Rock Hall: 3 psychedelic acts high on list

Donovan, the Small Faces and War fly the freak flag high as nominees for the 2012 class of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Other sonically adventurous nominees include Beastie Boys and the Cure.

Rounding out the list (in order of PsySight’s preference): Freddie King, Laura Nyro, Heart, Guns ‘N Roses, the Spinners, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Donna Summers, Rufus with Chaka Khan, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and Eric B. & Rakim.

Inductees will be announced “in the coming weeks,” the Rock Hall says.

Donovan, a nominee last year, was among the first recording artists to chart with psychedelic songs. He also was among the first long-haired British pop stars busted for drugs. The artist was closely associated with the hippie movement and flower pop.

Donovan’s psychedelic singles include “Sunshine Superman,” “Mellow Yellow,” “Hurdy Gurdy Man” and “Barabajagal (Love Is Hot).” The album “Sunshine Superman” was among the first rock works to feature the sitar. Donovan also flirted with jazz and Indian music, making for a heady musical brew.

The Small Faces/The Faces were two scrappy English bands, really. They first scored with the heavily flanged psychedelic single “Itchycoo Park,” a global smash in 1967 despite a BBC ban for its druggie lyrics.

A year later came the classic LP “Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake,” an early concept album. Side 2 was devoted to an odd psychedelic fairy tale. Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane did the band’s heavy lifting until Marriott quit to form Humble Pie.

Then came the Faces, with three original members joined by up-and-coming vocalist Rod Stewart and guitarist Ron Wood. The Faces’ sound shifted to inebriated good-time rock ‘n’ roll. This line-up enjoyed a short but brilliant career, cut short by Stewart’s solo success.

War (picured, top of page) still continues to pound out the Latino-influenced funk these days, but in the beginning they had solid psychedelic credentials. English shouter Eric Burdon of the Animals formed the group in L.A., following up on his psychedelic explorations (such as “Sky Pilot”) with the remainders of his original band. The Animals entered the Rock Hall in 1994.

War and Burdon made two albums, the first brilliant and the second spotty. The Burdon/War legacy is best represented by “Spill the Wine,” a smash single that describes a psychedelic dream. (The song is fated for a prime spot on this site’s roundup of Top Psychedelic Songs.) War continued its hitmaking ways despite Burdon’s departure (in the middle of a tour).

Nominees had to release their first recording no later than 1986.

Want to cast a (just for grins) vote? Pick five Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees.

Here is the complete list of nominees for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012:

Beastie Boys
The Cure
Donovan
Eric B. & Rakim
Guns ‘N Roses
Heart
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Freddie King
Laura Nyro
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Rufus with Chaka Khan
The Small Faces/The Faces
The Spinners
Donna Summer
War

No. 26: ‘Sky Pilot’ by Eric Burdon

In 1968, Eric Burdon had completed his transition from white R&B shouter to long-haired leaping gnome.

The English singer disbanded the original Animals (of “House of the Rising Sun Fame”) in 1966 and enthusiastically turned to lysergically inspired music.

The sprawling single “Sky Pilot,” released at the dawn of that war-torn year, proved to be a game changer, one of rock’s first cinematic songs.

At more than seven minutes, the number sprawled across both sides of the 45 record, its many sonic effects captured in true stereo. Even at that length, Eric Burdon’s song was a hit single, reaching No. 14 in the U.S. and remaining an FM radio staple over the decades.

While the song’s subtle anti-war message surely concerned the Vietnam War, its shadowing invoked the two world wars. The millieu reportedly as witnessed by Burdon’s grandfather in WWI.

The titular sky pilot is a military chaplain, charged with comforting soldiers headed off to the battlefield. Burdon begins his profile a cappella against a black silence:

“He blesses the boys as they stand in line
The smell of gun grease and the bayonets they shine
He’s there to help them all that he can
To make them feel wanted he’s a good holy man”

The song picks up the pace with the entry of a rock band, lean and muscular. Moments later, “Sky Pilot” takes off on a sonic adventure incorporating bagpipes, gunfire, the screech of dive-bombers, distorted guitars and reverb-drenched vocals, flanged-out drums, horns, woodwinds and even piccolos.

Musically and conceptually, the song brings to mind the Doors’ “The Unknown Soldier” (recorded a month after “Sky Pilot’s” release), the Who’s early mini-rock operas and the Beatles’ orchestrated character studies of 1966 and 1967.

Emotionally, “Sky Pilot” recalls the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” another song about death, religion and loneliness that was released in 1966. After mumbling a prayer, the “so tired” chaplin returns to his bunk as the lads march off to their fates. “He’ll meditate/but it won’t stop the bleeding/or ease the hate.” The functionary sky pilot, we’re told, will “never reach the sky.”

At the climax of the song’s combat sequence, we hear military bagpipes play “All the Bluebonnets Are Over the Border.” Then, a string quartet provides sweet contrast to the singer’s invocation of the “stench of death” and the bleak hopes for our sky pilot. More orchestral instruments join in, freestyle, the resulting sonic swirls reflecting the absurdities of war.

Burdon shared writing credit with his “new” Animals: Vic Briggs (guitar), John Weider (guitar and electric violin), Danny McCulloch (bass), and Barry Jenkins (drums). Briggs arranged and orchestrated the song, which was produced by Tom Wilson (Bob Dylan, the Mothers of Invention). It appeared on the album "The Twain Shall Meet."

Burdon would successfully repeat the cinematic style a few years later with the fantasy “Spill the Wine,” another strong entry on our list of the Best Psychedelic Songs.

“Sky Pilot” lyrics:

He blesses the boys as they stand in line
The smell of gun grease and the bayonets they shine
He’s there to help them all that he can
To make them feel wanted he’s a good holy man
Sky pilot,
Sky pilot,
How high can you fly?
You’ll never, never, never reach the sky.

He smiles at the young soldiers
Tells them it’s all right
He knows of their fear in the forthcoming fight
Soon there’ll be blood and many will die
Mothers and fathers back home they will cry
Sky pilot,
Sky pilot,
How high can you fly?
You’ll never, never, never reach the sky.

He mumbles a prayer and it ends with a smile
The order is given
They move down the line
But he’ll stay behind and he’ll meditate
But it won’t stop the bleeding or ease the hate

As the young men move out into the battle zone
He feels good, with God you’re never alone
He feels tired and he lays on his bed
Hopes the men will find courage
in the words that he said
Sky pilot,
Sky pilot,
How high can you fly?
You’ll never, never, never reach the sky.

You’re soldiers of God, you must understand
The fate of your country is in your young hands
May God give you strength
Do your job real well
If it all was worth it
Only time it will tell

In the morning they return
With tears in their eyes
The stench of death drifts up to the skies
A soldier so ill looks at the sky pilot
Remembers the words
“Thou shalt not kill”
Sky pilot,
Sky pilot,
How high can you fly?
You’ll never, never, never reach the sky.