The State of 70s Psychedelia with Jesse Jarnow

Love is the Message: Dance, Music and Counterculture

In this episode we were extremely happy to welcome to the show the writer, podcaster and historian Jesse Jarnow to discuss the state of psychedelic culture in 1975. Jesse is the author of several books, including Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America, as well as the host of the official Grateful Dead podcast, so he is the perfect guide through the bardos of American drug history.

Jeremy and Jesse cover the history of modern urban psychedelic use through the Twentieth Century, including the boom in legal usage through the 50s and early 60s for multiple purposes: therapeutic, mystic, mind-control and goofing around. They go on to cover the shift in attitude towards psychedelics in the mid-60s, prohibition, and the racist antecedents of ‘reefer madness’. After getting reacquainted with Ginsburg and the Beats, we consider the veracity of the claim that the main schism in leftist organising in the 60s was between the old school straights in the SDS and the new unruly Hippies, and we spend time tripping on the couch with the Weavers.

Jesse gives a fascinating account of the ‘family tree’ of Owsley Stanley’s acid production, noting the various distribution networks and showing how writing history about something so secretive is not always easy! He introduces us to The Parkies - early NYC hippies living and turning on in Central Park - and reveals the links between Dead-related chemists and the Rajnish. And of course, all this acid use circles back round to our main story on the show, the NYC party scene and - you guessed it - The Loft.

We are really grateful to Jesse for coming on and being such a generous guest. We thoroughly encourage you to check out his podcast The Good Old Grateful Dead Cast at dead.net/deadcast, tune in to The Frow Show every Tuesday night on WFMU and learn more about Jesse’s work at jessejarnow.com.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Books:

Jesse Jarnow - Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America

Jesse Jarnow - Big Day Coming: Yo La Tengo and the Rise of Indie Rock

Jesse Jarnow - Wasn't That a Time: The Weavers, the Blacklist, and the Battle for the Soul of America

Mike Jay - Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic

Stephen Stiff - Acid Hype: American News Media and the Psychedelic Experience

Jay Stevens - Storming Heaven; LSD and the American Dream

Ken Kesey - Electric Cool Aid Acid Test