A Long, Strange Trip Through the CounterCulture
August 16, 2024
Ken Babbs and Ken Kesey, from the cover of Cronies.
We are fast losing the proto-counterculture folks who came on the scene between the Beats and the Hippies. Many cultural changes happened between the early ‘60s and the later ‘60s and many who are now in their 80s or have already walked on were instrumental in it all.
I really started thinking about this when I was sitting by myself on the dock in the early morning after my 75th Birthday contemplating the State of the Universe, when I got a text message (talk about changes). It was from my Flint pal Jon Care who informed me of the passing of our Flint pal/hero/brother John Sinclair. I knew it was coming, given John’s ailments and age (82), but one is never ready for it. John and I even had plans to get together at his place in Detroit this summer.
I’ve always been a member of and promoter of the Counterculture era. I think the positive, never going back, changes it brought on are not given the historical respect they deserve. The many characters who helped create the changes get even less historical respect.
We cannot let the great movement for Peace, Racial Justice, Women’s Rights, Environmental Protection and the rejection of the unsustainable, soul-deadening Consumerism lifestyle and those who championed it all from the beginning be forgotten, as the original cadre passes on.
Some seminal literary works are out there. Starting with Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” James Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time,” Tom Wolfe’s “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” John Sinclair’s “Guitar Army” is also a must read.
Some later writers have also done a good job at explaining it all. There is Mark Vonnegut’s “The Eden Express.” And, I really like Ron Jacobs’ “Daydream Sunset” which delves into the era’s later years.
OK, I’ll get to the point. I just finished reading Ken Babbs’ “Cronies: Adventuress with Ken Kesey, Neal Cassady, The Merry Pranksters and the Grateful Dead.”
First off: let’s get this out of the way. As you can tell from the title, it is pretty much a chronicle of a Boys Club. And yes, that could be a critique. But in a way, that was part of the era. There are women involved in Babbs’ book and they are very much crucial to everyone’s exploits and Counterculture values. And it would be nice to hear more first-hand accounts from them about their experiences in the movement. There clearly is a missing part to the overall literature, though Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo’s “Daughters of Aquarius: Women of the Sixties Counterculture” and Judy Gumbo’s “Yippie Girl” do address it. And, Leni Sinclair’s photo documenting of the era contains many prominent women.
Ken Babbs met Ken Kesey through Wallace Stegner’s Stanford writing class in 1958. That began the two Kens’ lifelong friendship and years of high jinks. The book first chronicles first-hand the same territory covered in Electric Kool-Aid –the 1964 cross-country trip on Kesey’s 1939 International bus named Furthur. (And yes, I consider “Cronies” a better accounting of that bus trip).
It then covers numerous seminal events from Woodstock and other big music festivals; to the fantastic bus side trip to “Madhattan” and the one to Tim Leary and Richard Alpert/Ram Dass’ outpost in Millbrook, NY; to the movies of Kesey’s great books; to the Hell’s Angels – “We don’t 
choose them (members). We just recognize them.” – to Anti-war Rallies; to Kesey’s “Suicide,” pot busts and jail time; to the Weather Underground springing Tim Leary from prison and the Black Panthers then putting him under house arrest; to the Acid Tests and touring with the Grateful Dead…
We get Kesey’s assessments of the movies of his books (I agree with Ken); as well as, “Sometimes a Great Notion’s” director/dtar Paul Newman’s take on it and his hilarious, endearing antics along the Oregon Coast while filming it.
(An aside: Newman told us he agreed to narrate the excellent 1989 Audubon Special “Rage Over Trees” that focused on our efforts to protect Ancient Forests, primarily Opal Creek, because of the “forest devastation” he witnessed during the filming. We may never have saved Opal Creek without it. Big Timber got so upset that they caused the TV advertisers to pull out. That pissed off Ted Turner so much that he showed it six times with only TBS ads and he then gave it to PBS to show!)
In addition to those mentioned, the cast of characters includes a roster of Counterculture luminaries: Neal Cassady is the primary one, Allen Ginsburg, Wavy Gravy (and how BB King is responsible for his name change), Larry McMurtry, Wendell Berry, Bob Weir, Jerry Garcia, Pigpen, Phil Lesh, Mountain Girl, Jack Kerouac, Bill Walton, Sonny Barger, Kirk Douglas, Hunter S. Thompson and many other Pranksters.
Babbs had the benefit of hundreds of hours of film and tape, as they had filmed and recorded everything. He also has some great editors. So the book is full of direct quotes (and some likely just made up from memory). He chronicles the many attempts (still on-going) to condense all the tapes into a movie.
Babbs was a very good college basketball player (our pal Jerry Rust tells a hilarious story of the gang once playing against and getting clobbered by the Red Army team before a huge crowd in China). Babbs was also a Marine Captain Helicopter Pilot in Vietnam. From there he got on the bus and the rest is history – a history that he brilliantly shares herein.
I have met and befriended a number of the cast of characters over the years. I consider most to be heroes, as well. And, I feel that Ken is very fair-minded in his presentations of them all.
I highly recommend this 513-page book. I put “Cronies” at the top of Counterculture memoirs. One can get it through: https://www.tsunamibooks.org/
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