This engaging book had me joyously tripping back in time to my own personal memories of the sixties. And as the younger generations have heard down through the years: “you had to be there” to really know what the sixties were all about. Rhino’s Psychedelic Trip goes a long way in illustrating the impossible: what it was really like in the late sixties.

Another old saying from the sixties generation is: “if you remember the sixties, then you probably weren’t there,” and this is true to an extent (!). But even the hardest-core “trippers” have some groovy stories to share from that colorful era. Take Howard Kaylan (of The Turtles), for example:

“It was the era of Warhol and Ed Sullivan, of Day-Glo VW buses...I faked my way out of my draft board physical and yet had the nerve to perform at the White House. We marched at Chicago and got shot at Kent State...we were at the dawning of the Age of Aquarius and on the Eve of Destruction. Sure, we were ‘psychedelicized.’ The curtains moved and the colors all ran together, but in the words of Hunter Thompson, we trod heavily on the planet and left footprints that will last forever in the sands of time. Anybody got a light?” ~from the foreword by Howard Kaylan

This book is a total romp through late-sixties nostalgia. It captures the feeling of the era graphically (really great psychedelic art, illustrations and photos throughout) and intellectually, and it doesn’t seem to leave a whole lot out. From the “Essential Albums of the Late ‘60s” to “Hip Lingo of the Psychedelic Era,” the content is right on target.

How did a Harvard professor named Timothy Leary become the acid-eating "Pied Piper" of a generation? How did the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi become The Beatles’ "Sexy Sadie"? What album cover sported the perverse artwork of R. Crumb (and hit #1)? You’ll find the answers to these questions and many more in this trippy tome of sixties history.

To the Baby Boomers who were there, and to the generations that have followed, this book will definitely strike some kind of chord within, as everyone has ultimately been influenced by sixties culture. Kudos to the authors for their humorous, yet informative, look at an unforgettable era...the like of which we’ll most likely never see again.

About the Authors
Alan Bisbort, author of The White Rabbit and Other Delights, began writing about music and countercultural matters in 1972. Parke Puterbaugh has been writing about popular music since the late 1970s, when he joined the staff of Rolling Stone.

Copyright 2002-2008 AbsoluteElsewhere.net / ladyjean

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