Grateful Dead party at Rancho Olompali, and Bands
The transition out of Stanford had been in the works for some time, but it started “officially” when I took my Leave in Winter Quarter 1965-6 (January – March 1966). Since Mount Rushmore started in early 1967, I always thought of 1966 as The Lost Year. I was 22 years old.
For me the Lost Year really started on December 10, 1965, when my drums were stolen after the Mime Troop benefit at the Fillmore Auditorium. I was living at 1341 Laurel Avenue. The next weekend I went to my first Acid Test, which was a fitting start for a lost year. I’m guessing that I had my exit interview from Stanford just before or after those two events.
As Winter Quarter ended I worked for a month at the Shell Oil Refinery in Martinez. After that I was out of school, no job, drifting, without drums, not in a band, taking LSD with no supervision (Trips 5-14). My primary navigation guideline during this time was a mantra of things to avoid: “Army, hospital, jail, job, school”, which I would subvocalize whenever I needed a reminder of how to stay free.
I did a lot of wandering in the forested Santa Cruz Mountains adjacent to Stanford, ending up at a little commune called Medway Forest. It was while I was there that Warren found me and invited me to San Francisco to join his new band.
Putting this web site together has allowed me to fill in a lot of what happened during The Lost Year.
12/10/1965 Vipers payed at Fillmore, drums stolen after gig
12/12/65 Dylan and the Band at San Jose Civic with Warren and group
12/18/65 Big Beat Acid Test – Trip 5
1/8/66 Fillmore Acid Test – Trip 6
1/22/66 Trips Festival – Trip 7
1/23/66 John Coltrane at Stanford
March 1966 Working at Shell Oil Refinery with John Zerzan
Weekend forays from Martinez to Haight-Ashbury
Audition with the Final Solution in San Francisco
4/15/66 Berkeley Blues Festival – Trip 14
June 1966 Grateful Dead party at Olompali
Hitchhiking to visit Anonymous Artists – Trip 9
Hitchhiking to visit Manbeavil Band – Trip 13
12/23/66 Saw Steve Miller at Avalon with Manbeavil
1/14/67 Human Be-In
LSD at Medway Forest commune – Trips 10-12
January 1967 Warren somehow finds me at Medway and invites me to come to San Francisco to join his new band
Working toward a shared planetary consciousness that heals the Earth