10 Psychedelic Rock Albums You Need To Know
6. The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators - The 13th Floor Elevators (1966)
As its name boldly states, this record is a trip. The opening number is one you've most likely heard, even if you're not familiar with the band. It's a song that is so quintessentially '60s that it ends up in almost every movie or series set during that era. Listen to it, and you'll see visions of flower adorned hippies, Wayfarer sunglasses, choppers swooping over the Vietnam jungle and Nixon flipping the peace sign.
The album is full of those nostalgic feelings, harkening back to a time you most likely weren't even alive during. Every other album on this list has this record to point to as an influence. Although there were albums that were considered psychedelic before this, you can't get away from the significance this record had on the sound going forward.
The flip side to releasing one of the most highly regarded psychedelic rock albums of all time, is ending up in a psychiatric hospital. The man behind the music, Roky Erickson, was institutionalised after suffering from a paranoid episode, brought on by the overuse of psychedelics. After being diagnosed with schizophrenia, he was subjected to electronic shock therapy which left him in an uncreative slump for several years.