Owsley Stanley RIP

[kaytodd]

Yesterday, I was reading the Wikipedia entry on that great San Francisco rock band Moby Grape (long story as to why I was researching them). The article contained a reference to Owsley and his renowned recipes for LSD. I cliked on his name because because he was an interesting character and I wanted to find out what he had been up to. I was sad to find out he was killed in an auto accident on March 13, 2011 at the age of 76. I did a name search but found no evidence this had been discussed on this board:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/ ... AF20110313

I discovered Owsley was a more substantial and varied person than I imagined. He was born into one of the most prominent families in Kentucky. He was named after his grandfather, a US Senator and governor of that state. While serving in the US Air Force, he learned electronics and would later put that skill to very good use. He studied ballet and for a while suported himself as a professional dancer.

I had only thought of Owsley as the guy who made LSD that was guaranteed to be high quality and give its users a pleasant hallucinogenic experience. He became a celebrity for this and many celebrities and artists in all disciplines claimed that "Owsley Acid" made them more creative and productive because it "opened their minds." I think this is B.S. Long term abuse of hallucinogencs will deteriorate an artist's talents, not enhance them. But many works of art-in music, writing, poetry, painting, etc.-for a period of time were done by people who claimed their talents were changed by use of LSD. And I understand some of these works are considered to be among the finest produced by these artists. For better or worse hallucinogenics influenced art and culture and Owsley did as much as almost anyone in causing this.

But I most surprised by his role with the Grateful Dead. I always thought he was just one of their hangers on and his main function was keeping everyone supplied with drugs. He was an important early financial supporter. But he really shone as their sound engineer for their live performances. He used state of the art sound equipment for their shows. He made sure they had the correct equipment for the particular venue they were playing that night. The heavy drug use by much of the audience and the fun spirit of the Dead's music were the main reasons they were a top box office draw for decades. But I cannot help but think that the wonderful wall of sound Owsley created helped make attending Dead concerts a special experience. He also used state of the art recording equipment at most of the shows, helping to give people all over the world a little taste of what it is like to be at a Grateful Dead concert (and giving the band plenty of top notch album filler material probably much better than other music they were working on at the time).

To identify the Dead's equipment from those of other bands, Owsley drew a distictive 13 point lightning bolt on the. Owsley and a friend later took that lightning bolt, drew it on a skull, and created one of the great icons in rock and roll, one worn by millions all over the world for decades.

Owsley and his wife moved to Australia in 1996. The fatal accident took place near their home in Mareeba, Queensland. He designed and made wearable art and sold them over the internet. They had four children, eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren. May God bless all of them.

P.S. I hope he wrote a book.