"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" Book Discussion

Self | September 9, 2002

[PJ-Comix]

OK, let this be the official thread for the book discussion of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

[BradyLS]

TEKAT was a great read, PJ. But we were a little mislead, we were promised "Literature," but Wolfe's book was filed under Journalism in the bookstores I went to. But that's a small nit...

Anway, I was struck at the privelege all these young adults had to burn. A lot of these "kidults" seemed to have parents or trust funds that could support their carefree style and their Kato Kalin-esque friends and hangers-on. Kesey was at least an accomplishedd novelist-- but, IMO, an unparalelled Bulls***'er. This was borne out in the a**kicking he dodged with the Hell's Angels when he one of them a "bulls*** person." He should have been an independent car dealer and retired a wealthy hedonist.

But Tom Wolfe disappointed me, too. He caught all the fun and some of the danger of being a Prankster, but he skirted what a dirty, fleeting existence it was until the very end. We have no idea, really, whether Kesey's wife cared or not over his adulterous affairs. But we're left with the impression that she put up with a hell of a lot for... whatever reason. Maybe she had some herself, but Tom doesn't even hint at that. I don't even get the impression she took acid. Just stood by her "brilliant" man

Kesey didn't comeacross to me as a willfully bad person. Just a willfully careless one who, thanks to his books and lawyers (and how did he pay for THOSE???), could afford to be. Not everyone who followed in his steps afterwards could.

PS: What'd Kesey die of, anyway?

PPS: Just a little...

[BradyLS]

Most military and sports types back then had crewcuts. BTW, crewcuts seem to making something of a comeback nowadays. Why, I don't know.

I dunno, chicks must dig 'em or somethin.' Most older guys look better with a crew. Short haor, anyway. And I don't think crew cuts were quite the cultural statement now as they were then. If anything, severely cropped scalps among the young these days tend to mark one as a... "character."

[weegee]

"The Porpoise Song" is a good song (by Gerry Goffin/Carole King - arranged by Jack Nitzsche) and it got recycled in Vanilla Sky.

Here's the session notes I found online:

Micky Dolenz (lead & backing vocals), David Jones (backing vocals), Ken Bloom - Danny Kortchmar (guitar), Leon Russell - Ralph Shuckett (keyboards), Douglas Lubahn (electric bass), Mike Ney (drums), Willian Hinshaw - Jules Jacob (horns), Gregory Bemko - David Filerman - Jan Kelly - Jacqueline Lustgarten (cello), Max Bennett - Clyde "Whitey" Hoggan - James Hughart - Jerry Scheff (string bass), Jack Nitzsche (arrangement), Russ Titelman (conductor), John R. Hoenig (unknown)

My, my the clock in the sky is pounding away
There's so much to say
A face, a voice, an overdub has no choice
And it cannot rejoice

Wanting to be, to hear and to see
Crying to the sky

But the porpoise is laughing good-bye, good-bye
good-bye, good-bye, good-bye...

'Entrusted in 1968 with the advertisement for the film "Head" by the band The Monkees, John Brockman had posters printed with his likeness on them.'

If Head blows your mind as to what the Monkees were up to (including large amounts of LSD themselves), then you might want to check out the Monkees' original (unreleased until decades later) take of "Mommy & Daddy":

Ask your mommy and daddy, "What happened to the Indian?"
Ask your mommy and daddy to tell you where you really came from
Then mommy and daddy will probably turn and quickly walk away
Then ask your mommy and daddy who really killed J.F.K
Wa ta tick it ta too too...

Ask your mommy if she really gets off on all her - all her pills
Ask your Daddy, "Why doesn't that soldier care who he kills?"
After they've put you to sleep and tucked you safely down
in your bed
Whisper Mommy and Daddy,
"Would it matter if the bullet went through my head?
If it was my blood spilling on the kitchen floor
If it was my blood, mommy, would you care a little more?"
Don't be surprised when they turn and start to cry
And tell your Mommy and Daddy, tell your mommy and daddy
Scream it to your mommy and daddy
They're living in a lie, a lie, a lie
It's all a lie, a lie, a lie
A lie, a lie...

Below is the version that was released in the 1960s:

Ask your mommy and daddy, "What happened to the Indian?
How come they're all living in places
With too much snow or too much sand?"
Tell your mommy, "I got a funny feeling deep inside of me"
Ask your daddy, "Is it really as bad as people make it seem?"

Wa ta tick it ta too too..

Ask your mommy why everybody swallows all those little pills
Ask your daddy why that soldier doesn't care who he kills
After they've put you to sleep and tucked you safely down in your bed
Whisper, "Mommy and Daddy would you rather that I learned it from my friends, instead?
Do you think I'm to young to know, to see, to feel, or hear
My questions need an answer or a vaccuum will appear"
Don't be surprised if they turn and walk away
And tell your mommy and daddy that you love them anyway
That you love them anyway...
Give them a kiss
Love will set you free
Kings of EMI

[weegee]

At my barber shop they're still cutting Johnny Unitas flattops for adults and kids. I go for a longer cut though so I can comb my hair into a pompadour with a can of Murray's...

[nicollo]

vacant.

[weegee]

some of which I felt were definitely wrong (doseing unaware people with acid especially

There are a number of famous people who used LSD that swear that no one should be given it without prior knowledge and consent. Of course, a good number of these same people made attempts to give large doses to people including President Nixon (including Grace Slick). What's odd is how these people bitched and moaned about how they were treated when they were caught and thrown out (of the White House or other buildings). Sabotage at the least and poisoning/treason at the worst.

[weegee]

The Dead don't do much for me (although I've heard that the first album is supposed to be more garage band blues).

That said, I did see a recent article that seemed to indicate that the band was trapped by their base (I've heard elsewhere that Jerry Garcia did not like the skeleton imagery associated with the band).

How Deadheads Ruined the Dead

Jerry Garcia with original Mad comic/magazine cartoonist Will Elder.

[BradyLS]

Will Elder is a dead ringer for "you know who!" ;-)

But on the subject of music, howcum nobody ever gives Yes or Hawkwind their due? The Dead's the Dead, sure, but they aren't the only hippy-trippy space-rockers around.

[weegee]

(second try at this post, the first one crashed while I was browsing for details):

Will Elder appeared on the cover of Mad (and had the whole issue devoted to his life story) before Alfred E. Neuman even appeared in the magazine.

But Alfred dates back before 1900. "Alfred" was appropriated from postcards and assorted public domain posters by Bill's partner in crime, Harvey Kurtzman. Kurtzman and Elder worked together on some of the best Mad's early years. They continued their satirical stabs at society with the character Goodman Beaver (who essentially changed sex to become Little Annie Fanny when the pair worked at Playboy). What's odd is that Warner Bros. now owns the license on Alfred E. Neuman even though the original heir to the trademarked figure was denied her possession in the 1960s amid claims that it had lapsed into the public domain).

I can't directly tie the Merry Pranksters to Mad Magazine but I can link it to the 1960s. Founding Yippie Paul Krassner (the man who coined the term) wrote a couple of articles for Mad in the 1950s (he also claims that he lost his virginity late one night in the Mad offices under a grinning portrait of Alfred E. Neuman). Later, as publisher of the Realist, Paul hired Wally Wood (the illustrator of his Mad submissions) to draw the pornographic Disneyland Memorial Orgy to commemorate Walt's passing in the same issue that featured the satirical hoax "The Parts They Left Out Of The Kennedy Book".

This is about all I can show from the Disneyland poster:

Jerry Garcia (to tie it back to the earlier post) said (and I'm loosely paraphrasing because it's been over a decade since I read the quote) something about how the satire and cynicism of the early Mad contributed a lot to the spirit of the 1960s (on par with if not more than drugs).

Mad did a lot to show the lies and half truths behind advertising (it dealt with politics but was somewhat evenhanded). Now Mad publishes genuine ads; their "credibility" is gone while William Gaines spins in his grave.

[weegee]

I think that Hawkwind probably has the more interesting backstory than Yes does (and there are probably other prog bands that some people can mention).

Hawkwind had band members like Lemmy who broke off to form Motorhead (absconding with a Hawkwind song title to do so). John "Johnny Rotten" was a roadie for Hawkwind. They played outside the fence at the Isle Of Wight festival for the crowds camped out who tried to crash the gates. They partnered up with the Pink Fairies who also had ties to the band, the Deviants (they're sort of like the Merry Pranksters, maybe). I've met Nik Turner and seen his incarnation of Hawkwind (with Del Detmar on bass) a couple of times but I'd have to say that musically I prefer early Pink Floyd or even some Yes.

I have the Deviants first album, Disposable, and find it interesting.

[weegee]

I see that I may have been hasty in my last post, this is the Deviants first album:

and from the descriptions you'll see that while they may not have met the Merry Pranksers, they were on the bus.

First album from 1967, one of the true highlights of underground UK rock of the era. "In the late 60s The Deviants were something like the British equivalent to the Fugs, with touches of the Mothers of Invention and the British R&B-based rock of the Yardbirds and Pretty Things. Their simplistic riffing anticipated acts like the Stooges for an inspired collision of punk attitude and psychedelic eclecticism."

The Deviants were the Mick Farren-led UK biker/psych/drunk outfit from the late 60s, who released three albums, this being their 2nd from 1968 (Ptooff was their first, an untitled album the 3rd). Precursors to the Pink Fairies, they launched naif-political charm into a blend of occasionally monster psych flourishes, 60s-era stupidity and underground credibility. Their motto was "If you can't trip on garbage, you can't trip on nothing!!" A classic of it's kind.

[SupplySider]

Wow, I never knew Carole King wrote The Porpoise Song, or that Leon Russell played on it. I saw Head shortly after it was released in Washington DC. I was the only person in the theatre, so I'm guessing that movie did not make millions for the Monkees.

[PJ-Comix]

and of course I'll be in for the next selection as well, which happens to be another book on my long forgotten misplaced list of things to read.

Homage To Catalonia by George Orwell. An amazing book. Orwell was fighting on the Loyalist side against Franco in Spain. He witnessed first hand how the Communists systematically arrested and liquidated the other leftists fighting in Spain. Orwell just barely escaped imprisonment and possible death at the hands of the communists.

[PJ-Comix]

The movie "The Right Stuff" is one of my favorites (very long however) but the movie treatment of "Bonfire" did nothing for me.

The less said about the movie version of Bonfire of the Vanities, the better. As to The Right Stuff, the movie version was very good and could have been GREAT had it not been for the horrible miscasting of Sam Shepherd as Chuck Yeager. Who was the idiot casting director who thought that the moody, jaded Sam Shepherd could portray good 'ol boy Chuck Yeager?

[PJ-Comix]

A Vote For Barry Is A Vote For Fun

I am hoping that the Bus video has the reactions of pedestrians to this sign on the weird looking bus full of those strange dudes. (Folks didn't even know about hippies back then.)

[PJ-Comix]

I never liked the Dead because they and their fans liked themselves too much. And all this without an ounce of irony. I prefer a more superficial vanity, like the Stones, or Brittany Spears.

I'm a HUGE fan of The Doors. They are the BEST group to come out of the counter-culture era. BTW, most of the music in Apocalypse Now was The Doors songs.

[PJ-Comix]

But we were a little mislead, we were promised "Literature," but Wolfe's book was filed under Journalism in the bookstores I went to.

But it reads like literature. Same with Wolfe's book about the Astronauts, The Right Stuff. The next book, Homage To Catolonia isn't literature but you can definitely see where Orwell got his ideas for Animal Farm and 1984. The book after that one will definitely be classified as literature although it is more true to life than almost any book I've read (I'll let you all know what it is next month.)

[PJ-Comix]

Anway, I was struck at the privelege all these young adults had to burn.

Remember that standard letter that Wolfe presented that girls sent to their parents when they entered the counter-culture?

[nicollo]

I can't even listen to "The End" these days. It's nauseatingly stupid. I otherwise adore Morrison when he's not convinced himself he's anything but an entertainer. Again, that's where I draw the line: the 60s loses me when it buys into its own b.s. On this count, the Stones' "Street Fighting Man" is the most honest song of the period.

Not to get into music, which can go forever, and I'm sorry to piss on your thread, but there's nothing more pathetic than a guy like Ray Manzarak (or Kreiger, I suppose) who still "believes."

I hold that generation in contempt (I was born in '63). It poisoned education, and ruined the arts.

I took my daughter in to see a Yoko Ono exhibition in San Francisco this summer. It was very crowded, so we scooted around to find something to look at on our own. We encountered a plastic box on the wall with three large keys suspended sideways. "Sky." The description explained to us that the plain background was the "sky" and the keys were "knowledge."

My daughter said, "see I told you the Beatles are idiots." Just to test her theory, I took out a John Lennon compilation. She's right: every damned song was dumb.

It's now 9:47 a.m. of Sept. 11, and my local rock station, which just played a very limp Limp Bizkit version of "Wish You Were Here," is now running somebody's slice of "Imagine." Now that's a stupid song that is wrong in every way.

[weegee]

There really weren't hippies back then. There were some odd characters, these guys were remnants of the beatniks.

Jay "Rock & Bullwinkle" Ward rode across country with a bus as a promotion/prank calling for the US to recognize statehood for Moosylvania.

Ward and his publicist bought an island in Minnesota (in their program Moosylvania was the subject of a border dispute between the US and Canada).

He proceeded to set up a petition drive and nationwide tour to give Moosylvania statehood - "the Only State in the Union with an Entirely Non-Resident Population".

In a PBS interview for the documentary "Of Moose and Men" a few years ago Howard Brand, the publicist for Rocky and Bullwinkle, describes the events which followed:

We got this van, this poor van with this calliope that played circus music, and we took off cross-country and we visited fifty, sixty cities... It culminated when we got to Washington, D.C., and Jay had this huge list of names - signatures, for statehood for Moosylvania. And we got into the van, and we were accompanied by Pat Humphrey, who was Hubert Humphrey's daughter-in-law, who was the NBC representative. Jay was driving the van, she was next to him and I was sitting in the back - hiding in the back is more like it - and we got to the White House gate, and the [entrance guard] said, "What are you doing?... Turn off that music!"
And Jay said, "We're here to see President Kennedy. We want statehood for Moosylvania."
And the guy said, "Turn around and get out of here!"
And Jay said, "You know, you could be civil. I mean-"
I said, "Jay, turn around!"
"No. I don't like his attitude."
Of course the guy then started to unbuckle his revolver.
And I panicked. "Jay, let;'s get out of here!"
And Jay didn't like his attitude. "Well, I will, but I mean the man is absolutely rude." And we turned around and left.

That afternoon I took the photographs that were taken of us in the car by the White House and I went to the [Associated Press] office and I said, "Look, we tried to get into the White house and they wouldn't let us! I thought Kennedy had a sense of humor."
He said, "Come, let me show you something."
And he took me over and showed me the photographs of the Russian ships with the missles going toward Cuba...
We had arrived at the White House on the day of the Cuban missile crisis. So nobody paid any attention to us, even though we were very funny.
That ended the tour, and we drove back home.Never did get statehood for Moosylvania, either.

Jay Ward also had some statues and a maze of mirrors on the Sunset Strip in LA.

1964 is pre-Mod, so it's gotta be pre-hippie. there are shots of the police being suspicious of the garish painted Kesey bus. These weren't all teenagers or protesters either; that wasn't what the bus was about.

Ken Kesey wrote a book about the trips on Further; I have it but have not read it (if I read it, I'll probably reread EKAAT to compare the perspectives on the events).

Even though Ken Kesey is deceased, I'd like to see them continue to release videos from the travels (I don't know how many of Ken's comments about the scenes may exist on tape, they also taped copious amounts of audio while they were filming so there should be some vintage recordings of Ken as well that they could use).