Lysergic Acid Diethylamide

1606 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Music culture of the 60s

Lysergic Acid Diethylamide The late sixties were a time filled with sex, drugs, and rock and roll. A huge part of American culture at the time was focused around these three things. Musicians possessed a tremendous amount of social influence, and like wise, society put a lot of emphasis on the lives and attitudes of musicians. Of the rock groups from this time period, the Beatles were by far the most influential. The British rock group was probably the most catalytic band in rock and roll history. Although they came together in the shadow of the Beatles, another band of that era was Jefferson Airplane. Jefferson Airplane was deemed the first of the San Francisco psychedelic rock groups. Jefferson Airplane was always considered to be a psychedelic rock group, but it was not until later in their existence that the Beatles fell into this category as well. Both groups earned this title for their creative style of rock as well as for their experimentation with drugs. Each of these groups wrote songs that alluded to drug use at one time or another. Two of the most criticized songs from these bands are Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by the Beatles, and White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane. White Rabbit is a song latent with drug references. The connection with drugs in Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is not as clear. Although John Lennon claims that he had no intention of making references to LSD in his song, the abstract lyrics and metaphoric language invite drug connotation. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and White Rabbit mirror each other in their association with LSD and their allusions to Alice in Wonderland, but looking into these songs more deeply it is obvious that both artists were writing about escape; escaping reality. Lyserg... ... middle of paper ... ...ame out of the late 1960's. Both songs were criticized for their relationships to drug use and possible influence on impressionable youths. It was the media, the fans, and the critics that Jefferson Airplane and the Beatles were trying to escape from. It was through their music, Alice in Wonderland, and a drug called LSD that they were able to do so. Works Cited "The Beatles Ultimate Experience Database: Songwriting and Recording Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." (Online) Available http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Frontrow/4853/dba08sgt.html, 25 September 2000. "KidsHeath." (Online) Available http://kidshealth.org/kid/grow/know_drugs_lsd_prt.htm, 26 September 2000. Larrea, J.J. "Fifty Years Later, LSD Gains New Popularity in High Schools." (Online) Available http://www.lycaeum.org/drugs/tryptamines/lysergic/lsd_use_up.html, 27 September 2000.

Show More
Related

  • Drugs: The Beatles's Use Of Drugs

    948 Words  | 2 Pages

    During their time together, the members of The Beatles experimented with several different drugs. Drugs played a major role in the career of the Beatles as they influenced many of the songs as well as played a significant role on the bonding the band shared. Each band member had his own preference of drugs. However, the most significant impact drugs had on the Beatles were due from Preludin, cannabis, and LSD for reasons that were quite different.

    Read More

  • Esperanza's Sexuality In The House On Mango Street

    643 Words  | 2 Pages

    As Esperanza develops amid the year that makes up The House on Mango Street, she encounters a progression of arousals, the most vital being a sexual arousing. Toward the start of the novel, Esperanza isn't exactly prepared to rise up out of the asexuality of youth. She is totally uninformed about sex and says that young men and young ladies live in totally extraordinary universes. She is so much a tyke that she can't address her siblings outside of the house. When she turns into a pre-adult, she starts to explore different avenues regarding the power she, as a young lady, has over men. Marin shows her principal actualities about young men, yet the primary real advance in Esperanza's consciousness of her sexuality is the point at which she and

    Read More

  • How Living In Mango Street Has Changed Esperanza's Life

    1069 Words  | 3 Pages

    Esperanza is a young girl who struggles with feelings of loneliness and feeling that she doesn’t fit in because she is poor. She always wanted to fit in with the other kids and feel like she was one of them. She loves to write because it helps her feel better about herself writing about her life and her community. Writing helps her with

    Read More

  • Psychedelic Musicians in Rock and Roll

    2740 Words  | 6 Pages

    In 1967 the Beatles were in Abbey Road Studios putting the finishing touches on their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. At one point Paul McCartney wandered down the corridor and heard what was then a new young band called Pink Floyd working on their hypnotic debut, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. He listened for a moment, then came rushing back. "Hey guys," he reputedly said, "There's a new band in there and they're gonna steal our thunder." With their mix of blues, music hall influences, Lewis Carroll references, and dissonant experimentation, Pink Floyd was one of the key bands of the 1960s psychedelic revolution, a pop culture movement that emerged with American and British rock, before sweeping through film, literature, and the visual arts. The music was largely inspired by hallucinogens, or so-called "mind-expanding" drugs such as marijuana and LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide; "acid"), and attempted to recreate drug-induced states through the use of overdriven guitar, amplified feedback, and droning guitar motifs influenced by Eastern music. This psychedelic consciousness was seeded, in the United States, by countercultural gurus such as Dr. Timothy Leary, a Harvard University professor who began researching LSD as a tool of self-discovery from 1960, and writer Ken Kesey who with his Merry Pranksters staged Acid Tests--multimedia "happenings" set to the music of the Warlocks (later the Grateful Dead) and documented by novelist Tom Wolfe in the literary classic The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968)--and traversed the country during the mid-1960s on a kaleidoscope-colored school bus. "Everybody felt the '60s were a breakthrough. There was exploration of sexual freedom and [...

    Read More

  • Album Art Analysis: The Beatles, Nirvana, Bruce Springsteen, Red Hot Chilli Peppers

    993 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Beatles Abbey Road was released on September 29th 1969 and served as number one in both the UK & United States in 1969. The album includes hits such as “Something” & “Come Together”. The album includes styles of Blues & Rock & Roll. It symbolizes what people believe as “The Funeral” which has many different meanings to fans. Beatle members play a diff...

    Read More

  • Esperanza's The House On Mango Street

    879 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the novel, Esperanza’s overall perception towards her identity shifts with time. In the beginning of the novel, Esperanza hopes to part away from her culture, heritage, and family by changing her name so that she can define herself on her own thoughts and terms. She wishes to start her own life and depart from a name that embraces her authentic family heritage. As time passes and as Esperanza becomes more mature and sexually aware, she hopes to define herself as someone who is “beautiful and cruel…the one who drives the men crazy and laughs them all the way” (Cisneros 89). As she matures, Esperanza turns to writing as a means of defining herself. In the final parts of the novel Esperanza forces herself to stop setting herself apart from her family, heritage and most importantly her roots. As a writer she finally finds the identity she sought for by interacting with the world and observing it in a different way. Time allows Esperanza to realize her self-identity as she matures. As Esperanza states, “They will not know I have gone away to come back” (Cisneros

    Read More

  • The House On Mango Street Sandra Cisneros Essay

    2172 Words  | 5 Pages

    Esperanza had troubles with accepting her identity. She hated her name and she hated the fact that her and her parents lived in poverty. She struggled with her ethnicity, sexuality, and her economic status. As she gets older she starts to become aware that what defines her is writing. When she writes she can feel comfortable about herself and let go emotionally.

    Read More

  • How The Beatles Affected American History

    440 Words  | 1 Pages

    The beatles were an astonishing band back in the early nineteen sixties(History.com). Their songs were simple but always touched the hearts of many(History.com). They started off as a garage band and gradually made their way up the musical latter(Beatlemania Sweeps the United States). They opened up for many other singers, but after starring in a short and punchy film called “ A Hard Day's Night” in 1964 they began to be a widely known band playing everywhere(Beatlemania Sweeps the United States) in their home country of liverpool england. Many people will disagree with many beliefs and things the beatles did. some say they supported drugs and others the entire hippie movement(Beatlemania Sweeps the United States). Even after all their hatred the beatles still came out on top(1964: Beatlemania). Beatlemania started in 1963 and ended by the late 60's. Beatlemania affected american history in a positive way because, it introduced british rock

    Read More

  • Photo Abbey Road Individuality

    778 Words  | 2 Pages

    As music has evolved over the years, the most notorious of bands comes from the combined genius of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison. These rock icons, known to everyone as the British rock band, The Beatles, fought to introduce the world to a new genre of music that was hard to accept. The photo Abbey Road depicts the most important aspect of the Beatles’ fight to bring rock and roll the respect it currently has, which is the fight to express one’s individuality.

    Read More

  • Code Of Chivalry In Medieval/Arthurian Legends

    516 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Medieval/Arthurian Legends knights have codes of chivalry that they lived by. Code of chivalry was a moral system that was more than just rules of combat. If they disobeyed any of the codes of chivalry then they were considered not honorable and not good enough to be one of the king’s men. Following the codes of chivalry was a way of life and the knights didn’t know any different. I myself live by my own personal code of chivalry. It consists of compassion, open-mindedness, and being goal oriented.

    Read More

  • Chivalry In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

    1856 Words  | 4 Pages

    Miriam-Webster defines chivalry as “the system, spirit, or customs of medieval knighthood” or more simply, “the system of values (such as loyalty and honor) that knights in the Middle Ages were expected to follow” (Miriam-Webster). Knights of the Middle Ages

    Read More

  • Chivalry In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

    1120 Words  | 3 Pages

    Charles Kingsley says, “Some say that the age of chivalry is past, that the spirit of romance is dead. The age of chivalry is never past, so long as there is a wrong left undressed on earth.” Around the 1200’s, the tale of King Arthur and Merlin started to emerge and show the way of how knights lived in their days. When we think of King Arthur, we think of knights, swords, jousting, and the roundtable, but there was a code in which all of these were influenced by. If you were to be a knight, you were to live under a code called chivalry, which is kind of like the Anglo-Saxon code to the Anglo-Saxon warriors. Although, the Anglo-Saxon code and chivalry are two different things, but they are kind of similar in a way: they are both are guidance manuals. In the story,

    Read More

  • Chivalry In Le Morte Darthur

    710 Words  | 2 Pages

    The definition of chivalry has changed a lot in many different ways from the time of King Arthur to the present day today. Chivalry is one of the biggest themes in Le Morte Darthur that is best shown through the great Lancelot, Knight of the round table, best shown by fearlessness and by someone who would lay down their life for what they believe in. For instance, when Lancelot protected Guenivere when Mordred attacked Camelot, but sadly he couldn't protect Arthur. Part of the Chivalric code is to avenge the wronged and Lancelot does just that and kills Mordred.

    Read More

  • Medieval Code Of Chivalry Essay

    531 Words  | 2 Pages

    During 500-1500 AD, there was a time period called the “Dark Ages.” People back then were not as civilized as they were today, therefore, Knights invented a set of moral rules called “The Medieval code of Chivalry.” Believe it or not, it is still in use today. People who use is are often called: polite, gentlemen, or even chivalrous. According to “Medieval Life and Times” It brought up qualities idealized by the Medieval knights such as bravery, courtesy, honor and great gallantry toward women.

    Read More

  • The Beatles and the Anti-War Movement

    2380 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Beatles wrote hundreds of songs throughout their long career and many of which had the same main ideas in them. Those two ideas seem to standout in most of their songs, and they are the ideas of peace and love. They were so passionate about these two ideas especially world peace, that they became avid participants and leaders in the anti-war movement, against the War in Vietnam. It seemed strange ...

    Read More

More about Lysergic Acid Diethylamide

Open Document