Category Archives: Peace Love Art and Activism

Cannabis Acceptance Continues

Cannabis Acceptance Continues

This is the third post I’ve done on the history of cannabis and mainly that history in the United State.

See Cannabis Contrails and Cannabis Contrails Continued for those two.

2021

The 21st century was already 20 years old and the acceptance of recreational and medicinal cannabis continued apace. New Jersey’s Governor Phil Murphy had been elected in  2017 and he had promised if elected to legalize marijuana within his first 100 days in office.

It was 1134 days later, but much had happened. By early 2021 several other state governments–including NJ neighbors New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania–were paving the way to the same legalization.

Some authorities warned that its legal use would lead to much abuse and associated law-breaking. Others had no worries.

All remained to be seen.

Reduced Opioid Issues

January 27, 2021:  a study published in the British Medical Association journal’s BMJ concluded that increasing access to marijuana dispensaries was associated “…with reduced opioid related death rates, particularly deaths associated with synthetic opioids such as fentanyl,”

It was a finding that held “…for both medical and recreational dispensaries” the study said.

Researchers looked at opioid mortality and cannabis dispensary prevalence in 23 U.S.states from 2014 to 2018 and found that, overall, counties where the number of legal marijuana shops increased from one to two experienced a 17 percent reduction in opioid-related fatalities.

Increasing the dispensary count from two to three was linked to an additional 8.5 percent decrease in opioid deaths.

Further, the study found that this trend “appeared particularly strong for deaths associated with synthetic opioids other than methadone, with an estimated 21 percent reduction in mortality rates associated with an increase from one to two dispensaries.”   [Marijuana Moment article]

Cannabis Acceptance Continues

NJ Finally Finalizes

Cannabis Acceptance Continues

February 22, 2021: months after voters approved legalization and months of wrangling over legislative language, New Jersey finally became the 13th state to legalize marijuana.

It wasn’t just the state’s social justice activists, entrepreneurs and the state’s most ardent weed enthusiasts waiting with bated breath. Legal weed advocates nationwide had kept a close eye on New Jersey, seen as a vital domino that could soon send the entire East Coast cascading toward marijuana legalization.

And, eventually, the rest of the country.

“New Jersey could be the game changer for the Northeast and for the Mid-Atlantic. It is a huge state, there will be a large market there and it will undoubtedly put pressure on surrounding states to rethink their positions and create momentum for cannabis reform,” said Steve Hawkins, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, a national advocacy group for marijuana legalization.  [NYT article]

Cannabis Acceptance Continues

Three in a Week

NY State Legalization

March 31, 2021: from the NY Times: after years of stalled attempts, New York State legalized the use of recreational marijuana, enacting a robust program to reinvest millions of dollars in minority communities ravaged by the decades-long war on drugs.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed the cannabis legislation a day after the State Legislature passed the bill following hours of debate among lawmakers in Albany.

With his signature, New York became the 15th state to legalize the recreational use of cannabis, positioning itself to quickly become one of the largest markets of legal cannabis in the nation.

Virginia Legalization

April 7, 2021: the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate both accepted Gov. Ralph Northam’s amendment to their respective versions of legislation to legalize marijuana in the state, including a revision that would push up the timeline to allow adults to possess and cultivate cannabis for personal use this summer instead of in 2024.

Northam had been strongly advocating for the reform, and lawmakers sent bills to legalize marijuana for adult use to his desk in February. Late last month, the governor formally submitted substitute language to the bills, and on this date, both chambers approved the proposed changes to their own versions, with the House accepting its revised measure, 53-44, and the Senate clearing its legislation by a vote of 21-20, with Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D) breaking a tie.

Following those initial votes, both bodies then passed the opposite chamber’s bill as amended, meaning the legislation is now enacted without need for any further gubernatorial action since Northam’s revisions have been approved as submitted.  [MM article]

New Mexico Legalization

April 12, 2021: New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) signed a bill to legalize marijuana in the state, as well as a separate measure to expunge records for people with prior, low-level cannabis convictions.

Grisham gave final approval to the legislation, a key accomplishment for her administration after she listed legalization as a 2021 priority. Although lawmakers failed to pass a legalization bill before the regular session’s end last month, the governor convened a special session to ensure they got the job done.

“The legalization of adult-use cannabis paves the way for the creation of a new economic driver in our state with the promise of creating thousands of good paying jobs for years to come,” the governor said in a press release. “We are going to increase consumer safety by creating a bona fide industry. We’re going to start righting past wrongs of this country’s failed war on drugs. And we’re going to break new ground in an industry that may well transform New Mexico’s economic future for the better.” [MM article]

Cannabis Acceptance Continues

Study Shows Stoner Image Inaccurate

April 29, 2021:  a study published in the Harm Reduction Journal found that people who frequently use marijuana—particularly those aged 40 and older—spend more time engaging in physical activity than non-users do.

The nationally representative analysis of accelerometer-measured sedentary behavior and stated that its “…findings do not support the mainstream perception of cannabis users as living sedentary lifestyles.

In general, they found that “there’s no significant differences between non-current cannabis users and light, moderate, or frequent cannabis users in minutes per day spent in [sedentary behavior].” The difference came down to the average minutes that each group spent in physical activity. [MM article]

Cannabis Acceptance Continues

High School Use Does Not Increase

May 27, 2021: a federal report by U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) analyzed youth surveys of high school students from 2009 to 2019. The report concluded that there had been “no measurable difference” in the percentage of those in grades 9-12 who reported consuming cannabis at least once in the past 30 days.

The report, which relied on data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, also found that access remained stable during that time period, with no statistically significant changes in the percentage of youth who say they’ve been offered, sold or gifted illegal drugs on school grounds in the previous 30 days.

What makes the report notable is the timeline.

Cannabis reform opponents frequently argued that enacting adult-use legalization in states spur more underage people to use marijuana. There were no recreational markets in 2009, and that year, 21 percent of high school students reported past 30-day use. The first legal sales launched in Colorado in 2014—and five years after that, 22 percent of teens said they’d recently used marijuana. [MM article]

Cannabis Acceptance Continues

Connecticut

June 22, 2021: Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed a marijuana legalization bill. A top staffer said in an email to equity advocates that there’s “still much work to be done” to ensure that the law upholds principles of social justice and ensures that disproportionately impacted communities are empowered to participate in the industry. [MM article]

Justice Clarence Thomas

June 28, 2021: Justice Clarence Thomas denounced the federal government’s inconsistent approach to marijuana policy, suggesting that outright national prohibition may be unconstitutional.

While the court declined to take up a new case related to an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) investigation into tax deductions claimed by a Colorado marijuana dispensary, Thomas issued a statement that more broadly addressed the federal-state marijuana disconnect.

He specifically discussed a 2005 ruling in Gonzales v. Raich, wherein the court narrowly determined that the federal government could enforce prohibition against cannabis cultivation that took place wholly within California based on its authority to regulate interstate commerce.

Whatever the merits of Raich when it was decided, federal policies of the past 16 years have greatly undermined its reasoning,” Thomas wrote. “Once comprehensive, the Federal Government’s current approach is a half-in, half-out regime that simultaneously tolerates and forbids local use of marijuana.” [MM article]

Proposed Federal Decriminalization

July 14, 2021: Senator Chuck Schumer of New York proposed legislation to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, putting his weight as majority leader behind the growing movement to unwind the decades-old war on drugs.

The draft bill, called the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and begin regulating and taxing it, placing federal rules on a burgeoning industry that has faced years of uncertainty. Though states would still be allowed to set their own marijuana laws, businesses and individuals in states that have legalized its use would be free for the first time to sell and consume it without the risk of federal punishment.

The proposal would also try to make recompense to communities of color and the poor for damage from years of restrictive federal drug policy. It calls for immediately expunging nonviolent marijuana-related arrests and convictions from federal records and would earmark new tax revenue for restorative justice programs intended to lift up communities affected by “the failed federal prohibition of cannabis.”

The bill aimed to “finally turn the page on this dark chapter in American history and begin righting these wrongs,” said Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, who wrote the bill with Mr. Schumer and Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon and the chairman of the Finance Committee. [NYT article]

Schedule 1 Issues

October 25, 2021: the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) told Congress in a report that the Schedule I status of controlled substances like cannabis was preventing or discouraging research into their potential risks and benefits. It also said that current restrictions that block scientists from studying the actual cannabinoid products that consumers can purchase at dispensaries was impeding research to an extent that constitutes a public health concern.

“Researchers have reported that obtaining a new registration can take more than a year, that modifying a registration can also be time consuming, and that differing interpretations of the Schedule I registration requirements among local DEA field offices, research institutions, as well as distinct federal and state registration requirements, greatly complicate the process,” the federal agency told lawmakers. “These challenges can impede critical research on Schedule I substances and deter or prevent scientists from pursuing such work.”  [Marijuana Moment article]

South Dakota Invalidates Vote 

November 24, 2021: the South Dakota Supreme Court  ruled that a voter-approved marijuana legalization initiative was invalid on procedural grounds, a major setback for activists who have been awaiting the court’s decision for months. That said, advocates would pursue a two-track plan to enact the reform next year.

In a 4-1 vote, the justices upheld a circuit court ruling that found the 2020 ballot measure violated the state’s single subject rule for constitutional amendments, meaning it covered too much ground and was not narrowly focused enough to meet the electoral standard.

The lawsuit was officially brought by two law enforcement officers but was funded with taxpayer money supplied by the administration of Gov. Kristi Noem (R)  [MM article]

Malta Legalization

December 18, 2021: just days after Malta’s Parliament approved a bill to legalize marijuana, President George Vella signed the legislation into law making Malta the first European country to enact the reform.

Under the legislation sponsored by MP Owen Bonnici, adults 18 and older will be allowed to possess up to seven grams of cannabis and cultivate as many as four plants for personal use. Up to 50 grams of homegrown marijuana can be stored at home.

While there won’t be a commercial market per se, non-profit cooperatives will be able to cultivate marijuana and distribute it to members. [MM article]

Cannabis Acceptance Continues

2022

Rhode Island

May 25, 2022: Gov. Dan McKee (D), of Rhode Island signed a bill to legalize marijuana, making it the 19th state to end prohibition.

While it would be at least a few months until adult-use retail sales launched in the Ocean State, adults 21 and older could legally possess up to one ounce of cannabis and grow up to six plants for personal use, only three of which couldn be mature.

There had been months of negotiations between lawmakers, advocates, stakeholders and the governor’s office before a revised version of the legislation was introduced earlier in May, but once the text was released, the identical companion bills in both chambers quickly advanced through committee and were approved on the floor on May 25. [Marijuana Moment article]

NIH Reports Increased Use

August 24, 2022: data collected by the National Institutes of Health from April 2021 through October 2021 indicated that the amount of people from ages 19 to 30 who reported using marijuana were at the highest rates since 1988 when the NIH first began the survey. The amount of young adults who said in 2021 that they used marijuana in the past year (43%), the past month (29%) or daily (11%) were at the highest levels ever recorded. Daily use — defined in the study as 20 or more times in 30 days — was up from 8% in 2016. The amount of young adults who said they used a marijuana vape in the past month reached pre-pandemic levels, after dropping off in 2020. It doubled from 6% in 2017 to 12% in 2021. [NPR article]

Presidential Pardon

October 6, 2022: President Biden pardoned thousands of people convicted of marijuana possession under federal law and said his administration would review whether marijuana should still be in the same legal category as drugs like heroin and LSD.

The pardons cleared everyone convicted on federal charges of simple possession since it became a crime in the 1970s. Officials said full data was not available but noted that about 6,500 people were convicted of simple possession between 1992 and 2021, not counting legal permanent residents. The pardons also affected people who were convicted under District of Columbia drug laws; officials estimated that number to be in the thousands.

The pardons would not apply to people convicted of selling or distributing marijuana. [NYT article]

Election Day 2022

November 8, 2022: Maryland approved recreational use of cannabis, while voters in Arkansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota defeated proposed legalization. [MM article]

Marijuana Research

November 23, 2022: President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan marijuana research bill. The Senate had approved the legislation under unanimous consent the previous week, two months after it cleared the House. It represented the first piece of cannabis reform legislation in U.S. history to be transmitted to the president.

The legislation, which would give the U.S. attorney general 60 days to either approve a given application or request supplemental information from the marijuana research applicant. It would also create a more efficient pathway for researchers who request larger quantities of cannabis.

2023

Adding Kentucky to the list

March 31, 2023 just one day after the Kentucky House approved the legislation from Sen. Stephen West (R), Gov. Andy Beshear (D) signed a bill to legalize medical marijuana, making the state the 38th in the U.S. to enact the reform.

The governor had rallied citizens to pressure their state representatives to pass the bill.

Far too many of our people face the obstacle of having chronic or terminal diseases like cancer, or those like our veterans suffering from PTSD or Kentuckians living with epilepsy, seizures, Parkinson’s or more,” Beshear said. “These folks want and deserve safe and effective methods of treatment.” [MM article]

National Basketball Association

April 3, 2023: in addition to the National Basketball Association  removing marijuana from its banned substances list for players—it also planned to let  players promote and invest in cannabis companies.

That was the latest detail that surfaced in reporting on the new seven-year collective bargaining agreement which was also expected to remove drug testing requirements for marijuana.

With respect to league’s broader marijuana reform, it would formally codify what has been the league’s decision to temporarily suspend cannabis testing for the past three seasons. [MM article]

Delaware

April 21, 2023: Gov. John Carney (D of Delaware said allowed a pair of bills to legalize marijuana possession and establish a regulated adult-use market become law without his signature.

Advocates were concerned that Carney would veto the proposals as he did in the last session, but in a welcome surprise to supporters, he said on Friday that he would let HB 1 and HB 2 go into effect—albeit without his active support.

That meant Delaware, which is nicknamed “The First State,” will become the 22nd state in the U.S. to legalize recreational cannabis.  [MM article]

Decline in Youth Use

May 1, 2023: a new federal study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that high school student marijuana use had trended up from 2009-2013—before legal cannabis dispensaries started opening—but had been on the decline since then. [MM article]

For previous chronologies, see Cannabis Contrails and Cannabis Contrails Continued.

Minnesota

May 30, 2023: Gov. Tim Walz (D) of Minnesota signed a bill to legalize marijuana, making it the 23rd state in the U.S. to end cannabis prohibition.

After months of committee hearings and floor votes, Walz signed off on HF 100, as he previously committed to doing.

“This has been a long journey with a lot of folks involved,” Walz said. “What we know right now is prohibition does not work. We’ve criminalized a lot of folks who are going to start the expungement process on those records.” [MM article]

July 21, 2023:  the new law legalizing the possession and personal cultivation of marijuana for adults in Luxembourg officially took effect.

Luxembourg

July 21, 2023:  the new law legalizing the possession and personal cultivation of marijuana for adults in Luxembourg officially took effect.

This came about a month after Luxembourg’s Parliament passed a legalization bill, making it the second country in the European Union to end cannabis prohibition following Malta’s vote to legalize in 2021. [MM article]

EBCI

September 7, 2023: the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) passed a referendum in favor of legalizing marijuana, becoming the first jurisdiction within the borders of North Carolina—or any of its surrounding states—to commit to the policy change. But it would be a while before would-be customers could make a purchase.

According to unofficial results posted by the EBCI’s Board of Elections, members approved the measure by a margin of 70 percent to 30 percent. Although the referendum does not legalize cannabis automatically, tribal leaders have said they’ll follow voters’ lead when they ultimately take up the issue. [MM article]

Census Bureau Report

October 9, 2023: the U.S. Census Bureau released its first report on state-level marijuana tax revenue data following what the agency calls “a complete canvass of all state agencies” going back to July 2021. In the 18-month period between then and the end of 2022, the data show, states collected more than $5.7 billion from licensed cannabis sales. [MM article]

Ohio Joins Legalization

November 3, 2023: Ohio voters approved a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana making the state the 24th in the U.S. to end prohibition.

The measure, campaigned for by the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CTRMLA), established a regulatory framework to allow adults 21 and older to purchase, possess and cultivate cannabis. [MM article]

Biden Expands Pardon Initiative

December 22, 2023: President Joe Biden on Friday issued a proclamation expanding a marijuana pardon initiative he began last year by including for the first time people who committed cannabis possession offenses on federal properties.

“Criminal records for marijuana use and possession have imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities,” Biden said in a statement. “Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs.”

“Just as no one should be in a federal prison solely due to the use or possession of marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either,” the president continued. “That’s why I continue to urge governors to do the same with regard to state offenses and applaud those who have since taken action.”  [MM article]

Change of Schedule in the Works

January 12, 2024: the U.S. government released hundreds of pages of documents related to its ongoing review of marijuana’s status under federal law, officially confirming for the first time that health officials had recommended the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) place cannabis in Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

The 252 pages of documents from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) explained that cannabis “has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States” and has a “potential for abuse less than the drugs or other substances in Schedules I and II.”

Federal health officials said their review found that more than 30,000 healthcare professionals “across 43 U.S. jurisdictions are authorized to recommend the medical use of marijuana for more than six million registered patients for at least 15 medical conditions.”  [MM article]

DEA Agrees with Schedule Change

April 30, 2024: the Justice Department confirmed that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had agreed with the top federal health agency and proposing to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

The decision cames more than 50 years after cannabis was first listed as a strictly prohibited drug, on par with heroin and defined as a substance with no known medical value and a significant abuse potential. (MM article)

 

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Bert Sommer Woodstock

Bert Sommer Woodstock

John Morris intro…notice his asking people to “take a seat.” Funny!

You hear John Morris adding an “s” to the end of Bert’s not s-ending last name. I guess from that point, we should have known that things were not going to go well for Bert.  He is another of the missing musicians from the album, the movie, as well as the Monument!

The other missing from the Monument are Keef Hartley, Quill,  and Tim Hardin. John Sebastian’s last name is spelled “Sabastian” and though not a “performer” as such, Sri Swami Satchidananda is missing as well.

And as long as we’re pointing out monument (yet not monumental) errors, of course the name of the event was the “Woodstock Music and Art Fair” (not “Arts”).

Definitely playing with Bert were:

The  setlist of his approximately 40 minute stage appearance was:

  • Jennifer
  • The Road To Travel
  • I Wondered Where You’d Be
  • She’s Gone
  • Things Are Going My Way
  • And When It’s Over
  • Jeanette
  • America (Paul Simon)
  • A Note That Read
  • Smile
Bert Sommer Woodstock

Jennifer

Bert Sommer had appeared in the popular play Hair, and according to the Many Fantastic Colors site,  fellow Hair performer Jennifer Warnes inspired him to write his opening song which had also appeared on his first album the Road to Travel (1968) which was produced by Woodstock Ventures’ Artie Kornfeld.

Jennifer’s something you handle with care
Fragile as crystals of glass
Jennifer’s lips are as soft as the air
Kissing her here in the grass

Whoa, I’m lost in a maze
Counting the ways that she smiles
Time is slipping away
Lost in the arms of her love
So gentle and wild

Bert Sommer Woodstock

The Road to Travel

Bert Sommer WoodstockThe name of Sommer’s first album was The Road to Travel. It was his second song at Woodstock.

Here it is, it’s summertime
Still I haven’t felt my sigh
And the years are over too, since I’m gone
And my daddy wonders why
How I look and make him proud
But I’ll carry on his name when he dies

Though the years of headache pain
I’ll continue on the game
To the further road that I can travel tonight
Find my peace, of mine

Papa says it’s straightened out
Look in what my life’s about
Try to use the head that god once gave you

Bert Sommer Woodstock

I Wondered Where You’d Be

If you wonder how to play the song, you can follow this link to the song’s chords.

Seems like I’ve been here forever
Hoping you’d jangle your keys
Hours went by
As I started to cry out and show you
All of me
And as I’m laying here awake
Lost in the cost of a dream
Thinking of someone
I felt was the loved one
I wondered where you’d be
Bert Sommer Woodstock

She’s Gone

As somber and beautiful as Sommer’s songs are, before he begins his next song, he calls out in a friendly way, “Anybody from Forest Hills?” referring to an area of Queens, NY where he grew up. He then asks for a bit more volume in his acoustic guitar. He begins the song and then quickly says, “Too loud.” The song was also on his first album.

Nights by the fire when she was there
Now all I see is an empty chair
She’s gone and this man is dying

There was a time when I’d laugh and sing
All I have left is a dusty reign
She’s gone, there’s no purpose in trying

The door stays open in the day
The lock still broken
And the way I feel without her here
Is very strange and won’t change.

Bert Sommer Woodstock

Things Are Goin’ My Way

He says he want to speed things up and sings Things Are Goin’ My Way. The song gives electric guitarist the chance to do a bit more.

When I was a young man I never had a penny
My pockets always empty couldn’t turn to anyone
But then I met you one happy Sunday
It seems the things are goin’ my way
Now I see that where love is there in your life
You will find that everything’s right
‘Cause it’s so easy a-to find someone
Just try harder and you’ll find that it’s done
When I was a school boy I never was a scholar
I never earned a dollar, didn’t have a place to go
But then I met you and now I must say

It’s seems the things are goin’ my way

Bert Sommer Woodstock

And When It’s Over

Before Sommer can continue, we hear an audience chant, “Come on down” referring to those who have climbed onto the sound towers to view but in doing so threaten to destabilize the towers themselves as well as block the view of those sitting behind it.

MC John Morris  follows up on the chant with, “Like they say, come on down man. You’re gonna’ make us sit here and wait so we can’t hear the man sing until you come on down. Let’s go. Everybody. On the top, too. Let’s go. Man, you are not bigger or big enough to insult an artist who’s sitting on this stage who’s here to play for you. So get down off that tower!”

Cheering follows.

“Come on, creep, come on down.”

The crowd chants, “Down! Down! Down!

Morris apologizes to Sommer (again adding an s to his name). Sommer chuckles and asks the crowd if they know the band the Vagrants, a group he had hung around and a group that changed its name to Mountain and would appear the next day.

And when it’s over
And as you like your cigarette
Feelin’ much older
Knowin’ that ill was no regret
Touchin’ your shoulder
Feelin’ the joy in what we’ve done
As we’ve sailed it to the sun
With our hearts and souls as one
Feelin’ free as the sea
And when it’s over
Gazin’ into your gentle light
Pullin’ you closer
Knowin’ what experience said alright
Both of us powdered
Now that is nothin’ left to hide
As we reach to touch the sky
On the love we play so high
Feelin’ free as the sea
Oh, as we sailed it to the sun
With our hearts and souls as one
Feelin’ free as the sea

Bert Sommer Woodstock

Jeanette

He asks Joanie (?) to stand up for a second, says to the band “Let’s do Jeanette next. Someone shouts out something. Bert responds “Fuck you, man”  and receives cheers.

Chords anyone?

When it was wrong

She Came along

Singing her songs

And long before the morning

What could I say

I told her to stay

Still here today

And there’s no need

For talking

 

Oh Jeanette

I love you Jeanette

And love’s what I get

When you hold me

The Secrets you told me

Don’t you want to be living here with me

Anyway

 

Deep in the night

She is the light

Have I the right

They take the love she’s bringing

There was a time

She drank my wine

It was the sign

That makes the song worth singing

 

Oh Jeanette

I love you Jeanette

And love’s what I get

When you hold me

The Secrets you told me

Don’t you want to be living here with me

Anyway

Bert Sommer Woodstock

America

For the only time in his set, singer-songwriter Sommer did a cover.  Tradition has it was the first standing ovation for any artist was for his version of Paul Simon’s America. It’s interesting how he feels it necessary to tell the audience that it’s a Simon and Garfunkel song. His version really did resonate with the crowd.

Bert Sommer Woodstock

A Note That Read

Sommer introduces the two band members before his penultimate song.

You could hear him screaming
As he looked beyond the door
His only son was lying in a heap upon the floor
And from his wrists that opened wide
His life had flown from deep inside
And in his hand a note that read
It’s better if I’m dead
‘Cause this whole life was bad,
All the times we never had
I can’t say it’s been nice because it wasn’t
And, mama, please forgive me if I’ve messed the rug
But you can have it cleaned tomorrow
Oh, and you’ll find some excuse to tell your garden club
I’m sure they’ll all express their sorrow
You could see them running
As they tried to get some help
Yeah, the neighbors all were pourin’ in
To say how bad they felt
How could this happen in our town
I hope it doesn’t get around
And in his hand a note that read
It’s better if I’m dead
‘Cause this whole life was bad,
All the times we never had
I can’t say it’s been nice because it wasn’t
And, daddy, even this can have a good side
‘Cause here’s your chance for cutting all my hair off
Oh, and from today I’ll never let you down again
‘Cause now your biggest problem is taken care of
Bert Sommer Woodstock

Smile

Before his last song hee says “If you just smile, everything will be alright.” Words true then and true now.

Why should you be angry?
Why should you be sad?
Don’t be disappointed
Just smile
Just smile
Smile and the world smiles with you
Smile, all the love is in your hands
Smile ’cause we all need one another
It only takes a song to understand
I know that we’ve got to get together
A-doin’ all we can
It will start to make it better
It only takes a song to understand
Why should you be angry?
Why should you be sad?
Don’t be disappointed
Just smile
Mmh smile
Smile and the world smiles with you
Smile, all the love is in your hands
Smile ’cause we all need one another
It only takes a song to understand yeah
I know there are so many different people
A-doin’ what they can
And they all would a-love to reach you
It only takes a song to understand
Come on, smile and the world smiles with you
Smile, all the love is in your hands
Whoa you’ve got to smile, ’cause we all need one another
It only takes a song to understand. Alright!
Whoa smile and the world smiles with you
Smile, all the love is in your hands
Whoa we’ve got to smile, ’cause we all need one another
It only takes a song to understand. Yeah!
And it only takes a song to understand
Smile!

John Morris says, “The rather magnificent Bert Sommers.” 

True.

The next performance is Tim Hardin.

Bert Sommer Woodstock

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

What a long strange trip it was

January 19, 1935 – March 13, 2011

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley
The cover of Greenfield’s book.

In Robert Greenfield’s The Life and Times of Augustus Owsley Stanley III,” an epigraph quotes Stanley:

I am not interested in having a biography of any kind published about me or any mention of my childhood. anything written about me should be about the things I’ve done and the skills and talents I have and not, “He grew up here, he went to this school, he was in trouble there” and all that bullshit. Because that the way you create celebrityhood and I’m not into being  celebrity. I don’t give a shit.” January 31, 2007

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

Blue-blood Bluegrass Heritage

August Owsley Stanley III had deep roots in Kentucky.  William Stanley, his great grandfather, fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War and became governor of Kentucky.

His grandfather, the first Augustus Owsley Stanley, had a long successful political career as a Democratic Congressman, a US Senator, and the governor of Kentucky. His defeat in a Senate re-election campaign was due mainly to his being against prohibition.

His father, A O Stanley, Jr, worked for President Franklin Roosevelt in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. He joined the Navy during World War II and was aboard the USS Lexington during the Battle of the Coral Sea the day the Japanese successfully sank the ship.

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

Peripatetic Student

Some young people do not fit easily into the typical American educational system’s structure. A O Stanley, III was one of them. He was bright, inquisitive, intuitive, impatient, and did not understand the constraints school rules placed upon students.

After his parents divorced, he moved with his mother to Los Angeles only to move back to Virginia to live with his father who had remarried. He entered the Charlotte Hall Military Academy.  He became part of its boxing team there and its coach encouraged an all-protein diet, something that became permanent part of Stanley’s life. It was while at Charlotte Hall that students nicknamed him “Bear” because of his hairy chest.  The school expelled him after an alcohol-related incident that he had spearheaded.

He then entered the Washington-Lee High School  (now Washington-Liberty) in Arlington, VA, but left there to voluntarily enter St Elizabeth’s Hospital for where he was a patient for 15 months.

He returned to Washington-Lee, but due to a lack of credits, he was kept a Junior. Owsley stayed that year and quit.

Despite not having a high school diploma, he was able to enter  the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering. He didn’t like it much and left after a year.

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

Peripatetic Young Adult

He didn’t stay home for long before moving to Washington, DC to live with his paternal grandmother and he didn’t stay there long before moving to Los Angeles and getting a job at Rocketdyne where he stayed for about a year before joining the Air Force in June 1956. The Air Force assigned him to the Rocket Engine Test Facility’s salvage yard in the Mohave Desert.

The Navy discharged him after 18 months and he moved back to Los  Angeles and worked in TV and radio.

He also began to take classes at Los Angeles City College.

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

Russian Ballet Roulette

Around this time, Stanley saw Vladimir Vasiliev perform in the Bolshoi Ballet. He fell in love with both the language and the art. He took Russian classes as well as ballet. As much as he loved the training, he realized that he had started far too late to ever achieve the goal of becoming a company dancer. Keeping himself in top physical condition became a priority.

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

Marriage Divorce x 2

He married in 1961. Had a son Peter. Divorced and remarried. Had a daughter Nina. He divorced again and moved to Florida.

In January 1964 he moved back to California and entered University of California, Berkeley campus.

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

Emergence

He moved into an apartment called the Brown Shoe with a group of Berkeley students. They were grass smokers and a Charles Perry lived there.  Perry would later write for Rolling Stone magazine under the pseudonym of Smokestack El Ropo.

Cannabis was OK for Stanley, but he preferred speed and sold morning glory seeds (for their hallucinogenic use) to purchase methamphetamine.

He dropped out of Berkeley and got a tech job with KGO-TV. His Brown Shoe roomies threw  out the manic Bear. Constant middle of the night roaring motorcycle rev ups were the final straws.

While looking for some accurate scales at Berkeley to weigh some speed, he met Melissa Cargill, a chemistry grad student. They befriended, he enticed her away from her boyfriend, and she moved in with him.

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

LSD

This Melissa Cargill picture is from a tweet. Follow the link above to read more.

Someone gave LSD to him. He liked it and wanted more, but could not find what he wanted. He decided, with the help of Cargill, he could make some.

He formed Bear Research Group, which enabled him to purchase the necessary chemicals under its business aegis. Stanley’s intensity, enthusiasm, and money combined with Cargill’s knowledge of chemistry, would trial and error them to an unequaled expertise.

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

He Fought the Law

On February 21, 1965 police raided their lab under the assumption that Stanley was making speed, which was illegal. He was, but he’d hidden most of that evidence and the only thing the police took as evidence were some chemicals for LSD, which was not illegal.

After an expensive trial Stanley (financed from his speed sales) that “showed” what the police had seized was not speed, the court dismissed the case.

On March 30, 1965, 100 grams of lysergic monohydrate, one of the necessary ingredients for LSD,  arrived. By May, the first LSD went on sale.

Despite his canonized reputation as a chemist, Stanley never considered himself to be one. My father once observed, “If you can read, you can cook.” Stanley described himself as a great chef.

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

The Kybalion 

Always attracted to esoteric knowledge, Stanley found The Kybalion, a book published in 1908. Among its many tenets was that all is mind and nothing can exist unless it is first thought. Physicality comes from a mental manifestation of that thing.

For someone who had discovered LSD, such an idea influenced him immensely.

Stanley also thought of alchemy. For most of us, when we hear alchemy we think of early scientists’ attempt to turn lead into gold, but the idea behind that latter description was the search for insight: the road from lead (ignorance) to gold (enlightenment).

Again, Stanley’s use of LSD fit hand in glove with such a perspective.

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

Merry Pranksters/Muir Beach

In October 1965, Owsley met Ken Kesey (both 30) and his Merry Pranksters. Neither was particularly impressed  with the other. Kesey already had a source for LSD, but Kesey and the Pranksters gradually found Owsley’s product superior and a relationship developed which meant that acid tests became part of Stanley’s life.

December 10, 1965: Stanley attended the Mime Troupe Benefit organized by Bill Graham at the Fillmore Auditorium. The Jefferson Airplane, the Great Society, John Handy Quintet, the Mystery Trend, the Gentlemen’s Band, the VIP’s and the Grateful Dead performed. It was the first time Stanley had heard the Dead,

Robert Greenfield quotes Stanley’s response to the Dead in the book Dark Star “In December ’65, I really heard the Grateful Dead for the first time. …I was standing in the hall and they were playing and they scared me to death. Jerry’s guitar terrified me. I had never before heard that much power. That much thought. That much emotion. I thought to myself, “These guys could be bigger than the Beatles.”

Augustus Bear Owsley StanleyThe next night, December 11, 1965 was the Muir Beach Lodge acid test, the third acid test, and the first for Stanley.  The combination of the Dead and taking his own acid abundantly lead to an historic relationship, but after Stanley had a trip that for many would have been their last.

Though he did not meet Stanley in person until January 8, 1966, Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, in his Searching for the Sound, described Stanley’s experience that night: He first showed up on our screens pushing a chair around the floor, in love with the screeching sound of plastic on linoleum, reminding me how I had once felt that the sound of an unlubricated truck transmission was singing to me. I didn’t meet him that night; after the Test was over, he crashed his car on the way home up Mt. Tam. As he related it to us later, he’d spun off the road and seen his whole life — all the incidents of a crowded lifetime in seconds — as a tape loop. Where the splice is, “That’s birth and death”, he swore.

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

Soundman/Financier/Trips Festival

On that January 8 Lesh mentioned to Owsley that the band needed a soundman. A door opened and Owsley rushed in to forge an historic relationship with the band that resulted not only his becoming their soundman, but their financial backer as well.

Mainly organized by Stewart Brand. the Trips Festival on January 21, 22, & 23 at the Longshoremen’s Hall at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco followed.

The advertisement for the festival said that it would be “…the FIRST gathering of its kind anywhere. the TRIP –or electronic performance –is a new medium of communication & entertainment. Stanley provided the LSD and the what became the biggest Acid Test of all.

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

LA Tests

By February 1966, Stanley was part of the Dead and flew them to LA to participate in the continuing series of acid tests and to play other gigs as well.

When he was 18, Stanley had permanently injured his right ear while swimming, which lessened his ability to hear high-pitched sounds in that ear. He compensated for the loss by learning more about sound and learning electronics to do that.

His idea was record the Dead so they could self-evaluate their shows came out of that recording ability and many of Stanley’s recordings are outstanding ones even though recorded live–and often while very high.

While in LA the band did four acid tests:

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

Olompali

Their time together in LA was difficult for the Dead living with Stanley. Among the issues faced was his all-protein diet (Bob Weir reportedly became a vegetarian in reaction) and need to be in control.

Leaving LA, the Dead rented a mansion in Olompali State Historic Park, about 45 miles north of San Francisco while Stanley stayed mainly in Berkeley.

The Dead also broke with Stanley regarding his insistence on certain sound equipment that was so heavy to set up, break down, and transport, that it took hours to do. He exchanged the old equipment he’d paid for for a still high quality lighter sound system that he also paid for. Stanley’s insistence on quality sound permanently stuck with the Dead.

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

Media Fear and Loathing

By the spring of 1966, the media had discovered LSD and wrote stories that emphasized its danger to youth who the media already considered dangerous.

Life Magazine’s March 25 issue had an article: “The Exploding Threat of the Mind-Drug That Got Out of Hand.”

On May 31, 1966, California and Nevada passed legislation making illegal the manufacture, sale, and possession of LSD.

On October 6, 1966, the LA Times did a full-length feature on Stanley, referring to him as Mr LSD. Two days later, the San Francisco Chronicle reprinted the article.

The Dead got such a kick out of Stanley’s exposure (completely unwanted by Stanley himself) that they wrote the song Alice B Millionare.

Your yesterday’s are all left behind
There’s a brand new light in your mind
You don’t need a key to define
What’s written on the magic sign
There’s no time to cry

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

1967

Gathering of the Tribes

On January 14, 1967, Owsley supplied LSD for an even larger festival, The Gathering of the Tribes, a Human Be-In, held in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

In April, Owsley visited Timothy Leary, the east coast figurehead of LSD, at the Hitchcock Estate in  Millbrook, NY. Stanley and Leary had met in LA in the spring of 1966, but Stanley wasn’t impressed. He left Millbrook in 1967 equally unimpressed after the lukewarm reception he received there.

On his way back to New York City, a State Police Officer, who had earlier given directions to Stanley, pulled over the car, searched it, “found” incriminating evidence, and arrested Stanley.

Thousands of dollars later, the case was tossed and the judge reprimanded the officer.

Monterey Pop Festival

June 16 – 18 was the Monterey Pop Festival. Though the Fantasy Fair the week before was the first rock festival, Monterey is far better known because of D.A. Pennebaker’s amazing film, its soundtrack, and the revelatory performances of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.

Made at his new facility in Colorado, Stanley provided his “Monterey Purple” LSD to any who wanted it. Ravi Shankar adamantly refused and was upset with even Stanley’s offer. Lighting person Chip Monck had simply wanted something to keep him awake, but accidentally took some. Brian Jones, instructed by John Lennon, brought back a supply to the UK hidden in a camera lens. That LSD helped fuel the filming of the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour.

A few days after the festival, Stanley convinced Jimi Hendrix to imbibe and then allow Stanley to record a solo performance. Afterwards, Jimi asked to see the cassette and summarily threw it into a fire. Lost forever. Jimi had a sense of  humor, though, and  he can be heard at the end of his live cover of the Beatles’ “Day-Tripper,” saying “Oh, Owsley, can you hear me now?

Summer of Love Fiasco

With the media’s exaggerated reports of drug use, hippie culture, and free love, San Francisco’s 1967 Summer of Love became instead a failed haven for runaways and a successful one for those looking to take advantage of them despite the altruistic attempts to help by such groups as the Diggers.

In fact, on October 6, the Diggers organized Death of Hippie, a mock funeral staged meant to signal the end of the Summer of Love.  Leaders carried a coffin down Haight Street and the crowd stopped for a “kneel-in” at the corner of Haight and Ashbury.

Lab Raid

To cap off Stanley’s increasingly tense year,  agents raided his Orinda lab on December 21.

The Salem Capitol Journal reportedFive persons, including a college dropout known as “king of acid” who allegedly earned a million dollars manufacturing and selling LSD, faced federal arraignment today on conspiracy charges.

Augustus Owsley Stanley III, 32, whose grandfather was a Kentucky governor, congressman and U.S. senator,  was arrested by agents of the Federal Bureau of Drug Abuse Thursday in a raid on a fashionable two-story home in this residential community 40 miles east of San Francisco. Stanley is known throughout the west as “king of acid.”

Pat Fuller, western director of the bureau, said the home contained “a very sophisticated chemical laboratory” and large quantities of chemicals.

Others seized were William A. Spires, 24, Robert D. Thomas, 29, Melissa Cargill, 25, and Rhona Helen Gissen, 26. They were booked on charges of “conspiracy to illegally manufacture a controlled drug.”

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

1968

Carousel Ballroom

With his LSD operation on hold, Stanley went back to being a soundman, this time at San Francisco’s Carousel Ballroom, a short-lived rock venue. (In July 1968, Bill Graham would takeover the Carousel and rename it the Fillmore West.)

Back with the Dead

In August 1968, Dan Healy, the Dead’s soundman, left the band and the Dead asked Owsley if he would like to come back. He accepted and also accepted the challenge of trying to dose Bill Graham. Graham was intensely suspicious of the Dead’s LSD pranks and took extreme measures (wrapping and taping tight his food to avoid a trick contact with the chemical, but on August 20 the Dead’s road crew successfully tainted the top of some soda cans that Graham unknowingly used.

Graham jammed with the band on a cowbell drummer Mickey Hart handed him for most of the show. Unfortunately, there is no known recording of Graham’s performance.

His arrest had forced more media exposure upon Stanley and reclusive to begin with, he decided to become Bear again. As a soundman, he also decided to help the band and himself by keeping a “sonic journal” of the shows, that is, recording them so he and the band could listen and learn how to sound better when playing live.

These and subsequent recordings by other sound recorders (notably Betty Cantor) as well as allowing the audience to record their shows have given the band an unequaled recorded canon.

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

1969, 1970, 1971

Steal Your Face

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

In June 1969, Stanley also came up with a practical idea: marking the Dead’s equipment with an easily identifiable mark to facilitate work at gigs and make sure the expensive equipment he’d purchased for them stayed with them.

Bob Thomas drew it and the ‘Steal Your Face’ lightning skull was born.

Woodstock

Woodstock happened for the Dead and Bear, but their set is considered by most to be below par. Equipment problems, weather, and other concerns were present for all of the performers, but those issues affected the Dead’s performance more than others.

While the Dead were part of the impetus of December’s Altamont Speedway Free Festival,  they dropped out and only Bear was part of what Bill Graham would later call the “Pearl Harbor of Rock.”

Jailed

On January 30, 1970,  a police raided at their hotel resulted in Bear and most of the Dead band being arrested. Luckily a good lawyer knew an ambitious district attorney and a $50,000 political contribution dropped the flimsy charges.

Unfortunately for Bear, though, on July 31, his bail was revoked and he went to jail. While their, Janis Joplin died on October 4.  She was important to Bear and among the many sonic journals he’d made was live recording of Big Brother at the Carousel in June 1968. The recording, Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968 was not released until 2012.

He felt close to Joplin also because they shared a birthday as well as the birthdays of Edgar Allen Poe, Richard Lester, Robert E Lee, and Paul Cézanne.

Fatherhood in jail

While he was still in jail, girlfriend Rhoney Gussen gave birth to a son (Starfinder) on December 21, 1970. Three months later girlfriend Melissa Cargill gave birth to a daughter. Iridesca, who later changed her name to Redbird.

While imprisoned at the Terminal Island penitentiary in San Pedro, California, Bear was assigned to food services, an ideal placement for him as he could manage to continue his all-protein diet.

Dead in jail

The Dead did a concert in the Terminal Island library on  August 4, 1971.

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

1972

 

Release and back with the Dead (sort of)

After being transferred to a low security facility in Lompoc, CA, Bear was released a year early (of his 3-year sentence) on July 15, 1972.

He returned to the Dead family, but in his absence the crew created their own routine that, not surprisingly, Bear disagreed with.

He tried to contribute in his persnickety manner, but he no longer had the seniority he once had.

He was able to add to his sonic journals from Dead performances as well as other band.

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

Wall of Sound

He did convince the band that he could create the best sounding PA system that anyone ever had. He did and it became known as the Wall of Sound.

The problem with this amazing sound system was the number of components, its size, and its weight. Assembled, it stood 40 feet high and 70 feet wide. There were 174 12″ and 288 5″ JBL speakers as well as 54 Electro Voice tweeters.

It required 26,000 watts to drive and that meant 55 McIntash MC-3000 amps. There were 9 different channels and 4-way crossover.

It cost $35,000 and weighed 75 tons.

Drummer Bill Kreutzman described the Wall as “Owsley’s brain in material form.

It first appeared on March 23, 1974 at the Cow Palace in Daly City, CA.

By August, the crew threatened to quit en masse because of the impossibility of setting up and breaking down the massive system.

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

Weed Farmer: 1974 – 1981

With the Dead taking a hiatus and the chances to manufacture LSD drastically curtailed, Bear turned to weed, though the amount he could grow vs the amount of money he could make by selling it was still not even close to his LSD profit margin.

In fact, he was nearly killed in an attempted robbery his crop.

Soundman/Dreams/Australia

The Dead invited him to do sound for a Seva Foundation benefit concert on April 25, 1981.

He assisted the band awhile, but in 1984 he began to have the same disturbing dream for several weeks. The dream centered around the Earth’s Northern Hemisphere and flooding. After researching and speaking with meteorologists, Bear came to the conclusion that there was going to be another Biblical deluge followed by a new ice age.

In 1984, he moved to Atherton, Australia with his family and some acquaintances and squatted on more than 100 acres. He set up buildings, a water collection system, and eventually succeeded in legally occupying the land despite initial resistance by Australian authorities.

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

Sheilah Manning

Owsley continued to come back to the United States and attend Dead concerts. Sheilah Manning worked for the Dead in their ticket office. As had regularly happened in his live, Owsley fell in love and doggedly pursued Sheilah. He sent her a round trip ticket to Australia. She did go, but it took four years of back and forth before she decided to stay. They would mary in 1995.

In the meantime, Australia told him that his tourist visa had expired and if he wanted to live there he needed to apply for residency. He applied as a “distinguished artist” and got friends to support the claim. Rolling Stones Keith Richards letter may have tipped the scales in Stanley’s favor.

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

Health decline/World Tour

In 2000, he had heart issues (blockages), but an operation was able to remedy them. His excellent physical condition aided his recovery.

In 2004 Stanley was diagnosed with cancer in his neck. Intense radiation treatments saved his life, but permanently affected his speech and ability to chew and eat.

In 2007, John Meyer, an old friend and a very successful founder of Meyer Sound, sent Stanley two tickets for a round the world tour. Done in a typical Stanley manner and accompanied by an extremely patient Sheilah, most flights were missed and hotel exits late. Overall, he and Sheilah had a wonderful time though.

On March 11, 2011, he and Sheilah were on their way home after a long trip that had resulted in the good news that Owsley had reached the five-year cancer free goal of all cancer patients.

Owsley was driving, the road was wet, and the car hit an oil patch. The paramedics arrived, but Owsley and Sheilah were trapped in the car.

In the end, an uninjured Sheilah had to hear an insensitive paramedic coldly tell her, “He’s dead.”

A funeral was held on March 22. Among the many tributes was a eulogy by Dead lyricist Robert Hunter:

An Anthem For Bear

Augustus Owsley Stanley III
Being less a name than a designation
The bearer of the appellation
Became, of his own inspiration
The Bear

Thus he became and thus remained
And every old-timer worth his salt
Has a tale or two to tell regarding same
Of the time the Bear did this or that
Incredibly singular, utterly apposite
Action without apology or shame
To his own particular undying fame

Unreachable, unteachable
A flame in the light of his own magnificence
Reflected in deeds dwarfing the achievements
Of the run-of-the-mill creative sort
By a factor of ten or more

King of many things was he
Of mortal physiology, the soul’s chemistry
Geography, geology
Not to mention the applied physics of sound

Regarding which, deaf in one ear
He pronounced stereo to be a distraction
Affording only one perfect seat in the house
Upon which to work its elusive illusions
And setting himself to design
The world’s most powerful hi-fi system to prove it

One suspects that, had he but one leg
He’d have seen the advantage in that
And invented accordingly, ingeniously
And, it goes without saying, successfully

Lovable and loving in the abstract
Effusiveness was not his hole card
His judgement swift, certain and irrevocable
The last word was his personal property
For the few times he was wrong, there is no accounting

Was there ever a man who changed so many
While himself changing so little
A cardinal sign, were there ever one
Fixed like a bright white star in dark blue heaven

Save sentimental eulogies for lesser men
And leave it that he was a king of many things
Of perfected personal taste and detailed opinion
First and last a scientist
And propounder of a brand new species of reason

No bucolic heaven for such as Bear
Rather a Rock of Ages
From where an eagle in full flight might dare
A sudden detour into endless dawn
Sail on, dear brother Bear
Sail on

Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley

Fare Thee Well

 

Grateful Dead/Attics of My Life/July 5, 2015

In 2015, the remaining members of the Grateful Dead played two series of concerts, one in Santa Clara, CA and one in Chicago, IL. Owsley’s son Starfinder brought some of Bear’s ashes to the Chicago concerts on July 3, 4, and 5 and placed the container in the soundboard.

In the attics of my life
Full of cloudy dreams unreal
Full of tastes no tongue can know
And lights no eye can see
When there was no ear to hear

You sang to me.
I have spent my life
Seeking all that’s still unsung
Bent my ear to hear the tune
And closed my eyes to see
When there were no strings to play
You played to meIn the book of love’s own dream
Where all the print is blood
Where all the pages are my days
And all my lights grow old
When I had no wings to fly
You flew to meYou
flew
to me, to me.In the secret space of dreams
Where I dreaming lay amazed
When the secrets all are told
And the petals all unfold
When there was no dream of mine
You dreamed of me

lyrics by Robert Hunter
Augustus Bear Owsley Stanley