![\"carnaby.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/carnaby.jpg\")
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Carnaby Street circa 1967.<\/em><\/p>\n Continuing the psychedelic mega-mix based on Jon Savage’s list of \u201c100 mind-expanding masterpieces\u201d (see this post<\/a>). The second of the six mixes is where British psychedelia is in full swing after shedding its R&B\/Mod\/Freakbeat origins: what was black-and-white a year before is now blazing colour. There’s much I enjoy about US psychedelic music but I’ve always favoured the British variety. The sound of US psychedelia is less adulterated than its British equivalent, and even the later examples are often little more than country or folks songs with suitably dreamy lyrics. The gravitational mass of The Beatles so overwhelmed the UK scene that the experimentation at Abbey Road was endlessly copied and refined by the younger groups, some of whom\u2014like Pink Floyd and The Pretty Things\u2014were working in the same studio with the same engineers.<\/p>\n It’s the adulteration of the sound that I enjoy, the audacity of recording an orchestra at great expense then feeding the result through a phaser, as Nirvana (UK) did on Rainbow Chaser<\/em>. (See next week’s mix). The Who’s Armenia In The Sky<\/em> is an excellent example of studio pyrotechnics. Pete Townshend had complained that some of The Beatles’ arrangements were slight so this song can be regarded as his riposte. At the end of the mix the Fab Four fire back with I Am The Walrus<\/em>.<\/p>\n Everything here dates from 1967, and as before the listing is roughly chronological bold type indicating the selections from the Savage 100. Given the choice I’d take See Emily Play<\/em><\/a> over Mathilda Mother<\/em>\u2014the former being a particular favourite\u2014but Savage’s choice works very well as a melodic come-down after the cosmic racket of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. David McWilliams’ one-hit-wonder is an odd choice and not especially psychedelic but once again I defer to Savage’s selection. The Kinks are also notable by their absence although they never adopted any of the studio trickery that might have spoiled their exceptional songwriting.<\/p>\n