Colton Anglin
Rough Draft
Mr. Hamilton
1/2/18
Keeping Old Ways
In the sixties, the hallucinogenic music scene was at its prime and the world was loaded with flower child artists that wanted to drop corrosive and make the absolute most fascinating and imaginative music known to man. Amid this time, drugs were an extremely prominent piece of the nonconformist culture and the pervasiveness of LSD made the unmistakable classification of hallucinogenic music known as hallucinogenic or corrosive shake. Numerous groups and specialists, for example, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, The Beatles, and The Byrds were intensely affected by LSD, which prompted the making of some extremely well known music. This decade was brimming with enterprise, music, sex, and medications, and it was altogether influenced conceivable because of this to capably trippy sedate.
In 1938, Albert Hofmann found lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD-25, although he did not encounter its hallucinogenic impacts until April 16, 1943 after unintentionally ingesting it. On April nineteenth he deliberately ingested 250 µg (or 2.5 ten-thousandths of a gram) of the substance and stumbled the whole trip home on his bike. From the forties through the sixties specialists and the legislature tried different things with LSD. While therapists couldn't locate any authentic medicinal purposes for the medication, the legislature confirmed that it could be utilized to control huge gatherings of individuals. In the fifties, the CIA did different tests including the utilization of corrosive to demonstrate this point and the program was soon closed down. In the sixties, the medication turned out to be exceptionally prominent with the assistance of Timothy Leary and it spread around the United States and the United Kingdom like fierce blaze. While ownership of LSD was banned in late 1968, its utilization stayed well known until the decrease in the eighties. The medication made a rebound around 1990 through 2000 yet declined by and by (History of LSD).
After Timothy Leary started upholding the utilization of LSD by advising the general population of the world to "turn on, tune in, and drop out", the medication turned out to be exceptionally mainstream. The objective of LSD, alongside other hallucinogenic medications, was to open the brain and "locate another light to view things" (Bacig). Numerous craftsmen adopted this strategy to their music and would drop corrosive before forming music. This gave the music of this time a particular sound and without LSD, the world would not have hallucinogenic shake. Amid this time, numerous craftsmen referenced LSD in their tunes as a result of the significant impact it had on them. Keeping in mind the end goal to create the hallucinogenic feel, the specialists would state "recondite verses, frequently portraying dreams, dreams, or mental trips" and in addition utilize different methods, for example, mutilating and postponing the sound, and playing segments of the melody in reverse. Another essential piece of hallucinogenic shake is the impact of Indian music. Groups, for example, The Beatles promoted this method of utilizing "extraordinary instruments like the sitar, the tambura, and the tabla" in their music (Psychedelic Rock).
The Beatles were an exceptionally understood and mainstream band in the sixties. The utilization of LSD and different medications intensely affected two of their collections, Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Their first involvement with the medication inside the band was when John Lennon and George Harrison incidentally took corrosive in 1965. After their enlightening episode, Lennon and Harrison chose that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr expected to attempt it also in light of the fact that they found that "[they] couldn't identify with them any more. Not simply on the one level – we couldn't identify with them on any level, since corrosive had transformed us so much" (Harrison). Starr was eager about attempting the new medication yet McCartney indicated less intrigue, not wanting to share in the action with Starr and whatever is left of the bundle. Amid the experience, Roger McGuinn first acquainted Harrison with Indian music while sitting in a lavatory; much to his dismay that the Indian style of music would change their sound in the years to come.
In 1968, The Beatles flew out to India with expectations of "[exploring] their internal identities, their souls and their place in the universe" yet did not precisely discover what they were searching for (Bhagat). While they didn't get as much as they had trusted in that specific angle, they took with them a recently discovered enthusiasm for the Indian style of music. Harrison built up a preferring for the sitar, an Indian instrument, while on their voyage. He ended up endeavoring to ace it, just to surrender after he discovered it was a significant troublesome and tedious errand. Despite the fact that he deserted the instrument, it didn't prevent the band from seeking after the Indian style. While in India the band composed 48 melodies and "a great part of the music on [their] 'White Album' is sytheses that were considered while… " they were voyaging (Bhagat).
"I Am the Walrus" is an extremely well known tune by The Beatles that has dependably been related with the band's utilization of LSD. John Lennon remarked on an in talk with saying "the primary line was composed on one corrosive trek one end of the week. The second line was composed on the following corrosive trek the following end of the week" (Sheff). "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" alongside different tunes were theorized to be about LSD on the grounds that the letters spell out LSD, yet Lennon denies these cases in the David Sheff meet for Playboy. Despite the fact that a significant number of the tunes were not straightforwardly looking at doing LSD, they were composed on account of the impacts LSD had on the band. The medication opened up their psyches to an entire other world and gave them the motivation.
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 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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