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Psychedelic Music in San Francisco: Style, Context, and Evolution Craig Morrison A Thesis in The Department of Humanities Presented in Partial Fulfillment d the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada Septernber 2000 O Craig Morrison 2000 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1*1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington OttawaON KlAON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada Yovr lFie Votre réf8rmce Our lile Noire reftirence The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or seli reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microfom, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts from it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author7s ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ..- III ABSTRACT Psychedelic Music in San Francisco: Style, Context, and Evolution Craig Momson, Ph-D Concordia University, 2000 Psychedelic rock began in 1965 and was popular until around 1970. Its most impoeant centres were San Francisco, the city of its origin, and London. One of its chief features was the attempt to translate into musical terms the effects of hallucinogenic drugs, especially LSD, which had becorne available in artistic circles in the early 1960s and was legal untii 1966. San Francisco psychedelic music took its ideology from the folk music revival of the 1950s, which many of its most important practitioners had participated in, including Jeny Garcia of the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin of Big Brother and the Holding Company, and mernbers of the Jefferson Airplane. The catalyst for the folk revival musicians to adop! the rock band format was the British Invasion, which began in 1964 with the arriva1 in America of the Beatles. Psychedelic music is examined in relation to an original, seven-stage mode1 of style evolution that is developed in the thesis. It looks beyond the heyday of the music, tracing the legacy of its decline and eventual revival in the present- The thesis offers detailed musical analyses that identify key structures, or matrices, in the evolution of the stylo. Much of the contextual evidence derives from original field work involving interviews with musicians and industry representatives who were part of the San Francisco scene. Acknowledgments My thesis supervisor, Dr. Allan Crossrnan of Concordia's Music Department, ana my advisors, Dr. Graham Carr of Concoruia's History Department, and Dr. VViII Straw of McGill University's Communications Department, have guided my studies in general and read various drafts of the thesis. Their encouragement and suggestions have been a profound and welcome influence on my developrnent as a scholar. The perceptive comments and recommendations of Dr. Line Grenier of the Université de Montréal and Dr. Charles Acland of Concordia, both communication Studies scholars, have helped considerably to strengthen the thesis. Some of the ideas in the manuscript were initially shaped by the Methods courses taught in Concordia's Humanities Department by Dr. William Knitter and Dr. Stanley French. Dr. Sherry Simon, the former directar of the Hurnanities Department, oversaw the whoie process. 1 thank them for their help. Additionally, I appreciate the benevolence of many musicians and industry personnel, listed at the back, for the interviews, and the generosity of many record collectors who shared rare materials, including Fred Janosy, Andy Grinn, Laval Côté, Steve Zylbergold, Mike McLean, and Todd Bolton. My wife Marie-France Nolet supported the project in every way and discussed every aspect of its production. It is dedicated to her. Table of Contents introduction: Backgrouna, Sources, and Outiine Style 1. Perceptions of Style Context 2. Definition and Overview of Psychedelic Music 3. Distinguishing Characteristics of San Francisco Psychedelic Music: Naïve Innovation, Improvisation, and Folk Revival Roots 4. Music Styles and Commerce in the 1960s The Evolutionary Phases of San Francisco Psychedelic Music 5. The Initial Phases: Conception and lnception 6. The Intermediate Phases: Proclamation and Dissemination 7. The Advanced Phases: Fragmentation, Revitalization, and Confirmation Conclusions Bibliography List of Interviews Discography Appendix: San Francisco Psychedelic Bands' Folk Revival Repertoire on Record and in Performance to 1970 Introduction Background Pçychedeiic rock began in -1 565 ana was popuiar uniii around 1970. Its most important centres were San Francisco, the city of its origin, and London. One of its chief features was the attempt to translate into musical terms the effects of hallucinogenic drugs, especially LSD,which had become available in artistic circles in the early 1960s and was legal until 1966. San Francisco psychedelic music took its ideology from the folk music revival of the 195Gs,which many of its most important practitioners had participated in, including Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin of Big Brother and the Holding Company, and members of the Jefferson Airplane. The catalyst for the folk revival musicians to adopt the rock band format was the British Invasion, which began in i964 with the arriva1 in Arnerica of the Beatles. San Francisco psychedelic music is distinct for its folk revival roots, its emphasis on improvisation, and, at least in its early days, a naïve approach that was nonetheless innovative. The general subject of the thesis is innovaticn and change in popuiar music. The specific topic is how they apply to the history of psychedelic music within the community that originated it. Although there are many popular versions of the story of San Francisco psychedelic music and several mernbers of its colorful cast of characters are legendary, the purpose of this study is not to repeai the personality profiles or anecdotes that can be readily found elsewhere (see Selvin or Hoskyns, for example). Instead, the focus is on the process, the results, and the contributing factors affecting musicians' decisions to combine influences into a new synthesis or commence a different musicaI direction. The thesis differs from previous studies in its approach and interpretation. First, it analyzes psychedelic music in relation to an originai, seven-stage moaei of style evolution that is developed in the thesis. Secondl it adopts a longer tirne irame than rnost studies of the topic by looking beyond the heyday of psychedelic music in the 1960s and tracing the subsequent legacy of its decline and eventual revival in the present.' Third, the thesis offers detailed musical analyses of psychedelic music that identify key structures, or matrices, in the evolution of the style. Finally, much of the contextual evidence for the thesis derives from original field work involving interviews with musicians and industry representatives who were part of the San Francisco scene in the late 1960s.~ The intensely creative music of the 1960s was a product of a unique climate of social and cultural upheaval. In The Sixties Experience: Hard Lessons about Modern America (i991), Edward P. Morgan focussed on several of the decade's social and political movements. The struggle for racial justicethe cail to heal one of Arnerica's deepest woundsH-was played out in the civil rights movement, "the formative catalyst for sustained activism throughout the rest of the de~ade."~ Student protest on an unprecedented scale, rnotivated by the "critique of the 1 Many accounts, such as Selvin's and Hoskyns', close around f97O. 'A list of interviewees follows the bibliography. My training in interviewing cornes frorn graduate studies in ethnomusicology, a discipline that stresses the need for the researcher, "in order to work effectively, to coflect his raw material himself, and to observe ït in its 'Iive' state. Again, probably no one would deny the importance of field work" [Nettl: 91. Folkforist Jan Howard Btunvand wrote: "the collector must be able to identify and locate good infonnants, to put them at their ease, and to encourage them to perfonn for him naturalty and without inhibitions... Successful fieldwork, as ethnomusicologist Bruno Nettl has remarked, sometimes resembles 'a combination of public relations and mental therapyn [Bninvand: 2571. programmed so~iety,"~was expressed by leftist student politics, and the divisiveness of the war in Vietnam was played out in the largest antiwar movement ever seen in ~rnerica.' At their best, Morgan said, the rnovements were "inspired 'Dy s hopeiui iaeaiism inat envisioned a Peiier, more democratic world, and by a determined morality that refused to elevate power as an end over respect for human personality."' As legacies of the decade, the author counted feminism and the women's movement, the ecology movement, and a revivaf