he Forgotten Psychedelic Rock Bands That Were Just as Good as Pink Floyd
When it comes to psychedelic rock, most people think of bands like Pink Floyd and Jefferson Airplane. But what about the unsung heroes of the genre who deserved to be more famous than they were?
Keep in mind that if you’re a diehard psych-rock fan, these bands are probably far from forgotten. But to the average listener, they might not be the most well-known bands that come to mind in psych-rock as a genre. Let’s take a look!
Keep in mind that if you’re a diehard psych-rock fan, these bands are probably far from forgotten. But to the average listener, they might not be the most well-known bands that come to mind in psych-rock as a genre. Let’s take a look!
This would not be a decent list of psych-rock bands that were just as good as Pink Floyd without bringing up The 13th Floor Elevators.
Formed by Roky Erickson, this little outfit had all of the strange elements you’d expect from a next-level psychedelic rock band from the 60s: an electric jug player, acid rock elements, and reverence as proto-punk icons among modern-day punks. The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators from 1966 is essential listening.
Country Joe And The Fish were memorable from the get-go with their debut album in 1967. They are, in their purest form, psychedelic rock. They’re also so much more.
The band featured elements of acid rock and folk rock and weren’t afraid to get weird with free-form poetry and political jabs. Electric Music For The Mind And Body is, in our opinion, essential listening from the Summer of Love in 1967.
It took literal decades for The Zombies to get the love they deserved; they were just so ahead of their time. The band evolved from rhythm and blues to pure, unabashed psychedelic rock in the late 1960s, and they only had one hit song to their name: “Time Of The Season”.
The Zombies were a lot cleaner and more polished compared to their psych-rock contemporaries, but they were an amazing proto-prog outfit nonetheless. The 1968 record Odessey & Oracle is essential listening.
