Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out

Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=33327

Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out | Timothy Leary | ESP Disk (2009)

By Raul d'Gama Rose
Published: July 05, 2009

The historic Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out is not to be confused with
the synonymously titled musical recording that infamous '60s "tune
in, drop out" spokesperson Timothy Leary also did for ESP Disk. That
disc consisted of narrated meditation by Leary mixed in with
psychedelic rock music played on the veena, an Indian drone
instrument, by Maryvonne Giercerz, along with guitarist Lars Eric and
tablaist Richard Bond. That recording is rather a guided tour of
mind-expanding meditation; this record, engineered by renowned
classical pianist and engineering aficionado David Hancock, is purely
spoken word. While it inevitably touches upon the acid trip
(Professor Leary's core experiment), essentially in "The Taking of
LSD," there is much more historic and informative material included.
It was recorded at the legendary Castalia Foundation in Millbrook,
near Poughkeepsie, New York­a property made available to Leary by
Peggy, Bill and Tommy Hitchcock, heirs to the Mellon fortune.

Leary sets out to define his audience­not that this was necessary at
that time­but the raison d'être for all his experiments was to change
society in ways he thought would reform capitalist society. So he
specifically addresses American youth 25 years or younger­certainly,
he says, younger than 40 years old. Leary narrates in a flat, almost
uniformly calm tone­not hypnotic­but definitely suggestive of
meditation. "There is a Red Chimney" introduces Millbrook and weaves
in symbology by drawing attention to the chimney stack which has an
ancient Vishnu, the sustainer-of-life god. Part One sets the tone and
scene for the Leary philosophy that believed the human mind could be
constructively expanded by using certain hallucinogenic drugs.

Significantly, Leary, although armed with a Ph.D., considered himself
a spiritual person, an appropriation he acquired after a
mind-expanding trip to Mexico described with lucid ecstasy on "The
Taking of LSD." However in using that flat tone in the narration,
Leary ultimately ends up giving this track merely historical value.
"Sensory Paradise" narrates a hilarious story of a policeman who was
a marijuana advocate, inviting Leary to further seek mind expansion
on his family's estate. "Elevation of Human Consciousness," sets up
Leary's experiments to follow­a breakaway from the symbology of the
tribal societal systems into a newer, mind-expanded new symbology of
elevated human consciousness.

Part Two of the recording focuses on the new, post-LSD psychedelic
world. "Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out," comes from a phrase coined by
Leary when Marshall McLuhan told him that he should have a snappy
slogan to promote LSD. The reality was­for Leary­more a question of
breaking anatomical structures through mind expansion. Using his
Spiritual Teacher avatar, Leary linked the elevation of the mind to
altered states "Within the Temple of your Human Body." This is a
remarkable document even today, long after the era when people
seriously sought a chemically-aided expansion of the mind had come and gone.

Visit Timothy Leary on the web.
http://deoxy.org/leary.htm

Track listing: Part One: A Message to Young People; Castalia
Foundation; There's a Red Chimney; An Ancient Trade Union; Not an
Idle Fantasy; The Taking of LSD; Sensory Paradise; Why Is It?; Early
in the Life of Every Mammal; My Problem; Elevation of Human
Consciousness. Part Two: The Oldest Law; Psychochemical Revolution;
Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out; Within The Temple of Your Body; Our
Present Adult Culture; The Aspect of Marijuana; Training and
Sensitivity Required; Lesson Number One; Every Baby That Is Born;
Every Time; One Final Word.

Personnel: Timothy Leary PH.D: Spoken word.

Style: Lounge/Exotica

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