Monday, March 14, 2011

Augustus Owsley Stanley - RIP


Video - Owsley Stanley expounding on cycles.

Third Age | Owsley Stanley, a 1960s counterculture icon who worked with The Grateful Dead and was a prolific LSD producer, died in a car crash in Australia, his family said Monday. "Bear" was 76.

Lyrics sung by The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa reference Stanley and his brushes with the law, underlining his influence.

Stanley produced an estimated pound (half a kilogram) of pure LSD, or roughly 5 million "trips" of normal potency of the hallucinogenic drug, after enrolling in 1963 at the University of California at Berkeley and becoming involved in the drug scene that underpinned the hippie movement, according to the BookRags.com website.

He was an accomplished sound engineer who worked for the psychedelic rock band The Grateful Dead.

Sam Cutler, a firm friend of Stanley since 1970 when Cutler became the band's tour manager, described him as was "a wonderful man and a great teacher."
Owsley StanleyOwsley Stanley
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"His death is a grievous loss to his family and the tens of thousands of people from the '60s on who were influenced by his work with The Grateful Dead," Cutler said. Stanley, who had adopted Australia as his home country, was the son of a U.S. government attorney and his namesake grandfather, Augustus Owsley Stanley, was a Kentucky governor and U.S. senator.

Stanley was driving a car that swerved off a highway and down an embankment before hitting trees near the town of Mareeba in Queensland state Saturday. His wife was treated for minor injuries from the crash.

A family statement Monday described Stanley as "our beloved patriarch."

He is survived by his wife, Sheila, four children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, the statement said.

Video - Media Project rendering of White Rabbit.

5 comments:

nanakwame said...

Sad to hear - 76 is long compared to many others. His generations break from the culture of his times is quite a story. They really haven't made any real film about it

CNu said...

Nor will they, as the compulsion to censor/expunge this moment of cultural possibility in the west is overwhelmingly strong. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifmnHsTvAGA

nanakwame said...

Yes my good friend - we had a better understanding and we understood communal more, and we were warned in my days about this cycle, I lost my map of the USA done about the change in climate and floodings. I clip this quote on how a youngster had no spiritual person around them, and took his life. Reality can be a bitch to many, as we know Doc. As PKD stated sometimes going insane is a better repsonse for some. And boy are they going kooky in some quarters in my nation

In one of eight notes Brett left behind, he wrote: "Salvia makes me realize that humans have no reason to be on Earth. We are all just grains of sand on reality beach."

bonedad709 said...

Goodbye to a man who connected millions.Way before the net.or cell phones.He helped move a society forward.

bonedad709 said...

Goodbye Bear. Happy trails!

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