Spitz leads readers on a dizzying ride through the 1960's, taking in the band's musical and financial high points, way-out mystical adventuring, struggles over the Yoko Ono issue and what he calls their "course of reckless hedonism." That course included John's making a deal with LSD-maker Stanley Owsley to pay for a lifetime supply of the hallucinogen. On one occasion, under its influence, they all went to the Aegean Sea to purchase a cluster of islands where they planned to build four houses connected by tunnels, with the land between the homes filled with meditation posts, painting and recording studios, a go-cart track, and a landing strip. When the acid wore off, they got bored and abandoned the idea . . . but bought the islands anyway.What a nice theme park that would be today if only they'd followed through! What drug-influenced notion did you abandon when you straightened out that you now think would have been quite cool?
November 27, 2005
The LSD-inspired Beatles theme park that might have been.
The Jane and Michael Stern review Bob Spitz's new book "The Beatles." They like it a lot. I've picked out this detail to get some conversation going:
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8 comments:
I had the idea as a teenager that I would never get tired of the Beatles but it happened- without drugs.
Building a house in the shape of a "Purpe Pyramid".
*purple*
/flashback
wombat, LOL!
Included in the DVD version of "The Beatles Anthology" is a wonderful, extensive sequence of home-movie footage from that trip to the islands. It's one of my all-time favorite pieces of Beatles video -- and I write this as a bona fide Beatles freak.
Once, after eating way too much Halloween candy, I thought I could ride my bike the entire length of highway 61. I still might do it someday only I'll be fueled by turkey sandwiches, nuts, and non-LSD-laced raisins. Wouldn't want those doors of perception hitting me on my way out.
I think my experiences were much more mundane - like the excitement of (again) going to talk to Jack (at Jack in the Box). Back then, when you ordered a coke, Jack would reply "One Jack-Cola".
Still though I spent several New Years Eves in Vail sitting on a particular bench watching the plastic people there. Vail is a faux Swiss village (with an Interstate through it now). Almost like Disneyland in Colorado.
The bench is still there, and I sometimes sit on it and remember back when I was watching the plastic people walk by - before I had become one of them.
"What are we going to do tonight, Brain?"
"What we do every night, Pinky... Try to take over the World!"
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