The Byrds are kind of a no-brainer here. The only tough bit for me was choosing between this album and the 1967 "Younger Than Yesterday." 1966's "Eight Miles High" came first and is the more truly psychedelic of the two. There is still a bit of folk rock left over from their early period, but the Indian influence is felt keenly here, and "Eight Miles High," banned at the time by many radio stations for
alleged drug references, is one of the best psych tracks ever recorded (my opinion, of course). If you've never listened to the Byrds at all, you really owe it to yourself to give this a listen, as the band influenced nearly every rock band who came after them.If I could have picked the best tracks from "Fifth Dimension" and "Younger Than Yesterday" and make one album out of them, I'd have one of the best albums a guy could ever want. However, I was only two at the time this album was released and Columbia didn't seek my input.My trusted Mog El Monko has questioned when psychedlic recordings began. I had never really thought about this before, but the little bit of information I've dug up points to 1966 as the year that its influences were initially keenly felt. The Beatles's "Tomorrow Never Knows" is a prime example. It was likely at least a year earlier that psych tracks were first being made, but it seems that the real start was in 1966. The term, by the way, is said to have come from the Thirteenth Floor Elevators's 1966 album, "The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators." One thing I'm sure of, 1967 was the year psychedelic music exploded. This was the year of The Doors's first album, "Surrealistic Pillow," "Velvet Underground and Nico," "Are You Experienced," "Disraeli Gears," Grateful Dead's first album, "The Who Sell Out," The Rolling Stones's "Their Satanic Majesties Request," "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," and on and on...
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