The Long Strange Golden Road by Courtenay Pollock - Chapter 2
I immediately started measuring the stage cabinets for tie-dyed speaker fronts. Garcia, Lesh and Weir each had amp stacks and Phil’s big base cabinets were two side by side. The four stacks were to be one Mandala composed of four quarter Mandalas that made one integrated whole. I integrated the amp stacks on top of the cabinets to work with the colours I chose for each band member.
During my measuring I got to meet other members of the road crew who came back to see me. Sparky Raizene, Kid Candelario and Johny Hagen. I also was introduced to Bob Mathews who was doing the sound board back then.
Garcia invited me to come by their office at 5th and Lincoln in San Raphael to meet the staff and get an advance for my work.
In those days, Frankie took it upon herself to take me around and introduce me to ‘The Scene’ which included the NRPS (New Riders of the Purple Sage), Sons of Champlin, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Youngbloods, Quicksilver (Messenger Service) and a host of individuals on the music scene at that time.
I got orders from most everyone for shirts and did full stage cabinet fronts for NRPS and The Sons as they were usually opening for the Grateful Dead in the local area in those early years.
I fancied that I could perceive a person’s natural colours back then, kind of like reading their aura. It seemed to work as most everyone got what they wanted in terms of colour and I never got any complaints. Far from it! I was inundated with repeat orders.
Pretty soon I had many of the Hells Angels wanting shirts as well and so developed a natural acquaintance with all stripes of characters around the Bay Area. This was to serve me well in later times.
The following day, Frankie took me by the office and I met Rock Sculley, John McIntyre, (Danny Rifkin was in Mexico), David Parker, Alan Trist, and also the female staff working in the office at that time-all lovely people. Most all of the original staff stayed with the company for decades. Of course, I picked up shirt orders from most everyone and had more than enough commissions to keep me going for a few weeks.
One of the characters that dropped by the office during my first visit there was Roger Lewis. He used to have a seat at the Wall Street Stock Exchange and had taken acid and dropped out. He and I became constant friends and he introduced me to the person who manufactured the legendary window pane LSD called ‘Clear Light ‘. (At that time Augustus Stanley Owsley III was still doing time for his acid bust). I used to trade big Mandalas for a thousand hit sachets of ‘Clear Light’ and give it away with every tie dye purchase as a way to share that awesome substance. I wanted everyone to get that cosmic opening experience. ‘Clear Light’ hits were at least 100 micrograms each. ‘Clear Light Dennis’ and I developed a lifelong though infrequent friendship.
So, I’m back in Nicasio valley with Frankie after our office visit. We go across the road from my Redwood Tree rental cottage to meet this rancher dude Rick who was an old school chum of my housemate, Gerry. Rick ran the ranch on the open side of the road for the Kelley’s who owned the estate we all lived on. They were residing in the main house on the ranch whilst they completed this awesome circular house on the top ridge of the Redwood side of the valley. It had a 360˚ view out over the ocean and all around the Point Reyes National Seashore and inland (east) across Marin county towards Sonoma county.
Rick, at that time, was the California State Bulldogging champion and he judged everyone by their physical abilities. He was later to test mine by having me bulldog some steer. Ouch!
So, we all go for a trail ride on Rick’s horses. Frankie preferred to ride ‘English’ but Rick was strictly ‘Western’ so she had to figure out that style of riding as a quick study. We went up to the top of the ridge to see the progress of the ‘Round House’ and then backtracked to the barn. I was to become an almost daily rider from that day on.
My housemate Gerry was a champion horse jumper and had a room full of trophies. He always rode ‘English’ except when he was Hazing for Rick when Rick was bulldogging. (Hazing is keeping the steer running in a straight line while the bulldogger drops onto the steer at a gallop and throws it down). It was my ‘rite of passage’ with Rick for me to have to bulldog a steer before I was accepted.
So, I’m on a deadline to get the stage setup dyed for an upcoming local gig. I don’t recall the venue but I do remember the tickets were $4.00. Huh! So, I get the sets designed and dyed just in time to put them on the frames for the cabinet fronts and amps.
The crew were setting up the equipment and Joe Winslow was running the frames back to me backstage as I stretched them on their frames and built the pictures for each stack. The process took several hours and we got it all done by showtime. Soundcheck was the first time I had heard the Grateful Dead’s music… Wow!
I had previously done stage sets for the ‘Incredible String Band‘ for their U.S. tour back in 1969. My first gig was in Syracuse New York. I had also done stage and environment for a three-day free concert at the Syracuse amphitheater. I did have experience with stage sets, but not for such a big venue.
I must say, it sure did brighten up that stage.
Ramrod put me in a cage of equipment centre stage behind Garcia’s amps right there in the vortex of the sound. OMG. Garcia would come up and gaze into my eyes and take off in a stream of consciousness playing out into the universe. He would look deep through me and I was an open vessel for channel. He didn’t seem to care that his back was to the audience at those peaks.
After the gig, we all went back to some big mansion and took acid and partied.
To be continued... Chapter 3