Psychedelic Era

The Psychedelic Era - A Thousand Days of Peace, Love and Psychedelic Music.  The Psychedelic Era started in March of 1966 and lasted through 1968, a period of about 1,000 extremely interesting days when life was incredibly beautiful.  When Bob Dylan told us The Times They Are A-Changin, he couldn't have been more accurate.  The Bryds released Eight Miles High in the spring of 1966 and along with recreational drug use; a counterculture of a new hippie generation was off and flying, it truly felt like that song was the beginning of better things to come and that's exactly what happened.  There are many people who lived during this very colorful time who would tell you that this was the most beautiful time of their lives.  Far out, man!

The Summer Of Love (1967) with its love-ins, be-ins and flower power were the best moments of a generation.  It was a common sight to see women wearing flowers in their hair.  San Francisco and London became the psychedelic rock epicenters and the twin capitals of psychedelia.  It was a time of lava lights, incense, black light posters and mini-skirts.  The Psychedelic Era refers to a distinct time of notable social, artistic and musical change at the very moment of a very unpopular war brewing in Southeast Asia.  The government, big business, and most of the older generation supported the war believing it would be a moneymaker needed to boost a sagging U.S. economy.  While, some young people were patriotic and volunteered to serve their country many more wanted peace and did not want to participate in a war half way around the world with nothing to gain and no set designs of ever winning.  As the war escalated, the two sides divided with each taking a strong stance.  Please do take a moment to visit Vietnam Veterans Memorial to honor those that lost their lives.

The Woodstock Music Festival (August 15 - 18, 1969), was a three-day concert (which rolled into a fourth day) that involved lots of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll - plus a lot of mud.  The Woodstock Music Festival of 1969 was the grand finale of the physedelic era. The crushing end came at the Altamont Music Festival (December 6, 1969), immortalized in Don McLean's famous American Pie - The day the Music died, wherein the Satanic Jack Flash (Mick Jagger) was lustfully presiding over the sacrificial rite as the Hells Angels all looked on.  The event is best known for having been marred by considerable violence, including one homicide and three accidental deaths: two caused by a hit-and-run car accident and one by drowning in an irrigation canal.  Four births were reported during the event.  Scores were injured, numerous cars were stolen and then abandoned, and there was extensive property damage. By 1970, the psychedelic sounds were a distant memory.  Soon the Beatles would break up and Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones and Janis Joplin would all be gone within a two-year period, starting with Jones death on July 3rd 1969 and ending with Morrison’s death on July 3rd 1971 all strangely at the same age of 27.  There were also the acid casualties of performers like Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac and Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd.  Psychedelic influenced records were losing their grip on Billboard's Charts and artists' returned to the basic structures of the songs again.  Hmm, bummer, man!

Wanderin' Spirit
December, 2012
"Psychedelic Era"

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