The Ten Best San-Francisco Albums of The Psychedelic Era

Barry a very very belated thank you for this expose on the San Francisco psychedelic bands first thing I gotta tell you and it’s absolutely true is that I was a songwriting partner to a Grammy hit songwriter named Lou Stallman who wrote everybody’s got the right to love for the Supremes and sit down and cry for Aretha Franklin More importantly I only mention that because Lou wrote a song called sing me a rainbow with his pot at the time as Estelle love it that was recorded on that sons of Champlain album that you site and it’s still played on San Francisco radio and on Internet radio. I’m very proud of that fact I wrote and worked with Lou 35 years and did about 100 songs with him besides that fact, though I wanna share a story, I love all those guys I’ve seen the Grateful Dead in concert three times. Got to meet Jerry Garcia through a friend of mine who was a fan and worked at CNN television news and my very first concert when I was 17 years old was to see Quicksilver Messenger Service at Carnegie Hall and after the show they announced if anybody wanted to hang around, it was the singer Dino Valenti’s birthday and you were welcome to hang out and have some birthday cake and beers with the band me and two of my buddies went up to the stage within an enthusiastic group of about 16 or 18 other people And it was starting to cut up the cake and one of the guys in the band. I don’t remember who said we remember this has been spiked with acid I looked at my friend and I was a little scared and he looked at me and he said what the hell you only live once and we went and they finally gave us a piece of cake each I was about to bite into it, and I had a nervous smile on my face when Dino Valente chuckled and said don’t worry boys, it’s got nothing stronger than rum. You’ll get home alive absolutely true story and a bucket list memory for me and so is the true story about my friend the late great songwriter hit songwriter from the building days Lou Stallman, who wrote sing me a rainbow for Sons of Champlin and I’ve been in touch with Bill Champlin who’s still making music and touring out there on the West Coast San Francisco baby? I’ve been there and it still got that love and peace and drug vibe even to this day, OK man I’ve said too much love your show. I don’t know if you’ll see this cause this is something you posted a long time ago that I just found tonight but I totally dig it man. Yeah don’t forget our man. He drew cartoons for the Grateful Dead.

Whaa? Who's the guy on the far left of the Moby Grape album cover??

Bring the facial hair back Barry. It suits you much better. Said with genuine concern and consideration.

since you're not from the Bay Area (and I am) I'm not surprised you wouldn't know some of the albums, songs and bands we're most proud of. We even had our own records label, San Francisco records. Here's a very brief summary.
1. "Lights Out San Francisco" various artists which, believe it or not, has Journey's Neal Schon on a track with gay disco queen Sylvester
2. "Fillmore The Last Days" which includes performances by bands you mentioned.
3. "East Bay Grease" Tower of Power. the title is self explanatory
4. "Joy Of Cooking" and "Closer To The Ground" by the female led country/pop/rock group Joy Of Cooking,
5. "Insane Asylum" by Kathi McDonald, a Janis Joplin sound alike who performs on the rolling Stones album "Exile On Main Street"
6. "You Can Fly" an absolute extended psychedelic classic by The Sons, formerly The Sons Of Champlin
7. "Malo" A slightly less popular version of Santana including Carlos Santana's brother
8. Azteca, a fine fine Latin rock band also very similar to Santana
also sample Bay Area artists like Stoneground, Mother Earth, Papa John Creach, and as one other person mentioned, It's A Beautiful Day

My friend Pete got more weekly allowance than I ever did, so he could purchase more records than I could, and that extra money gave him the latitude to buy records on a whim. When he bought Moby Grape's debut LP, we played it in his room after school one day, and the only track that stood out was "8:05". The vaunted "Omaha" – the track that most latter-day critics tout as as being a great, unappreciated record, wasn't – not in our opinion, anyway.

We were both aware that Columbia Records made an idiotic move by releasing (almost) the entire LP as 45s, but none of that helped the band's fortunes, and after listening to the debut (with the censored, "dirty" cover photo), it got shelved in Pete's collection and collected dust.

We were 14 and 15 at the time, we had our "ears to the ground", and Moby Grape wasn't, in our opinion, "the next big thing".

She has funny cars, gold and silver, Omaha, move over, pride of man! SO GOOD!❤😊

Check out Sly’s first album “A Whole New Thing”. My #1

I like how you talk the talk
It's A Beatiful Day – essential San Fran psych.
The Chocolate Watchband – a Bay Area band from Los Altos, CA, are worth a shout-out. ✌️

I’mglas you included Quicksilver made the list. Great vid, glad I found your channel.

Surrealistic Pillow is superb but I truly believe that “After Bathing At Baxters” is THE definitive psychedelic album.

I light a little doobie now.

I think it’s wrong to include Green River given that, despite being an excellent record, the album meets none of the criteria you set out at the start of your video. In its place, I’d substitute Stand! By Sly and the Family Stone who were definitely a major part of the SF scene in the sixties (I was there).

I wouldn't call many of these albums "psychedelic", although they did appear whilst true psychedelia was flourishing. There's nothing psychedelic on Moby Grape's debut, nor on Surrealistic Pillow. Both are great albums and I love them, but.more rock oriented for the former and folk oriented for the latter. I have never seen any mention of what i consider to be a true psychedelic album, which is H P Lovecraft II.

Who is the guy who was Photoshopped into the image of Moby Grape’s first album that you display while talking about them? I’m talking about the guy on the left who is definitely a modern addition to the cover art.

Steve miller was not from thr bay area. Where are you from?

The Country Joe album should have been much higher on the list. I was pleased with Anthem of the Sun's high placement, however.

Great Video. I would respectfully add a couple albums to your list. The first is “Live Dead” by the Grateful Dead. This is a live album, and showcases the amazing improvisational talents of the Grateful Dead. The “suite” that starts off with Dead Star (with amazing influences from Mile Davis) through Turn on Your Love Light is (if I may) “Out of Sight!” Another album is “Happy Trails” by the Quick Silver Messenger Service. Also a live album, the suite “Who Do You Love” showcases this band’s ability to improvise and jam as few others. Amazing lead guitar work and base work. In any case, thank you for this walk down memory lane to when bands were appreciated by how well they played in a live environment.

Cold Blood

The Grateful Dead's first album was really the only one that had that San Francisco psychedelic sound.

I always think of Houston band Fever Tree as a San Francisco band, thanks to their version of Are You Going to San Francisco. But they could pass as a great San Francisco band.

Cosmic michael what abiut that fantastic sf artist smoke a j berore you hear it!!!

THE vita ruptura '60's SF album, a 7" 33 rpm vinyl by "Country Joe and the Fish", released July 2, 1966. 'Bass Strings', 'Thing Called Love', 'Section 43'. Were you on the poster mailing lists? How many still have your original posters? What does, "HAVE ONE, OR TWO…." refer to? Where was 'Gorilla Records'? OK, you were there.

Love it, thankyou

All good picks, glad to see the Fish were included. BTW it's Scaggs not Scraggs and tectonic not teutonic

Where are the Youngbloods…Jesse Colin Young became a star.