Turn Off Your Mind, Relax and Float Downstream...

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy are tuning in and dropping out as we talk all things Acid. We hear a history of the psychedelic movement within the Anglophone world, taking in the accidental maiden trip of chemist Albert Hoffmann, the activities of Timothy Leary at Millbrook and the Merry Pranksters on their Magic Bus, and The Beatles' musical rendering of the classic trip.

Tim and Jeremy also consider how dancing is incorporated into the Acid experience, with a grateful nod to the role played by the Dead and their sound engineer Owsley Stanley, and draw out the tensions between the post-war consumer culture and the emergent psychedelic movement that rendered Acid such a uniquely potent political - as well as pharmacological - phenomenon.

Note: At Love is the Message, we don't encourage our listeners to take Acid, which is of course illegal! Also, more prosaically, in this episode Jeremy refers to Ralph ‘Metzinger’ - he is of course talking about Ralph Metzner, the American psychologist and not Thomas Metzinger the contemporary American philosopher.

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

We are committed to making Love is the Message free to everyone who wants it, but if you have the means, please become a supporter by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod for as little as £3 a month so we can stay free.

Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Tracklist:

Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar - Raga Palas Kafi
The Grateful Dead - Alice D. Millionaire
The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows
Country Joe and the Fish - The Acid Commercial
Country Joe and the Fish - Colours for Susan
Charles Earland - Leaving This Planet