Grateful Dead

Do you remember this Hand Painted Original “The Acid Test” Banner from, The Last Legal Acid Test, hosted by Ken Kesey that The Grateful Dead played in front of in the 1966 “Whatever It Is" Festival held at “San Francisco State College”

My user picture is a Hand Painted Original “The Acid Test” Banner from, The Last Legal Acid Test, hosted by Ken Kesey and Ken Babbs, with other Merry Pranksters, held at “San Francisco State College” in the gymnasium in the 1966 at the “Whatever It Is" Festival? HAVE YOU SEE IT BEFORE? WHERE YOU AT THAT 16TH ACID TEST AT SAN FRANCISCO STATE COLLEGE IN 1966 WHEN THIS BANNER WAS ON DISPLAY OR HAVE YOU SEEN IT ON DISPLAY ANYWHERE ELSE? It is a Hand Painted Original “The Acid Test” Banner from, The Last Legal Acid Test, hosted by Ken Kesey and Ken Babbs, with other Merry Pranksters, held at “San Francisco State College” in the gymnasium in the 1966 at the “Whatever It Is" Festival? The Details Date of the festival are September 30 to October 2, 1966 less than a week before LSD officially became a controlled substance in California on October 6, 1966. October 2nd is explicitly recognized as the 16th Acid Test by Wikipedia Acid Test chronology and by Brian Cassidy; who owns and operates "Type Punch Matrix;” Brian is a rare memorabilia and signed first edition book dealer. The three-day multimedia event was officially called the "Whatever It Is" festival. Total Number of Tests: There were approximately 18 Acid Tests in total held between late 1965 and the fall of 1966. This included the famous "Acid Test Graduation" ceremony held later on Halloween night, 1966, which took place after the drug had already been outlawed. The "Whatever It Is" festival featured a historic, chaotic performance by the Grateful Dead and marked Kesey's first public reemergence after hiding out in Mexico as a fugitive. This is an official banner explicitly created for and based on the album art of Ken Kesey's 1966 cult LP The Acid Test. "The Acid Test" L.P. was released in March of 1966 the "Whatever It Is Festival" at “San Francisco State” was within 6 months of that L.P. release in September of 1966. The banner is a promotional display piece to advertise “The Acid Test” L.P. record. This historic artifact is a large, hand-painted canvas banner measuring 11 feet by 5.5 feet. Here are the key details surrounding the banner; It directly mimics the distinctive black-and-white psychedelic cover design of the original Sound City LP. The "16 ACID" Connection: The backside (verso) of the banner features the handwritten text "16 ACID" and "ACID TEST" in black marker. Counterculture historians note that this directly ties it to the 16th Acid Test, which took place during the "Whatever It Is Festival" at San Francisco State University in late 1966. The Last Legal Test: This specific event is legendary because it marked Ken Kesey’s first public reemergence after fleeing to Mexico, and it was the last legal Acid Test held just days before California officially banned LSD on October 6, 1966. The Grateful Dead: Like the album itself, which features background audio loops and instrumentation by the band, the Grateful Dead performed live at the festival where this banner was hung. Because the LP originally had an incredibly small private press run of only 500 copies, both the album and this accompanying event banner are considered exceptionally rare grails of 1960s psychedelic history. Original variants of the banner have occasionally surfaced. The 11 x 5.5 foot original canvas banner for Ken Kesey's The Acid Test occupies a fascinating and highly valuable niche in 1960s counterculture memorabilia, sitting right at the intersection of legendary literature, early psychedelic art, and the history of the Grateful Dead because it is a unique, historic piece rather than a mass-produced collectible. The Grateful Dead played shows directly in front of and alongside these exact hand-painted Paul Foster signs during the late 1965 and early 1966 Acid Test gatherings. The Grateful Dead played at Ken Kesey’s legendary Acid Tests through 1966, including the famous in-studio session that became "The Acid Test" LP. Ken Kesey and Ken Babbs, with other Merry Pranksters, were both in attendance at “San Francisco State College” in the gymnasium in the 1966 at the “Whatever It Is" Festival? That event featured a variety of hand-painted signs, banners, and psychedelic decor created by Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. Prominent Merry Prankster artists like Paul Foster and Norman Hartweg hand-crafted many of these early pieces. PLEASE HELP IDENTIFY THIS BANNER. HAVE YOU SEE IT BEFORE? WHERE YOU AT THAT 16TH ACID TEST AT SAN FRANCISCO STATE COLLEGE IN 1966 WHEN THIS BANNER WAS ON DISPLAY OR HAVE YOU SEEN IT ON DISPLAY ANYWHERE ELSE? I hope to hear from you. Thank you for helping me. All the best David Howard, please send me Email to: info (AT) tribalartasia.com

I met and partied with both Jerry and Bobby at the same time.
"The band celebrated its official 15th anniversary with two concerts on June 7 -8, 1980 at the University of Colorado at Boulder. During their stay in Boulder, the group held court at the Holiday Inn and partied with family members journalists, and any deadhead savvy enough to find them Jerry hung out in the hospitality room and occasionally sat in a small hotel lobby, wrapping with friends and fans alike." Captain Trips, A biography of Jerry Garcia by Sandy Troy page 195.

Finding anyone who was there beyond surviving band members is a bit of a stretch

Info on the club is sparse; in the release the liner notes indicate little info exists

Hi all,

Has anyone (or know anyone who) by chance either went to the Dead's show at Thelma in LA in 1969? OR anything about the club called Thelma at all?

See the Recent posts under the drop down on upper right to join in the fun. Usually the latest release (Dave's Picks 50) and the Pick of the Day have the current discussions.
Cheers

I just ran into this site by accident! I’m glad I did. I was a member of the Well back in 1992! I’ve been a fan of the Grateful Dead since 1974! First show was Thanksgiving Day 1978! I was a mentor of the NetHeads still have my t shirt.

Now would be a great time to compile a bunch of interviews from all the generations that have experienced the wonderful music and songwriting of the Grateful Dead. Honestly, when I went to my first show in 1987, I didn't know a single song, maybe Casey Jones or Truckin that might have gotten some airplay. But then I was hooked and now I can sing along with 90% of their songs and play/sing at least a dozen on my guitar.

Hell, John Mayer was a front man for the last 10 years or so and he wasn't born until 1977, and this is a quote from him on FB, "This music has made me a better player, and this band made me a better person. I was given the opportunity of a lifetime - to have access to the greatest songbook in modern music, and the deepest well of life memories shared by hundreds of thousands of Deadheads who extended their grace and acceptance to me?

It was 1974/75 and I was living in upstate New York at Albany. I was running weed from Jamaica. I tracked down Jerry w/ Merle Saunders at the Capitol Theater and met him at the hotel. I went up to speak with him to ask if I could soundboard record them with a new DBX compression device I had. He said, "Get in the limousine and let's talk". I made arrangements to go home and pick up my equipment promising Jerry that I had some great Jamaican weed. At home, I rolled three big blunts and put them in my front shirt pocket. When I got backstage, I asked Jerry is he wanted to smoke some phenomenal weed. "Sure", he said. I reached for my shirt pocket only to realize that I had changed shirts and had NO weed. I was flabbergasted and apologized to Jerry. "No problem," he said. "we'll smoke mine". And we did and all was well.

This made me laugh. Thanks!