Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Into the Mystic: The Visionary and Ecstatic Roots of 1960s Rock and Roll
    Into the Mystic: The Visionary and Ecstatic Roots of 1960s Rock and Roll
    Into the Mystic: The Visionary and Ecstatic Roots of 1960s Rock and Roll
    Audiobook10 hours

    Into the Mystic: The Visionary and Ecstatic Roots of 1960s Rock and Roll

    Written by Christopher Hill

    Narrated by Christopher Hill

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    Explores the visionary, mystical, and ecstatic traditions that influenced the music of the 1960s

    • Examines the visionary, spiritual, and mystical influences on the Grateful Dead, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, the Incredible String Band, the Left Banke, Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, and others

    • Shows how the British Invasion acted as the “detonator” to explode visionary music into the mainstream

    • Explains how 1960s rock and roll music transformed consciousness on both the individual and collective levels

    The 1960s were a time of huge transformation, sustained and amplified by the music of that era: Rock and Roll. During the 19th and 20th centuries visionary and esoteric spiritual traditions influenced first literature, then film. In the 1960s they entered the realm of popular music, catalyzing the ecstatic experiences that empowered a generation.

    Exploring how 1960s rock and roll music became a school of visionary art, Christopher Hill shows how music raised consciousness on both the individual and collective levels to bring about a transformation of the planet. The author traces how rock and roll rose from the sacred music of the African Diaspora, harnessing its ecstatic power for evoking spiritual experiences through music. He shows how the British Invasion, beginning with the Beatles in the early 1960s, acted as the “detonator” to explode visionary music into the mainstream. He explains how 60s rock and roll made a direct appeal to the imaginations of young people, giving them a larger set of reference points around which to understand life. Exploring the sources 1960s musicians drew upon to evoke the initiatory experience, he reveals the influence of European folk traditions, medieval Troubadours, and a lost American history of ecstatic politics and shows how a revival of the ancient use of psychedelic substances was the strongest agent of change, causing the ecstatic, mythic, and sacred to enter the consciousness of a generation.

    The author examines the mythic narratives that underscored the work of the Grateful Dead, the French symbolist poets who inspired Bob Dylan, the hallucinatory England of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper, the tale of the Rolling Stones and the Lord of Misrule, Van Morrison’s astral journeys, and the dark mysticism of Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground. Evoking the visionary and apocalyptic atmosphere in which the music of the 1960s was received, the author helps each of us to better understand this transformative era and its mystical roots.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherInner Traditions Audio
    Release dateJun 11, 2019
    ISBN9781620559956
    Author

    Christopher Hill

    Christopher Hill has written about rock and roll music in the pages of Spin, Record Magazine, International Musician, Chicago Magazine, Downbeat, Deep Roots Magazine, and other national and regional publications. His work has been anthologized in The Rolling Stone Record Review, and he is the author of Holidays and Holy Nights. Currently a contributing editor at Deep Roots Magazine, he lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

    Related to Into the Mystic

    Related audiobooks

    Body, Mind, & Spirit For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      I’m Your Woman

      Jan 13, 2022

      I’m Your Woman
      2 min read

    • Article

      Because You’re Young

      Oct 21, 2021

      Because You’re Young
      16 min read

    • Article

      Leave It Open

      Feb 18, 2022

      Leave It Open
      22 min read

    • Article

      A Space Cowboy’s Curriculum

      Jun 21, 2018

      A Space Cowboy’s Curriculum
      6 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Nov 11, 2021

      Books
      3 min read

    • Article

      Surface Noise

      Apr 21, 2017

      Surface Noise
      16 min read

    • Article

      Spiritualized

      Jan 13, 2022

      Spiritualized
      5 min read

    • Article

      Hubert Sumlin

      Apr 5, 2023

      Hubert Sumlin
      3 min read

    • Article

      Gene Simmons’ – Last – Stand

      Nov 14, 2023

      “AT THE END of the day, Mother Nature and Father Time get their comeuppance,” Gene Simmons offers, philosophically. “They put their hand out and say, ‘Okay, time for you to pay us for this wonderful life you’ve led.’ You have to have the dignity, sel

      10 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Dec 8, 2022

      Books
      3 min read

    • Article

      Drive-by Truckers

      May 19, 2022

      Drive-by Truckers
      4 min read

    • Article

      AtoZ

      Jul 13, 2023

      AtoZ
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Global Millennium

      Apr 23, 2020

      Globalisation is a phenomenon that defines and challenges the modern world. Trade, technology, culture, conflict: today, all span continents and hemispheres. And the roots of this global connectedness stretch back much further than we might imagine.

      9 min read

    • Article

      Remapping LA

      Feb 19, 2019

      Remapping LA
      14 min read

    • Article

      Stories To Tell

      Aug 13, 2020

      Stories To Tell
      1 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Into the Mystic

    4/5

    7 ratings2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Very insightful, especially the first half. Nice narration, as well!
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this survey of some UK and US 60s bands, bolstered with some theoretical humanities concepts. The book makes a compelling case for the visionary strength of the artists under discussion, and while it did not compel me to upgrade my view of the artists, it did remind me of the admirable Romantic ideals being explored in the 60s, and sketch a plausible timeline of their evolution. The range of themes and ideas that began then fueled the subsequent half century of rock and pop. Now that rock is more or less dead, the importance of these themes remains, all the more precious for their secret promise of transcendence via transgression. I liked the reader too.