The Beatles First Psychedelic Rock or Pop Song?
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Topic: The Beatles First Psychedelic Rock or Pop Song?
Posted By: ModernRocker79
Subject: The Beatles First Psychedelic Rock or Pop Song?
Date Posted: December 29 2008 at 21:17
| My choice is the "The Word" with it's keyboard sounds, vocals harmonies and lyrics. |
Replies:
Posted By: Chelsea
Date Posted: December 30 2008 at 10:40
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My vote is "Norwegian Wood" it's folksy and with the sitar added on it sounds sort of Psychedelic. I think there is some Psychedelic touches on Rubber Soul. Full blown Psychedelic Rock is "Tomorrow Never Knows'". |
Posted By: DamoXt7942
Date Posted: December 30 2008 at 18:08
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I chose "Rain" It's awesome.
Of course, not necessary to use the reverse sound of their tape.
All are great...an effector of voice, Ringo's drumming (like Hal Blaine's), and the song itself... ------------- http://www.facebook.com/damoxt7942" rel="nofollow"> 
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Posted By: Jozef
Date Posted: January 01 2009 at 00:58
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I've never thought of "Nowhere Man" as being psychedelic. I'm going to vote for "Tomorrow Never Knows". It was a very big departure from that pop sound they had in the beginning.
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Posted By: Chelsea
Date Posted: January 06 2009 at 15:00
After listening to Rubber Soul and Help there is traces in songs like "It's Only Love" and "Ticket to Ride" droning jangly guitars and the distinctive drum pattern mantra/raga rock rhythm on Help. The drum pattern almost like the one on “Tomorrow Never Knows”. On Rubber Soul "Think For Yourself" has the distorted fuzz bass riffs, sitar buzzing on "Norwegian Wood" and the brief psychedelic sounding keyboards on the pre "All You Need is Love" song "The Word. Other bands were showing hints like the Yardbirds and the Kinks in 1965. |
Jozef wrote:Posted By: J-Man
Date Posted: January 06 2009 at 15:12
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Rain all the way!
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Check out my YouTube channel! http://www.youtube.com/user/demiseoftime" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/user/demiseoftime |
Posted By: AlanD
Date Posted: January 08 2009 at 06:19
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Both TNK and Rain display that psychedelic influence - but TNK was recorded first (the very first session for Revolver in April 1966) which indeed makes it the first!
Speaking of TNK, only those who were around at the time will even begin to comprehend the seismic impact that the sound of this track alone had on Western culture, so different was it from everything else that had gone before in the history of rock.
There is no comparable differential from the norm around today, in these 'heard it all before' times, more's the pity.
Glad I was alive & kicking in the 60s.... ------------- AlanD |
Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: January 08 2009 at 06:35
 People tend to forget this when assessing Revolver, Sgt Pepper etc.
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Posted By: jimidom
Date Posted: January 08 2009 at 13:12
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Tomorrow Never Knows... Norwegian Wood is very close, but it still comes across to me as a folk song albeit a progressive one. ------------- "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." - HST |
Posted By: Faubzzy
Date Posted: May 27 2009 at 18:42
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Yes indeed, Rain is a cool psychadelic tune, and of course, very English. In fact, this is an hymn for an english rain...If the rain comes.........
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Posted By: earlyprog
Date Posted: May 28 2009 at 03:37
| The Word mainly because of the lyrics. Closely followed by Yellow Submarine. |
Posted By: weetabix
Date Posted: May 28 2009 at 06:56
| "I feel fine" w/ feedback。 |
Posted By: someone_else
Date Posted: May 28 2009 at 09:40
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I can't remember 'The Word'. I must haved heard it a least once, long ago. 'Rubber Soul' is the Beatles' first move in a more progressive direction. The psych period of the Beatles starts in 1966. This leaves the choice between 'Tomorrow Never Knows' and 'Rain'. According to Wikipedia, 'Tomorrow Never Knows' was recorded 8 days earlier than Rain, although it was released 8 weeks later (in the UK). So my vote goes to 'Tomorrow Never Knows'. ------------- 
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Posted By: JLocke
Date Posted: May 28 2009 at 11:36
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"Rain" for me too. While "Tomorrow Never Knows" was certainly the first full-bvlown Prog sonmg they ever did, the hints at psychedelia were there ever since Beatles For Sale, and the single "Rain" during the Rubber Soul era pushed that envelope even further. A very beautiful, haunting, psychedelic rock song.
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Posted By: Certif1ed
Date Posted: June 03 2009 at 02:47
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Norwegian Wood without a doubt - the first glimmerings of psychedelia in music since Alan Watts "This Is It", released in 1962 (or arguably, the Holy Modal Rounders a couple of years later).
Rain is a very close second - TMK is just the full realisation of techniques used on Rain (and She Said, She Said), even though the end result is light years away. ------------- The important thing is not to stop questioning. |
Posted By: SgtPepper67
Date Posted: June 07 2009 at 16:23
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The Word and Norwegian Wood has some psychedelic elements but I don't consider them to be psychedelic songs. My vote goes for Rain.
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In the end the love you take is equal to the love you made... |
Posted By: Morakthesage
Date Posted: June 12 2009 at 20:35
| Rain, because it just has such a psychadelic feel to the whole thing. The backmasking helps too. Previous songs were pratice, maybe, but Rain is the first to deliver. |
Posted By: GaryB
Date Posted: June 19 2009 at 06:05
| Tomorrow Never Knows and Rain are by far my two favorites of the five. As good as Rain was, especially the vocals, I still have to go with Tomorrow Never Knows. Like AlanD, I was alive and kicking in the 60s and was sixteen when Revolver was recorded. To me, Revolver was a sign of the changing times both musically and socially. |
Posted By: halabalushindigus
Date Posted: November 20 2009 at 22:35
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This is my one psycodelic Beatle moment or song is on "A Day In The Life" after,"I'd love to turn you ooooooonnnn" then the orchestral build-up,(the second time).I was eight or nine and I stopped and yelled out, "What The F........... a classic beatle "i gotcha moment' and got me they did. we also melted army men
while listening to the fab four in the backyard.and we played mock Lincoln assasins at the intro to "Good Day Sunshine" ------------- assume the power 1586/14.3 |
Posted By: mystic fred
Date Posted: November 21 2009 at 00:54
Nothing remotely Psyche about Norwegian Wood, except a bit of Sitar in it..? 
Officially according to release dates the first real Psyche song by the Beatles was "Rain" as the B side of "Paperback Writer" in June 1966, followed by the album "Revolver" in August, containing the Psyche classic "Tomorrow Never Knows".
-------------  Prog Archives Tour Van 
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Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: November 21 2009 at 01:30
sounds right.. I voted Nowhere Man for fun and George's workmanlike solo 
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Posted By: earlyprog
Date Posted: November 21 2009 at 05:59
Of greater importance is the recording, rather than release, dates. Work on TMK in the studio was initiated on 6 April 1966. The learnings from this work inspired "Rain" which they started recording 14 April.
Anyway, I'm in tune with those creditting "The Word" as the first "psychedelic" song although an entirely different definition of "psychedelic" points towards "Yellow Submarine" being the first. ( I never understood you guys' definition of psychedelic.) There's a clear line running from Yellow Submarine to the work of Syd Barrett. Thankfully The Beatles never continued in that direction.
(Edit: Compare the bass line in Yellow Submarine with that of Yardbirds' "Shapes Of Things" - perhaps the world's first psychedelic song - and get a feel of what I mean.)
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Posted By: mystic fred
Date Posted: November 21 2009 at 07:43
the true meaning of Psychedelic? you could fill a whole thread with that one, it started as an Art form in painting and design but soon influenced music and fashion from 1965, i remember many records in 1965 and 66 as being Psyche, Rolling Stones, Beatles, Small Faces, Hendrix, Moody Blues, Donovan, The Mindbenders, Pink Floyd, Traffic, and hundreds of others, it was sort of Mod music going slightly weird due to exotic instruments and studio effects, many were trying to emulate the effects of an LSD trip on record but there were many bandwagon jumpers as there has always been . much of this music developed into Prog - though it was all a mixture really, the dividing lines are blurred (possibly so is my memory, don't take my summary as a historical document  )...
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Posted By: Dick Heath
Date Posted: November 23 2009 at 06:03
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Mind altering spellings: Psycodelic
Psychadelic prychedelic I'll add:
cycodelick ------------- The best eclectic music on the Web,8-11pm BST/GMT THURS. CLICK ON: http://www.lborosu.org.uk/media/lcr/live.php - http://www.lborosu.org.uk/media/lcr/live.php Host by PA's Dick Heath. |
Posted By: Floydman
Date Posted: November 24 2009 at 14:12
| Anyone listening to "Norwegain Wood" take 2 knows the Beatles were heading in the direction of psychedelic rock anyway. The only problem I have is that songs like "Eight Miles High", "Shapes of Things" and "See My Friends" are really rock songs with eastern influences. "Tomorrow Never Knows" though it has eastern influences was intentionally meant to be psychedelic sounding. It could be the first trippy rock song. Yes it influenced Syd Barrett. |
Posted By: earlyprog
Date Posted: February 25 2010 at 06:13
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Think For Yourself
...with the fuzz bass.
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Posted By: Fieldofsorrow
Date Posted: February 25 2010 at 14:30
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I'd go with 'Tomorrow Never Knows' - it's far more suggestive of psychedelia than any other track on Rubber Soul for me.
------------- Groovy teenage rock with mild prog tendencies: http://www.myspace.com/omniabsenceband |
Posted By: Floydman
Date Posted: February 25 2010 at 16:03
There were two basses on this one. One with regular tone and the other through a fuzz-box right up front and center acting like a lead guitar. In my mind "Norwegian Wood" sounds sligtly psychedelic. They basically one -upped everyone in rock music with "Tomorrow Never Knows" and that includes Frank Zappa. Instead of the usual backdrop of standard rock instruments they created a backdrop of psychedelic sounds using a series of loops drones, and electronic effects. I think they even took a segment of "Taxman" and put it backwards on "Tomorow Never Knows".
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Posted By: FusionKing
Date Posted: February 25 2010 at 16:33
Tomorrow Never Knows...one of my most favourite songs ever. 
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