Psychedelic Rock and the Budding Hippie Culture

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Merry Pranksters for their acid tests. Through them he also met the Grateful Dead in 1966 and began supporting them both financially and as a sound man.” “His LSD product became a part of the “Red Dog Experience”, the early evolution of psychedelic rock and the budding hippie culture. “
In October of 1965, many Red Dog participants returned to their native San Francisco, where they created a new collective called “The Family Dog”. founder and manager of Big Brother and the Holding Company, Chester Helms (father of San Francisco’s 1967, Summer of Love) was a music promoter and a counter culture figure in San Francisco during its hippie period in the mid to late Sixties. Helms had recruited Janis Joplin as its lead singer. He was a producer …show more content…

Approximately, fifteen thousand hippies occupied this section of the town, including the psychedelic bands The Charlatans, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother, and the Holding Company. The Diggers attempted to create a subculture independent of the monetary economy because they were scorned by consumer society. The Diggers took the name from the original English Diggers who had promulgated a vision of society free from private property, and all forms of buying and selling. Pete Coyote was the founder of the Diggers and active in Haight-Ashbury during the mid-60’s, he was a director with the San Francisco Mime Troupe and was a key figure during San Francisco’s counterculture. The San Francisco Mime Troupe is a theater that uses a mix of political satire and original music. They used to preform free shows in various parks in San Francisco Bay area and around California. Coyote, along with Emmett Grogan and Peter Berg, they created provocative "theater" events designed to heighten awareness of problems associated with the notion of private property, consumerism, and identification with one's work. They fed nearly 600 people a day for "free", asking only that people pass through a six-foot by six-foot square known as The Free Frame of Reference.” They continued to carry the belief that …show more content…

Leary being most remembered for being the man who brought psychedelic drugs into American culture, but he thought of himself as a philosopher more than anything else did. He was an undisputed leader of the psychedelic movement. “Leary, while he was lecturing at Harvard University, was the most prominent pro-LSD researcher. “Leary claimed that using LSD with the right dosage, “set” (what one brings to the experience), and setting, preferably with the guidance of professionals, could alter behavior in dramatic and beneficial ways and open people’s eyes to ideas and visions that were not possible without tripping on LSD.” Leary also experimented on himself, as well as, Harvard students, which the University was not pleased and was fired.” Leary would be a main contributor of LSD to many who attend The Human Be-In or the Gathering of the Tribes in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on January 14, 1967, which was considered the prelude to the Summer of Love in

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