Watch Little Richard, The Beach Boys and Ray Charles debate LSD
By 1968 hippiedom was a global empire. What had started out as a particularly potent youth subculture was suddenly the vanguard of a full-blown cultural revolution where acid was king. This special episode of Let’s Go is an indicator of just how pervasive that counterculture was by the late 1960s. Responsible for introducing Canadian households to American psychedelic groups and British imports like The Yardbirds and Jimi Hendrix, the CBS television series ran from 1967 to 1968 and dedicated itself to showcasing local talent and spotlighting the cultural trends of the day. This episode features some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry debating psychedelia and the uses of LSD.
The episode offers a comprehensive survey of the acid question. Crooner Pat Boone, for example, is quick to label hippies as “a tragedy”, “misfits”, and people who have failed “to find any other niche”. Rock and roll guitarist Little Richard offers a different perspective. “Oh, I think it’s great,” he says. “I love it. I’m talking about the music. I think it’s fantastic. Because I think a person is expressing what he feels. He’s not going by anything that is written on paper. This man is playing, he’s not playing just for money, he’s playing because his soul within is driving him to push, to let his feelings go out in music, and I believe that it’s one of the greatest things that ever happened to the field of entertainment.”
Ray Charles, however, seems to have held a more puritanical view. “I don’t believe that any stimulant makes you the better,” he says. “In other words, I think if you’re good, you’ll be good without anything – or you should be. Now, I think what a stimulant may do for some people is that it may make them think they’re better in their minds. And, of course, your mind is a great help to you in making you believe in yourself. But in reality, I don’t think any stimulant does anything to actually make your talent better. I think you either have it or you don’t have it.”
Later, the conversation turns to the responsibility of entertainers, The Beatles being the obvious elephant in the room. Richard Pryor is pretty strong on this subject, arguing against the clean-cut Everly Brothers’ view that musicians should hide dangerous aspects of hippie culture from their fans. “I think if you know you have an influence over a certain age group,” he says. “I think you’d be a hypocrite not to tell them what you think honestly.” Frank Sinatra Jr, meanwhile, seems utterly terrified by hippiedom. “I think it’s a novelty. I think it’s a gimmick. I think it’s manufactured music made with very little feeling, with very, very little preparation, in fact.”
Check out the entire program for fascinating quotes from Timothy Leary, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and more.
