What was Owsley's callsign?

[Ed-VA3ES]

In the libretto for the Grateful Dead recording, "History Of The Dead, Vol 1 (Bear's Choice)", Owsley Stanley writes,  "When I became soundman for the Grateful Dead in 1966, I was already keenly interested in sound and recording. I had already worked in radio and television, as well as holding an amateur radio license." 

OK - so does anyone know what "Bear's" callsign was?   (BTW - today he lives in Australia.)

[w4bfs]

seems I heard that he also made or procured the Dead's lsd ... If you can find a copy of "Old and in the Way" take a listen ... I think he engineered this live recording .. yeehaw

[W2INR]

That is right  - - Purple Owsley. Good stuff sonny. They use to pass it around for free at the dead concerts and others,

He is also referenced in the "Electric Koolaid Acid Test" by Ken Kesey.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owsley_Stanley

[w8khk]

I recall attending a Dead concert in Boulder, Colorado in the university stadium.  Sometime in 70 or 71, I believe.  They had the band set up on scaffolds 5 stories high.  They played "Truckin" for an hour and 40 minutes solid.  Then the thunder storms rolled in, but they played on. 

Half way thru the show, the football players ran up and down the aisles with great big cardboard boxes.  Filled with baggies of grass.   Tossing it out to everyone in the audience.   A girl two rows down from me rolled her program into a cone, stuffed in the contents of the baggie, and lit it.  Then she passed the torch around for everyone to enjoy.   Those were the days!

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

They played "Truckin" for an hour and 40 minutes solid.

People thought they were a great jam band. Truth is they couldn't remember the next song in the set, so they continued the play the current one.

[Ed-VA3ES]

They played "Truckin" for an hour and 40 minutes solid.

  People thought they were a great jam band. Truth is they couldn't remember the next song in the set, so they continued the play the current one. 

Shhhh!  Don't give away secrets!   

But I will admit to being a Dead Head.  Since Aug. 6, 1967.     
Owsley copied Sandoz's  chemistry for making LSD.  He got it 99.99% close. Close enough!     He was the chemist for Haight-Ashbury from 1965 through 1967.    Gave most of it away for free.

[Carl WA1KPD]

But damn.... None of us 60s veterans remember his call
Is it a sign of the times, or our current time?
Carl / KPD

[W3SLK]

Carl said:

But damn.... None of us 6os veterans remember his call
Is it a sign of the times, or our current time?

Too much 'Electric Koolaid', or maybe not enough.

[N1ESE]

Bob Heil would know.

[W3SLK]

How about a 4-way hit of Windowpane??

[W2INR]

I would think one could look up his call in an old handbook. I would start in the late 50's up to the 70's.


No Sharing Mike

[W3FJJ]

OK - so does anyone know what "Bear's" callsign was?   (BTW - today he lives in Australia.)

W6LSD    

[Ed-VA3ES]

How about a 4-way hit of Windowpane??

Zane Kesey (Ken's son) sells "blotter art"...
http://www.key-z.com/special.html

Asking Bob Heil is  a  good suggestion.

[WBear2GCR]

Ummm... you could just email him and ask?

As far as their "remembering" the songs - they remembered the songs.
What they did with them is what 99.999% of any other band could not do, which was improvise on the fly. When it was good, it was very very good, and when it was bad, well it was just bad.

Almost every other band played and to this day still plays the "song" the same way night after night. Very few bands will vary anything, and fewer still will go out on a big limb the way the Dead did all the time.

If you old hippies have not seen it, rent, buy or borrow from the library a copy of Festival Express. The outake of the Dead doing Easy Wind is just outstanding, and Janis is simply electrifying. You can see a young Buddy Guy too...

                                  _-_-bear

[Bill, KD0HG]

OK, it goes like this:

A while back, Jerry Garcia and Eric Clapton were on an 'eco-safari' in the jungles of a Pacific island when they got separated from the tour and were captured by a lost tribe of cannibals. The cannibals' leader asked them if they had any requests before being thrown into the cooking pot. Garcia responded, "Would you give me my guitar so I can sing 'Truckin' one last time?"
The chief then asked Clapton the same question, to which Clapton replied, "..Would you eat me first?"

..

[Ed-VA3ES]

Ummm... you could just email him and ask?

D'oh!         His email is on his website!

As far as their "remembering" the songs - they remembered the songs.
What they did with them is what 99.999% of any other band could not do, which was improvise on the fly. When it was good, it was very very good, and when it was bad, well it was just bad.

Almost every other band played and to this day still plays the "song" the same way night after night. Very few bands will vary anything, and fewer still will go out on a big limb the way the Dead did all the time.

If you old hippies have not seen it, rent, buy or borrow from the library a copy of Festival Express. The outake of the Dead doing Easy Wind is just outstanding, and Janis is simply electrifying. You can see a young Buddy Guy too...                                  _-_-bear

I have that DVD, and it's one of my favorites!    (I missed seeing that entire entourage back in 1970, when the Mayor of Montreal banned the  Festival from Montreal. Boy, was I pissed!)  Yes!  see that movie!  The Dead, the Band, Buddy Guy, Flying Burrito Bros., Janis,   and several other excellent groups.  Indeed, the best stuff is the outakes....  the Dead's "Hard to Handle" is priceless.   

Hard to Handle:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKHn6jCYsdo

Easy Wind:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwbQN5_8Mys

   

[Ed-VA3ES]

The chief then asked Clapton the same question, to which Clapton replied, "..Would you eat me first?" 

Tell me  about it!       As much as a Dead Head as I am....   enough of that tune!   

[Ed-VA3ES]

Ummm... you could just email him and ask?                 _-_-bear

OK - so I just did.   Now, we'll see if he responds!

[KB1OKL]

Ummm... you could just email him and ask?

As far as their "remembering" the songs - they remembered the songs.
What they did with them is what 99.999% of any other band could not do, which was improvise on the fly. When it was good, it was very very good, and when it was bad, well it was just bad.

Almost every other band played and to this day still plays the "song" the same way night after night. Very few bands will vary anything, and fewer still will go out on a big limb the way the Dead did all the time.

If you old hippies have not seen it, rent, buy or borrow from the library a copy of Festival Express. The outake of the Dead doing Easy Wind is just outstanding, and Janis is simply electrifying. You can see a young Buddy Guy too...

                                  _-_-bear

Yes, good bands improvise and bad ones don't. The dead always improvised which is hard because most bands improvise when the spirit hits, not all the time, this is probably why some of their jams were good others not so good. I'm an old jammer myself although I was never a dead head. I have come to appreciate them during the past 20 years perhaps. I remember doing Owsley acid as a teen ager though and it was always the best stuff around. A lot of it up here in the north was probably bootleg Owsley but still good.
A friend of mine saw Ten Years After sometime around 1970 at an outside concert and to make a long story short gave them some good grass or hash or something (between songs supposedly) they then played an hour long version of The Stomp, haha!
I was at The Boston Tea Party in 1969 and a long haired chap walked by through the audience, another buddy stuck out an Amy to him (Amyl Nitrate), the guy grabbed it inhaled it and gave us a big smile, ten minutes later the same guy came walking out onstage, it was Joe Cocker.

[WD8BIL]

....came walking out onstage, it was Joe Cocker.

He usually came in through the bathroom window !!

[Bill, KD0HG]

....came walking out onstage, it was Joe Cocker.

He usually came in through the bathroom window !!

Good one, Bud

((Rim Shot))

[Ed-VA3ES]

-----Original Message-----
From: Bear
Sent: June 25, 2008 4:51 AM
To: Ed Sieb
Subject: Re: Your writings and Ham Radio...

I was K6HEN.  Last active in 1960.
--

Cheers.

Bear

http://www.thebear.org

[N1ESE]

K6HEN now belongs to a YL Technician in Hesperia, CA

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

I thought that was a Beetles' song composed by McCartney?

....came walking out onstage, it was Joe Cocker.

He usually came in through the bathroom window !!

Good one, Bud

((Rim Shot))

[Bill, KD0HG]

Didja know the Mad Dog Englishman Cocker has lived in Colorado for maybe the last 20 years?

He's even in the phone book:

Phonebook results for Joe Cocker
   
Joe Cocker     (970) 921-7625     43401 Cottonwood Creek Rd,  Crawford, CO 81415     Map

Reportedly he's well known in the local watering holes.

Cocker did the Beatles tunes better than the Beatles. But I will never forget John Belishi's characterization of Cocker on SNL.