I love me some rock music from the 1960s and early 1970s. Beatles, Stones, The Who, Doors, Beach Boys. It’s all good. But it was still “formula,” more-or-less.
Were there any rock musical artists that were way ahead of their time during this era? Way… “out there,” so to speak? Very different/original?
Zappa/MoI comes to mind, I suppose. And Beefheart. I think Author Brown’sFire was pretty groundbreaking. And perhaps Blue Cheer’s version of Summertime Blues. And some of the stuff made by The Velvet Underground was pretty hardcore. The first album by The Residents (1974) was really different, though it would have been even more eye-opening had it been released in the 1960s.
I recommend you try and find copies of 2 serial garage band compilations: Nuggets (which is pretty well-known) and Pebbles (which is damned hard to find, but I happen to own them all). Also, a comp out of Italy called Turds On A Bum Ride. Those are prolly my 3 favorite garage band comps; I’d have to make videos for any songs on them tho, I’d bet. Lots of weirdness, a lot it sounding far ahead of it’s time.
The Sonics were ground- and eardrum-breaking back in 1965-66. I just saw them earlier this year in support of their new album and they still totally fucking rocked; here’s their first big hit, The Witch (1965).
I can post more (lots more; '60s garage rock is one of my main things) but I’ll let others chime in.
Their album Black Monk Time is considered great proto-punk
And you can’t forget Death - the proto-punk African American band from Detroit. I wrong a column on them in the SDMB newsletter, Teemings, a few years ago. Early 70’s and way ahead of their time.
Hard to count Death tho, since their album was recorded in 1975 but not actually released until 2009. For sure, it’s totally fucking rocks, but still, hard to count it for the purposes of the OP. Your column was fantastic, too, btw.
As penance for raining on the Death parade, I’ll submit another one of my favorites, a band little known outside their native Sweden unless you’re a garage rock freak like me, but hugely influential and waaaaaay ahead of their time: Lea Riders Group - Dom Kallar Oss Mods from 1968 (the title translates as “They Call Us Misfits”, btw).
Bruce Haack was a true prodigy and an electrical wizard, too. He designed and built many unique electronic instruments and recorded The Electric Lucifer in 1970. When it was released, it was really unlike anything else that had ever been heard. Oh sure, Esquivel and Jean-Jacques Perrey had used wacky electronic sounds, but Haack went further and created a whole album of frightening futuristic bad acid trip songs. I’ll just brag a little here and mention that I own this album on vinyl; bought it new and it’s been played just once.
When they finally released it on CD, I bought a copy which now sits next to the one I made from the LP.
My go-to answer for this kind of question is Can. I’ll offer Turtles Have Short Legs and You Doo Right (warning, 20 minutes long, but worth every minute). I honestly thought they were from the present (90’s) the first few times I heard them. They still sound pretty fresh to me.
Another one who was pretty ahead of their time was The Red Crayola/Krayola. Their album The Parable of Arable land is a proto noise-rock extravaganza. The Familiar Ugly (a herd of folks armed with industrial tools, motorcycles, etc.) get to have a “Free-Form Freak Out” between songs. It sounds a lot more of its time than Can does, but it’s following it’s own formula. Hurricane Fighter Plane is probably their closest thing to a hit, but I love every bit of that record.
I’ll second Can, and recommend my other favourite kosmische musik band, NEU!
Hallogallo (1972) by NEU!, simply one of the greatest pieces of rock music ever created. Though its genius may take a bit of exposure to become apparent.
I’ll back both Can and NEU! as awesome and ahead of their time; Motorik for the win!
I know RealityChuck mentioned Soft Machine, can I mention Gong? Daevid Allen left Soft Machine, apparently for two reasons: 1) because they weren’t weird enough and 2) because he was denied a re-entry visa to the UK (Allen was born in Australia). After some travels and tribulations, he ended up in Majorca where he recorded the first Gong record. I can’t even count how many hours I’ve spent on Planet Gong listening to the Radio Gnomes and Pot-head Pixies and the stories of Zero the Hero, the Flying Teapot, the Octave Doctors, etc. I saw him once, in Denver; the show was brilliant. He’s also part of the reason that I own a Steinberger guitar and bass.
The Red Krayola were a Houston group & first recorded on International Artists. They continued in various guises; I must quote Wikipedia:
IA label mates 13th Floor Elevators’ hard rocking “You’re Gonna Miss Me” appeared on the *Nuggets *collection–but Rocky had that song from a previous band. Later, the psychedelia of Tommy Hall got pretty deep. (Alas–along with his insufferable electric jug.)
Fort Worth’s T-Bone Burnett played drums on"Paralyzed" by the Legendary Stardust Cowboy. Which actually got some local airplay. Then he was part of Whistler, Chaucer, Detroit & Greenhill, whose Unwritten Works of Geoffrey, etc. wasn’t all that weird–pretty good eclectic counry/folk rock. But damn obscure & rare. Houston folkie John Carrick (co-owner with his mother of Sand Mountain Coffee House) lent his distinctive voice–but he quit & the cover lacks his picture. Photographer Guy Clark is on the cover but he didn’t play on the album–he hadn’t yet met up with Townes…
Beyond Texas, LA’s Kaleidoscope were an eclectic group playing multiethnic music; David Lindley went on to fame as a sideman, solo artist, etc.
I found Roky Ericksons LP “Gremlins have pictures” to be really great. I can’t vouch for the rest of the catalogue, but he is the definition of this OP.
There were certainly a lot of musical artists who were doing some pretty strange stuff around 1969-1970. Examples are Van der Graaf Generator, the Edgar Broughton Band, Amon Duul/Amon Duul II, the Bonzo Dog Band, and of course King Crimson (even if you consider their first two albums “formula”, 1971’s Lizard was quirky in the extreme). Henry Cow were around at the time as well, but didn’t put out an LP until '73. Going back a few years, some of the odder artists include the Fugs (sleaze-folk-jazz-poetry-garage), the Holy Modal Rounders (shambolic psych-folk), and the 13th Floor Elevators (Texas garage psych). And of course, a lot of artists who may be more well known for more accessible music put out some very strange albums in the late 60s… like Jefferson Airplane’s After Bathing at Baxter’s, John & Yoko’s Wedding Album and Life with the Lions, and the weird music-hall-like stuff Bowie was doing in 1966-67. And Pink Floyd’s “arty” period included some odd ones such as Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother. The Incredible String Band’s early LPs include some ahead-of-their-time, quite idiosyncratic stuff, and Tyrannosaurus Rex, which eventually became T. Rex, started out as an Incredible String Band-inspired psych-folk-pop duo also.
Will be tied up listening to youtube over the next hour…