Why you can thank a gay, hippie Vietnam veteran for legal medical and recreational marijuana today
Dennis Peron was born in New York City and grew up on Long Island, NY and served in the Air Force in Vietnam.
Of his time in Vietnam he said, ““[During the Tet Offensive,] it was a perfect storm. They [the Vietcong] brought the war home to Saigon. They [the Air Force] got even with me. They put me on the morgue for 30 days and I’m 20 years-old. I’ve never seen a dead person. That month I saw 25,000 dead people. I came out of my closet and found out who I was.”
After the war, he moved to San Francisco’s Castro District. During World War II, if the armed services discovered that a soldier was gay, it discharged him. Often this would happen just before the soldiers shipped out and San Francisco was a primary port during the war.
Some of these soldiers settled in San Francisco and later the Castro District became a primarily gay neighborhood.
Cannabis Activist Dennis Peron
Smoke-ins
Peron joined the Youth International Party ( Yippies!) , the radical side of hippies which promoted various anti-authoritarian ideas, such as promoting the use and legalization of cannabis.
Toward that end, Peron helped organize smoke-ins.
Cannabis Activist Dennis Peron
Medical Marijuana
He also sold cannabis from storefronts in the Castro and advocated for medical cannabis as the scourge of AIDS grew in the 1980. His partner, Jonathan West died of AIDS in 1990.
Also in 1991, Peron organized for the passage of San Francisco’s Proposition P, a resolution calling on the state government to permit medical cannabis, which received 79% of the vote.
That same year, he co-founded the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club, the first public cannabis dispensary. The club, which served 9,000 clients, was closed by a San Francisco Superior Court judge in 1998.
In 1993, Peron and Brownie Mary jointly released a cookbook with recipes for cannabis edibles.
Cannabis Activist Dennis Peron
Proposition 215
In 1996, Peron coauthored California Proposition 215, which sought to allow the use of medical cannabis.
Dan Lungren, the Attorney General of California, ordered a police raid of Peron’s club a month before the election, arresting Peron.
Proposition 215 was passed soon thereafter, which allowed the club to reopen. Later in 1996, the Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party of Minnesota fielded Peron as their nominee, their first, in the U.S. presidential election.
In 1998, Peron ran in the Republican primary for California governor against Lungren, who won the primary and lost the election to Gray Davis.
Peron voiced support for decriminalization of all marijuana use, believing that it is medicinal. He opposed medical marijuana use for children.
Dennis Peron wrote in his 2012 book, “Memoirs of Dennis Peron,” that he was just a “gay kid from Long Island who joined the Air Force to get away from home.”
Cannabis Activist Dennis Peron
Anti-recreational
Peron opposed California Proposition 19 in 2010, which would have legalized recreational cannabis, because he did not believe that recreational use exists, as all people who use marijuana are using it medicinally. He opposed California Proposition 64in 2016 (approved adult use marijuana) because for the same reason. Voters approved the proposition 57.13% to 42.87%.
In 2013 he published his memoirs: Memoirs of Dennis Peron.
San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors recognized Peron, who was suffering with late-stage lung cancer, with a certificate of honor in 2017. Supervisor Jeff Sheehy called Peron “the father of medical cannabis”.
On January 27, 2018, aged 72, Peron died of lung cancer at the Veteran’s Administration Health Center in San Francisco.
“The city and the country has lost a cannabis leader who lived life on the edge,” Terrance Alan, a member of the city’s Cannabis Commission, told the Chronicle, “He lived his whole life on the edge, and that’s what allowed us to lead in cannabis.”
“Music is simply the sugar syrup that the medicine of the Divine name is hidden in.”
New York City at the Church Of St. Paul & St. Andrew in October 2013
Sometimes a happenstance event becomes that stone thrown in a still pond and the ripples vibrate out to the lakes’ shores and into history.
In April 1965, the Beatles were filming the movie, Help!. The script called for a scene in an Indian restaurant with Indian musicians playing.
George Harrison saw a sitar for the first time.
Norwegian Wood
On October 12, 1965, the Beatles began working on their Rubber Soul album and during the day’s second session they started to record “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown).” Harrison played sitar on the song.
On my tours at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts I emphasize the importance of the Rubber Soul album and how it changed the scope of pop music. I joke about how when I first listened to the album, intently staring at and reading its covers, I found a typo: someone had misspelled guitar! They spelled it s-i-t-a-r.
And just as Harrison had accidentally discovered Indian music (and thus Indian culture), so too happened the teenage Western listener.
He had first learned yoga asanas [postures] on the floor of a tenement apartment on the Lower East Side in 1966 from a guy who had just come over from India.
Jeff also loved rock music and was in a band. He wanted to be a star.
The Soft White Underbelly would go on to rock fame as Blue Öyster Cult and sell more than 24 million records worldwide.
Jeff Kagel Krishna Das
Krishna Das
As much as Jeff Kagel wanted to be a rock star, he felt spiritually lost. In the winter of 1968, he made a decision: move to New Hampshire visit the spiritual teacher Ram Dass (who, in his former incarnation was Harvard professor Richard Alpert as in LSD researcher with Timothy Leary).
Later, Kagel traveled across the country with Ram Dass as his student, captivated by the stories of Dass’s recent trip to India where he had met the legendary guru Neem Karoli Baba, known to most as Maharaj-ji.
In India, Krishna Das [Kagel] also encountered kirtan, or the chanting of God’s name. “I heard it and I couldn’t believe it. I thought, this is fantastic. I was always musical and I always loved to sing. I didn’t really do it at first as a spiritual practice, in a heavy way like that. I sang because I loved to do it.”
He spoke of his guru with great love and respect: “Someone like him is like the sun. To be in his presence and to be connected to him is to be doing the best thing you can do for your own blossoming. He didn’t give meditation techniques, he didn’t give mantras. He ripened you from the inside.”
For awhile, Kagel became “Driver” because he was in charge of driving the one car that’s how many referred to him, but…
Neem Karoli Baba gave Krishna Das his spiritual name. Das means servant, and Krishna is one of the names of God.
NYT interview: Krishna Das lived blissfully at Neem Karoli Baba’s temple until 1973, when he returned to America at the guru’s behest. His teacher called him back about a year later, but Krishna Das, who was making money and enjoying a new romance, hesitated. Within months, Neem Karoli Baba died.
Jeff Kagel Krishna Das
Lost/Renewal
After Baba’s death, Das became lost. Eleven years of substance abuse and depression followed.
He returned to India and came to the realization that although Neem Karoli Baba had left his body, his presence remained.
From his site: Over the years, he continued chanting, developing his signature style, fusing traditional kirtan of the east with western harmonic and rhythmic sensibilities.
Does he still love rock? Does he ever tire of kirtan?
I do, all the time! You should hear us at sound check. We do Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, Rolling Stones. We do everything. We’re totally nuts in sound check. [YJ interview]
Jeff Kagel Krishna Das
One Track Heart
In 2012, director Jeremy Frindel released One Track Heart, The Story of Krishna Das. It is how I first heard of and heard KD. And again I found myself asking, “How is it I never heard of him before.”
Bob Dylan’s famous flubbed intro to his 115th Dream with Tom Wilson laughing and saying “Take 2.”
There are many people who the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has inducted onto its hallowed list. Most are, obviously, performers, but there are those non-performers whose contributions to rock and roll are so important that they, too, are inducted.
But a search of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for Tom Wilson yields “0 RESULTS FOUND.”
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Waco, TX
Thomas Blanchard “Tom” Wilson Jr was born on March 25, 1931 and grew up in Waco, TX. As with many black families, music, particularly in church, was an integral part of life.
After a year at Fisk University, he transferred to Harvard. He officially studied economics, but being a part of the Harvard Jazz Society was his first love.
He graduated from Harvard University in 1954 and started Transition Records. The first musicians he worked with were–at the time– struggling unknowns.
He did it all at Transition. Photographer. Album design. Liner notes.
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Columbia Records
Financial difficulties forced him to shut down the label. He worked with United Artist and some other labels before becoming a producer at Columbia Records in 1963.
His first assignment was the young, somewhat brash, and unknown Bob Dylan. John H. Hammond had produced Dylan’s first album in 1962. It went nowhere.
Wilson wasn’t a big folk fan but thought more musicians behind Dylan might improve the sound. Dylan and Albert Grossman, his manager, declined. Wilson and Hammond co-produced Dylan’s second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. It fared better.
Wilson alone produced Dylan’s third album, The Times They Are a-Changin’. Again, though, Dylan was the sole musician.
On June 9, 1964 Dylan alone recorded and Wilson alone produced Another Side of Bob Dylan. That’s not a typo. They did the album in one day. Columbia Studio A, 799 Seventh Avenue, NYC.
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Bringing It All Back Home
Seven months later, Wilson and Dylan were back in the studio. This time, for Dylan’s first time, they divided the album into an electric side (side 1) and an acoustic side (side 2), although the acoustic side included some tracks in which other instruments were backing up Dylan and his guitar, but no drums were used.
That album changed everything. Until then, Dylan’s image was that of a talented folk singer. With Bringing… he became, at least, a folk rocker if not simply a rock artist.
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Like A Rolling Stone
Bringing was the last Dylan album Wilson produced, but not the last song. That was, according to many, the greatest rock and roll song ever: Like a Rolling Stone.
The song’s unforgettable salient is the organ that jumps in just after the rim shot. That is, as you likely know already, sneaky Al Kooper. Kooper was a friend of Wilson and Wilson had invited him to the studio that day. Kooper, a guitarist, slipped in behind back, sat at the organ and joined in.
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Simon/Garfunkel
In 1964 Tom Wilson had produced Simon and Garfunkel’s first album, Wednesday Morning 3 AM (when else is 3 AM but the morning?) The acoustic album went nowhere. Simon went to Great Britain; Garfunkel back to Columbia University.
One song from the album, The Sounds of Silence, attracted a bit of attention in Boston and areas of Florida. Unbeknownst to the absent duo, Wilson decided to electrify the song and brought in musicians Al Gorgoni and Vinnie Bell on guitar, Bob Bushnell on bass, and Bobby Gregg on drums.
That is the version we know today. Wilson’s tweak sparked a career.
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Verve/MGM
In 1966 Wilson left Columbia [some suggest the “Al Kooper Incident” may have been part of his Columbia fall] and became the head of A & R at Verve/MGM Records. One of the first groups Wilson signed was Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. Their musicianship and fusion of styles appealed to Wilson. He produced their first two albums.
“Tom Wilson was a great guy,” Zappa later said. “He had vision, you know? And he really stood by us.”
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Velvet Underground
While at Columbia, Wilson had tried to sign the Velvet Underground. He succeeded in signing them at Verve because he promised them artistic freedom.
John Cale later said to the authors of Up-Tight: The Velvet Underground Story, “The band never again had as good a producer as Tom Wilson.”
In 1967 Tom Wilson had eight albums in the Top 100.
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Outside
Irwin Chusid writes: In 1967 and ’68 Tom Wilson hosted a free-form radio program called The Music Factory, sponsored by MGM-Verve. It premiered on WABC-FM (New York) in June 1967, before going national via 12″ vinyl discs distributed to interested radio stations. Wilson hosted 25 hour-long syndicated episodes, each of which featured interviews with musicians, producers, and engineers, as well as tracks from MGM, Verve, and affiliated label releases.
Here’s a link to the first show:
Wilson was also integral in getting The Record Plant recording studio on successful footing. In early 1968, Gary Kellgren and Chirs Stone began building a 12-track studio at 321 West 44th Street, creating a living room type of environment for the musicians. It opened on March 13, 1968.
As the studio was nearing completion, Wilson persuaded Hendrix producer Chas Chandler to book the Record Plant from April 18 to early July 1968 for the recording of the album Electric Ladyland.
After he left MGM, he began the Tom Wilson Organization in 1968.
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Exotic man
That same year, on September 29, the New York Times ran an article on Wilson. Among the many things Ann Geracimos wrote were that Wilson was an “exotic man in an exotic field.” That, Wilson strolls in wearing his work-a-day special: antelope suede jacket, lightweight white candy twill bell-bottom trousers, purple crepe shirt.”
She also implied drug use and in an October 20 letter to the editor Wilson took issue with the implication. He wrote, “Let me state unequivocally, that I do not advocate the use of drugs in any form. In my early years, while producing jazz artists, I saw many great musical careers destroyed or diminished by drug addiction.
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Discography
Tom Wilson’s discography is impressive for both its astounding amount yet brevity in terms of years. His first was Herb Pomeroy in 1955. The first of six albums that year. His last year was 1978: Professor Longhair‘s Live on the Queen Mary and that was recorded in 1975.
Record Producer Tom Wilson
1978
Wilson’s grave marker with his parents. His death year on the marker (1975) is incorrect. It is 1978.
In 1978, Wilson and his business partner, producer Larry Fallon, were working with Danny Sims, the manager of singer Johnny Nash. Wilson and Fallon had written an R&B opera called Mind Flyers of Gondwana .
But the opera was not to be, nor was anything else. On September 6, 1978, Wilson died of a heart attack in Los Angeles. He was only 47.
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Disillusioned
A 2003 article from the Blog Critics site quoted Coral Browning, an early 1970s London girlfriend of Wilson’s: “Tom felt let down by blacks. He felt that after the civil rights successes of the ’50s and ’60s, blacks should stop complaining and get on with it. He felt they caused many of their own problems by carrying such large chips on their shoulders.”
He had been head of the Young Republican Club at Harvard.
My original plan was to write a book about Tom Wilson. But I didn’t really want to write such a book—I wanted to read one. But there isn’t one. So I decided to launch a Tom Wilson website—because there wasn’t one.
Ancillary goal: to get Wilson inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame. No-brainer.
Bob Dylan: The producers that have meant the most to me are Tom Wilson, John Hammond and Bob Johnston.
Van Dyke Parks: Tom Wilson signed me to MGM in 1965. He was such an ebullient spirit — charismatic, statuesque, and curiously empowering for those in his orbit. That he was Ivy as well as street smart (viz. Cecil Taylor) was a jaw dropper
Record Producer Tom Wilson
What's so funny about peace, love, art, and activism?
