 |
| ! ad: Daily Bruin, March 16, 1966, p. 2. |
Suggested audio accompaniment for this post: http://tinyurl.com/hthnmgb, especially 30 minutes in when Ken Babbs is just raving, and things are just WILD.
The UCLA Daily Bruin has been digitized, and is accessible via the Daily Bruin Print Archive at http://samhoff.github.io/archive/. The access is rather cumbersome, basically at the volume level, and this runs from spring to spring. I recommend 1) targeting a date and searching on it, 2) verifying the resulting date range, 3) clicking on "Back to Item Details" toward the top-left, 4) right-click-and-saving-file-as... (or whatever you Macs do), using either the PDF (quite large files) or, for a first sweep, text (much smaller). The text can be searched for your key terms. But I will say, just looking at the text, the OCR'ing appears highly imperfect. So you might need to try many different searching strategies to find anything. I had a pretty low yield rate on the things I was interested in.
Discovery
Since I didn't have a canceled UCLA Acid Test in my cxl spreadsheet field, it didn't exist for me, even though I guess your average w00k might know of it. So I got inordinately excited when I found stuff around it, until reality came around and burst my bubble.
Anyway, still fun.
Preview
I found the preview first, and it is just about the most distilled piece of Babbsiana you'll ever encounter.
Barring the apocalypse, GSA ASUCLA, will allow the Merry Pranksters of Intrepid Trips, Inc. to let loose their version of interpersonal nuclear fission. The Acid Test, from 8 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. March 19 in The Student Union Grand Ballroom. What is The Acid Test? Well, it is a sort of a happening, a very total happening. There is no audience, no group of performers; everyone comes and the thing happens. There is music — The Grateful Dead will play genuine rock-'n-roll for dancing. But anyone can play music — there will be mikes and amplifiers available — and any person or group is urged to bring their equipment. There will be movies, three or four at a time, of the Pranksters and others doing whatever they do. But anyone can bring their own films and/or equipment. There will be people in strange clothes; come as you will. There will be strange lights, strobes and color wheels; bring more if need be. There will be Neal Cassady of On The Road doing battle with the fabled Thunder Machine, Roy's Audioptics, the Electric Man, the Psychedelic Symphonette, assorted miracles and marvels, more noise and yet more music. Tickets ($1.50 for students) are on sale at the Kerckhoff Hall Ticket Office or can be purchased at the door.! preview: “Acid Test to Happen Here,” Daily Bruin, March 11, 1966, p. 14
In my recent post on the 1/17/69 UCSB show I posted about the winky-winky LSD references. Three years earlier, before acid was illegalized, there is no winking, there is just straight-up "come drink some acid punch with us and trip your _____ off right here on campus", presumably decodeable by enough Initiates to make it a happening.
I love the thought of Cassady ("of On The Road") doing battle with Babbs's Thunder Machine, the soundimage of whatever Roy's Audioptics was capable of laying down, "mindless chaos" as Garcia says in the late 33 minute of the audio accompaniment - the whole scene, naturally enough. Is "the Electric Man" anyone special? I'll leave this mostly to the commentariate to have at. Links to existing work will be gratefully received.
Ad
The ad mentions Tiny Tim and Paul Butterfield, whom we were just discussing in a comment thread, coincidentally enough, and drops the canonical name for the liquid medium of choice. Uncle Sam is in the house. Good stuff.
Furthur
Universities document themselves religiously, full of their own senses of historical importance, and so I imagine that there might be materials in the University Archives about this. I didn't know of this cancellation, and even a closer scan of the Daily Bruin and probably the LA Free Press would reveal more. Perhaps Ross has already gone through it all and already knows everything I am saying! I thought it was fun.
There's a really fully amazing article about the cancelled test in the 3/25/66 LA Free Press, "UCLA Acid Test Cancelled, Grateful Dead Cry 'Foul!'", complete with a visit to the Dead's house in not-Watts and, I think, the first published interview with the band. It also includes Rock Scully playing a preview of the band's new single coming out NEXT WEEK featuring "I Know You Rider" backed with "Otis On A Shakedown Cruise," making it also the earliest on-the-record piece of Rock bullshit.
ReplyDeleteThat does sound like a remarkable early article!
DeleteThe acid test was moved to Carthay Studios at the last minute after the UCLA cancellation. (I guess the university was frightened by the prospect of an on-campus Acid Test!)
I think that's well-known, as mentioned here:
http://hooterollin.blogspot.com/2016/02/grateful-dead-performance-list-december.html
Maybe it missed the JGMF canceled-show list because it was considered "moved" instead of "canceled?"
Probably right. That's a bad rule - I should just include everything more consistently.
DeleteThe LA Free Press article has been posted here:
Deletehttps://deadsources.blogspot.com/2017/01/march-19-1966-carthay-studios-los.html
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteRock Scully goes into great detail about the cancellation in the 3/25/66 LA Free Press article (the interviewer visited on the 19th) - in short, on Thursday 3/17, reps from the Student Union & administration "told Ken Babbs they wanted $1500 guarantee [in cash, same day], because they didn't think there'd be a draw."
ReplyDeleteThe Pranksters couldn't deliver in time, so UCLA cancelled, further saying that the contract was invalid since the GSA vice president hadn't signed. Scully sounds mystified as to the university's real reasons for pulling out.
"Then they took our ad out of Friday's paper (the Daily Bruin) and put in a notice that the Test was cancelled." The Pranksters hastily set up a new location: "I don't know if anyone'll come, if anyone'll know where it it's at. We put up a sign in the Grand Ballroom with the new address, [but] they tore that down and put up one that just said 'Cancelled.' Everyone's out postering now, and there's word of mouth - that's about all we can do about tonight."
In the Friday 3/18 Daily Bruin, there's a notice on page 13:
"CANCELLED - The Program Manager's office late yesterday ordered tomorrow night's performance of The Acid Test cancelled on grounds that the troupe displayed a lack of talent and ticket sales were going slowly, making this production economically unfeasible. Students holding tickets to The Acid Test may obtain refunds at the Kerckhoff Hall Ticket Office."
There's an eye-catching illustration of a big psychedelic "ACID" logo with "CANCELLED" stamped on top of it.
You should add the image to this post, if you can!
see also Babbs in Jackson and Gans 2015, 42.
ReplyDeleteKen Babbs tells a story about this Test in the latest deadcast ( https://www.dead.net/deadcast/bonus-bear-drops-la-66 starting at 66:05) wherein the Dead and Pranksters put on a noon time preview in the student union to publicise the event. This so horrified the authorities that they cancelled the Test. Babbs cannot be right about the preview being on the day of the Test because the Bruin reported it had already been cancelled two days before hand. If it did happen it must have been earlier in the week, Thursday at the latest.
ReplyDeleteKen Babbs "We were set up to do an acid test on UCLA campus. And so this was gonna be really a big deal with the Hog Farm and Tiny Tim and the Dead and us and so at noon we did a preview show in the Student Union. They had a stage in there, we all were there and there was a grand piano on stage. The Grateful Dead came out, I introduced them as the band and they opened up the lid of the grand piano and Bob Weir got in there and began plucking the strings and Bill the drummer was playing on it with his sticks, Phil was banging on the side and Jerry was banging around on the keys and everything. Then they left and then Neal Cassidy came on and did an impromptu rap for 5 or 10 minutes and left then Tiny Tim came on and did his whole singing, tripping thru the tulips in a high voice and played the ukelele I guess. And then we told them all "we'll be at this place tonight, come and see the whole show. It starts at so and so till dawn" And then we got up and went to leave. We were going out and this guy he says "Ken" he says "the boss wants to talk to you", "What about", "I don't know". So he takes me up to this office and these two stern looking dudes in their suits on and everything..."
Jarnow "You can imagine where it goes from here. No more acid test at UCLA"
A closer look at the Bruin ad at the top lends credence to Babbs' story. Hiding at the bottom in plain view is "Sneak preview - Thursday 3.00 pm - Ballroom" so it probably did happen resulting in the cancellation of the test.
DeleteAnother interesting memory in the deadcast comes from Tim Scully's friend Don Douglas who accompanied him to LA. At 58:30
Douglas “The Jefferson Airplane had a house across town, and the groups didn't jam together but Kaukonen would come over and he and Garcia would jam acoustically just the two of them and I wish or hope that someone had recorded that because this was some really good stuff, just them like fooling around on their guitars. And then I remember, I can't say why this was so funny to me. But a thing came up for them to play with the Paul Butterfield Band there in a bar. Garcia said “We're gonna play with Paul Butterfield on Friday night.” Kaukonen said “I don't understand.” “We're gonna play with Paul Butterfield on Friday night.” “I don't understand.” “ We're gonna play with Paul Butterfield on Friday night.” “Oh, I'm beginning to understand!” I can't say why I think this was so funny but I didn't stop laughing for about ten minutes, like he didn't repeat it enough.”
59:32 Jarnow “That's a gig unknown elsewhere. The Dead and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band at a bar in LA in 1966. Officially the Paul Butterfield Blues Band were ensconsed at the Whisky A Go Go throughout the first part of February. But several LA rock scholars note that other bands didn't simply waltz onto a gig at the Whisky. Whisky bands might take gigs elsewhere. I pressed Don for some more details by email and he wrote back 'In terms of memories as visual clips I do have a recollection of Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield with Elvin Bishop on stage with our guys' ”
The Jerry and Jorma jams are intriguing but before this memory I had assumed Butterfield's presence on the ad was a never-trust-a-prankster-ism like The Fugs on earlier posters. So I checked the possible dates out.
The jams with Jorma must have been when the Airplane were in LA recording their debut album from February 19 to 28 and from March 16 to 21 (from Tamarkin). Butterfield was at the Whisky from Friday Feb 4, initially for one week but this was extended to Sunday 20 (chickenonaunicycle) after which his whereabouts are unknown until he opened at the Fillmore on Friday March 25.
So if the conversation between Jerry and Jorma happened during the Airplane's February sessions, Butterfield was definitely in town but he played the Whisky on Friday 18 and the Dead themselves played the Sunset Acid Test on Friday 25. If during March, Jerry could not have been talking about Friday 25 at Troupers Hall because Paul was at the Fillmore. But the night before the planned UCLA Test for which Butterfield was advertised? Maybe he was in town and planned to play with the Dead over that weekend and maybe it actually happened with at least some of his band in a bar somewhere around LA on Friday 18 March.
Of course this is based on a hazy memory from 55 years ago but with the Airplane being in LA it is plausible if Butterfield was also around. Prior to his Whisky run he had a residency at The Trip from Jan 5 to 30 (tourdatesearch.com) so he was spending a lot of time in LA.
Looking up the Airplane recording dates also explains the Paul Kantner lookalike's presence on Kesey's film of the rearranged Carthay Studios Test on the 19th. It is no lookalike, it is Kantner in town for the Airplane sessions.
Good investigation! Hiding in plain sight, indeed. Hard to say how many people would be tempted to come to the acid test by that preview....
DeleteThe Butterfield Band had apparently played at Stanford in an afternoon concert on Jan 28. Then they were at the Whisky from Feb 4-20, but likely played other gigs in the Los Angeles area in the month after that. They played a place called the It Club (date unknown), where Bill Graham's partners checked them out before the Fillmore booking. "The bar was nearly empty...the Butterfield Band bombed with the It Club's black audience." (Dann, "Guitar King" p.231)
http://mikebloomfieldamericanmusic.com/chronology.html#b1966-67
So it's surprising, but not impossible, that the Dead might have shared some bar date with them (or perhaps just showed up for a jam). Butterfield's otherwise random listing on the March 19 ad hints at some contact.
On the other hand, none of the Dead ever spoke of this event that I know of, and if it happened I suspect it wasn't an actual "gig" for them. At that point the disparity in skill between the Dead & the Butterfield Band was wide - the Dead would have been wiped off the stage.
There's another mention of the LA jam with Butterfield in an old "Relix" interview with Peter Albin (Vol 20 No 4 p 30).
Delete"There is a story, I think Garcia told it, but I am not exactly sure. Anyway, Butterfield was making his first trip to LA and they invited Ron to come up on stage to play harp. Ron wanted them to do one of his songs so he would feel comfortable, and the Butterfield Blues Band didn't know it. It turned out to be a rather embarassing experience for Ron."
While not a first hand account from an attendee, it is looking more likely that members of the Dead did jam with the Butterfield Band in LA in 1966.