Psychedelics and Music

[JRL]

What I miss about vinyl the most is the 12x12 cover. Some great art showed up on those. ASnd how many joints did you roll on your Anthem of the SDun or Sgt. Pepper cover.

Liner notes, too. For a guy like me, often what I care most about are the "studio" musicians that played behind the artists. With the personel buried inside, what to do?

Psychedelic Tour guide? I could do that as long as we could break for refreshments on the Panhandle. "Gather 'round ladies and gentlemen, plenty of Kool Aid for all"

Come on dear friends, don't let this thread die!!

[senorsalvia]

Yeah, the cover:  senor had a 'dedicated' rolling cover.  It was by the drummer Sandy Nelson, entitled 'House Party'....  I fully Grok the listings of all contributors to the music....  Many times, I would find myself bringing home an album that I had never heard of, based strictly on the fact that the sidemen/session guys were ones that I held in high regard...     Kool Aid, Did I hear someone say Kool Aid???   senor is so parched these days :wink: -------------  So:  Who thinks Dave Frazettas' album cover art set the standards to be judged by??--------------  senorsal

[JRL]

What are some of the ones he did? Maybe we need a cover art thread?

[laughingwillow]

Psychedelics and music enjoy a symbiotic relationship, imo. Music stirs us emotionally and psychedelics amplify the experience. I feel the two in conjunction may actually facilitate personal growth of an exponential nature when compared to the effects of either, or.

I do believe psychedelics and music have a place in serious studies of human psychology, not only from a historic prospective but also with modern applications/implications.

Thanks for starting this thread jrl-bro. I'm now going to put a pipe and payday to grinding a little more grist for this here thread-mill.

lw

[laughingwillow]

Before I head out.....

I remember my first psychedelic experience with music. It was in the dentists chair when I was about 10. Sitting in the waiting room and listening to my scaredy-cat little sister actually laughing in the dentists chair was the first indication that something was different about that dentist trip. When my turn came, the doc's assistant strapped the mask on me from behind and Dr Boeve began to work on my teeth. The family is christian reform and his choice of music for the stereo was old-school classical hymms to which he hummed along.

All I can say is that shite was way deep to a little kid on his first trip.

lw

[laughingwillow]

....The second happened during a practice for ninth grade choir performance. The director had us on the risers in the aud. I was standing in the back row and flat out fainted from having my knees locked or something. I fell forward and the choir director had me mates pass me down to the front where I revived on the floor while the choir continued to sing the Gloira Patri. hehe That one was tre strange, too.

lw

[Jupe]

We would just pore over the album art, perhaps due to our "condition", memorizing every little nuance, name, date....picture...anything.....being a Zappa person back then, there was always something interesting to contemplate :roll:  :roll:  :roll:

[TooStonedToType]

The first time I think I was quite young. Four of five years old.  My older brother and his band often practiced at my house. I remember a hippy girl kind of scolding me, telling me sugar cubes are for adults only.    Listening from the hallway. A few times they would let me play drums. Flashes to some bigger concert.  It was too much for a little kid to understand at the time, but later it was like, hey this is where I was.

[JRL]

Thanks LW for your esteemed contribution, you too, TSTT,

A few years back we had this hamfisted crappy dentist who made up for his lack of skill by drugging you beyond oblivion.
He had 2 assistants, one knew I loved the nitrous and was real stingy and the other knew I loved nitrous and let it rip. I don't remember music other than the heavenly choir, but I do remember looking at the prints he had on the ceiling, and thinking "Boy that Norman Rockwell is profound"

[senorsalvia]

If I'm correct, then Dave Frazzetta did his first album art for the band Dust...  He did alot of the big busted babe on a horse/ buffed nordic warrior type of stuff...  Some have pointed to work he did on Molly Hatchett albums, although senor never wanted to listen to Molly Hatchett...  Speaking of reminiscence of early 'altered states',  senor fell out of a two story window when he was 4-5 and had to go get his broken arm set...  I can still vividly recall my mom, a doctor, and the nurse all struggling to hold me down on the table, as I had a mask placed over my mouth and they gave me the stuff (ether I think..)  I can recall staring up at the filtered white light and feeling I was going to suffocate..  Then, I started hearing the "Wah, Wahs", and saw these concentric rings coming down from above and dissolving all around me.  Never liked 'huffing' much, ever since that day :wink: --   senorsal

[JRL]

sounds like your garden variety huff. One of my first heavy experiences was from huffing "Pertussin" some shit that was sold to Mom's to spray in the room of their sick kids. Had a medicinal smell. I used to go all the way out on it. Prolly did in a bunch of brain cells.

[laughingwillow]

I went to many concerts as a kid before ever smoking da kine. In fact I didn't start smoking until just before graduating from high school. In college, I tried mushrooms a few times before ever really having a bone fide psychedelic experience with music. That all changed with my first dead show, complete with an introduction to the visine bottle. I would have to call that night a turning point in my life. I walked in with no expectations and floated out pleasantly flabbergasted. All I knew was that the music had touched me with intensity i'd never imagined possible to experience. The entire show was punctuated with dramatic musical ups and downs and the heads themselves were freaky enough to blow my mind. Unfortunately, a  fellow named paul who was touring by rainbow bus had stepped out into traffic a day or so earlier and the family's collective consciousness was grieving due ot his death. The band dedicated He's Gone to the kid in the second set and the emotions generated by the song, amplified by the sacraments and then returned to the band through the collective consciousness was one of the heaviest moments of my relatively short life up to that point.

I'm still convinced that I left my body that evening and floated above the event with the collective consciousness of the family at large. To be honest, all I really remember is summersaulting back down into my body toward the end of the set and feeling like I'd just awoke from a dream-filled sleep with details just beyond me grasp........  

lw

[JRL]

Well said Brother Willow. Thats exactly the kind of stuff I was hoping for with this thread and In The Groove for that matter. Plenty of places to talk about bands, music jokes, gear, ect. Lets talk about what music is, does and means.

I just got done with just an amazing night of playing. After a year and a half of wednesday's at Da Torch, we are just really gelling. It's becoming a 4 way musical conversation, and it's liable to go anywhere. We play so hard for 3 SETS that I am just drained by the end of the night.

Playing like that is a lot like tripping even if your not. You gotta go through some struggle at first and get things lined up. Pretty soon you are ramping up and start to feel the power. You become totally committed, reaching way down in side and bringing up every kind of emotion.

Then you settle down a bit and just play for the sheer joy of creating, so tuned in that magic happens.

When it's all over, you feel drained, but reborn, and at peace. You know you went through something real and hopefully you learned a bit.

Garcia called it an act of love, let it be that!

[laughingwillow]

jrl: I'm glad to hear you are getting/giving so much during your gigs at the torch. I really want to hear you guys. One of these daze, eh?

.............After my first dead show I experienced a psychedelic honeymoon of sorts that lasted for about four years. During that time, I became comfortable navigating the headspace of dead related shows while under the influence Bear's finest sacrament. The music, crowd and sacrament fit sooo nicely......

However, in 1988 I had my first close-up and personal encounter with the Spirit at a dead show in laguna seca ca and my psychedelic world was seriously rocked. And it wasn't until that point that I really knew what terror could feel like while magnifyed by a powerful sacrament and music.  My focus became making it out of a show alive without shitting my pants in the process. Tours became exercises in russian rullette for me. Most shows were pleasant enough after that, but there was always the exception to keep me on me toes.

What has changed in the intervening years has been my perspective. I now find the current carefree shows resembling those first of my first years to be a tad boring. And I welcome those rare visits by the Spirit, even if shitting my pants is always in the back of me numb skull.

But one thing is for sure.... Musical events remain the single event I reserve for the ingestion of the holy sacrament. (Where permitted by law, of course.)  

lw

[JRL]

Thanks, man, The next night I had a night just as good playing with my favorite jam band, Mind X(formerly Mind Expansion). The music is a combination of bluegrass/world/jazz/funk/techno/Dead with lots of jamming. Kevin Burton( he used to play with Frankie Beverly and Maze) on the Casio keyboards was the featured soloist. Kinda like Bernie Worrell. Lot of funk/church/jazz chops.

We also got a great percussionist/didg player, a fantastic guitar player, and Sean Barfly, band leader, on acoustic guitar, various mandolins and violin. Plus bass and drums.

Twas a ripping good time.

The astral weather at Dead shows is always intense. last time I saw them (with no dose) my third eye opened right up. The first set I could see the crowd feeding them energy. It looked lke they were standeing in the surf, waves lapping at their feet.

Second set we moved up to the seats(Cal Expo) in back and I watched the amphitheater fill up with spirit like a bowl of milk.