further, pranksters, further

the electric kool-aid acid test.

From Psychedelic 60s:

"In 1959, Ken Kesey, a graduate student in creative writing at Stanford University, volunteered to take part in a government drug research program at Menlo Park Veterans Hospital that tested a variety of psychoactive drugs such as LSD, which was legal at the time, psilocybin, mescaline, and amphetamine IT-290. Over a period of several weeks, Kesey ingested these hallucinogens and wrote of his drug-induced experiences for government researchers. From this experience, Kesey wrote his most celebrated novel, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and began his own experimentations with psychedelic drugs."

The Merry Pranksters got their show underway with Neal Cassady at the wheel.

Their journey was an act in three parts;

"The first was the infamous Magic Bus Trip, from California to New York and back, in the summer of 1964. The second was the “ongoing communal life centered on aesthetic experience and experimentation” which happened at the Kesey homestead from 1964 to 1966. The third act consisted of the acid tests held around California from 1965 to 1966."

Kesey was arrested for possession of marijuana in 1965. In an elaborate bid to throw the dogs off the scent, he 'masterminded' his own suicide by instructing associates to abandon his truck on a cliffside road near Eureka.

His suicide note read, "Ocean, Ocean I'll beat you in the end."

Kesey fled to Mexico in the back of a friend's car, but was later apprehended and spent a further five months at San Mateo County Jail, Redwood City, CA.


astral piper: syd aged 16 at home on hills road, cambridge.

A decade later.

During the recording sessions for 1975's "Wish You Were Here" at Abbey Road Studios, England, usurped helmsman, Syd Barrett turned up unannounced with shaven head and loose kaftanesque folds not quite concealing his acquired bulk.

Captain Bligh later confessed he cried.

▼ PINK FLOYD: WISH YOU WERE HERE from "Wish You Were Here" LP (Harvest EMI) 1975 (UK)

WISH YOU WERE HERE (REMASTERED)