Have to go with “Don and Dewey” by It’s A Beautiful Day, featuring Jerry Garcia on guitar
“China Grove” by the Doobie Brothers
“All Along the Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix, though it also would work well as a Dungeons and Dragons theme. (Yeah, I know, Dylan wrote it, but Hendrix PERFECTED it.)
“Sweet Lorraine” by Country Joe and the Fish
“Grazing in the Grass” by the Friends of Distinction
“Wooden Ships” by CSNY
“In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” by the Allman Brothers
In a more modern vein:
“Higher Ground” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers – swear to God … would have been a MONSTER hit in the 60s …
Excellent point. My viewpoint is a bit different because I was a little kid in the 60s. I’ve been recording mix tapes of my favorite songs since I was in middle school in the early 70s. First on a little reel-to-reel deck, then on an 8-track recorder, then on cassette, and so on. It all builds up to these playlist exercises.
I will absolutely grant that there are albums that need to be listened to in order every time, but most “hippie music” didn’t strike me that way. As long as this is a good song and the next one is a good song…
The Low Spark of High-heeled Boys, by Traffic.
Uncle John’s Band, the the Grateful Dead
I have to say that I see Pink Floyd as a somewhat different oeuvre than what the OP had in mind, but maybe that’s just me.
5th Dimension
“Up, Up and Away”, “Wedding Bell Blues”, “Stoned Soul Picnic”, “One Less Bell to Answer”, “(Last Night) I Didn’t Get to Sleep at All”, and “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In”
Janis Joplin Piece of My Heart
Anything off Cream Disraeli Gears People usually play an album side, not a single song. Johnpost makes a good point. Some entire album sides even played on FM.
Hippies like folk too Peter Paul and Mary - If I had a Hammer, Puff Magic Dragon, Leavin on a Jet Plane
Truckin’ I can get behind, but The Wall was pretty heavy for hippies. For trippy Floyd I might suggest Interstellar Overdrive or Echoes. Those two can trip you away even without drugs.
I’d be willing to bet Interstellar Overdrive with quad sound could make someone throw up if they were prone to motion sickness.
I’d really like to hear some Melanie. I really liked Candles In The Rain at naptime as I recall.
There are going to be way too many suggestions to use these all in a poll, so I’m going to have to count how many are mentioned more than once. This is awesome.
For the most part, yes, but “Dark Side of the Moon” is different. As is Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving With a Pict.
There is definitely overlap between those two genres!
Of course, you also had the LP from Al Kooper’s first group–Blues Project. Also from Green-Witch village were Jim & Jean, who started out as folkies (& friends of Phil Ochs) but got real folk-rock with Changes: featuring the Ochs tune “Changes.” Or those Cambridge folkies, Jim Kweskin & his jug band, who continued into hippie years. Oh, I need to name a song: how about If You’re a Viper?
Check out other photos at the Jug Band link! Like The Chambers Brothers–a few years before the anthemic “Time Has Come Today.”
Or take the folkie way-back machine to the Holy Modal Rounders Euphoria–the first record that used the word “psychedelic.”
Goose Creek Symphony were great; another group I knew more from performance than records. Also on the folk/rock/country cusp was Wheatstraw Suite by The Dillards; not on YouTube but available on Rhapsody. Listen to the whole thing. Still in LA, The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark includes Train Leaves Here This Morning. Well known from that scene? Buffalo Springfield with Mr Soul. Obscure from that scene? Hearts & Flowers with She Sang Hymns Out Of Tune. (The Dillards covered it on Wheatstraw Suite.)
“Now is the time for hearts & flowers & golden hours in the sun.”
“Don’t Bogart That Joint” - in the above Youtube link incorrectly attributed to Country Joe and the Fish. It was recorded by a group called “The Fraternity of Man”.
(I always thought of Michael Bloomfield as a guitarist that played Blues. I wish he was still with us. Awesome tone, awesome licks.)
