In April, Owsley visited Timothy Leary, the east coast figurehead of LSD, at the Hitchcock Estate in Millbrook, NY.Stanley and Leary had met in LA in the spring of 1966, but . The sound of Jerry Garcias guitar grabbed hold of Owsley, and he freaked out on acid for the first time. Alchemy didnt talk about lead into gold until it had to deal with the church in the early Middle Ages., For Owsley, The Kybalion was perfect because it put into total context all the things I had experienced on acid. The Owsley Stanley Foundation is pleased to present an audiophile release of incendiary performances by the incomparable Doc and Merle Watson, from Bears Sonic Journals -Owsleys storied trove of live concert recordings. Then Id sell them all back to the bookstore at full price as if Id changed classes, because I never needed to look at them again.. [16], Stanley met the members of the Grateful Dead during 1965. He is moving so slowly that someone from the front desk comes to the room to ask if he ever intends to leave. Based on past evidence, the sea will rise 300 meters, and life in some places will be entirely destroyed. 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 . He, Scully, and Melissa Cargill (a skilled chemist and Cargill family scion who became Stanley's girlfriend following an introduction by Susan Cowper, a former girlfriend) set up a lab in the basement. [1] The lightning bolt design came to him after seeing a similar design on a roadside advertisement: "One day in the rain, I looked out the side and saw a sign along the freeway which was a circle with a white bar across it. Owsley wanted the Dead not only to be clearly heard but also in stereo, a concept so far ahead of its time that it would be ten years before such systems were installed in movie theaters. We were officially granted 501(c)(3) nonprofit status by the IRS in December 2012. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, Owsley Stanley, icon of 1960s counterculture, dies at 76, Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead, Bear's Sonic Journals: Fillmore East, February 1970, Bear's Sonic Journals: Dawn of the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Bear's Sonic Journals: Found in the Ozone, "For the unrepentant patriarch of LSD, long, strange trip winds back to Bay Area", "Owsley Stanley, Artisan of Acid, Is Dead at 76", "Owsley 'Bear' Stanley Dies in Car Accident", Owsley Stanley, counterculture producer of LSD, dies at 76 KansasCity.com, "Owsley 'Bear' Stanley dies in North Queensland car crash", "The dark, one-dog night of Chuck Negron", "Jerry Garcia of Grateful Dead, Icon of 60's Spirit, Dies at 53", https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/downloads/p5547t98n.pdf, "Bear: The Life and Times of Augustus Owsley Stanley III B&N Readouts", "Internet Archive Forums: Re: Owsley question", "2,5-Dimethoxy-4-methyl-amphetamine (STP): A New Hallucinogenic Drug", "45 Years Ago: The Grateful Dead's Infamous 'Truckin' Drug Bust", "Remembering the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound: an absurd feat of technological engineering", "Remembering Owsley "Bear" Stanley | Grateful Dead", "Psychedelic icon Owsley Stanley dies in Australia", "Owsley Stanley's Acid Trips Helped Define the Sound of the 1960s, but His Recordings Are Just as Important", "Owsley Stanley's 'Sonic Journals': Inside the Tape Vault of a Psychedelic Legend", "Doc & Merle Watson: Play 'Never the Same Way Once' on New Box Set", "First Doc & Merle Watson Box Set Released", "Owsley Stanley Foundation Announces Doc & Merle Watson Live Box Set", "Previously Unreleased Allman Brothers Band Recordings from February 1970 Fillmore East Run Coming", "Bear's Sonic Journals: Dawn of the New Riders of the Purple Sage", "Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen Bear's Sonic Journals: Found in the Ozone", "Owsley Stanley Foundation to Release Rare Performance by Ali Akbar Khan from 1970", "Smoke in a Bottle: That Which Colors the Mind", "Bear's Sonic Journals: That Which Colors the Mind Ali Akbar Khan / Indranil Bhattacharya / Zakir Hussain", "Global Beat: Zakir Hussain Revisits a Historic Family Dog Summit", "When the Giants of Indian Classical Music Collided with Psychedelic San Francisco", "Owsley Stanley Foundation to Release Landmark Tim Buckley Live Recording", "Tim Buckley Lets His Freak Flag Fly on Live LP 'Merry-Go-Round at the Carousel', "Review: Tim Buckley "Merry-Go-Round at the Carousel Live", "Tim Buckley Displays Adventurous Spirit Via 'Bear's Sonic Journals: Merry-Go-Round at the Carousel June 1968' (Album Review)", "New Johnny Cash Live Album, 'At the Carousel Ballroom' Captures Country Star in the Counterculture", "A Johnny Cash Live Album from 1968 Is Finally Set to Be Released", "Previously Unreleased Johnny Cash Live Album Recorded by Owsley Stanley Due in September", "Johnny Cash 1968 Carousel Ballroom Live Bootleg Recorded by Owsley Headed for Release", "Johnny Cash's Previously Unreleased Live Album from 1968 to Be Unearthed", "When the Man in Black Met the Guys in Tie-Dye", "Owsley Stanley Foundation to Release Early Chieftains Live Recordings", "Bear's Sonic Journals: The Foxhunt, The Chieftains Live in San Francisco 1973 & 1976 to Be Released", "Ireland's The Chieftains Land on U.S. The photo to the right shows the source of the design of the bear motif on Bear's Choice. The situation was exacerbated by his disdain for the coarse language and deleterious drugs (most notably alcohol and cocaine) favored by the band's physically imposing roadies, many of whom perceived themselves as "macho cowboys" in contrast to Stanley's diminutive stature and scholarly appearance. Stanley also designed the band's trademark skull logo. Adopt-A-Reel Program:For donations of $400 or more, we will work with you to select one of Bears Sonic Journals for priority preservation. Augustus Owsley Stanley III (January 19, 1935 - March 12, 2011) was an American audio engineer and clandestine chemist. The Grateful Dead were not just good they were magic personified. Then and there, he decided to work for the most amazing group ever, have a fabulous time of it and try to make a positive contribution. Though Grateful Dead bass player Phil Lesh was the band member with whom Owsley would forge the closest ties, he saw Jerry Garcia as the sun in the center of the solar system. We want to hear it. It all seemed to fit together. The Bear. I was riding a magic stallion. "[1], During his time as the sound engineer for the Grateful Dead, Stanley started what became the long-term practice of recording the Dead while they rehearsed and performed. The same year, Stanley officially shortened his name to "Owsley Stanley". He thought it would look cool if the logo was red and blue with a white lightning bolt through it, so he had someone spray-paint a basic version of it on the Deads equipment. Stanley is known throughout the west as "king of acid." Grateful Dead Archivist Discusses Dicks Picks Series. In 1984, Owsley appeared at Phil Leshs house with a map of the world showing the mean temperatures at the height of the last ice age. On December 20th, 1967, the agents seized nearly 100 grams of crystalline LSD as well as a quantity of STP, a very powerful long-acting hallucinogen that caused many bad trips in the Haight. Augustus Owsley Stanley III (January 19, 1935 March 12, 2011) was an American audio engineer and clandestine chemist. The reason is that Im a total carnivore. Owsley Stanley 1935-2011 'Bear' helped Grateful Dead, made LSD. Needless to say, the party is electric. -Jorma Kaukonen, A wicked blend of rock, jazz and R&B that created a dynamic, groundbreaking sound. John Lynskey , Hittin The Note. AlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyomingAmerican SamoaCanal ZoneCommonwealth of the Northern Mariana IslandsFederated States of MicronesiaGuamMarshall IslandsNorthern Mariana IslandsPalauPhilippine IslandsPuerto RicoTrust Territory of the Pacific IslandsVirgin IslandsArmed Forces - AmericasArmed Forces - Europe, Canada, Middle East, AfricaArmed Forces - Pacific. 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. [20][21]), In addition to his large archive of Dead performances, Stanley made numerous live recordings of other leading 1960s and 1970s artists appearing in San Francisco, including Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, early Jefferson Starship, Old & In the Way, Janis Joplin, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Taj Mahal, Santana, Miles Davis, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, and Blue Cheer. 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. Stanley was the first known private individual to manufacture mass quantities of LSD. In 1973, he served as lead designer of the band's Wall of Sound, collaborating with Dan Healy and Mark Raizene, as well as Rick Turner and John Curl of Alembic to design the groundbreaking sound reinforcement system. Bcc: this option will retain the list of addresses on the server, placing only one address per copy as it sends to each name on the list. So youre Owsley,Lesh said. 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. I never set out to turn on the world, as has been claimed by many, Owsley says. [10][11] Despite his dearth of formal education, he secured a position as a test engineer with Rocketdyne in Los Angeles; in this capacity, he worked on the SM-64 Navaho supersonic cruise missile. Until you had tripped, you were not part of the new culture. [13][14] He was featured (most prominently his freak-out at the Muir Beach Acid Test in November 1965) in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), Tom Wolfe's book detailing the history of Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. 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. Owsley Stanley, better known as the Bear, was the acid hero the 60s never knew it had. Along with other recognition of your generous contribution, if the recording you select is viable for future release by OSF, you will receive a liner note credit. For decades, a . Add to Favorites Dancing Bear patch, Grateful Dead patch, Owsley Stanley patch, Iron on patch, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Dead and Company, Shakedown . From all three shows, as played on As Dead rhythm guitarist Bob Weir says, Back then, if you got involved in a discussion with him, you kind of had to pack a lunch. Years later, Jerry Garcia would recall, Wed met Owsley at the Acid Test and he got fixated on us. In February 1966, Owsley and the Dead moved to Los Angeles for another series of Acid Tests. Joel Selvin also wrote an extensive note on Owsley back in 2007 on the occasion of his . Together, they devised the Steal Your Face logo (a.k.a. As the water boils, he packs up a Braun food mixer and the vast array of other gadgets he carries with him. The top of the circle was orange, and the bottom blue. 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. Those were all allegories. Later, inspired by a 1958 performance of the Bolshoi Ballet, he studied ballet in Los Angeles, supporting himself for a time as a professional dancer. Bear's website, thebear.org, is still accessible as well, where you can see his jewelry designs and read his stories and essays. Reach out if you have questions, or to see how you can support the Owsley Stanley Foundation. Since 1965 he and Melissa Cargill had distributed an . Your body gets old but your mind can always accept that. Just to show you. He's also related to William Owsley, the 16th governor of Kentucky, for . 8 Copy quote. [3], Stanley's level of access to the group's inner echelon (including complimentary food from the band's caterers) was somewhat controversial among the band's employees, with one staffer opining that "he had the sales tactics of a Mumbai street peddler"; on one occasion, Garcia and Weir were forced to intervene when Stanley provoked Chelsea Clinton's Secret Service detail as he attempted to conduct business with the then-First Daughter. Three weeks later, on January 8th, 1966, Owsley sashayed into the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco for another Acid Test. The Owsley Stanley Foundation is dedicated to the preservation of Bears Sonic Journals, Owsleys 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, Janis Joplin, and more than 80 other artists across nearly every musical idiom. Three years ago, he underwent extensive radiation for throat cancer, losing thirty pounds in the process. . His paternal grandfather, Augustus Owsley Stanley, a member of the United States Senate after serving as Governor of Kentucky and in the U.S. House of Representatives, campaigned against Prohibition in the 1920s.[5]. As above, so below. We called it the microcosm and the macrocosm. From 1974 to 1981, he also grew and sold cannabis from his garden in Fairfax, California, but the profits from this endeavor proved to be far less remunerative than his earlier work in clandestine chemistry. And I certainly never made $1 million from drugs. Owsley rented a pink stucco house in Watts, next door to a brothel, where they all lived together. The cottage commonly known as the Troll House and located at 2321 Valley St., is for sale and . The money flow was very embarrassing, he recalls. Owsley and Scully finally met a few weeks before the Trips Festival in the fall of 1965. Over the course of the next fourteen years, Owsley known to his friends as Bear because of his prematurely hairy chest as a teenager enlisted in the Air Force, became a ham- radio operator, obtained a first-class radiotelephone operators license, worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and served as a summer-relief broadcast engineer at TV and radio stations in Los Angeles. David Lindley, Multi-Instrumentalist Who Shaped the Sound of Soft Rock, Dead at 78 That was his strength and his flaw. The Bear) A colourful character, carnivore for over 47 years. All donations to the Owsley Stanley Foundation are fully tax deductible. Stanley returned to Los Angeles to pursue the production of LSD. By his own account, between 1965 and 1967, Stanley produced no less than 500 grams of LSD, amounting to a little more than five million doses at the time. Written by WL Woodward. He also came up with the concept for what eventually became the bands logo. the stealie). There are three septic systems on the property, a hot tub, three kitchens and a large gym where he works out regularly. A high-school dropout of preternatural intelligence who was born from a Kentucky political dynasty and became the live sound-engineer for the Grateful Dead, his most notorious legacy is as the first Acid Millionaire. After he was released from prison, Stanley resumed working for the Grateful Dead as their live sound engineer. The 30-year-old Owsley took the 21-year-old Scully as his apprentice and they pursued their mutual interest in electronics and psychedelic synthesis. Stanley attended the Watts Acid Test on February 12, 1966 with his new apprentice Tim Scully, and provided the LSD. His ashes were placed on the soundboard at the celebration of the Grateful Dead's 50th anniversary at the Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead shows in Chicago, on July 35, 2015. Some of his other recorded works include Bears Choice; Big Brother and the Holding Company Live at the Carousel Ballroom, June 23, 1968; The Allman Brothers Band Fillmore East, February 1970; and the acoustic Jerry Garcia bluegrass-band albums Old & in the Way, That High Lonesome Sound and Breakdown. Global warming: the panic, is based exclusively on temperate-zone land measurements and ignores the fact that the planet is seventy percent ocean. Thats what alchemy says., To generate enough cash to purchase the raw materials to make LSD, Owsley and Cargill began making and selling methedrine in a makeshift bathroom lab in Berkeley. 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 used his Berkeley lab to buy 500grams of lysergic acid monohydrate, the basis for LSD. Stanley died after a car accident in Australia on Saturday, March 12, 2011,[5] not Sunday, March 13, as reported in most publications[7][8][9][34][35] (a widely propagated error stemming from the Monday release to the press of the initial family statement, which was written on Sunday, stating he "died yesterday"). . That amount of protein equals about 14-20 oz of meat (lean portion) per day. He says his method was simple. In every way, the briefcase reflects his mind. Despite maintaining a 3.4 grade point average with minimal effort, he dropped out because of his disinclination for slide rules and mechanical drawing. Because you were. Dad gave what I believe to be one of the most intimate and connected shows I have ever heard. John Carter Cash. [22], In Denver, the trio was augmented by fellow Berkeley student Rhoney Gissen, who joined the manufacturing effort and began a relationship with Stanley (concurrent with Stanley's relationship with Cargill and Cargill's separate relationship with Jefferson Airplane bassist Jack Casady) that endured through the early 1970s; although they never married, Gissen would eventually take Stanley's surname. Augustus Owsley Stanley III, better known as "Bear," was the Grateful Dead's first live sound engineer, the group's benefactor in their early years, and arguably the most famous manufacturer and distributor of LSD the world has ever known. The issue is available in the online archive. When you get to 400, you just totally lose it. [27], Although Stanley stopped touring with the band following their refusal of his demands, he continued to be employed by the Grateful Dead. I love them both! It is for this reason that Owsley and his wife, Sheilah, whom he first met at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley in 1985 while she was working in the ticket office for the Dead, now live in Australia forty-five minutes from anywhere on 120 acres of land he claimed by squatting on it like a pioneer. Counterculture legend Owsley "Bear" Stanley is most closely associated with the Grateful Dead. By doing so, he compiled a historic collection of live performances. On January 31, 1970, at 3:00 am, 19 members of the Grateful Dead and crew were arrested for possession of a variety of drugs at a French Quarter hotel after returning from a concert at The Warehouse in New Orleans. Thomas, who died in 1993, sold it to the band as a letterhead for $250, meaning that neither he nor Owsley ever saw a dime from all those Deadhead stickers on the rear bumpers of Volkswagen buses. The grandson of a Kentucky senator, Owsley found his way to California, discovered drugs, and promptly blew . But now, fifty-three years later, a lost chapter has emerged to enrich and complement the story of that very good year. The key element was "turn on" and it was Owsley . Although he never smoked tobacco as an adult, Owsley learned in 2004 that he was suffering from stage-four throat cancer. Because he wanted to keep a sonic journal of his work, Owsley began plugging a suitcase-size Ampex 602 tape recorder into the sound board each night as the Dead played in 1966. All the occult literature about ceremonial magic warns about being very careful when you start exploring these areas in the mind. And they laughed at me., Even as he was freaking out that night, Owsley experienced the single insight that would shape his life for years to come. The Fresno Bee (CA.) The following excerpt explores the onset . . Musicians can adjust it. I dont care who you are. Augustus Owsley Stanley III was the LSD chemist and audio maestro who not only created the Grateful Dead's "Wall of Sound" and inspired the band's dancing bear iconography, but also created the . Link to comments by the Bear on a low carb forum back in 2006. Donations are much appreciated, and are in fact essential to our ability to preserve and release future recordings! Night after night during the summer months, Owsley can be found stalking Bufo marinus, the species of poisonous toads (whose venom, Owsley insists, wont get you high) first introduced into Australia in 1935 in the mistaken belief that they would help control the cane beetle. From the start, Owsley felt that his state of mind while he was making acid would affect the nature of the product. The Bear - Owsley Stanley. 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. Bob Matthews, who had been mixing since my departure, did not want to completely relinquish the mixing desk, which was a total pain in the ass for me, since he was basically a studio engineer and no match for my live mixing ability." The Grateful Dead's "Wall of Sound" was a massive sound system designed by LSD chemist, Owsley Stanley. In June 1956, he enlisted in the United States Air Force as an electronics specialist, serving for 18 months (including stints at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Edwards Air Force Base's Rocket Engine Test Facility) before being discharged in 1958. Until then, the drug had been available in America only to those conducting serious medical research. Details. Elected governor in 1915, he became a United States senator and served on the commission that oversaw construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway. [29] Following the hiatus, Stanley returned as Lesh's personal roadie for "a couple of tours" in the late 1970s, although personality conflicts with other crew members once again precipitated his departure. While driving to work one day in his MG, Owsley saw an orange and blue logo with a white bar across it on a building. All Rights reserved. Owsley "Bear" Stanleyinterview by David GansJanuary 13, 1991KPFA (94.1 FM) Radio ArchivesAugustus Owsley Stanley III (January 19, 1935 - March 12, 2011) was . The Point Richmond lab turned out more than 300,000 tablets (270 micrograms each) of LSD, dubbed "White Lightning". Tom Sizemore, Heat and Saving Private Ryan Actor, Dead at 61 Owsley's high octane rocket fuel enabled Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters to put on the Acid Tests. [36], After Stanley's death in 2011, his family and some close friends created a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization called the Owsley Stanley Foundation. Although no man knows the exact time, we feel that time is very near! [3][4][5] By his own account, between 1965 and 1967, Stanley produced at least 500 grams of LSD, amounting to a little more than five million doses. I was not responsible for his wings, but they did carry me to all kinds of places.. 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. CANBERRA, Australia (AP) Owsley "Bear" Stanley, a 1960s counterculture icon who worked with The Grateful Dead and was a prolific LSD producer, died in a car crash in . Later that year, a friend gave Owsley 400 micrograms of pure LSD manufactured by Sandoz Laboratories in Switzerland, where Dr. Albert Hofmann had first synthesized the drug in 1938. In highly abridged form, what Owsley believes is that the phenomenon is real but that it comes from the steadily increasing movement of large amounts of heat from the tropics across the temperate zones to the poles. [6], He died in a car accident in Australia (where he had taken citizenship in 1996) on March 12, 2011. . 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. I said to him, You guys are fucking around with something that people have known about forever. His nickname, Bear, reputedly was inspired by the profuse . Once a year by invitation only, he throws a party attended by friends, family and musicians from all over Australia who play all night long. Scully soon learned that Owsley Stanley possessed a large amount (440 grams) of lysergic acid monohydrate. And we are tiny reflections of the mind that is creating the universe. I could leave it for up to thirty days in the bus station and I would go to it wherever it was, take out whatever I needed, take it back in, and send it to myself in the next city. The universe is a creation entirely within a being that is outside time and space, and dreaming what we are. Ifeel as if Ive known you through many lifetimes., You have, Owsley replied, and you will through many more to come.. Im not really interested in talking about myself, he says.