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23.
The Acid Test LP signed by Ken Kesey + rare original promotional poster.
i) The Acid Test. SF: A Sound City Production, nd. (1966). LP record. Front cover psychedelic design in b/w featuring a small photograph of Ken Kesey and Jerry Garcia in the studio, pasted on to a plain white card sleeve. Designer unknown.
This copy has been SIGNED and inscribed on the front cover by Ken Kesey: “my god look its Ken Kesey”. The Acid Test (considered to be the eighth) took place in a recording studio and rehearsal space on Sixth Street in San Francisco on January 29, 1966, a week after the Trips Festival.
Phil Lesh later recalled the occasion: “Kesey had been busted twice in the weeks before the Trips Festival and had been forced to attend incognito, in a silver space suit complete with mirror-visor helmet. Therefore, the very next weekend we held the last Acid Test in San Francisco, at the Sound City Recording Studio, just before Ken split to Mexico. A greater contrast to the cosmic imagasm of the previous week can't be imagined. This was really Pig's night at the Test; usually, when he wasn't onstage, he would retire to a cool place with a bottle, and from there observe the craziness passing by. But tonight, even though he wasn't partaking of the Sacrament, he was holding court in his finest manner, playing acoustic guitar and singing songs with Jerry and other assorted folks. It was the neatest psychedelic jug band scene imaginable, and very warm and inclusive as an environment” (Searching for the Sound, p.75).
Among those present during the session were a photographer from Look magazine, and Owsley Stanley, presumably on hand to supply the requisite acid. The resultant album, the first to be recorded at the studio, was released at the end of March, priced at $5.95. Disc near Mint, with no spindle marks to the label; light corner wear and slight rubbing to the back of the sleeve. Overall, an excellent copy of a scarce record, described by music historian Gene Sculatti as “the first true recorded artyfact of the dawn of the psychedelic era”;
ii) original promotional poster, reproducing the album’s cover art in a larger format. 35.8x35.4cm. This example has had some minor, almost undetectable restoration by an expert paper conservator to fix some small edge tears and pinholes and deacidify the paper, and presents as very Near Fine (some copies were folded in fourths to accompany a 7” DJ radio promo record; this unfolded copy was perhaps destined for display in a record shop).
An exceptionally rare item, and possibly the first to be offered for sale together with the LP record it was intended to promote.
