I was listening to the Worst of Airplane some days ago in commemoration of having just read, for the second (not seconal) time, “The Electric Koolaid Acid Test” by Tom Wolfe. A non-fiction work of art, “true” as it were, the book records the antics of Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters as they trip and grok through the “LSD is not yet illegal” world of the 1960’s.
Most of the action takes place in the San Francisco Bay area and Mexico but includes a noted bus trip (no pun intended) to the East Coast and back. The thread of the book runs around the Kesey rapper, tripper, grokker persona, and his role as a polarizer or a freak. He definitely drew people to him who wallowed in his “our existence really means nothing until we can go beyond acid” attitude.
Items, bands, persona, and thoughts referenced in the book are randomly listed below. If you have any interest in the diverse history of the USA as relates to the 1960’s, “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” is a must read.
- Freedom of expression w/o criticism
- The bus
- The music and the recordings
- “The Movie”
- Getting the police involved in “The Movie”
- Owlsey Blues
- Beatles concert
- Stones concert
- The Grateful Dead
- The Hell’s Angels
- Writer and Poet Jack Kerouac who wrote “On the Road,” “Big Sur, and “Dharma Bums”
- Ken Kesey who wrote “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”
- Allen Ginsberg who wrote the poem “Howl,” not to be confused with the painting “Scream,” by Evard Munch
- Hunter S. Thompson who wrote “Hell’s Angels” and “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”
- Country Joe and the Fish