My Favorite Things (1961). John Coltrane /...lately including psychedelia/

Cover of My Favorite Things

I've decided I don't waste enough time on the Web so after a long pause, I'm resuming my reading of the I Love Music board. In a long thread about psychedelia, on June 14, 2006 someone made the following provocative comment:

I suppose if your idea of psychedelia is limited to lace bodice foppery, gamboling in a fen while contemplatinng the radiant beauty of Lady Farquar, Sgt. Peppers is the ideal vehicle.

Wait--loan me those tea shades of yours, they help one see so clearly...

Ahhhhh. Here are some antecedents of psychedelia, though not themselves psychedelic:

Karlheinz Stockhausen--Kontakte
Kristof Penderecki--Threnody
Ornette Coleman--Shape of Jazz to Come
John Coltrane--My Favorite Things
Moondog--Moondog (on Prestige)
Edgar Varese--Ionisation
The Byrds--Mr Tambourine Man
Donovan--Sunshine Superman
Harry Partch--Barstow/Petals Fell on Petaluma
Terry Riley--In C

Some of these make sense; others require some thought to fit them into this line of descent. For example, I suppose Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima is mind-bending as is the Coleman. The percussion of Ionisation is the best thing Varèse wrote and his early use of siren helped stretch my brain as well. In C is proto-hippie, of course and Coltrane's My Favorite Things may be equally entrancing.

Harry Partch, as the maverick's maverick, stands alone.

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Comments

[Lasting Power of Attorney]

TThanks for the post. I'm old enough to remember when the highlight of the Saturday was going home from the record shop, and reasing sleeve notes on the train. Just think of the alubm art and the sleeve notes, 2 arts lost to the future.