My Friend Jacks stomping beat and tremolo guitar rave also didnt do much to hide its drug laced lyrics.

Its true home was the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, but the Summer of Love was celebrated in New York, London, and all around the world.

The hippie movement was about a lot of things -- drugs, love, peace, anti-establishment, anti-war -- and at the forefront of the movement was the music, psychedelic rock.

It gave us Sgt. Peppers, debut albums by Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, and the Grateful Dead, the iconic Monterey Pop Festival (which has a 50th anniversary edition happening this weekend), San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair), and so many more key artyfacts from the first psychedelic era.

Even Sonny Bono It was such an exciting time for this music because it was so new.

Everyone was figuring this stuff out for the very first time, and learning from each other.

Its fascinating to look at the very gradual developments that some of the most major rock bands in the world -- The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Who, The Byrds -- were making to get from their initial sounds to the colorful, mind-expanding sounds of psychedelia.

What would modern day bands like The Flaming Lips, Tame Impala, MGMT, Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees, Spiritualized, Mercury Rev, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, or the Elephant 6 collective sound like if not for the music of that era To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love, weve made a list of the 50 best psychedelic rock albums of 1967.

Yes, all the usual suspects are on there, and yes we know youre tired of reading about Sgt.

Peppers, but hopefully this list will introduce you to something new to expand your mind (or record collection).

Read on for the list, followed by a Spotify playlist of music from most of the albums.

Andrew Sacher, Bill Pearis, and PSquared 50 Timothy Leary - Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out A curio to say the least.

The first one was released in 1966 which is simply a spoken word meditation with Dr Learys almost mysterious hushed voice discussing his work and the advantages of dropping out and expanding your mind.

The second one and the one on this list is a whole different beast.

Like the earlier release, it is spoken word but with sparse haunting mostly guitar and tabla music over it.

Unlike the direct plainspoken narration of the earlier record, this sounds as if the voices are beamed down from somewhere in the stratosphere.

Although credited to Leary, it also features vocals from Dr Ralph Metzner, Rosemary Woodruff and Maryvonne Giercarz.

Its a freaky listen and one that the first time I heard it, in college on a cough cough trip, scared the bejeezus out of me.

While strange, its obvious influence on the culture at the time cannot be overstated.

So pull up a chair, turn on, tune in and give this a whirl if you dare.

There are about a 1000 different instruments used on this record.

Starting off with the aptly titled Egyptian Garden, it weaves a chugging rock and roll 4 by 4 with an ethereal Eastern melody.

Is that a bouzouki in the middle there One of the pleasures of this record is trying to figure out or at least be amazed by all the different instruments popping up in each song.

Single Please is Byrdsian light country folk popping up underneath sounds resembling parts of the Velvet Undergrounds Sunday Morning, which hadnt been released yet.

Speaking of the VU, Keep Your Mind Open, the most straight up psych song on here, has a guitar melody that sounds strangely similar to The Black Angels Death Song.

It is a record that sounds like nothing else from this period and even today still delights in its melting pot of sounds.

P.P. 48 The Smoke - Its Smoke Time Pop psych -- or beat psych as its often labeled -- doesnt get much better than the opening track here.

Kaleidoscope Tangerine Dream Rar