Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Owsley Stanley died...

...in a car crash at age 76. His name might ring a bell if you read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. (And if you haven't read it, you really should.) Meanwhile, the obit is excellent:

His was the acid behind the Acid Tests conducted by the novelist Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters, the group of psychedelic adherents whose exploits were chronicled by Tom Wolfe in his 1968 book “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.”
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Augustus Owsley Stanley III was born on Jan. 19, 1935, to a patrician Kentucky family. His paternal grandfather, for whom he was named, was a congressman, governor of Kentucky and United States senator. (Somewhat prophetically, given his grandson’s future pursuits, the elder Mr. Stanley was a vigorous public foe of Prohibition.)
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He briefly attended the University of Virginia before enlisting in the Air Force ... He also studied ballet and for a time was a professional dancer.
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With Bob Thomas, he designed the [Grateful Dead's] highly recognizable skull-and-lightning-bolt logo:


Mr. Stanley remained with the band off and on through the early ’70s, when, according to Rolling Stone, his habits became too much even for the Grateful Dead and they parted company.

Imagine being "too much" for the Dead!

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