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. As the dust starts to settle we can see the long and winding road
we have been travelling. But at least we have not been alone. With
an appreciative glance over our shoulders we gaze backwards down
the trail towards the saints and the sinners, the shamen and the
conmen, the movers and the shakers who have risked their all
to lead us further on down . . . .

 . .
In the future, this is the way history will be told. None of your treaties and trading agreements, no dates (only hot smoochy ones) — just straight down the line truth. But for the moment we are stuck with the traditional view of world history. Or are we? In this introduction to the the first two parts of Coffeehouse Culture’s major series on the development of the alternative culture of which we are all a part, we unravel the strands of our past and reknit them into a whole new cardigan of enlightenment.
. . .
.
is 1956 and grey is the colour that year. The grey rolling clouds of World War Two have cleared to reveal 		. .
. the grey incinerated soul of humanity. Grey, sad faces of long dead heroes and grey shades of long forgotten victims still fill the global mind. Depression is the mood of the year and suicides run high. War is over but the grey metallic shells cut through the morning mists in Korea and Malaya. A thin, chill miasma creeps westwards from the Soviet Union as it withdraws and restores. Ike is in the White House and Great Britain is governed by a crowd of jolly good chaps under the ultimate jolly good chap, Harold Macmillan. In the Home of the Free, grey gabardine is the fabric of choice and a shoulder holster is the accoutrement no G-man can be without.
 . . the devastating effects of war created by egomanic despots intent upon world domination. They had seen a half a generation perish on the sands of Jiwajima and in the trenches of Europe and they knew they did not want it again. And all the while the youngsters were being conditioned by that very same generation to be grateful that so many had died ‘so that they could be free.’ It was an innocent demand for acknowledgement of a generation’s sacrifice, a call to respect and honour the dead, but somehow it created an expectation that could only lead to trouble.
Freedom is a state of mind and there are many ways to express it. One of the easiest ways, however, is through the use of substances that society regards as anti-social. It was that easy. Or was it? For in giving the world a beat ethos, Kerouac seemed to provide a catayst for revolutionaries. It is interesting to note that for many beatniks, using drugs was just a harmless expression of a rebellion that had more sinister aspects. They were, indeed, almost to man anarchists and reactionaries, urban guerrillas and ‘freedom fighters’, with the emphasis on ‘fighters’. In those far off days when politics was still in the process of revealing itself as a gross and indecent misrepresentation of the honest and the true, there seemed to be something worth overthrowing.
And, of course, at the time of its publication, ‘On the Road’ was, indeed, a singularly anarchic treatise. But this was the anarchy of individual freedom. It was certainly no political manifesto. Yet, its political implications, as we will
. If things seem bad it is because they are. Freedom is on the decline and repression is heading up the charts. The war they fought for freedom has left them raddled and cynical, disillusioned and dissipated. Minds are in retreat and thinking is banned. Oh, shit, it is a Terry Gillam movie. But, no, this is for real.
But, behind the long grey curtain of time, a cast of thousands is waiting in the wings. There, among the ravers, ramblers, rebels and hell raisers, ripples of energy are galvanising the chorus into action. As the orchestra strikes up and the curtain parts, we realise that the stage is set for a musical performance the like of which the world has never before seen.

 . . ramblings of its hero, Dean Moriarty (stunningly played in real life by Neal Cassady), America’s disenfranchised saw reflections of their own psyches. In the artistic and intellectual communities based around San Francisco’s North Beach, Los Angeles’ Venice West and New York City’s Greenwich Village, ‘On the Road’ redefined a lifestyle that had previously been no more than bohemian.
The Beat Generation was born as a literary soundbite that became a social phenomenon.
It was not so much the lifestyle, which many were living anyway, but its identification and definition that produced the social reverberations 		. .
. see, were profound and influential.
As influential as the book itself were the real-life characters involved in its creation and who appear in its pages. They were the
new missionaries spread-
ing the doctrine of hip.
Among Kerouac’s circle
of intimates were Allen
Ginsberg, beat poet,
emissary of conscious-
ness, pot prophet; Neal
Cassady, the real Dean
.
Already pelvic anarchy is sweeping the apple pie homelands of middle-America but they ain’t seen nothin’ yet. In the intellectual badlands, where the crazy people come from, anarchy of a significantly higher order is about to break out.

....................................° ° ° ° ° °
If you want to trace the roots of this culture back into the veils of time, it is possible to do so. After all the history of consciousness goes back all the way. But, in truth, it is not necessary to look too far into the past to see where we came from and how we got here. Unlike most cultures, the genesis of ours can be pinned to just one event, just one point in time, from which all other events spin out in ever increasing intricacy. It is, however, a pivotal point rather than a beginning.
The publication, in 1957, of Jack Kerouac’s seminal novel of sex, drugs, sore feet and modern jazz, ‘On the Road’ was a low-key literary event by any standards. The undisciplined tale of the travels of a group of young hipsters pursuing love, life and reefer across America received few accolades. Experi-mental writing? You know how it is. Nobody’s going to read it but someone has to write it, anyway.



However, ‘On the Road’ was the exception. For many did read it. Within the stream of consciousness

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 . .
we are still feeling from Kerouac’s classic. In drawing together the strands of the unconventional, bohemian way of life and redefining them as ‘beat’, Jack Kerouac provided the platform for the first truly alternative cultural event. As the aliens and alienated emerged from the woodwork and assumed with a new confidence their mantles of hipness, their immediate associations were with the other sub-cultures that existed outside of conventionality. It was with black, sub-criminal, sexual deviant and other ‘excluded’ cultures that the Beats shared a natural affinity. In aspiring to hipness, the Beats aped the vocabulary of the mainly black jazz musicians who inspired them, both musically and in their use of drugs.
And here, at last, we come to the pivotal factor that created the Beat Gener-ation and all that followed — drugs.
Although the term ’beat’ had originally referred to the hard travelling that to many epitomised the ‘freedoms’ that defined the lifestyle, the term quickly took on a new and distinctly drug-related meaning expressing the ‘beatific’ level of spirituality associated with heightened awareness. Few, however, realised that. For them it defined an attitude, a philosophy. a social position in opposition to society’s main thrust. And, in their droves, the new adherents to Kerouac’s vision and terminology, lined up behind something that seemed like a social phenomenon.
There were a lot of people who did not want to emulate their heroes in the aimless wandering lifestyle they pursued. They were not refugees from the 1930s that had spawned Woody Guthrie and his accolades to unemployment, poverty and railway trains. The older ones had seen

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 . . Moriarty, a speed freak of prodigious habits who careered through the American sub-culture for over 30
years; William Burroughs, the original mackintosh man with delusions of
insect infiltration; poets Gregory Corso and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. And many ‘bit’ players who had not yet disgraced themselves enough to make it to the centre of the stage. (In 1961, a certain Timothy Leary has a ‘walk-on’ in the Kerouac story with a handful of psychedelics.)
Like a secret cabal machinating behind
the throne of straight America, Ker-
ouac’s coterie of unconscious conspir-
ators took the fabric of the society they
so despised and recut it into a suit that fitted a whole lot better. Through years of cultural expansion they provided a focal point for more vocal and more vigorous protagonists to the system as they networked outwards from their original narrow literary base. And on the way they took all the major figures and movements of the last few decades.
Although this is, essentially, a tale set in the second half of the 20th century,
it does not start there. In the science
lab of sociological change, the events we shall be describing constituted an explosive reaction created by simple elements combined in the right prop-
ortion. It was an explosion of such magnitude that it not only made the test tubes rattle but reached to the very foundations of society. It produced a social phenomenon like few others. But such events do not happen without some pretty powerful precipitants. It is no mere coincidence that Kerouac’s text inspired, galvanised and mobilised a whole generation. The conditions were right. And they were conditions that had been established decades before.
In the first parts of this series we look at the factors which created the back-
drop against which our passion play is to be acted. It is a monochromatic story we have to tell, in shades of grey, with the sound of a lonely harmonica playing in the distance. But there will come a point -- trust us -- when, like in the Wizard of Oz, we will switch into glorious technicolor. And will follow the yellow brick road little realising what it is or where it leads.
And all along we’ll be hitching down Freedom Highway.

PLAIN TEXT • TOP OF PAGE
. .
. .The Cast List
.
Lile every major epic, this one has a cast of thousands.
And that is just the featured players. With bit players running
into the hundreds of thousands and the extras into millions,
this is a production like few others. It is amazing what one
can do with no budget but lots of imagination.
A CAST OF THOUSANDS

The famous and the infamous, the saints and the sinners, the good, the bad and the ugly. Here
are just some of the people you will be meeting further on up the road
Charles Baudalaire
 Leading French gunrunner, symbolist
poet and member of the Club des
Hashishins.
 Peter Stafford
 Psychedelic author. His authorative
masterwork, The Psycedelics Encylo-
peadia is invaluable.
John Lennon
 All we are saying is give peace a
chance.
 The CIA
 Where would we be without them.
They certainly have all the best drugs.
Lyndon Johnson
 American President and chief coon
caytcher.
 Hermann Hesse
 Visionary author and manic depress-
ive. More suicides than Sweden.
Jerry Garcia
 Formerly, leader of the Grateful Dead.
Now just dead.
 Robert Kennedy
 JFK's little brother and, as Attorney
general, the real power behind reform.
Alan Watts
 Beat icon, Zen Master.
 Richard Alpert
 Timmo's mate. A Harvard hedonist.
Michael Hollingshead
 The man with the mayonnaise jar.
 Tom Wolfe
 Chronicler of the Kesey Kult.
Leadbelly
 First of the hobo musicians. One of
the most influential negroes ever.
 Humphrey Osmond
 Pioneering psychologist. Came up with
the term 'psychedelic.' Mate of Huxley.
Martin Luther King
 Another pretty influential negro.
 Abbie Hoffman
 Political activiist and Yippie.
Emile Zola
 French author. Another member of
the Club des Hashishins.
 Jim Morrison
 Heir to the French symbolist poets.
Singer with the Doors.
William James
 The religious experiences pick'n'
mix man.
 Robert Crumb
 Cartoonist and commentator. Not the creator of the Fabulous Furry Freaks.
ALbert Hoffman
 St. Albert of Sandoz. The man who really did turn on the world. Robert Heinlein
 A stranger in a strange land. Sci-Fi
author of influence.
Neil Cassady
 It isn't Captain Bloodknock, so it
must be Moriarty. Dean Moriarty.
 Woody Guthrie
 Invented the term 'Hard Travellin'
and then wrote a song about it.
John F. Kennedy
 The man who screwed Monroe and
then got screwed by the CIA.
 Aldous Huxley
 First man to cross the Abyss and write
about it. Patron Saint of Myoptics.
Gary Snyder
 Proto-type beat poet and Zen Master.
 Paul McCartney
 Star of the cartoon, Yellow Submarine.
Gregory Corso
 Proto-type beat poet.
 Neil Armstrong
 A giant leap for mankind. Ooppps.
Timothy Leary
 Who?
 Hunter S. Thompson
 Fear & loathing. Friend of the Angels.
Autaud Rimbaud
 Poet and buddy of Baudalaire and
Zola. Hashish eater.
 Allan Ginsberg
 Poet, pot activist, mystic, visionary
and space cadet. Friend of Kerouac.
Ron L Hubbard
 Meglomanic, delusional space cadet.
Inventor of Scientology.
 Alexander Dumas
 The man who wrote The Count of
Monte Cristo. A hashish eater.
Cisco Houston
 The man in the middle in pictures of
Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly.
 Jimi Hendrix
 Revolutionary guitarist and 60's icon.
responsible for the term 'Foxy Lady.'
Ken Kesey
 Author of 'One Flew Over the
Cuckoos Nest.' Chief Prankster.
 David Soloman
 Pioneering dope activist. Co-author of
The Marijuana Papers. Acid casualty.
Jan Wenner
 'Hi, I'm the Publisher of Rolling Stone'.
 P. D. Ouspenski
 East European mystic and odd person.
Jack Kerouac
 Usually to be found lying in the road
rather than walking down it.		 George Harrison
 If only the Norwegian would maybe the
guitar would stop sobbing . . . .
Michael Lang
 One of the organisers of Woodstock.
 Ralph Metzner
 Leading SF doper and activist.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
 Poet and publisher. Owner of SF's
City Lights Bookshop.
 Anaïs Nin
 Erotic authoress and pioneering acid
user with an unpronouncable name.
Lou Adler
 Record producer/manager and organ-
iser of the Monterey Festival.
 William Burroughs
 The original macintosh man. Author,
smack addict, weird person.
Keith Richards
 The man who taught the world the
true meaning of tastefully wasted.
 Pablo Estobar
 Favourite advertising jingle: 'Things
go better with coke.'
Cary Grant
 Star of stage, screen and therapy
couch. Acid pioneer.
 Fiorello LaGuardia
 Flying into JFK? It used to be
LaGuardia until his drugs report.
Abraham Lincoln
 The President of the USA with the
tallest hat.
 Bill Graham
 Concert promotor. The man who put
SF music on the map.
Jane Fonda
 Henry Fonda's daughter. Anti-war
protester and anarchist.
 Marshall Macluhan
 Visionary and mystic. Inventor of the
geodesic dome.
Sir Humphrey Davy
 The man who had the last laugh.
He discovered nitrous oxide.
 Simon Vinkenoog
 Dutch poet and intellectual. Co-author
of The Marijuana Papers.
Charles Manson
Squeaky Fromme
 Shari Lewis and Lambchop it ain't.
But it is freaky for Squeaky.
 Sonny Terry
Brownie McGee
 The statuatory black guys in photos
of the Guthrie clan.
Joe MacDonald
 Gi' me a 'J,' gi'me an 'O,' gi'me an
'E.' Oh, never mind.
 Yoko Ono
 Oh no, not Yoko. But, yes, it is Yoko
doing what she does best.
Pete Seeger
 Freedom Fighter, communist, folk-
singer and anarchist.
 Richard Nixon
 The man who taught us the truth about
politics and politicians.
Augustus Stanley
...........................Owsley III
 Underground chemist extraordinaire.
The sort of guy we all need to know.
 Ed Rosenthal
Mel Franks
 The guys who helped make grass what
it is today.
Malcome X
 The man who kidnapped Timothy
Leary and tried to sell him to the CIA.
 Tallulah Bankhead
 Early movie star who showed the rich
what to spend their money on.
Honoré Balzac
 French author. Ever heard the phrase:
'What a load of Balzac?'		 Ulysses S. Grant
 He wished he was in Dixie. But instead
he became President of the USA.
John Allegro
 The man who gave magic mushrooms
to Jesus.
 Alexander Shulgin
 For 'e's a jolly good fellow. 'Cause he
gave us Ecstasy.
Frank Zappa
 Influential commentator and musician.
 Andy Warhol
 Extremely weird.
John Hopkins (Hoppy)
 Founder of England's International
Times and leading trendsetter.		 Lenny Bruce
 Comedian. Outrageous but only
because he was sooooo stoned.
Peter Fonda
 Son of Henry Fonda; brother of Jane.
Star of Easy Rider. Marijuana activist.
 Carlos Castenada
 Don Juan, Two, Three and Four.
Didn't those books keep coming?
Harry J. Anslinger
 The man we have to thank for the
criminalisation of cannabis.
 G Gordon Liddy
 Famous as the man who went down
for Watergate, he also busted Leary.
Richard Evans Schultes
 Botanist. One those kind people who
helped us avoid the poisons.
 Barry Miles
 Leading London underground figure.
Manager of the Indica Bookshop.
Gertrude Stein
 German intellectual and brownie eater.
 Eugene MacCarthy
 Damn the 5th Amendment.
Fitz Hugh Ludlow
 Proto-type drug researcher and all
round party guy.
 Caroline Coon
 Founder of Release, the UK drug
support charity, and a nice lady.
John Dunbar
 Husband of Marianne (Un)Faithful
and owner of the Indica gallery.
 Steve Abrams
 UK cannabis activist. Organiser of the
famed leagalise dope ad in The Times.
Booker T. Washington
 Influential negro intellectual and
commentator.
 Max Yasgur
 Owner of the farm where the Wood-
stock Festival was held.
John Sinclair
 Poet and writer. Manager of the MC5.
Marijuana martyr.		 Mick Jagger
 Jumping Jack Flash, it's the man with
child bearing lips.
Hugh Romney
 Better known as Wavy Gravy.
 Marylin Monroe
OK to JFK & most of the Kennedys.
Nick Sand
 Underground chemsist and member
of the Brotherhood of Eternal Love.
 Allen Cohen
 Haight Ashbury activist. Founding
hippy. Publisher of the SF Oracle.
Grace Slick
 Lead singer with Jefferson Airplane
and a leadingHaight Ashbury figure.		 Peter Asher
 Half of singing duo Peter & Gordon.
Confident of the Beatles.
Michael X
 London-based criminal and ararchic
opportunist.
 Emmett Grogan
 Founder of the Diggers and leading
Haight Ashbury figure .
Tariq Ali
 Anarchic communist protester in UK.
 Richard Neville
 Australian publisher of Oz magazine.
Michael Wadleigh
 Another Woodstock organiser.
 Alexis Koerner
 Professional dope smoker & musician.
Napoleon
 Short of stature, tall of ambition.
 Christopher Isherwood
 English writer and mystic.
Jim Haynes
 Founder of the London Arts Lab and
leading mover and shaker.
 Howard Marks
 On your marks, Go. First one home
with a suitcase of hash gets the prize.
Karl Marx
 The man who helped us realise that
self-interest rules.
 Yogananda
 One of the first teachers from India to
cross the bridge. Many followed.
Michael English
 Influential UK designer and hippy.
 Marianne Faithful
 Not quite what the nuns expected.
Robert Mitchum
 Hollywood star. Busted for dope when
dope didn't even exist.
 Suzy Creamcheese
 Crackers? But only a little. Girlfriend
of Hoppy.Made famous by Zappa.
Alice B. Toklas
 Friend of Gertrude Stein. Famed for
her brownies.
 Terrence McKenna
 Explorer of Inner Space. Champion
of the 90s psychedelic explosion.
John Griggs
 Founding member of the Brotherhood
of Eternal Love.
 Jane Ormsby Gore
 Daughter of the British Ambassador
to the US, during JFK's term.
Rosemary Leary
 Mr Leary's most enduring partner.
 Terry Southern
 Hunter S. Thompson goes Dixie.
Peter Orlofsky
 Mr Ginsberg's most enduring partner. Edie Sedgewick
 Empty icon of Warhol's Factory.
Dennis Hopper
 Star of Easy Rider with Peter Fonda.
Also fonda dope.
 Johnny Rotten
 Punk Pioneer. Member of the Sex
Pistols.
Ken Babbs
 Very Merry Prankster.
 Janis Joplin
 Spotty girl makes good.
Sonny Barger
 The first angel from Hell.
 Art Kleps
 The one and only Chief Boo Hoo.
Paul Krassner
 Publisher of The New Realist.
 Chet Helms
 Arch hippy and Family Dog dude.
Stewart Brand
 Visonary and Publisher of the Whole
Earth Catalogue.
 Ashley Brilliant
 Early Haight Ashbury hippy and
commentator. Nice name and it's real.
Sid Vicious
 The second notable gun in the Sex
Pistols holster.
 Bertram Russell
 Peace protester, philosopher, intell-
ectual and libertine.
Jerry Rubin
 Political activist and Yippie.
 Marlon Brando
 Still too slim to be the Godfather.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
 The man who taught us how to get
high without drugs.
 James Dean
 Rebel without a cause but with a very,
very fast car.
Bill Hitchcock
 Leary's patron. The Millbrook heir.
 Brian Jones
 Not a great swimmer.
R. D. Laing
 Britsh psychedelic psycho(ologist.)
 David Bailey
 Photographer and trendsetter.
Errol Flynn
 The biggest . . er . . dilettante in town.
 Dick Gregory
 The black Lenny Bruce.
Jack Moore
 Light show lion and Zappa freak.
 Robert Fraser
 London gallery owner and drug user.
Mick Farren
 A social deviant.
 Germaine Greer
 The sexy lady who invented women.
Harry Fainlight
 Mac-wearing London poet.
 Chris Jagger
 His granny took a trip.
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 TOP OF PAGE

MUSIC THROUGHOUT THIS HISTORY WILL BE PROVIDED BY:
The Doors
The Band
Jefferson Airplane
The Grateful Dead
The Animals
Joan Baez
Bob Dylan
The Rolling Stones
Dion & the Belmonts
Jimi Hendrix
Jefferson Airplane
Cream
The Mamas & the Papas
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Steppenwolf
The Steve Miller Band
The Beach Boys
Paul Butterfield
Elvis Presley
Jerry Lee Lewis
The Beatles
Pink Floyd
Mezz Mezzrow
Donovan
 The Who
Buffalo Springfield
Dizzy Gillespie
Procol Harem
The Mothers of Invention
Country Joe & the Fish
Pete Seeger
Louis Armstrong
Big Brother & the Holding Co.
Lovin’ Spoonful
MC5
Muddy Waters
Blues Incorporated
Bruse Springsteen
The Social Deviants
Miles Davis
Thelonius Monk
Cab Calloway
Neil Young
Jimmy Smith
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Joni Mitchell
The Yardbirds
John Coltrane
 Santana
Sly & the Family Stone
Patti Smith
The Cyril Davis Blues Band
Charlie Parker
The Soft Machine
The Incredible String Band
Herman’s Hermits
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
The Dave Clarke Five
The Kinks
The Sex Pistols
U2
John Lee Hooker
Eric Clapton
The Third Ear Band
Leonard Cohen
Velvet Underground
The Fugs
The Byrds
Scott McKenzie
Captain Beefheart
Moby Grape
Vanilla Fudge
and many, many more.
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