What was Owsley's callsign?

[KB1OKL]

I occasionally play with a guitarist who was his musical director for 12 years from approx 1976 to 1988.  His whole band was from Worcester, MA. for the first 4 years of this time.  I see most of them around here and there, especially the drummer and this guitarist. Modesty prevents my putting his name in
Joe Cocker was with The Grease Band who later played at Woodstock and played at least on his first album, Jimmy Page and Steve Winwood played on that album too.

[KB1OKL]

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))

It was and one of his best for me, his first few tunes were Beatles tunes, With a Little Help from my Friends was his first hit and was from the Sgt. Pepper album.

[KB1OKL]

I didn't realize that I had hijacked this thread, sorry. Did Bear say what he used for a rig?

[The Slab Bacon]

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

Yes, that image is permanently etched into my head. Maybe he got that way from all of that Amyl Nitrate

[Ed-VA3ES]

I didn't realize that I had hijacked this thread, sorry. Did Bear say what he used for a rig?

Unfortunately, no.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Knowing what I know of you Ed, it's difficult to conceive of you as a Dead Head! 

The best part of Belushi's Cocker impersonation was seeing ol' Joe wander out onto the stage next to him and stare, like....wtf is that?!

[Ed-VA3ES]

Knowing what I know of you Ed, it's difficult to conceive of you as a Dead Head! 

 
If you only knew, Todd...  if you only knew!

I have been a long-time fan of the Dead, and a connoisseur of the Merry Pranksters.   I was a hippie then, and still consider myself a hippie now, notwithstanding my  current life-style.    I may be a conservative  NRA member, but I'm still a hippie at heart.     I and W2JTD have had more than a few pleasant QSO's about these subjects. 

[Bill, KD0HG]

Knowing what I know of you Ed, it's difficult to conceive of you as a Dead Head! 

 
If you only knew, Todd...  if you only knew!

I have been a long-time fan of the Dead, and a connoisseur of the Merry Pranksters.   I was a hippie then, and still consider myself a hippie now, notwithstanding my  current life-style.    I may be a conservative  NRA member, but I'm still a hippie at heart.     I and W2JTD have had more than a few pleasant QSO's about these subjects. 

That's good, Ed. Yes, I see all too much pigeonholing of people, I really dislike it.

Here's a good one: A few years ago a good friend left the Marines and we were out target shooting.
Later on, he says, "Now that's a scary concept...A 'liberal' like you with guns!"
I still laugh about it every time I remember.

[WD8BIL]

I see all too much pigeonholing of people, I really dislike it.

We are what we eat !!

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

That's good, Ed. Yes, I see all too much pigeonholing of people, I really dislike it.

You old guys have to keep in mind that I grew up with the 're-issue' Dead Heads and hippies, not the originals. They had moved on to glue sniffing and other, more refined ways of...enlightenment, and seemed more intent on fulfilling their version of a label (or promoting a pigeon hole persona) than being themselves.

My best bud from high school became a Dead Head in college and ended up later rooming with the guys who formed Phish, heirs-apparent to the G.D. throne. They lifted a lot of 'their' stuff from bands like XTC and others, probably common in the music biz. Many time when I went to the house to pick him up for a night in downtown Burlington, they'd be jamming. Last time I heard them was at his wedding reception. Try as they may, they were no Grateful Dead. Or XTC. Music, like movies, never seems as good in the remake. I was more into the Floyd. 

But life has a way of balancing it out. Some friends who are very liberal by their own definition have been astounded to discover that I enjoy classical music, prefer Beethoven's Symphony 7 to his more famous 5th, drink, enjoy, and actually know something about wine, and even know who Friedrich Nietzsche is(was?). Apparently my simple, traditional views and any amount of intellect aren't suppose to peacefully co-exist, my head should have exploded years ago. Fortunately we all just get a simple laugh out of it along with another reality check.

But I'm still chuckling, Ed. An event to share with Paul the next time I see him (if he's not already reading this).

 

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

There were really only about 3 or 4 real hippies. The rest were copycats and wannabees.

[AF9J]

I don't know.  Jam bands just never turned me on. Be they the Grateful Dead. Phish (whom, broke up afew years ago, or took an extended haitus), or Widespread Panic.  Maybe it becuse I was one of the original Thrash Metal kids.   I was in a band about 17 years ago, that did a jam band song.  It just got kind of old going on and on with the song (I wanted to cry out, "enough already!").   Oh well, maybe it's the Gen Xer in me.

BTW Todd, I know what you mean about the 2nd generation Dead Heads.  When I was just out of college, I briefly worked with a guy who was around my age, who was a total Dead Head ("Sugar Magnolia", and "Casey Jones" were his favorite songs IIRC). He wound up getting busted for drug dealing.

Isn't music cool to discuss (especially since so many AMers are really into it)?

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[k3zrf]

There were really only about 3 or 4 real hippies. The rest were copycats and wannabees.

Then you know them all......the real ones 

[AF9J]

My high school aged son is into Bob Marley, the Clash and the Ramones.

Dad likes classic rock, bluegrass, classical and jam bands like Widespread Panic.

Go figure. Things go in cycles.

Or maybe we both need professional help.

I wanna be sedated.

Well Bill,

The Ramones are defunct.  They called it quits several years ago (Johnny Ramone [the guitar player] & Joey Ramone [the singer] decided that it was silly be be a bunch of 50-somethings in a punk rock band [I find that debatable, but, oh well]).  3 of the 4 original members are dead.  Dee Dee (the original bass player) was kicked out for having an out-of control drug habit. He ODed & died in the 90s.  Johnny Ramone died a few years ago of prostate cancer.  Joey Ramone died of pancreatic cancer about 3 or 4 years ago.

As for The Clash (I've been listening to them since the late 70s - the only Clash worth listening to is from the first 2 albums: "The Clash"; and "Give 'em Enough Rope", the song " Should I Stay or Should I Go" - yecch!) - well, they're REALLY done for as of 3 years ago. At that time, (just as they were about to do a reunion album) Joe Strummer (the singer & rhythm guitarist) died of a heart attack at age 52.  Fender sells a Joe Strummer model Telecaster, that's meant to be a faithful recreation of Joe's, complete with the banged up body, and rusty bridge for the strings.

Bob Marley - well we all know what smoking too many spliffs did to that devout Rasta's lungs (a little trivia - the guitar amp that Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols used to record "Anarchy in the UK", was a Fender Twin Reverb, he stole from a Bob Marley concert).

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[KB2WIG]

                                                                         .

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

There were really only about 3 or 4 real hippies. The rest were copycats and wannabees.

Then you know them all......the real ones 

So I know at least two. Haven't met Ed (yet), and G doesn't qualify, he was a 'musician'. 

Isn't music cool to discuss (especially since so many AMers are really into it)?

Yep, I think that's the meaning behind the QSO section: a general discussion of topics AMers enjoy. I was never really a Metalhead/thrash fan, though. More enjoyed the innovation, original sounds and styles, and so on. London Calling, Rock the Casbah, even groups like the Primitives (Tracy Tracey was a bit on the pale side) and others are enjoyable to me perhaps for nostalgia as much or more than the actual tune or lyrics. Memories of simpler times, not unlike preferring the experience of using old tube gear to the convenience and features of new stuff.

Cool that Ed heard back from 'the guy' himself. The wonders of the internet occasionally approach the wonders of radio. Occasionally.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

                                                                         .

[KB1OKL]

That's good, Ed. Yes, I see all too much pigeonholing of people, I really dislike it.

You old guys have to keep in mind that I grew up with the 're-issue' Dead Heads and hippies, not the originals. They had moved on to glue sniffing and other, more refined ways of...enlightenment, and seemed more intent on fulfilling their version of a label (or promoting a pigeon hole persona) than being themselves.

My best bud from high school became a Dead Head in college and ended up later rooming with the guys who formed Phish, heirs-apparent to the G.D. throne. They lifted a lot of 'their' stuff from bands like XTC and others, probably common in the music biz. Many time when I went to the house to pick him up for a night in downtown Burlington, they'd be jamming. Last time I heard them was at his wedding reception. Try as they may, they were no Grateful Dead. Or XTC. Music, like movies, never seems as good in the remake. I was more into the Floyd. 

But life has a way of balancing it out. Some friends who are very liberal by their own definition have been astounded to discover that I enjoy classical music, prefer Beethoven's Symphony 7 to his more famous 5th, drink, enjoy, and actually know something about wine, and even know who Friedrich Nietzsche is(was?). Apparently my simple, traditional views and any amount of intellect aren't suppose to peacefully co-exist, my head should have exploded years ago. Fortunately we all just get a simple laugh out of it along with another reality check.

But I'm still chuckling, Ed. An event to share with Paul the next time I see him (if he's not already reading this).

 

What was the name of that club they used to play all the time before they got famous? It was on the right hand side of (Main St?) going down the hill towards the lake. I lived on St. Paul St for a while from 95-98. In fact I was living near White River Junction working in a restaurant called Brooksies in Sharon VT when I heard the news that Jerry Garcia had died.
I'm 55 and was one of the multitude of plastic hippy's, hitched to CA in 69 when I was 16 and ended up in San Diego, two years too late and two city's too far south. 

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

San Fran was a little late too. The rock scene was initially centered in LA because of the recording studios, bands like the Beach Boys, the Mama & Papas, The Byrds, and venues like The Troubador Club
Whisky A Go-Go.

[w1guh]

All this great discussion, and nobody knows Owsley's callsign.  Prolly because he didn't really push the fact that he was a ham too much.  Back then, ham radio was the absolute antithesis of what he was into.  Might still be today.

And 'HUZ -- "There were really only about 3 or 4 real hippies. The rest were copycats and wannabees."

Would you care to enumerate who those "3 or 4" were?  How about a thread where we discuss who's a "real" hippie and who isn't?

[Bill, KD0HG]

Owsley has already replied to an email, his call sign was K6HEN.
Posted here a week or two ago.

[WBear2GCR]

There were no real hippies.
Not ever.

That's because it is/was a term that was coined by the media at the time to describe anyone who had long hair and was protesting the Veetnam war.

I think that there were a substantial number of people who genuinely aspired to live differently than the 40s & 50s "standard 9 to 5 suburban house" American way. But the vast majority were merely going along with the trend, and being opportunistic in all regards, imho.

Even friggin Jerry Rubin became a <gasp> stockbroker!

Out of those who genuinely aspired and did something about it, the results were mostly less than stellar, which is sad.

Otoh, the whole affair did serve to change some things about society for the better, but perhaps only because those who came before us are now gone and can no longer disapprove and do other things along those lines?

Imho, far too many who were "there" forgot, if they ever knew, what its best was all about and proceeded down the same old path... perhaps oblivious to the potential that was there.

The South Shall Rise Again! ... oh wait a second, that's something else...   

                    _-_-bear

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

My point exactly. Most were wannabes or just  going along with the crowd - no  different than teenagers today. The real hippies came along well before the 60's and are long since dead. None of it was original.

There were no real hippies.
Not ever.

That's because it is/was a term that was coined by the media at the time to describe anyone who had long hair and was protesting the Veetnam war.

I think that there were a substantial number of people who genuinely aspired to live differently than the 40s & 50s "standard 9 to 5 suburban house" American way. But the vast majority were merely going along with the trend, and being opportunistic in all regards, imho.

Even friggin Jerry Rubin became a <gasp> stockbroker!

Out of those who genuinely aspired and did something about it, the results were mostly less than stellar, which is sad.

Otoh, the whole affair did serve to change some things about society for the better, but perhaps only because those who came before us are now gone and can no longer disapprove and do other things along those lines?

Imho, far too many who were "there" forgot, if they ever knew, what its best was all about and proceeded down the same old path... perhaps oblivious to the potential that was there.

The South Shall Rise Again! ... oh wait a second, that's something else...  

                    _-_-bear

[ka3zlr]

Frank Said it best..."The whole thing was a bad sell to begin with"...LOL...

[Ed-VA3ES]

Being a connoisseur and  historian of hippies and the counterculture, I can definitively say that the original hippies, the Merry Pranksters, existed from 1963 on.   By 1966, the whole "movement" had matured, and the second generation was already joining.  By January of 1967, and "The Great Be-In" at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco,  hippies were on the way out.