| "Psychotic Reaction" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 German single picture sleeve, Hansa | ||||
| Single by Count Five | ||||
| from the album Psychotic Reaction | ||||
| B-side | "They're Gonna Get You" | |||
| Released | June 1966 | |||
| Studio | Hollywood, California | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 2:56 | |||
| Label | Double Shot | |||
| Songwriter(s) |
| |||
| Producer(s) |
| |||
| Count Five singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Psychotic Reaction" is the debut single by the American garage rock band Count Five, released in June 1966 on their debut studio album of the same name. [6]
"Psychotic Reaction" was born out of an instrumental that Count Five played for six months before their manager Sol Ellner, Kenn Ellner's father, suggested that rhythm guitarist John "Sean" Byrne write lyrics for it. [7] Inspiration came in early 1966 when Byrne was seated in a health education class during his freshmen year at San Jose City College in California. As his professor lectured about psychosis and neurosis, Byrne's friend Ron Lamb, seated next to him, leaned over and whispered, "You know what would be a great name for a song? Psychotic Reaction!" [8] Byrne later stated, "That was the missing punch-line for the song". [7] He finished the lyrics and presented them to the rest of the group at band practice that night. [7]
I can't tell you how great it felt when those guys burst out of the control booth after we played "Psychotic" and told us, "You've got a record contract." [8]
– John "Sean" Byrne
When the band played the song live a few weeks later at a dance at West Valley College, local KLIV disc jockey Brian Lord, emceeing the event, was very impressed. After a few pointed suggestions on rearranging the tune for a punchier sound, [8] Lord landed the group auditions with several record labels, most of whom turned them down flat. [9] Lord then put the band in touch with a couple of friends in Los Angeles, Hal Winn and Joe Hooven, who were about to start their own label, Double Shot Records. The band drove down to meet them at Decca Studios on Melrose Avenue. They were accompanied by Lord, who had the group begin the audition with some of their other songs before dramatically unveiling "Psychotic Reaction". [8]
The song's musical key is F♯. [10] It begins with a pentatonic fuzz guitar riff that has been compared to the Rolling Stones' "Susie Q" and Johnny Rivers' "The Seventh Son"; [11] however, scholar Steve Waksman writes that the tone itself is more like the Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and the Electric Prunes' "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)". [10] Accompanying the riff is a "rhythmic monad" played on the bass drum, [1] and Ellner's "warbling" harmonica. [12] Byrne's less aggressive rhythm guitar then comes in playing a I–♭VII chord progression. [13]
The lyrics of the song describe a state of psychosis triggered by romantic frustration: [14] [15]
I feel depressed, I feel so bad
'Cause you're the best girl that I've ever had
I can't get your love, I can't get a fraction
Uh-oh, little girl, psychotic reaction
At the end of the verse, Byrne shouts, "And it feels like this", [14] leading into an instrumental passage that serves as a "musical analogy" for the singer's mental state. [12] The episode has been called a "rave-up" or "freak-out", [16] a technique that musicologist Michael Hicks describes as "a pseudo-double time section with a corresponding intensification of dynamics". [17] The style was pioneered by the English group the Yardbirds, [17] and as such the song has frequently been compared to them, [18] [19] in particular their 1965 rendition of Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man". [20] The section lasts 45 seconds before a drum fill brings the band back for a second and final verse. At the end of the song, the lead riff briefly returns [14] before a copy of the rave-up, spliced onto the end of the track, plays as the song fades out. [21]
Irwin Zucker, the promotions director for Double Shot, [22] waved "Psychotic Reaction" as the band's first release. [23] The label originally considered another song by the band, "They're Gonna Get You", [nb 1] which was eventually decided to be the B-side. [9] The single was issued in June 1966, [25] on the same day that Ellner and Chaney graduated from Pioneer High School in San Jose. [7] Over the next few months, the song gained heavy airplay on radio stations across the United States [21] and began rapidly ascending the singles charts. [9] The band were initially unaware of the song's success; Byrne said that the first time he heard it on the radio it was announced as the station's "most requested song", while Michalski recalled hearing it on three Bay Area stations at the same time. [8] The single peaked at number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1966 [26] and at number 3 on the Canadian RPM 100 later that month. [27] "Psychotic Reaction" was among the first successful acid (or psychedelic rock) songs, containing the characteristics that would come to define acid rock: the use of feedback and distortion replacing early rock music's more melodic electric guitars. [28]
To capitalize on the success of the single, Double Shot immediately pressured the band to record a full-length album. [29] As a strategic decision, their debut album was also titled Psychotic Reaction , released in October 1966, including seven new songs composed mostly by John Byrne.
Richie Unterberger in Allmusic said: "the verses are thus almost stereotypical sub-British blues-rock, yet have a hypnotic groove of their own, and the vocals have a respectably sullen power, if in a somewhat downer frame of mind (in accordance with the lyrics about being depressed and romantically rejected)". [30]
The song was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of the "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll". [31] In 2014, the song placed seventh on Paste 's list of the "50 Best Garage Rock Songs of All Time". [32]
This song appears in the games Battlefield Vietnam (2004), Mafia 3 (2016), and Far Cry 5 (2018).
"Psychotic Reaction" has been featured in films such as Marek Kanievska's Less than Zero (1987), Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy (1989), Paul Schrader´s Auto Focus (2002) and Randall Miller´s CBGB (2013), and has done very well on Classic Rock radio.
The song is also featured in the second-season episode "Bad Friend" from the HBO series Girls and the tenth episode "Alibi" from the HBO series Vinyl , and in an IKEA television advert on UK's Channel 4 (May 2019).
Because of its inclusion on the original Pebbles compilation album, probably the best known of the many obscure covers of this song that were made in the 1960s is the one by Positively 13 O'Clock (i.e., Jimmy Rabbitt with members of Mouse and the Traps and others) in 1967. The song has been covered by Brenton Wood, on his 1967 album Oogum Boogum. It was also recorded by the 1960s studio-only band, The Leathercoated Minds, in 1966 on their album A Trip Down the Sunset Strip.
The song is one of the many songs quoted and parodied on the 1976 album The Third Reich 'n Roll by the avantgarde group The Residents. "Psychotic Reaction" was also covered during the 1970s by The Radiators from Space (B-side to "Enemies", 1977) and by Television, who included the song in their early sets which emphasized the "rave-up" section. Covers made during the 1980s include a live version by The Cramps on their 1983 live mini-album, Smell of Female and by artist Nash the Slash. The Nash the Slash version was released on his 1984 album American Bandages, inserting paraphrased excerpts of John Hinckley's letter to Jodie Foster, [33] as well as lines from the movie "Taxi Driver", between the verses.
Horror punk/metal band Haunted Garage covered the song on their 1991 album Possession Park. Other cover versions include a live version by The Fuzztones and a version by The Vibrators on their album Garage Punk (2009). This song is also played live by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on the Playback box set and seen in the currently out of print concert video, "Take the Highway" sung by drummer Stan Lynch. The Night Beats from Seattle, Washington have played it most nights of their 2011 U.S. and European dates. [34]
Count Five
Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs was an American music journalist and critic. He wrote for Creem and Rolling Stone magazines and was also a performing musician. The music critic Jim DeRogatis called him "America's greatest rock critic".
Psychedelic rock is a rock music genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound effects and recording techniques, extended instrumental solos, and improvisation. Many psychedelic groups differ in style, and the label is often applied spuriously.
Garage rock is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The style is characterized by basic chord structures played on electric guitars and other instruments, sometimes distorted through a fuzzbox, as well as often unsophisticated and occasionally aggressive lyrics and delivery. Its name derives from the perception that groups were often made up of young amateurs who rehearsed in the family garage, although many were professional.
Acid rock is a loosely defined type of rock music that evolved out of the mid-1960s garage punk movement and helped launch the psychedelic subculture. While the term has sometimes been used interchangeably with "psychedelic rock", acid rock also specifically refers to a more musically intense, rawer, or heavier subgenre or sibling of psychedelic rock. Named after lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), the style is generally defined by heavy, distorted guitars and often contains lyrics with drug references and long improvised jams.
Proto-punk is rock music from the 1960s to mid-1970s that foreshadowed the punk rock movement. A retrospective label, the musicians involved were generally not originally associated with each other and came from a variety of backgrounds and styles; together, they anticipated many of punk's musical and thematic attributes. The tendency towards aggressive, simplistic rock songs is a trend critics such as Lester Bangs have traced to as far back as Ritchie Valens' 1958 version of the Mexican folk song "La Bamba", which set in motion a wave of influential garage rock bands including the Kingsmen, the Kinks, the 13th Floor Elevators and the Sonics. By the late 1960s, Detroit bands the Stooges and MC5 had used the influence of these groups to form a distinct prototypical punk sound. In the following years, this sound spread both domestically and internationally, leading to the formation of the New York Dolls and Electric Eels in the United States, Dr. Feelgood in England, and the Saints in Australia.
"Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung" was a 1971 essay by Lester Bangs, later collected in a book of the same name (ISBN 0-679-72045-6). The essay, which talks about what is today called garage rock, contains the phrase, "...punk bands started cropping up who were writing their own songs but taking the Yardbirds' sound." This is believed to be one of the first uses of the word "punk" to refer to a type of rock music. A large section of the essay is concerned with the imagined longer career of the garage band the Count Five, after their hit "Psychotic Reaction". The band split after one album, but Bangs' discussion of the imagined subsequent records is entirely fanciful.
"Hang On Sloopy" is a 1964 song written by Wes Farrell and Bert Berns. Rhythm and blues vocal group the Vibrations were the first to record the tune in 1964. Atlantic Records released it as a single, which reached No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song is associated with Ohio State University and is Ohio's official rock song.
Five Live Yardbirds is the live debut album by the English rock band the Yardbirds. It features the group's interpretations of ten American blues and rhythm and blues songs, including their most popular live number, Howlin' Wolf's "Smokestack Lightning". The album contains some of the earliest recordings with guitarist Eric Clapton.
Having a Rave Up with the Yardbirds, or simply Having a Rave Up, is the second American album by the English rock group the Yardbirds. It was released in November 1965, eight months after Jeff Beck replaced Eric Clapton on guitar. It includes songs with both guitarists and reflects the group's blues rock roots and their early experimentations with psychedelic and hard rock. The title refers to the driving "rave up" arrangement the band used in several of their songs.
Sky "Sunlight" Saxon was an American rock and roll musician best known as the leader and singer of the 1960s Los Angeles psychedelic garage rock band The Seeds.
Count Five was an American garage rock band formed in San Jose, California in 1964, best known for their hit single "Psychotic Reaction".
"Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" is a song by the English rock group the Yardbirds. Written and recorded in 1966, it is considered one of their most progressive works. The song was the group's first to feature the dual-lead guitar line-up of Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. The two contribute an array of guitar parts during the instrumental sections, described as "a full-on six-string apocalypse". Lyrically, it deals with notions of past life and déjà vu.
"Over Under Sideways Down" is a 1966 song by English rock group the Yardbirds. A composition credited to all members of the group, it combines elements of blues rock and psychedelic rock. It was first released as a single in May 1966 as a follow-up to "Shapes of Things" and in July was included on group's self-titled UK album.
"Shapes of Things" is a song by the English rock group the Yardbirds. With its Eastern-sounding, feedback-laden guitar solo and environmentalist, antiwar lyrics, several music writers have identified it as the first popular psychedelic rock song. It is built on musical elements contributed by several group members in three different recording studios in the US, and was the first Yardbirds composition to become a chart hit; when released as a single on 25 February 1966, the song reached number three in the UK and number eleven in the US.
Psychedelic music is a wide range of popular music styles and genres influenced by 1960s psychedelia, a subculture of people who used psychedelic drugs such as DMT, LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin mushrooms, to experience synesthesia and altered states of consciousness. Psychedelic music may also aim to enhance the experience of using these drugs and has been found to have a significant influence on psychedelic therapy.
"Train Kept A-Rollin'" is a song first recorded by American jazz and rhythm and blues musician Tiny Bradshaw in 1951. Originally performed in the style of a jump blues, Bradshaw borrowed lyrics from an earlier song and set them to an upbeat shuffle arrangement that inspired other musicians to perform and record it. Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio made an important contribution in 1956 – they reworked it as a guitar riff-driven song, which features an early use of intentionally distorted guitar in rock music.
Pebbles is a compilation of US underground and garage single record releases from the mid- to late-1960s. It had a limited original release in 1978 and a more general release in 1979. It was followed by several subsequent Pebbles compilations and albums. This album is nowadays known as Pebbles, Volume 1 and was originally issued in 1978 as Pebbles, Volume One: Artyfacts from the First Punk Era, an obvious riff on Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, a similar, groundbreaking compilation from 1972.
The Yardbirds are an English rock band, formed in London in 1963. The band started the careers of three of rock's most famous guitarists: Eric Clapton (1963–1965), Jeff Beck (1965–1966) and Jimmy Page (1966–1968), all of whom ranked in the top five of Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 greatest guitarists. The band's other members during 1963–1968 were vocalist/harmonica player Keith Relf, drummer Jim McCarty, rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja, and bassist Paul Samwell-Smith, with Dreja switching to bass when Samwell-Smith departed in 1966. The band had a string of hits throughout the mid-1960s, including "For Your Love", "Heart Full of Soul", "Shapes of Things", and "Over Under Sideways Down".
Psychotic Reaction is the only studio album by the American garage rock band Count Five, released in October 1966, through Double Shot Records DSS5001.
Uptight Tonight: The Ultimate 1960s Garage Punk Primer is a garage rock compilation put out in 2005 by Big Beat Records. The set consists of twenty-six tracks that, with a few exceptions, focus on the harder and more aggressive side of the genre. Steve Legget, commenting in AllMusic, writes that Uptight Tonight "...rips out the attitude and trash riffs pretty darn well, making it perhaps the ultimate single-disc set of this raggedly endearing rock style." The packaging includes well-researched liner notes written by Alec Palao, which provide helpful biographical information about the artists and their songs, as well as extensive photographs of the bands."
