Psychfan's Trip O' Th' Week - "I Almost Saw Disneyland"

I've written [writes Psychfan - Ed.] before about subjective reaction vs objective judgement. When David Bowie and Roxy Music appeared in the early seventies I was suspicious - a hippie who channels Anthony Newley? An effete metrosexual?

I was soon won over, however, by Bowie's ability to rock and by what I was startled to recognize as psychedelic elements in the work of Roxy (I was impressed by Out Of The Blue and Mother Of Pearl). 

As a result when punk and disco arrived a few years later I was prepared to look past my initial impression that they were purely reactionary movements. I never identified with either in terms of lifestyle, but when post punk evolved as a music incorporating elements of both (as well as something that still felt like psych to me) I felt like part of the target audience again. 

My favorite late seventies band was Talking Heads, who embodied this development. Remain In Light gets all of the attention (and it's a great album) but I think that their second LP doesn't get enough. 

More Songs About Buildings And Food is a classic, one of those albums where every song is strong , the energy keeps building throughout and a distinctive vision is expressed in the process. The cover represents a vision of altered consciousness that's been updated for the (very) beginning of the digital age. 

By 1981 David Byrne was a solo artist and he collaborated with Brian Eno (from early Roxy Music!) on another classic, the very psychedelic My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts. 

This is a mashup LP using voices captured from radio and TV. Some are singing, some are speaking. The voices used include a conservative radio host, a black preacher in front of an energetic flock, a middle eastern singer and a Catholic priest conducting an exorcism. 

The voices are combined with rhythmic and compelling music by Eno and Byrne to hypnotic effect. 

Oh, yeah - Disneyland. In 1979 I spent several months visiting friends in LA and one day we dropped acid and piled into the car to go to Disneyland. We got lost on the freeway (even though one of us was a lifelong LA resident) and didn't get there until thirty minutes before closing. It was explained to me that you couldn't even get through the parking lot in thirty minutes and we turned around and drove back to the beach. 

Our soundtrack for the journey was More Songs About Buildings And Food. 

Don't try to tell me it's not psychedelic.