In the late 1940s, the scientific community began to
explore LSD's potential to cure a variety of diseases from alcoholism to
post-traumatic stress syndrome (and even homosexuality). By the 60s, doctors, including
Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, began experimenting beyond the
medical community, particularly for recreational purposes, and LSD began to inspire cultural
icons, such as Cary Grant, Ken Kesey and the Beatles. The drug influenced genres of art and music including Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable, the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd.
The Beatles began using LSD as early as 1965 when they pioneered many of the major elements of the "psychedelic sound" (using guitar
feedback and sitar). Drug references began to
appear in Beatles' songs as early as "Day Tripper," but Revolver is the pinnacle musical psychedelic trip of the era. By 1966,The Yardbirds, as well, with Jeff Beck on guitar, increasingly moved into psychedelia, adding up-tempo improvised "rave ups," Gregorian chant and world music. They were quickly followed by bands like The Moody Blues and Cream.
Between 1963 and 1966, rock music took three decisive
breaks from its initial three chord structure and lyrical simplicity: Bob Dylan introduced an
explicit socio-political message; British bands like the Rolling Stones and
the Who (heirs to the JD image of the 50s) personified an eternal and universal attribute of youth: rebellion; the Beach Boys, the Beatles and the
Byrds focused on studio techniques and eccentric arrangements. The
convergence of these wildly different threads yielded a music genre that reflected the spirit of the time, that
experimented with studio sound and that embodied the frustration of youth.
The psychedelic lifestyle had already developed in California by the mid-60s, most notably after The Byrds
"plugged in" to produce a chart-topping version of Bob Dylan's
"Tambourine Man" in 1965. A great number of California-based folk
acts followed suit creating a particularly Californian sound. Prominent new California bands on the
scene included The Grateful Dead, Country Joe and the Fish, Big
Brother and the Holding Company, Moby Grape, The Jefferson Airplane and, of course, The Doors. Albums with lengthy, free-form tracks began to flow out
of London, New York and Los Angeles. Frank Zappa's double-album Freak Out,
the Rolling Stones' Aftermath, The Velvet Underground & Nico, the
Doors' first album, Love's Da Capo; the list is endless. Rock'n'roll had been born at the confluence of blues and country
music, but after 1966 blues and country/folk became mere ingredients of a far more complex recipe. The lengthy "acid" jams of The
Velvet Underground, of Jefferson Airplane, of The Grateful Dead and of Pink
Floyd relied on a loose musical infrastructure that was no longer related to
rhythm 'n' blues (let alone to country music).
Chronicling this,
essentially the first Rock novel, was Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid
Acid Test, in which "You're either on the bus...or off the
bus." Wolfe brilliantly blends stream of consciousness with a journalistic
sense of description as Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters test
the boundaries of consciousness. Wolfe effortlessly immerses the
reader in Kesey's freak-du-jour landscape where the Pranksters trek across
America in a day-glo school bus with pitchers of acid and a video camera
keeping an eye on it all. Who could resist a chance to find out what it was
like to spend a quaint evening of altered states with a group of Hell's Angels,
or take a peek inside the world of budding hippie Gods led by Jerry Garcia? The
novel is the perfect companion to Kesey's One Flew Over the
Cuckoo's Nest, and Jack Kerouac's On the Road.
But don't be fooled. Wolfe
is obliquely critical of 60's hippiedom with its false ideals and unrealistic
expectations (we look back fondly at AM toward The Trip and The Doors, forgetting that
simultaneously there were Manson and riots). There's an underlying conservative
attitude to this novel that only Wolfe could convey with cool irony and
detached humor. Wolfe, however, has an obvious admiration for Kesey, a
counter-culture icon who generated awe and enthusiasm from his Flower Power
constituency. In the novel it's clear that Kesey was a pioneer of 60's
hedonism, one who pushed the boundaries of the hipster world. Coming out of the
50's beatnik era, scamming LSD from part-time jobs at psychiatry wards and
organizing "freak-outs," Kesey created his own legend and established
his own "cult," The Merry Pranksters. Part of Kesey's appeal to Wolfe
is the traditional qualities of a prophet or cult-leader, Buddha-like in his
ability to rouse enthusiasm and create an ideal image of self to which others
are willing to conform. "On the bus, off the bus," and "
"Nothing lasts" become Merry Prankster mantras intended to spread the
hippie ideal. This is what Wolfe excavates - the power of a personality and how
it contributes to a movement. Acid Test does so with a classic, razor-wit style. The
question remains: can YOU pass the acid test? Would you want to?
