Steely Dan
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This happened back in March but I just learned of it today. I don't praise him nor do I judge him harshly. He's just an interesting story and the subject of Steely Dan's song "Kid Charlemagne". "Kid Charlemagne" is looking at Owsley's life using sardonic lyrics. The song is from the 1976 album "The Royal Scam" and tells his story from his stardom amongst the rock and roll elite to his fall from grace.
IIRC, Mick Fleetwood mentions in his autobiography that Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac was in NYC and called Owsley and he was out the next day from the west coast with the "stuff" they wanted.
While you can look at Owsley's life and say he was nothing more than an acid peddler you have to realize that he did care about what went into his stuff. He never produced "Brown Acid" (poorly manufactured acid that causes permanent damage to the brain). Mick Fleetwood claims Peter Green took some brown acid in Germany from amateur acid manufacturers and thus ruined his mind and career.
Anyhoo, he's an interesting and tragic story that I thought I'd post about when I read that he had died. I'm pretty sure a lot of people here have at least one album his "product" helped influence. JMO
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/us/15stanley.html
Owsley Stanley, Artisan of Acid, Is Dead at 76
By MARGALIT FOX
Published: March 14, 2011
Owsley Stanley, the prodigiously gifted applied chemist to the stars, who made LSD in quantity for the Grateful Dead, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Ken Kesey and other avatars of the psychedelic 60s, died on Sunday in a car accident in Australia....
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylr2D4Pwn58"]Steely Dan - Kid Charlemagne (Live) - YouTube[/ame]
KID CHARLEMAGNE
While the music played you worked by candlelight
Those San Francisco nights
You were the best in town
Just by chance you crossed the diamond with the pearl
You turned it on the world
That's when you turned the world around
Did you feel like Jesus
Did you realize
That you were a champion in their eyes
On the hill the stuff was laced with kerosene
But yours was kitchen clean
Everyone stopped to stare at your technicolor motor home
Every A-Frame had your number on the wall
You must have had it all
You'd go to L.A. on a dare
And you'd go it alone
Could you live forever
Could you see the day
Could you feel your whole world fall apart and fade away
CHORUS:
Get along, get along Kid Charlemagne
Get along Kid Charlemagne
Now your patrons have all left you in the red
Your low rent friends are dead
This life can be very strange
All those dayglow freaks who used to paint the face
They've joined the human race
Some things will never change
Son you were mistaken
You are obsolete
Look at all the white men on the street
CHORUS
Clean this mess up else we'll all end up in jail
Those test tubes and the scale
Just get them all out of here
Is there gas in the car
Yes, there's gas in the car
I think the people down the hall
Know who you are
Careful what you carry
'Cause the man is wise
You are still an outlaw in their eyes
CHORUS
Written by Donald Fagen/Walter Becker
IIRC, Mick Fleetwood mentions in his autobiography that Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac was in NYC and called Owsley and he was out the next day from the west coast with the "stuff" they wanted.
While you can look at Owsley's life and say he was nothing more than an acid peddler you have to realize that he did care about what went into his stuff. He never produced "Brown Acid" (poorly manufactured acid that causes permanent damage to the brain). Mick Fleetwood claims Peter Green took some brown acid in Germany from amateur acid manufacturers and thus ruined his mind and career.
Anyhoo, he's an interesting and tragic story that I thought I'd post about when I read that he had died. I'm pretty sure a lot of people here have at least one album his "product" helped influence. JMO
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/us/15stanley.html
Owsley Stanley, Artisan of Acid, Is Dead at 76
By MARGALIT FOX
Published: March 14, 2011
Owsley Stanley, the prodigiously gifted applied chemist to the stars, who made LSD in quantity for the Grateful Dead, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Ken Kesey and other avatars of the psychedelic 60s, died on Sunday in a car accident in Australia....
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylr2D4Pwn58"]Steely Dan - Kid Charlemagne (Live) - YouTube[/ame]
KID CHARLEMAGNE
While the music played you worked by candlelight
Those San Francisco nights
You were the best in town
Just by chance you crossed the diamond with the pearl
You turned it on the world
That's when you turned the world around
Did you feel like Jesus
Did you realize
That you were a champion in their eyes
On the hill the stuff was laced with kerosene
But yours was kitchen clean
Everyone stopped to stare at your technicolor motor home
Every A-Frame had your number on the wall
You must have had it all
You'd go to L.A. on a dare
And you'd go it alone
Could you live forever
Could you see the day
Could you feel your whole world fall apart and fade away
CHORUS:
Get along, get along Kid Charlemagne
Get along Kid Charlemagne
Now your patrons have all left you in the red
Your low rent friends are dead
This life can be very strange
All those dayglow freaks who used to paint the face
They've joined the human race
Some things will never change
Son you were mistaken
You are obsolete
Look at all the white men on the street
CHORUS
Clean this mess up else we'll all end up in jail
Those test tubes and the scale
Just get them all out of here
Is there gas in the car
Yes, there's gas in the car
I think the people down the hall
Know who you are
Careful what you carry
'Cause the man is wise
You are still an outlaw in their eyes
CHORUS
Written by Donald Fagen/Walter Becker