1 00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:12,039 Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. 2 00:00:13,560 --> 00:00:17,560 Speaker 2: The stories about The Grateful Dead are insane. Singer guitarist 3 00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:22,800 Speaker 2: Jerry Garcia dosed unsuspecting film crews with LSD. Drummer Bill 4 00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:26,840 Speaker 2: Kurtzman reportedly slept with thirteen women in one night. The 5 00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:29,479 Speaker 2: band was arrested in New Orleans with enough acid and 6 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:33,680 Speaker 2: assorted drugs to fuel an alternate moonlanding. The Grateful Dead 7 00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:36,519 Speaker 2: were born out of the sonic boom of nineteen sixties 8 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:40,120 Speaker 2: counterculture and carried the mantle further and longer and with 9 00:00:40,159 --> 00:00:44,239 Speaker 2: more significance than any of their sixties counterparts. They were 10 00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:47,040 Speaker 2: also kept under the watchful eye of the CIA, who, 11 00:00:47,080 --> 00:00:49,440 Speaker 2: along with the indirect help of the Grateful Dead and 12 00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:53,440 Speaker 2: their patron saint slash soundman Augustus Ousley Stanley the Third, 13 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:57,360 Speaker 2: were directly responsible for the mainstreaming of hippie idealism and 14 00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:01,600 Speaker 2: ethos of tune in, turn on, and drop out freedom. 15 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:04,959 Speaker 2: The Grateful Dead believed in freedom to their core and 16 00:01:05,040 --> 00:01:07,600 Speaker 2: adhere to this belief throughout one of the longest and 17 00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:10,960 Speaker 2: most successful runs in music history. And they made great 18 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:14,199 Speaker 2: music along the way, some of the greatest music ever made. 19 00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:16,399 Speaker 2: And that music you heard at the top of the show. 20 00:01:16,680 --> 00:01:19,560 Speaker 2: That wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from 21 00:01:19,600 --> 00:01:25,440 Speaker 2: my melotron called mellow Flute hodown BK one. I played 22 00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:27,640 Speaker 2: you that loop because I can't afford the rights to 23 00:01:27,959 --> 00:01:31,280 Speaker 2: Missus Brown. You get a lovely daughter by Herman's Hermit's 24 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:34,400 Speaker 2: And why would I play you that specific slice of 25 00:01:34,480 --> 00:01:36,000 Speaker 2: adolescent shindig Cheese? 26 00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:36,880 Speaker 3: Could I afford it? 27 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:40,680 Speaker 2: Because that was the number one song in America on 28 00:01:40,760 --> 00:01:43,760 Speaker 2: May fifth, nineteen sixty five, And that was the day 29 00:01:43,760 --> 00:01:47,840 Speaker 2: that Mother mccree's Uptown jug Champions walked into Magoo's Pizza 30 00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:50,320 Speaker 2: to play their first show, a band that would soon 31 00:01:50,400 --> 00:01:53,080 Speaker 2: change their name to the Warlocks and then to The 32 00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:56,240 Speaker 2: Grateful Dead and become one of the most influential bands 33 00:01:56,280 --> 00:02:00,520 Speaker 2: the world has ever known. On this episode, meo hodew 34 00:02:00,920 --> 00:02:03,680 Speaker 2: adolescent Cheese, way too much LSD. 35 00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:05,040 Speaker 3: In The Grateful Dead. 36 00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:22,760 Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland. Charles Manson, the 37 00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:26,840 Speaker 2: psychotic cult leader behind the Tate LaBianca murders, murders so 38 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:30,919 Speaker 2: brutal they gripped the nation, once said that giving someone 39 00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:34,680 Speaker 2: LSD without their knowledge and act known by hippies ays 40 00:02:34,919 --> 00:02:38,519 Speaker 2: dosing was something that he would never do, not even 41 00:02:38,560 --> 00:02:44,040 Speaker 2: to his worst enemy. Despite Manson's murderous and manipulative behavior, 42 00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:48,360 Speaker 2: dosing someone was a bridge too far. Why well, because 43 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:52,320 Speaker 2: it was just too fucked up. Unsuspecting individuals suddenly under 44 00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:55,960 Speaker 2: the influence of insanely powerful psychedelic chemicals. We're in for 45 00:02:56,040 --> 00:02:59,760 Speaker 2: a terrifying ride, perhaps one they'd never re emerge from 46 00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:02,720 Speaker 2: the high of being on acid. The trip is so 47 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:06,079 Speaker 2: intense that it is life punctuating. You ride a roller 48 00:03:06,080 --> 00:03:10,160 Speaker 2: coaster of emotions. You see yourself and everything around you differently, 49 00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:13,239 Speaker 2: and I don't mean figuratively, I mean literally. That's why 50 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:17,280 Speaker 2: they call it hallucinating. You're never the same afterward. Those 51 00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:20,840 Speaker 2: who willingly drop LSD know this already. It's a choice 52 00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:23,520 Speaker 2: they've made, one that is born, sometimes out of a 53 00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:27,840 Speaker 2: great notion of self exploration, to open previously unknown doors 54 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:31,160 Speaker 2: of perception, to become a more enlightened version of oneself. 55 00:03:31,760 --> 00:03:35,520 Speaker 2: That's the theory, anyway. The reality is that you trip balls, 56 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:39,040 Speaker 2: your mind scrambled like yesterday's eggs. You laugh at nothing 57 00:03:39,080 --> 00:03:42,000 Speaker 2: in everything. You feel connected to the world, the universe 58 00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:44,400 Speaker 2: in a strong or more visceral way, and for the 59 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:47,640 Speaker 2: first four hours you ascend the great cosmic ladder until 60 00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:51,000 Speaker 2: you peak midway through the eight hour high, your body 61 00:03:51,040 --> 00:03:53,760 Speaker 2: and mind literally buzzing in harmony with the entirety of 62 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:59,040 Speaker 2: your surroundings. And then the road you're on turns. It's darker, bumpier. 63 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:03,680 Speaker 2: You question everything, including yourself. Nothing makes sense, It's all 64 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:07,120 Speaker 2: some sick joke. You hate yourself because you're unrecognizable, just 65 00:04:07,160 --> 00:04:09,920 Speaker 2: like all that surrounds you. You hold on for dear life, 66 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:12,720 Speaker 2: white knuckling your way through the remaining hours of your trip, 67 00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:16,760 Speaker 2: descending down Jacob's ladder, past the horrifying screams of your psyche, 68 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:19,000 Speaker 2: praying to God that you land in a place where 69 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:21,200 Speaker 2: you can still recognize the person you used to be, 70 00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:24,200 Speaker 2: swearing to your Lord and Savior the whole way down 71 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:26,200 Speaker 2: that you'll never ever touch the stuff again. 72 00:04:26,520 --> 00:04:28,200 Speaker 3: Then hours later you. 73 00:04:28,279 --> 00:04:34,320 Speaker 2: Crash, emerging from the trip with the worst hangover you've 74 00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:37,200 Speaker 2: ever experienced and the feeling that the only thing that 75 00:04:37,240 --> 00:04:40,560 Speaker 2: will save you from its debilitating grip is strong grass 76 00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:45,680 Speaker 2: and quite possibly more acid. And thanks to the CIA, 77 00:04:45,839 --> 00:04:49,720 Speaker 2: Americans have plenty of acid at their disposal. In the 78 00:04:49,839 --> 00:04:53,880 Speaker 2: nineteen fifties, the Central Intelligence Agency theorized that if LSD 79 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:57,160 Speaker 2: was capable of altering one's perception, then it could be 80 00:04:57,320 --> 00:04:59,720 Speaker 2: used by the military as a form of mind control 81 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:03,280 Speaker 2: in the ongoing Cold War with the Soviet Union. So, 82 00:05:03,960 --> 00:05:07,360 Speaker 2: under a top secret government program known as mk Ultra, 83 00:05:07,640 --> 00:05:11,200 Speaker 2: the CIA began testing the new drug on military personnel 84 00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:15,200 Speaker 2: and even civilians to measure its effectiveness and thus calibrate 85 00:05:15,279 --> 00:05:21,600 Speaker 2: its usefulness as a weapon. Unsuspecting military contractors, mental patients, prisoners, 86 00:05:21,640 --> 00:05:26,520 Speaker 2: street walking john's, and sex workers were experimented on, dosed, decoded, 87 00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:31,360 Speaker 2: and disregarded, despite whatever lasting effects the acid had on them. 88 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:35,760 Speaker 2: Noted in alleged subjects of mk Ultra experiments included Boston 89 00:05:35,839 --> 00:05:40,640 Speaker 2: gangster Whitey Bulger, eventual unibomber, Ted Gazinski, future Grateful dead 90 00:05:40,720 --> 00:05:44,080 Speaker 2: lyricist Robert Hunter and author of the best selling novel 91 00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:49,159 Speaker 2: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Ken Kesey, one military scientist, 92 00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:52,840 Speaker 2: unaware he'd been dosed by his CIA colleagues, believed he 93 00:05:52,880 --> 00:05:56,520 Speaker 2: could fly, and so famously jumped through the glass window 94 00:05:56,600 --> 00:05:59,120 Speaker 2: of his bedroom on the thirteenth floor of the Statler 95 00:05:59,200 --> 00:06:02,680 Speaker 2: Hotel in New York, York City. That was in nineteen 96 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:07,920 Speaker 2: fifty three. In nineteen sixty nine, Jerry Garcia, guitar player 97 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:10,800 Speaker 2: and singer of the world's pre eminent psychedelic band, The 98 00:06:10,839 --> 00:06:15,800 Speaker 2: Grateful Dead, knew nothing of the Flying Statler scientist. He did, however, 99 00:06:15,880 --> 00:06:18,919 Speaker 2: know the effects of dosing someone with LSD, but he 100 00:06:18,960 --> 00:06:22,920 Speaker 2: didn't care. To Garcia, it wasn't about fucking with someone 101 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:25,800 Speaker 2: so much as it was about enlightening them, getting them 102 00:06:25,800 --> 00:06:29,400 Speaker 2: on his level, and Garcia's level was high as fuck. 103 00:06:29,720 --> 00:06:32,240 Speaker 2: He and his bandmates made sport out of tripping on 104 00:06:32,400 --> 00:06:36,520 Speaker 2: powerful LSD. The Dead were professionals who used the drug 105 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:39,000 Speaker 2: to explore the outer limits of where their music could 106 00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:43,520 Speaker 2: take both them and their live audiences together further, which 107 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:47,520 Speaker 2: is precisely why Garcia, aka Captain Trips, was hunched over 108 00:06:47,560 --> 00:06:50,200 Speaker 2: the coffee maker on the set of Hugh Hefner's cheesy 109 00:06:50,240 --> 00:06:54,640 Speaker 2: television Studio, secretly mixing high octane LSD into the hot 110 00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:58,400 Speaker 2: black java mischievous grin on his mug. He was dosing 111 00:06:58,440 --> 00:07:00,560 Speaker 2: anyone who'd be on the set or in the made 112 00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:03,640 Speaker 2: for TV audience that his band was about to perform for. 113 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:07,479 Speaker 2: Because if The Grateful Dead were going to perform, Garcia 114 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:10,360 Speaker 2: wanted the audience to be on his level, a level 115 00:07:10,400 --> 00:07:13,840 Speaker 2: that this audience was far from naturally inclined to be on. 116 00:07:16,280 --> 00:07:19,720 Speaker 2: Playboy After Dark was the brainchild of Hugh Hefner, editor 117 00:07:19,720 --> 00:07:23,120 Speaker 2: of the men's magazine Playboy, a sort of TV version 118 00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:26,640 Speaker 2: of the Playboy philosophy, a free flowing, televised salon of 119 00:07:26,720 --> 00:07:30,480 Speaker 2: sixty zeit guy staged in half small screen bachelor pad, 120 00:07:30,800 --> 00:07:34,120 Speaker 2: pseudo intellectualism, subverse of sex, as much skin as the 121 00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:38,640 Speaker 2: sensors would allow, rocks, glasses and stems for days. Hefner 122 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:42,080 Speaker 2: positioned himself at the center of mid century masculinity, a 123 00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:46,200 Speaker 2: reimagining of sexual norms and personal freedom, not unlike the 124 00:07:46,240 --> 00:07:48,960 Speaker 2: thinking of the Grateful Dead. But where the band and 125 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:52,520 Speaker 2: the man differed was in style. The Grateful Dead presented 126 00:07:52,560 --> 00:07:57,840 Speaker 2: themselves as a ragtag group of music surrealists. Hefner presented himself, 127 00:07:57,920 --> 00:08:02,000 Speaker 2: his magazine and his television show as sophisticated, far more 128 00:08:02,080 --> 00:08:05,920 Speaker 2: down draper than Salvador Dali, and that difference in style 129 00:08:06,160 --> 00:08:09,120 Speaker 2: was seen by the Dead as being square and squares 130 00:08:09,160 --> 00:08:10,600 Speaker 2: made for shitty audiences. 131 00:08:10,760 --> 00:08:12,080 Speaker 3: So Garcia dosed them. 132 00:08:12,760 --> 00:08:16,600 Speaker 2: The result was wild, unhinged freedom, a coming together two 133 00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:20,000 Speaker 2: seemingly different types of people ascending the cosmos on the 134 00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:25,480 Speaker 2: sounds of Psychedelia. Pre Dead performance, the set was humming, 135 00:08:25,720 --> 00:08:29,120 Speaker 2: Garcia tripping, waxing poetic with hef on the Aurora Boris 136 00:08:29,600 --> 00:08:33,080 Speaker 2: sid Caesar hung back, banged down barbituates in straight vodka, 137 00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:36,640 Speaker 2: and felt an unknown buzz settle about his brain, and 138 00:08:36,679 --> 00:08:40,280 Speaker 2: the show's PA searched frantically for that night's guest astrologist, 139 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:42,920 Speaker 2: who was last seen circling unknown rabbit holes. 140 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:45,600 Speaker 3: Backstage. 141 00:08:47,040 --> 00:08:49,280 Speaker 2: The rest of the Grateful Dead sat on the Playboy 142 00:08:49,320 --> 00:08:53,439 Speaker 2: after Dark stage, patiently waiting for their singer, Jerry Garcia, 143 00:08:53,520 --> 00:08:57,080 Speaker 2: who was now making his way through the manufactured television audience, 144 00:08:57,360 --> 00:09:00,640 Speaker 2: wearing his familiar shit eating all knowing grit in the 145 00:09:00,640 --> 00:09:03,640 Speaker 2: one that perfectly matched the green and orange drug rug 146 00:09:03,679 --> 00:09:07,400 Speaker 2: he was wearing. Cameras rolled the crowd queued into the 147 00:09:07,480 --> 00:09:11,600 Speaker 2: imminent performance, and their applause grew louder. Someone confused by 148 00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:14,559 Speaker 2: the acid boot someone else yelled out, you're the Dead. 149 00:09:14,960 --> 00:09:20,000 Speaker 2: Garcia shouldered as acoustic and slyly responded, right you are, laughs, 150 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:23,680 Speaker 2: giddy pitched anticipation, a quick check of the tuning on 151 00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:26,000 Speaker 2: the sixth string, and straight into mountains of the moon. 152 00:09:26,760 --> 00:09:30,080 Speaker 2: When the song ended, the audience, having suffered through an 153 00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:33,160 Speaker 2: uninspired version of the tune, leaned a bit too heavily 154 00:09:33,160 --> 00:09:36,080 Speaker 2: into their applause, excited more for what they hoped was 155 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:38,840 Speaker 2: to come than what they just tolerated, and what was 156 00:09:38,840 --> 00:09:41,760 Speaker 2: to come was worth the weight. The Grateful Dead fell 157 00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:45,600 Speaker 2: in soulfully to Saint Stephen. Garcia now swung an electric 158 00:09:45,800 --> 00:09:48,840 Speaker 2: sg and it sung a wildly psychedelic and different tune 159 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:52,360 Speaker 2: than his acoustic Playboy Bunny swayed with abandon on the 160 00:09:52,480 --> 00:09:55,839 Speaker 2: edge of three four times horny mail bachelors, all black 161 00:09:55,920 --> 00:09:58,400 Speaker 2: ties and brille cream did their best to keep cool 162 00:09:58,480 --> 00:10:02,360 Speaker 2: within the staunchy confines, their starched white collars a fundamental 163 00:10:02,480 --> 00:10:05,679 Speaker 2: lack of understanding for anything that was going on. Reeling 164 00:10:05,720 --> 00:10:08,800 Speaker 2: from the sting of LSD in the sharp jabs of pheromones, 165 00:10:08,800 --> 00:10:11,520 Speaker 2: Fournett and pent up sexual aggression. 166 00:10:11,480 --> 00:10:13,880 Speaker 3: Garcia hit the solo. The band swung. 167 00:10:14,160 --> 00:10:18,280 Speaker 2: The pocket was big, It sucked in everyone. While the 168 00:10:18,320 --> 00:10:21,040 Speaker 2: television cameras rolled and speeded for sound. 169 00:10:21,200 --> 00:10:22,560 Speaker 3: Half lourded over the scene. 170 00:10:22,600 --> 00:10:26,400 Speaker 2: He created the modern man forever turned on and decidedly 171 00:10:26,480 --> 00:10:29,800 Speaker 2: tuned into the hipness of the Grateful Dead. Half rocked. 172 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:33,400 Speaker 2: Garcia killed one man, gathered with the other man. Spilled 173 00:10:33,720 --> 00:10:37,880 Speaker 2: America got laid that night to Jerry Garcia and his 174 00:10:37,960 --> 00:10:42,040 Speaker 2: bandmates Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kurtzman, Mickey hart, Ron, 175 00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:45,959 Speaker 2: Pigpen McCarran, and Tom Constantin on stage that night. 176 00:10:46,440 --> 00:10:47,280 Speaker 3: It was magical. 177 00:10:47,880 --> 00:10:50,000 Speaker 2: It all reminded Garcia of a sort of ready for 178 00:10:50,080 --> 00:10:52,520 Speaker 2: Primetime version of the Acid Tests from a couple of 179 00:10:52,600 --> 00:10:56,640 Speaker 2: years back, but not as dark or scary. This was 180 00:10:56,760 --> 00:11:00,199 Speaker 2: pure freedom, a type of freedom that was impossible all 181 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:02,439 Speaker 2: to imagine in the beginning days of the band, when 182 00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:06,400 Speaker 2: they sweated over regimented bluegrass scales and pitch perfect harmonies. 183 00:11:06,960 --> 00:11:10,520 Speaker 2: Here in the psychedelic present, they were free, free to 184 00:11:10,559 --> 00:11:13,079 Speaker 2: take the audience wherever they wanted, and free to let 185 00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:15,079 Speaker 2: the music they were making take them on a. 186 00:11:15,120 --> 00:12:02,520 Speaker 4: Very long and a very strange trick, strange. 187 00:11:38,240 --> 00:11:42,280 Speaker 2: Free will, and Frank was freaking out. 188 00:11:42,600 --> 00:11:43,920 Speaker 3: Nobody knew who it was. 189 00:11:44,280 --> 00:11:46,480 Speaker 2: All they could hear was his voice, along with the 190 00:11:46,520 --> 00:11:49,680 Speaker 2: spectral tape sounds being looped out of a small DIY 191 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:53,200 Speaker 2: tower of high fi equipment, something the Head's all called 192 00:11:53,520 --> 00:11:56,800 Speaker 2: the Nowhere Mind, and it was bleeding out from behind 193 00:11:56,840 --> 00:12:00,440 Speaker 2: a raggedy army blanket hanging from the ceiling. Frank was 194 00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:03,600 Speaker 2: behind it too, sitting crosslegged on the floor in front 195 00:12:03,640 --> 00:12:07,880 Speaker 2: of the psychedelic public address system he'd commandeered, rocking back 196 00:12:07,960 --> 00:12:11,280 Speaker 2: and forth and repeating his mantra over and over again 197 00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:12,920 Speaker 2: into a cheap microphone. 198 00:12:13,320 --> 00:12:14,959 Speaker 3: Fuck God Up with the Devil. 199 00:12:15,880 --> 00:12:18,640 Speaker 2: Frank was spooked by the square on the scene. His 200 00:12:18,760 --> 00:12:22,760 Speaker 2: unconscious registered something odd about the dude. His hair was long, 201 00:12:22,960 --> 00:12:26,000 Speaker 2: well long enough. It was blonde, parted on the side 202 00:12:26,040 --> 00:12:28,840 Speaker 2: and growing over his ears in that disheveled but still 203 00:12:28,960 --> 00:12:32,559 Speaker 2: conservative kind of way that Robert Redford was making famous. 204 00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:35,880 Speaker 2: But his clothes were him kind of, at least raggedy 205 00:12:35,920 --> 00:12:39,600 Speaker 2: blue jeans in an untucked Oxford standard college kid garb. 206 00:12:39,920 --> 00:12:43,000 Speaker 2: But his boots, his boots, that was it. Frank thought 207 00:12:43,120 --> 00:12:46,559 Speaker 2: the boots too black, too shiny. Dude was a nark, 208 00:12:46,880 --> 00:12:49,880 Speaker 2: had to have been Fuck God Up with the Devil. 209 00:12:50,440 --> 00:12:53,280 Speaker 2: Frank normally would have confronted the guy. Frank was no 210 00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:56,120 Speaker 2: shrinking violet. He was a hell's angel, a real outlaw. 211 00:12:56,480 --> 00:12:58,600 Speaker 2: In another life he was a pirate, and in a 212 00:12:58,640 --> 00:13:01,280 Speaker 2: life previous to that of king. But here and now 213 00:13:01,520 --> 00:13:04,880 Speaker 2: he was a stoned paranoid, diminutive version of his otherwise 214 00:13:04,920 --> 00:13:08,640 Speaker 2: badass self, and the acid was just too strong even 215 00:13:08,679 --> 00:13:13,000 Speaker 2: for free will and Frank, this Asley dude knew what 216 00:13:13,040 --> 00:13:17,080 Speaker 2: he was doing. His acid was next level. Literally, He 217 00:13:17,120 --> 00:13:20,600 Speaker 2: and his old lady, Melissa, a Berkeley chemistry major, formed 218 00:13:20,640 --> 00:13:25,240 Speaker 2: a quote unquote research group and paid Psyclochemical Corporation for 219 00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:29,920 Speaker 2: bottled by sergic monohydrate to make professional grade psychedelic drugs, 220 00:13:30,240 --> 00:13:33,680 Speaker 2: which was all perfectly legal at the time, but the 221 00:13:33,760 --> 00:13:37,000 Speaker 2: acid Ousley was making was far better than anything being 222 00:13:37,040 --> 00:13:41,359 Speaker 2: amalgamized in dirty bathtubs by heads scattered about northern California. 223 00:13:42,320 --> 00:13:45,640 Speaker 2: Ousley's acid was legend the best in the world, and 224 00:13:45,720 --> 00:13:50,040 Speaker 2: it fueled Ken Kesey's acid tests, a psychedelic social experiment 225 00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:52,480 Speaker 2: where party goers would gather to blow their minds on 226 00:13:52,600 --> 00:13:55,959 Speaker 2: acid in large rooms full of strobe lights, sound effects, music, 227 00:13:56,040 --> 00:13:59,560 Speaker 2: and other sensory delights or terrors, depending on what kind 228 00:13:59,559 --> 00:14:02,520 Speaker 2: of trip any particular person might be having. And the 229 00:14:02,600 --> 00:14:05,200 Speaker 2: acid tests were the vanguard of what was becoming the 230 00:14:05,280 --> 00:14:08,360 Speaker 2: hippie movement, the sonic boom of what we now referred 231 00:14:08,400 --> 00:14:12,160 Speaker 2: to in shorthand as the sixties, and this movement was 232 00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:17,720 Speaker 2: fueled by Alsie's powerful LSD, sometimes too powerful for even 233 00:14:17,760 --> 00:14:18,400 Speaker 2: him to handle. 234 00:14:18,640 --> 00:14:19,480 Speaker 3: But he had a trick. 235 00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:22,840 Speaker 2: Whenever the trip would get too heavy, he would lean 236 00:14:22,880 --> 00:14:25,880 Speaker 2: into the music that the acid test house band was playing. 237 00:14:26,440 --> 00:14:30,280 Speaker 2: The band was incredible, and that band was the Grateful Dead. 238 00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:34,240 Speaker 2: Alsie had never heard anything like them before. Their sounds 239 00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:36,840 Speaker 2: seemed to chase itself around in a circle. Underneath the 240 00:14:36,880 --> 00:14:40,520 Speaker 2: pulsing strobes and in between the blinking tracers. It was 241 00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:44,320 Speaker 2: one exhilarating high straight into another, sonic clarity of the 242 00:14:44,400 --> 00:14:48,080 Speaker 2: highest order. It was grounding and compelling at the same time. 243 00:14:49,280 --> 00:14:52,040 Speaker 2: But Ken Kesey had no tricks, and there was no 244 00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:54,880 Speaker 2: such thing as any trip being too heavy for KESI, 245 00:14:55,360 --> 00:14:57,320 Speaker 2: so there was nothing to trick himself out of other 246 00:14:57,360 --> 00:15:01,840 Speaker 2: than reality or sanity. Kesey lost cause, honestly thought the 247 00:15:01,880 --> 00:15:05,280 Speaker 2: CIA got to him early. That early acid they shoveled 248 00:15:05,280 --> 00:15:08,040 Speaker 2: into him was too strong. It changed him for good. 249 00:15:08,600 --> 00:15:10,800 Speaker 2: There was no coming back from it. So the acid 250 00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:13,520 Speaker 2: tests were his way of bringing in as many squares 251 00:15:13,560 --> 00:15:15,840 Speaker 2: as he could on to his level because the rest 252 00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:18,400 Speaker 2: of the real world was now closed off to him. 253 00:15:18,680 --> 00:15:21,400 Speaker 2: The acid tests were Kesey's attempt at bending the world 254 00:15:21,480 --> 00:15:25,200 Speaker 2: to his Bend reality. But if it weren't for Kezi, 255 00:15:25,360 --> 00:15:27,880 Speaker 2: Osley never would have met the grateful Dead. So he 256 00:15:27,920 --> 00:15:30,680 Speaker 2: owed the no neck prankster that much, but other than that, 257 00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:33,920 Speaker 2: he regretted ever meeting him. He was more trouble than 258 00:15:33,920 --> 00:15:36,800 Speaker 2: he was worth. A walking cop magnet rolling up and 259 00:15:36,840 --> 00:15:40,120 Speaker 2: down the pch in a psychedelic school bus detailed with 260 00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:43,920 Speaker 2: a Daglo hallucinatory mural, with bt icon Neil Cassi at 261 00:15:43,920 --> 00:15:47,000 Speaker 2: his side, and a group who called themselves the Mary Pranksters, 262 00:15:47,400 --> 00:15:49,920 Speaker 2: always on road trips and always on acid trips, handing 263 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:52,880 Speaker 2: out LSD to civilians like Candy. He might as well 264 00:15:52,920 --> 00:15:55,640 Speaker 2: have had freew on Frank's prison Buddy tattoo arrest Me 265 00:15:55,680 --> 00:16:00,680 Speaker 2: across his forehead. It was Kezy who first introduced to Bent, 266 00:16:00,800 --> 00:16:04,360 Speaker 2: and Bent spooked Owsley out, something about his intense stare 267 00:16:04,400 --> 00:16:06,920 Speaker 2: in a disregard for all things hip that was so 268 00:16:07,120 --> 00:16:10,640 Speaker 2: effortless that it was somehow cool. Bent was post hip, 269 00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:14,040 Speaker 2: and it scared Olsley. Even his name Bent, the hell 270 00:16:14,120 --> 00:16:14,880 Speaker 2: kind of name was that? 271 00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:16,000 Speaker 3: So cool? 272 00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:19,280 Speaker 2: Squares can't be that cool? Something was up with that guy. 273 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:22,880 Speaker 2: Bent was death at his door. Olsley knew it, and 274 00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:25,120 Speaker 2: Alsie could have sworn he saw Bent milling about the 275 00:16:25,120 --> 00:16:28,280 Speaker 2: crowd of stoneheads earlier, which, if it was true, would 276 00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:33,200 Speaker 2: have been entirely fucked up. Olesley was paranoid spiraling, so 277 00:16:33,240 --> 00:16:36,320 Speaker 2: he queued in on Jerry Garcia, who was spiraling himself 278 00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:40,440 Speaker 2: musically in the best way possible. Through the opening Wrists 279 00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:43,880 Speaker 2: of Death Don't Have No Mercy or foreboding blues Dirge, 280 00:16:43,880 --> 00:16:47,480 Speaker 2: originally done by Reverend Gary Davis. The band had emerged 281 00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:50,400 Speaker 2: from whatever far out plane they were on previously and 282 00:16:50,440 --> 00:16:55,920 Speaker 2: settled effortlessly under the dark star. Garcia was nearly whispering 283 00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:59,760 Speaker 2: the lyrics. The rest of the band stirred menacingly beneath him. 284 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:04,200 Speaker 2: Garcia's guitar every note pitch perfect and pointed straight at 285 00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:05,080 Speaker 2: Ousley's temple. 286 00:17:05,520 --> 00:17:06,480 Speaker 3: Olsie could feel it. 287 00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:10,239 Speaker 2: Garcia hit the second chorus, gave Death his due, and 288 00:17:10,280 --> 00:17:13,639 Speaker 2: then exploded into the guitar solo. The band rose up 289 00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:16,159 Speaker 2: below him like a seaquake, whipping him into a tidal 290 00:17:16,160 --> 00:17:19,480 Speaker 2: wave of sound. Olesley held on tight, scanned the room 291 00:17:19,520 --> 00:17:22,080 Speaker 2: for a life preserver, found none. Felt the pull of 292 00:17:22,119 --> 00:17:26,280 Speaker 2: the acid undertoe tumbled over backward into some deep oceanic void. 293 00:17:26,560 --> 00:17:30,040 Speaker 2: Passed freewheel in Frank's spectral madness, until he landed flat 294 00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:32,160 Speaker 2: on his back, so hard that. 295 00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:33,959 Speaker 3: He get the wind knocked out of him. 296 00:17:34,200 --> 00:17:37,159 Speaker 2: He gasped for air, his jaw ached like he'd been 297 00:17:37,200 --> 00:17:40,280 Speaker 2: punched hard by someone who meant it. He could feel 298 00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:43,280 Speaker 2: the cold floor on his cheek, his chin perched over 299 00:17:43,280 --> 00:17:47,160 Speaker 2: his left shoulder. He blinked, opened his eyes. There, inches 300 00:17:47,200 --> 00:17:51,240 Speaker 2: away from his nickel sized pupil's black shiny boots. He 301 00:17:51,359 --> 00:17:55,439 Speaker 2: turned his head, looked up, and there he was death 302 00:17:55,960 --> 00:17:59,080 Speaker 2: staring down at him, in the form of Maximus Bentley 303 00:17:59,119 --> 00:18:04,719 Speaker 2: Scottsdale the aka bent Alesley, closed his eyes and prayed 304 00:18:04,720 --> 00:18:08,840 Speaker 2: for another tidal wave. We'll be right back after this 305 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:17,200 Speaker 2: word word word. The backside of the hill was steep, 306 00:18:17,480 --> 00:18:19,600 Speaker 2: and there was no doubt about it. The brakes on 307 00:18:19,640 --> 00:18:23,600 Speaker 2: this Volkswagen shipbox were shot behind the wheel. Ken Kesey 308 00:18:23,640 --> 00:18:26,280 Speaker 2: stomped on the brake pedal regardless what else was he 309 00:18:26,320 --> 00:18:29,480 Speaker 2: going to do? The tall Victorians on Ashbury Street were 310 00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:33,240 Speaker 2: quickly becoming a passing blur as Kesys borrowed VW bug 311 00:18:33,320 --> 00:18:37,000 Speaker 2: gathered speed, each revolution of its wheels more reckless than 312 00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:40,399 Speaker 2: the last. Keysy held on and there was only one choice. 313 00:18:40,800 --> 00:18:44,199 Speaker 2: Crashed this bug into something forgiving before someone, namely himself, 314 00:18:44,280 --> 00:18:45,720 Speaker 2: got hurt, real hurt. 315 00:18:46,440 --> 00:18:47,479 Speaker 3: He knew what he had to do. 316 00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:50,760 Speaker 2: Midway down the hill, he could see them both, both 317 00:18:50,760 --> 00:18:53,560 Speaker 2: houses coming up quick on one side of the street 318 00:18:53,680 --> 00:18:57,119 Speaker 2: seven to ten Ashbury on the other seven point fifteen Ashbury. 319 00:18:57,440 --> 00:18:58,520 Speaker 3: Kesey had a choice. 320 00:18:58,760 --> 00:19:01,040 Speaker 2: Seven to ten was the home with Grateful Dead and 321 00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:03,600 Speaker 2: they wouldn't mind a small German economy vehicle in their 322 00:19:03,600 --> 00:19:06,600 Speaker 2: living room, would they. Kesey hated to do it. He 323 00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:09,879 Speaker 2: loved Garcia and the boys. The seven point fifteen was 324 00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:12,879 Speaker 2: the home of the local Hell's Angels. Kesey had soured 325 00:19:12,880 --> 00:19:15,880 Speaker 2: on the Angels recently free will and Frank was freaking 326 00:19:15,920 --> 00:19:16,440 Speaker 2: everyone out. 327 00:19:16,600 --> 00:19:19,800 Speaker 3: Fucking go the bug gathered speed. 328 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:23,400 Speaker 2: The Victorian zip by local hippie stood up on their stoops, 329 00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:25,800 Speaker 2: wondering why and the hell some dude was speed racing 330 00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:26,560 Speaker 2: through their mellow. 331 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:29,000 Speaker 3: Fuck it, Frank had it coming. 332 00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:31,600 Speaker 2: Kesey cut the wheel to the left the last minute 333 00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:33,919 Speaker 2: and crashed the car dead into the bay windows of 334 00:19:33,960 --> 00:19:37,200 Speaker 2: the Hell's Angels rented home in seven point fifteen Ashbury Street, 335 00:19:38,960 --> 00:19:41,880 Speaker 2: about twenty yards up the street, bent shook his head 336 00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:44,639 Speaker 2: in disgust, threw his cigarette to the ground, and walked 337 00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:47,199 Speaker 2: off in anger. It would only be a matter of 338 00:19:47,200 --> 00:19:49,440 Speaker 2: time before the local cops showed up, and that was 339 00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:52,800 Speaker 2: all he needed. Some mouth breathing baton, twirling blue Meati 340 00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:55,600 Speaker 2: stumbling blind through the accident scene and blowing his cover. 341 00:19:56,720 --> 00:19:59,800 Speaker 2: Inside seven to ten Ashbury, ales Ley and Garcia ran 342 00:19:59,800 --> 00:20:01,280 Speaker 2: to the window to catch what all the. 343 00:20:01,240 --> 00:20:02,200 Speaker 3: Commotion was about. 344 00:20:02,840 --> 00:20:06,720 Speaker 2: Oh shit, Keezy fucked up good this time. They decided 345 00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:09,640 Speaker 2: to split before the angels got too heavy. They'd seen 346 00:20:09,680 --> 00:20:12,200 Speaker 2: this movie before, so they bailed for the Hate. 347 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:13,280 Speaker 3: Hate. 348 00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:17,760 Speaker 2: Ashbury in nineteen sixty seven was the epicenter of American counterculture, 349 00:20:18,240 --> 00:20:21,880 Speaker 2: the effect caused by the sonic boom of Kesey's acid tests. 350 00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:25,200 Speaker 2: It's where tied i and two fingered peace signs were invented. 351 00:20:25,480 --> 00:20:28,040 Speaker 2: It's where the first ever head shop opened its doors. 352 00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:31,639 Speaker 2: In short, it was Plymouth rock for hippies, and they 353 00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:35,119 Speaker 2: were fueled by Ossli's acid. All of their psychedelic dreams, 354 00:20:35,160 --> 00:20:39,200 Speaker 2: their idealistic counterculture delusions sprung from the influence of AlSi 355 00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:42,800 Speaker 2: via his spiritual interpretation of chemistry, and it was all 356 00:20:42,840 --> 00:20:46,119 Speaker 2: soundtracked by the Grateful Dead, whose presence on the scene 357 00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:50,440 Speaker 2: was ubiquitous. They played constantly whenever and wherever they could 358 00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:54,600 Speaker 2: pizza places, acid tests, free public concerts, house parties, the 359 00:20:54,640 --> 00:20:57,720 Speaker 2: film or the avalon at Winterland At the Human Being 360 00:20:58,520 --> 00:21:01,040 Speaker 2: and the Dead were in large heart surviving as a 361 00:21:01,080 --> 00:21:05,040 Speaker 2: band because of Osley. He bankrolled them, paid for their equipment, 362 00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:08,080 Speaker 2: their sound system, their travel when they needed it, and 363 00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:12,680 Speaker 2: even their rent from time to time. Therefore, Alsi's influence 364 00:21:12,720 --> 00:21:15,600 Speaker 2: on what would become known as quote unquote the Sixties, 365 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:19,520 Speaker 2: that sprawling catch all phrase used to describe not only 366 00:21:19,560 --> 00:21:25,159 Speaker 2: the turbulent decade, but also everything the Baby Boomers affected afterward, politics, media, 367 00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:30,640 Speaker 2: social programming, advertising. In all of that, Alsi's influence is undeniable. 368 00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:35,080 Speaker 2: The sixties were America's tipping point. In Ousley, through the 369 00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:38,800 Speaker 2: manufacturing of his illicit LSD and patronage of the heavily 370 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:42,560 Speaker 2: influential Grateful Dead, was the one shoving the culture off 371 00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:46,520 Speaker 2: into the deep end. Authorities were understandably in a panic. 372 00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:50,439 Speaker 2: Their world was no longer recognizable to them. Men dressing 373 00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:54,480 Speaker 2: like women, women dressing like men, and children suddenly asking questions. 374 00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:58,520 Speaker 2: It was all spinning out of control. But authorities had 375 00:21:58,520 --> 00:22:01,359 Speaker 2: only themselves to blame, because it was a CIA who 376 00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:04,080 Speaker 2: turned on Kesey, who turned on Osley, who turned on 377 00:22:04,119 --> 00:22:06,920 Speaker 2: the grateful Dead, who turned on the world, Which was 378 00:22:06,960 --> 00:22:09,280 Speaker 2: why Bent was there to keep an eye on it 379 00:22:09,320 --> 00:22:12,240 Speaker 2: all and to report back to his CIA higher ups 380 00:22:12,280 --> 00:22:14,800 Speaker 2: if and when things started to spin out of control. 381 00:22:15,640 --> 00:22:18,320 Speaker 2: So Bent made Elsie a pet project. He knew AlSi 382 00:22:18,359 --> 00:22:20,480 Speaker 2: would trip up bad enough, and when he did, Bent 383 00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:22,320 Speaker 2: would be there to make sure he didn't get up. 384 00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:25,639 Speaker 2: Alsie met Bent at one of the first keezy parties 385 00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:28,800 Speaker 2: he'd attended, at least he thought he did. He remembered 386 00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:32,359 Speaker 2: his name, Maximus Bentley Scottsdale the third, so similar to 387 00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:35,919 Speaker 2: his Augustus Alsley Stanley the Third, and he remembered his 388 00:22:36,080 --> 00:22:40,800 Speaker 2: dress jeans Oxford, also similar to what Osleie wore. The 389 00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:44,040 Speaker 2: Oxford gave away his blue blooded background, the shiny boots 390 00:22:44,040 --> 00:22:47,359 Speaker 2: gave away his profession. Bent Red narked Olesley from the 391 00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:50,480 Speaker 2: second he laid eyes on him, And there he was 392 00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:54,040 Speaker 2: leaning casually against the lamp post in broad daylight. Right 393 00:22:54,040 --> 00:22:57,480 Speaker 2: there on the hat, Alsie grabbed Garcia by the shoulder. 394 00:22:57,680 --> 00:23:01,000 Speaker 2: There Garcia turned to look toward where Ozley was pointing 395 00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:04,040 Speaker 2: but saw nothing. Bent, if he was there at all, 396 00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:07,840 Speaker 2: was gone. Garcia was used to this. Bent was Olsie's 397 00:23:07,840 --> 00:23:10,720 Speaker 2: white whale. Garcia heard a lot about him, but never 398 00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:13,399 Speaker 2: saw him, though Olsley swore at least two three times 399 00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:15,920 Speaker 2: a week that he'd encountered this Square joed Nark, who 400 00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:19,639 Speaker 2: threatened to bring the whole shithouse down. This went on 401 00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:22,640 Speaker 2: for years, as Bent clocked Osley in the dead, reporting 402 00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:25,720 Speaker 2: back to Langley any and all transgressions, and trying in 403 00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:28,679 Speaker 2: vain to keep a lid on the spiraling counterculture to 404 00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:32,400 Speaker 2: prevent it from spilling out any further into the mainstream. 405 00:23:32,560 --> 00:23:35,720 Speaker 2: Olesley was eventually arrested for possession of one hundred grams 406 00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:38,960 Speaker 2: of LSD, but a sympathetic judge led him off easy 407 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:43,120 Speaker 2: with probation. Then in New Orleans, Osley was busted down 408 00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:45,880 Speaker 2: on Bourbon Street with the Grateful Dead. The band got 409 00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:48,800 Speaker 2: off easy, but Osley, because he was on probation, was 410 00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:52,119 Speaker 2: sent to federal prison for two years. Bent and his 411 00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:56,399 Speaker 2: Cia handlers back in Langley were satisfied, but the band 412 00:23:56,520 --> 00:24:20,159 Speaker 2: played on. Jerry Garcia came down with the rest of 413 00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:23,440 Speaker 2: the band after the solo. He always loved his song 414 00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:28,680 Speaker 2: Morning Dew, the post apocalyptic day after stroll through nuclear annihilation. 415 00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:33,360 Speaker 2: Despite the song subject matter, there was something so peaceful 416 00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:37,240 Speaker 2: about it. Garcia stabbed his strings lazily and played off 417 00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:40,359 Speaker 2: with Bobby's open chords. The band kept the song moving 418 00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:44,400 Speaker 2: behind them, and they were all feeling it. Then Garcia 419 00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:47,560 Speaker 2: did something he seldom ever did. He walked out from 420 00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:50,359 Speaker 2: behind his mic to the center of the stage. He 421 00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:53,560 Speaker 2: took a pass at a lead fill. The crowd, pitched 422 00:24:53,640 --> 00:24:57,119 Speaker 2: by this slight aberration in form was at full attention. 423 00:24:58,119 --> 00:24:59,800 Speaker 3: Jerry passed at another lead riff. 424 00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:03,640 Speaker 2: The crowd responded on masks with a loud but spattered cheer. 425 00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:08,520 Speaker 2: A conversation had begun between one man and fifty thousand fans. 426 00:25:08,960 --> 00:25:11,760 Speaker 2: It was a conversation that began some twenty years ago 427 00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:15,560 Speaker 2: and suffered through fits and starts over the years. 428 00:25:15,560 --> 00:25:16,639 Speaker 3: More people joined in. 429 00:25:17,040 --> 00:25:21,280 Speaker 2: However, lately the conversation had grown old and uninspired, but 430 00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:25,600 Speaker 2: not tonight. Something about tonight's rendition of Morning Dew had 431 00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:28,840 Speaker 2: Jerry playing on his front foot. He scaled the neck 432 00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:32,480 Speaker 2: of his guitar again, another beautiful lead riff, this one 433 00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:35,800 Speaker 2: pulling the rhythm section up underneath him, and when it did, 434 00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:39,040 Speaker 2: the whole stadium seemed to levitate for a split second. 435 00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:43,000 Speaker 2: Garcia pulled back. He let Brent have them on the 436 00:25:43,080 --> 00:25:45,760 Speaker 2: keys and surveyed the crowd as he walked slowly over 437 00:25:45,800 --> 00:25:48,960 Speaker 2: to stage right. He could see them now, every last 438 00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:51,240 Speaker 2: one of them, and they were all part of this 439 00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:54,920 Speaker 2: free counterculture he created, almost by accident, though he'd never 440 00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:57,760 Speaker 2: take credit, nor did he want it, and there were 441 00:25:57,760 --> 00:25:59,920 Speaker 2: many to credit for what the Bravefula had grown into 442 00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:02,359 Speaker 2: or to blame for what the grateful Dead had grown into. 443 00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:04,880 Speaker 2: It all depended on Garcia's. 444 00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:07,760 Speaker 3: Point of view. On that particular day, he felt Brent 445 00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:08,800 Speaker 3: wrapping up his solo. 446 00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:12,399 Speaker 2: When the band landed, Garcia plucked at his strings playfully. 447 00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:15,520 Speaker 2: He was teasing them now, and they loved it. It 448 00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:19,440 Speaker 2: was almost showmanship, but not quite. The connection was too real, 449 00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:23,000 Speaker 2: the connection between the musician and the crowd, between the 450 00:26:23,040 --> 00:26:25,720 Speaker 2: crowd and the band, between the band and the culture. 451 00:26:26,440 --> 00:26:29,960 Speaker 2: They sounded great, and Garcia thought of AlSi, because Elsie 452 00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:31,919 Speaker 2: deserved a lot of the credit for the greatness of 453 00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:32,960 Speaker 2: the Dead's live sound. 454 00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:34,359 Speaker 3: Crazy fucker that he was. 455 00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:37,440 Speaker 2: After he got out of prison, he applied his alchemy 456 00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:40,840 Speaker 2: skills to sonic engineering and designed to build the Grateful 457 00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:44,080 Speaker 2: Dead's famed Wall of Sound, a forty foot high, state 458 00:26:44,119 --> 00:26:46,719 Speaker 2: of the art stereo sound system comprised of more than 459 00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:50,800 Speaker 2: six hundred speakers. Technically speaking, the Wall of Sound was 460 00:26:50,920 --> 00:26:53,840 Speaker 2: years ahead of its time. It was a towering monument 461 00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:57,000 Speaker 2: to creativity and imagination, and it allowed the Grateful Dead 462 00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:00,000 Speaker 2: to develop their live sound faster and better than any 463 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:03,119 Speaker 2: any of their contemporaries, and to therefore reach and develop 464 00:27:03,160 --> 00:27:06,240 Speaker 2: a much larger and more impassioned audience through their live 465 00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:10,199 Speaker 2: shows throughout the seventies and early eighties, even after AlSi 466 00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:13,080 Speaker 2: had long since departed, split off the grid to live 467 00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:18,280 Speaker 2: in the rainforests of Australia. The Dead's popularity exploded largely 468 00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:20,679 Speaker 2: because of the way Olsley helped them envision their on 469 00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:24,720 Speaker 2: stage sound. First it was his patent at LSD, and 470 00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:28,000 Speaker 2: in the seventies it was his patented sound system. By 471 00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:31,720 Speaker 2: nineteen eighty five, thanks in part to Augustus Alsley Stanley 472 00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:35,360 Speaker 2: the Third, the Grateful Dead were bigger and more influential 473 00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:39,360 Speaker 2: than ever. It drove Bent mad, and with Alsley off 474 00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:43,359 Speaker 2: the grid, he set his sights on Garcia. By now 475 00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:48,679 Speaker 2: hard drugs had firmly established themselves in Jerry Garcia's daily routine. 476 00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:52,800 Speaker 2: Jerry Garcia got Hi a lot when he wasn't on stage. 477 00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:55,240 Speaker 2: It was just about all he could do. The band's 478 00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:57,800 Speaker 2: popularity made it so he couldn't leave his hotel when 479 00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:00,160 Speaker 2: they were on tour, and there were too many fans 480 00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:02,840 Speaker 2: milling about who wanted something from him in autograph, a, 481 00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:06,280 Speaker 2: joint tickets, the keys to life's unanswered questions, you name it. 482 00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:08,840 Speaker 2: He seldom left his property, but when he did, he 483 00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:11,600 Speaker 2: could be spotted zipping around Marin County or Greater San 484 00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:16,280 Speaker 2: Francisco in his newish black BMW three series. Bent knew this, 485 00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:22,200 Speaker 2: and so Garcia was easy to spot. On January eighteenth, 486 00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:25,560 Speaker 2: nineteen eighty five, he rolled into the parking lot at 487 00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:29,280 Speaker 2: San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, killed the engine, checked the 488 00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:33,320 Speaker 2: rear view. There was a man at the payphone, dark sunglasses, 489 00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:38,680 Speaker 2: wayfarers Robert Redford looking quaff, Oxford jeans, black boots. Garcia 490 00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:41,200 Speaker 2: heard Osley's voice in his head, and in a moment 491 00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:44,440 Speaker 2: of paranoia, looked down to his stash on the passenger seat, 492 00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:47,800 Speaker 2: then back to the mirror again, and the dude was gone. 493 00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:51,960 Speaker 2: He shook it off, probably nothing. Garcia dipped into his 494 00:28:51,960 --> 00:28:54,400 Speaker 2: briefcase where he kept his drugs. He pulled out a 495 00:28:54,440 --> 00:28:58,160 Speaker 2: brown paper bindle of heroin, keyed its contents, dipped his 496 00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:00,960 Speaker 2: nose to the car key, snorted and tilted his head 497 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:03,280 Speaker 2: back and let the smack slide down the back of 498 00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:06,160 Speaker 2: his throat. He then grabbed the tinfoil and tongs he 499 00:29:06,200 --> 00:29:09,400 Speaker 2: had in the briefcase. He took another bindle, this one 500 00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:12,120 Speaker 2: made of paper torn out of an old Playboy magazine 501 00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:15,200 Speaker 2: courtesy of his old friend. Heth and dumped its contents 502 00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:18,960 Speaker 2: cocaine onto the tinfoil. He took a glass straw, placed 503 00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:22,320 Speaker 2: it between his lips, fastened the tinfoil with the tongs, 504 00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:25,240 Speaker 2: held it over his lap, lit the lighter below, and 505 00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:27,920 Speaker 2: it quickly heated up the coke, turning it into smoke. 506 00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:31,479 Speaker 2: Garcia proceeded to suck the smoke through the straw perched 507 00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:35,400 Speaker 2: between his lips. The cocaine hid his bloodstream hard. It 508 00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:38,560 Speaker 2: tangled immediately with the heroine and his system. Together, the 509 00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:42,440 Speaker 2: two pushed and pulled at his consciousness, and then a 510 00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:45,600 Speaker 2: hard fill of knocks on the BMW's passenger side window. 511 00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:49,120 Speaker 2: Garcia took a second to register what was happening, and 512 00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:52,400 Speaker 2: then turned his head, expecting to see wayfarers, but instead 513 00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:55,360 Speaker 2: saw his reflection in a pair of aviators resting on 514 00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:58,880 Speaker 2: the baby face of some John Ponchorello looking motorcycle cop 515 00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:02,720 Speaker 2: shouting at him to roll down the window. In his stupor, 516 00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:05,560 Speaker 2: Garcia made a half assed attempt to hide his stash, 517 00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:06,680 Speaker 2: but it was no use. 518 00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:07,880 Speaker 3: He was busted. 519 00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:11,360 Speaker 2: As he was being cuffed, he looked up and swore 520 00:30:11,400 --> 00:30:13,960 Speaker 2: he saw the Quift Redford clone grinning at him from 521 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:17,040 Speaker 2: the other side of the parking lot. He blinked, refocused 522 00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:20,720 Speaker 2: his eyes, and the square was gone. Garcia was hauled 523 00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:23,640 Speaker 2: in and in no time released on seven thousand dollars bail. 524 00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:26,560 Speaker 2: He received a relative slap on the wrists for possession 525 00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:34,520 Speaker 2: of heroin and cocaine. The harmonies sounded great, Everything sounded 526 00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:37,320 Speaker 2: great when the Dead played the song. It was that good, 527 00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:40,600 Speaker 2: a perfect pop song, five minutes long, but it felt 528 00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:43,400 Speaker 2: like three A hook to beat the band, any band, 529 00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:46,240 Speaker 2: a monster riff, and the lyrics that kept on giving. 530 00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:49,960 Speaker 2: In those harmonies they conjured some of the Dead's best work, 531 00:30:50,360 --> 00:30:53,960 Speaker 2: Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. But those records were a 532 00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:57,600 Speaker 2: long time ago seventeen years. In fact, it was now 533 00:30:57,760 --> 00:31:00,280 Speaker 2: nineteen eighty seven and the Dead were in the middle 534 00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:03,520 Speaker 2: of five sold out shows at Madison Square Garden. They 535 00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:06,280 Speaker 2: were bigger than ever thanks to this song, A Touch 536 00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:09,080 Speaker 2: of Gray. It hit number nine on the Billboard Pop 537 00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:12,360 Speaker 2: charts and rocketed The album appeared on in the Dark 538 00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:16,560 Speaker 2: to number six. More importantly, it sold and sold again, 539 00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:20,800 Speaker 2: eventually going double platinum. The Grateful Dead to this point 540 00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:25,360 Speaker 2: were massively popular, stadium headlining popular, but with the release 541 00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:28,200 Speaker 2: of Touch of Gray, they went from being a popular 542 00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:31,240 Speaker 2: touring band to being one of the world's highest grossing 543 00:31:31,280 --> 00:31:36,040 Speaker 2: bands and transformed into a cultural institution. Deadheads were no 544 00:31:36,120 --> 00:31:39,640 Speaker 2: longer survivors of the sixties, holding on to some bygone era. 545 00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:43,040 Speaker 2: The Dead, now with a top ten hit, appealed to 546 00:31:43,080 --> 00:31:47,120 Speaker 2: a whole new generation. The size of their crowds swelled immensely. 547 00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:50,920 Speaker 2: They played the packed stadiums and indirectly presided over massive 548 00:31:50,960 --> 00:31:54,720 Speaker 2: parking law parties that sprung up around their shows. When 549 00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:57,280 Speaker 2: the Dead came to town, it was a party unlike any other, 550 00:31:57,520 --> 00:31:59,720 Speaker 2: and they were drawing almost as many fans to the 551 00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:02,640 Speaker 2: party outside of their shows. Kids who couldn't get tickets 552 00:32:02,800 --> 00:32:06,440 Speaker 2: as they were drawing paying customers for the Grateful Dead. 553 00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:09,800 Speaker 2: They simply didn't make stadiums big enough anymore, and it 554 00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:12,840 Speaker 2: didn't matter how many nights they performed. From eighty seven 555 00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:15,120 Speaker 2: to ninety four on, they did five and six night 556 00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:19,400 Speaker 2: stands at Madison Square Garden in December of nineteen ninety two, 557 00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:24,000 Speaker 2: continuing through February nineteen ninety three, they completed eleven sold 558 00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:27,680 Speaker 2: out shows at the massive Oakland Coliseum. And of course, 559 00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:30,600 Speaker 2: throughout the eighties and nineties, right across the street from 560 00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:34,960 Speaker 2: Whitey Bulger's Lancaster Street garage, the Grateful Dead invaded Boston 561 00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:37,840 Speaker 2: for multiple five and six nights sold out stands at 562 00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:41,160 Speaker 2: the Boston Garden. One can only imagine what was going 563 00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:44,000 Speaker 2: through the mind of the Boston gangster who, while the 564 00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:47,600 Speaker 2: prisoner at Alcatraz in the fifties, willingly participated in the 565 00:32:47,640 --> 00:32:50,680 Speaker 2: government's acid tests as part of the mk Ultra program 566 00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:52,480 Speaker 2: in exchange for a reduced sentence. 567 00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:53,400 Speaker 3: But I digress. 568 00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:56,840 Speaker 2: When it came to the Grateful Dead's power to sell tickets, 569 00:32:56,880 --> 00:32:58,840 Speaker 2: you get the feeling that if it weren't for city 570 00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:02,520 Speaker 2: officials crying on enough already with the free love, drugs 571 00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:05,320 Speaker 2: and sex happening on our city streets. That the Dead 572 00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:07,920 Speaker 2: could have kept on playing and selling tickets for months 573 00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:10,320 Speaker 2: at a time in any venue they chose, no matter 574 00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:13,880 Speaker 2: the size. And here was the result spread out before 575 00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:16,160 Speaker 2: Jerry Garcia. As he hit the chorus and touched a 576 00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:20,000 Speaker 2: gray he could see them all, the spinners, the war frats, 577 00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:23,200 Speaker 2: the frat boys, sticker nippleheads, tapers and bass heads in 578 00:33:23,240 --> 00:33:25,920 Speaker 2: the fill zone and they were all there, as they 579 00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:29,040 Speaker 2: were every night, and they were free. That's what it 580 00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:32,520 Speaker 2: all amounted to. Freedom, and that's all the Dead wanted 581 00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:35,960 Speaker 2: to be free, and that was the whole point. Jerry 582 00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:38,760 Speaker 2: Garcia and his bandmates saw the Grateful Dead as being 583 00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:42,320 Speaker 2: wholly American, and wasn't that what America was all about? 584 00:33:42,800 --> 00:33:43,200 Speaker 3: Freedom? 585 00:33:43,600 --> 00:33:45,959 Speaker 2: The freedom to do what you want, to be, who 586 00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:49,120 Speaker 2: you want, live how you want. For the band, up 587 00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:51,960 Speaker 2: until this point, it had worked. They'd avoided the straight 588 00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:55,280 Speaker 2: world their entire adult lives and created something totally unique, 589 00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:58,800 Speaker 2: and that thing inspired millions to reject the society that 590 00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:02,760 Speaker 2: they believed infringe upon their freedom. So Deadheads followed the 591 00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:06,120 Speaker 2: band on tour, lived off the grid, outside of society's 592 00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:10,319 Speaker 2: clutches and by their own code freedom absolute just that 593 00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:12,640 Speaker 2: they had seen the band live for their entire career. 594 00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:16,200 Speaker 2: So the band played on and for most of their 595 00:34:16,200 --> 00:34:19,120 Speaker 2: time as a band, despite the copious amounts of drugs thereon, 596 00:34:19,239 --> 00:34:22,960 Speaker 2: they sounded great and achieved a state of musical transcendence 597 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:26,520 Speaker 2: through improvisation that no band before or since has ever 598 00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:27,840 Speaker 2: achieved in rock music. 599 00:34:28,200 --> 00:34:29,600 Speaker 3: But don't take my word for it. 600 00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:33,479 Speaker 2: Lenny K, guitar player for the great Patti Smith Group, 601 00:34:33,640 --> 00:34:36,600 Speaker 2: literally one of the coolest and most influential guitarists ever, 602 00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:39,440 Speaker 2: said as a grateful dead that their music touches on 603 00:34:39,520 --> 00:34:43,200 Speaker 2: ground that most other groups don't even know exists. Lenny 604 00:34:43,280 --> 00:34:46,399 Speaker 2: was right, but that sacred ground was seldom reached by 605 00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:50,320 Speaker 2: the time their early nineties had rolled around. Musically, despite 606 00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:53,960 Speaker 2: their success, they were a walking corpse. But the Deadheads 607 00:34:54,120 --> 00:34:57,799 Speaker 2: it didn't matter. The music wasn't as important as the lifestyle. 608 00:34:58,120 --> 00:35:01,280 Speaker 2: A roving carnival Mary pranksters. 609 00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:02,080 Speaker 3: By way of P. T. 610 00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:06,080 Speaker 2: Burnham, Deadheads were chasing an experience, an idea, something they 611 00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:09,200 Speaker 2: heard their cooler older brothers and sisters talk about, something 612 00:35:09,239 --> 00:35:12,560 Speaker 2: they too needed to experience, something they'd never quite be 613 00:35:12,600 --> 00:35:15,400 Speaker 2: able to grasp and would destroy millions of brain cells, 614 00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:19,080 Speaker 2: chasing through football stadium, parking lots and European hostels in 615 00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:22,400 Speaker 2: search of capturing It didn't matter so long as they 616 00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:26,520 Speaker 2: remained free in their pursuit. But now what the band 617 00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:29,440 Speaker 2: had created was so big, so encompassing, that it had 618 00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:32,160 Speaker 2: become a prison of their own making, and Jerry Garcia 619 00:35:32,239 --> 00:35:35,279 Speaker 2: felt it the most. After all, he was the mayor 620 00:35:35,320 --> 00:35:38,320 Speaker 2: of crazy Town, the jolly, psychedelic teddy bear that fans 621 00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:41,200 Speaker 2: looked up to, emulated, it wanted to be, and worshiped. 622 00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:45,960 Speaker 2: Having literally elevated him to godlike status, it freaked them out. 623 00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:49,200 Speaker 2: He became even more shut in and descended deeper into 624 00:35:49,239 --> 00:35:52,080 Speaker 2: hard drug use, which was making it harder to deliver 625 00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:54,600 Speaker 2: a night after night, it harder to bear the weight 626 00:35:54,680 --> 00:35:57,720 Speaker 2: of responsibility that he felt for his bandmates who counted 627 00:35:57,760 --> 00:36:00,160 Speaker 2: on him, for the fans who believed in him, and 628 00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:03,600 Speaker 2: for the Grateful Dead's expansive crew and their families over 629 00:36:03,719 --> 00:36:06,880 Speaker 2: fifty in counting, who relied on them. He couldn't just 630 00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:09,920 Speaker 2: quit and let them all down. He couldn't fuck off 631 00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:12,240 Speaker 2: at night after a show and walk the city streets 632 00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:14,480 Speaker 2: to clear his head. He couldn't even go for a 633 00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:16,400 Speaker 2: ride in his beam or be driven around by his 634 00:36:16,440 --> 00:36:20,680 Speaker 2: bodyguard and his caddy. He'd be recognized, harassed, arrested, or worse. 635 00:36:21,480 --> 00:36:23,920 Speaker 2: The only place he was safe was the stage, and 636 00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:26,799 Speaker 2: that had become a rough slog. The crowds were so 637 00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:30,719 Speaker 2: massive that making any connection with the audience was near impossible. 638 00:36:31,120 --> 00:36:33,600 Speaker 2: It was so unlike the Acid tests and a far 639 00:36:33,719 --> 00:36:36,520 Speaker 2: cry even from Playboy after Dark. And it wasn't like 640 00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:41,240 Speaker 2: Garcia could doos a stadium of sixty thousand. Besides, Osley 641 00:36:41,360 --> 00:36:44,080 Speaker 2: was long gone, so there was nothing left but blues 642 00:36:44,080 --> 00:36:47,400 Speaker 2: and the key of bummed the fuck out. Garcia was trapped, 643 00:36:47,719 --> 00:36:52,040 Speaker 2: imprisoned by the freedom monster he had created. In early 644 00:36:52,120 --> 00:36:55,520 Speaker 2: nineteen ninety three, he told Bridge Meyer, you know I 645 00:36:55,560 --> 00:36:58,080 Speaker 2: can do it. I can quit, leave the band. I 646 00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:01,480 Speaker 2: can I can live off the ice cream. Garcia was 647 00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:04,160 Speaker 2: referring to the royalties from the popular Ben and Jerry's 648 00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:07,280 Speaker 2: Cherry Garcia ice cream flavor that was named after him, 649 00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:10,240 Speaker 2: from which he received and estimated two hundred thousand dollars 650 00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:12,120 Speaker 2: a year for the rights to his likeness. 651 00:37:12,560 --> 00:37:14,680 Speaker 3: But it was all talk. He would never quit. 652 00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:18,960 Speaker 2: He felt too much obligation that or straight up trapped 653 00:37:19,560 --> 00:37:20,279 Speaker 2: for Garcia. 654 00:37:20,560 --> 00:37:22,479 Speaker 3: There was no more freedom in playing in the band. 655 00:37:22,520 --> 00:37:25,080 Speaker 2: It was a cell, and the irony was rich, given 656 00:37:25,160 --> 00:37:27,320 Speaker 2: that the band's motivation for being a band in the 657 00:37:27,360 --> 00:37:31,160 Speaker 2: first place was the pursuit of freedom. The Grateful Dead 658 00:37:31,200 --> 00:37:33,760 Speaker 2: had formed a group mind when they began living together 659 00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:37,560 Speaker 2: on seven to ten Ashbury, bound by powerful psychedelic trips 660 00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:40,640 Speaker 2: they'd taken together. Nothing bonds a group of people like 661 00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:45,080 Speaker 2: shared psychedelic experience, and nothing strips life to its purest goals. 662 00:37:45,080 --> 00:37:48,239 Speaker 2: In psychedelia, you find out who you truly are and 663 00:37:48,280 --> 00:37:51,320 Speaker 2: what you truly want. And what the Dead wanted was freedom, 664 00:37:51,760 --> 00:37:52,880 Speaker 2: freedom through music. 665 00:37:53,239 --> 00:37:54,120 Speaker 3: And what the Dead. 666 00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:55,839 Speaker 2: Wanted was to be playing in a band together and 667 00:37:55,880 --> 00:37:59,680 Speaker 2: not to have to answer to anybody. In pursuing freedom, 668 00:37:59,719 --> 00:38:03,160 Speaker 2: they created their own sovereign nation of Deadheads, flying a 669 00:38:03,200 --> 00:38:06,440 Speaker 2: freak flag of red, white and blue, a steelier faced 670 00:38:06,440 --> 00:38:09,040 Speaker 2: skull with the white lightning dividing the red and blue 671 00:38:09,080 --> 00:38:13,000 Speaker 2: parts of the brain, a logo which Olsley had originally designed. 672 00:38:13,040 --> 00:38:16,400 Speaker 2: By the way, the Dead's philosophy of freedom is the 673 00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:19,480 Speaker 2: type of American beauty that is more closely aligned with 674 00:38:19,520 --> 00:38:23,000 Speaker 2: what the founding fathers had envisioned than what American reality 675 00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:26,000 Speaker 2: has become, where we are divided into safe high as 676 00:38:26,040 --> 00:38:28,719 Speaker 2: a group think rather than freed by the power of 677 00:38:28,719 --> 00:38:34,200 Speaker 2: our individualism, and Jerry Garcia knew this. In the end, 678 00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:37,280 Speaker 2: it was all too heavy for him to shoulder the crowds, 679 00:38:37,360 --> 00:38:41,040 Speaker 2: the fame, the failing musicianship, the paranoia, the man in 680 00:38:41,120 --> 00:38:43,799 Speaker 2: the mirror, and the man behind the man in wayfarers. 681 00:38:44,760 --> 00:38:48,680 Speaker 2: Garcia was freaked out, paranoid and hurting, a physical mess 682 00:38:48,719 --> 00:38:53,080 Speaker 2: from years of heroin, cocaine and LSD use, cigarette smoking, 683 00:38:53,120 --> 00:38:57,200 Speaker 2: a poor diet, and diabetes, but still quitting the Grateful 684 00:38:57,239 --> 00:39:00,440 Speaker 2: Dead wasn't an option, so he attempted to quit drugs 685 00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:03,520 Speaker 2: instead to clean up his act before agreeing to go 686 00:39:03,600 --> 00:39:06,680 Speaker 2: back out on the road for another tour. He checked 687 00:39:06,719 --> 00:39:09,640 Speaker 2: himself into the Betty Ford Clinic in nineteen ninety five, 688 00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:14,359 Speaker 2: and then, motivated and sensing a new beginning, doubled down 689 00:39:14,400 --> 00:39:18,480 Speaker 2: and checked himself into the Serenity Knowles Rehabilitation Center, but 690 00:39:18,560 --> 00:39:22,399 Speaker 2: it was too late. On August ninth, nineteen ninety five, 691 00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:26,399 Speaker 2: eight days after his fifty third birthday, Jerry Garcia's heart 692 00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:31,040 Speaker 2: gave up and quit everything for alas he was totally 693 00:39:31,080 --> 00:39:44,960 Speaker 2: free I'm Jake Brennan and miss is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was 694 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:47,600 Speaker 2: created by Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with 695 00:39:47,640 --> 00:39:50,719 Speaker 2: Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found on 696 00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:52,040 Speaker 2: the show notes page at. 697 00:39:51,880 --> 00:39:53,759 Speaker 3: Disgracelamdpod dot com. 698 00:39:54,040 --> 00:39:57,160 Speaker 2: If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank 699 00:39:57,160 --> 00:39:58,200 Speaker 2: you for supporting the show. 700 00:39:58,280 --> 00:39:59,480 Speaker 3: We really appreciate it. 701 00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:02,200 Speaker 2: If not, you can become a member right now by 702 00:40:02,239 --> 00:40:06,880 Speaker 2: going to disgracelampod dot com slash Membership. Members can listen 703 00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:10,719 Speaker 2: to every episode of disgracelaan ad free, Plus you'll get 704 00:40:10,719 --> 00:40:15,560 Speaker 2: one brand new exclusive episode every month, weekly unscripted bonus episodes, 705 00:40:15,600 --> 00:40:19,520 Speaker 2: special audio collections, and early access to merchandise and events. 706 00:40:20,040 --> 00:40:24,480 Speaker 2: Visit disgracelampod dot com slash Membership for details, Rate and 707 00:40:24,480 --> 00:40:27,080 Speaker 2: review the show, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, 708 00:40:27,120 --> 00:40:31,040 Speaker 2: and Facebook at disgracelampod and on YouTube at YouTube dot 709 00:40:31,080 --> 00:40:38,879 Speaker 2: com slash at disgracelampod Rock a Roller, He then Man