What was the first "psychedelic" song?

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"8 Miles High" by the Byrds, released in early 1966, can anyone do better than that?

― Jonathan Z., Friday, 2 January 2004 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

"Day Tripper," by the Beatles, released on 3 December, 1965.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Friday, 2 January 2004 16:52 (twenty-one years ago)

"Kublai Khan," the Samuel Taylor Coleridge Band

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 2 January 2004 16:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I love the guitar solo in that one, great for headphones.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 2 January 2004 16:55 (twenty-one years ago)

though the Iron Maiden cover missed the point.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 2 January 2004 16:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Despite the probable drug reference, I don't think "Day Tripper" has a particularly psychedlic feel to it. You have to wait for "Rain" or "Tomorrow Never Knows" before that starts to happen with the Beatles.

― Jonathan Z., Friday, 2 January 2004 16:57 (twenty-one years ago)

WWDS?

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 2 January 2004 17:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean, What Would DeRogatis Say?

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 2 January 2004 17:00 (twenty-one years ago)

"Going Out My Head" - Little Anthony & The Imperials

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Friday, 2 January 2004 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Yardbirds-"Shapes of Things" (late '65)

― Charles McCain (Charles McCain), Friday, 2 January 2004 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Kinks - see my friends

― Michael Dubsky, Friday, 2 January 2004 17:45 (twenty-one years ago)

original Doctor Who theme song. 1963, i think

― Michael Dubsky, Friday, 2 January 2004 17:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I've heard more than one intelligent person argue convincingly that it was "Sally Go Round the Roses" by the Jaynetts, in Septmber 1963. (Oddly enough, I have no opinion about this myself.)

― chuck, Friday, 2 January 2004 17:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow, I thought I was the only one who thought it was "See My Friends." It's got that "indian" feel.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 2 January 2004 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

The Tornadoes - "Telstar" from 1962. No question.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 2 January 2004 18:39 (twenty-one years ago)

"Rumble" by Link Wray is pretty fucking trippy.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Friday, 2 January 2004 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Gregorian Chants

― Dj She-Ra (SheRa), Friday, 2 January 2004 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

These two were definitely about da drugz.

Kim Fowley - The Trip (July 1965)
The Fugs- I Couldn't Get High (August 1965)

― may pang (maypang), Friday, 2 January 2004 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

sally go roun the roses is one of my favorite songs ever. arguing that it is psychedelic might be hard. ill do it though, by pretending to be greil marcus.

In the september of 1963, a sound could be heard emmenating from about every radio, a circular progression, that began so quiet and muffled, that it seemed to be recorded from the womb, the womb of America. The very first word to be heard coming through America vagina would be "Sally." "Who is this Sally" the listener thinks, "Is she hot?" or "Does she have a boyfriend?" The second word, "Go", contains a cornucopia of meanings; in fact some linguists believe that the first word to be used by our ancestors 150,000 years ago was the equivalent of our "go." Through intensive studies of the major language groups that now appear on earth and extracting these languages "proto-languages," linguist Fredrick Nieman has discovered that this ancient word for go was, in fact, "psychedelia." This go-cornucopia was brought to America for the first time by the pilgrims who served it at the first Thanksgiving, allowing the the Indians to use it for the first time and to spread it among the galaxies (Indians are from space...so is Sun Ra). Therefore, the first psychedelic songs were the hymns sung by the pilgrims, and the second was Sally Go Round the Roses. I hope you like my essay on why Sally Go Round the Roses is psychedlic.

THE END

― tom cleveland (tom cleveland), Friday, 2 January 2004 18:58 (twenty-one years ago)

i put a spell on you - screamin jay hawkins. i win.

― tom cleveland (tom cleveland), Friday, 2 January 2004 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

latest fav. new psychedelic song: "I Love Acid", by Luke Vibert

― Dj She-Ra (SheRa), Friday, 2 January 2004 19:03 (twenty-one years ago)

*waits for thread to go into the question: 'what is psychedelic music?'*

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 2 January 2004 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz is the grandaddy of psychedelic music. Aswell as prog/theme type music.

― pete s, Friday, 2 January 2004 23:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Julio -
psychedelic music is any formof music inspired by interest in other spiritual planes/altered perceptual states (drug or trance induced) and/or promoting interest in other spiritual planes/altered perceptual states.

― Reverie, Saturday, 3 January 2004 12:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I recommend that everyone reads my guide -

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/guides/guide-display/-/35H6BP9OXJR1Q/102-8208842-6197745

― Reverie, Saturday, 3 January 2004 12:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I dunno, I find "I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground" by Dock Boggs pretty goddamn psychedelic...

― yetimike (McGonigal), Saturday, 3 January 2004 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I nominate Dick Dale "Let's Go Trippin'" (1961) for the otherworldly guitar tone and title.

― Mark (MarkR), Saturday, 3 January 2004 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

haha julio you sure asked for it

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 3 January 2004 16:29 (twenty-one years ago)

more on the Berlioz: it's about a young man who at the start has taken opium, out of desperation from being spurned by the object of his desires; the following 5 movements are the dreams/hallucinations he experiences. The ist is called 'Reveries-passions' (the origin of your name, Reverie?!). The hero then has visions of himself at a ball, in the countryside, being marched to the scaffold to be executed, and finally finding himself in the middle of a witches' sabbath. The music is always taking nightmarish turns even when the hero is at peace, his passions getting the better of him, emphasising the relations between ecstasy and torment, as well of course the mere fact of the unpredictable effects of the drug upon a senstive mind/personality. The last two movements are designed as terrifiying nightmarish visions and are completely frenzied and OTT. Evocations of a mind unhinged, possibly.
The music throughout is brilliant, but i've slightly got tired of it's self-importance and lack of humour - unless you take the last two mvmnts as heavy-handed satire at the hero's expense.
These qualities i find in a lot of psychedelic music, though....

― pete s, Saturday, 3 January 2004 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I sure got it.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 3 January 2004 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

"Look at Your Game, Knights Templars", Hasan i Sabah and Helter Skelter Hashishim

― dave q, Sunday, 4 January 2004 14:17 (twenty-one years ago)

"Green Sleeves!!!" Henry the 8th...

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 5 January 2004 10:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Reverie's definition of psychedelic above doesn't take into consideration the sound of psychedelia, which I think is just as important as the referencing of altered states etc. - although I'd be hard put to define it myself.

― Jonathan Z., Monday, 5 January 2004 11:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I agree with Jonathan: The SOUND itself is a major factor. How 'bout Toni Fisher's "The Big Hurt" from 1959/60? (1st song to incorporate 'phasing' as a studio effect.) That's gotta count for something.)

― Scott Bloomfield, Tuesday, 6 January 2004 15:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Palestrina - Missa Brevis (1570)

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 15:58 (twenty-one years ago)

i always thought it was "don't fear the reaper"

― Felcher (Felcher), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 17:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Palestrina and Gregorian chants are darn smart suggestions, but so'd be Moroccan music of the same, or earlier, eras, wudnnit? :)

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

no -- you're talking about influences that combined with rock might be considered psychadelic -- but the rock component has to be there,

― jack cole (jackcole), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 18:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey, there always's been plenty of rock in Morocco!

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 21:21 (twenty-one years ago)

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