Bad trips
July 31, 2014 1:37 PM   Subscribe

Recommend me the darker songs of the 1960's and 70's - paranoia, political repression, nuclear war, etc. For example, Love's The Red Telephone
posted by gorbweaver to Media & Arts (37 answers total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
Buffalo Springfield, "For What It's Worth"
posted by Bromius at 1:43 PM on July 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Well, Lou Reed's Berlin is pretty intense...
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 1:44 PM on July 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Barry McGuire, Eve of Destruction.
posted by drjimmy11 at 1:46 PM on July 31, 2014


Best answer: It doesn't get much darker or more apocalyptic than Pere Ubu's Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1975).
posted by mykescipark at 1:48 PM on July 31, 2014


The Grateful Dead-associated Morning Dew
posted by Clustercuss at 1:57 PM on July 31, 2014


Best answer: 1969: "In The Year 2525."
posted by MonkeyToes at 2:03 PM on July 31, 2014


The monks
posted by LaunchBox at 2:11 PM on July 31, 2014


Barry McGuire, Eve of Destruction
posted by mattu at 2:26 PM on July 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: War (What is it good for? Absolutely nothing).
posted by kbar1 at 2:29 PM on July 31, 2014


Best answer: The O'Jays, "When the World's at Peace".
posted by gimonca at 2:32 PM on July 31, 2014


Best answer: It's kind of self-pitying, in an English Psychedelic kind of a way, but Cheadle Heath Delusions brings it.

There's a whole bunch of bad trip songs on the Nuggets albums.
posted by scruss at 2:33 PM on July 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Isn't that pretty much the gist of Pink Floyd's "The Wall"? And every song in it?
posted by amtho at 2:50 PM on July 31, 2014


Best answer: Pretty much all of Bowie's Diamond Dogs is just brimming with apocalyptic paranoia and decadence -- e.g. Future Legend, Sweet Thing/Candidate, Big Brother. It's an album I really like, but can't ever listen to much, because it tends to put me in a dark place mentally.

Some other dark/apocalyptic Bowie tracks from the '70s: All the Madmen, Five Years, Panic in Detroit, Warszawa, and Sense of Doubt (the latter two both instrumental).
posted by scody at 2:54 PM on July 31, 2014 [3 favorites]


Best answer: DOA's Bloodrock came out in 1970 and rose to #21.

Trigger warning: moment by moment description of dying in a plane crash. It's campy to me, but many people find it hideous.
posted by spitbull at 3:09 PM on July 31, 2014


Best answer: My grade school children's choir was given One Tin Soldier to sing, if you can believe it.
posted by drlith at 3:11 PM on July 31, 2014 [3 favorites]


Best answer: Aphrodite's Child - The Four Horsemen is pretty apocalyptic, as is the video.
posted by homesickness at 3:13 PM on July 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: The Sun is Burning, from Simon & Garfunkel's 1964 album "Wednesday Morning, 3 AM."
posted by Corvid at 3:14 PM on July 31, 2014


Best answer: Another entire album of the period that's extremely dark (though it's a chronicle of personal breakdown rather than social breakdown) is Big Star's Third -- e.g., Holocaust, one of the most haunting songs I've ever heard.
posted by scody at 3:16 PM on July 31, 2014


Best answer: Terry Jacks -- "Seasons in the Sun" (1974)

of dying in a plane crash

I was also coming in here to recommend D.O.A but must clarify, we always interpreted the lyrics' 'flying' to mean driving while intoxicated which made it a car crash song.
posted by Rash at 3:22 PM on July 31, 2014


Best answer: Mr Blue, Clear Light
Inside Looking Out, Grand Funk Railroad

I believe the band was Bloodrock, and the song was DOA.
posted by kellyblah at 4:11 PM on July 31, 2014


Best answer: Animals is a better choice than The Wall imo.
posted by stinkfoot at 4:39 PM on July 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Also, early Black Sabbath like Black Sabbath, Paranoid, and Master of Reality.
posted by stinkfoot at 4:42 PM on July 31, 2014


Best answer: All of Tonight's the Night by Neil Young.
posted by pipian at 6:35 PM on July 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Marvin Gaye's What's Going On (1971) takes a bleak look at urban life, environmental degradation, drug addiction, the Vietnam War and so on.
posted by Leontine at 6:57 PM on July 31, 2014


Best answer: Black Day in July by Gordon Lightfoot

Just to expand on scody's post, most of David Bowie's Berlin Trilogy is pretty despairing.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 7:10 PM on July 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Ball of Confusion - The Temptations
posted by doctor_negative at 7:20 PM on July 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Bob Dylan - Masters of War
posted by doctor_negative at 7:22 PM on July 31, 2014


Best answer: The Fugs - subversive "freak-folk"-y stuff

Last Poets - black power proto-rappy stuff
posted by batfish at 8:46 PM on July 31, 2014


Cant go wrong with Paint it Black.
posted by boilermonster at 11:59 PM on July 31, 2014 [2 favorites]




Best answer: Some of these are more overtly political than others:

Black Sabbath - War Pigs
King Crimson - One More Red Nightmare
Genesis - Watcher of the Skies
Gentle Giant - Peel the Paint
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - House Burning Down
Roxy Music - In Every Dream Home A Heartache


As far as I know, the lyrics aren't explicitly about anything dark, but I've always found Brian Eno's "Julie With..." to be super sinister.
posted by saladin at 6:10 AM on August 1, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Speaking of Terry Jacks, The Poppy Family gave us a nice little ditty called Where Evil Grows in 1971.
posted by philip-random at 8:37 AM on August 1, 2014


Best answer: also Dylan, Desolation Row
posted by philip-random at 8:40 AM on August 1, 2014


Alice Cooper in general
posted by philip-random at 8:44 AM on August 1, 2014


Frank Zappa / Mothers of Invention - We're Only In It For The Money (1968)
posted by bubukaba at 9:14 AM on August 1, 2014


Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter. Merry Clayton's vocals give me chills every time. (See also: Gimme Shelter tracks deconstructed, previously on the Blue.)

It's just a shot away. It's just a shot away.
posted by Westringia F. at 2:58 PM on August 1, 2014 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Hawkwind - Hassan I Sabha; Damnation Alley (the latter a bit too upbeat maybe).
posted by Rumple at 12:46 PM on August 3, 2014


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