It’s June 10, 1973, and you’re headed to see the Grateful Dead at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC. You’ll soon be joined by 100,000 Deadheads grooving to the music.
Everyone around you is trying to guess which song they’ll open with. What covers will they do? And how long will it be before the show is bootlegged and available?
Two sensory assaults await. The first is the Dead’s brand-new live P.A. system, the largest speaker setup the world has ever seen. Rumours are that it has nearly 30,000 watts driving close to 600 speakers. It’s supposed to be the loudest, clearest, cleanest-sounding concert setup the universe has ever known. It’s going to be amazing.
The second sensory experience will come as a blot on a little piece of paper… or maybe on a sugar cube… or maybe someone will administer a little drop directly into your mouth. A little bit of LSD always helps enhance the whole Grateful Dead experience.
The audio gear was completely legal. The acid for the fans in the crowd was not. But incredibly, the same person is responsible for the P.A. system and for that hit of LSD.
Both came from the mind of the guy everyone knew as “Bear,” who carried the honorific among fans “The Patron of Thought.”
He was an audio engineer and a chemist. Bands wanted him to run their gear. The cops wanted to bust him for his acid, which he manufactured—at least half a kilo’s worth, good for about five million doses.
This is episode 54 of Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry. It’s the wild LSD story of the one and only Owsley Stanley and how he accidentally changed music forever.
In addition to the podcasts, you can hear Uncharted on these Corus radio stations (all times local):
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