I was somewhere the other day and someone had said “Oh how psychedelic” which intrigued me because it is a word that is used so rarely. For those of us who were fortunate enough to recall what psychedelic is you can imagine what a treat it is to hear such a word from the past and it got me thinking…

 The psychedelic music was about a time in history that was influenced by drugs, but it was so much more than just the drugs. It was expression. It was music and art, and it was the perception of your mind. It was probably one of the most exciting times in the past 50 years and yet one of the most neglected as well. We like to turn the other way. I suspect it is because so many associate it with the use of drugs. But beyond that it was about my favorite past time, imagination and creativity.

 I am unsure when I got the gist of psychedelic music. I think it was somewhere between the Doors singing The End, or Eric Burdon and the Animals Doing Sky Pilot or even maybe it was the Beatles with Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds but the “psychedelic” music scene clearly caught my attention.

 The music was just trippy. Not that at that age I knew what trippy was. I would not discover that term and use until the late 70s. However for a young hippy in training, I could relate. I had the mood-lights and the black lights, I had the Lava lights, the posters and I had the incense to sort of put me in that space and time when I listened to the music. Most of all I was too young to take a “trip” but somehow I felt the music and the mood was a trip enough for me. In my mind, I knew what LSD was because I allowed the music to take me there. 

The psychedelic music lifestyle was like a culture in which many musicians experimented with not just chemicals, but more importantly they experimented with musical possibilities. The music, the lyrics, I mean come on, who was Alice and why did we have to go ask her when she was ten feet tall?

 I was not a huge Grateful Dead fan but they were some of the first bands to host “LSD parties” and allowed the people around them to “trip” while tripping on their music. It wasn’t just the tripping either, it was a culture as I said earlier and so bands like Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jimi Hendrix, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Moby Grape, Donavan, The Beatles, Pink Floyd all got on their magic carpet  and took us all for a ride.

 Psychedelic music sort of was like a spiritual experience. It challenged people to actually think and listen outside the orthodox box. There was a growing interest in mysticism and Eastern culture which was embedded into the music. That was because there was no sin in the music and letting it all hang out. It allowed your spiritual being to expand and develop. The possibilities became endless. I think that is why as a kid listening to psychedelic rock, I felt like I was tripping because I got the spiritual aspect of this music. It really was like finding God without even looking. I got it would take me higher and higher if I simply allowed the music to take me there.

 Sadly, we do not have music like this anymore. We do not have that “steam of consciousness” lyrics usually alluding to social issues or spirituality. There is no Cream or Yes. There is no improvisation jamming in the studio like they used to. I like to think the music of the 60s was an era that music was able to allow our minds to turn on and tune out. The day psychedelic music ended was really the day the music died.

I was on facebook recently and saw one of my favorite links that I am a fan of called Kenners Give A Show Projector. Sometimes I look at these silly slides while other times I just ignore it and go to the next facebook entry. This morning I took a long hard look at the give a show slide and memories rushed to me like a flashflood that we Tucson folks used to have once upon a time ago and it got me thinking…

 We have all sorts of gadgets and gizmos that we play with. I have a great deal of these contraptions that entertain my brain. I have my computers, my Wii, my ipod and my personal favorite, my Ipod touch. Come on is there anything this thing can’t do? However, sometimes we overlook the most powerful gadget of all times, our imagination and that is probably why I was a real fan as a kid of the “Give A Show Projector.” There was also one out called Easy Show Projector, no doubt I had them both!

 Really there was nothing fancy about this toy. Basically it was a glorified cheap plastic flashlight that let you put in negatives that were on strips and watch such things as The Flintstones, Popeye and Hanna Barbera best like Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear.

 I lived on a ranch and the big room off the kitchen was a “spare bedroom.” It was really a catch all, but that is where I went to use my special give a show projector. It could entertain me for hours on end. It did not require much for my young brain when I was in first grade. Imagination and some cool slides was all a kid needed for this great toy.

 If you lacked imagination, no doubt this toy by far would not have been the toy for you. It would be one of those boring toys you use once and put in your closet until it got given or thrown away.

 I enjoy toys that allow your imagination to run wild. Today, toy makers have taken the away from us. With 3D graphics, and computer generated everything, machines have taken over our imagination. I am not knocking the new technology, I suppose what I wish is that we could have the best of both worlds.

 Indeed we can. E bay and many shops sell the original Give A Show projector and slides. I know after writing this article, clearly I will be ordering one soon. I cannot imagine more fun than sitting with a room of adults and letting our inner child out watching give a show slides. So as we all scratch our heads this week, while thinking about what bills we must pay, or how angry we are or aren’t about healthcare reform, or how much taxes we owe, simple things like Give A Show demonstrates that life doesn’t have to be so complicated.

By the way watch this great commercial of The Give A Show. In addition, there are some great places to see actual give a show’s. Give A Show or The Give a Show Blog.

I was working on my new place yesterday and discoveredtThere is so much to do to get ready for the move. First, besides packing, one must get the place to look like home. That means painting, yard work, getting patios and decks ready, more painting, picking up, more painting. With so much work to do, there is one thing that is a must. MUSIC. I was listening to my music yesterday and there are certain tunes that make work just more easier and breezier and it got me thinking…

 Motown is the music of choice I use to do things like housework, painting and chores that I am not fond of. I do this because Motown music is about fun melodies, lots of horn action, lead singers and backup vocalists. It is a sweet exchange of harmonies and balance. It has booming bass lines that make you move and catchy phrases that keep you singing. All this is the magical mixture that is referred to as Motown.

 Just what is Motown really?  Well it all started back in 1959 when an independent songwriter named Berry Gordy Jr. purchased a house in Detroit. He then got the idea to hang a sign out front that said, Hitsville USA. The rest as we know is history and that Gordy establish Motown Records, well with a little help from his pal Smokey Robinson, who vice-president of Motown Records.

 Motown wasn’t simply a record label but it became a distingue sound. It was a style; music for the soul so to speak. In fact maybe that is why some called it soul music, it clearly got the soul moving and grooving. Motown music did to pop what Beatles did for rock and roll. Move over Buddy Holly & the Crickets, step aside Bill Haley & His Comets, look the other way Danny & the Juniors Motown is here!

 I am unsure if enough can be said about Motown and what it did to the industry. It was a great time to be alive and listening to hit and hit. It was a time for new artists to come on the scene and make some noise. Artists like Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Marvin Gaye,  Diana Ross & the Supremes, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Four Tops, Martha & The Vandellas, The Spinners, Gladys Knight & the Pips, and The Jackson 5.

 It produced such classic hits like I Heard It Through The Grapevine,  My Girl, Dancing in the Streets, I’ll Be There, I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch, Stop In the Name of, Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing, I Second That Emotion,  I Heard It Through the Grapevine, and so many more that you could listen to Motown for days on end before a song repeats itself.

 Motown had 191 number 1 hits over the last 50 years. That’s a lot of number one hits. I’m not talking about top ten hits–I ‘m talking number one hits. Indeed what would music be without the great influences of Motown? Now, what was your favorite Motown hit or artist?