The Third Eye

It’s time to hit the history books, folks. We’re traveling back to 1967 in this installment of What is Psych Rock and talking about experimentation, risk-taking, and The Rolling Stones’ sometimes-overlooked foray into psychedelia. Enjoy.

Everyone was making psychedelic music in 1967. The Summer of Love happened that year, and psychedelia was in peak form. I think I read that even Sonny Bono of Sonny and Cher fame dropped a psychedelic record that year. Everyone was (ostensibly) holding hands, flashing peace signs, practicing free love, and experimenting with mind-expanding drugs.

The Rolling Stones were in on the action, too. I didn’t know this until recently, but The Stones released their only psychedelic record in 1967, Their Satanic Majesties Request. Not everyone knows this because The Stones quickly abandoned psych rock after the experiment. It got mixed reviews after being released, and even Jagger and the Boys criticized it a bit. Some thought it was derivative and a rip-off of The Beatles’ Sgt. Peppers’ Lonely Hearts Club Band, which had dropped just a few months earlier. Even the cover art for Satanic Majesties looked strikingly similar to Sgt. Pepper’s (and, to be honest, The Stones look uncomfortable and silly as shit. Jagger dressed as a wizard is something he may still regret).

The following year (1968), The Stones returned to their bluesy, street-wise rock n’ roll and released the classic Beggars Banquet. That began a string of classic and undeniably awesome Stones albums with Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main Street. They knew they weren’t a psych band and didn’t want to pretend, so they returned to their roots. The experience at Altamont in 1969 may have also hardened them and ended many naive hippie dreams.

Why am I telling you all this? Because Satanic Majesties isn’t that bad of an album. I’ve listened to it more lately, and while it’s not the best psych rock ever made, the critical legacy of it has improved with time. Songs like “She’s a Rainbow” and “2000 Man” are standouts, and seeing The Stones experiment with instruments like the mellotron and theremin is interesting.

I also don’t think it matters that The Stones abandoned psych-rock so quickly. The purpose of this series is to ask, What is Psychedelic Rock? I believe one of the answers is simply: experimentation. If there’s one thing that almost all psych music has, it’s the spirit of experimentation and risk-taking. Some of it turns into nonsense and plain noise, but not always. And when I learned of The Stones psych album, I thought it was awesome that they were willing to take the gamble even if they didn’t stick with it and it sold poorly.

Psychedelic music is all about pushing the envelope. It’s about bringing new instruments into the mix and messing with time signatures. It’s about getting as weird as you can get. It’s about not only “thinking outside the box” but taking all ideas of boxes and categories and throwing them out the window.

This is the type of risk-taking that can lead to excellent music. Sure, sometimes these experiments fail miserably, but that’s life. I have been reading about the making of Radiohead’s classic album, Kid A, and it reminds me of this. Radiohead was willing to give up the mantle of the best British alternative rock band and enter uncharted waters with Kid A. 

They didn’t know where they were going and felt frustrated during the process, but the result was (in my opinion) one of music’s greatest albums and something that set their career on an entirely different trajectory. The Stones weren’t nearly as focused during the recording of Satanic Majesties. There are plenty of stories of how the band rarely recorded together, and the studio was chaos, with everyone bringing friends, girlfriends, and hangers-on. Many band members were also either serving jail time or had court appearances to attend.

But, hell, at least they tried. It may have been because they wanted to cash in on the psychedelic craze or just wanted to give it a shot. Either way, it was the sense of trying something different that counted. So, for this installment, let’s define psychedelic music this way: the willingness to take risks, push the boundaries, and go to places musically that seem unfamiliar.

The Stone isn’t remembered because of Satanic Majesties, but it’s an interesting chapter in their history. And if they hadn’t been through that experience, maybe they never would’ve made it to the stage of creating a masterpiece like Exile on Main Street or Let it Bleed.

Parting words: “I never really studied business in school. I kind of wish I had, but how boring is that?” – Mick Jagger

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