‘The merry pranksters’-have u ever heard of ‘em? No, they are not a rock band. What about ken kesey? Bet u have read or heard of his ‘one flew over the cuckoos nest’. But that was before kesey gave up creative writing for creative living.
The merry pranksters were a bunch of merry-loving people of which kesey was the definitive nucleus. The pranksters basically form the latter era of the hippie dream, the former being the beat generation involving jazz and Kerouac. The prankster era pushed the high limits off the drug usage of the hippies. The introduction of LSD was manna to them. Their source of salvation. LSD- which was also called acid.
The pranksters regularly held ‘acid tests’ in which the expensive LSD was given out to anyone who cared to show up at the party which was the test. Hallucinations,happiness and not too happy cops followed. Accompaniment to the ‘acid state’ called up for a new kind of music-distinct and psychedelic . That’s how acid rock came into.
The Grateful Dead were the first and regular acid rock band that accompanied the acid tests. To date, many consider the Dead’s ‘anthem of the sun’ as the definitive acid rock album. Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles with their latter albums starting with ‘revolver’, Jefferson Airplane, Iron Butterfly all added color to the already kaleidoscopic acid scene. The culminative result is one of the most enduring genres in rock n’ roll history that lulls generation x, y and z all gathered inside a loo along with executives in the music business raking in millions and buying their kids jet planes for homecoming.
If you dig the prankster scene, do read the wonderful chronicle of the pranksters in tom wolfe’s ‘electric kool aid acid test’.
Happy, mahavira?
Peace!
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