3 Songs From 1966 That Predicted the Summer of Love

The Summer of Love in 1967 was a counterculture phenomenon that occurred in San Francisco, California. Beatniks and hippies converged in Golden Gate Park and the Haight-Ashbury district in droves, numbering close to 100,000 to perform music, enjoy certain substances, and protest the Vietnam War. It was an enormous migration of America’s youth, and at the heart of it was psychedelic rock music. But the year prior, in 1966, some bands and musicians were already dishing out tunes that one would expect to come out the following year during the Summer of Love. Let’s take a look at a few examples, shall we?

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“Tomorrow Never Knows” by The Beatles

The Beatles always had their collective thumb on the pulse of pop music trends. And even when they got experimental, they always seemed to be ahead of their time. Or maybe they influenced music trends that followed their releases. Who knows? When it comes down to it, “Tomorrow Never Knows” from the 1966 album Revolver is a psychedelic masterpiece that sounds like it would have been debuted during the Summer of Love.

“California Dreamin’” by The Mamas & The Papas

This song technically came out at the tail end of 1965. But since it charted in 1966, and this is a list of ahead-of-the-curve songs that should have been released in 1967, I’ll include it. This is really the quintessential Californian psychedelic pop tune. And “California Dreamin’” remains one of the short-lived outfit The Mamas & The Papas’ most memorable tunes. Today, this particular jam remains closely associated with the counterculture era of the 1960s. It’s also just an all-around well-aged tune that never seems to get old.

“You’re Gonna Miss Me” by The 13th Floor Elevators

The 13th Floor Elevators remain, in my opinion, one of the most underrated acid rock outfits of the 1960s. Everybody knows Jefferson Airplane and the like. But The 13th Floor Elevators were also dishing out some amazing psychedelic tunes in the 1960s. For our list of songs released in 1966 that were ahead of the Summer of Love era, I went with the track “You’re Gonna Miss Me”. It’s an electrifying psychedelic rock song with a surf guitar riff, and it’s just one of many amazing ahead-of-the-curve tracks from The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators.

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