# Best hippie music of all time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 24, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471 "2011-02-24T17:51:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471/121 "2011-03-01T21:37:34Z")
Beatles, “Rain” and “A Day in the Life” Steppenwolf, “Magic Carpet Ride” Lovin’ Spoonful, “Summer in the City” “House of the Rising Sun,” by the Animals or Frijid Pink, or even Dave van Ronk “Season of the Witch,” Donovan’s original, or the covers by Vanilla Fudge or Bloomfield and Kooper on Supersession “Mellow Yellow,” Donovan “Repent, Walpurgis,” Procol Harum “2000 Light Years from Home,” Rolling Stones “Time of the Season” and “She’s Not There,” the Zombies “Wild Thing,” Troggs or Dave Clark Five “Goin’ Up the Country,” Canned Heat “Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag,” Country Joe and the Fish “Suzanne,” the original by Leonard Cohen, the cover by Judy Collins, or any one of dozens of other covers ---
**Author:** ![Chicagojeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@Chicagojeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicagojeff)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471/122 "2011-03-01T21:49:57Z")
Traffic… “paper sun” for its Dave Mason meets the Sitar moments… also "low Spark of high heeled boys’ never understood why traffic is never recognized enough… “THe man in the suit has just bought a new car from the profit he’s made on your dreams…” ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471/123 "2011-03-01T22:05:04Z")
> [@mrklutz](#): > > Zager and Evans - “In the Year 2525” > T. Rex - “Get It On” Hmmmmm… as a former would-be hippie of the early 70s, I would have to say that, as much as I like T. Rex now, back then most self-respecting hippies would have preferred to have been found in a suit and tie on the New York Stock Exchange rather than be caught listening to T. Rex, who were at the time widely considered to be a teenybopper pop band. ---
**Author:** ![Chicagojeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@Chicagojeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicagojeff)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471/124 "2011-03-01T22:07:01Z")
Dangit!!! How could i forget “Crystal Blue Persuasion”?? Also early Sly and the Family before sly got angry and lost in cocaine… ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471/125 "2011-03-01T22:08:08Z")
Okay, the best, no. All the truly great ones I know about have already been mentioned there. But I do have a weak spot for The Pierces’ recent offering [You’ll be mine](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kFhx27OMdE). ---
**Author:** ![Chicagojeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@Chicagojeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicagojeff)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471/126 "2011-03-01T22:24:29Z")
“reach out into darkness” by Friend and Lover… if thats not hippy lol ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471/127 "2011-03-02T01:56:54Z")
Quicksilver Messenger Service’s (Have Another Hit of) _Fresh Air_ ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471/128 "2011-03-02T03:53:08Z")
Most of my favorites have already mentioned, but I’ll add to the list Moody Blues _Legend of a Mind_ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQIzm3ypzBQ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQIzm3ypzBQ) and a fun one, Three Dog Night’s _Joy to the World_ [three dog night - YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFypAB7nYGA) . When you have your playlist, I’d love to go the party where it was playing. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Book\_it](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b3f665/32.png) [@Book\_it](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Book_it)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471/129 "2011-03-02T04:19:40Z")
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:118, topic:572471”] No, no, no! The original song (“I’d like to teach the world to sing”) is already on my list, but we’re talking about _hippie music_. You can’t use the commercialized version with the words changed to promote a product. Absolutely not. [/QUOTE] Er, I’m pretty sure the commercial came first! ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471/130 "2011-03-02T04:50:57Z")
[Hocus Pocus](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGaVUApDVuY). My music collection is out of focus at the moment so bear with me on this. The song serves hippies and World Series baseball teams alike with yodeling, flutes and whistling. It’s got it all. It even manages to pay homage to Popeye somewhere along the way. ---
**Author:** ![Ring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Ring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ring)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471/131 "2011-03-02T04:51:41Z")
What about “Scotch and Soda” is that a hippie song? “Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley”? “The MTA”? I don’t really know what a hippie song is. Or isn’t for that matter. ---
**Author:** ![stegon66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@stegon66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stegon66)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471/132 "2011-03-02T05:03:09Z")
I’m fond of Back to the Earth by Rusted Root and Living With the Dreaming Body by Poi Dog Pondering. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471/133 "2011-03-02T05:36:14Z")
…sniff…so many good vibes, oh, the memories! I love all of these songs… My choices: 59th Street Bridge Song (feeling groovy) and Itchycoo Park - they just epitomize the very essence of hippiedom. Getting high in the park and wandering around feeling groovy, what could be better??? For the purpose of this topic, I will admit I am so old I remember the original Fleetwood Mac before it turned into Stevie Nicks Fleetwood Mac. There was a song called “Oh Well” on a late 60’s Fleetwood Mac album and I remember sitting with a sweet hippie boyfriend listening to this as we shared one of the very few joints I had ever partaken of. How about “If I Were A Carpenter” by…anyone ---
**Author:** ![BigBertha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@BigBertha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigBertha)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471/134 "2011-03-02T08:19:15Z")
Happy Xmas by John Lennon ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471/135 "2011-03-02T09:57:08Z")
I’m not going to add any songs that are already mentioned here, but i just wanted to mention a movie that I caught at Sundance which has a marvelous hippie music soundtrack. The soundtrack includes a lot of Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Crosby Stills and Nash, Buffalo Springfield, and the Beatles. Bob Weir and Micky Hart were at the Q&A for the premier. The movie is called _The Music Never Stopped_ and it’s a fictionalized account of a man who has a brain tumor which destroys his short term memory. It’s based on a book by renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks called _The Last Hippie_. The movie is a bit sappy but I really liked it, especially because I’m a complete Deadhead. It had great performances by J.K. Simmons and Lou Taylor Pucci. The kid is pretty much a zombie, but his therapist notices that he responds to music between 1962 and 1970, and emerges from his zombie state and becomes articulate and animated when stimulated by music he remembers. The movie is in very limited release with the [movie website here](http://themusicneverstopped-movie.com/movie-locations/) and the [trailer here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdeVAHCIIS8). Check it out! ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471/136 "2011-03-02T13:12:13Z")
> [@Ring](#): > > What about “Scotch and Soda” is that a hippie song? > > “Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley”? > > “The MTA”? > > I don’t really know what a hippie song is. Or isn’t for that matter. Nope, nope & nope. All too early. (Well, the [Holy Modal Rounders](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holy_Modal_Rounders) overlapped with that era, but they were ahead of their time!) If you _really_ want to know what a hippie song is, listen to almost anything else mentioned in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471/137 "2011-03-02T16:03:43Z")
> [@Ring](#): > > What about “Scotch and Soda” is that a hippie song? > > “Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley”? > > “The MTA”? > > I don’t really know what a hippie song is. Or isn’t for that matter. Nope, nope, nope. Those songs are folkish city songs from Mad Men days, pre-hippie. And they don’t have the right sound. Songs of every era have a certain sound, you can pinpoint the year. Songs of the 50’s - doo-woppish harmonies. Songs of the 70’s have lotsa horns. Songs of the 80’s have a cold spacey technological sound. ---
**Author:** ![mrklutz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mrklutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrklutz)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471/138 "2011-03-02T17:47:14Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > Hmmmmm… as a former would-be hippie of the early 70s, I would have to say that, as much as I like T. Rex now, back then most self-respecting hippies would have preferred to have been found in a suit and tie on the New York Stock Exchange rather than be caught listening to T. Rex, who were at the time widely considered to be a teenybopper pop band. Yeah, I debated throwing that in there. But looking back, it somehow seems to fit even though it’s glam rock. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471/139 "2011-03-03T00:47:33Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > The Animals: [House of the Rising Sun](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmdPQp6Jcdk) and [Monterrey](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLo8GJJLUhE) Better yet, how about _We Gotta Get Out Of This Place_ by the same band? [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUpBSvN1a50](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUpBSvN1a50) > [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > “Mellow Yellow,” Donovan I can’t believe I didn’t think of that one! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCCjv2OiTxE](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCCjv2OiTxE) Oooh, and _Hurdy Gurdy Man_! I said it first! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6jeQUbovjI&feature=related](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6jeQUbovjI&feature=related) If that ain’t psychedelic hippie music I don’t know what is! LSD was created for such a song! ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471/140 "2011-03-03T00:56:16Z")
And I’ll second whomever mentioned _Sunshine Superman_ first, also by Donovan. A MUST on any hippie music list! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-hippie-music-of-all-time/572471.md?page=8)