Yep.
Neal Cassady surely took the stage with the Dead at a number of Acid Tests and other early dates, including a July 23, 1967 show at the Straight Theater when he rapped while the band noodled behind him.
Cassady could ramble buddy
Those home movies of the bus trip
And a crazy crazy driver
He gobbled Preludin by the handful I think
There are a lot of stories about him
Some very tawdry
The worst is at an acid test in 66 maybe
The garage at Keseys in La Honda and I think Garcia and Hunter Thompson open the door and Cassady has basically handed his young girlfriend over to the Hells Angels for a conga line of pouring the coal to it
Garcia and Hunter even though likely super buzzed knew this was unseemly and turned around and left
Cassady always claimed it was her idea and he held her hand
Don’t ask me to explain 60s debauchery
I was maybe 9
Cassady dead of exposure or drugs at 42 found nearly frozen by the railroad tracks in San Miguel Mexico
A repressed homosexual likely having been molested as a street raised kid in Denver
The Beats came and went and the Summer of Love was over
And there he was still the same and very dead
He like Kesey culturally bridged the Beats and Hippies
LSD was legal 1966 btw
Well save MK Ultra for later lol
Recently I saw Bob Weir interviewed and the young journalist asked about how much fun the acid tests might have been and remember Weir was like a junior in high school when he joined the Dead or Warlocks to be precise
He replied “no not really …acid was mostly work”
I though man so simple a reply but so true lol