Nice to remember the first Soft Machine and Traffic albums too, since they tend to be best remembered by their later stuff on other genres. Also, Happy Trails, Live/Dead and Easter Everywhere are trippier than QSM, Anthem of the Sun and (believe it or not) Psychedelic Sounds. The Stones were, that one time, but I’m not sure if they stand side by side with all those naturals. That said, neither Hendrix nor Cream nor the Doors nor Aphrodite’s Child were ever thaaat psychedelic.
The Byrds aren’t, so historical importance is clearly not the point for the list. But then I’m not sure if the Beatles should be there at all. Not sure about Revolver… if you want a Beatles one, I’d have to agree with this other commenting person that Magic Mystery Tour is their most psychedelic, even if it’s not as innovative. I agree Caravan is missing too, but I’d pick their self-titled debut, since they only got more progressive/pop on further albums. It’s probably the reason he never became a mainstream superstar, but also the reason why, 45 years later, a lot of us are still following him.Īs a lot of people have mentioned, Odessey & Oracle is probably the most striking absence.
He delivered this Technicolor mind trip instead. One of the most audacious and best psychedelic albums ever made, A Wizard, A True Star came out just when Todd Rundgren had developed a reputation as a pop songsmith, and the world expected more of the same. Characteristically, Small Faces had no time for tears: Their psych epic is a jolly rave-up, with a side-long fairy tale, a music-hall blast of a single (“Lazy Sunday”) and even a bit of proto-metal, in the shape of “Afterglow.”ġ8: Todd Rundgren: A Wizard, A True Star (1973) They represent emotional opposites, too: The Pretty Things’ album tells the mournful but hauntingly melodic story of a man and his well of loneliness. These two albums have to go together as they both came out in 1968, were both among the first concept albums, and were both recorded by UK bands who were doing straight R&B just a few months earlier. Also here is the definitive freaked-out version of the oft-covered “Tobacco Road” and the acid-inspired “Love Seems Doomed.” And let’s not forget they were just kids when they recorded one of the best psychedelic albums of the mid-60s singer Peppy Theilhelm was just 16.ġ9: The Pretty Things: SF Sorrow / Small Faces: Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake (both 1968) There are some truly heavyweight songs in his most psychedelic-leaning album, Sunshine Superman, including the indelible single and self-explanatory “The Trip.” Other cuts include the San Francisco ode “Fat Angel” (which salutes Jefferson Airplane, who later covered it) and the oft-covered “Season Of The Witch,” which predicts the time when hippies would start trying to make it rich.Ģ4: Blues Magoos: Psychedelic Lollipop (1966)īlues Magoos’ 1966 debut album earns immortality for its second single alone: “(We Ain’t Got) Nothin’ Yet,” one of the era’s most uplifting songs. Donovan gets dismissed in some quarters (not least from Bob Dylan in Dont Look Back) as a lightweight, but, hey – it’s not his fault that he had a good time in the 60s and came out unscathed.