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And there was just...

... of electrical impulses.

It was all slightly
unbelievable.

Can somebody give me a mic ?

And would somebody please turn
off the fucking reverb ?

Thank you.

Take one.

When did
the '60s begin ?

That might seem obvious.

Everyone remembers
them this way...

but really the early
'60s looked like this:

a black-and-white picket-fence
world still stuck in the '50s.

But in 1964,
this man, Ken Kesey,

took an LSD-fueled bus trip
across the country

that changed everything.

Kesey lit the fuse for
the explosion of the '60s.

Who was Ken Kesey ?

He looks innocent enough,
doesn't he ?

Not like the kind of guy to
take massive amounts of LSD.

While in college, Kesey married

his junior high school
sweetheart, Faye.

As a college athlete,
Kesey showed promise both

as a football player
and a wrestler.

Kesey also liked performing
as an actor and a ventriloquist.

He loved the magic trick

of speaking through
other people.

Ken, when did you
decide to become a writer ?

I never said
I wanted to be a writer.

I'm a magician.

Writing is just one of
the tricks that I do.

And quite
a trick it was.

By 1964, at the age of 29,

Kesey was one of
America's greatest writers.

His first two published
novels were

"One Flew Over
the Cuckoo's Nest"

and "Sometimes a Great Notion."

Yet, at the height
of his success,

Ken traded his
typewriter for a movie camera.

If Shakespeare
were writing today,

I don't think he would
use a quill pen.

So I started
going out and taping,

with tape recorders,
and filming,

to see if...

people talked like they do in
novels, and they don't.

With a group of friends, Kesey
set out to make a road movie.

Their trip would
become a legend,

but few ever saw the film.

There were
technical problems.

Their voices are on audiotape

but almost never in sync
with the picture.

Again the transmission
of the '27 Buick

into second gear around the
corner at 34th and Dearborn--

or was it Clark ?

Somewhere.

Here's a scene
with Neal Cassady,

the famous speed-taking,
real-life inspiration

for Jack Kerouac's
famous novel "On the Road."

Bet he--
Uh-oh, say...

For 40 years, Kesey and his
friends edited the film,

never getting what they wanted.

Then it was boxed away,
forgotten, collecting dust.

Now we're going back
to the vaults,

using the rare film
and audio interviews

of Ken and his friends to bring
the story back to life.

Let's go, trickery !

Unnecessarily, Mr. Cassady
proceeded north.

Ha-ha !

* Yeah

* Yeah *

Car wreck, children,
to the left-- wreck.

It's a journey through
life, you know.

When did the idea for this
trip first occur to you ?

1963 came
and everything changed.

We'd gone back, me and George
and Faye, to New York.

extends its welcome.

The shops on the avenues.

The new hotels, restaurants...
the sidewalk cafes,

the hit shows,
the tinsel of Broadway.

We had gone back to see
the opening of

"Cuckoo's Nest" on Broadway,

with Kirk Douglas
playing McMurphy,

and he was terrific.

daytime diversionsrt of our

as we were
cruising around the city,

we took a drive out to Queens,
where the construction

was going on for
the World's Fair.

is to be erected, site

they're doing it at the moment,

the symbol of the theme of
the New York World's Fair.

The Unisphere !

And by dialing 1964,

I launch the final phase
of this great effort.

We looked at it and said,
"Boy, this is spectacular.

We're gonna want to
come see this."

We vowed next year
we'd go back to New York

to the World's Fair.

On the way back,
I was driving across country

in a big old nice station wagon

with a couple of my buddies,
nibbling on cactus.

Here in the ABC newsroom
in New York,

we first received a flash of--

As we were driving along,
Kennedy began to be killed.

President Kennedy's motorcade

in Downtown Dallas.

The first reports say that
President Kennedy

has been seriously
wounded by this shooting.

and waiting for some wordt

on the condition
of the president.

officially confirmed. is

President Kennedy
and Governor John Connally

have been cut down by
assassin's bullets

in Downtown Dallas.

Everywhere you went,
you looked in people's eyes,

and they all felt
the same thing.

It wasn't just sadness,

it was a loss
of an innocence,

the loss of the idea that always
the good is going to prevail.

The tragedy of this day

is beyond any instant
comprehension.

There's no way to even
nearly depict the pain

and the feeling of crisis.

The thing that all of us sort of
feel when it's real dark.

an ordinary Saturday.

Things have changed.

This world that I was
presenting with these words,

I began to suspect might not
have a whole lot to do

with the world of this.

So we decided to go travel
across the country.

I love to drive
across the United States.

Go to the World's Fair,
and come back across,

just to experience the...

the American
landscape and "heartscape."

We were gonna take the same
station wagon we came back in,

and pretty soon Babbs was home
and he wanted to go.

for five years,rine Corps

flew helicopters in Vietnam,

and came out
in May of '64,

got out of the Marine Corps--
I had enough of that.

Babbs was stalking around,

this is just after he got out
of the Marines.

He began to
assign names to them.

He became the Intrepid Traveler

and these were his
Merry Band of Pranksters.

Swashbuckler became my nickname.

Gretch had come down from
Oregon, we'd met her.

at the University of Oregon.

My intention was to get a ride.

I was gonna
work in New York,

swimming at the World's Fair
in water ballet,

'cause that's
something I knew how to do--

The Rockettes in water.

Hagen was there.

He's an old friend from Oregon,
fraternity brother.

He had a camera.

Sandy...
he was a phenomenon.

He was in the nuthouse.

He was like the id

stripped of
everything else.

He was just there.

At his worst, he was crazy,

and at his best,
he was a genius.

Jane Burton was a professor
in philosophy from Stanford.

She was pregnant and she
was hungry all the time,

so she says,
"Well, I'm generally famished."

And so she became known as
Generally Famished.

It got to be kind of a party.

It's hard to describe it,

just a-- a bunch of lunatics
running around acting idiotic

trying to get to the East Coast
somehow.

I met Ken on Perry Lane.

Chloe was the Gertrude Stein
of our scene.

pretty insane actually.

I really dug everybody
for doing it.

Zonker was just there.

He wasn't even planning--

we weren't planning to take
him-- we barely knew him.

Every time
something would happen,

he'd fall asleep, and he
had this snore...

Okay, here's Stark Naked.

Now, I'm attracted to her,
there's no question about it,

but she's just so strange.

Ken's house for a weekendto

and that's how I met everybody.

There was just a great deal of
general joviality

and talking
and laughing and dancing,

and even then it was like a
troupe of minstrels and mimes.

Their presence was
very beautiful.

wild crazies wasn't true.

We weren't long-haired
and we weren't irresponsible.

There was an American sense--

that's why we always wore
red, white and blue

and flew the flag,

it was to try to cool
the people out and say,

"Hey, look, this may look
strange to you,

"but get used to it.

It's American, and without it
we're a dead nation."

there were so many of us,

friends and everything,

too many of us to
go in one or two cars,

we decided we'd buy a bus
and we'd all travel together.

* Put on your red dress baby

* 'Cause we going out
tonight *

We took a 1939 International
Harvester's school bus.

I got out there
with a blindfold.

It was your left brain working

before it even knew it was
the left brain.

* I'm pretty sure now baby

* 'Cause you know
you know *

* You're gonna
knock 'em dead *

painter among us.

* Yeah

appeal to me at all,

because I thought it looked
really good the way it was,

orange with black stripes.

Once it was obvious that
it was gonna happen,

I just went ahead.

The challenge was to
mix it up there

so it would be
interesting to look at.

Somebody just took an old broom
up on the top

and spilled some paint around

and, you know, people walked
around with their bare feet

on the bus,
leaving footprints of paint.

First it was black and white,

then a million different
psychedelic colors,

and then it
would be painted over.

I think they must've painted it
over five or ten times.

if we're gonna do this bus trip,

let's film it."

We bought real color film,
16 millimeter,

and we'd gotten several
real 16-millimeter cameras

and we decided we're
gonna make a film.

So what kind of film
were you making ?

A feature like
"Gone with the Wind" ?

Yeah.

Did anyone on board know
how to use the cameras ?

None of us knew how to do
anything that we were doing.

* I'm pretty sure you're
gonna knock 'em dead *

I heard the bus was
called "Further."

Right.

What does
"Further" mean ?

Oh, I get that
question a lot.

It always kind of
disappoints me.

What, that people
ask you what further means ?
Uh-huh.

Well, I could look it up
in the dictionary

and tell you that it means
farther along than this, but--

No, no, no, no.
I'm pretty disappointed
in myself.

"Farther" is a distance.

Further is a bus.

One is
a philosophical concept,

the other is a measurement.

What do you think, Ken ?

We needed to do some
modifications.

We were at a welding shop
that was also a junkyard

and we saw this big
commercial clothes dryer

and it looked like
a tank turret,

and we decided
we wanted a turret on the top.

So we had this welder guy

cut a big hole
on the top of the bus.

I had a motorcycle
that we took along,

so we had the platform welded on
the back of it

that we could carry the
motorcycle and a generator on.

Chuck had donated
a 5 kW gas generator.

a road trip so appealing ?

We weren't old enough
to be beatniks,

and we were a little
too old to be hippies.

But everybody I knew

had read "On the Road,"

and it opened up
the doors to us

just the same way drugs did.

It gave us a new way to look at
America, and it stirred us up.

"So in America
when the sun goes down

"and I sit on the old
broken down river pier

"watching the long, long skies
over New Jersey

"and sense all that raw land
that rolls in one unbelievable

"huge bulge over to
the West Coast,

"and all that road going,

"I think of Dean Moriarty,

I think of Dean Moriarty."

* Oh

* I'm the type of guy
who will never settle down *

* Where pretty girls are well
you know that I'm around... *

A two-tone
pink-and-purple Dodge

riding low on tortured
shocks,

spurting smoke,
races across the curb,

over the bridge, and skids
to the porch.

Slams.

And Kesey stands, hands
on hips, watching the arrival.

The car made a rapid approach,
and he fit into this place.

There was eight to five

when you're getting
through there.

People were hollering,
"Nobody could park there !

"You can't fit it through !

No, no, come on, Cassady,
come on, man."

* With my two fists
of iron *

* But I'm going nowhere

* Oh yeah I'm the type of guy
that likes to roam around *

* I'm never
in one place *

* I roam from town to town

Before the smoke had cleared,

there was this guy with no shirt
on talking a mile a minute.

We all knew who he was.

This was Dean Moriarty--
couldn't believe it--

our famous Dean Moriarty.

* Yeah I'm a wanderer

* Yeah a wanderer

* I roam around, around...

I'd read "On the Road,"

so I knew he was supposed to be
Dean Moriarty,

but I didn't like that
character in the book too much,

and I liked Neal better.

All of a sudden, out pops this
man, almost from nowhere.

He reminded me more of an
Irish leprechaun at first.

When he opened his mouth,
he said about 40 words,

and all of a sudden,

everything in the universe was,
and is all right,

and all beautiful
and all funny and meaningful,

all at the same time.

* Yeah I'm the type of guy that
likes to roam around *

* I'm never in one place...

For me, I'm watching it all
and thinking,

"Wow, he kind of
looks like my dad,

and my dad is gonna drive
the bus !"

* ... Drive around
the world *

* 'Cause I'm a wanderer

* Yeah a wanderer *

He came along kind of as
a father figure.

Says, "I gotta take care
of you boys, understand,

"change your tires.

Here I got this 8-ton jack,
I got this lug wrench."

He goes, "You don't even have a
lug wrench in your goddamn bus."

"Here, look, I got us
a couple of spare inner tubes,

"those boot things-- you never
saw a boot before,

"it probably goes
inside the spare tire,

and a big tire, we're talking
about 10..."

We started out in La Honda,

and there was all this big deal,

and we had been
getting ready for days

and packing and fixing

and finally it was the moment,
we were leaving La Honda

and everybody gathered around
and waved us goodbye

and we climbed on the bus.

Honk the horn !

And it started off
and it went out the gate

and across the bridge
and ran out of gas !

Well, the moment of departure
was beautiful.

We ran out of
gas on Kesey's bridge.

We figured at that rate,
y'know, 25 feet an hour,

we had a week to get to
New York, we weren't worried.

This is taking disorganization
to some sort of peak.

It was just ludicrous.

And in some way or another,
that was just, like,

the perfect omen
for the start of this trip.

I used to think
I was Napoleon, too.

We set out just like in
"Easy Rider"

or "Travels with Charley,"

where Steinbeck sets out to
seek the soul of America.

It looked like
a traveling pleasure palace.

We could ride across the country
in total comfort.

It was big
and roomy and spacious--

until we got all
the people in it,

then it was crowded.

It was the exact opposite
of a pleasure palace.

... 72 disciples.

I was on the first 24 hours
that it took us to get from

La Honda to San Jose.

I don't know,
what is it, 40 miles ?

It took us 24 hours to
get to San Jose.

and mechanical spasmsr

started happening on the bus,

and the engine
was sputtering,

so we pulled into a gas station.

Some old gas station man
took a look at that thing,

looked at the engine and says,

"You'll never get that thing
past Oklahoma."

Well, I'm saying to myself,

Jesus Christ, this thing is
fucked.

Look, it's painted weird,

the mechanics behind it
are equally as weird.

While everybody was
working on the engine,

I was messing around with
the headset, and was going,

"We're on our way...

to San Jose !"

How was your stay...

in San Jose ?!

While I was doing that,
I happened to turn around,

and I noticed Chloe looking
really glum.

I said, "What's wrong ?"

And she says, "If it takes us
this long to get to San Jose,"

she says, "we'll never
make it to New York City !"

She says, "I can't take this,
this is too chaotic."

And that was as far
as she lasted on the bus.

Yeah, I was pretty glad
to get off.

I mean, thank God I'm not
crossing the country in it.

And you got back
across the country

by more civilized means,
I imagine ?

TWA.

* TWA's Your Way

There's been
a one-step removal, I think,

from our connection to life.

And I'll tell you where you can
see it, go to LA.

We can't see anymore,
we can barely hear anymore.

When we look, we're not
looking at;

we're looking for.

I tell you, Hollywood is
as soulless an idea

of what life looks like.

* I'm going out west
where I belong *

What color is World War II ?

World War I is even
a better example.

What color
is World War I ?

It's black and white,

whereas the Civil War
is in Technicolor.

* And I'll walk

* They twist

* And I'll twist *

What happens if all of this
stuff that's being sold us

has damn near closed the door

on any possibility of our
doing anything new,

on our doing
anything except traveling

in the same little circle ?

And, if that is true,
how do we break out of it ?

So you donate blood,
then there's a sick cat,

not being approved of and all,

as the son, you see, would be,
so you have a mania...

All you can do
is experience this thing.

This, as near as I can see,
is what's going on,

as near as
I can record it.

It may not make sense.

I'm just trying to
open up like a camera

and see it clearly for a moment.

I remember when
we first headed out of LA,

out of Ken Babbs' place,
where we spent a couple days

painting his swimming pool
and so forth.

When the bus headed out,

Babbs was living in
San Juan Capistrano

with his wife, Anita,
and his kids

and we went through Capistrano

and he realized this is his
Merry Band of Pranksters

and he better climb aboard.

The original Prankster credo
that started

the whole Prankster movement

was one of--
you start off by saying,

"Never trust a Prankster."

Because
no matter how I...

try, I will eventually...

lie to you, even though
I may not want to...

if I say
one thing today...

Go ahead, would you
repeat that again ?

"Awooooooo."

Very funny.

When we started out
with the bus,

I realized I wasn't gonna be
able to write a book about this,

because you can't.

It's an experience.

This wasn't literature anymore,

this jumped off the pages
and onto the streets.

* I should have
quit you *

went across the desert

and headed for Arizona.

* I should have
quit you baby *

Cassady talked a lot.

We'd take turns
riding shotgun with him

so he'd have somebody to talk
to while he was driving.

He was a radio.

He just went on and on and on.

It was almost impossible
for him to ever shut off.

He couldn't
help himself.

It had a lot to do with speed.

Major portion,
critical point...

Okay, settle in, settle in.

Attracting the cops,
and how to deal with

concealing the drugs
that we had,

that was always
a consideration

throughout the whole bus trip

because the cops
were stopping us

because they'd never seen
anything like it.

I wasted your time,
that's why I'm not--

Cassady would always be out
there talking to them

and he'd say,
"Oh yeah, officers," he'd say.

"You can see what they're like
back there," he said,

"but I'm doing my best
to keep them in control."

Unloosen that thing.

We're having a brief
equipment...

Our instant cover was always to
get the cameras out and run out

and say we were making a movie.

We don't have a camera
with any film.

People didn't think
we were hippies

or that we were drug freaks.

That wouldn't have
occurred to anybody

because it wasn't in
the news yet.

Shut up !

How did you get mixed up with
LSD in the first place ?

I came out of
the University of Oregon

the prettiest little boy
you've ever seen.

I didn't smoke,
I didn't drink,

I went to Stanford on
a Ford Foundation Fellowship.

And while at Stanford,

I was...
given the opportunity

to go to the Stanford hospital

and take part in
the LSD experiments.

How did you become a volunteer
for these experiments ?

I, at the time,
was training for

the Olympics team and was--

As a wrestler ?
Yeah, as a wrestler.

I'd never been drunk on beer,
let alone done any drugs,

but this is
the American government.

The study of LSD continues in
laboratories and hospitals

throughout the United States.

They paid us $25 a day

to come down there and then
they gave us stuff.

What is LSD ?

How does it work ?

When did it
all begin ?

It all began in a laboratory
very much like this one.

In 1938, Dr. Albert Hoffman
in Switzerland

was looking for new drugs

in the treatment
of migraine headaches.

He had been studying mold
that grows on rye plants.

Now, it turned out that these
substances were of no use

in the treatment
of migraine headaches.

However, it was found that these
substances could produce

a change in mental state

closely resembling
some forms of insanity.

In particular, schizophrenia.

When I was asked to do
these drug experiments,

I thought these drugs might
give us a way to

cure insanity,
to overcome depression.

That was part of what we
thought we were doing.

What kind of preparation
were you given for it ?

Were you given any ?
None at all.

I'd read a little piece
in "LIFE Magazine"

about how they'd
given it to cats,

and cats were afraid of mice
once they'd had LSD.

What was that very
first trip like, though,

under the experimental
conditions ?

It was on a ward,
on a nuthouse ward.

You'd go in a little room,
there'd be a bed,

and a stand with
some water on it,

and a tape recorder,
and nothing else.

There was a little
window right here

with a wire through it,

and you could look out
and see the people

out in the other room.

And when I came out of it,

I felt like it was like
discovering a hole

that went into
the center of the Earth

and you could see
jewelry down there

and you wanted your people
to go down and enjoy it.

* Trailer for sale
or rent *

* Rooms to let 50¢ *

* No phone
no pool, no pets *

* Ain't got no cigarettes... *

Cassady drove all night, and
everybody slept or didn't sleep,

depending on what they
were doing.

Bus supposed to hit to
Tucson, arrived...

Oh, there, you can't--

Just as it were--
Police, how you doing ?

A bunch of previous plans '69--
oh, all right, honest.

Especially South.

Barry Goldwatertra-conservative

was running for president.

What did you make of Kesey's
Goldwater stunt in Phoenix ?

I was kind of puzzled by
the need to get into

the politics of
Barry Goldwater.

I kinda thought the whole thing
was sort of ridiculous.

A vote for Barry
is a vote for fun.

It was a tongue-in-cheek thing.

We wanted to wave the flag,

but waving the flag
in Downtown Phoenix

kind of seemed like you're
for Goldwater,

so we painted "A Vote for
Barry is a Vote for Fun"

and then drove down
the main street of Phoenix.

Backwards.

Even as you were driving
the bus across the country,

reviews were coming in
for "Sometimes a Great Notion"

and they were peculiar.
Yes.

They didn't know
exactly what to say about it.

"Cuckoo's Nest" was
a phenomenon,

it received nothing
but good reviews.

Most people are
surprised to learn

that you'd never even
seen the movie.

You even threatened
to sue the producers.

I told these liars,
"I'll never see the movie."

They emphasized
the melodrama.

Who's the villain in
"Cuckoo's Nest" ?

The Nurse.
No.

The Combine is the villain,

and the Big Nurse
is the minion of that,

but she's not the villain.

"I'm mopping near the ward door

"when a key hits it from
the other side

"and I know it's the Big Nurse.

"She's carrying her
woven wicker bag,

"full of a thousand parts

"she aims to use in
her duties today--

"wheels and gears and tiny
pills that gleam like porcelain,

needles and forceps and rolls
of copper wire."

Good morning,
Miss Ratched.

Good morning.

Good morning, Miss Ratched.

"The Big Nurse tends
to get real put out

"if something keeps
her outfit from running

"like a precision-made machine,

what she calls
'adjusted.'"

Medication time.

"She works with an eye to
adjusting the Outside world too.

"Working alongside others
like her

who I call the 'Combine.'"

Chief ?

Writing that story from the
point of view of that Indian,

that's what makes that book.

And I don't know
any Indians,

I don't know where
that Indian came from.

Those first few pages of
"Cuckoo's Nest"

were written on peyote.

I've always felt humbled
by that character.

Without the character
of that Indian,

the book is a melodrama.

Y'know, it's a straight battle
between Murphy

and the Big Nurse.

Isn't it true that
the inspiration for the book

came from your real-life
experiences ?

I got a job at the nuthouse

and worked from midnight
to 8:00.

Make no mistake about it.

Being crazy is painful.

Looking out through the little
window, through my crazed eyes,

I saw that these people
have something going

and there's
a truth to it.

It gave me an empathy.

This was, to me, supposed to
be a revolutionary novel.

It wasn't
Freudian man against woman.

It was man against machine.

"I took a deep breath and bent
over and took the levers.

"I heaved my legs under me

"and felt the grind
of weight at my feet

"and heard the wires
and connections

"tearing out of the floor.

"I was able to
get an arm around it

"and my other hand under it

"and let the momentum
carry the panel

"through the screen
and window with a ripping crash.

"I put my hand on the sill
and vaulted over the pane.

"I ran across the grounds.

"I felt like
I was flying.

Free."

Oh boy, it was just hot
across that desert.

And being hot
and what we'd do,

we'd just go look
for a cool place.

Merging traffic,
merging traffic.

Merging traffic.

Yield, yield !

Right away !

We'd ridden all night
the night before,

and I'd gone to sleep in one of
the upper bunks and my purse

had slipped down between
the bunk and the side of the bus

and had gone out
the open window.

It had everything in it.

Here I was, pregnant, traveling
with a bunch of mad men

and I didn't
even have a dime.

Watermelons, watermelons,
watermelons, watermelons !

If I'd had my money, it wouldn't
have bothered me at all,

because I could have
walked off at any stage.

I could have gone to the nearest
bus at any time.

Now, I was trapped.

off the roadssady drove right

and started driving
towards this little pond,

and got stuck right
in the sand.

He drove it-- "vrooom."

And there we were,
shocked as can be.

Ah yes, stuck.

Stuck in the mud in Arizona
desert in the summertime.

Cassady.

God, he was having a good time.

It was hot, boy, let me
tell you it was hot.

It was blazing hot--
there I am.

That's me
and there's Kesey

right behind me in
the sunglasses

and we're all looking at it
and we're stuck deep in the mud.

For no other reason than
the fact that--

if you don't
get out, get out.

Kesey had sent someone off on
the motorcycle

to go look for help.

And then Kesey had
this brainstorm that,

since we were gonna be
stuck for awhile,

we should take LSD.

So I'm going to take some LSD.

I want Babbs
to take some.

Cassady,
do you want to take some ?

I-- I would, yes, I would.

The ridiculous thing
was that the acid

was just mixed
into a jar of orange juice

that was in the refrigerator.

Nobody had any idea
what the dosage was,

it was this sort of deal where
you shook up the jar

and passed it
around and took a swig.

As the acid came on, the setting
up of the filming

was starting to happen too.

What else
we got up there ?

Another camera, don't we ?

We're going to take the
Arriflex, two magazines.

We're going to have
one magazine on the Arriflex.

We're going to have the other
camera with the zoom lens

also mounted on a tripod.

We're gonna run the zoom lens
on the tripod.

Was he filming that ?

No.

That'd be ungodly.

My Merry Band of Pranksters

won't be wandering around
in the dirt.

Come on, come on.

No, no,
none of this misery stuff.

Come on, this is
the Merry gang.

Keep it moving.

It's Paula.

That's stretchin' Gretchen,
she's mighty fetchin' !

Always scratching the kitchen
matches and never itchy !

There she is out there.

* You know when you
have a dream *

* Where whales
carry you out to sea *

Once I hit the pond,
I realized I was really high.

* The little creatures had
their little wings *

The water opened itself up to me
in a new dimension.

There was no murkiness,

it was super clear,
real crystal.

It was just there,

for myself and itself
to groove on each other.

* If the birds
fly in the ocean *

* And the whales swim
in the clouds *

It was a joy.

Farewell forever, Paula.

As she sinks beneath the depths.

In the next feature, you shall
see emerge a slime queen.

The High Priestess of
Pranksters.

That's the slime, the algae.

It was talking to me,

it was welcoming me
into its realm of existence.

* Where the sunrise sets

* And the sunset rises

It was like the nature spirits,

the stuff in there,
it was saying,

"Finally we're
in contact with a human being,

we've been trying to get through
to you guys for awhile."

They were happy,
and I was happy.

* Whales want to
love your face *

* Whales want to be
your friend *

* Whales want to hug you

That's Miss Slime of 1964.

* Carry our souls

* Through the clouds

* In the sky

These horses just showed up

and added such a nice kind of
backdrop effect.

Oh, there are the horses.

It was incredibly beautiful.

I don't remember much
reaction to these horses.

To me, they looked kind of
old and flea-bitten.

I was thinking about
how nice it would look to

pour some of those paints--

let's see what
they look like.

After we took the acid,
I think it was Kesey's idea,

we took bottles of dope paint,

which are used for painting
model airplanes,

and it's enamel-based paint,

so when you put it on the water,
it floats.

I'll never drink downstream

from the Merry Pranksters'
campsite.

So we had lots of colors,

so we were dipping the colors
in there

and watching it all marbleize.

We took Zonker's
white T-shirt

and put it in the water with
the paint and invented tie-dye.

God, I was pissed.

They said, "Oh, it's
water-soluble.

Oh, don't
worry about it, man."

"Worry about what ?

That's one of my
clean T-shirts."

"Fuck your clean T-shirts,"
somebody said.

George said,
"Back up," just like I do.

"Spin around."

Fuck you.

God, watch this thing.

Actually I was
having a good time.

Stark Naked really started
wigging out.

She's definitely stoned on acid.

We put all our acid in one quart
ball jar of lemonade

and I remember seeing her
run down to the refrigerator

and get it out and upend it.

Get a picture of that
over here, Mike, with the...

Get that.

Kathy was loaded.

Hagen says, "I'm gonna make
a movie star out of her

no matter what it takes."

You know, it's the pretty girl,
movie-star trip.

The guy with the camera
comes along and says,

"Hey, pretty girl,
how'd you like to

stand in front of my camera ?"

"Sure, why not ?

You're going to
make me a star."

Judy Garland in the drugstore,
whatever that trip is, you know.

Hey, here's the paint.

No, no, two more of these,
I think we'll be able to

start using film.

The first signs of strain
were beginning to show

on some of
the healthy, young faces

and I was trying to keep
things together there

because I could suddenly see
everything coming to pieces.

There was this
mad woman on my hands.

What have I gotten
myself into ?

Throughout the bus trip you
seemed to enjoy the chaos

but at the same time, gently
guide the action.

People felt that enlightenment

was going entirely
with the flow.

But that's like being
the ball in a football game.

I'd rather be the quarterback.

I wanna
handle the ball,

I don't wanna just be
thrown around.

Ken was trying to run this whole
thing and be all philosophical,

and he was caught up in
a million different trips.

* And how long
will it go on ? *

* How long can we wait
for help ? *

* When no help
is coming for...

It reminds me of
the mad Ophelia.

I don't remember this at all.

I remember swimming in the lake,
but none of this.

For Stark, obviously,
it was too much to bear.

For Gretch and Babbs,
they fell in love.

Would you like to
play my feet ?

Starting the bus trip,
I was Kesey's lover

but after I met Babbs,

he and I became lovers,
and stayed so.

I wish I could always...

Okay !

The camera's fucked up again.

Hey, hey !

The tractor has indeed arrived,

they're going to pull us out
of this swamp.

Sandy's there,
scratching his balls.

Okay, let's go !

Come on !

Come on, faster !

Whoa !

Wait a minute, wait a minute.

Try to reverse that.

I think you're pulling against
each other.

We're going !

Keep her moving,
keep her moving !

Keep her moving,
keep her moving !

She and Babbs had
developed a great affair

since Romeo and Juliet.

* I got my mojo
working babe *

* And I'm
going to try it on you *

The love relationships was one
of the very obvious things

that was going on.

I mean, nothing was hidden,
you know ?

* And I'm gonna
try it out on you *

Babbs was really
worried that Kesey

would be really pissed off,

because Kesey was single,
because his wife wasn't there,

so he was unattached,
sexually.

* And now I'm gonna try it
on you *

* Oh yeah *

He did sulk for awhile,

but he kind of
woke up out of his stupor

and looked over and said,
"Nothing lasts."

So that became one of
the Prankster mottos, too.

"Nothing lasts."

All this stuff
that we went through,

all these "intertanglements"
of our relationships,

our marriages,
and our loves and lovers,

I think all of this is
Soap Opera 101.

It's like we're all
in this class together

and we went through it for
several weeks on the bus.

Stark Naked never quite
recovered from Wikieup.

All her molecules,
I don't think,

came back together.

Then she climbs out onto
the platform in the back

and pretty soon all the truckers
were honking behind us--

honk, honk, honk, honk.

And Cassady couldn't figure out
what was going on,

so somebody
looked out the back window

and there she had taken
the blanket off her

and she was just
standing out on the back deck

just flaunting herself.

She had all the semis heading
for Houston backed up behind us.

Nobody wanted to pass us because
they were all watching her.

That kind of madness is only
terrifying and miserable

to the people
who are outside of it.

To someone who's inside of it,
it's really not.

I just wanted to
go into the darkness

and be alone with my
own thoughts.

I think my psychic vision
in relationship to myself

was that I was getting
a little bit homesick.

Then, not long after that, we
pulled into Larry McMurtry's,

which was kind of a nice,
middle-class,

very tidy neighborhood.

Larry lives in this
upper, upper-middle-class

collegiate section of town,

and this electric, multicolored
circus bus shows up.

Larry appeared at the bus
with a little child

and it reminded
me of my daughter.

I jumped off the bus

and I guess, much to his
amazement, grabbed the baby.

And she opens her arms wide

and the blanket that she had
wrapped around her dropped.

And she's standing
there stark naked.

I thought she looked just fine,
as a matter of fact.

I think it might have been

a little bit of a problem for
Larry McMurtry,

as far as his
neighbors were concerned.

Things just kinda continued to
go downhill from then on.

I guess I was going through
a thing with Michael Hagen.

And it might have been his
attention that he paid

to other women
that disturbed me.

It must've been about two
or three in the morning.

I couldn't sleep

and I just felt like
kind of walking it off.

I was in a bad mood, actually,

and I went out
in my bare feet.

Where are you taking me,
where are my friends ?

Do my friends
know I'm here ?

They held me in a cell
for a little while,

then they had
someone come to talk to me.

By this time, I was just
a complete wreck.

Where am I ?

You're in a hospital.

People were asking me a lot of
strange questions,

and I just didn't
answer any of them.

Except I think I gave them my
name and that was all.

Name, rank
and serial number, so to speak.

Where am I ?

Right around here
to the desk.

You're in a hospital.

Hello, I'm a nurse.

What's your name ?

What happened to Stark Naked ?

One of her friends in
San Francisco came out

and got her and she ended up
going back home with him

and that was as far
as she got on the trip.

Hurry up, hurry up, we'll get
there in the nick of time.

Hurry up, hurry up,
hurry up,

we'll get
there in the nick of time.

We sort of abandoned her.

We figured anybody that couldn't
hold their shit together

just wasn't
gonna be able to make it.

You know, we had a trip to do,
we had to keep on moving.

And it also made
me nervous, thinking,

"Who's going to be left
behind next ?

Is it gonna be me ?"

Weren't you concerned that

this trip was beginning to
unravel ?

I'll tell you
a thing that I learned

while I was working in
the asylum

that I think
is the most important thing

I've ever learned.

Every once in awhile,
all the power,

the attention that you have,

comes to bear on
exactly what you're doing

and doesn't decide whether
it's good or bad,

just decides that it is,

and the only thing you
can do is enjoy the ride.

* He's coming in
to New Orleans *

* When the saints
go marching in *

* In *

Well, Cassady wanted to
show us New Orleans

because he was familiar with it

and he was so excited to be
in New Orleans.

It was a big, big deal.

He had his favorite haunts,
he was kind of a tour guide.

We went down to the heart of
the jazz district.

Cassady was
a big jazz aficionado.

He loved jazz.

Ah, the Old Absinthe Bar.

The Old Absinthe Bar.

I remember that
I was there once.

I was there once.

... warm, 11:00 in the
morning on Canal Street

in New Orleans.

It's this feeling of everything
moving slower and slower...

Slower and slower,

caught in some kind of
molasses mind warp, we were.

That was where we started to
drink mint juleps.

I think we went
down in a basement, too.

We saw-- somebody had just
moved into the other room

and there was a piano

and he went in there and he sat
down and he started to play.

* My baby left me

* My baby left me
a long time ago *

I know Kesey
was just crazy about him.

God, he'd come over
and he'd say,

"Wow, this guy is great !"

He wanted to take him with us
or something like that.

* ... walked out the door

Air's still thick
with dust motes

swirling and following us
out the door

and up and into--
onto the bus and there we went,

"Moonlight Sinatra"
boarding with us.

And we realized we gotta dip
this sucker in the water

before he goes off.

So we said, "We're gonna find
some water," and he says,

"Go to Lake Pontchartrain."

He didn't know where it was,
he'd just heard about it.

* Lead

* Lead

* Lead me on

* To the light *

You really look at the '60s
and what started there.

Music was changed forever.

The feminist movement
started there,

the Civil Rights Movement.

While we were driving that bus
across the country,

Martin Luther King was in Selma.

Either you give the Negro his
God-given right

and his freedom

or you face the fact

of continual social disruption
and social chaos.

You have to remember,
this is 1964,

and it's right when
the Civil Rights thing

was in a very early infancy,

so white-only,
black-only consciousness

was still really prevalent
in the South.

And the story about
Lake Pontchartrain was that

we'd pulled into a black-only
area, the lake.

Of course, the
Pranksters didn't know that.

They just pulled up to this lake

because they saw it
and wanted to go swimming.

We got out--
I'm loaded on acid, right ?

Okay, and all these other guys
are loaded on acid.

Okay, here we are.

I think I don't notice that
anything is odd,

even at this point.

As we're swimming around
in this hot, hot, humid

first-day-of-summer
Louisiana day,

I remember looking around
the swimming hole

that we'd all just
practically ran and jumped into.

I thought, "God, there's a lot
of colored people here,

"and there's not
very many white people.

Well, there's one and there's
one and there's one..."

And I looked around
and I had this

sudden realization that
I knew every single one of

the white people in
that swimming hole.

And then it dawned on me.

"Shit, we just
integrated this place."

Then all of a sudden this
wave of paranoia

went through us all.

Talk about being in the wrong
place at the wrong time.

That's the kind of thing that
could have started a race riot.

I don't believe a word was said,

we all just grabbed everything,
jumped on the bus and left.

Babbs just fell down in
the yard in Pensacola, Florida.

We went to this place where his
old roommates

still lived in Pensacola,

where they'd been
Marines together.

We arrived and Babbs' Marine
buddy was still at work,

and so Kesey had
the idea of making

a little theatrical
thing to film.

The Slime Queen
will lead the way !

Oh, this is funny.

I remember this really well.

I consider this to be one of
the most fucked-up days

on the whole trip.

Being pregnant,
I was miserable.

It was just really hot,

and there was no reason
to be there

and there's nothing
to do, so we did this.

I was trying to be cooperative,

but I can tell you that it
really had nothing going for me.

This is some kind of
absurd dance, as I recall.

I enjoyed it.

I just wish I could've played
the trombone better.

Playing those instruments.

Goddamn it.

Somebody starts playing the
saxophone for the first time.

Well, they want it to sound
like John Coltrane.

Well, they're not gonna
sound like John Coltrane.

That's what made me so mad.

They thought they would just
because they wanted to.

But you don't.

It takes practice.

Here's Babbs' friend from
Vietnam who rolls in.

Ah, pleased to meet you, sir.

Yes indeed, it's
been quite some time.

"Toodle-dy doodle-dy."

Oh yes, it's a little
strange since

the Corps,
don't you think ?

I've changed my uniform
slightly

and this is my new
battalion, yes, quite.

Yeah, we've given up
helicopters.

Most of these guys
can only fly at night.

So we've given up helicopters
and we now travel by bus.

It's slower
but more deliberate.

We must press onward at all
forward speed, fast.

Ahead fast lake.

Tennis anyone...

Where in the hell are we ?

Well, now John, John Babbs.

John Babbs became kind of
the semi-quasi navigator,

and became known as
"Sometimes Missing,"

because one time when he was
mapping us through one town,

we went through another

and when everybody got off the
bus to take a leak,

and went on again,

he wasn't there and nobody
noticed it 'til about

100 miles later.

But then as we turned around to
go pick him up,

here came a car
and he jumped out.

He had hitchhiked
and caught up with us.

John Babbs was in the backseat
waving his arms like this

and trying to
get our attention.

So we pulled over
and picked him up.

That's how he got the name
"Sometimes Missing."

* Well

* You know
you took my heart *

Welcome to New Jersey.

Speed 50.

New Jersey Turnpike.

In a way, Cassady saw himself

as a guardian of that trip,
and he was.

He was driving, but he was not
masterminding the situation.

That was Kesey's trip.

People following him
all the time,

egging him on to greater
heights of self-indulgence.

And he always did it,

he always tried to be
more of this hero

that was this self-indulgent,
"On the Road" epic legend.

Yes, sir.

License and registration.

Of course !

Where you heading ?

I think it's
Madison Avenue.

We all learned a great deal
from Neal Cassady.

This is a guy
that knows what he's doing

and this is his medium.

It's words, it's cars,
and it's drugs.

Yes, sir, and that's why--
Back on the bus.

Everybody
get back on the bus !

I don't wanna see
anybody out here.

We could all do making noise,
hitting sticks together,

but to be able to use the most
advanced of instruments,

which is our mind and our voice.

Cassady could do it better than
anybody, using words.

* Love Potion #9

He was like a bus driver
coming into his land.

You know, he'd spent a lot of
time in the East,

he wasn't from
New York, he was from Denver,

but he'd spent a lot of time
back there,

y'know, back in the days
with Kerouac and Ginsberg

and those guys and, you know,

I think he first learned
how to drive

as a parking-lot attendant in
New York, as a matter of fact.

* I held my nose
I closed my eyes *

* I took a drink

* I didn't know if it was
day or night *

* I started kissing
everything in sight *

* But when I kissed a cop down
at 34th and Vine *

* He broke
my little bottle *

* Of Love Potion #9...

I lost Love Potion #9.

Look, there's the Empire State
Building, dead ahead.

Seven miles, five miles--

seven-- possibility--
seven miles, Empire.

Manhattan on your right.

Well, coming into
New York was exciting

because that was our
destination.

Welcome to the Bronx.

I was there, this was it.

I'd made it to New York.

What an unnatural environment
when you look at New York,

with the streets and the cars.

* Love Potion #9

* Love Potion #9 *

We are the Merry Band of
Pranksters.

When we went into New York City,
we were all on top of the bus

playing instruments and tootling
around to everybody.

It was a lot of fun
interacting with the people.

* You may have
heard of jalopies *

* You've heard the noise
they make *

* But let me
introduce my new Rocket 88 *

* Yes it's great

* Just won't wait

* Everybody
likes my Rocket 88 *

* Baby we'll ride
in style *

* Movin' all along

it pulled up in New York,s when

and we'd drive
all over New York.

It sure felt like you were
in an aquarium

on the other side of the glass.

The public always grinned
when they saw that bus.

It's like kids when they
see an Easter egg.

It's simple.

There it is,
it's colored, it's an egg.

Nobody felt the slightest bit
threatened by it.

Ken really believed that things
could be changed,

that consciousness
could be changed.

He saw himself as a kind of
liberator for the generation

and he saw the bus trip as a
kind of going to New York,

a kind of, you know,
Napoleon goes to Paris.

The best the bus ever was was
when we drove through Harlem

and had all these people running
out and following us along

in Harlem, all these kids.

Some two weeks later,
the bus has somehow managed

to get across the country
and, once again,

you encountered the bus.

Yes, 1239 Madison Avenue

was where this apartment was
that I knew about.

The next morning,
the Pranksters showed up.

And they all came in,

with about
500 pounds of equipment.

I mean, they just
had wires

and cameras and lights

and it was instantly
strewn

from one end of
the apartment to the other.

It looked like the bus !

It looked like
the inside of the bus.

And so that night, there was
this fantastic party

that got sort of out of hand

and the poor doorman
kept coming up and saying

everybody was complaining

and it went on
and on and on and on.

And everybody was very excited
that Kerouac was there,

and he was getting really
drunk, and Ginsberg came.

generation best minds of my

"destroyed by madness,

"starving, hysterical, naked,

"dragging themselves through
the Negro streets at dawn

looking for an angry fix..."

Ginsberg is like a sponge.

He can sop up
all our poisons.

I bought the record "Howl,"

and he was kind of like
a folk singer, to me,

more than a poet.

I knew the sound
of him reading

before I read any of his stuff.

"... sat up smoking in
the supernatural darkness

"of cold water flats

floating across the tops of
cities contemplating jazz..."

And when we
headed off in the bus,

it was only natural that we
should head to New York

and try to find
Ginsberg and Kerouac.

Unfortunately, it wasn't like
meeting the author,

it was more like,

see if we can get him to
respond to our antics.

Which didn't happen.

He was not enthused
with our craziness.

The thing you gotta realize
about Kerouac,

it was like he was
already sort of an old guy

and kind of out of it.

He was already
crystallized.

He was kind of a sad character.

We had been accepted by
the old gunfighters.

You know, this was the real
heavies in our mythologies:

Kerouac, Cassady, Ginsberg.

Neal was more on the right track

when he got started with
the Beat movement.

Kerouac and I met him in '45,
so he was only 20 then,

and within that year,

he and I had a romance that
lasted-- on and off for--

Well, 'til, at least
I think the last time

we were in bed together
was '66,

so that's 21 years.

I got a whole theory
about this man.

What he was was
the real smart Catholic boy

who got sucked up by Kerouac.

But he was real poetic, like all
these Irish Catholics are,

and he got in with some
poets and he got aspirations

and somebody plants a little
seed of how great you could be

because you're so great,
so-- so sexy, so poetic.

He fell in love with that idea,

which was something he couldn't
possibly achieve.

So then he was
split between the two worlds.

He couldn't create anything
for himself.

He couldn't get it together with
a lady and have a good family.

He couldn't go off
and be a faggot with Ginsberg.

He couldn't be anything.

It's an exact mimicry of
Ginsberg 20 years ago.

Ginsberg used to be wild.

Ginsberg's so cool now.

He used to run over
Columbian rooftops

waving genitals
and manuscripts.

The whole point of the trip,
supposedly--

at least in the beginning--

was that everyone was
gonna go to the fair.

All the Pranksters
were so excited.

This day,
we drove to the fair,

and it was like the hottest 29th
of June that ever had been.

the world is coming to the fair.

* I made my reservation

* I'm leaving town
tomorrow *

* I'll find
somebody new and *

* There'll be
no more sorrow *

* That's what I do
each time *

* But I can't
follow through *

* I can't break away

* Though you
make me cry *

* I can't break away...

the world of tomorrow.

Well, see, the whole idea--

this is what drove me
up the wall--

was it was
going to be made into a movie

of everybody running about
at the fair.

Well, nobody kept together,
there was nothing to film,

it was all
just so dispersed.

We lost Sometimes Missing again.

That's what always happens.

Ken and Babbs were so manic
and so high.

They drank this
vile yellow concoction.

Swashbuckler,
I'll pull out my sword.

Well, of course the one thing
I wanted to see

was where the water ballet
was supposed to happen.

My whole reason
for going to New York

was to try to locate
a job possibility.

Babbs and I searched,

and finally found
this beautiful pool

and found out they had cancelled
the whole water ballet.

also take in the exhibitobably

where the wizardry
of modern chemistry

is presented with entertaining
showmanship.

* Better things for better
living through chemistry *

* For the finer world
we want *

* Better things for better
living through chemistry *

* That's the promise
of DuPont **

The fair was trippy and great.

When you're high, the more
variety, the better.

out of this worldtake a journey

into the world of the future.

Forget the world around you,
forget the people around you.

You are entering futurama,

alone with
your own thoughts.

which was a great thing.

It was a vision of
the future of America,

and I-- Ken saw it that way.

The irony is
that curved, finned,

corporate America
"Tomorrowland,"

as presented at
the 1964 World's Fair,

was over before it began.

'64, things were
changing.

We didn't know that World's
Fairs were a thing of the past.

* I can't break away

* Though you
make me cry *

* I can't break away... *

By then, the trip became more
important than the destination.

Never mind where we're going,

it doesn't make a difference
where you're going.

The whole notion of the trip,

taking acid trip,
came out of that summer.

The effect is somewhat like
looking through a microscope.

Suddenly, when you look through
a microscope,

you discover that there's
an invisible world around you

that you hadn't known about
before you did it.

The same thing is true of
the psychedelic drug.

* Timothy Leary's dead

After the disappointment
of the World's Fair,

you headed to
Timothy Leary's compound,

the International Foundation
for Internal Freedom.

Was it called "IFIF" ?

IFIF.

It was like a 4,000-acre
farm outside of Poughkeepsie

in Millbrook, New York.

We teach people how to turn on,

or how to go out of their minds.

By "turn on,"
we mean tune in, to get beyond

your routine ways
of thinking

and acting and experiencing.

* Timothy Leary's dead

Ginsberg is the one
that set it all up

because he knew those
guys at IFIF

and he thought it
would be a great opportunity

for us to meet each other.

It was like
the West Coast acidheads

meeting the East Coast
acidheads

and having a powwow.

We pulled into their scene,

making a lot of noise, we
set off these smoke grenades.

Smoke-bomb delight.

Smoke-bomb delight.

Pranksters at
the very castle.

And I have to inform you, just
what's exactly going on ?

We're high and they're coming
down is what's going on.

after a tripat quiet time

when you just want to be
very mellow

and up drives the bus
with these speed freaks,

and they come to have fun
and play with flutes and--

everybody in the house took one
look and fled,

leaving me to welcome them.

* So raise your glass
we'll drink a toast *

* To the little man who sells
you thrills along the pier *

The whole Millbrook scene,

it was just the other end of
the same stick, I think.

We were "scuffy"
and didn't have much money

and pulled into this mansion,
which was upper crust.

We felt a kinship to them,

but we could also tell that they
were wishing that we'd leave.

What everybody anticipated
didn't turn out,

it kind of fizzled.

We waited all day for Leary to
show up and he just avoided us.

And then he sort of disappeared
with Cassady,

and Cassady went
upstairs and hung out with--

They didn't want us
to go upstairs.

Alpert was very friendly.

He was there.

Just listening to
Alpert talk, man,

it seemed like he was
a fucking crazy man.

All of my games were, like,
going off into the distance.

I got this terrible panic

because, indeed, I was going to
cease to exist.

And I got the panic
which is the panic that precedes

the psychological death,

because indeed Richard Alpert
was dying.

These people scared
the shit out of me, man.

They were very clinical
and controlled

and we were really free-form.

We were the explorers
and they were the scientists.

And so we just entertained
ourselves at this waterfall.

* Shake it up
baby now *

* Shake it up baby

* Twist and shout

* Come on
and twist and shout *

* Come on baby now

* Come on baby

* Come on and work it...

And that's where Kathy Van
Leeuwen got her nickname,

"Sensuous Experience."

Sensuous X,
yes, I remember her well.

Her name was implied in
her very baring,

that is to say
her bodily example.

Kathy was Zonker's girlfriend
in college

and that's why
Zonker went on the trip.

Sensuous.

Oh my God, look at her.

Oh, she's so much like
Marilyn Monroe, right ?

* Come on, come on
come on baby now *

* Come on baby *

Now I'm wondering
at this point

whether my girlfriend has been

having sex with these
people or not.

And that's the point at which
Kesey started flirting with her,

trying to get her attention,

and he did
get her attention.

* Have you

* Ever heard
the story about *

* Peggy the pistol ?

He says, "All my dope is yours,"
as he's fucking my girlfriend.

Thanks, Kesey.

I wanted to get out of New York
as quick as possible,

and I was
basically telling her that

she could get on the bus,
but I was gone.

But then I realized that
I really didn't want to

leave her with
all these fuckers.

When they were getting ready to
leave town, I had to decide,

you know, was I gonna
stay or was I gonna go ?

At that point, I was still
planning on staying to work.

It didn't work out that way.

I got sucked into
the Prankster scene

too much, too heavily.

So I stayed on
the bus.

I wasn't there on the way back.

I was so happy to be off of it.

Coming back's
a whole 'nother trip.

Cassady, he didn't come back
with us.

The trip across was basically

lengths of Neal's driving
consciousness,

and then on the way back,

suddenly the driving duties were
thrust upon the rest of us.

Everybody took turns,
the guys anyway.

That was on the way back.

We just started driving the bus
down this abandoned dirt road

and ended up at
this incredible lake

and there was nobody there
but us.

We decided we wanted to
find a spot to take IT-290.

Well, IT-290 was famous.

That's the Rolls-Royce
of psychedelics.

Kesey had stolen a jar.

He claimed it was the last jar
of IT-290 on the planet.

And so he wanted
a very special place

for everybody to take it.

So we built a little fire
and made a little campground

and popped the IT-290
and had the trip.

Oh, it was wonderful,
it was even better than acid.

It's a hallucinogen,
but very calm.

Acid can have a hard
edge to it sometimes,

but this is very calming.

Colors very vivid.

It was very communal,

in that you felt connected to
everybody.

I thought that this was as
American as you could get,

because we were
exploring a new territory,

just the same way we went
to the moon

or sent Lewis and Clark
expedition here to Oregon.

It was part of our American
personality.

You find a cave,

nobody's been in it,
you go in it.

You try to go down
deeper into the ocean

and up higher in the sky

and these drugs were opening
a door to new landscapes.

Once you're through that door

and you look out into
this vast room

with all these
windows onto new vistas,

you become tremendously excited

and want to do
what you can to explore it,

because you could look around
and you saw

that there weren't
human footprints

all over this landscape.

* I saw her
standing on the corner *

How did the dynamics
on the bus change

when some of the wives joined
the trip back ?

At one point,
it got all couples.

At one point, there were
14 of us on the bus,

seven men and seven women.

Lots of them
were married,

but not to the person that they
were coupling with.

I remember one morning we woke
up and everybody was fucking,

the whole bus was shaking.

* You're the one
you're the one *

* You're the one

* You're the one

* Young girl

* Young girl

It got a lot heavier
on the way back.

That was fervor-pitch stuff.

I think I talked
with Kesey about our

fucking strange situation.

The thing
was weird, man,

but you couldn't be
mad at him.

He was really compassionate.

I liked Sensuous,

and that was
the most difficult part is,

having been lovers,

not being lovers anymore and
continuing to be friends.

* I can't get you
out of my mind **

The thing that creates problems

in all those husband-and-wife
triangle situations

is everybody's hang-up
with their own attachment

to some kind of belief of
the way it ought to be.

When I came through
Yellowstone Park with this bus,

I saw a sign
that said,

"Beware of the Bear,"

and something clicked
when I saw this and I thought,

"There's the problem.

"There's the whole hang-up
that stops me from writing,

"stops people from singing,
stops people from living.

"Beware of the Bear.

"What did that
used to mean ?

"It used to mean be aware
of the bear,

now it means be scared of it."

This little piece of knowledge,

you can plug it into
any person

who is now being hassled with
the way the world is changing.

Goldwater and his bunch
are scared.

That extremism...

in the defense of liberty
is no vice.

There's something happening
that is scaring these people.

Which means that something is
happening that is so new,

they're scared beyond
any powers of reasoning.

Eight, nine...

Ten, nine, eight, seven,

six, five, four, three,

two, one, zero.

These are the stakes.

To make a world in which all of
God's children can live

or to go into the dark.

We must either
love each other

or we must die.

on November 3rd.nt Johnson

The stakes are
too high for you to stay home.

All the themes of my work have
to do with America,

traveling across this land,

coming to this edge
and then what ?

Light membranes have passed
into an oxygenation state.

After we got back to La Honda,
after the bus trip,

we had a very
purposeful ritual

to get out from under
this bus thing.

We took all of our bus clothes

and put them in a pile
and set fire to them,

because I wanted
to be done with it,

I wanted to get back
to business.

I had books
to write and kids to raise.

But it wouldn't die.

People just
kept coming around.

Like little jackrabbits
gaily crossing

the pasture that
morning, so--

What happened with us,
we were making that movie

and pretty soon on Saturdays
when we showed it,

people were
coming to see what it was.

And the red barn and the kids
on the beach

in the stream saying...

We really didn't project it
until I'd finished editing it,

reel to reel,
in chronological order.

And we showed it from beginning
to end without stopping,

so 30 hours straight.

And so, for part of it,

everybody slept through it,
of course.

Cassady, of course,
he took speed, was awake

and was the one who ended up
running the projector

and talking very softly,

"And now we're
coming to New York."

Enjoying every second of it.

But he was
the only one awake.

Absolutely everybody
was asleep.

He's out of his nuts !

Every Saturday, they'd come
around more and more,

because we would do these
Saturday-night trips.

And finally, there were
just too many coming around.

I realized, "I gotta get this
out of my house

"because otherwise, then I'll
be cleaning up all week long

for the rest of my life."

So we just said,
"Okay, next time,

we're gonna do this in
Santa Cruz at Babbs' house."

Which is really the beginning of
the acid tests.

* Everywhere
and all of the time *

* It's bending my mind *

And then, after that, he said,
"I don't want it at my place."

He said, "Okay, next time
we'll do it in San Jose."

So each time, we just said,

"Next week, on Saturday,
it'll be happening there."

* I'm flying down
deserted streets *

* Wrapped in mother's
winding sheets *

* Asbestos boots
on flaming feet *

* Dreaming of forbidden treats

* When uniforms
on nighttime beats ask me *

When we started
doing the acid test,

we took on the Dead as sort of
our backup band.

* I can't come down

* It's plain to see

Kesey and the bus,

they'd been doing outrageous
things for quite awhile,

and had a reputation for it.

And-- and for us, it seemed like
a real interesting thing

to go and check out.

* Well someone's trying
to tell me where it's at *

And they were our
first and best audience,

the Pranksters were, you know.

They were the first ones
to get off on us.

* Little wings
like a vampire bat *

* I fly away to my
cold water flat *

* And eat my way...

They weren't just playing what
was on the music sheets,

they were playing
what was in the air.

* I can't come down

* It's plain to see

* I can't come down

When the Dead
are at their best,

the vibrations that are stirred
up by the audience

is the music that they play.

That means that the band
has to be supple enough

to really read
the notes written on the wall.

* They say I've begun
to lose my grip *

* My hold on
reality's starting to slip *

* To tell me to get off
of this trip *

* They say that it's
like a sinking ship *

It moved on from that,
exponentially,

from one place
to another place.

* I can't come down

* It's plain to see

* I can't come down

* I've been set free *

LSD is a really groovy way
to find out more about

the things around you.

LSD helps me understand
the whole world better.

LSD helps you to
understand your own mind.

Once Pandora's box is open,

you can't regulate who gets to
use the stuff

that flies out of it.

by the problem of LSD.ghtened

I think there's been
a great deal of misinformation

by those who seem to
see no harm in it.

But as a parent
and as a citizen

and certainly now in this
position,

I am greatly concerned.

producing weirddrug capable of

and dangerous hallucinations

had found its way
onto the streets.

We had to try and stop it.

The government said,
"Stop that experiment.

"All these guinea pigs that
we've sent up there

"into outer space,
bring 'em back down,

"and don't ever let 'em
go back up there again,

because we don't like
the look in their eyes."

He's clean, Joe,
except for these.

Sugar cubes.

Maybe your bookie's
been dropping that acid

we've been hearing about.

Evil !

Evil, evil !

All right,
come on, son.

Settle down.

Oh, no, no...

whether they want to or not,

are becoming expert in

the handling of LSD users
in trouble.

You're gonna be all right.

I want to get--

Some people have a bad
experience the first time

they take the drug.

Others take it 30, 60,
or even 100 times

before their bad trip.

And the bad trip:
instant insanity.

Often, a Never Never Land
of no return.

No, no, get away !

Some others who take LSD

will have even more tragic
freak-outs.

Many lose
all contact with reality.

Some forget what height means

and in a turned-on
or euphoric state,

step or attempt to fly from
cliffs and high windows,

with real-life,

permanent
non-psychedelic results.

Other trippers attempt to merge

their beings with large,
fast automobiles.

With all the hype about LSD,

you were busted with
marijuana ?

It wasn't even grass charges,

it was being in a place
where marijuana was.

Mr. Kesey, do you feel like
you did something wrong ?

I feel like you only come to
this movie once

and if you don't
get something rewarding

out of every minute you're
sitting there,

then you're
blowing your ticket.

Let's assume the worst.

Supposing they do come back
with a conviction,

would you appeal ?

Well, if I could just
concede in some way

and let them stick me in jail

and do my time, I would do it
and save the taxpayers

and everybody else
a lot of trouble.

The aim of the sheriff
and the probation department

has been to rehabilitate
Mr. Kesey,

to get him back into writing,

back into the career where he
seems to have the most talent.

* Walk me out
in the morning dew *

* My honey

In six months,
your kids grow a lot.

That's what they take away from
you in jail.

It's a drag,
I don't wanna ever go to jail.

* You didn't
hear no baby *

* Cry today *

One flew out of
a cuckoo's nest today,

that is if you consider jail
a cuckoo's nest.

Federal charges were
dropped and the last obstacle,

San Francisco bail, was set at
$3,500 plus penalties.

Kesey will be back in court
November 9th, hopefully.

In the meantime,
he will tell the teenage world

of the evils of drugs

and probably describe
a long trip.

Are you repudiating LSD and
other hallucinatory drugs ?

There's enough LSD around now

and enough
young kids around

who are able to
manufacture this,

that it's impossible

for the police to do
anything about it.

You think this new law is
turning them off then ?

I don't know that
you can turn them off

but I think you may be able to
move them on.

Do you consider yourself

becoming one of us squares
perhaps ?

God, I hope not.

The commencement exercises
for LSD U

will be held
on Monday night,

that's Halloween.

And, of course,
the man who is going to be

passing out the diplomas
is Ken Kesey.

Ken, what's the theme of
this commencement exercise ?

Trip or treat.

When I first proposed
the idea to Jerry Garcia,

the leader of
the Grateful Dead,

who's playing up there now,

that it's time to graduate
from acid,

he says, "Hallelujah."

It was a test and there were
people that passed

and were people
that didn't pass.

We gave out diplomas
for people

that we felt
like really had passed it.

Are you a member of the
graduating class tonight ?

No, I flunked
the acid test.

How do you go about
doing that ?

Well, the stipulations that
Ken put up, I didn't pass.

We went wild for awhile.

We went wild because we'd been
caged up for 50,000 years.

We went wild and found out

there was more than we had been
led to believe.

And now, unless we start
finding the little piece of it

that we call the reins,

it's gonna
get away from us.

This doesn't necessarily mean
you stop taking acid,

but you stop
repeating the trips.

Every head knows that
he takes a drug

to eventually stop taking it,

and I think that it's time for
a great number of them to stop.

I believe that drugs have now
become a fashion.

The Haight scene
has changed all right.

The flower not only has wilted,
it's dead.

* Going to leave

* This brokedown palace

* On my hands
and my knees *

* I will roll, roll, roll

The hippies is often
a strange world

in which
they live in.

They take many trips.

And the trip of a hippie
is generally an unusual one.

And marijuana, of course,
with LSD, is being used.

All of these drugs were being
fed into the culture by the CIA.

The LSD was not
the whole story.

I didn't believe it for a long
time while Allen Ginsberg says,

"You know who was paying
for that was the CIA."

I said, "Oh no, Allen,
you're just paranoid."

But he finally got all
the records and it did turn out

the CIA was doing this and it
wasn't being done

to try to
cure insane people,

which is what we thought.

It was being
done to weaken people

and to be able to put them under
the control of interrogators.

I was so naive.

I believed these doctors knew
what they were doing.

You know, this is
the American government.

How could they make
a mistake ?

* Fare you well

* Fare you well

* I love you more
than words can tell *

* Listen to the river

* Sing sweet songs
to rock my soul *

* Doo-doo-doo

* Doo-doo-doo-doo *

We finally got out of jail.

We were perfectly
willing to leave

that whole area down there,

which offered excitement
but no stability.

It's funny,
in your Prankster days,

you were seen as being
part of a group

that had made such
a break with the past,

and yet here you are living
on a family farm,

you're, I believe,
still married to the woman

who you've been married to
since, what is it, 1956 ?

Long time, yeah.

Yeah, so, I mean,
there's been this

incredible continuity in
your life

between past
and present in a lot of ways.

Yeah.

My wife and I
met in junior high

and all of our families
are still very close.

This schism between
this one consciousness

and this consciousness,

I believe, has been
arbitrarily forced on us.

I've always been a fairly
reliable,

"straight up the middle
of the road" citizen

that just happens
to be an acidhead.

Ken's a born leader.

I mean, he's got just charisma
coming out of his ears.

Cassady was not
that kind of person.

He really wasn't.

Once he didn't
have the bus to drive,

or a function, he was--

he was really like
a liability.

You've heard the stories
about him and Anne Murphy.

Oh, don't you know this ?

Oh, God.

They were on a heavy,
sado-masochist trip.

I'm really old-fashioned when
it comes to stuff like that.

I don't think
a relationship is

worth jack shit if you're not
making things good and happy.

Compare this with Ken and Faye.

They've been good
for each other.

See, they--
they take care of each other.

They don't let each other
just go downhill

and get more
and more fucked up.

On the contrary, they take
good care of each other.

Were you surprised to learn
that Cassady was found dead

beside the railroad tracks
in Mexico ?

When he died, I felt
like that he'd accidentally

killed himself on purpose.

I can picture myself in his
shoes exactly

and there's
no place else to go, really.

Might as well meet
the angels.

At what point
did you decide to give up

the kind of Pranksters life ?

The story that
I've heard is

the Pranksters
went to Woodstock,

you didn't want to go.

And when
they came back,

they came back to a sign
hung in your driveway

that just said, "No."

Well, there was 61 people when
they headed out to Woodstock

and after they were gone,

I went upstairs,
and we live in a barn--

at that time there was still
hay in the loft of the barn,

and I found one of
these little hippie warrens,

where they dug in with their
ratty old sleeping bags

and their copy
of Zap magazine

and stuck right down in
the hay bale, was a candle

which had burned right down
to the hay

before it'd gone off

and I thought,
"There's certain things that

take precedent over
enlightenment."

And that's when you sent
everybody home basically.

Yeah.

How much writing
have you been doing

over the past few years ?

Oh, quite a lot,
I write all the time.

I just don't publish
that much.

I've got four kids

and there's this-- there's
a lot of the same energy

that goes into
raising a family

that goes into putting a book
together like "Notion."

Which, once you get
a lot of stuff in the air,

you can't stop because
you'll forget it,

and that kind of consciousness,

I have not had and I think
it's because...

you know,
I'm running a big farm.

That's what occupies my mind.

Either that
or I fried my marbles,

just like everybody thinks.

When people ask me
what I think my best work is,

I always say the bus.

Novels are
a dime a dozen,

but there's only one bus
Further.

What it meant

was that everybody
had to consider a new way

for things to be.

Don't you know
that we're all one ?

The deeper I got into it,

the more I realized it was
a different force working.

The only big mistake
we ever made, as a force,

was thinking for awhile that
we were going to win.

We developed
vested interests

in the victory to come.

We begin to parcel off
into little groups,

whether it's feminism,

or politics,
for money, religion,

whatever it is everybody is
jumping up and down

in front of it

until nobody
can see it clear anymore.

Now, if we'd never
made that mistake,

we'd been way ahead,

and this is kind of why I'm
retiring from the ranks.

There's something about what
we're doing is that

we're meant to lose, every time.

You make these forays,
you write these books

and you perform this music,

but the big juggernaut of
civilization continues

and you get
kind of brushed to the side.

But I think all through history

there's been these kind of
divine losers

that just take
a deep breath and go ahead,

knowing that society's not
going to understand it,

not even caring, 'cause
they're having a good time.

* Sometimes the lights
all shinin' on me *

* Other times
I can barely see *

* Lately it occurs to me

* What a long
strange trip it's been *

* Truckin'

* Got my chips
cashed in *

* Keep truckin'

* Like the doo-dah man

* Together

* More or less
in line *

* Just keep truckin' on

* Arrows of neon and flashing
marquees out on Main Street *

* Chicago New York Detroit and
it's all on the same street *

* Your typical city
involved in a typical daydream *

* Hang it up and see what
tomorrow brings *

* Dallas

* Got a soft machine

* Houston

* Too close
to New Orleans *

* New York's

* Got the ways
and means *

* That just
won't let you be *

* Most of the cats
that you meet on the streets *

* Speak of true love

* Most of the time they're
sittin' and cryin' at home *

* One of these days they know
they gotta get going *

* Out of the door and down
on the street all alone *

* Truckin'

* Like the doo-dah man

* Once told me

* You've got to play
your hand... **