Owsley, LSD, and "The Wall of Sound"

cstpeter
cstpeter Posts: 387
edited July 2007 in Music & Movies
Just read a great article in Rolling Stone about Owsley Stanley, a dirty, brilliant hippie who was the Grateful Dead's sound man. I guess he was one of the first guys to introduce stereo sound to live audiences (via McIntosh tube amps) and one of the first to produce pure LSD. Apparently he supplied all of San Fran during the Haight/Ashbury prime, including Ken Kessey, the Byrds, Dead, etc.

Anybody ever meet this guy? Sounds like a trip
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  • george daniel
    george daniel Posts: 12,096
    edited July 2007
    cstpeter wrote: »
    Just read a great article in Rolling Stone about Owsley Stanley, a dirty, brilliant hippie who was the Grateful Dead's sound man. I guess he was one of the first guys to introduce stereo sound to live audiences (via McIntosh tube amps) and one of the first to produce pure LSD. Apparently he supplied all of San Fran during the Haight/Ashbury prime, including Ken Kessey, the Byrds, Dead, etc.

    Anybody ever meet this guy? Sounds like a trip

    Yep and Yep ;)http://www.thebear.org/index.html
    JC approves....he told me so. (F-1 nut)
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  • strider
    strider Posts: 2,568
    edited July 2007
    They also were talking about Owsley in a recent special on VH1 about the Monterey Pop Festival. Really sounds like he had that place tuned up, and in more then 1 way. ;)

    George, are you saying you met the guy? Pretty cool stuff.
    Wristwatch--->Crisco
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,960
    edited July 2007
    I don't think he was (or is) particularly dirty

    Steely Dan's "Kid Charlemagne" is presumably about him.

    on the hill the stuff was laced with kerosene
    but your's was kitchen clean
    everyone stopped to stare at your technicolor motor home
    every A-frame had your number on the wall
    you must have had it all
    you'd go to LA on a dare
    and you'd go it alone


    I believe (suspect) you can see Bear, as he was and probably still is known, standing by the horse in the back center (slightly to the right) on the back cover of the Dead's AOXOMOXOA (barely visible on the 45 picture sleeve to which I've linked)
    45Uncle%20John%20Holland%20sleeve.gif

    EDIT: This just turned slightly weird. Apparently one of the kids in the aforementioned back cover photo is "a 5-year-old Courtney Love".
    http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_bio/ai_2419200753
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  • W WALDECKER
    W WALDECKER Posts: 900
    edited July 2007
    Far Out Man !
    Rogue Audio stereo 100 tube amplifier - Lector Zoe preamplifier with 6H30 pi's
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  • FicmanS
    FicmanS Posts: 134
    edited July 2007
    That was a good article, I read it over the weekend..
    Rockin' In My House :D


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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,960
    edited July 2007
    Speaking of Bear (and courtesy of an AA post today):
    http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/07/12/MNGK0QV7HS1.DTL
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