What is the reason for (generally speaking) UK bands to focus on experimental pop with weird sound effects and things a la Strawberry Feilds Forever, Hole in My Shoe etc, whereas American stuff seems to be more like laid back folkie music and long jams based on more traditional forms. Why is that so?
It's all about tradition, I think. Folk and blues are very American. Think of the music that these bands grew up listening to. Classical music was much bigger in England in the 40's and 50's than it was here. Blues and folk have always had more of an American leaning. I look at most English psychedelia as being much more dreamy, surreal and truly psychedelic than its American counterparts. It's like walking through a majestic technicolor candyland with giant candy canes floating across the sky, over the lysergic day-glo landscape that lies below. American psychedelia sounds more earthy and grounded. Most American psychedelia is really psychedelic-tinged folk or blues-rock, or so it seems. There are very few American psych bands that had a purely psychedelic sound, save for a small few. When I think of American psychedelia, I think of a big, open, muddy field, in which a slew of gangly hippies are fucking in while drunk on Miller High Life.
Exactly, I always assumed the drugs in England must have been stronger. All the American stuff seems to have been hippies singing songs about being hippies, and its like they were all just waiting to turn into The Eagles...
I agree, it's all about culture. American psychedelic music tended to be founded on their folksy-bluesy, mellow culture (except the Doors, who just had their own thing). UK Sixties music had their whimsical English folklore and English wit to build on, like Syd Barrett's Carrollian imagery or the Kinks' Oscar Wilde-ish commentary.
Not really... anyway, I don't think how strong the drugs were had that much to do with it. It was more that most of the American psychedelic bands were founded by people who were formely folkies and such, and they just kind of mixed that with the psychedelic influence. I think that the English psychedelia thing was truly psychedelic, in general more than stuff coming from the West Coast (with exceptions, but that was usually how it was). The only problem was, aside from the bands who had a ton of talent to begin with, gimmicks ended up taking a more important place than content.
Generalization: Most american bands are/were from a blue collar, working class background. Where as a lot of there british counterparts were from university/art school. This in turn I think has a lot to do with the overall sound and direction of a group. Again this is just a generalzation, dont freak out!
I'd be interested in hearing what preferences (if any) people have between the two. Personally I tend to lean more to the side of the US stuff, particularly lesser known acts that were inspired by The Doors, Jefferson Airplane and The Byrds, but then also I like to explore all aspects of psychedelia from other parts of the world from the 60's up to the present day.
Pink Floyd (early) The Beatles (MMT in paticular) Tomorrow The Pretty Things Family Traffic Cream The Move The Soft Machine The Small Faces The Zombies The Blossom Toes
