I said to him, You guys are fucking around with something that people have known about forever. This guy made the best LSD of the '60s - New York Post Country * Trending His grandfather, also named Augustus Owsley Stanley, was a trust-busting Democratic congressman from Kentucky who spent twelve years in the House of Representatives. Last note: In 2005 Bear found out The Oxford English Dictionary had added a word: "owsley, N. An extremely potent, high-quality type of LSD; a tablet of this. We are truly soulmates after twenty-two years together, and our love is as strong today as it was in the beginning. He retained backstage access during this period, and his clientele included such notable figures as Keith Richards. The issue is available in the online archive. We had enough acid to blow the world apart. I am often asked about the origin of the so-called "dancing bears" which were commonly seen around GD shows. Born in 1935, Owsley was "authentic Bluegrass political royalty." His father was a prominent government attorney and his grandfather, Augustus Owsley Stanley, was elected governor of Kentucky in 1919 and served in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Owsley Stanley, famed Grateful Dead soundman and the first person to privately manufacture LSD, lived in the Poet's Corner cottage during the Summer of Love. OSF Doc & Merle Watson: Never the Same Way Once - Live at the Boarding House - May 1974 Double Vinyl Set. Stanley lived with his wife Sheilah (a former clerk in the Grateful Dead's ticket office) in the bush of Tropical North Queensland, where he worked to create sculpture and wearable art. He wanted to lose it. Thanks to Owsley, the Pranksters now had enough LSD on hand to begin throwing parties at which everyone could get a dose. Owsley Stanley, better known as the Bear, was the acid hero the 60s never knew it had. You can donate via our secure form, or send checks made out to the Owsley Stanley Foundation to: Owsley Stanley Foundation PO Box 625 Occidental, Ca 95465. Owsley Stanley | Military Wiki | Fandom Bear: The Owsley Stanley Story, Part Three - PS Audio The key element was "turn on" and it was Owsley . The Grateful Dead's "Wall of Sound" was a massive sound system designed by LSD chemist, Owsley Stanley. Owsley Stanley was a counterculture transformer famous for the purity of two things: the LSD he cooked up and the rock 'n' roll sound system he created. 94tracks reflecting a broad cross-section of musical forms, including bluegrass, blues, folk, country, swing jazz, and rockabilly, among others. Lenny Hart and Owsley, who had never trusted preachers anyway, got on like oil and water. Based on past evidence, the sea will rise 300 meters, and life in some places will be entirely destroyed. Under the professional name Bear, he was the soundman for the rock band the Grateful Dead, whom he met when Ken Kesey invited them to an Acid Test party. Gallery: Random Notes, Rocks Hottest Photos. While doing two years in federal prison in the early Seventies for manufacturing acid, Owsley taught himself how to make jewelry. An Amazon Best Book of November 2016: Most people with passing knowledge of San Francisco and the 60s are familiar with the main players: the Grateful Dead, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, the Hells Angels, et al, but how many know of August Owsley Stanley III, aka Owsley, aka Bear? Had it not been for Sheilah, he says, I dont think I would have survived. David Lindley, Multi-Instrumentalist Who Shaped the Sound of Soft Rock, Dead at 78 Grateful Dead Artist Page: Photos, Videos and More, For the past twenty years, Owsley has lived off the grid in a remote section of Australian rain forest. The "Save The Music!" The Wall of Sound fulfilled Owsley's desire for a distortion-free sound system that could also serve as its own monitoring system. Stanley moved to Australia in 1982, and frequently returned to the United States to sell his jewelry (which commanded high prices) on Grateful Dead tours. He also studied ballet, Russian and French. Under the professional name Bear, he was the soundman for the rock band the Grateful Dead, whom he met when Ken Kesey invited them . Bear wanted to be the sound man, and he was not the sound man, and he just never got it, because he had a single vision. He dropped out after a semester, took a technical job at KGO-TV, and began producing LSD in a small lab located in the bathroom of a house near campus; his makeshift laboratory was raided by police on February 21, 1965. Owsley Stanley, a.k.a. After Stanley got out of prison in late 1972, he, Dan Healy and Mark Raizene of the Grateful Dead . We had Meet the Beatles! ALWAYS enter lists of addressses (greater than 2) in the Bcc: line. As their sound engineer, Stanley frequently recorded live tapes behind his mixing board and developed their Wall of Sound sound system, one of the largest mobile public address systems ever constructed. So they never became visual, they stayed in the oral world, which is, everything is part of reality. The price I had to pay to get through the gate. Reach out if you have questions, or to see how you can support the Owsley Stanley Foundation. Owsley Stanley Obituary (2011) - Burlington, VT - Legacy.com Owsley Stanley: The King of LSD - Rolling Stone When the Dead declined to do so, Owsley found himself in what McNally calls limbo. Shifting his focus to what he knew best, the science of sound, Owsley began working on a revolutionary new system that would deliver crystal-clear audio in the big hockey arenas and indoor stadiums the Dead were now selling out. I dont care who you are. It turned out that it wasnt., The senior arresting officer, aware of Owsleys status, noted that the bust would probably cause panic in the streets because to a lot of hippies, their idol has fallen. He added that Owsley was actually a psychedelic missionary who gives the impression that he feels the average person can never actually know himself without turning on with LSD., As Owsleys case dragged through the courts for the next two years, he stopped making acid and worked as the sound man at the Carousel Ballroom for three months before it was bought by Bill Graham and renamed the Fillmore West. N o one did more to alter the consciousness of the generation that came of age in the 1960s than Augustus Owsley Stanley (who passed away March 13 . He has parlayed this talent into a career, crafting belt buckles and pendants for everyone from KeithRichards to Jackson Browne that sell for as much as $20,000. Living in Marin County, he supported himself doing sound for Jefferson Starship and Phil Lesh and selling his jewelry backstage, in arena parking lots and in hotel bars after shows whenever the Grateful Dead toured. Bear: The Owsley Stanley Story, Part Two - PS Audio Suddenly, his eyes redden and he is nearly reduced to tears. He was the key supplier of LSD during the 60s Hippie movem. 5 out of 5 stars (955) $ 29.95. By the time Owsley returned to the Dead in August 1972, Dennis McNally says, It was a different world. (He has also never willingly allowed his photograph to be taken.) Owsley "Bear" Stanleyinterview by David GansJanuary 13, 1991KPFA (94.1 FM) Radio ArchivesAugustus Owsley Stanley III (January 19, 1935 - March 12, 2011) was . I generally was not much of a consumer., Concerning much of what has been attributed to him during this period, Owsley says, The only thing I havent been associated with is walking on the moon, for Christs sake. Owsley did not parachute in to the Human Be-In in January 1967, as was widely reported, but he did provide 300,000 hits of acid called White Lightning for the event. My mother died a few months into the experience, but it was there I sorted out my guilt problems about not being able to love my parents, and I came out of it pretty clear. After leaving the public high school, where his physics teacher gave him a D for pointing out that she had contradicted the textbook, he attended the University of Virginia for a year. Add to Favorites Dancing Bear patch, Grateful Dead patch, Owsley Stanley patch, Iron on patch, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Dead and Company, Shakedown . His father was a government attorney. The Owsley Stanley Foundation is a 501c (3) non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of "Bear's Sonic Journals," Owsley's archive of more than 1,300 live concert soundboard recordings from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, including recordings by Miles Davis, Johnny Cash, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Fleetwood Mac . At the end of Hendrixs live version of the Beatles Day Tripper, recorded at the BBC studios in 1967, he can be heard calling out, Oh, Owsley, can you hear me now? In 1976, Steely Dan burnished Owsleys myth by recording Kid Charlemagne: While the music played/You worked by candlelight/ Those San Francisco nights/You were the best in town. Donations are much appreciated, and are in fact essential to our ability to preserve and release future recordings! as Owsley acid." The Owsley Stanley Foundations Seventh release of Bears Sonic Journals: Merry-Go-Round at the Carousel features Tim Buckley at his jazzy, improvisational best, including the only known recordings of several Buckley originals and a stunning medley showcasing a version of Fred Neils, Merry-Go-Round.. A year later, Mario Savio made his historic Free Speech Movement address from atop a police car to student protesters gathered outside Sproul Hall. Wall Street Journal. Scully soon learned that Owsley Stanley possessed a large amount (440 grams) of lysergic acid monohydrate. Our staff is entirely comprised of volunteers, and many of the support services necessary to run the organization have been donated by generous contributors that believe in the mission to save this music before it is lost forever. [6], He died in a car accident in Australia (where he had taken citizenship in 1996) on March 12, 2011. Owsley Stanley - Man who created 300,000 hits of Acid in his - YouTube Berkeley's historic Troll House sells for $1.4 million They were all gone. He used his Berkeley lab to buy 500grams of lysergic acid monohydrate, the basis for LSD. The altercation led Stanley to request the formal codification of his perceived managerial power over the equipment staff, including unprecedented hire/fire privileges. You have to be very careful, because there are all these warnings. Stanley, known as Bear, earned the moniker "King of Acid . Even though Owsley had already put about $50,000 into the band and would no longer be working for them, he told the Dead to pick out new equipment and send him the bill. [27], Although Stanley stopped touring with the band following their refusal of his demands, he continued to be employed by the Grateful Dead. It was always in a safe place, and nobody had a clue, because I never told anyone I did that., Despite his precautions, thirteen agents broke into a house in the East Bay that Owsley had rented for the express purpose of making tabs. He had this stuff, and we thought it might be good, Owsley says. Believing there is no past and no future because everything exists only in present time, it never occurs to him to drive five minutes out of his way to the Monterey Fairgrounds where, forty years ago, his high-powered rocket fuel helped launch the Summer of Love. During the past month, he has dispensed with 1,400 of them. Concise Early History Of Alembic - Guitar Gavel Although no man knows the exact time, we feel that time is very near! [16], Stanley met the members of the Grateful Dead during 1965. Signed & Numbered Augustus Owsley Stanley III Mark Serlo Psychedelic LSD Blotter Art Psychedelic Acid Free Paper Ad vertisement by PremiumBlotter. Without his technical innovations he was one of the first people to mix concerts live and in stereo the band might never have emerged from the San Francisco scene. Until then, the drug had been available in America only to those conducting serious medical research. I was just a neurotic kid, he says. Youre dealing with part of the unconscious mind that they used to define as angels and devils. Bear Story Three weeks later, on January 8th, 1966, Owsley sashayed into the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco for another Acid Test.