The Top 100 Psychedelic Rock Artists of All Time
- Jason LeValley with Bill Kurzenberger and Rob Cook
- September 9, 2021
- 8:52 pm
The Top 100 Psychedelic Rock Artists of All Time
Here’s a list of of what I’m calling the “Top 100 Psychedelic Rock Acts of All Time.” For serious psychedelic fans—as well as the artists and bands I’ve chosen—I hope that making it onto my list is viewed as an auspicious designation. Which is also why I’ve identified criteria for who’s on the list and who isn’t. Basically the criteria are: Quality of Psychedelic Output (How good is the psychedelic material produced by this act?), Quantity of Psychedelic Output (How many psychedelic albums/songs did the act produce?), and the Psych Factor (How psychedelic is the artist’s material?)
A fourth criterion, one could argue, might be Influence (Did an artist or band have any influence on psychedelic music overall?) I did give influence some weight, but not as much, because for the most part, those acts did not have and are not known for their overall psychedelic sound. Case in point: There’s no doubt The Byrds had a strong influence on psychedelic rock; they released what is generally considered to be the first psychedelic single, “Eight Miles High”, in early 1966. The success of that song influenced rock’s future by inspiring other artists to make psychedelic music. But The Byrds were primarily a folk-rock and country-rock act with only occasional psychedelic elements.
Photo of Robyn Hitchcock courtesy of C. Elliott Photography
Quality rating is also naturally somewhat subjective. It’s a bit easier to rate quality, though, than the Psych Factor because there are generally agreed-upon resources to measure how good an album is. I used the rating system on AllMusic.com. Albums on that site are given from one to five stars by an AllMusic critic. And website users can also weigh in using the five-star system; so you can see the cumulative score of multiple music listeners along with the critic’s rating. You’ll notice that highly rated albums that are not at all psychedelic do not count regardless of their quality; but songs with psychedelic elements are included and rated.
The Psych Factor is subjective, but there are clear degrees of psychedelia in music. For instance, I think it can be agreed upon that a song like “I Am the Walrus” is more psychedelic than, say, Buffalo Springfield’s “Mr. Soul”, which is psychedelic primarily by the fuzzed-out lead guitar sound.
It’s worth mentioning, I think, that some readers may be surprised Janis Joplin isn’t included. She was so iconic and such an integral part of the late 60’s music scene, but her musical style wasn’t psychedelic. It was blues-rock and, at that time, even considered hard-rock. However, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Janis’s first band, is on this list because some of their guitar work contained psychedelic overtones.
I’m predicting Baby Boomer fans will be surprised by who got the No. 1 spot—because (gasp!) it’s not a 60’s band. But, in this writer’s well-informed opinion, there’s been no other band making such purposely high-quality psychedelic rock for as long as this one. See what you think.
Photo of MGMT courtesy of C. Elliott Photography
| 100 | The Lemon Pipers |
| 99 | The Count Five |
| 98 | Temples |
| 97 | Status Quo |
| 96 | Julian Cope |
| 95 | Melody’s Echo Chamber |
| 94 | Os Mutantes |
| 93 | The Millenium |
| 92 | Chocolate Watchband |
| 91 | Allah-Las |
| 90 | Chambers Brothers |
| 89 | United States of America |
| 88 | Hawkwind |
| 87 | Spacemen 3/Spiritualized |
| 86 | Billy Nichols |
| 85 | Tomorrow |
| 84 | Blue Cheer |
| 83 | July |
| 82 | Mercury Rev |
| 81 | Tommy James and the Shondells |
| 80 | The Rolling Stones |
| 79 | The Nice |
| 78 | The Three O’Clock |
| 77 | Tyrannosaurus Rex |
| 76 | The Chesterfield Kings |
| 75 | H.P. Lovecraft |
| 74 | Acid Mothers Temple |
| 73 | Buffalo Springfield |
| 72 | The Dukes of Stratosphear |
| 71 | Blossom Toes |
| 70 | Tones on Tail/Love and Rockets |
| 69 | Phish |
| 68 | Psychedelic Porn Crumpets |
| 67 | The Seeds |
| 66 | Morgan Delt |
| 65 | The Apples in Stereo |
| 64 | Arthur Brown |
| 63 | Strawberry Alarm Clock |
| 62 | Gandalf |
| 61 | Kaleidoscope (US) |
| 60 | The Electric Prunes |
| 59 | The Mothers of Invention |
| 58 | Moon Duo |
| 57 | The Steve Miller Band |
| 56 | Dungen |
| 55 | The Move |
| 54 | The Blues Magoos |
| 53 | The Hollies |
| 52 | Bevis Frond |
| 51 | Big Brother and the Holding Company |
| 50 | Claypool-Lennon Delirium |
| 49 | Syd Barrett |
| 48 | Monster Magnet |
| 47 | The Warlocks |
| 46 | Dandy Warhols |
| 45 | Velvet Underground |
| 44 | The Byrds |
| 43 | Vanilla Fudge |
| 42 | The Idle Race |
| 41 | Black Angels |
| 40 | Traffic |
| 39 | The 13th Floor Elevators |
| 38 | Love |
| 37 | GOAT |
| 36 | Sunshine Fix |
| 35 | Quicksilver Messenger Service |
| 34 | Twink |
| 33 | Soft Machine |
| 32 | Thee Oh Sees/ Ohsees/OCS |
| 31 | The Moody Blues |
| 30 | Tame Impala |
| 29 | Spirit |
| 28 | Olivia Tremor Control |
| 27 | MGMT |
| 26 | Of Montreal |
| 25 | Dead Meadow |
| 24 | The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band |
| 23 | Iron Butterfly |
| 22 | Donovan |
| 21 | The Pretty Things |
| 20 | The Zombies |
| 19 | The Yardbirds |
| 18 | Kevin Ayers |
| 17 | Bardo Pond |
| 16 | Family |
| 15 | King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard |
| 14 | Ty Segall |
| 13 | Grateful Dead |
| 12 | Small Faces |
| 11 | Cream |
| 10 | Jefferson Airplane |
| 9 | Country Joe and the Fish |
| 8 | Eric Burdon and the Animals |
| 7 | Brian Jonestown Massacre |
| 6 | Robyn Hitchcock |
| 5 | The Doors |
| 4 | Jimi Hendrix Experience |
| 3 | Pink Floyd |
| 2 | The Beatles |
| 1 | Flaming Lips |
Related: The Top 200 Psychedelic Rock Songs of All-Time
4 thoughts on “The Top 100 Psychedelic Rock Artists of All Time”
Interesting list. I think you are missing some key artist which makes the list a bit so-so. It seems like your criteria/filtering system has made the list narrow in terms diversity. How else can you leave out a band like CAN or Faust? Also bands like Naxatras or Re-Stoned has been left because of your system? Others to mention Kikagaku Moyo, Wooden Shjips (though you mentioned Moon Duo?) just to name a few. I also think you got carried away by your influence criteria when you placed the Beatles and Cream. The list could use some restructuring.
Fair enough. Wooden Shjips probably belongs on the list. However, CAN and Faust are considered experimental bands, and not psych. We don’t think the others you mentioned have made enough of an impact to make the Top 100 list. However, we will look into Kikagaku Moyo. Thanks for weighing in.
In what world are the Grateful Dead not in at least the top 5 of psychedelic bands?
Thanks for asking that question, LM. The Greatful Dead, without question, are closely associated with psychedelic drugs. They played shows as early as 1965 under the moniker The Warlocks where Owsley’s acid was everywhere. Many people, perhaps millions, have tripped on psychedelic drugs at Grateful Dead shows.
However, their music style was predominantly folk-rock. Only a couple of their albums could really be considered psychedelic.
The list is intended to reflect musical style much more so than association with psychedelic drugs.