Some tunes spark memories of stoner era
WEBSITE HAS COMPILED A LIST OF THE BEST PSYCHEDELIC SONGS
Since marijuana became legalized a couple of months ago, I’ve wondered how many former stoners from the 1960s and ’70s have decided to try a taste of the new bud, not Bud, but bud.
The generation who actually remember Woodstock or buying sixpacks of Lethbridge Pilsner at the downtown liquor store for $1.50 surely to some degree must have a hankering to go legal, I would think.
I lived through the 1960s, keeping up on popular culture the way most kids did by reading Mad magazine. It was the source of everything we knew about hit movies, the Vietnam War, Nixon and all things that mattered. I survived driving in cars without wearing a seatbelt and choking on the smoke from my parents’ cigarettes, their favourite brand being Mark Ten.
And of course, I remember the era of hippies and the Summer of Love in 1967 when everybody who could grow a goatee was tripping on something. While the teens and adults of that generation are now bonafide seniors, some secretly must be wondering how fun things could have been if they could have just walked into a pot store to legally buy their weekend stash.
And how many are fondly remembering those hazy days when cheap booze and pot made the world go round, and depending on your tolerance to both, round and round and round some more?
How many reminisce about those long-ago played vinyl records that were the soundtrack to their lives?
Well, to rekindle a little nostalgia, I’ve been searching the internet to find some of those hit songs that were so popular in the era of psychedelia to spark, so to speak, some memories.
And if today’s seniors feel compelled to toke up like in their good old days, to find suitable tunes to enjoy it with they can perhaps use my list as a starting point or maybe just spend some time on YouTube looking for old performance videos.
I have to tell you in advance by the time I hit my teens in the ’70s, pop music couldn’t hold a candle to the Sixties.
How can you seriously beat artists like The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Iron Butterfly, Moby Grape, Strawberry Alarm Clock (whose original lead guitarist Ed King later played with Lynryrd Skynyrd), Pink Floyd and Jefferson Airplane? For my personal tastes, I’d also throw in Steppenwolf and maybe even Marmalade, whose frontman and lead singer Dean Ford just died last week.
I know Seventies fans will debate that because after all, we did have The Bay City Rollers and KISS and The Eagles but I kind of doubt the folks who would sit hungry and freezing through the rain-soaked and muddy Woodstock or at least, the concert movie of it, would have been lighting up a few spliffs singing “I Only Wanna Be With You.” Instead, the stoner crowd would have been wearing John Lennon glasses, sitting with their legs crossed on an area rug, trying to get “Comfortably Numb.”
A website called
waybackattack.com
made searching for popular psychedelia songs easy — it actually has a list of the top 100. And virtually every well-known act from the era is listed. And some I’ve never heard of before.
At No. 1 is “Light My Fire,” by The Doors. How appropriate, don’t ya think? No surprise is the No. 2 entry, Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.”
Also in the Top 10 are “Crimson and Clover” by Tommy James and The Shondells, and of course “Born to Be Wild” by Steppenwolf.
Other memorable tunes on the list are “Purple Haze” by Hendrix which is probably on everyone’s list, the Cowsills “Hair” and “White Rabbit,” the Jefferson Airplane hit that might be the consummate stoner tune.
“Fire,” by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown is No. 13 and “Summertime Blues” by Blue Cheer is at No. 33.
Until I saw the list, I never thought The Byrds “Eight Mile High” would be a drug song and I’ve never heard of The Electric Prunes but I’m sure I could crack a joke with enough time. I must have lived a sheltered childhood life because I don’t remember The Bubble Puppy or Blue Magoos, either.
Maybe it’s just me but maybe The Dave Clark Five should also be on the list with “Glad All Over” or Herman’s Hermits “Wonderful World” just because of the song titles. And if we could extend the era, I would add Danish metal band D.A.D.’s “Sleeping My Day Away” to the list, for reasons which are selfexplanatory.
I’m also thinking the old ’70searly ’80s band Zebra had a couple of tunes that would suit a day of smoking up on a beach.
For one-stop shopping, try finding on YouTube or PBS an old Ed Sullivan show because he had everybody performing at one time or another.
Or get a Sirius/XM subscription and just spend a few hours channel surfing while remembering the era of flower power. The possibilities are endless. Follow @albeebHerald on Twitter.