Five forgotten psychedelic masterpieces from 1968
When people look back at the 1960s, their minds become flooded with images of the flower power movement, sex, drugs, and musical revolution. The decade brought with it The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin; how could it have been anything other than amazing?
What people forget is that towards the end of the decade, the peace and love that had previously dominated culture had turned into clenched fists and battle cries. Martin Luther King Jr and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, which highlighted the generation gaps in society and the differing views within them. A lot of the music written during this period reflected the chaos within these tumultuous times, which led to the widespread adoption of psychedelia.
During periods of uncertainty, the experimental nature of psychedelic music meant that record labels could capitalise on confusion within the public. This was the perfect genre to do it, and as a result, a lot of music in the psychedelic style was released. Some of these songs are considered classics, while others have drifted into obscurity.
Given how much psychedelic music was released during this period, it can hardly be surprising that many tracks went unrecognised. These are some forgotten masterpieces from this period that deserve much more credit.
Five forgotten psychedelic masterpieces from 1968
Ramases & Selket – ‘In My Mind’s Eye’
There are contrasting opinions on Raphael’s birth name. The most common answer seems to be Barrington Frost, but who has time for first names when the person in question is convinced he is the reincarnation of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramases? Following an epiphany, Raphael went on to create Egyptian-inspired psychedelic music.
His work is now considered a cult classic; however, even cult classics have songs that dip under the radar. One of Ramases’s songs that doesn’t get enough attention is his track ‘In My Mind’s Eye’. It found its place on a number of psychedelic compilations, but it’s still a record that not enough people know about from an incredibly interesting individual.
Pink Floyd – ‘Julia Dream’
Pink Floyd were struggling to find a sound that separated them from the crowd in the late ‘60s. Hendrix famously wasn’t a fan of the band, as he said that they were just playing ‘Johnny B Goode’ but with the wrong chords and calling it psychedelic. He also wasn’t a fan of how much they relied on their light show either.
While we wouldn’t get some of Pink Floyd’s best work until some years later, there is no escaping that they did write some great songs during this period. One of these was ‘Julia Dream’, which doesn’t seem to get the praise that it deserves. It fell into obscurity amongst the other fantastic tracks that Pink Floyd wrote, but this borderline unknown song is one to look out for.
The Idle Race – ‘Morning Sunshine’
Many psychedelic practising bands show great promise but never seem to break through the mould as much as their counterparts. The Idle Race can attest to this, as despite releasing great music and receiving critical acclaim, the public never seemed to take to it.
As a result, many of their songs have fallen under the radar, none more so than their barely known ‘Morning Sunshine’. There was a lot going on in this song for the time, and it seemed to be a bit too much for the public to make heads or tales with. It set the foundation for other successful bands who would emerge from the shadows of The Idle Race, though.
The Apple – ‘The Otherside’
The Apple is one of the bands that fell victim to the dreaded underrated B-side. As we saw with The Idle Race, when songs have a lot going on, sometimes the public fails to grasp the imagination behind them. Subsequently, record labels were often worried about taking a punt on psychedelic music. Instead, they opted for something more straightforward and sent the psychedelic tunes to the B-side of the record.
Two of the band’s songs were banished to the other side of the record and weren’t given the traction that they deserved. These were ‘Buffalo Billycan’ and ‘The Otherside’. The track quite literally landed on the other side, despite it being a titan of psychedelia. If you haven’t heard it, this is definitely one to check out.
The Beatles – ‘The Inner Light’
The Beatles released so much music during their time as a band that we often gloss over many amazing songs. Their B-sides would be considered classics if written and released by other bands, but they fall by the wayside with The Beatles because there is already so much talent on hand. This happened with ‘The Inner Light’, the band’s B-side to their 1968 single ‘Lady Madonna’.
By the late ‘60s, The Beatles were no strangers to LSD and psychedelia, particularly George Harrison, who had fully embraced Indian culture and promoted drugs as a means of expanding upon an individual’s mysticism and meditation. Subsequently, the band weren’t strangers to psychedelic music, although they were hardly frontrunners in the genre. ‘The Inner Light’ shows the potential they had within psychedelic music and their talent as songwriters as a whole.
