lovecraft - II
The Doors - [same]
Grateful Dead - Anthem of the Sun
Jefferson Airplane - Crown of Creation (although it used to be Baxter's for me)
13th Floor Elevators - Easter Everywhere
Spirit - Family that Plays Together
Kaleidoscope - Incredible!
Earth Opera - [same]
It's a Beautiful Day - [same]
Blue Cheer - OutsideInside

And those were just some American ones.

[Trane]

HP Lovecraft - Vols. I & II
13th Floor Elevators - Easter Everywhere
Aorta - s/t
Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold As Love
Dr. John, The Night Tripper - Gris Gris
Fifty Foot Hose - Cauldron
Love - Forever Changes
Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother
The Zombies - Odyssey & Oracle
Mad River - s/t
Family - Music In A Doll's House
Pretty Things - S.F. Sorrow
Jefferson Airplane - After Breathing At Baxter’s
Small Faces - Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake
It's A Beautiful Day - s/t
Pearls Before Swine - One Nation Underground
ISB - The 5000 Spirits/Layers of The Onion
Blossom Toes - We Are Ever So Clean
United States Of America - s/t
Red Crayola - Parable Of Arable Land
Love - Forever Changes
Quicksilver - s/t debut
Pearls Before Swine - OIne Nation Underground
The Doors - Strange Days
Sweet Smoke - Live
Love Forever Changes
JHE - Are you Experienced?
Beatles - Sgt Pepper
JA Surrealistic Pillow
Crazy World of Arthur Brown
Grateful Dead - Anthem of the Sun
Jefferson Airplane - Crown of Creation
Spirit - debut, Clear, 12 Dreams and Family that Plays Together
Earth Opera - [same]

[Scrotum Scissor]

not big on CJ&tF, though

Not many are, but to me they're simply one of the most genuinely psychedelic bands there ever was. Their first two albums are stellar, with songs such as "Grace" and "Colors for Susan" being arguably the most successful musical transitions of actual hallucinogenic impressions that I've experienced. Even their 1970 "return to form"-record C. J. Fish is absolutely excellent. I never followed McDonald's more rootsy solo career, but the band remains dear to my acidic heart.

[Ribo]

Vanilla Fudge - Renaissance

[Lopez]

Great lists all of them. I'll add

Hawkwind - In Search of Space
T.O.N.T.O.'s Expanding Head Band - Real Time
The Zodiac - Cosmic Sounds
Ultimate Spinach - s/t
Ultimate Spinach - Behold and See

[notallwhowander]

Gotta throw in The Crazy World of Arthur Brown!

[Galactic Bulldozer]

8 albums with a psych hangover.

Electric Ladyland - JHE
Shady Grove - QMS
Astra - Freedom's Children
Totem - Abstract Truth
White Album - Beatles
AHM - PF
Its All About - Spooky Tooth
Captain Beyond

[Lopez]

I'll throw in Dr. John's first LP, Gris Gris from 1968. It's so out there with it's voodoo remedies and incantations that it's got to qualify as psychedelia.

[bob_32_116]

I'm inclined to throw in Penguin Cafe Orchestra as a sort of psychedelia. Perhaps it doesn't have the fuzzy guitars and distorted vocals that are often considered hallmarks, but I think their experimentation, their "let's try this and see how it sounds" ethos is very much in the spirit of psych.

[PeterG]

Oops, I accidentally deleted my post when trying to edit it.

Cream - Disraeli gears
Spirit - Dreams of Dr. S
Hawkwind - Space Ritual
PF - Piper
Doors - Strange Days
Hendrix - Are You Experienced?
Love - Forever changes
Beatles - Revolver

[mogrooves]

Dr. John, The Night Tripper - Gris Gris

I'll throw in Dr. John's first LP, Gris Gris from 1968. It's so out there with it's voodoo remedies and incantations that it's got to qualify as psychedelia.

This LP is just sooooooo stoned.

[progeezer]

I forgot about the first 2 HP Lovecraft albums, which I heartily agree with.

[Scrotum Scissor]

This LP is just sooooooo stoned.

That's his Cajun bonanza record, right? Yep, that's a great one. And Oar by Alex Spence, craziest rocker there ever was.

[No Pride]

Gosh, I stopped listening to most of these albums (at least the ones I'm familiar with) over 40 years ago. Some that I used to love, like this one:

Vanilla Fudge - Renaissance

... are just a foggy memory at best. I still listen to Hendrix from time to time, and Spirit's debut once in a blue moon, but some stuff like Country Joe and the Fish and West Coast Pop-art Experimental Band are things I can barely remember at all. That said, here's a short list of favorite psychedelic albums I used to listen to and still remember reasonably well:

Jimi Hendrix Experience - Axis: Bold As Love
Spirit - s/t
The Doors - Strange Days
Blue Cheer - Vincibus Eruptum
The Beatles - Revolver
The Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesty's Request
Quicksilver Messenger Service - Happy Trails
Jefferson Airplane - Crown of Creation
Cream - Disraeli Gears

Honorable mention to a well done pastiche of that era, done by XTC in the '80s:
Dukes of Stratosphear - Chips From the Chocolate Fireball

Ultimate Spinach - s/t
Ultimate Spinach - Behold and See

I had the great honor and pleasure of having Jeff "Skunk" Baxter sit in with the band I tour with (for about 5 tunes). Among other things he talked about, he mentioned his first band, Ultimate Spinach. He said (and I'm paraphrasing), "We were pretty bad, but fairly popular for some reason." I can't comment, I never heard them, though I remember seeing their albums in record bins when I was a teenage kid.

[Scrotum Scissor]

^

Ultimate Spinach were at the forefront of the rather contrived "Bosstown Sound" IIRC, along with groups such as Beacon Street Union, Haymarket Square and Ill Wind. I remember the s/t Spinach album featuring a carbon copy of CJ&tF's "Masked Marauder" (from the latter's debut), but otherwise being quite a fine - albeit "psych exploitation" - slice of rock/pop.

Another one of that ilk was The Music Emporium.

[progeezer]

There are 2 more Boston bands of that ilk/era, Earth Opera (feat.Peter Rowan) and Orpheus ("La la la la la la la, I can't find the time to tell you").