Psychedelia

(in the United States). It’s impossible to talk about psychedelia in the USA without going into the specifics of psychotropic substances, and its pointless to do so without underlining the huge mass distribution of psychoactive agents that until then had been available only to scientific researchers, shamans, and post-metaphysical philosophers. The fragmentation of reality, the ecstatic acceleration or standstill of time, and the brilliant vibration of colors remain the most easily translatable elements of this synethesia which is the mark of the psychedelic experience. Timothy Leary, already with a doctorate in psychology, found a way to get himself thrown out of Harvard for supplying his students with the drug psilocybin along with questionnaires about it. Ken Kesey, with his Merry Pranksters (amongst them the embryo of the future Grateful Dead), shook up the California scene by going round in an old multicolored bus and making converts. An account of that period can be found in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe, where amongst other things he describes the meeting between Kesey, Ginsberg, and Sonny Barger, the leader of the Hell’s Angels. It was only on 6 October 1966 that the production and consumption of LSD was made illegal. It’s a typical case of “too little too late.” As the happenings multiplied (such as the memorable Human Be, held at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco from 1963 to 1966) so did the admissions to rehabilitation clinics. In the meantime new venues were being opened. In San Francisco the Matrix and the Avalon Ballroom had the idea of using “psychedelic” posters designed by Rich Griffin to advertise their concerts, and on the scene Grace Slick and Janis Joplin aroused interest as style icons as well as performers. In Los Angeles venues like Ciro’s and The Trip hosted groups like The Byrds, the very mysterious Love, and Jim Morrison’s Doors. In New York there was Steve Paul and the Dom’s Scene, an extension at the time of Warhol’s Factory. It’s worth underlining the importance of the use of lights in shows, along with projections (films, slides, gelatine) and strobe lights. Warhol designed the projections for the Velvet Underground’s Plastic Inevitable Show, while the Grateful Dead could count on the distinguished Augustus Stanley Owsley III, who was also responsible for a very impressive sound system. For the record, the Blues Magoos were the first to have explicitly used the word psychedelic in the title of their album in 1966, and they boasted top notch collaborators: Diana Dew designed clothes for them that lit up on stage; Christopher Pluck, a famous Vidal Sassoon hairdresser, created the Magoo cut; and Bruno Contenotte was responsible for the magic of their light shows, making use of his experience gained from working for Walt Disney. Similarly Janis Joplin worked with Linda Gravenites to create her multicolored and multi-layered outfits. The fabrics usually had patterns that owe as much to Kashmir paisley as to Emilio Pucci.