Call it what you want: The Last Acid Test; The Field Trip; The Springfield Creamery Benefit; or perhaps simply 8/27/72.
Even the most casual of Deadheads are at least aware of the facts: the Grateful Dead played an outdoor concert in Veneta, OR that day, immersed in record-breaking heat. The show was a benefit to help keep Springfield Creamery going – a local business owned and operated by Ken Kesey’s brother Chuck.
Where the facts have morphed into legend over the years is the claim that this is – if not in the band’s history, then at least for that time period – THE SHOW. The Holy Grail. The big psychedelic machine firing on all cylinders, fueled by sunshine, good vibes, and Owsley acid. Umpteenth-generation bootlegs have been around since that hot August day 41 years ago, providing fodder for great debate.
Fortunately for us all, The Field Trip needs to be a myth no longer: Rhino Entertainment has released Sunshine Daydream, a 3-CD/DVD collection (also available in vinyl and Blu-ray formats) that documents that day. The music itself is amazing, captured on 16-track analog tapes and stored lovingly in the Dead vaults all these years. It’s the filmed account of 8/27/72 (and the events that led up to it), however, that provides the proof that what happened in that field on that scorching-hot afternoon is worthy of four decades’-worth of buzz. There are many great films that document the Grateful Dead’s history; none capture the essence of the Grateful Dead family quite the way that Sunshine Daydream does.
The Merry Pranksters played a large role in the events of 8/27/72 – most visible was Ken Babbs, Ken Kesey’s longtime friend since their first crossing-of-paths in a Stanford writing class in 1958. Over the years, Babbs was Kesey’s wingman for everything from the famous cross-country bus trip in 1964 (with Neal Cassady at the wheel) to joint adventures in words, sound, and film up until Kesey’s death in 2001. Babbs was the emcee for The Field Day in August of 1972 – the man at the mic, keeping his cool amongst the heat and craziness, combining cowboy good looks with R. Crumb-character moves and a rubbery grin.
These days, Ken Babbs keeps the Prankster spirit alive with his Skypilot Club while continuing to lead the sort of back-to-the-land lifestyle that he has long advocated. We’ve enjoyed our visits in the past; the release of Sunshine Daydream seemed like a perfect time to get out the shortwave and dial in Kap’n Ken at Skypilot Headquarters …
BR: Good morning, Ken. What are the current conditions at Skypilot HQ?
KB: Good morning, Brian! Atmospheric conditions are a beautiful, cool morning with a high of 90 degrees predicted for this afternoon. We’ve had three hot days in a row.
Enjoy it while it lasts – it’ll be time to get your winter firewood in before you know it.
Oh, I’ve been cutting and splitting wood like crazy. I don’t know what it means, though … maybe we’re going to have a real cold winter. (laughter) I’ve got a load in the truck right now that I have to go stack once we get done talking.
Well, then – we’d better get right to it.
I thought we already had! (laughter)
How about we run through just a little bit of history of the events that led up to the show captured on Sunshine Daydream ?
Sounds good.
By 1972 Chuck Kesey and his wife Sue had been running the Springfield Creamery for a dozen years – it was an established business, correct?
Yes it was, but it was established as a bottling plant – Springfield was bottling milk for other outfits. I think something happened where one of Springfield’s competitors convinced a major milk supplier not to renew their bottling contract. There were offers to buy Chuck and Sue out and take over the creamery, but they didn’t want to do that … so there was a scramble over how to get the money to keep going.
And at that point, Springfield Creamery was part of the early yogurt movement in the US, as well?
Absolutely true. Even though the yogurt scene was well-established in Europe, it was small in the United States at that time. Springfield decided to do yogurt with live probiotics and see where that would take them. They called it “Nancy’s Yogurt” after a lady at the Creamery – Nancy Hamren – who still works there.
Do you think there was ever a sort of “guilt by association” with the Kesey family name and the Prankster scene that made it difficult for the Creamery business-wise?
No – no, I don’t. In those days, everything was still … I mean, it was Oregon we’re talking about! (laughs) Everybody was cool. In ’72 there were co-ops and communes all over the place; health foods and natural foods businesses were on the rise; Springfield Creamery was part of it all.
And at that point, someone came up with the idea to approach the Dead about a benefit concert …
They were talking at the Creamery about what to do and there was one employee – Benny The Benevolent Benefactor – who said, “Why don’t you guys get the Grateful Dead to do a concert and raise some money?” They talked about it and sent this other woman who worked there, Carolyn Hannah, down to talk to them.
The Dead were interested, but they weren’t real enthusiastic about it until Ramrod [the late Larry “Ramrod” Shurtliff, head Dead roadie and spiritual mainstay] spoke up.
Really?
Oh, yeah. Ramrod – who came to the Dead through the Pranksters – said, “Wait a minute – these are our people. We’re all in the same family; we’ve got to help out here.”
And that’s when the Dead said, “Okay – we’ll do it.”
So Ramrod was the real hero of things.
Yeah, and Maria, too – Carolyn Hannah’s Prankster name was Black Maria. The two of them … plus Benny The Benevolent Benefactor. (laughter)
I’ll make sure to capitalize his title.
Exactly! (laughter)
Watching the early scenes of the movie, it just tickles me so to watch things come together. The folks building the stage and sound tower and everything – they weren’t experienced “show people”; they were simply folks that wanted things to happen.
That’s what the movie’s all about, Brian. It’s not about the Grateful Dead playing songs; it’s about exactly what you said: people coming together whole-heartedly to put this on.
It’s a time capsule that reveals a great spirit of cooperation and family that existed in Oregon at that time. The best reason to have it come out now is to have that spirit once again shown to people, and say, “Yes, yes … that’s the way we ought to be …”
And then maybe they’ll go out and do the same thing.
A lot of those people you see were living the country life; a lot of them had built their own houses and their own barns … they knew how to do that stuff.
I wanted to ask you: if you took the same set of circumstances and applied them to now … do you think this event could happen? I’m not talking the sort of massive festivals that we have now; I’m talking this sort of grassroots people-helping-people scene.
I do, I do. We’re finding a resurgence of that spirit now; more and more people are realizing – as they did in those days – that the search for the “American Dream” does not go through the materialistic, acquire-as-much-as-you-can world, but through returning to the natural world through health and spirit and body and community.
More and more people are finding that out; more and more people are being forced to as they’re losing their jobs and their homes – and they’re seeking another way … and when they do, they’re finding a better way.
Sometimes it takes a bad thing to make a good thing.
Hey – it’s like the guy who comes home from work and he’s just been fired. He sees the mortgage’s been cancelled and they’re gonna lose their home and he says, “Hey kids – we’re goin’ camping!”
Even the local law seemed to be caught up in the spirit of things on the Field Day; there were no hassles.
Well, no; there was no reason to. There weren’t any problems. (laughs)
But you and I both know there have been times when there aren’t any problems, but people with authority still find a reason to come down hard on folks.
Well, that’s true … but I think up here you have savvy people who know how to smile and be pleasant to the heat … and not aggravate them. (laughs)
The average attendance number that’s always been kicked around is 20,000. Do you think that’s accurate?
Oh, easily. Anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000. (laughter) What we’re dealing with when we talk about this kind of stuff is myth. It’s been long enough that everything’s been mythologized and still is. We’re just adding to the myth … and the numbers change and fluctuate.
Usually the myth keeps getting bigger as time goes on – and a thousand years from now, the extraneous stuff will waste away and there’ll just be the myth, sticking up like the last monument. (laughs)
Well, it’s like you told me once: the bus keeps getting bigger and bigger because there are a helluva lot of people who claim they were on the bus.
That’s right! (laughs)
Speaking of the bus, that’s one of the things I wanted to mention: early on in Sunshine Daydream they did a nice job of weaving in some Acid Test footage; and then later – during “I Know You Rider” – there was really nicely-done footage of Neal Cassady. There are some scenes of him at the wheel, which I know I’ve seen in the Intrepid Traveler And His Merry Band Of Pranksters Look For A Kool Place movie that you guys did and in the Magic Trip movie that came out in 2011. But there’s also a scene of Neal in his striped shirt and that goofy –
Straw boater hat.
Yes! That’s it – and he’s doing his Buster Keaton thing; balancing the hat on his head and then losing it …
Yeah. (laughs) He’s showing off to the secretaries that were in Central Park – when we were there on the bus in ’64. Neal, you know, was quite a ladies man – he was entertaining them. (laughter)
It’s perfect that Neal was included in Sunshine Daydream, even though the Field Day took place four years after he died.
That’s right – Neal was part of us; and he had a great relationship with the Grateful Dead.
The folks who shot the original footage had to understand the Dead’s music and the family vibe to capture things the way they did. They nailed so many moments that really counted.
Sam Field’s group – called Canis Major – had filmed the Dead in Europe earlier that year, and when they heard about this concert, they thought, “This would really be the concert to film.” They joined up with us – Intrepid Trips – and this other group called FWAPS – Far West Action Picture Service – who did local commercials and stuff like that. There were all these different cameras filming it, so they were getting all these shots from different people who each had their own view of the day.
Do you have a favorite scene?
Oh, yeah – the shot of the little kid sitting there eating the ice cream. (laughter)
With the dog! (laughter)
And the dog comes up and starts licking his ice cream. (laughter) That was shot by Bobby Miller, the son of Arthur Miller, who was one of the partners in FWAPS. And the little kid is the son of one of our guys, Paul Foster. (laughs)
And “Jack Straw” was playing, I believe: “We can share what we got of yours ‘cause we done shared all of mine” – it was perfect.
Yeah! (laughter) You know, when they showed the movie in theaters all over the country on August 1st, we watched it in one of the local movie houses in Springfield – and it was like a party! Everybody was having a good time; and afterwards, they hung around for hours. You realized after awhile that it was all people who had been at the concert – there were no young people at this one at all; it was funny. (laughter)
You know, Phil DeGuere did a really brilliant job of editing the film. That sequence at the beginning where the music’s playing while they’re building the stage and putting things together … I thought that was just magnificent.
Absolutely; in just a few minutes you caught the total essence of the event – and more importantly, the spirit of the people. Speaking of people, I wanted to say that you’re looking good in the movie, Ken.
Well … (laughs) I was kinda young then. I was only – what? 36?
Well, you still look good.
I try. (laughs) I work at it. Like I told you earlier, I’ve been splitting wood lately to get my exercise. I try to break up my day: in the morning, do my writing and computer work; and then in the afternoon, get out and work hard around the place – get the fresh air and sunshine and the physical labor.
How did you end up as the emcee that day?
Kesey and I did this thing where we came up with these characters: I was Poppinjay the Dee Jay – “poppin’ dee jay all dee way” – the emcee for the show. And Kesey was his cohort, Brother Bartholomew, up in the soundbooth in the middle of the thing. Poppinjay was up on the stage and they had these two-way radios so they could communicate back and forth.
Ah – I was going to ask you about that: there’s the skit being played out during the movie; the occasional voiceover with the bit about the jug of water that’s been hid under the stage – and, of course, we don’t want anyone to tamper with that water jug. Which they do and madness ensues …
That’s me and Kesey. I have boxes of old reel-to-reel tapes of us working that stuff up. I’ll get those out someday – there’s much, much more than what you hear in the movie.
Ha! That would something else to hear. And was that intended to be part of the movie; part of the soundtrack all along?
That’s right. We had so many ideas for that movie … I had one for “El Paso”: when they went into it, we’d put all the guys on horses with cowboy hats. They’d walk into a bar and go through the whole thing while the song was going on. It would’ve been like a precursor to MTV … boy, would that have been good.
Well … maybe next time.
Next time! (laughs) There ain’t gonna be a next time. (laugher) There’ll be a new time, maybe – but not a next time. That’s good.
Any big technical difficulties that day?
No – none. You know, that’s another one of the myths around this movie. This was supposed to come out right away and play in the theaters; it would’ve been a knockout. And part of the myth was that the band didn’t want it going out because the instruments wouldn’t stay in tune because of the record-setting heat of that day – 105 or 106 degrees or something like that. “Oh my God, that doesn’t sound good!”
Fuck that – that’s why it sounds so good; it was part of the whole day, you know? People were high; that’s the way it was – that’s the way it sounded. (laughter) I mean, you’ll never hear another “Dark Star” like that again in your life.
Oh, I know – and that jam from “China Cat” into “Rider”. Bobby takes the lead for a bit there and he’s just smoking. My wife nudged me and said, “Look how hard he’s working.” (laughter) It’s great. And “Bird Song” – we had tears in our eyes it was so beautiful. “Out of tune,” my arse. (laughter)
Yeah! Like I say, that’s a myth. The sound in this movie is incredible – the way that each instrument is heard so clearly.
I’ll admit: at first, I had my doubts about this new version of the movie, but it was Mountain Girl who said, “No – this is for a new audience.” And she was right.
So you’d seen the finished project yourself before the one-night nationwide screening in the theaters?
Yeah – I saw it last summer at the Oregon Country Fair at 11 o’clock on a Friday night. Everyone who had been at the concert that could come was there. That was where it was filmed, you know – in the parking lot of the Oregon Country Fair. Anyway, that’s where I got to see it first – the finished version had a few additions.
I loved the short documentary Grateful Days that introduced Sunshine Daydream at the premiere.
That was done by a really good guy named Adrian Marin who took it upon himself to do a documentary about the making of the movie. Oh my God … he came out and interviewed me for hours and hours. I said, “What are you going to do with all this stuff?” (laughter) But he did a great job of talking about the Creamery and how the concert came about. He told the story very well.
Hey – you know that naked guy on the pole in the movie?
Oh yeah … (laughter)
He drives you nuts after a while. He’s right there in the background – it looks like his balls and his dick are banging on Jerry Garcia’s head (laughter) – and then he’s gone! And then he appears again … but he has shorts on! When we were watching it in the theater, several people in the audience yelled out, “Oh, thank God!” (laughter)
They were clapping where we were. (laughter) I wonder where he is now.
Well, that’s the thing: when Adrian was making the documentary, he went to look for him. Turns out that he isn’t a long-haired, backwoods fella any more … he’s a straight guy and sells real estate. (laughter) And he didn’t want to talk about the movie. (laughter)
Well … that’s too bad. His loss.
Yeah!
And you have a great essay in the booklet.
Did you read it? (laughs)
Oh, yeah – that was a cool piece of writing, Ken. When did you do it?
They e-mailed me and asked if I’d write something for the booklet and I said, “Okay.” And then they told me they needed it in a week. (laughter)
Oh, man – it’s great. It’s like some of the passages in Who Shot The Water Buffalo? – you were just riffing; just letting it roll.
It was cool, because that’s what they told me: “Say whatever you want – right off the top of your head.”
Well, who knows, Ken. We’ll let the DVD and the soundtrack get out there into folks’ hands and – I’m a sucker for a happy ending – maybe it’ll do some good.
Maybe, Brian – maybe. (laughs)
In the meantime, your novel Who Shot The Water Buffalo? is out in paperback. And I know you’re working on your next book, which has a working title of Cronies – how’s that coming?
I started in 1958 when Kesey and I met at Stanford in the writing program and I’ve worked my way up to 1964 so far. (laughs) I’m in the middle of the bus trip as we speak, writing about that. (laughter)
Oh, man …
I know! I can’t believe how much material I have: tapes; movies; photos … and memories! I’ve got to get it all down.
I finally quit worrying about it and and I figured this first time through I’m going to put everything in there. Then after that, I’ll go through and get rid of all the crap. (laughter) It was Ernest Hemingway who said, “What’s important isn’t so much what you put in the book as what you take out.”
That’s right: just let it roll and get it down for now. You can sand it and shape it later.
Right, right! (laughter)
Okay, Ken – I’m going to let you get back to that firewood.
Yeah – I’ve got to get it out of the truck and stacked so I can put another load in tomorrow.
Any parting words for all the boys and girls out there?
Sure: keep the faith! The world is a great world … and we’re not going to let anybody destroy it; we’re going to save it for our kids.
And party on! (laughter)
Perfect! Take care, Ken – and let’s hope there’s generations to come of little kids sharing their ice creams with dogs.
Right on, Brian – right on!
*****
Brian Robbins shares his ice cream with Bonnie the Chesapeake over at www.brian-robbins.com.
