Del joins the Merry Pranksters
"Kid Charlemagne"
While the music played
You worked by candlelight
Those San Franciscan nights,
You were the best around
Just by chance
You crossed a diamond with a pearl
You turned it on the world
That's when you turned the world around
Did you feel like Jesus?
Did you realize
That you were a champion in their eyes?
On the hill the stuff was
Laced with kerosene
But your was kitchen clean
Everyone stopped to stare at your Technicolor motorhome
Every A-frame
Had your number on the wall
You must've had it all
You'd go to L.A. on a dare and you'd go it alone
Clean this mess up
Else we'll all end up in jail
Those test tubes and the scale
Just get 'em all outta here
Is there gas in the car?
Yes, there's gas in the car
I think the people down the hall
Know who you are…
Careful what you carry
'Cause the man is wise
You are still an outlaw
In their eyes…
-STEELY DAN song about LSD manufacturer Owsley
Del opened his eyes and quickly squinted under the lights. A barrage of math symbols, pyramids, stars and planets returned. But behind all that was a nagging thought. One that simply wouldn't go away.
Del was a child called in to sit at the kitchen table. He sits obediently as his dad raises the battery acid to his lips. He starts to drink it.
Del's eyes open. He is tripping but he is not enjoying it. He looks around to see a room full of people laying around him. A few are nude. Most are lost in the music and lights. Music, there is a live band playing. He isn't home. He's at an Acid Test. A burly guy built like a wrestler turns to smile at him.
"Owsley made this batch. Isn't this acid great?", the man says.
Stanley Augustus Owsley
Del hears the music. This isn't the hillbilly rock he despised as a folkie. This wasn't the children's love songs like SHE LOVES YOU. This was music going into directions only jazz had been before. This was The Grateful Dead. Del sat up, smiling. The thoughts had passed. He was right there now.
The many faces of Ken Kesey
The man he was talking to had written "One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest" and was not the kind of person Del would have previously hung with. A jock who had married his high school sweetheart and had a family was not Del's style. But his book had touched a chord with Del, and Del had recognized immediately that the book was about a real life mental institution. One that the writer had taken LSD in. Ken Kesey was no longer the athlete.
He was now a pioneer on the open range of LSD.
http://www.concertposterart.com/images/3228.jpg There has been some controversy over whether or not Del was involved in The Acid Tests. One look at the flyer above the word TEST and you will note his name. I call that, conclusive proof.
Del stands up and sways to the music, begging off doing the lights tonight. He tells Kesey he doesn't want to fool around with the lights and chemicals tripping. Del says he should wait until he can get some crystal to use and do the lights. Kesey smiles his Buddha grin, and Del sits back down. He looks over to the overhead projectors and carton and containers of chemicals. Ken pats Del on the shoulder and steps over people to stand by the band.
This is an acid test.
Crystal is crystal methedrine. Owsley had an interest in the drug as did most speed freaks in the post World War 2 era. Our pilots had been given Dexedrine during the war and came home looking for more. German pilots had been given crystal methedrine to keep them awake- Hitler received 4 to 7 shots a day of the drug. Today we understand the paranoia, anger and devastating effects of speed on the body and mind. In those days however, diet clinics operated legally injecting people with speed and vitamin B-12. Speed was taken by everyone. GI's used it on guard duty, which was how Elvis discovered the drugs. Students used it to cram for exams. Owsley had made his crystal to raise the money to start making LSD.
Del smiled as a naked girl danced in front of him. He was now in the crew known as the Merry Pranksters, and his job would be to run the light show. This wasn't a job in the usual sense, there was no pay as such. A place to crash, food, drugs and sex. Traveling as Del had in the carny from town to town. Only this circus was psychedelic.
As his hallucinations died down Del walked over to the discarded school projectors and stared at them. He began to pour the chemicals onto the screen of one of the projectors, and started swirling them with a paint brush. The crowd let out a cheer and people began rousing themselves to stand up and dance. Del was digging the dancing, the music, and he was getting the hang of the chemicals. Blobs of colors shifted and moved, transformed and reformed again.
Del looked out at the smiling faces of the trippers and knew he belonged. He couldn't wait to work the light show on speed.
