5 artists you didn’t know made psychedelic music

Back in 2021, when I started my online publication Psychedelic Scene, I was looking for content and reached out to my longtime acquaintance Serene Dominic, who’s published hundreds of articles for the Phoenix New Times and who was, along with his then-band The Semi-Detached, the subject of my first published article (Blast Magazine, July 1995).

Dominic allowed me to publish a series of articles he had written called “Psychedelic Skeletons in the Closet” that focused on musical acts whose careers began prior to 1967 and who made a bad psychedelic record in a misguided effort to stay relevant — like Connie Francis, Sonny Bono and Roy Orbison.

As grateful as I was to have content from the prolific Dom, the title of his series always seemed like a misnomer. Shouldn’t skeletons in the closet mean those who had made psychedelic records early in their careers who became famous later in other genres? That notion made more sense to me, and that’s why I’ve reclaimed the title for this article. Here are just a handful of the many well-known artists whose psychedelic beginnings are often overlooked.

Kenny Rogers

The Gambler began his career in a country band called The First Edition, which oddly released a psychedelic tune called “Just Dropped In (to See What Condition My Condition Was In)” as its second single in early 1968. A lot of people know this song because it was a big hit at the time, reaching No. 5 on the Billboard chart. The song is about an LSD trip and was supposedly meant to warn people of the dangers of this mind-expanding substance. I don’t know. With its backward guitar licks and phasered background vocals, it made trippin’ seem pretty cool.

Rogers, of course, would go on to score multiple country and pop hits, becoming a global superstar (and plastic surgery disaster) before passing away in 2020.

Ted Nugent

Oh, how I loathe to even mention his name. The right-wing blowhard, non-member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, rabid animal killer and self-appointed family values rep began his career in a psychedelic rock n’ roll outfit called The Amboy Dukes who released a song in 1968 co-written by Nugent fellow axe man Steve Farmer called “Journey to the Center of the Mind.”  

Although the tune is clearly about a psychedelic trip, Nugent later denied knowing what the lyrics were about — even though he co-wrote the song.

The Nuge would go on to become a renowned singer/guitarist with songs like “Cat Scratch Fever,” “Stranglehold” and “Jailbait,” in which he sings, “Well I don’t care if you’re just 13 / You look too good to be true / I just know that you’re probably clean / There’s one thing I got to do to you.” No wonder he loves Trump so much.

Kenny Loggins

Most folks know Kenny Loggins from his ’80s movie-related hits like “Footloose” and “Danger Zone” or his ’70s duo, Loggins and Messina (“Your Mama Don’t Dance,” “Danny’s Song”), but Loggins was active in the late ’60s and played in what was once a gritty psychedelic garage band called The Electric Prunes. The Prunes, led by James Lowe, scored a classic nugget called “I Had Too Much to Dream) Last Night” and another hit entitled “Get Me to the World on Time” from their first album, released in early 1967. 

Loggins, the future yacht-rocker, didn’t come around until after Lowe and other original members departed due to frustrations with their manager, who owned the band’s name. Loggins was brought into the group by the manager to play guitar and finish a tour started in early ’68. By the middle of that same year, he was gone.

Andy Summers

Summers found incredible fame and fortune as the guitarist for the new wave band The Police, who had hits like “Message in a Bottle,” “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” and “Every Breath You Take.”

But for Summers, born the same year as Paul McCartney, success didn’t come quickly or easily.  In the ’60s, Summers toiled away in multiple short-lived projects and wound up playing in three psychedelic bands. The first was an act known for dressing in caftans called Dantalian’s Chariot, who released a single entitled “Madman Running Through the Fields” — now considered a psychedelic classic.

After the demise of that band, Summers joined the Canterbury progressive-psych band Soft Machine in 1968, but only lasted a few months.  He then hooked up with Eric Burdon and The Animals, the psychedelicized version of the British Invasion band The Animals, for a brief time, helping them record the album “Love Is.”

Debbie Harry

The Blondie frontwoman was a decade older than her bandmates, although she never looked it.  When the band’s first, self-titled album was released in 1976, Harry was already 31 years old, and by the time they hit it big with “Parallel Lines,” she was 33.

So, what was this divine diva doing in her 20s?  Well, for one, she sang backing vocals in a gag-inducing, quasi-psychedelic folk band called Wind in the Willows when she was still a brunette.

A friend once bought me the CD, and I played it expectantly. Unfortunately, it’s sappy, low-grade psychedelia, and you can’t even discern her voice. You can find it on streaming services, but I’ll save you some time — it’s not even worth seeking out.

Stories like these demonstrate how pervasive psychedelia was in the ’60s. For many emerging artists, experimenting with the sound wasn’t just an option — it was practically a rite of passage.