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62-561: The Bosstown Sound was promoted as harnessing the hallucinogenic essence of psychedelia , also known at the time as acid rock . Numerous bands were involved, but the groups Ultimate Spinach , the Beacon Street Union , and Orpheus were the most prominent. The Boston music scene briefly captured the interest of the youth culture , and recordings by bands from Boston achieved positions on the Billboard 200 chart. However, by

124-438: A gram of phanerothyme To which Osmond responded: To fathom Hell or soar angelic, Just take a pinch of psychedelic It was on this term that Osmond eventually settled, because it was "clear, euphonious and uncontaminated by other associations." This mongrel spelling of the word 'psychedelic' was loathed by American ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes , but championed by Timothy Leary, who thought it sounded better. Due to

186-418: A great incubator of musical talent, producing acts like J. Geils , Aerosmith , and The Cars ". While interviewing Bruce-Douglas in 2001, critic Gary Burns stated Ultimate Spinach, which received the brunt of the media stigma focusing on Bosstown, "deserved a much better fate. The Bosstown hype was not their idea, and their records are some of the best psychedelic music available then or now. Their brief time in

248-539: A large number of performance clubs where artists could develop before touring nationally. There were many pop music college and commercial radio stations which could expose the new product on a grass-roots level". Based on his past successes with the label, MGM Records agreed to showcase the bands Lorber signed. Conviently, the company's studio was situated in New York City , making it easier for Lorber to manage and record several groups. Another important figure in

310-498: A manufactured attempt to cash in on the popularity of psychedelia. Music journalist Paul Williams , writing for Crawdaddy! , homed in on the concern: "[T]here isn't any common consciousness in the Boston rock scene -- there isn't even any Boston rock scene. There are good groups coming out of that area but there isn't the spiritual unity that San Francisco had". A Jazz & Pop article remarked that "the sound doesn't exist except in

372-460: A sense of altered consciousness; many works also featured idiosyncratic and complex new fonts and lettering styles (most notably in the work of San Francisco-based poster artist Rick Griffin). Many artists in the late 1960s and early 1970s attempted to illustrate the psychedelic experience in paintings , drawings , illustrations , and other forms of graphic design. The counterculture music scene frequently used psychedelic designs on posters during

434-598: A smaller but equally creative psychedelic art movement emerged in London, led by expatriate Australian pop artist Martin Sharp , who created many striking psychedelic posters and illustrations for the influential underground publication Oz magazine , as well as the famous album covers for the Cream albums Disraeli Gears and Wheels of Fire . Other prominent London practitioners of the style included: design duo Hapshash and

496-494: A wealth of distinctive psychedelic promotional posters and handbills for concerts that featured emerging psychedelic bands like Big Brother and the Holding Company , The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane . Many of these works are now regarded as classics of the poster genre, and original items by these artists command high prices on the collector market today. Contemporary with the burgeoning San Francisco scene,

558-465: Is a gathering that promotes psychedelic music and art in an effort to unite participants in a communal psychedelic experience . Psychedelic festivals have been described as "temporary communities reproduced via personal and collective acts of transgression... through the routine expenditure of excess energy, and through self-sacrifice in acts of abandonment involving ecstatic dancing often fueled by chemical cocktails." These festivals often emphasize

620-459: The Acid Tests , a series of events based around the taking of LSD (supplied by Stanley), accompanied by light shows, film projection and discordant, improvised music known as the psychedelic symphony . The Pranksters helped popularize LSD use through their road trips across America in a psychedelically decorated school bus, which involved distributing the drug and meeting with major figures of

682-941: The Boston Tea Party . Ill Wind and the Hallucinations' performances helped establish the Boston Tea Party as a must-go-to venue for the city's psychedelic scene, and soon other like-minded musical acts—among them the Velvet Underground , the Peanut Butter Conspiracy , and Lothar and the Hand People —became frequent attractions. Journalist Earl Greyland, described the Boston Tea Party's importance in Boston After Dark : "[It] occurred on March 15, 1968, when, as

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744-772: The Remains , and the Rising Storm at the forefront. The most commercially successful group in the area was the proto-punk teen band the Barbarians , who reached the Billboard Hot 100 twice with the singles " Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl " and " Moulty ". The heyday of these bands pre-dated the Bosstown Sound, and they did not have much involvement in the Sound's development, with the notable exception of

806-484: The San Francisco Sound . In his article Bosstown Sound 1968 - The Music and Time , Lorber wrote Boston was a logical epicenter for his marketing plan "since it was a place for new and progressive music forms from the folk days, and had an exceptionally strong initial sales potential in the 250,000 college students in residence in Boston's 250 colleges and universities". Lorber also mentioned that Boston "had

868-566: The Summer of Love , leading to a popularization of the style. The most productive and influential centre of psychedelic art in the late 1960s was San Francisco ; a scene driven in large measure by the patronage of the popular local music venues of the day like the Avalon Ballroom and Bill Graham 's Fillmore West , which regularly commissioned young local artists like Robert Crumb , Stanley Mouse , Rick Griffin and others. They produced

930-539: The album Basic Magnetism , by Teddy and the Pandas. The main problem was a lack of viable rock music venues to bring the groups together into a unified music scene. Also missing were the local and regional record labels often associated with a developing rock scene. Perhaps more evident in what grew into the Bosstown Sound was the city's equally active folk scene which was led by key figures like Bob Dylan , Joan Baez , and Mimi Farina . Their influences later emerged in

992-406: The 1960s had a large impact on graphic design and architecture during the movement. During this time period, it was all about being taking creative risks. This movement was experimental and colorful. There was a political unrest because of Black and Indigenous groups trying to get their rights. With African Americans, it was the civil rights movement . Michael Parke-Taylor includes Native Americans in

1054-445: The 1980s and, again, in the 2000s. In the aftermath of the Bosstown Sound, reviews remain mixed, but critics have begun to describe the scene in a better light. In 1988, Rolling Stone magazine, while reevaluating the Sound, conceded it was perhaps "easier to put down Ultimate Spinach and the other Boston groups than it had been to like them". Music critic Steve Nelson notes that after "the hype died down, Boston in fact turned out to be

1116-631: The Beacon Street Union charted at number 75 on the Billboard 200 , and Orpheus's self-titled debut reached number 119. Although Orpheus is pegged as a part of the Bosstown Sound, music historian Richie Unterberger notes they were "sentimental pop writers at heart" reminiscent of the Association , rather than the psychedelic bands that comprised much of the Sound. Later benefiting from their more commercially accessible sound, Orpheus

1178-406: The Bosstown Sound followed with a more condensed track listing. Psychedelia Psychedelic film Psychedelia usually refers to a style or aesthetic that is resembled in the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience produced by certain psychoactive substances. This includes psychedelic art , psychedelic music and style of dress during that era. This

1240-534: The Bosstown Sound was Dick Summer, one of Boston's most popular deejays , who worked at that time for WBZ (AM) . After Summer left WBZ in 1968, he ultimately returned to Boston and was hired by WMEX Radio in May 1969, and he continued to play the Boston Sound bands. Summer was directly responsible for the initial radio boom that Bosstown musical acts would experience, and arranged concerts and outdoor festivals in

1302-409: The Boston area where the local bands could hone their skills in anticipation of being signed to a recording deal. It was also Summer who coined the "Bosstown Sound" phrase to create a sense of cohesion among the bands. On January 20, 1968, MGM Records commenced its advertisement campaign for the Bosstown Sound by funding for a patriotic-style ad in Billboard magazine that read: "The Sound Heard Around

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1364-523: The Coloured Coat , whose work included numerous famous posters, as well as psychedelic "makeovers" on a piano for Paul McCartney and a car for doomed Guinness heir Tara Browne , and design collective The Fool , who created clothes and album art for several leading UK bands including The Beatles , Cream, and The Move . The Beatles loved psychedelic designs on their albums, and designer group called The Fool created psychedelic design, art, paint at

1426-547: The DayGlo colours that soon became de rigueur were then not widely available). Another very famous example is John Lennon's psychedelic Rolls-Royce – originally black, he had it repainted in 1967 in a vivid psychedelic gypsy caravan style, prompting bandmate George Harrison to have his Mini Cooper similarly repainted with logos and devices that reflected his burgeoning interest in Indian spirituality. The Psychedelia movement in

1488-708: The Fillmore". Other psychedelic venues that contributed to the promotion of the underground music scene in Boston include the Psychedelic Supermarket , the Crosstown Bus, the Catacombs, and the Unicorn. Record producer Alan Lorber materialized a concept to congregate several progressive Boston bands, and promote them as a new unique music scene, in a similar fashion that led to the birth of

1550-457: The Freeborne recorded the album Peak Impressions , an ambitious, but somewhat unpredictable, piece that experimented with a variety of instruments. Another group known as Listening recorded a self-titled album in late-1968, which encompassed performances by former Velvet Underground bassist Walter Powers and guitarist Peter Malick . Several additional groups were also associated with

1612-531: The World; Boston!!". On the same date, three Boston-based groups known well to the underground scene -- Ultimate Spinach (better known as Underground Cinema prior to the album), Beacon Street Union , and Orpheus had their debut albums released on the MGM label. The anticipation of the Bosstown Sound's debut to the record-buying public generated a booming market for Boston-based bands. Beacon Street Union's The Eyes of

1674-472: The band, Ultimate Spinach released one third and final album called Ultimate Spinach III ' , but directionless, in 1969 with an almost completely reconstructed lineup. The Beacon Street Union's The Clown Died in Marvin Gardens was plagued by the Sound's negative stigma, and only reached number 175. Orpheus was among the few groups to remain active into the 1970s, and has since conducted reunions in

1736-429: The beat movement, and through publications about their activities such as Tom Wolfe 's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968). Leary was a well-known proponent of the use of psychedelics, as was Aldous Huxley . However, both advanced widely different opinions on the broad use of psychedelics by state and civil society . Leary promulgated the idea of such substances as a panacea , while Huxley suggested that only

1798-508: The black and white designs of posters and trade that in for a more experimental design. These designs were usually hand painted and printed. The typography was the same as the poster which was playful and colorful. Juliana Duque mentions the typography was "organic patterns, kaleidoscopic textures, and waving (nearly encrypted) lettering combined with intense colors." There were a few architecture designs that came out during this period. The graphic design elements on buses were just as colorful as

1860-409: The conversation. For Indigenous or Native Americans, they "represented the perfect symbol of those marginalized and persecuted in contemporary American society." During this time, Stephen Poon states that people starting "embracing liberal sexual revolution." While they were hallucinating, it altered their sense of color. The Graphic Design during this era was playful and colorful. This was because of

1922-847: The creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly ordinary fetters. Psychedelic states are an array of experiences including changes of perception such as hallucinations , synesthesia , altered states of awareness or focused consciousness, variation in thought patterns, trance or hypnotic states, mystical states, and other mind alterations. These processes can lead some people to experience changes in mental operation defining their self-identity (whether in momentary acuity or chronic development) different enough from their previous normal state that it can excite feelings of newly formed understanding such as revelation , illumination , confusion , and psychosis . Individuals who use psychedelic drugs for spiritual purposes or self-discovery are commonly referred to as psychonauts . The term

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1984-570: The cultural and intellectual elite should partake of entheogens systematically. In the 1960s , the use of psychedelic drugs became widespread in modern Western culture , particularly in the United States and Britain . The movement is credited to Michael Hollingshead who arrived in America from London in 1965. He was sent to the U.S. by other members of the psychedelic movement to get their ideas exposure. The Summer of Love of 1967 and

2046-457: The drug known as LSD . The Hippies took over the psychedelic designs. Jeffrey Meikle understood what the Hippies wanted to create. He knew that the "Hippie artists energized American visual culture with rock concert posters, record jackets, extravagant, and underground newspapers." Milton Glaser has a poster design of Bob Dylan . The poster is colorful and playful. Glaser wanted to get away from

2108-571: The end of 1969, the campaign faltered, its advertisements rejected by listeners. Critics panned the groups involved, and few of the Bosstown bands survived after the scene collapsed. Opinions are still mixed, but the music of these bands has received more positive assessments in recent years. Prior to the Bosstown Sound, Boston had a burgeoning garage rock scene with bands such as the Rockin' Ramrods , Teddy & The Pandas , Barbarians , The Lost ,

2170-557: The expanded use of the term "psychedelic" in pop culture and a perceived incorrect verbal formulation, Carl A.P. Ruck , Jeremy Bigwood, Danny Staples , Jonathan Ott , and R. Gordon Wasson proposed the term " entheogen " to describe the religious or spiritual experience produced by such substances. From the second half of the 1950s, Beat Generation writers like William Burroughs , Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg wrote about and took drugs, including cannabis and Benzedrine , raising awareness and helping to popularise their use. In

2232-478: The first uses of the word in the music scene of this time was in the 1964 recording of " Hesitation Blues " by folk group the Holy Modal Rounders . The term was introduced to rock music and popularized by the 13th Floor Elevators 1966 album The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators . Psychedelia truly took off in 1967 with the Summer of Love and, although associated with San Francisco,

2294-571: The globe. The psychedelic research charity Breaking Convention have hosted one of the world's largest since 2011. A biennial conference in London, UK, Breaking Convention: a multidisciplinary conference on psychedelic consciousness is a multidisciplinary conference on psychedelic consciousness. In the US MAPS held their first Psychedelic Science conference, devoted specifically to research of psychedelics in scientific and medical fields, in 2013. In Australia, Entheogenesis Australis has been hosting

2356-477: The head of Alan Lorber". The newly established Rolling Stone magazine questioned "whether or not there is anything lying beneath the hype", describing the Boston groups as pretentious and boring. A few articles, such as one in Newsweek , attempted to defend the scene, saying a sense of unity was found in "subdued, artful electronic sound, an insistence on clear, understandable lyrics, the spice of dissonance and

2418-652: The ideals of peace, love, unity, and respect . Notable psychedelic festivals include the biennial Boom Festival in Portugal, Ozora Festival in Hungary, Universo Paralello in Brazil as well as Nevada's Burning Man and California's Symbiosis Gathering in the United States. In recent years there has been a resurgence in interest in psychedelic research and a growing number of conferences now take place across

2480-422: The infusion of classical textures". By early 1969, nearly all the Bosstown groups had either disbanded or disappeared from the public view as a consequence of media and youth culture backlash. Ultimate Spinach barely managed to chart at number 198 with their album Behold & See , which noticeably lacked the organ -driven instrumentals that were featured on their debut. Following Bruce-Douglas's departure from

2542-548: The most commercial success from their debut effort , which peaked at number 35 and sold approximately 110,000 copies in 1968. Despite sharp criticism from music critics upon release, over time, the album, now regarded as an acid rock classic, has become a cult favorite among psychedelic aficionados and is the highlight of the Bosstown Sound. Following in the trend set by the first three Bosstown groups on their label, MGM Records released other material by local groups such as Chamaeleon Church and Kangeroo. Attempting to cash-in on

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2604-419: The music by mainstay Bosstown bands Orpheus and Earth Opera . What became the genesis of the Bosstown Sound is said to exist, at least in rudimentary form, as early as June 1967, when journalist Mel Lyman's first issue of Avatar was pressed. His newspaper carried an advertisement promoting a scheduled event, headlined by two of Boston's earliest psychedelic rock bands, Ill Wind and the Hallucinations, at

2666-446: The posters. The use of psychedelia was used to create environments and an interactive space. Luke Dickens explores the overlooked architecture in the 1960s. He mentions The Fifth Dimension as being "highly inventive, utopian “fun palace” used advanced modular technologies... and deployed psychedelic sensibilities as a novel form of disruptive politics to induce critical dispositions towards the built environment." The theme of bright colors

2728-424: The psychedelic experience. Psychedelic music uses distorted electric guitar , Indian music elements such as the sitar , tabla , electronic effects , sound effects and reverb , and elaborate studio effects, such as playing tapes backwards or panning the music from one side to another. A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by

2790-613: The resultant popularization of the hippie culture to the mainstream popularized psychedelia in the minds of popular culture , where it remained dominant through the 1970s. The impact of psychedelic drugs on western culture in the 1960s led to semantic drift in the use of the word "psychedelic", and it is now frequently used to describe anything with abstract decoration of multiple bright colours, similar to those seen in drug-induced hallucinations. In objection to this new meaning, and to what some consider pejorative meanings of other synonyms such as " hallucinogen " and " psychotomimetic ",

2852-520: The same period Lysergic acid diethylamide , better known as LSD, or "acid" (at the time a legal drug), began to be used in the US and UK as an experimental treatment, initially promoted as a potential cure for mental illness. In the early 1960s, the use of LSD and other hallucinogens was advocated by proponents of the new "consciousness expansion", such as Timothy Leary , Alan Watts , Aldous Huxley and Arthur Koestler , their writings profoundly influenced

2914-524: The scene such as Earth Opera, the Tangerine Zoo , the Art of Lovin', and Ill Wind. Almost immediately following the success of the Bosstown Sound campaign, music critics began to comment on the apparent lack of originality of some of the bands. Another issue discussed was the diversity among Boston's musical artists, which brought to question whether there was an actual effort to create a unified scene or

2976-511: The short-lived Apple Boutique (1967–1968) in Baker St, London. Blues rock singer Janis Joplin had a psychedelic car, a Porsche 356. The trend also extended to motor vehicles. The earliest, and perhaps most famous of all psychedelic vehicles was the famous " Further " bus, driven by Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters , which was painted inside and out in 1964 with bold psychedelic designs (although these were executed in primary colours, since

3038-579: The spotlight brought them not well-earned glory but unexpected trauma, which fractured an already-fragile band". Others, like Richie Unterberger, dismissed the bands' work as "poor third cousins to the West Coast psychedelic groups that served as their obvious inspirations". In 1996, Big Beat Records released the compilation album Bosstown Sound, 1968: The Music & the Time , which included an assortment of Bosstown and pre-scene bands. In 2001, Best of

3100-550: The staid WBCN audience sat listening to its usual Muzak, the voice of Frank Zappa asked, 'Are you hung up?' and Cream launched into 'I Feel Free'. That was the beginning of the American Revolution , a daily seven-hour program originating from the dressing room of the Tea Party. The combination of providing an established performance setting and radio exposure made the Tea Party a gig second in importance only to

3162-577: The standard term. Advances in printing and photographic technology in the 1960s saw the traditional lithography printing techniques rapidly superseded by the offset printing system. This and other technical and industrial innovations gave young artists access to exciting new graphic techniques and media, including photographic and mixed media collage, metallic foils, and vivid new fluorescent " DayGlo " inks. This enabled them to explore innovative new illustrative styles including highly distorted visuals, cartoons, and lurid colors and full spectrums to evoke

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3224-492: The style of psychedelia, a term describing a category of rock music known as psychedelic rock , as well as visual art , fashion , and culture that is associated originally with the high 1960s, hippies, and the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco , California . It often used new recording techniques and effects while drawing on Eastern sources such as the ragas and drones of Indian music . One of

3286-607: The style soon spread across the US , and worldwide. The electronic dance music scene is strongly linked to the consumption of psychedelic drugs, particularly MDMA . Drug usage in the EDM scene can primarily be traced to British acid house parties and the Second Summer of Love , which marked the beginnings of rave culture ; these movements, however, were distinct from and mostly unrelated to 1960s psychedelia. A psychedelic festival

3348-491: The sudden craze, other major labels like Elektra Records and ABC Records signed their own assortment of bands native to the city. Among them was Eden's Children, which released a Jimi Hendrix -inspired album in 1968 that charted in the Billboard 200 at 196. Apple Pie Motherhood Band deviated from the psychedelic sound, recording two LPs that incorporated an assortment of bluesy originals and covers . Young teen group,

3410-472: The term "entheogen" was proposed and is seeing increasing use. However, many consider the term "entheogen" best reserved for religious and spiritual usage, such as certain Native American churches do with the peyote sacrament, and "psychedelic" left to describe those who are using these drugs for recreation, psychotherapy, physical healing, or creative problem solving. In science, hallucinogen remains

3472-488: The thinking of the new generation of youth. There had long been a culture of drug use among jazz and blues musicians, and use of drugs (including cannabis, peyote , mescaline and LSD ) had begun to grow among folk and rock musicians, who also began to include drug references in their songs. By the mid-1960s, the psychedelic life-style had already developed in California, and an entire subculture developed. This

3534-584: Was among the few Bosstown bands to have a single ("Can't Find The Time" in 1968 and 1969, since covered by the Rose Colored Glass and by Hootie and the Blowfish , and the minor 1969 hit "Brown Arms in Houston") chart on the Billboard Hot 100 . Emerging from the original three MGM-signed groups, Ultimate Spinach—masterminded by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ian Bruce-Douglas—achieved

3596-453: Was evident in this fiber glass domed-shaped building. This building was meant to trigger psychedelic responses. [1] similar to The Fifth Dimension, there was a geodesic dome and a dymaxion car made by Buckminster Fuller. The geodesic dome was complex. Meikle explained that Fuller followed the psychedelia era by wanting to speak "to a counterculture claiming to reject American Materialism." The fashion for psychedelic drugs gave its name to

3658-472: Was first coined as a noun in 1956 by psychiatrist Humphry Osmond as an alternative descriptor for hallucinogenic drugs in the context of psychedelic psychotherapy . It is irregularly derived from the Greek words ψυχή psychḗ 'soul, mind' and δηλείν dēleín 'to manifest', with the meaning "mind manifesting," the implication being that psychedelics can develop unused potentials of the human mind. The term

3720-529: Was loathed by American ethnobotanist Richard Schultes but championed by American psychologist Timothy Leary . Seeking a name for the experience induced by LSD , Osmond contacted Aldous Huxley , a personal acquaintance and advocate for the therapeutic use of the substance. Huxley coined the term "phanerothyme," from the Greek terms for "manifest" (φανερός) and "spirit" (θύμος). In a letter to Osmond, he wrote: To make this mundane world sublime, Take half

3782-582: Was particularly true in San Francisco, due in part to the first major underground LSD factory, established there by Owsley Stanley . There was also an emerging music scene of folk clubs, coffee houses and independent radio stations catering to a population of students at nearby Berkeley , and to free thinkers that had gravitated to the city. From 1964, the Merry Pranksters , a loose group that developed around novelist Ken Kesey , sponsored

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3844-496: Was primarily generated by people who used psychedelic drugs such as LSD , mescaline (found in peyote ) and psilocybin (found in magic mushrooms ) and also non-users who were participants and aficionados of this subculture. Psychedelic art and music typically recreate or reflect the experience of altered consciousness . Psychedelic art uses highly distorted , surreal visuals, bright colors and full spectrums and animation (including cartoons ) to evoke, convey, or enhance

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