My Sixties The Spirit Lives Not the sixties you’ve seen before. This is the underground. The real story. Music, movement, philosophy. A life lived through gigs, travel, friendships—and the edges of experience. Part memoir, part autobiography, part raw collection of memories, this is a personal journey through a defining decade. Told through photographs, anecdotes, and reflections, it captures the spirit as it was lived—not as it’s been packaged since. No Carnaby Street. No pop gloss. Just the underground scene as I knew it. From Kerouac to Zen, Kesey to Leary. From IT and OZ to Dylan, Hendrix, and Pink Floyd. From Hyde Park free festivals to Roy Harper and Abbey Road. This is the sixties from the inside.
We went to a great gig last night. The first time that we’ve seen LEC for some time. A feast of psychedelia. The band were so tight, held together with Dave’s fabulous drumming and Lou’s adventurous bass. Rich had a superb-sounding electrified 12-string acoustic that sounded bright and clear and augmented the sound with vocals, shakey egg and harp. Together they created a varied backing, often funky, sometimes slow and bluesy, often soaring into the atmosphere. Brilliant. They provided the phogiston for Jeff to lay down his fabulous runs, chords and rhythms – it was like listening to those West Coast acid rock bands from the 60s – Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and the Fish, Spirit and Doors – Jeff was the incarnation of Jorma, Barry Melton, Robbie Krieger and Randy California – exquisite!
As Lou, Rich and Dave stirred the pot Jeff sprinkled on the spells and something magic emerged. Straight out of the psychedelic caverns of Middle Earth and The Matrix.
They took us on a trip through time from the Huguenots out to the Borgs and Drones of the distant future. We took flights on dragons to the control room on the Enterprise. All saturated in fluorescence and soaring sounds. All uplifting, mind-expanding and glorious.
What a trip! Time and space melted around us as we howled like werewolves in heat!
I took a few photos on my phone but the light rather beat me and they don’t really do justice:
Acid Rock as a genre started in the mid-sixties and flourished in the late sixties.
At that time LSD – lysergic Acid Diethylamine – was legal and thought to be safe. Marijuana was the drug of choice for the burgeoning alternative culture and was extensively used.
A Rock Scene sprang up in the two cities on the West Coast of America which had attracted in large numbers of alternative characters. In Los Angeles the scene was centred around Venice and the Sunset Strip and in San Francisco it was around Haight Asbury.
The culture was very radical. It became known a the Hippie movement typified by its long hair and bright clothes, liberalised attitudes to drugs and sex and a distrust of the establishment.
The Acid Rock culture had grown out of a coalescing from a number of sources. There was the influence of the British Bands who had inspired a number of musicians to get into bands; the politics and poetry of the Folk movement, exemplified by Bob Dylan, with its radicalising message; the influence of East Coast musicians like the Lovin’ Spoonful and then the seminal band the Byrds with their Folk-Rock and spacey sounds.
In Britain a similar thing was taking place simultaneously. It was based in London where both cannabis and :LSD were circulating and was creating a Psychedelic scene based around clubs like The UFO Club, Middle Earth and the Eel-Pie Island.
The two were to cross-fertilise and interact.
In Los Angeles the leading lights were the Doors, Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, Buffalo Springfield, The Mothers of Invention (Frank Zappa) and Love. They tended to have a Blues based sound. Frank was a a bit of a one-off and not really what I would call Acid Rock but …….
In San Francisco it was Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and the Fish, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Grateful Dead. There was more of a Folk influence here.
The effects of the drugs on the music was very evident. The pieces were drawn out into long jams with the integration of soaring guitars and harmonies. It was intricate and interweaved into complex rhythms and there was the use of different instrumentation, musical forms, electronic sounds. It created a dense sound that was mesmerising and you could get lost in. It was album based, rather than singles, and was focussed on the ideology of the alternative culture with its peace, love and anti-establishment themes. The music was of and for the sixties alternative culture.
When coupled with light shows in small clubs the atmosphere was a total immersive experience that was intended to be consumed while high.
Surprisingly it was instantly commercially successful with bands like the Doors and Jefferson Airplane hitting the singles charts. This threw everyone into a dilemma. The bands were in danger of being called ‘Sell-outs’ and losing their street credibility and the establishment was shocked and did not know how to deal with the drug references and social messages.
Some of these bands went on to become among the biggest in the world – like the Doors. Others developed huge stadia followings like Grateful Dead and others fell by the wayside like Country Joe and the Fish.
My favourite was the incredible Captain Beefheart who produced the greatest body of work, pushed the boundaries, was innovative and extraordinary, was a poet of great originality, and created complex music the like of which has never been bettered. He influenced a thousand other musicians and remains a largely unsung hero.
My book – ‘In Search of Captain Beefheart’ is not actually about the Captain; it is about my quest for the lodestone of Rock Music. It’s a tale of a man’s journey and love of Rock Music.
I have a number of other books concerned with Rock Music you might enjoy – Tributes to the Top Rock acts:
Really great vibe at last night's Loudhailer Electric Company rehearsal! First gig with our new line up is coming up on October 1st – if you're up for a trip to York @TheYorkVaults it would be ace to see you there. 3 great bands for a fiver #yorkhttps://t.co/5So2ozXZbkpic.twitter.com/8Lso465GJJ
1967 was a great year. There was revolution in the air. In the UK it was psychedelia with the likes of the Cream, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. The West Coast Acid rock was pouring in from the USA with Captain Beefheart, Doors, Love, Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead.
Country Joe and the Fish were one of my favourites. I caught them live a few times back then. This is their second album – an acid rock mastrpiece with some political overtones.
