Augustus Owsley Stanley III (January 19, 1935 - March 12, 2011) was an American audio engineer and clandestine chemist. The Owsley Stanley Foundation and the Allman Brothers Band are pleased to present the latest chapter in, The Great American Music Hall, May 5, 1976, 2021 Owsley Stanley Foundation | Web Partner, The Family Dog at the Great HighwayMarch 28, 1970, Merry-Go-Round at the Carousel, Tim Buckley at the Carousel Ballroom, Ali Akbar Khan, That Which Colors the Mind, Found in the Ozone, Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, Dawn of the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Allman Brothers Fillmore East February 1970, Doc & Merle Watson Never The Same Way Once, A masterpiece. Although people speculated for years about how Owsley managed to conceal his stash, no one ever figured it out. Owsley Stanley Jewelry - Etsy 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. In Berkeley, Owsley began smoking pot and selling Heavenly Blue morning-glory seeds (250 for a dollar), which served to get people not high but weird when taken in great quantity. Owsley Stanly Tribute Page During the past month, he has dispensed with 1,400 of them. Owsley also sent a photographer back to England with a telephoto lens packed with tabs of purple acid on the condition that he share them with the Beatles. It was always in a safe place, and nobody had a clue, because I never told anyone I did that., Despite his precautions, thirteen agents broke into a house in the East Bay that Owsley had rented for the express purpose of making tabs. His grandfather, also named Augustus Owsley Stanley, was a trust-busting Democratic congressman from Kentucky who spent twelve years in the House of Representatives. By his own account, between 1965 and 1967, Stanley produced no less than 500 grams of LSD, amounting to a little more . Bear Stanley: Reflections on Life, LSD and DMTPlease subscribe to our channel and like our videos to support EGA!If you enjoy EGA's content, we invite you to. There are three septic systems on the property, a hot tub, three kitchens and a large gym where he works out regularly. At the end of Hendrixs live version of the Beatles Day Tripper, recorded at the BBC studios in 1967, he can be heard calling out, Oh, Owsley, can you hear me now? In 1976, Steely Dan burnished Owsleys myth by recording Kid Charlemagne: While the music played/You worked by candlelight/ Those San Francisco nights/You were the best in town. All Rights reserved. Berkeley Troll House, where the 'psychedelic elite' partied, has sold for $1.4 million. He puts on a pair of old bluejeans that are now several sizes too big and places a brown Thinsulate stocking cap on his head. Owsley "Bear" Stanley | The alchemist's tools | From the Vault Stanley was the first known private individual to manufacture mass quantities of LSD. UPDATE: Owsley "Bear" Stanley's Son Starfinder Disputes Origin Of Jerry Once he stopped exploring, the whole scene stopped exploring.. Lexington was blown out from under Owsleys father during the Battle of the Coral Sea in World War II, he began drinking heavily and became a lifelong alcoholic. A thought occurred to me: if the orange were red and the bar across were a lightning bolt cutting across at an angle, then we would have a very nice, unique and highly identifiable mark to put on the equipment. 5 out of 5 stars (955) $ 29.95. I did not feel it was mine, since what I was doing was in my mind a service to my community. That was his strength and his flaw. This live concert recording features recently discovered and previously unreleased music from Jefferson Airplanes fabled guitar and bass players before they became known as Hot Tuna. Kesey was playing with something he did not understand, Owsley says. According to an article in the Baton Rouge State Times, Stanley identified himself to the police as "The King of Acid" and technician of the band. I never set out to turn on the world, as has been claimed by many, Owsley says. 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 . In prison, Owsley got himself assigned to the kitchen. After sampling it, he changed his mind. Because the Dead controlled everything from onstage, no one had to mix from the house. The world would be, like, over. I lost control of that cell as well, Owsley says. 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. 8 Copy quote. As much of his portfolio had been delegated to as many as four sound engineers during his prison sentence, he struggled to regain his past influence among the band and support staff. With nine independent channels, the system was so powerful that the amps only needed to be turned up to two. I generally was not much of a consumer., Concerning much of what has been attributed to him during this period, Owsley says, The only thing I havent been associated with is walking on the moon, for Christs sake. Owsley did not parachute in to the Human Be-In in January 1967, as was widely reported, but he did provide 300,000 hits of acid called White Lightning for the event. 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. Bear wanted to be the sound man, and he was not the sound man, and he just never got it, because he had a single vision. [30], In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Stanley briefly served as the live mixing engineer for Robert Hunter and Jefferson Starship. Owsley acid was named for its creator, Owsley Stanley, who was the first person in the United States to mass produce high-quality LSD.In the 1960s, after he had served 18 months in the U.S. Air . Phil Lesh and I would talk about this, Owsley says. Had it not been for Sheilah, he says, I dont think I would have survived. 11 years 9 months ago. In every way, the briefcase reflects his mind. Owsley adored his grandfather, but his relationship with his parents was difficult. The reason is that Im a total carnivore. A Pegasus. 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. Until you had tripped, you were not part of the new culture. sulver buckle. Written by WL Woodward. Get the full owsleystanleyfoundation.org Analytics and market share drilldown here The police were looking for methamphetamine but found only LSD, which was not illegal at the time. But now, fifty-three years later, a lost chapter has emerged to enrich and complement the story of that very good year. Owsley Stanley, Artisan of Acid, Is Dead at 76 - The New York Times On January 14, 1967, Owsley supplied LSD for an even larger festival, The Gathering of the Tribes, a Human Be-In, held in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. I was riding a magic stallion. [17] He both financed them and worked with them as their first sound engineer. And I certainly never made $1 million from drugs. Global warming: the panic, is based exclusively on temperate-zone land measurements and ignores the fact that the planet is seventy percent ocean. Because the materials needed to synthesize LSD were still only available to serious researchers, he formed the Bear Research Group and paid $4,000 every three or four weeks to the Cyclo Chemical Corporation for bottles of lysergic monohydrate, the basis for LSD. After experiencing chest pains seven years ago, Owsley underwent surgery to correct a ninety percent blockage in an artery in his heart that dated back to his teenage years. Our staff is entirely comprised of volunteers, and many of the support services necessary to run the organization have been donated by generous contributors that believe in the mission to save this music before it is lost forever. He was a key figure in the San Francisco Bay Area hippie movement during the 1960s and played a pivotal role in the decade's counterculture. Almost forty years to the day after he blew minds at the Monterey International Pop Festival in June 1967, with a brand-new batch of Monterey Purple, Owsley is checking out of a motel in nearby Carmel. With this rock band, I can rule the world! So we ended up living with Owsley while he was tabbing up the acid in the place we lived. Bear'S Art Pages $30.00. The Wall of Sound fulfilled Owsley's desire for a distortion-free sound system that could also serve as its own monitoring system. "The Bear," best known for the sound system he created for The Grateful Dead and manufacturing a very high quality LSD, was a Zero Carb Carnivore for 50 years. A year after that, I moved to Australia.. Three years ago, he underwent extensive radiation for throat cancer, losing thirty pounds in the process. Every single note is separately placed in space as well as in time. According to Rolling Stone,[25] everyone in the band except Ron "Pigpen" McKernan and Tom Constanten - neither of whom used psychedelic drugs - was included in the arrest, along with several members of their retinue, including Stanley and some locals. Spirited. - Commander Cody, "Sociologically, you know, this all represents a big switch in the whole rock 'n' roll trip" - Jerry Garcia, A legend recording a legend T. Michael Coleman, Bass, Its not just the energy of youth that shakes me when I listen to these tracks its the musical dialogue that Jack and I shared in these amazing moments. Owsley Stanley - The Allen Ginsberg Project Vandoliers Play Tennessee Concert in Dresses to Protest State's New Drag Bill 9 were here. By Nate Todd Jan 19, 2023 6:14 am PST. All donations and proceeds from the development of the recordings flow back into the effort to preserve more of Bears Sonic Journals and perpetuate Owsleys legacy, including patronage of the arts in all of its forms. Unable to swallow solid food since the cancer treatments, he laments that he can no longer enjoy dining out with friends. And he was probably right. Years later, Lesh would write that Garcia once told him, Theres nothing wrong with Bear that a few billion less brain cells wouldnt cure., The bands impatience with how long it took Owsley to set up its equipment and then take it back down again soon led to a parting of the ways. The top of the circle was orange, and the bottom blue. These are the most extensive files there are of our music from this time. I did it because I was into breeding, and I had some strains that were absolutely unbelievable. Born Augustus Owsley Stanley III in Kentucky on Jan. 19, 1935, he was the grandson of a Kentucky governor and son of a naval commander. Stanley Clarke took possession of his first Alembic bass in 1972 which brought a fair amount of interest from outside the Grateful Dead community . The same year, Stanley officially shortened his name to "Owsley Stanley". Bear: The Owsley Stanley Story, Part Three - PS Audio Quickly regaining control, he says, But, hey, Im alive, right? Without waiting for an answer, he stalks out the motel-room door. To see Owsley in action now is to understand that forty years after the Summer of Love, the man has not really changed very much at all. Our planets heat balance and temperature are buffered and controlled by water and water vapor, which also washes CO2 out of the air and not minuscule fractions of a couple of gases, one of which is very soluble and the other unstable. The money flow was very embarrassing, he recalls. One of my friends who was a folkie brought it in and said, Man, you gotta listen to this! And I was off and running. Together, they devised the Steal Your Face logo (a.k.a. They were all gone. He became a naturalized Australian citizen in 1996. Stanley also developed the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound, one of the largest mobile sound reinforcement systems ever constructed. Lenny Hart and Owsley, who had never trusted preachers anyway, got on like oil and water. After a year-long investigations, agents raided a two-story home in suburban Orinda, picked up Stanley, his girl friend, and three others. Owsley says that psychological problems made him unmanageable in the public-school system, so his father enrolled him in Charlotte Hall, a military prep school in Maryland. Would the Summer of Love have ever happened without Stanley, the reclusive acid impresario who turned on the world? I did not buy expensive things. 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. By doing so, he compiled a historic collection of live performances. October 1966: Owsley Stanley, LSD Millionaire - Blogger February 11, 13, & 14, 1970, The Boarding House, May 1 May 4, 1974Seven CD Set. Owsley Stanley's 'Sonic Journals': Inside the Tape Vault of a Thanks to Owsley, the Dead were soon playing through four immense Altec Voice of the Theatre A7 speakers powered by four McIntosh 240 stereo tube amplifiers as delicate as they were huge. owsleystanleyfoundation.org is ranked #24747 in the Arts & Entertainment > Music category and #5781650 Globally according to December 2022 data. Augustus Owsley Stanley III, better known by his nickname, Bear, was one of the most iconic figures in the cultural revolution that changed both America and the world during the 1960s. From all three shows, as played on (Blind Carbon Copy). Concise Comments. Kesey liked 400. He also grew weed in a garden outside his house. Owsley Stanley, (Augustus Owsley Stanley III), "audio engineer and clandestine chemist", iconic figure of the counter-culture, "Acid King", "Bear"(as he was affectionately known), is our focus today. 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. You have to be very careful, because there are all these warnings. The Bear. The tools of the trade, belonging to the man "most responsible for psychedlicizing the United States" (Jarnow 16). 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. These analog reel-to-reel recordings are nearing the end of their expected shelf lives and will deteriorate and be lost forever if they are not preserved. It all seemed to fit together. [16], Stanley met the members of the Grateful Dead during 1965. Musicians plugged their instruments into amplifiers connected to single-channel speakers. When the Dead declined to do so, Owsley found himself in what McNally calls limbo. Shifting his focus to what he knew best, the science of sound, Owsley began working on a revolutionary new system that would deliver crystal-clear audio in the big hockey arenas and indoor stadiums the Dead were now selling out. Owsley Stanley - YouTube the stealie). Augustus Owsley Stanley III (later nicknamed Bear) was born on Jan. 19, 1935. The sound of Jerry Garcias guitar grabbed hold of Owsley, and he freaked out on acid for the first time. 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." Two nights later, the junkies returned only to discover that Owsley had fortified the place, hired some people and armed ourselves to the teeth. A running gun battle ensued, with one of the junkies taking a bullet through his arm.