The Merry Pranksters’ Ken Babbs appeared on the JamBase partner Osiris Media Network’s podcast Comes A Time with Dead & Company bassist Oteil Burbridge and comedian Mike Finoia. The legendary Prankster discussed his early days around Palo Alto, a book he’s working on called Cronies, music and more.
The podcast kicks off with Finoia talking about seeing the Pranksters in 1997 at Phish show at Darien Lake, New York where the Pranksters drove the bus into the lot and also joined Phish on stage, a passing of the torch moment. Oteil and Mike then welcome Babbs and after some banter about famed Deadhead Bill Walton, Babbs talks about the scene around Palo Alto, California around which the Pranksters had their headquarters in La Honda. Palo Alto is also where the Grateful Dead formed. Babbs talks about his fortuitous meeting with Prankster leader Ken Kesey in a writing class at Stanford. He also discusses the Menlo Park cottage row artist community where Kesey lived and where Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann and others began hanging out with what would become The Merry Pranksters.
Babbs also recalls a Halloween party he had in Santa Cruz around 1965 and describes The Merry Pranksters Band philosophy. “We didn’t know any songs,” he said to laughter. “We did a form of music…some kind of connection and exchange, without words. But it was good because we each had to hear what the other was doing and answer that person. Musicians today mostly play their part and don’t pay much attention, I shouldn’t say this about all musicians, but a lot of bands are like this. They play their parts without really paying attention to what the other guys are doing because they know it by heart. But we never knew anything by heart, so we had to listen to each other. This has become the real talent of things when you’re grooving with musicians.”
Babbs then talks about some of the bands he likes to play with and mentions Grateful Dead tribute act Terrapin Flyer with Melvin Seals. “Melvin is the greatest,” Babbs notes. He then says about the Pranksters, “We always go out. We go where nobody has ever been before and we’ve never been before. The Grateful Dead did that with ‘Drums’ and ‘Space.’” Babbs then returns to the Halloween party and describes a moment when the Pranksters went outside to “commune with the moon” and “all the sudden this noise came out of the house. And we went ‘wow, what was that…we went running in and here they all were playing our instruments.” Presumably talking about members of the Grateful Dead.
Additionally, Babbs speaks to the legacy and myth of The Merry Pranksters and the book he’s working on called Cronies. The book begins with Babbs’ meeting with Kesey and ends with his death in 2001. “It covers the adventures we had with [Neal] Cassady and the Pranksetsrs and the Dead and all our friends.” Babbs then remarks that, unbelievably, he can’t find a publisher for the book. “They [the publishing companies] don’t see it as a big seller because they don’t know about us. People in big business don’t know we exist. They don’t know the millions of us out here in this country not participating in any of the cranky, dumb stuff going on. But keeping the spirit alive with our music, our dance and our stories and our behavior to one another. We are a huge army. They don’t know but that’s the audience for my book.”
Babbs goes on to discuss the Pranksters’ run-in with the Hells Angels, Timothy Leary and other groups and figures of the 1960s as well as tells stories aplenty. It’s a fascinating conversation.
Watch the entire Comes A Time podcast with Ken Babbs below:
!function ($) {
window.jb_populate_livestreams_promo = function( $element ) {
let args = $element.attr( ‘data-args’ );
// set up the AJAX post data
var data = {
‘action’: ‘jb_get_livestreams_promo’,
‘args’: args,
‘wpnonce’: $( ‘#jb_livestreams_promo_nonce’ ).val(),
};
console.log( ‘—— jb_populate_livestreams_promo data —–‘ );
console.log( data );
// make the AJAX $_POSTcall
$.ajax({
type: “POST”,
url: ajaxurl,
data: data,
success: function( response ){
if ( true == response.success ){
$element.html(response.data).slideDown(420, function(){
jbSetStreamLocalTimes();
});
// trigger Cloudinary
var evt = window.document.createEvent(‘UIEvents’);
evt.initUIEvent(‘resize’, true, false, window, 0);
window.dispatchEvent(evt);
return;
}else{
console.log(“jb_populate_livestreams_promo – UNSUCCESSFUL”);
console.log(response);
return;
}
},
error: function( response ){
console.log(“jb_populate_livestreams_promo – ERROR”);
console.log(response);
return;
}
});
};
$(function(){
$(‘#livestreams-promo-container’).each( function(){
if( ! jb_livestreams_promo_killswitch ){
jb_populate_livestreams_promo( $(this) );
}else{
$(this).remove();
}
});
});
}(window.jQuery);
.fb-page.fb_iframe_widget{
width:100%!important;
}
.jb-fb-like-box{
border-top: 1px solid #DAE1E8;
border-bottom: 1px solid #DAE1E8;
padding:15px 0;
margin: 15px 0;
text-align:center;
}
.jb-fb-like-box h3{
margin: 0 0 15px;
}
.jb-fb-like-box blockquote{
border:none;
margin-top: 15px;
}
.single-article-simplified .article-content .jb-fb-like-box:last-child{
border-bottom:none;
padding-bottom: 0;
}
