A partially
successful attempt at a three-day multi-media event 48 years ago was also the
last of the Acid Tests (albeit a subsequent “Graduation” was held). The campus of San Francisco State College
became hosts to the Merry Pranksters, the Grateful Dead and a number of other
performers that weekend. Without going in to any great detail here, the likely
most significant point about the following list is the demystification of what
the Grateful Dead were doing that weekend. There are three separate confirmed
performances not properly documented elsewhere (as far as I know).
30 September 1966
Sculpture
Yard: Demon Lover, Anonymous Artists of America, The Infinite Painting
& The Universal Structure
International
Room: Grateful Dead, The Only
Alternative and His Other Possibilities with Mimi Farina, The Light Castle
Gallery
Lounge: Don Garrett, Chloe Schott, Poetry Reading , Paul Robertson Jazz Band,
Congress of Wonders, Ron Boise Musical Sculpture and Artwork of Dion Wright,
Bob Branaman, Bruce Connor and Karen Koslow
Women's
Gym: Bill Ham Light Show, Wildflower, Blue House Basement, J Baldwin's
Tensed Membrane Screen, Rock Workshop
Men's Gym:
Bernie Gunther (of the Esalen Foundation) Sensory Awakening, Robert Baker
Cosmic Comic, The Merry Pranksters, Don Buchla
Women's
Gym 125: Bob Beck Light Show
Education
117: Film Guild Movies
01 October 1966
Men's
Pool: Water Polo, Light Show and Open Swimming
Common's
Lawn: Wildflower, Anonymous Artists of America, Blue House Basement, The
Committee, Robert Baker, San Francisco Mimi Troupe perform "Olive
Pips"
Lowell
High School Field: SF State v Santa Clara (Football - The Little Big Game)
Sculpture
Yard: The Final Solution, Demon Lover, The Infinate Painting & The
Universal Structure
Gallery
Lounge: Don Garrett, Ron Boise Musical Sculpture and Artwork of Dion
Wright, Bob Branaman, Bruce Connor and Karen Koslow.
Women's
Gym: San Andreas Fault Finders, Dino Valenti, Universal Parking Lot,
Congress Of Wonders (John Lennon Readings), Ken Kesey (with Freewheelin' Frank
on harmonica and Kesey's cousin Dale on violin), Bill Ham Lightshow, Grateful
Dead
Men's Gym:
The Merry Pranksters, Don Buchla. A planned Jefferson Airplane and Paul
Butterfield Blues Band after midnight performance in the Men’s Gym was never
held due to Police intervention.
Education
117: Film Guild Movies
02 October 1966
Common's
Lawn: Grateful Dead, The Only Alternative and His Other Possibilities with
Mimi Farina, The Committee, Congress Of Wonders
Women's
Gym 125: Bob Beck Light Show
Education
117: Film Guild Movies
There is video of this event, including an interview with Steward Brand in the KRON archives; https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/209388
ReplyDeleteFor those not familiar with the timeline, LSD was outlawed in California on Thursday, October 6, so this was the last legal acid test.
ReplyDeleteNote that the Grateful Dead play twice (Saturday night and Sunday afternoon). Wasn't there a proposed Friday midnight event in one of the Gyms, with the Dead and Butterfield Blues Band (then playing Fillmore)? Scuttled because police were concerned about rioting in the FIllmore district (because SF cops had shot an unarmed African American--as if things ever change)?
ReplyDeleteThe Dead played all three days and it was the BBB and the Airplane that were due to jam Corry.
ReplyDeleteSadly the Dead weren't recorded that we know of, though Kesey & the Pranksters did record some of their own shenanigans, supposedly aided by Garcia:
ReplyDeletehttps://archive.org/details/gd1966-10-02.sbd.bershaw.5413.shnf
Nick Meriwether wrote a lengthy account of this event in the Taping Compendium, p.101-110.
A few memories are also here:
http://www.postertrip.com/public/5587.cfm
Pigpen was dosed at one of these shows, one of the few times he had acid. He did not like it; he told the others, "I don't feel well, I'm going home;" and left. So the Dead played without Pigpen that night.
It's worth noting that the Anonymous Artists of America, who also played a couple days here, were a group of Stanford students that included Garcia's wife Sara, who'd separated from him. She recalled, "Our music and presentation were psychedelic in the extreme."
As it turned out, ironically Sara and the AAA would play the actual Acid Test Graduation on October 31, while the Dead backed out to play a regular show.
https://twitter.com/headsnews/status/466578922654924800
I would be interested to read Nick Meriwether account. Having spoken with several of the performers a common theme is the lack of preparation for the musicians.
ReplyDeleteDoing due diligence before screening OFFON at the Exploratorium Feb 3 2016. Whatever It Was had a unique three screen island in the Cafeteria, one for each light show. Scott Bartlett designed the island. He and I (Tom DeWitt) illuminated one side. Gary Ewing did the next facet over, and the Whitney Brothers from LA projected their films on the third screen. Bands played under the screens and could be seen in the round. This was an innovative way to do a light show. We borrowed every 16 mm projector from the A/V section of the SF State library and powered them with an external generator. We almost blew them up until John Whitney, Jr. figured out how to interpret the reed tachometer on the rented generator truck and kicked us to 60 Hz from 30 Hz. The Bartlett/DeWitt light show was shown again at the Fillmore's Edwardian Ball a few weeks later. Kesey & Company threw their Graduation in our studio on Harriet Alley, remembered in Wolfe's book as "The Warehouse." As Whatever It Was wound down, the Pranksters amused themselves by tearing down our screen island. Scott was so upset when he saw the destruction, that he disappeared for days. I collected the remnants and assembled them into rooms inside our bay of "The Warehouse." The single strip film coming out of our light show is called OFFON. It was collected by the Library of Congress for the National Film Registry and can be found in hundreds of museums. I remember showing it to Mountain Girl when she came by for a visit in my editing room in Poughkeepsie, NY a few years later. "I've got to tell Garcia about this." she said. I hope she did.
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ReplyDeleteFrom Daily Cal 9-29-66 https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/55664#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=2&r=0&xywh=4467%2C464%2C4012%2C2438
ReplyDeleteI am wondering about the source of this itinerary. I took for granted that it was correct, but the contemporary accounts I've seen make it clear that the Dead played on Friday night Sep 30 in the Commons, then on Saturday night Oct 1 in the women's gym (with the Only Alternative). The festival ended early Sunday morning and I haven't seen any hint that there were more shows later that day.
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