I mentioned the grateful Dead in a recent post. Let's listen to two very early songs by the Dead, which can fit into the Garage Rock / Psychedelic genres.
Mind Bender (Confusion Prince)
This song was recorded in November of 1965! And although it is usually the case that Psychedelic 60s tunes came After Garage Rock, this song precedes the next one I'll mention below by almost 2 years and to me has the more Psych sound.
When this was recorded, they weren't even The Grateful Dead yet! They were The Warlocks. Same guys, different name. The song features organ and guitars, with a trippy vocal. It's a 4 chord pattern familiar in Garage Rock but this is different; sounds sort of ominous. There's a twangy guitar solo in the middle which is cool but too short.
Here's 2 verses:
If only I could be less blind
If only I knew what to find
Everywhere and all of the time
It's bending my mind
Confusion's Prince is at my door
The crown I wear is the one he wore
He's here to bring me down some more
And bend my mind
Source: https://www.dead.net/song/mindbender-confusions-prince
Cream Puff War
This song is quite a stomper! Fast, with frantic drumming. Cool chord progression banged out by a slightly overdriven and fuzzy guitar. Also listen for the interesting time signature shift!
There is a great guitar solo in the middle, preceded by the obligatory scream! This guitar brilliance is somewhat reprized at the very long outro guitar solo. Cream Puff War is a legit San Francisco hippie dance song, so get up and whirl and twirl and twist and shout along to this!
