Word: psychedelia
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Attention, boomers. The forefathers of Woodstock Nation are dead. In the past 10 years, we've bid happy trails to Abbie Hoffman, Allen Ginsberg, Jerry Garcia, Jerry Rubin, William Burroughs and Timothy Leary. Of psychedelia's heavy hitters, only a tiny fragment of Ken Kesey remains...
...have chosen to travel this road have tended, almost by definition, to be staunchly independent--and, given the chance, audiences have often responded. Hendrix, who early on played guitar in Little Richard's band, built a cultural bridge that links the deepest blues to the furthest reaches of psychedelia. Sylvester Stewart, the indomitable Sly of the multiracial Sly and the Family Stone, mixed a hugely influential blend of funk and rock 'n' roll. And certainly no one could ever accuse the Artist Formerly Known as Prince--the moniker itself says it all--of caving in to industry pressures...
...course, that New Age romance with irrationalism is new. We have had pyramid power, astral travel, channeling, tarot, crystal therapy, even homeopathy for decades now. They constitute a kind of a behavioral aftertaste, a ritualized residue of '60s psychedelia...
...latest version of the fad started among the flower children of California, for whom its appeal is easy to understand. For one thing, it is pure psychedelia. And tie-dying is cheap. For little added cost, it can turn a 32 cents T shirt into strawberry fields forever, or an old pair of jeans into a tiptoe through the tulips.The fashion spread rapidly through the rock world; many of its stars now sleep in tie-dyed sheets (Janis Joplin has a set in satin). Pop singer John Sebastian habitually turns himself out in tie-dye from chin to tennis shoes...
Those of us most influenced by popular culture, psychedelia and the sexual revolution felt that the universities had lost touch with reality. We wanted to end their authoritarian control of our private lives. And we were militant about free speech, which had inspired the first student demonstrations at Berkeley...