The Psychedelic Sex Book - a new, trippy, very NSFW publication from Taschen

Unless we ask our parents (which we will certainly not be doing) us young’ns will never really know if sex in the 1960s and 70s was better than it is now. They say a lot of things are better when you’re on acid, so I can imagine the rumours are true: being naked in the company of someone else, and getting down and dirty on some hand-embroidered rugs sounds far superior than a quick bonk in the dark with your iPhone pinging in the background.

So says this horny romper of a new book entitled Psychedelic Sex published by the good people over at Taschen. Put together by writers Eric Gotland and Paul Krassner, and edited by the extraordinary Dian Hanson (the woman behind The Big Penis Book, The Big Book of Pussy and Terryworld among others) it explores the huge rise in psychedelic imagery and content in men’s magazines between 1967 and 1972. “While the baby boomers blew their minds and danced naked in the streets, men’s magazine publishers attempted to visually recreate the wonders of LSD, project them on a canvas of nubile hippie flesh, and dish it up to men dying for a taste of free love,” says Taschen.

As well as being chock full of crotch-fizzling images, this publication is an unexpected glimpse into a period of daring, exciting publishing – a reminder that for over a decade the whole world felt experimental enough to routinely jump, blindfolded, onto a bandwagon full of naked people tripping balls. If only magazines were that promiscuous, risqué and willing to go to such great lengths to adhere to public demand so much nowadays. Great book. Jeez, Taschen are fucking cool.