In the sixties, the psychedelic music scene was at its prime and the world was full of hippie musicians that loved to drop acid and create some of the most interesting and innovative music known to man. During this time, drugs were a very popular part of the hippie culture and the prevalence of LSD helped to create the distinct genre of psychedelic music known as psychedelic or acid rock. Many bands and artists such as Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, The Beatles, and The Byrds were heavily influenced by LSD, which led to the creation of some very popular music. This decade was full of adventure, music, sex, and drugs, and it was all made possible due to this powerfully trippy drug.
In 1938, Albert Hofmann discovered lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD-25, but did not experience its psychedelic effects until April 16, 1943 after accidentally ingesting it. On April 19th he purposely consumed 250 µg (an extremely small amount) of the substance and tripped the entire journey home on his bicycle. From the forties through the sixties psychiatrists and the government experimented with LSD. While psychiatrists could not find any legitimate medical purposes for the drug, the government determined that it could be used to control large groups of people. In the fifties, the CIA did various tests involving the use of acid to prove this point and the program was soon shut down. In the sixties, the drug became very popular with the help of Timothy Leary and it spread around the United States and the United Kingdom like wildfire. While possession of LSD was outlawed in late 1968, its use remained popular until the decline in the eighties. The drug made a comeback around 1990 through 2000 but declined once again (History of LSD).
After Timothy Leary began advocating the use of LSD by telling the people of the world to “turn on, tune in, and drop out”, the drug became very popular. The goal of LSD, along with other psychedelic drugs, was to open the mind and “find a new light to look upon things” (Bacig 2010). Many artists took this approach to their music and would drop acid before composing music. This gave the music of this era a distinct sound and without LSD, the world would not have psychedelic rock. During this time, many artists referenced LSD in their songs because of the profound effect it had on them. In order to produce the psychedelic feel, the artists would write “esoteric lyrics, often describing dreams, visions, or hallucinations” as well as use other techniques such as distorting and delaying the sound, and playing sections of the song backwards. Another important part of psychedelic rock is the influence of Indian music. Bands such as The Beatles popularized this technique of using ”exotic instruments like the sitar, the tambura, and the tabla” in their music (Psychedelic Rock).
The Beatles were a very well-known and popular band in the sixties. The use of LSD and other drugs heavily influenced two of their albums, Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Their first experience with the drug within the band was when John Lennon and George Harrison accidentally took acid in 1965. After their eye opening incident, Lennon and Harrison decided that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr needed to try it as well because they found that “they couldn't relate to them any more. Not just on the one level – we couldn't relate to them on any level, because acid had changed us so much” (Harrison). Starr was enthusiastic about trying the new drug but McCartney showed less interest, not caring to partake in the activity with Starr and the rest of the bunch. During the experience, Roger McGuinn first introduced Harrison to Indian music while sitting in a bathroom; little did he know that the Indian style of music would revolutionize their sound in the years to come.
In 1968, The Beatles traveled to India in hopes of “exploring their inner selves, their souls and their place in the universe” but did not exactly find what they were looking for (Bhagat 2010). While they did not get as much as they had hoped in that particular aspect, they took with them a newfound interest in the Indian style of music. Harrison developed a liking for the sitar, an Indian instrument, while on their journey. He wound up attempting to master it, only to give up after he found out it was quite a difficult and time-consuming task. Even though he abandoned the instrument, it did not stop the band from pursuing the Indian style. While in India the band wrote 48 songs and “much of the music on [their] ‘White Album’ is compositions that were conceived while…” they were traveling (Bhagat 2010).
“I Am the Walrus” is a very popular song by The Beatles that has always been associated with the band’s use of LSD. John Lennon commented on an in interview saying “the first line was written on one acid trip one weekend. The second line was written on the next acid trip the next weekend” (Sheff). “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” along with other songs were speculated to be about LSD because the letters spell out LSD, but Lennon denies these claims in the David Sheff interview for Playboy. Even though many of the songs were not directly talking about doing LSD, they were written because of the effects LSD had on the band. The drug opened up their minds to a whole other world and gave them the inspiration.
In addition to The Beatles, LSD had a strong in The Byrds as well. Front man Roger McGuinn used the drug recreationally and occasionally with The Beatles. Their popular song “Eight Miles High” was very controversial at the time because it was thought to promote the use of LSD; consequently, it was banned from many radio stations in the United States (Umphred). Their album “Fifth Dimension” was full of complex ideas causing people to believe drugs were involved. McGuinn shot down these comments by explaining that “[he] was talking about something philosophical and very light and airy with that song, and everyone took it down . . . to drugs. They said it was a dope song and that [he] was on LSD, and it wasn’t any of that, in fact. [He] was dealing with Einstein’s theory of relativity, the fourth dimension being time and the fifth dimension not being specified, so it’s open—channel five, the next step. [He] saw it to be a timelessness, a sort of void in space where time has no meaning. All [he] did was perceive something that was there” (Umphred). Similar to the incident with The Beatles, The Byrds were often harassed with attacking statements claiming that many of their songs were either about LSD or written under the influence of it. The drug had a way of changing the person once they tried it; this ultimately influenced the person who created the music, but not everything they did was revolved around it or stemmed directly from it.
In the early sixties LSD was incorporated with music starting when Ken Kesey held acid tests (essentially big parties where everyone was given the drug) where Grateful Dead, known as Warlocks at the time, would play. These parties gave the band recognition in the San Francisco area and their popularity soon skyrocketed. Although their studio albums were not a big hit, their live concerts were extremely popular (Keno). This opened the door to concerts formed around the use of LSD; everyone attending would indulge in the substance and then bask in the music that was playing. This became a very common practice among artists and music listeners in the sixties when places such as the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore Auditorium soon began popping up in the San Francisco area. In order to inform the public of these new events, people would put up “posters on every lamppost and coffeehouse wall in the Bay Area” (Weller). Soon they had become very popular and many people were attending them. These events were an important starting point for many popular artists that originated in the sixties and their legends would not be the same if they had never existed.
Just around the time that LSD became illegal one of the bands that was most recognizable from this era, Jefferson Airplane, had just gotten started. The band was founded in San Francisco, California in 1967. Their sound is composed of several styles of music including blues, jazz, and folk. Starting small they played venues like the Avalon Ballroom but soon expanded and “were the only band to play all three of the biggest 60′s festivals: Monterey, Woodstock, and Altamont” (Artist Overview). The amount of success they had in such a short amount of time was incredible and they were at the heart of music in the sixties. The singer, Grace Slick, got inspiration for her songs by indulging in LSD like many other artists of the time. Their popular song titled “White Rabbit” was written when Slick took the drug and “[spent] hours listening to the Miles Davis album Sketches of Spain” (White Rabbit).
Even though LSD was now illegal in the United States, consumption did not stop or even come close to slowing down. Owesley Stanley, a well-known LSD producer of the time, donated 100,000 tabs of acid to the Human Be-In because he “believed that it was a drug for the people” (Wolfe). Around 20,000 people attended this concert featuring Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, and Grateful Dead. This concert was very significant to the music scene in the sixties as well as a big part of LSD’s incorporation into music. The drug was important to many people because it changed the way they perceived the music. Instead of just listening to the words and sounds coming from the stage, they were actually able to feel every note being played and visualize how the music sounded. The drug altered the perception of every aspect of life and the user felt an incredible sense or euphoria. Nothing could compare to that experience so there was always a high demand for the drug at concerts.
Events like the Human Be-In were only the beginning of concerts and festivals during the late sixties. Starting with the Summer of Love in ’67, everything slowly built up until Woodstock in 1969. The three-day music festival took place in the summer of ’69 from August 15 to18 on a dairy farm in New York. Two days before the actual festival began roughly 500,000 people showed up and the people in charge of the festival were overwhelmed and had no choice but to let everyone in; Woodstock essentially became an open concert to anyone who wanted to attend. The festival started off as a roaring success and as the days progressed the number of people who remained got smaller because of the festival’s conditions. Due to the sheer volume of people, everything was a mess. There were long lines for water and bathrooms and everything was muddy (Rosenberg). All around there were people tripping on acid which caused the atmosphere to be wild and uncontrollable.
Woodstock was home to not only many musical acts but also networks of people and their tents. All around the venue people had set up their temporary homes and often had stands to sell things such as beads, art, and drugs. Eric Stange, a Woodstock attendee, said that “people had set up little market stalls essentially and were selling lots of drugs… they were also selling other stuff… whatever people could think to sell” (Evans 112). In the wooded area that made up part of the dairy farm you could find people doing anything and everything: “having sex in the woods, and tripping in the woods, and wandering lost in the woods, and running around naked in the woods” (112). The environment was welcoming and no one cared what other people did. The people there were free to do whatever they pleased and no one would stop you from prancing naked through the woods while tripping on acid. The heavy influence of drugs at Woodstock opened up everyone’s mind and allowed them to be free spirits. In addition to an adult wonderland, there was also a specific place for children to be free and play. Jean Young, another Woodstock attendee, described the area as a “very successful playground” which included hay bales for the children’s entertainment (111). Overall, the people were very kind and watched out for one another. Isabel Stein commented on the generosity of people saying that “…if they had a tent they were offering people to stay in their tent” (99).
During this festival over 30 acts were packed into three days of pure excitement. The first person to perform was Richie Havens at 5:07 p.m. Havens was pressured to go first because the original act got stuck in a traffic jam and his back-up band was ready to play. Originally there were only four songs on his set list but he wound up playing several covers of The Beatles in order to pass the time (71). The pressure of going first was enormous but he pulled out a great set and the crowd was very pleased with his performance. The last act that night started at approximately 12:55 a.m. the next day and did not end until about two in the morning so respectively day two of the festival did not start until around 1 p.m. The music styles of the festival ranged from the traditional instrumentation: vocals, bass, guitar, and drums, to many other instruments including flute, saxophone, trumpet, harmonica, and even an organ. Day two continued on until 7 a.m. with the final performance from Jefferson Airplane. Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane commented on the performance saying: “I don’t think we had a very good set because the sun was rising in our eyes and we had been up all night, naturally, partying” but the show went on despite a lack of interest from the “zonked-out audience” (170). On the final day of Woodstock there was a storm at around 4:30 p.m. that soaked the entire audience and performers, but a large crowd of roughly 80,000 people stayed to continue watching the performance; luckily “at 6:15 p.m. the sun broke though and the spirits rose again” (182). The final performance of the weekend was Jimi Hendrix at 8:30 a.m. Monday morning and only a small portion of the crowd remained (215). During the festival there was usually live music somewhere on the grounds; the only time anything settled down was during the wee hours of the morning. After a few hours of rest the festival would start and continue for hours until slowly fading out once more.
Woodstock was an incredible experience that made a lasting impression on the music industry. Ever since that weekend in August, people have been striving to create an atmosphere that mimics the one at Woodstock. From the sense of community to the good vibes that washed over the land, it proves that this was truly a once in a lifetime experience. Everyone attending acted as a large family, taking care of people who were in need of food and shelter. Bad acid trips were unavoidable but there was always people to watch over you and make sure that you stayed safe. This shows a lot about the nature of the people there because they were there to have a good time, listen to live music, do copious amounts of drugs, and simply enjoy their life, not take care of the people surrounding them. The LSD was there to ensure that people enjoyed their experience and create adventures that would be remembered for a lifetime.
To this day music is inspired by the music from the sixties. Acid rock was such an important part of music’s history that it has continued on to the present day. LSD was the reason many subgenres emerged such as psychedelic folk, psychedelic soul, and psychedelic pop. Over time, many bands and artists have been influenced from artists in the sixties and have created their own subgenres for the psychedelic music category. We can thank these artists for the music we have now because many bands have stuck to classic aspects of psychedelic music. A lot of modern pop has distorted sounds, twisted sounding melodies, and out of this world sounding instruments, which all originated in psychedelic music.
The use of LSD in this culture shows that as a whole they were an innovative group. They took the drug in hopes of changing the world and only that drug would help them achieve that goal. It expanded their horizons and helped them look outside of the box. Many great things came from the sixties because of acid and it changed many things. It highlighted the creativity and open mindedness of the people. It was a common part of life for many people and it changed the way they viewed the world as well as life. The sixties were a time of change and a large part of that was due to the use of drugs and the message of peace. For artists it gave them inspiration for their music and helped them create masterpieces. It revolutionized the sound of the sixties and lead to the creation of a new genre of music. New techniques were incorporated into their sound and things that had never been expressed before in music started popping up right and left. For the listeners it gave them a wonderful experience and opened their minds to places unobtainable without the push LSD gave them. It freed the mind and opened up a whole other world. This drug paved the way for music decades after the sixties and without it, our idea of music would be very different.
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