Hippie Songs List
April 7, 2011 7:40 AM   Subscribe

I need a list of quintessential "hippie" songs. Already have "If You are Going to San Francisco". What else should be on the list?
posted by te1contar to Media & Arts (100 answers total) 31 users marked this as a favorite
 
The Beatles - "The Word"
posted by John Cohen at 7:42 AM on April 7, 2011


Itchykoo Park
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:43 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


How about The Youngbloods - Get Together?
posted by Jinkeez at 7:43 AM on April 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


Woodstock.
posted by Morrigan at 7:45 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


Five Man Electrical Band -- Signs.
posted by JanetLand at 7:45 AM on April 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


How could you not have Truckin' at the top of the list?
posted by JJ86 at 7:45 AM on April 7, 2011


check out the woodstock soundtrack.
posted by anya32 at 7:46 AM on April 7, 2011


Alice's Restaurant.
posted by Morrigan at 7:47 AM on April 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


Starting to look like the Forrest Gump soundtrack.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:47 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


The Age of Aquarius.
posted by LaurenIpsum at 7:50 AM on April 7, 2011 [3 favorites]


"The Weight" by the Band.

"The Times They Are A-Changin'" by Bob Dylan

"Come Together" by the Beatles

"Break on Through" by the Doors

"California Dreamin'" by the Mamas and the Papas

"This Land is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie

"Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones

and almost anything off Led Zeppelin IV, but for God's sake, no stairway
posted by Leta at 7:53 AM on April 7, 2011


"Incense and Peppermints" by Strawberry Alarm Clock
posted by amyms at 7:54 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


Jefferson Airplane White Rabbit
Barry McGuire Eve of Destruction
posted by MarvinJ at 7:57 AM on April 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


"Time" by the Chambers Brothers
posted by Leta at 7:58 AM on April 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


"A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum
posted by amyms at 7:58 AM on April 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


"Share the Land" by The Guess Who
posted by amyms at 7:59 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


Happy Together, The Turtles
War, Edwin Starr
posted by mikepop at 8:01 AM on April 7, 2011




Teach Your Children, CSN
Peace Train, Cat Stevens and/or Richie Havens versions
posted by mikepop at 8:03 AM on April 7, 2011


Janis Joplin - Me and Bobby McGee
posted by hydrophonic at 8:03 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


"Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix (and basically everything on "Are You Experienced?")
posted by amyms at 8:03 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


All We Are Saying is Give Peace a Chance - Beatles
posted by xammerboy at 8:05 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


"Everyday People" by Sly & The Family Stone
posted by amyms at 8:05 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]




item, I'd like to hear the Valens version
posted by mikepop at 8:06 AM on April 7, 2011


"California Dreaming" by the Mamas and the Papas
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:06 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


"Feel Like I'm Fixing to Die" by Country Joe and the Fish
posted by Kurichina at 8:10 AM on April 7, 2011 [5 favorites]


"Happy Together" by The Turtles
"He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" by The Hollies
"House of the Rising Sun" by The Animals
posted by amyms at 8:11 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


John Prine (illegal smile comes to mind, but its all hippie/folk)
Nthing anything Hendrix
posted by handbanana at 8:12 AM on April 7, 2011


Followed a few links and found this forgotten gem

Melanie Psychotherapy
posted by MarvinJ at 8:13 AM on April 7, 2011


For Pete's Sake by the Monkees (best remembered as the closing song in Season two as the credits rolled by)

Joy to the World by Three Dog Night
posted by kuppajava at 8:17 AM on April 7, 2011


I always think of Tales of Brave Ulysses, by Cream, mostly for the line about "tiny purple fishes." It's gotta be about an acid trip and what's more hippie than acid?
posted by bondcliff at 8:17 AM on April 7, 2011


“Something in the Air” — Thunderclap Newman

“Pushin’ Too Hard” — The Seeds

“Journey to the Center of the Mind” — The Amboy Dukes
posted by 1970s Antihero at 8:23 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


"Peaceful Easy Feeling", Eagles, although cf. Big Lebowski: "I hate the Eagles!"
posted by goethean at 8:25 AM on April 7, 2011


Chelsea Morning by Joni Mitchell
posted by lettuchi at 8:32 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


Kumbaya
If I Had A Hammer
(Many artists for both of those, but probably the most recognizable would be Peter, Paul and Mary).
posted by anaelith at 8:34 AM on April 7, 2011


Eve of Destruction by Barry McGuire?
Green Tambourine by the Lemon Pipers?
posted by Lucinda at 8:36 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]




First There Is A Mountain by Donovan should really have appeared in this thread a lot earlier.
posted by Aquaman at 8:36 AM on April 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


"Suzanne" - Judy Collins
posted by jgirl at 8:36 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


"The Rain, the Park and Other Things" by The Cowsills

"San Francisco Nights" by The Animals. Also, their "Monterey"
(plus anything from the soundtrack of Monterey Pop, including)
"the 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" by S&G or Harper's Bizarre

"Let's Sing This Song All Together" by the Rolling Stones
and "Together" by the Jefferson Airplane

"Sunday Will Never Be The Same" by Spanky and Our Gang
posted by Rash at 8:37 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


Forgot the link -- Monterey Pop
posted by Rash at 8:38 AM on April 7, 2011


Early, early, early Chicago (Chicago Transit Authority) was very hippie-sounding. The band played hippies in the best-forgotten "Electra Glide in Blue", and did it very convincingly, I might add. True, they soon sold out, did very commercial pop in the '80s, and are now 60-somethings playing in Biloxi, but back in the day...

from the first album: "Chicago Transit Authority"

Listen - Robert Lamm
Free Form Guitar - Terry Kath
South California Purples - Terry Kath
I'm a Man - Steve Winwood/James Miller

from the second album: "Chicago"
Poem for the People - Robert Lamm
(all info from Wikipedia)
posted by randomkeystrike at 8:39 AM on April 7, 2011


Response by poster: Man, I can't wait to dig into this stuff.
posted by te1contar at 8:43 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


anything by Donovan

Seconding this, especially "Jennifer Juniper."
posted by John Cohen at 8:55 AM on April 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


These are awesome answers.

Candles in the Rain by Melanie.
posted by Ellemeno at 9:05 AM on April 7, 2011


"A Little Help from my Friends," Joe Cocker version.
posted by MrMoonPie at 9:11 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


CSN(and sometimes Y)- "Our House", "Ohio", "Teach Your Children"
Grateful Dead- "Truckin'", "Ripple", "Casey Jones"
Pete Seeger- "If I Had a Hammer"
Peter, Paul, and Mary - "Puff The Magic Dragon"
posted by mkultra at 9:16 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


Freedom Rock
posted by mkultra at 9:17 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


If the collection needs a wry counterpoint, coda, whatever, that should be Flower Punk by Frank Zappa.
posted by Meatbomb at 9:20 AM on April 7, 2011


Dead fans seem scarce here (on preview, mkultra is the first)
"Sugar Magnolia"
posted by beagle at 9:21 AM on April 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


Man, "hippie" is such a loaded word these days (and probably was at the time as well). In my mind there's a difference between "hippie" songs and 60's songs. And even within the "hippie" songs there's a HUGE difference between "genuine" hippie songs ("Saturday Afternoon" and "White Rabbit" by the Jefferson Airplane, for example) and ride-the-coattails crap like "When You're Going To San Francisco". Maybe the OP could clarify his or her intentions a bit?

In general, I would add more more post-Rubber Soul Beatles, Their Satanic Majesties Request-era Rolling Stones, more Dylan, and much more Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, etc.. But that's just me.
posted by mosk at 9:37 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


If the collection needs a wry counterpoint, coda, whatever, that should be ...

the whole "We're Only In It For The Money" LP by The Mothers of Invention (in fact, their first three records.)
posted by Rash at 9:55 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


"Ruby Tuesday" -the Rolling Stones
posted by kitcat at 10:00 AM on April 7, 2011




"We Ain't Got Nothin' Yet" by the Blues Magoos and
"It's a Happening Thing" by The Peanut Butter Conspiracy
"Brother Mary" by Kaleidoscope
posted by Rash at 10:06 AM on April 7, 2011




Moby Grape's entire first album but especially "Hey Grandma"
posted by maurice at 10:12 AM on April 7, 2011


Interestingly, bands like the Beatles and Stones did not signal "hippie" to my crowd, then. We were of course, listening to Beatles, Stones, Doors, Hendrix, et al, but that wasn't quintessential hippie music. Some already mentioned, but my riff:

I want to underscore "Something in the Air," by Thunderclap Newman -- song #1 for me.
Anything Dylan, especially The Times They Are A'Changing and Ballad of a Thin Man.
Anything the Band, anything.
Anything Grateful Dead, especially Truckin', especially since I went to school in Buffalo.
Sunshine of Your Love, Cream.
Anything Buffalo Springfield.
Anything Jefferson Airplane.
Anything CSNY, especially Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, Ohio and Marrakech Express.
Nothing by the Eagles (no offense intended, but ...)
Anything Mammas and Pappas, especially California Dreamin'.
Me and My Arrow, Harry Nilsson.
White Bird, It's a Beautiful Day.
Me and Bobby McGee, Janis Joplin version.
Puff the Magic Dragon, Peter Paul and Mary.
Anything from Ladies of the Canyon, Joni Mitchell.
Something by Ravi Shankar.
Freedom, Richie Havens.
posted by thinkpiece at 10:16 AM on April 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


Love Is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970 is an excellent compilation, the first disc especially.
posted by skwm at 10:16 AM on April 7, 2011


Why can't we be friends?
posted by Gilbert at 10:19 AM on April 7, 2011


If you want a song specifically about hippies, try South Street by The Orlons. Well, "hippies" in the 1963 sense, anyway.
posted by Ike_Arumba at 10:31 AM on April 7, 2011


CSN: Chicago
We can change the world
Rearrange the world
It's dying...
posted by Jorus at 10:37 AM on April 7, 2011


Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks - I Scare Myself
posted by a person of few words at 10:49 AM on April 7, 2011


Uncle John's Band by the Grateful Dead.
posted by corey flood at 10:51 AM on April 7, 2011


Spirit never seems to get mentioned on these types of lists. I don't know why, they were great. Here's a few choice cuts, but really their entire body of work is excellent.
Topanga Windows
Fresh Garbage
...and their big hit:
I got a line on you

(and of course, searching for 'spirit' on YT gets this gem: Spirit in the Sky, Norman Greenbaum)
posted by Bron at 10:57 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


Maybe Captain Beefheart's "Frownland" and Can's "Mother Sky".
posted by ifjuly at 11:07 AM on April 7, 2011


And even though they're not of the era but more contemporary, Bardo Pond's whole...aesthetic, right down to song titles and album art and demeanor on tour, is extremely stoner-neo-hippie-ish (they have song titles like "Datura" and "Tantric Porno" fer chrissake). Just with lots of blistering noise.
posted by ifjuly at 11:11 AM on April 7, 2011


Response by poster: I have never heard of Captain Beefheart, but that may be the greatest band name ever.
posted by te1contar at 11:19 AM on April 7, 2011


Oops, Love the One You're With, natch, CSN, 'cause, ya know, love was free and all.
posted by thinkpiece at 11:20 AM on April 7, 2011


I've been through the thread and I don't think anyone's mentioned One Tin Soldier yet. Quintessential hippie! Also, for more serious 60s weirdness, check out the Incredible String Band and Gong.
posted by mygothlaundry at 11:41 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


I agree with thinkpiece, though everyone knew Rubber Soul inside and out, seemed like.

Bob Dylan
Big Brother and the Holding Company
Country Joe and the Fish
Mimi & Richard Farina.
Grateful Dead
Ian & Sylvia
Kris Kristofferson
Jefferson Airplane
Donovan
James Taylor
Dr. John (Gris Gris)
Quicksilver Messenger Service, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, & Joan Baez fit in there, too, though my folks didn't listen to them so much.
posted by small_ruminant at 12:04 PM on April 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


Oh yeah! Buffy Sainte Marie (esp Universal Soldier) and Joni Mitchell. There was a lot of country mixed in there, too- the genres weren't as segregated as they are now. Kris Kristofferson, as I mentioned, Willie Nelson, & Johnny Cash come to mind.

I'm not sure where hippie ends and counter culture starts in this conversation. No one I grew up with considered themselves hippies.(I'm a child of that counter culture, in case that wasn't clear.) Hippies were a very specific subgroup (as were the Yippies, etc). These days hippie is shorthand for the white, middle class section of the counterculture movement, but at the time, counter culture included not only the anti-war movement, but the Civil Rights movement, both black and Native American, and a lot of new religious experiments, like the Black Muslims, (east) Indian cults, more standard Hinduism, some relatively radical Christian fundamentalist movements (practiced by people who were as counter culture as you could get, just to be clear), and a big uptick in Satanist groups. It also included the back-to-the-land movement people, and a lot of communes both in the city and in the boonies, off the grid, and a lot of militia type groups, who were pretty well trained & armed, filled as they often were by disgruntled Vietnam vets. Unlike today, these groups overlapped promiscuously.
posted by small_ruminant at 12:23 PM on April 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


Me and Bobby McGee

"Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.
Nothing don't mean nothing honey if it ain't free.
And feeling good was easy, Lord, when he sang the blues,
You know feeling good was good enough for me,
Good enough for me and my Bobby McGee."

All You Need is Love

"Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy."

Vietnam Song

"And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we're all gonna die."
posted by wandering_not_lost at 12:28 PM on April 7, 2011


Van Morrison. The Lovin Spoonful (a little lighter fare).

Also, all those blues guys- Taj Mahal, Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, Ry Cooder.
posted by small_ruminant at 1:07 PM on April 7, 2011


The Small Faces, Itchycoo Park
posted by scody at 1:09 PM on April 7, 2011


"I'd Love to Change the World" by Ten Years After
posted by AugieAugustus at 1:16 PM on April 7, 2011


"I Ain't Marching Anymore" by Phil Ochs.
posted by Ipsifendus at 1:24 PM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


Apologies - this version of Chicago is much more hippie-like (with visuals from the DNC that the song is about.
posted by Jorus at 1:41 PM on April 7, 2011


Eighty-two answers and no mention of the Holy Modal Rounders? Psh.
posted by FLAG (BASTARD WATER.) (Acorus Adulterinus.) at 2:48 PM on April 7, 2011


13th Floor Elevators "You're Gonna Miss Me" — a song that came out in 1966, only made it to #55 on Billboard Pop Singles (it was regionally popular in Miami, Detroit, SF, but got no airplay elsewhere, for example New England. But over the years it has become a classic.
posted by beagle at 2:52 PM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


Wow, you've never even heard of Captain Beefheart? Truly, you have an amazing new world of music to explore.
posted by Leta at 4:20 PM on April 7, 2011


Laura Nyro's Stoned Soul Picnic was kind of the hippy anthem for a while in the summer following the Summer of Love, i.e. summer of 1968.
posted by paulsc at 5:01 PM on April 7, 2011


For what it's worth, I once read an interview with Jerry Garcia in which he trashed San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) as the cheesiest, most blatant cash-in on the folk rock and hippie movement he'd ever heard.

I think Uncle John's Band, Truckin', and Sugar Magnolia are all pretty hippie-ish songs, and Janis Joplin's Me & Bobby McGee really captures the ethos, but for my money it doesn't get any hippier than Crimson and Clover by Tommy James and the Shondells, which drips with reverb and nails a certain stoney vibe without getting into deep-space psychedelia like Incense and Peppermints or In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.
posted by Mendl at 5:18 PM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


Mmn, Tommy James and the Shondells sort of can't play, based on band name alone.
posted by thinkpiece at 5:32 PM on April 7, 2011


Hair. From the musical or by the Cowsills.
posted by kbar1 at 7:23 PM on April 7, 2011




From the Yardbirds:

Heart Full of Soul

For Your Love
posted by marsha56 at 9:07 PM on April 7, 2011


Captain Beyond - Sufficiently Breathless
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 9:48 PM on April 7, 2011




Anything by "Canned Heat"....especially "Goin' Up the Country"
posted by Lone_Wolf at 10:11 AM on April 8, 2011 [1 favorite]


Also nthing "Quicksilver Messenger Service!"
posted by Lone_Wolf at 10:13 AM on April 8, 2011


The AV Club just ran a primer on sunshine pop, the genre in which the So-Cal hippie aesthetic combined with ambitious studio work to odd and distinctive effect. (Reading it finally granted me some context for the baffling success of Richard Harris' "MacArthur Park.")
posted by Iridic at 11:45 AM on April 8, 2011


What, no Traffic?!?! (Dear Mr. Fantasy)

And don't miss Pearls Before Swine (Try Again)

And Love of course. (Signed DC, My Little Red Book)
posted by dpcoffin at 12:40 PM on April 8, 2011


Gotta nth I Can See for Miles; first song we played on our brand new AR turntable, Scott amp HiFi in our off-campus apartment, Sept 1967. Loud.

And anything from Pink Floyd's first: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn definitely proved that in 1967, you COULD judge an album by its cover.
posted by dpcoffin at 12:51 PM on April 8, 2011


It doesn't really pay to split hairs, but for the music-obsessed hippies of my youth (of which I was one, for a while), there was definitely a difference between hippie music and folk music and stoner/psychedelic music and orchestral rock and druggie pop -- just because it was of the era and you were high making it or listening to it didn't make it automatically "hippie". Like, we would never have considered Traffic or Pink Floyd hippie music. It was brilliant and we were listening to it, but it wasn't hippie. YMwillcertainlyV, and I'm gonna think on why that was so.
posted by thinkpiece at 10:32 AM on April 9, 2011


Hmmm… I'm surprised there's even a hair there to split re: those very first PF or Traffic albums. But it's an interesting point and I certainly agree that not all the great music we loved back then was "hippy" and not all hippy music-makers stayed in that groove.

Actually, I don't recall ever calling anything "hippy music" in the day, but it certainly seemed to us that if it was made by hippy-looking folk (Traffic, PF-in spades!, Love, ISB, etc.) and seemed to be about being a hippy (getting high vs. having "straight mind", reading the I-Ching, heading for the sun, having a strange day, freaking in the park with Emily/Lucy/et al.) and it was played and loved wherever hippies were gathered (and loathed by surfers and frat boys) then it was music FOR us BY us ABOUT us, which is how I interpret the term today. Just like Hendrix was ABOUT us as much as he was FOR us compared to, say, Howling Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Ray Charles or Otis Reading, all equally loved by us but certainly not about us, except in the broadest sense… And like how Sergeant Pepper and Blonde on Blonde were hippy albums (and expanded the very concept in the best possible way) compared to earlier and later Beatles or Dylan. Well, that's how it was in Northern VA in '67 anyway; central to the whole "hippy" idea was about who was coming along on this ride of a lifetime and who wasn't; who'd picked up the flag and was waving it hard and who hadn't. And as far as we were concerned, Traffic and Pink Floyd were obviously on the bus, not even a question about it.

So, what DID you consider hippy music then, thinkpiece? Do you mean "hippy" music as a term of "flowers-in-your-hair, I got you babe" derision perhaps…?
posted by dpcoffin at 6:18 PM on April 9, 2011


dpcoffin, I did list out some music, above, and as I said, I've got to think on what the driving themes were that defined "hippie". I've got not a drop of derision in my opinionating, I'm sorry if you heard that. I never really thought about how we -- young, with eager ears -- did some tribal, unspoken characterizing of music, automatically filing it into certain buckets. Like, without overstating it, mostly to us if it was hippie, it was probably American. (And we spelled it 'hippie,' not hippy, which is in and of itself kinda interesting!) Thematically, yes, it was nature and love and peace and freedom, but it was more in the back to the garden sense, not in the dark side of the moon sense. Earthier, I guess? But again, that was me and my crew, in Buffalo, New York. Your mileage obviously varied, and that's cool! Just never thought about it.
posted by thinkpiece at 2:31 PM on April 10, 2011


Thanks for replying, think-piece; seems to confirm my guess that you were probably thinking of PF (and maybe Traffic, too) in terms of their later work (dark side, low spark, etc.), which I too would definitely never call "hippy", while I was thinking just about their very first albums, as linked.

I bought Piper at the Gates entirely unheard or unheard of within days of it first appearing in local DC record stores just on the basis of the cover and was floored by it… but also not so floored because it seemed obvious that it would be good because they were obviously hippies. It's stayed in my memory as one of the defining moments of the whole experience, just like how you could spot like-minded souls in a flash every time you walked across campus, and you'd always be right, and decades later some are still deep friends.

And I first heard Dear Mr Fantasy during one of my first visits with some dropped-out, country-living, obviously hippy friends, also a defining memory from those days, when what you were listening to was so crucial. Those days meaning 1966-68; everything after was all decay, disappointment and subversion…

And the fact that the JHExperience was from England, along with all these other bands we thought of as ours (Stones, Them, Pretty Things, Cream, etc., etc.), well, being an English band was certainly no impediment to being a hippy band in our minds. I actually felt closer to them than to California bands like the Airplane and the Byrds, altho no less delighted by them. But then I'd lived in England some… We dressed the same, loved the same folk and blues ancestors, lived and played in the same interstellar fairy-tale-haunted Eastern Magic garden, etc., etc.

So that's my story; thanks again. (And i never before ever considered if there was a proper way to spell hippie/y, but on reflection, I guess I preferred ie, too:))
posted by dpcoffin at 3:41 PM on April 10, 2011


And yeah, sorry, I didn't track authors of much earlier posts; your first is clarifying.
posted by dpcoffin at 3:45 PM on April 10, 2011


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