The Beatles' Top 10 Psychedelic Songs
Concentrating on the Acid Drenced Years
And while I actually love all of these types of Beatles songs (and the many other types I didn't mention!) the songs that really interest me are the Beatles psychedelic songs and that is what this article is about.
The Beatles 10 greatest psychedelic songs.
Many people have different definitions of psychedelic. Some think it's a genre. I do not. To me psychedelic music is any music which to put it simply "Trips me out." And by this loose and simple definition I go forward with what I believe to be the 10 greatest psychedelic songs of The Beatles. This list is in no particular order. Choosing just 10 is hard enough without having to order them.
1.Tomorrow Never Knows - The last track on 1966's Revolver was something of another world. The Beatles were heavily influenced by LSD and also by eastern philosophies by this time and it shows in the music. Tomorrow Never Knows sound is mostly comprised of tape loops, very insistent drums, and backwards guitar. The entire song is on one chord and John Lennon's voice is distorted and strange. The lyrics are taken from the Tibetan Book of the Dead : "Turn off your mind, relax, and float down stream. It is not dying. It is not dying" the song starts off. It's still amazing to me to this day that The Beatles went from "She Loves You" to this in two years.
2.I'm Only Sleeping - This song has a very dreamy atmosphere and a backwards guitar solo and outro. "When I'm in the middle of a dream, stay in bed, float up stream." A very pretty song with lovely harmonies.
3.A Day In The Life - In my opinion perhaps the single greatest song of all time. Beautifully haunting deceptively simple (many thoughtful nuances) verses lead to the amazing dreaminess of "I'd love to turn…. You… on…" and the oncoming insanity. The amount of people this song actually really did turn on is beyond anyone's ability to count.
4.Within You Without You - The Beatles most fully realized and also their last excursion into Indian music. The Beatles themselves did not play on this track. They wrote the music for real Indian musicians to play. The effect is music that really feels like it's from another world. The song's lyrics are also quite psychedelic but my favorite section of the song is actually the instrumental interlude. And the spooky laughter at the end.
5.What's The Real Mary Jane - Never released until the Anthology series, What's The Real Mary Jane is an absolutely insane song. This is not much of a "song" in the classic sense of the word but I find it to be a very enjoyable bit of sound to experience. This song can be found on Anthology II.
6.Rain - One of the many great Beatles songs to never appear on a Beatles album. Rain can be found on the Past Masters volume 2 CD. It was originally a B side to Paperback Writer. Rain is one of the first pop songs to use backwards vocals and has possibly the best drumming of any Beatles song. The bass line is also most impressive. Just an awesome song.
7.Strawberry Fields Forever - The legend of this song is long and with good reason. I'm assuming everyone has heard this song before and if you haven't you better get to it soon. If you haven't heard it in awhile I suggest putting on some headphones and really listening to everything going on in this track. It's incredible.
8.I Am The Walrus - Maybe the best example of the sheer lunatic genius of The Beatles at the top of their warped game. I could (and have) listen to this song a 1000 times and still hear something new in it every time. "Pretty Little Policemen In A Row." My favorite part may be when everything gets phased out during "Sitting in an English Garden…"
9. It's All Too Much - This song is one of the most overlooked gems in the Beatles catalog and that's partly why I'm including it now. I've always thought this song is absolutely interstellar. The way everything seems to sound like its coming from a floating box but with these giant handclaps. Very hard to describe using these things we call words and that's why we have to make sound sometimes. One of the most underrated songs in the history of The Beatles. It can be found on the Yellow Submarine album or the vastly superior Yellow Submarine Songtrack that came out many years later.
10.Revolution #9 - I had to include this track. Many hate it of course. And you'll have a very hard time singing along but I find it extremely interesting. Don't get me wrong I don't listen to it every time I put the White Album on but when I am in the mood to listen to it I find it can really take me to another place.
I expect many dissenters with my list and of course I left off many worthy songs such as "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Magical Mystery Tour", "Dear Prudence", "Blue Jay Way", and "Flying" but the Beatles wrote so many amazing songs that's to be expected when making a list that's only 10 songs long!
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35 Comments
Post a CommentNot a single mention of "Because"??!
Beatles - I Want You (She's so Heavy)
Lucy in the sky with diamonds is definately supposed to be on the psychedelic song list! LSD. Lucy in the sky with diamonds. You cannot get it put any simpler than that!
Last comment from Miss Know-it-all; so you know, a Raga isn't psychedelic. It may sound foreign and exotic to our Western ears but they're based on Eastern musical rules and traditions that are THOUSANDS of years old. "Within You Without You" and "The Inner Light" are examples of Raga, and they were brilliantly composed by a gifted Westerner who worked very closely with Indian musicians to create them. I certainly count them as some of the very best Beatle songs but they aren't really psychedelic. They're exotic. So no, RecycleMichael, I'm not daft. Just opinionated.
Don't misunderstand, I love George. But as the others were delving deeper into drug induced psychedelia (NOT pot, pot doesn't cause hallucinations), he was abstaining from those psychotropic drugs in search of a deeper meaning. We're not talking about "best" Beatle songs, we're talking about "most psychedelic." A "best of" list would be 1. Impossible to make because who would be able to choose 2. If one were nutty enough to make the list, George and Paul would be more evenly represented. But as far as THIS list goes, John was the one who wrote psychadelic songs about his acid experiences.
Nic Nac13 "if you must have a George song" Ae you daft???
PS- Oh yeah, and "She Said She Said" from Revolver is basically John's retelling of his experience on an acid trip that he took with Peter Fonda. To not include this song on the list is insanity. This song and Tomorrow Never Knows were the FIRST psychedelic songs! Anyway, opinions are like assholes, everybody has one, and that cliche has never been more fitting than amongst Beatlemaniacs.
(cont.) dropped when he took acid and he meant to take speed* (oops! Don't you hate it when that happens?) Paul let John crash at his place and dropped with him. He said he envisioned John as "the absolute emperor of everything" during the trip. Anyway, to agree w/Bricklayer: Mostly John songs, one for Paul ("Fixing A Hole") one for Ringo, and if you must have a George song "It's All Too Much" I guess is okay... make the list the top 15.
*source- Bob Spitz "The Beatles" pgs 671-673
I don't know if I agree with "It's All Too Much". It really was sort of a throwaway song, even if it did embrace the acid culture. I think "Glass Onion" should have gotten the slot instead. And the fact that "Lucy in the Sky" didn't get a slot but "Within You Without You" did? George was for the most part the only Beatle involved in WYWY, and he was leaning more towards TM and away from acid at this point. In fact, two too many George songs are on this list, since he was shying away from LSD by 67. This list should be nine John songs plus "Octapus's Garden" (thanks, Ringo!) John was the one into acid the most; even though Paul famously admitted to using it in 68, he didn't really get into it until halfway through recording the Pepper album in 67; his one experience (he dropped with Tara Browne) was less than wonderful and he was nervous about dropping again until he finally dropped with John after the botched recording session on Tuesday, 21 March of 1967 when John accidentally
I love the Beatles psychedelic music, but you really should make sure you have your facts right before posting.
It's called "Whats the NEW Mary Jane".
...and "Within You without You" was NOT the last Indian inspired music George did (That was "The Inner Light", b-side to "Lady Madonna")