1.Glitzy Hollywood and The Monkees
In my previous column in this “Legacy of Psychedelic Music" series, I wrote about psychedelic rock and the flower children of San Francisco (S.F.) in Northern California.
Last time, my focus was on the psychedelic music that came out of S.F.; this time I will focus on the psychedelic music that came out of Southern California, namely Los Angeles (L.A.). L.A. is home to Hollywood, the center of the movie industry and the entertainment industry as a whole. It has the nickname “Tinseltown" because of its glittery, flashy image. (Tinsel is a kind of decoration consisting of long narrow strips of metal or plastic of various brilliant colors attached to a thread.) As I wrote in MUSIC & PARTIES #013, until the end of the 60s, the movie industry had a long "Golden Age" in which major movie studios reigned and mass-produced works featuring their stable of stars.
In terms of music, many pop groups came out of Southern California in the 1960s. One of the best known examples is The Monkees. They forged a sound that was so brilliant and evoking of the sun that it was called "Sunshine Pop". The music could be seen as an attempt to distract from the layer of perpetual smog that covered the artificial city of Tinseltown.
Actually, L.A. at the time had a rock music scene that was just as robust as its northern neighbors, and psychedelic bands from Southern California greatly contributed to the development of psychedelic music. This column will introduce some of the key musicians on the scene and highlight the regional differences between Northern California and Southern California.
2.The Beach Boys and the Two Sides of L.A.
When it comes to Southern California pop groups that came to prominence in the early 60s, even more famous than The Monkees were The Beach Boys. With songs about surfing, car culture, and girls in bikinis, the group released a string of hits that perfectly captured the sunny youth culture of Southern California in the early 60s. At the center of its sound was its beautiful vocal harmonies.
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The Beach Boys embodied a fundamental contradiction that feels quintessentially “L.A.". While so-called "surf rock" was instrumental-centric, The Beach Boys were a vocal-centric group. Moreover, its "surfer" image was actually artificially made. The only Beach Boy who really surfed was Dennis Wilson, the middle child of the three Wilson brothers. All of this meant that the group was often called out for being fake when they made their debut.
In the mid 60's, the British Invasion, led by The Beatles and others, monopolized the American popular music market, and American groups like The Beach Boys were for a time shut out from the top of the charts. (I'll cover the British Invasion in more detail next time.)
Nonetheless, the Beach Boys were still very popular and a busy touring schedule led Brian Wilson, the group’s leader, to have a nervous breakdown, after which he would focus on studio production. Wilson started experimenting with drugs as part of his songwriting process in 1965, and decided the group would no longer be singing exclusively the praises of the beachside life. He wrote lyrics that expressed his inner turmoil and wrote music that aspired to a higher level of musicality, and the group would end up becoming a symbol of the counterculture movement. This evolution reached its peak with the album Pet Sounds and the subsequently released single, “Good Vibrations".
Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds, released in 1966, is widely considered to be the group's masterpiece, but album is mostly the work of Brian Wilson; the other members are only present in the vocals and choruses. Wilson revolutionized pop music by incorporating classical instruments like harpsichords and flutes, and an array of sound effects made using “instruments” like bicycle bells and dog whistles. Acknowledging the album’s impact on The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Rolling Stone magazine ranked this album 2nd on its list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.
With the release of Pet Sounds, Brian Wilson was hailed by the media as a "genius"; meanwhile his mental condition continued to deteriorate. Due to the drug problems among the groups’ members, the production of subsequent albums proved to be difficult—to say the least—and the group entered a long slump.
3.The Byrds and the Psychedelic Rock Sound
If The Beach Boys were the group that pioneered L.A.'s psychedelic "pop". it was The Byrds that pioneered L.A.’s psychedelic "rock". The Byrds broke through when it released a cover of Bob Dylan's “Mr. Tambourine Man" in 1965—at a time when the U.S. music market was being overwhelmed by British groups such as The Beatles. With it, the group established folk rock as a musical force that could make a commercial impact amid the British Invasion.
*Pop vs rock. Pop is popular music characterized by a simple melody and lyrics with an emphasis on catchiness. In contrast, rock emphasizes rhythm, with many songs about rebellion that are intended to be played at loud volume. Vocals are the heart and soul of pop music; the guitar is the heart and soul of rock music.
The Byrds released a single called "Eight Miles High" in March 1966, which many rock critics cite as the first psychedelic rock song. Heavily inspired by musicians such as jazz giant John Coltrane and legend of Indian classical music Ravi Shankar, this song set the blueprint for the sound of psychedelic rock. At the time, the band maintained that the word “high" in the song title was a reference to their recent trip to London by airplane, but later members admitted that they were high throughout most of this period.
The Byrds’ musical experiments would reach their peak in their 1968 album The Notorious Byrd Brothers.
The Notorious Byrd Brothers
Considered The Byrds’ masterpiece, this album combines the styles of various musical genres such as psychedelic music, folk rock, country, pop, and jazz. It incorporated various experimental (artificial) recording techniques. Rolling Stone magazine ranked it 171st on its list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
During the recording of this album, friction between band’s members proved to be too much, and when the recording was finished, two of its central members were fired. After that, the addition of new members would take The Byrds’ sound in a more country-influenced direction. The country rock genre they would create would go on to become the defining rock genre of the West Coast during the 70s, after the golden age of the hippie movement and psychedelic music had burned out.
4.The Mamas and the Papas and the Monterey Pop Festival
If the song that embodied the charm of S.F. was "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair", then the song that sold young listeners on the charms of L.A. was The Mamas and The Papas' "California Dreamin’". Both of these were actually created by John Phillips, a member of the quartet.
All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray
I’ve been for a walk on a winter’s day
I’d be safe and warm if I was in L.A.
California dreamin’ on such a winter’s day
The Mamas and Papas having arrived and established themselves in the L.A. music scene, co-organized the Monterey Pop Festival—an outdoor music festival held in mid-June 1967 that marked the beginning of the “Summer of Love”. Musicians such as Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, and Janis Joplin took to the stage, as well as other big names from around California and the UK. Ravi Shankar also participated.
Perhaps the most iconic performance of the Monterey Pop Festival was from the Jimi Hendrix Experience—its first major performance in the U.S. The guitar noise and distortion erupting from the Marshall amps shocked the audience, who had never heard anything like it before. At the end of the performance, Hendrix set his guitar down on the stage, set it on fire with lighter fluid, and proceeded to destroy it by smashing it down on the stage—one of the legendary moments of rock history.
The Complete Monterey Pop Festival
This concert documentary was directed by American documentary filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker.
Live in Monterey
This live album features the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s performance at the Monterey Pop Festival.
Monterey is a city on the Central Coast of California, in-between S.F. in Northern California and L.A. in Southern California. In that sense, it was the perfect place for musicians from Northern California, Southern California, the UK, and India to come together.
5.The Doors and the Dark Side of the Psychedelic Rock Scene
If sunshine pop was L.A.’s yang, then the kind of music produced by bands like The Doors was definitely its yin.
The Doors’ iconic The End is a classic of psychedelic music that captures the latent malaise that hung over America in the late 60s. (It was also used in the opening scene of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.)
The band took its name from the The Doors of Perception, written by British author Aldous Huxley on his psychedelic experiences with hallucinogens. Huxley took this expression from a verse from 18th-century English poet William Blake:
If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is: Infinite.
The Doors’ sound was characterized by Jim Morrison’s philosophical poetry sung in baritone with music combining elements of blues rock and psychedelic rock with a sprinkling of jazz. This sound evolved in a deeper direction in the band’s second original album, recorded during the Summer of Love.
Strange Days
This is The Doors’ second original album, recorded during the summer of love in 1967 and released in October of the same year. Impressed by The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper, the band conducted various experiments in the studio and deepened the ethereal aesthetic that it had pioneered in its classic first album. The cover design can be best characterized as depicting a psychedelic circus.
Jim Morrison has been defied as the quintessential rock frontman for his baritone singing voice, surreal "poetry", and his undeniable charisma. But there is a dark side to the legends of rock. In 1970, the aforementioned Jimi Hendrix and singer Janis Joplin died of drug overdoses at the age of 27. The following year, Morrison would also die at the age of 27. In 1994, when Kurt Cobain also died at the age of 27, the concept of the "27 Club" would be cemented in the public consciousness. Cobain's suicide note included Neil Young's lyrics: "It's better to burn out than to fade away." Perhaps Morrison and his contemporaries chose to go out on their own terms rather than be swallowed up by L.A.'s entertainment industry.
6.What Psychedelic Music Tells us About Southern California
As we have seen so far, the psychedelic music that emerged from L.A. and Southern California expressed anguish, disappointment, and a cynicism that stands in contrast to the ideals of love and peace in Northern California.
This is reflected not only in the sound and lyrics, but also from the lives of the musicians themselves. Behind the beautiful vocal harmonies of groups like The Beach Boys, The Byrds, and The Mamas and The Papas was a clash of personalities and egos and much discord.
The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson was so tired of the artificial nature of the music industry that he retreated to the safe space of a music studio and toiled away until he had crafted a masterpiece. But the effort would result in his mental collapse. Jim Morrison of The Doors hated authority and sang about the darkness of America, but he would eventually drown in the darkness himself.
In this way, the 1960s counterculture movement gave birth to excellent psychedelic music in both Northern and Southern California. While the music of S.F. was steeped in idealism, L.A.’s was dripping with cynicism. The music reflects the differing characteristics of Northern California and Southern California.
7.The San Francisco Ideal and the Los Angeles Ideal
Northern California was pioneered in the mid-19th century by the Gold Rush, which drew a large population of settlers from all over America in pursuit of the dream of becoming wealthy overnight. Recognizing it as an opportunity to reinvent themselves, they abandoned their lives and settled in Northern California with their families.
Roughly 100 years later, the flower children would begin living in communes, wholeheartedly dreaming of creating a utopia in region. They wholeheartedly believed that they could "free" their consciousness through the use of drugs, and wholeheartedly believed that the ideals of love and peace would save the world.
After the collapse of the hippie dream of love and peace, what came to the attention of Northern Californians was, ironically, the very artificial nature of technology. Convinced that technology would save the world, they turned the San Francisco Bay Area into what is known today as Silicon Valley. Founders of the myriad ICT companies that developed in this region believe wholeheartedly that personal computers and the internet can make people happy.
On the other hand, Hollywood is a (artificially) designed town in Southern California, and is the center of the entertainment industry. The companies that have developed in this region have released films and music one after another under the delusion that happiness can be mass-produced based on some derived equation. Hollywood, after all, is sometimes called the “dream factory".
People like Brian Wilson and Jim Morrison were disillusioned with the pervasive hypocrisy of the region and its industries. But the fact of the matter is that the masses were rather captivated by the illusion. For many Southern Californians, hippie culture and drugs were fashion—a fad. Today, Hollywood celebrities advocate for environmentalism, animal rights, vegetarianism and other various diets, but only as far as they are fashionable; they are not true believers. Even today, this regionality persists.
8.How Weather and Geography Foster Cultural Differences
The different values of Northern Californians and Southern Californians can largely be attributed to differences in climate and geography. People around the world tend to imagine California as a sunny paradise where the people spend all year in T-shirts and shorts.
However, it’s important to remember that California has about 1.1 times the land area of Japan, and while its climate is milder overall than Japan, the climates of the north and south are different enough to consider as separate geographical regions. Northern California gets (relatively) a lot of rain and fog, and a jacket is a must in the winter. Southern California, on the other hand, was originally a desert, and remains a dry region where the sun literally bakes the land and populace.
The two regions also stand in contrast when it comes to environmental awareness. Northern California has a lot of beautiful nature, epitomized by Yosemite National Park. The people are sensitive to nature, and it was the desire to protect the land from the environmental destruction of the gold rush and industrialization that sprouted the environmentalism movement. This love of nature would directly feed into the hippie ethos. Northern California also has relatively well-developed public transportation system of trains and buses (mostly around S.F. and the surrounding areas), and as Silicon Valley has developed, hybrid vehicles have overtaken the roads.
Southern California, on the other hand, has one climate year-round, punctuated by the wildfires that occur in summer that are getting worse year by year. L.A. in is the epitome of urban sprawl, a kind of monstrosity created artificially in the desert. Moreover, 50% of the water used by L.A. residents comes from Northern California via pipelines across the state. Northern Californians, understandably, are not happy about the fact that their precious resources are being taken by its wasteful southerly neighbors. The public transportation system in L.A. is not particularly well-developed, and a car is a must for getting around. Depending on the time of day, severe congestion means it can take more than an hour to travel just 10 miles (about 16 km).
These geographical differences led to a different style of psychedelic music developing in San Francisco than did in Los Angeles. The hippies were enamored with the natural beauty of Northern California, and cannabis and other natural medicines allowed them to free their minds and experience a sense of oneness with the universe. As a result, hippies sang about love and peace and made songs that embodied a reverence for nature. Northern California's psychedelic music sucks the listener into a dream-like world.
For the musicians from across America who headed for L.A., longing for the sunny California depicted in "California Dreamin’" I can imagine the disappointment when they came face to face with the artificial cityscape, and their disillusionment at being at the whim of movie studios and record companies whose only concern was to churn out the next big hit. For them, the use of drugs likely only made the imposing smog denser and more poisonous. The psychedelic music that came out of Southern California captured the darkness and social hypocrisy that pervaded the region.
Both ideologically and geographically, Northern California and Southern California are essentially separate states, and their differences are reflected in the psychedelic music of the 60s. Keep this in mind as you listen to the music I’ve written about in this and my previous article. I think you will understand what I mean.
In my next column, I will be writing about the British Invasion and the psychedelic music of the U.K.
