Stoners' Zone

[Psy-Fi]

Back in the 70's, most of the people I hung around with considered bands like Pink Floyd, King Crimson, and Yes to be "Stoner Music."

Most of the contemporary "Stoner Music" I've heard, would probably fit into the category of what we used to call "Heavy Psychedelic Rock" back then.

[Buckeye Randy]

It's interesting how regional music ruled the world before MTV, radio conglomerates and later the Internet homogenized everything.  Regions not only had their own taste in music but their own terminology.

One of my favorite memories from family vacations was driving to the destination.  Every gas station or convenience store had cardstock radio promos that listed their weekly top 20 songs.  The top 20 AM hits in Ohio were not the same as Georgia!  Building on that, I remember listening to America's Top 40 with Casey Kasem and there would be songs I never heard on my top 40 station (WIXY 1260 and WCUE AM).  Just because a record sold nationally it was no guarantee my stations were playing it.

How is that relevant? I was having a flashback, man.

[Lisnaholic]

Back in the 70's, most of the people I hung around with considered bands like Pink Floyd, King Crimson, and Yes to be "Stoner Music."

Most of the contemporary "Stoner Music" I've heard, would probably fit into the category of what we used to call "Heavy Psychedelic Rock" back then.

^ In the UK, I always heard those bands referred to as Prog or Psychedelic Rock. I think the term "Stoner" was born in the USA and didn't turn up in England until about a generation later, though I could be wrong on that. But, yeah, it's a genre label that slid around for a while before settling down to focus on one more specific style.

It's interesting how regional music ruled the world before MTV, radio conglomerates and later the Internet homogenized everything.  Regions not only had their own taste in music but their own terminology.

One of my favorite memories from family vacations was driving to the destination.  Every gas station or convenience store had cardstock radio promos that listed their weekly top 20 songs.  The top 20 AM hits in Ohio were not the same as Georgia!  Building on that, I remember listening to America's Top 40 with Casey Kasem and there would be songs I never heard on my top 40 station (WIXY 1260 and WCUE AM).  Just because a record sold nationally it was no guarantee my stations were playing it.

How is that relevant? I was having a flashback, man.

That's an interesting reminiscence, Buckeye, that has no real equivalent in the UK, afaik - but then I haven't often listened to local radio. Back in the era of troubadors, you'd presumably pick up the local styles of folk, Celtic etc. but in modern times there haven't been any significant regional variations afaik: what is Number 1 in Land's End is #1 in John O'Groats as well.


(map thanks to Mark Moxton, who walked from one extreme point of Great Britain to the other: https://www.landsendjohnogroats.info/route/ )
I once visited Land's End, but missed the chance to telephone John O'Groats and find out what their #1 was.
__________________________

Here's a 2013 track from the band Uluru, showing that Stoner rock is an international style: no clues about the country of origin here, partly because its an instrumental:-

Spoiler

The band are from Istanbul.

[close]

[Buckeye Randy]

That's an interesting reminiscence, Buckeye, that has no real equivalent in the UK, afaik - but then I haven't often listened to local radio. Back in the era of troubadors, you'd presumably pick up the local styles of folk, Celtic etc. but in modern times there haven't been any significant regional variations afaik: what is Number 1 in Land's End is #1 in John O'Groats as well.

You did have Radio Caroline in the '70's which certainly wasn't the BBC.  I remember a pen pal sending me a cassette of Radio Caroline around '77 or '78 and thinking it was cool but at the same time not jaw dropping.

[Lisnaholic]

That's right! We also had Radio London, another pirate radio ship anchored in the English Channel. Both of those were stamped out and replaced by the BBC's govt-approved Radio One, which was definitely more bland, more pop.

[Buckeye Randy]

In the UK, I always heard those bands referred to as Prog or Psychedelic Rock. I think the term "Stoner" was born in the USA and didn't turn up in England until about a generation later, though I could be wrong on that. But, yeah, it's a genre label that slid around for a while before settling down to focus on one more specific style.

In the '70's, I remember progressive, alternative and avante garde being a term that could include Pink Floyd, Yes, ELP or Jethro Tull but was generally used for less commercially successful bands like Gong, Van Der Graaf Generator or Henry Cow.  Let me remind everybody that Jethro Tull had two #1 albums on Billboard in America.  Pink Floyd, Yes and ELP had chart success as well.  In my mind, top 10 albums equals mainstream!

I didn't become familiar with the term 'Stoner Rock' until the 2000's.