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rest in peace Mr Stanley

Rest In Peace, creator of the greatest Acid.

Psychedelic icon leaves 'lasting legacy'

By Monique Ross

Updated 8 hours 1 minute ago
Bear Stanly and Jerry Garcia

Psychedelic icon Owsley 'Bear' Stanley in 1969 with the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia. (Rosie McGhee: Rosie McGhee)

* Related Story: Psychedelic icon killed in Qld car crash

Owsley "Bear" Stanley, who fuelled the 1960s flower power generation with LSD and worked closely with the Grateful Dead, has been remembered as a man of "enormous influence".

Stanley worked as a sound engineer for the band and is remembered for the millions of LSD doses he manufactured at his lab in San Francisco, which helped to kick off the psychedelic era.

The 76-year-old died on Sunday in a car crash close to his home near Cairns, in far north Queensland. His wife Sheilah was also injured in the crash but has now been released from hospital.

Former Rolling Stones and Grateful Dead tour manager, Sam Cutler, says Stanley leaves behind a "long lasting legacy".

"Before LSD was legal he was one of the chemists in San Franciso who made it, and he made a lot of it. So he certainly had an influence on our times, as it were, on that level," he told ABC News Online.

"The psychedelic era is still with us. It's still out there happening, on one level or another.

"But that's just one aspect of the man - there are other things that he needs to be remembered for as well."

Cutler says his "brother, teacher and friend" developed music technology which is now taken for granted.

"When you go to a rock and roll concert, what you listen to is something in stereo sound. The person who invented that, and first brought it up, was the Bear," he said.

"The Grateful Dead were the first people to have a stereo sound system.

"Another thing he was responsible for were on-stage monitors, so you could actually hear what you were singing, or saying.

"Just those two things alone are major, major contributions to how popular music was presented to people."

Cutler says Stanley was a "rare and very special man" who was also a great artist.

"He was an alchemist, a wonderful man, a great thinker," he said.

"A very rare man, and very special. He's just an amazing man on all kinds of different levels.

"He made the most wonderful enamel sophisticated artworks - a kind of renaissance man of the 20th century. A bit of a Leonardo da Vinci for his time.

"He had enormous influence, in what he said and what he wrote - a huge amount of influence for just one individual.

"He affected the Grateful Dead but that was only one of the bands he had an influence on. Jimi Hendrix wrote Purple Haze as a result of the Bear's activities - there was an LSD of the Bear's called Purple Haze."

The guitarist, however, has denied the song's title takes its name from the drug.

Stanley is survived by his wife Sheilah, four children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Cutler says many more will mourn him following the fatal crash, which happened "on a terribly bad stretch of road that has killed lots of people".

"He has a large extended family in Australia and America," he said.

"He will be sorely missed by a great deal of people - including lots of people who loved the man dearly, who never met him but whose lives were radically altered by him."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/14/3163772.htm

R.I.P. Kid Charlemagne

oh, ginda!!! you can't possibly "remember" an owsley trip.......GAWD, those were the days, my friend! [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]

oldtimer wrote on Mar 15^th, 2011 at 3:38pm:

oh, ginda!!! you can't possibly "remember" an owsley trip.......GAWD, those were the days, my friend! [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]

Oh...but I do remember glimpses. I usually did my "traveling" at night - how about you? What a blast. And coming down...
I remember laughing until I couldn't stand up. My friends and I couldn't even be in the same room without coming apart. Changed me forever - for the better.

yeah, giggle til you drop. oh...the colors.....melting.......
yeah, i guess most of my tripping was at night, except for those long weekends....
i loved acid and mescaline. i don't regret a single trip!

oldtimer wrote on Mar 15^th, 2011 at 4:20pm:

Yes! It was a different world all together. The music went right through you, didn't it? And boy oh howdy...talk about people looking strange. And watching cars bend around corners...and flowers opening up.

hearing the sunbeams, listening to music and getting totally carried away by it!!! if you knew how to "control" your journey, you (at least "I" )didn't have any "bad trips".

oldtimer wrote on Mar 15^th, 2011 at 4:41pm:

hearing the sunbeams, listening to music and getting totally carried away by it!!! if you knew how to "control" your journey, you (at least "I" )didn't have any "bad trips".

I was careful who I tripped with - that helped immensely. There was one guy dubbed 'the traveling bummer' - he was to be avoided at all costs...and for good reason. I had only one bad trip that I can remember - too much paranoia. Nice going down Euphoric Recall Avenue with you, my friend. Just remembering gave me a boost during this gray, depressing weather and the world situation.

don't forget we share the weather situation ;)!!! yeah, remembering with a fellow tripper is nice. haven't done that in a long time.

Over and out. Thanks for helping bring this thread to the top again. I felt Owsley's passing was more significant than Charlie Sheen's tour. But that's just me.

I was on one bad trip back in the early 70's, I overdosed by taking this other guy's acid who was afraid to take it, I went on a trip alright, I ended up in the hospital where they gave me a needle to come down on, I was high (without doing anything) for about 3 Months, I thought I knew the secrets to the universe, I understood why so many were into Peace & Love, that was my state of mind, I never regretted it ever, it was very powerful, after that I did all kinds of acid & never had a bad trip.
When things melting (especially plastic) was mentioned, that I remember so well.
Are people still tripping these days? the acid certainly wouldn't be the same.

Ginda wrote on Mar 15^th, 2011 at 5:38pm:

Over and out. Thanks for helping bring this thread to the top again. I felt Owsley's passing was more significant than Charlie Sheen's tour. But that's just me.

I'm having flashbacks just reading your guy's posts. :o

Heart Of Stone wrote on Mar 15^th, 2011 at 6:23pm:

You were lucky to be sane after that (in case you're sane LOL) a have some friends that became nuts after an overdose of LSD, my best experiences with this masterful, magnificent, amazing and incredibly well done universe were on peyote, mushrooms and LSD, my favourite was "Clear Light" in gel... oh my God!!!

These psychedelic drugs if used properly are really good but a bad trip is something I dont' want to have

BTW, check these acids (courtesy of http://takingdrugs.tumblr.com/ via Mr. Tambourine Man at our message board in Spanish)

and these must be recent as there you see the "MS internet explorer" logo

got the wall of sound on

Fun read; thx for posting.

Very interesting posts from those who were there in the LSD heydey. By the time it came my turn (circa late 80s), acid was more a hedonistic pursuit. We all just wanted to get boozed and coked up, then freakin' fry, man, just fry....

Anyway, while we are at it, let's not forget this lysergic pioneer. He was out in front, all up in it. He wrecked the goddam Bell curve on LSD. Check it, bleeds, Dock B. Ellis.

Thanks to the dancing bear

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3pEOHd-28o

" Passenger ........... "

Babe .. ?!

Weeding ?!

Hashishing .. ?!

Are you Hashishing today ?!

Baby Joe

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http://rocksoff.org/cgi-bin/messageboard/YaBB.pl GENERAL >> MAIN BOARD >> RIP Owsley "Bear" Stanley http://rocksoff.org/cgi-bin/messageboard/YaBB.pl?num=1300112710 Message started by Ginda on Mar 14^th, 2011 at 9:25am