Spacemen 3 were "fanatical musical magpies". In addition to the proto-punk of New York's The Velvet Underground and Suicide, and Detroit's The Stooges and MC5, Kember's and Pierce's musical influences included: US 1960s psychedelic rock, such as The Thirteenth Floor Elevators; US 1960s garage rock; 1960s British Invasion bands; rock and roll; Buddy Holly; surf music; The Beach Boys; early, seminal electronic music, e.g. Silver Apples, Delia Derbyshire and Laurie Anderson; krautrock; The Gun Club, The Cramps and Tav Falco's Panther Burns; early Chicago blues, e.g. Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf; early Delta blues; gospel and early Staple Singers; Otis Redding; the production techniques of Brian Wilson, Joe Meek and Phil Spector; and the avant-garde jazz and free jazz of Sun Ra and John Coltrane.