WHEN in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary….
Boomer Anthems: “It was fifty years ago today / Jimi Hendrix burned his guitar away….”
byVanderleunonOctober 10, 2022
If you can just get your mind together
Then come on across to me
We’ll hold hands, and then we’ll watch the sunrise
From the bottom of the sea
But first, are you experienced?
Have you ever been experienced?
Well, I have . . . .
Speaking only for myself, but starting around the time this song was released in 1967 I was “experienced” about 60-65 times over the following four years. My old friends say this single fact explains so much about me. I demur.
Okay, but at Monteray this particular nitwit made himself and his flaming guitar unforgettable. In time Jimi Hendrix, from this nitwitical beginning became, well, JIMI EFFING HENDRIX! It’s the slinger, not the schlong.
When Jimi arrived at Monterey nobody knew him. When he left his was a steady soaring into the stratosphere. He never burned another guitar, but that moment placed him on the map. His abilities kept him there. All of the theatrics, playing behind his back, with his teeth, between his crotch, grew tiresome and nobody describes Jimi’s longing to change and cut the crap better than Joni Mitchell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPo0H9f07OQ
OK, here we go. I was fourteen or fifteen years old when I first read about hallucinogens in the old Time/Life Science book, “The Mind.” The accounts were fascinating, and I knew right from the gate that I wanted that experience. I dropped acid for the first time on my sixteenth birthday, and did it every chance I could get for the next few years. Some of the kids at my high school had older siblings in college up in the Bay. They got hold of the real deal. There were purple, green, and salmon colored tablets of pharmaceutical: hard shiny pills like something from a doctor’s office. It was amazing. The trip was highly visual with none of the heaviness that came with the bootleg stuff. Sunshine came later from The Brotherhood out of Laguna Canyon. Sunshine became the gold standard for acid, and I did a lot of it.
I got a wild hair a few years back, and decided I wanted to re-visit the experience. I had a friend in the outlaw bicycle scene who hooked me up with some very clean stuff, along with a few ounces of shrooms. I went for a few rides, albeit in much smaller doses than I did in the past. It was still all kinds of fun.
Writers always lumped LSD in with psylocibin, and mescaline. There is some similarity between the mushroom and acid, but only some.
Mescaline is a whole ‘nother story. Occasionally we’d get a hit of “mescaline” but, in retrospect it was just re-labeled acid. The real thing is nothing at all like either mushrooms or acid. It’s a rough ride, and few people go for it more than once. I did some peyote in the mid 70’s. More recently I read up on the columnar cacti, San Pedro, and Achuma, the Bolivian torch, which are also mescaline bearing, but in lower concentration than the peyote button. That was a ride-of- a-lifetime trip. Way more fun than I had bargained for. I linked the account, “A Vein of Fire”, at my nic. If you got a few minutes to waste, check it out.
They got hold of the real deal. There were purple, green, and salmon colored tablets of pharmaceutical: hard shiny pills like something from a doctor’s office. It was amazing.
I know those hard shiny pills, and I agree that they were rather amazing, but for real hilarity, go for the ‘shrooms.
First time I did mushrooms I asked the guy I got them from how much I should go for for a first time. He told me, “Do an eighth.” (3 1/2grams) I didn’t count on the nausea, and the eighth was a very heavy dose. It knocked me off my pins pretty hard, and I spent the next three hours going, “Please just make this stop.” I’ve been a little gun shy of the shroom ever since. Last time I shroomed was right after I’d finished up The Lost Canyon stuff, which was just when the virus panic was in full swing. I wanted to hike the hills where Pete had done so many of his paintings, a spot I’ve hiked for over fifty years. I was tripping balls, as the kids say, when I was confronted with legions of Chinese out for their morning walk. They were, to an individual, masked up like the paranoid plague zombies they are, with blue tooth ear plugs and faceless faces shoved into their goddamn cell phones. I remember a family walking past me. They cringed at the side of the trail like I was some sort of demon, and the woman grabbed her kid, and held him away from me as if I were a mortal threat. Not the kind of thing you want to experience when you’re high, and it absolutely ruined an otherwise transcendent morning. I haven’t been back up there since.
I never had a bad experience with ‘shrooms, thankfully. One of the funniest times we downed them was at the Wheatland Music Festival, a bluegrass festival here in Michigan. My wife, my best friend, and I all ate a handful. No weighing them. The funniest thing that happened was when my wife was in a solitary porta potty along one of the trails on the property. She was in there, laughing hysterically, for over 10 minutes while my friend and I stood around grinning broadly at the folks walking past the porta potty wondering what the heck was going on in there. We’d just smile and say she was experiencing an epic movement.
ghostsniperOctober 12, 2022, 7:18 AM
Did shroomz when I lived in Calif, liked em. Never had a bad trip. I heard you get out of it what you brung. shrug
I believe Hendrix burned his guitar for Bob Dylan’s grandmother.
Stephen BarronOctober 11, 2022, 4:05 PM
Joe Bonamassa (who I thankfully discovered via American Digest) does good covers of Hendrix tunes. Here’s a long version of this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzdbjIut9Lk
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
“If the doors of perception were cleansed, things would appear as they truly are, …infinite”
Not stoned, but stoned immaculate….Beautiful
No regrets, but gratitude for those formative experiences
Only a nitwit would burn their instrument.
My 38 yo Harmony Marquis still looks brand new and I’ve played it for at least 10,000 hours.
Agreed. I never could understand that.
Okay, but at Monteray this particular nitwit made himself and his flaming guitar unforgettable. In time Jimi Hendrix, from this nitwitical beginning became, well, JIMI EFFING HENDRIX! It’s the slinger, not the schlong.
True this!
When Jimi arrived at Monterey nobody knew him. When he left his was a steady soaring into the stratosphere. He never burned another guitar, but that moment placed him on the map. His abilities kept him there. All of the theatrics, playing behind his back, with his teeth, between his crotch, grew tiresome and nobody describes Jimi’s longing to change and cut the crap better than Joni Mitchell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPo0H9f07OQ
OK, here we go. I was fourteen or fifteen years old when I first read about hallucinogens in the old Time/Life Science book, “The Mind.” The accounts were fascinating, and I knew right from the gate that I wanted that experience. I dropped acid for the first time on my sixteenth birthday, and did it every chance I could get for the next few years. Some of the kids at my high school had older siblings in college up in the Bay. They got hold of the real deal. There were purple, green, and salmon colored tablets of pharmaceutical: hard shiny pills like something from a doctor’s office. It was amazing. The trip was highly visual with none of the heaviness that came with the bootleg stuff. Sunshine came later from The Brotherhood out of Laguna Canyon. Sunshine became the gold standard for acid, and I did a lot of it.
I got a wild hair a few years back, and decided I wanted to re-visit the experience. I had a friend in the outlaw bicycle scene who hooked me up with some very clean stuff, along with a few ounces of shrooms. I went for a few rides, albeit in much smaller doses than I did in the past. It was still all kinds of fun.
Writers always lumped LSD in with psylocibin, and mescaline. There is some similarity between the mushroom and acid, but only some.
Mescaline is a whole ‘nother story. Occasionally we’d get a hit of “mescaline” but, in retrospect it was just re-labeled acid. The real thing is nothing at all like either mushrooms or acid. It’s a rough ride, and few people go for it more than once. I did some peyote in the mid 70’s. More recently I read up on the columnar cacti, San Pedro, and Achuma, the Bolivian torch, which are also mescaline bearing, but in lower concentration than the peyote button. That was a ride-of- a-lifetime trip. Way more fun than I had bargained for. I linked the account, “A Vein of Fire”, at my nic. If you got a few minutes to waste, check it out.
JWM
They got hold of the real deal. There were purple, green, and salmon colored tablets of pharmaceutical: hard shiny pills like something from a doctor’s office. It was amazing.
I know those hard shiny pills, and I agree that they were rather amazing, but for real hilarity, go for the ‘shrooms.
First time I did mushrooms I asked the guy I got them from how much I should go for for a first time. He told me, “Do an eighth.” (3 1/2grams) I didn’t count on the nausea, and the eighth was a very heavy dose. It knocked me off my pins pretty hard, and I spent the next three hours going, “Please just make this stop.” I’ve been a little gun shy of the shroom ever since. Last time I shroomed was right after I’d finished up The Lost Canyon stuff, which was just when the virus panic was in full swing. I wanted to hike the hills where Pete had done so many of his paintings, a spot I’ve hiked for over fifty years. I was tripping balls, as the kids say, when I was confronted with legions of Chinese out for their morning walk. They were, to an individual, masked up like the paranoid plague zombies they are, with blue tooth ear plugs and faceless faces shoved into their goddamn cell phones. I remember a family walking past me. They cringed at the side of the trail like I was some sort of demon, and the woman grabbed her kid, and held him away from me as if I were a mortal threat. Not the kind of thing you want to experience when you’re high, and it absolutely ruined an otherwise transcendent morning. I haven’t been back up there since.
JWM
I never had a bad experience with ‘shrooms, thankfully. One of the funniest times we downed them was at the Wheatland Music Festival, a bluegrass festival here in Michigan. My wife, my best friend, and I all ate a handful. No weighing them. The funniest thing that happened was when my wife was in a solitary porta potty along one of the trails on the property. She was in there, laughing hysterically, for over 10 minutes while my friend and I stood around grinning broadly at the folks walking past the porta potty wondering what the heck was going on in there. We’d just smile and say she was experiencing an epic movement.
Did shroomz when I lived in Calif, liked em. Never had a bad trip. I heard you get out of it what you brung. shrug
Well, ah, yes. lol
BT, DT.
I believe Hendrix burned his guitar for Bob Dylan’s grandmother.
Joe Bonamassa (who I thankfully discovered via American Digest) does good covers of Hendrix tunes. Here’s a long version of this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzdbjIut9Lk