This coming April 19th marks the 81st anniversary of “Bicycle Day,” recognized as the date of the first intentional acid trip when Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann ingested LSD before riding his bicycle home from his laboratory. The day has become a bit of a holiday in counterculture circles, and the date lines up nicely with the early Spring days that bring a return of pleasant riding weather. So here’s a thematic playlist to commemorate this week’s holiday. The track listing is below, and here is the set as a YouTube playlist.
I am grateful to Camila Aisa’s excellent article in the Riffs journal for pointing me toward many of the songs included in this playlist. You can read the “Unbroken Chains” essay here (which also includes its own playlists!).
A “Cycle-delic” playlist:
- “Take A Ride” (The Art of Lovin’)
- “Bike” (Pink Floyd)
- “Bicycle” (The Baroques)
- “Crazy Bicycle” (The Monocles)
- “My White Bicycle” (Tomorrow)
- “Psychedelic Cycle” (The Sole Society)
- “Silver Machine” (Hawkwind)
- “Tour De France” (Kraftwerk)
- “Happy Cycling” (Boards of Canada)
- “Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)” (Tool)
- “The Test” (The Chemical Brothers)
- “Crazy Ride” (Clinton Fearon)