Without the illusion, without the myth, all that's left is the despair. Suffering is the great equalizer. With hopelessness comes surrender, and from there everything is provided.
I had a boy but when I was pregnant if I had a girl her name was going to be Cassady Mckenna lol. I thought up that name years ago and still if I have a daughter that's going to be her name. Unfortunately I couldn't think of anything I liked that was Grateful Dead related for a boy ,so no my son is not named Casey Jones 😂 though I was half tempted.
@@MarkAtkinson1968 Your jealous. stfu you little shit. The Dead have garnered critical acclaim by musicians of every genre. You don't know what your talking about. So stfu. And if you want to tell me what you think in person, I'll give you directions, you irrelevant, puny, imbecile. Your talking about a man who's been dead for over twenty-five years. But a year after your dead no one will even remember your name. You are jealous. lol
This puts me in even greater awe of Jerry. He was on a different level of existence, and so full of good cheer. And so open to experience. Neal Cassady would have been too much for me, but not Jerry. He loved such characters.
I was watching some more recent interviews with Bob and he absolutely struck me in the same way. He even mentioned that Jerry often comes to him in his dreams and he shared one of them where he said Jerry brought him a jazz ballad to show him and it entered the room like a big ol shaggy dog! I think these fellas just spent so much time diving into their art that their entire perception was sorta built with their artistic sensibilities in mind, I definitely think we still have so much that we could learn from them!
@@currentriver4951 Yeah, like a speed-ball driven Santa Claus, wasn't too jolly down the road... People really have selective perception & confirmation bias regarding Jerry which was a denial & enabling thing, nearly everyone HELPED him die way too young but he wasn't 1 of the 27 Club either. Ultimately it was on himself. Fukn' sad, but never a hero for me, by my 30s the musician as role model, hero, THE guy to follow was over.
I love Jerry's stories about Neal. The video footage here was also excellent. Without having done any of the normal kinds of things people are remembered for, Cassady stands up as one of the more memorable figures of the 20th century.
Jerry said onetime that if you had a flat tire in the middle of nowhere neal would be the one to show up and hand you a cold beer a joint and a lug wrench if you think about it that's the perfect epitaph
I was scanning and I thought about all the people surrounded by The Grateful Dead and I thought about the crazy story that Jerry said about the driving incident going down the hills at ninety miles an hour and there is this video the next one I scrolled to
Early years Cassady was born to Maude Jean (Scheuer) and Neal Marshall Cassady in Salt Lake City, Utah.[3] His mother died when he was 10, and he was raised by his alcoholic father in Denver, Colorado. Cassady spent much of his youth either living on the streets of skid row, with his father, or in reform school. As a youth, Cassady was repeatedly involved in petty crime. He was arrested for car theft when he was 14, for shoplifting and car theft when he was 15, and for car theft and fencing stolen property when he was 16. In 1941, the 15-year-old Cassady met Justin W. Brierly, a prominent Denver educator.[4] Brierly was well known as a mentor of promising young men and was impressed by Cassady's intelligence. Over the next few years, Brierly took an active role in Cassady's life. Brierly helped admit Cassady to East High School where he taught Cassady as a student, encouraged and supervised his reading, and found employment for him. Cassady continued his criminal activities, however, and was repeatedly arrested from 1942 to 1944; on at least one of these occasions, he was released by law enforcement into Brierly's safekeeping. In June 1944, Cassady was arrested for possession of stolen goods and served 11 months of a one-year prison sentence. Brierly and he actively exchanged letters during this period, even through Cassady's intermittent incarcerations; this correspondence represents Cassady's earliest surviving letters.[5] Brierly is also believed to have been responsible for Cassady's first homosexual experience.[6] Personal life See caption 1944 Denver mug shot of Cassady In October 1945, after being released from prison, Cassady married 16-year-old Lu Anne Henderson.[7] In 1946, the couple traveled to New York City to visit their friend, Hal Chase, another protégé of Brierly's. While visiting Chase at Columbia University, Cassady met Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.[8] Although Cassady did not attend Columbia, he soon became friends with them and their acquaintances, some of whom later became members of the Beat Generation. While in New York, Cassady persuaded Kerouac to teach him to write fiction. Cassady's second wife, Carolyn, has stated, "Neal, having been raised in the slums of Denver amongst the world's lost men, [was] determined to make more of himself, to become somebody, to be worthy and respected. His genius mind absorbed every book he could find, whether literature, philosophy, or science. Jack had a formal education, which Neal envied, but intellectually he was more than a match for Jack, and they enjoyed long discussions on every subject."[9] Carolyn Robinson met Cassady in 1947, while she was studying for her master's in theater arts at the University of Denver.[10] Five weeks after Lu Anne's departure, Neal got an annulment from Lu Anne and married Carolyn, on April 1, 1948. Carolyn's book, Off the Road: Twenty Years with Cassady, Kerouac and Ginsberg (1990), details her marriage to Cassady and recalls him as, "the archetype of the American Man".[11] Cassady's sexual relationship with Ginsberg lasted off and on for the next 20 years.[12] During this period, Cassady worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad and kept in touch with his "Beat" acquaintances, even as they became increasingly different philosophically. The couple eventually had three children and settled down in a ranch house in Monte Sereno, California, 50 miles south of San Francisco, where Kerouac and Ginsberg sometimes visited.[13] This home, built in 1954 with money from a settlement from Southern Pacific Railroad for a train-related accident, was demolished in August 1997.[14] In 1950, Cassady entered into a bigamous marriage with Diane Hansen, a young model who was pregnant with his child, Curtis Hansen.[15] Cassady traveled cross-country with both Kerouac and Ginsberg on multiple occasions, including the trips documented in Kerouac's On the Road. Role of drugs Following an arrest in 1958 for offering to share a small amount of marijuana with an undercover agent at a San Francisco nightclub, Cassady served a two-year sentence at California's San Quentin State Prison in Marin County. After his release in June 1960, he struggled to meet family obligations, and Carolyn divorced him when his parole period expired in 1963. Carolyn stated that she was looking to relieve Cassady of the burden of supporting a family, but "this was a mistake and removed the last pillar of his self-esteem".[16] After the divorce, in 1963, Cassady shared an apartment with Allen Ginsberg and Beat poet Charles Plymell, at 1403 Gough Street, San Francisco. Cassady first met author Ken Kesey during the summer of 1962; he eventually became one of the Merry Pranksters, a group that formed around Kesey in 1964, who were vocal proponents of the use of psychedelic drugs. Travels and death During 1964, Cassady served as the main driver of the bus named Furthur on the iconic first half of the journey from San Francisco to New York, which was immortalized by Tom Wolfe's book, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968). Cassady appears at length in a documentary film about the Merry Pranksters and their cross-country trip, Magic Trip (2011), directed by Alex Gibney. In January 1967, Cassady traveled to Mexico with fellow prankster George "Barely Visible" Walker and Cassady's longtime girlfriend Anne Murphy. In a beachside house just south of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, they were joined by Barbara Wilson and Walter Cox. All-night storytelling, speed drives in Walker's Lotus Elan, and the use of LSD made for a classic Cassady performance - "like a trained bear," Carolyn Cassady once said. Cassady was beloved for his ability to inspire others to love life, yet at rare times he was known to express regret over his wild life, especially as it affected his family. At one point, Cassady took Cox, then 19, aside and told him: "[T]wenty years of fast living - there's just not much left, and my kids are all screwed up. Don't do what I have done."[citation needed] During the next year, Cassady's life became less stable, and the pace of his travels more frenetic. He left Mexico in May, traveling to San Francisco, Denver, New York City, and points in between. Cassady then returned to Mexico in September and October (stopping in San Antonio, on the way to visit his oldest daughter, who had just given birth to his first grandchild), visited Ken Kesey's Oregon farm in December, and spent the New Year with Carolyn at a friend's house near San Francisco. Finally, in late January 1968, Cassady returned to Mexico once again. On February 3, 1968, Cassady attended a wedding party in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico. After the party, he went walking along a railroad track to reach the next town, but passed out in the cold and rainy night wearing nothing but a T-shirt and jeans. In the morning, he was found in a coma by the tracks, reportedly by Anton Black, later a professor at El Paso Community College, who carried Cassady over his shoulders to the local post office building. Cassady was then transported to the closest hospital, where he died a few hours later on February 4, four days short of his 42nd birthday. The exact cause of Cassady's death remains uncertain. Those who attended the wedding party confirm that he took an unknown quantity of secobarbital, a powerful barbiturate sold under the brand name Seconal.
...a sad but somewhat poetic ending beside the RR tracks...always on the road, on the train, on the bus. I was gonna also say "speed kills", but in this case it was booze and Seconals.
This is fantastic! Just yesterday at Christmas family dinner when I saw the picture I had taken of my brother 43 years ago, reading On The Road. Little did I know that in 3 years' time he would lend it to me. I gave it a try, and like so many 17-year-olds in the world, it struck some unknown part of my soul. To this day, it remains my favorite book ever. And this just pops up in my suggestion box. Thanks for the upload.
I was part of that generation, about five years behind, but I experienced the LSD transformation of consciousness while in my teens. I was a big reader and musician so was aware of Neal from many angles. He was the original free spirit to which the beats and later the hippies aspired. And yet I sensed he was never really one of them. Today we would probably call him a narcissist and that might be too judgmental. For better or worse he was his own man, few can say this. I wish I had known him but would not have relied on him. And he would have been cool with that I think.
I reckon today's people could benefit a great deal from reading a bit more. Print is still alive, albeit close to life support, but I think there's something important about that physical type.
There was a method to their madness. Absurdity is being numb to war and nuclear holocaust. After the Cuban missile crisis that threat became very real. And their rejection of a society that would normalize the apocalypse was the only mature thing to do. Were you alive then, waiting for your draft number to come up? Vietnam, the Cold-War, etc.? Think about it. Peace.
Why come here to hate on somebody who is gone because of their addictions? Most people I know are addicts, they habitually use crutches of various kinds that help keep them comfortable (and sane, perhaps) despite these things holding them back from coming closer to their true selves and long term goals. Cassidy was a great person, maybe not the best friend or husband or father, but a good person who inspired many great artists, who in turn inspired half a generation that started a whole new culture, based on unconditional love, non violence, community and freedom. He was no average “speed freak” - but that is obvious to anyone who knows anything about that era. How many speed freaks have left behind a legacy like Neal Cassidy’s? And that’s saying nothing of his horrible childhood. I feel sorry for people who are so hurt inside that they have to put their negative feelings and energy out into the world in such an unproductive and hurtful way.
Maybe so, Neal was quite a bit older than Jerry. He probably did look up to him back in the mid 60s. They were on the same trip. Maybe Neal admired Jerry too for his talent. A little of each I guess😄
What beautiful stories. I really wish I could have been a part of that 60's counter culture. Seems like it would have been the best time ever, but I wasn't born until the 70's.
I'm 5 minutes into this and I have to say, can you imagine what it would have been like to hang out with Jerry Garcia and Neal Cassidy at the same time. The way Jerry tells the story so stream of consistence is amazing.
Extraordinary. You can learn about life from a man who is multi-facited and connected like the rest of the human race would be years afterwards. He is an example of trend setting like no other. The only thing I could think is NC a lion or the softer side of tenderness? A lion would caress his own kind? A tender man would oblige someone in need. Is he a muse because I wrote with JK and the Beats in mind before finding my truest voice. He is better. He is a teacher and inspirer. A stepping stone.
I think I was 17 and read Kool Aid Acid Test and Cuckoo's Nest and On the Road in the same summer and wanted to be Neal Cassady. I didn't have a driver's license yet and couldn't juggle but that wasn't going to stop me.
We did, I in 1974. You might want to read Dharma Bums too. (And as soon as it is published. The Last Adventures of an American Hippie. ) Stay strong. Peace.
Probably not... he probably would have still been a character, but I think the energy came from speed. I’m just curious how many car accidents that man got into!
Kesey thought he could have lived to be an old man if he stopped using speed and moved to oregon where he was where there were people who would love him and understood him. How long can you go on speed and insanity without some help?
I used to think this shit was so cool as I followed the Dead as a teenager way before UA-cam I even had a Neal Cassidy t shirt I bought in the upper Haight back in the day, but as an adult now who’s kids are grown I find stories of Neal’s antics less impressive and more reckless, sad, and pathetic. If he hit and killed a child or woman with a stroller no one would be laughing but by the grace of God & pure luck he didn’t we are supposed to idealize him. Idk maybe I’m turning into a boomer but nothing about Neal is as impressive to me as it was decades ago after reading On the Road etc
I recall this (paraphrasing of course) from the Electric Kool Aide Acid Test, Tom Wolfe said Neal Cassidy would flip a hand axe, for hours on end. Cassidy's way of staying in shape. Neal probably had other reasons for doing it.
Guess you had to be there. Seemed kinda crazy. Would I sit in a bus with Neal driving? No. Damn, I would have missed out. Why doesn't he wear a shirt? Because he had a pretty tight body, I would understand that . Plus he was on acid, on acid, and he drove like a maniac yak yak. He was a free living man, and he passed away like one. Would like to know what the rest of his life would have been like had he lived a few more decades.
Thats true, thats how he died. The rumour is he died of a heart attack on a railroad track in Mexico. Or that he died from low blood pressure, and subsequent respiratory failure, brought about after eating Seconal ( a barbiturate) on top of Tequila to bring himself down from a five day amphetamine binge. But although all these vectors are plausible it is more likely that he died from liver failure from years of abusing uppers and downers and alcohol. Thats how all giants go, by their own hand. Like so many other things, Amphetamine poisoning destroys the liver. RIP Cowboy Neal.
Just realized my dad was born in 1926. Both of Irish descent but two more different persons you couldn't imagine - dad a buttoned down engineer, Neil a Merry Prankster.
I keep hearing such amazing things about the guy and his history, but every time I check out films and recordings of him, he doesn't live up to it all.
Jerry said it best...he WAS the art...like reading about the Mona Lisa...just ain’t the same as seeing the REAL thing...in short it was his charismatic uniqueness that made him such an icon.
I'm trying to think who besides Cassady was a living link between the Beat Generation (from its beginnings) and the Hippies (right through their peak). Maybe Ginsberg. I didn't know who Dean Moriarty actually was till 1968 when Tom Wolfe's book about the Merry Pranksters was published.
@Doug Richardson Amen! As a teen around 1964 I only became aware of Dylan when I realized how many of the songs I liked by Joan Baez, Peter Paul and Mary and The Byrds were written by him. Then I heard "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" and I was hooked. Dylan provided the soundtrack for my personal/spiritual/political awakening through the next decade or so and what a trip it's been...
@@davidfradin4625 I wouldn't go so far as to include Garcia. Being a teenager he was old enough to be influenced by the Beat scene but too young to have deep roots in that milieu. He did read Kerouac as a teen and the Beats certainly helped make him who he became.
@@dontaylor7315 yeah, Jerry was a little bit on the young side to be part of the beats, but he certainly was well aware of them and identified with them. Hunter too, and they carried it forward.
Watching Jerry Garcia interviews you can see why he was the most admired member of the band. Bobby got the girls and Jerry got the fans. RIP my friend.
Your "Nah" is meaningless. And idiotic. The rest of your statement's fine. Although I doubt you're in any position to make such pronouncements. Perhaps a biographer or doctor is.
Thank you for sharing this. That deserved a subsription. Cowboy Neal was at the wheel of a bus to never-ever land. I got on the bus, in 1967, and in 1972, thats when it all began. If you have any more of this interview please upload it for posterities sake. Jerry is God. LSD saves. NFA. 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 ooopps! Better get some sleep. Peace.
You know what I mean...Neil Cassady best stand up comedian. Riiiight....these guys were so stoned they were easily influenced...you know. Hippies. Jeez. That was the most incoherent interview...you know what I mean.
@@davidfradin4625 "Wow man I mean like, you know?" How many times did we hear that back in the day? 😂 I knew some very articulate people in the 60s, and then again there were some who just weren't very verbal. Quite often the latter were musicians. Intelligent, talented, but not articulate verbally.
Jerry was such a great storyteller.
Jerry tells this story beautifully. Neal and Jerry are all the more real for it.
The mythology around Cassidy is astounding.
CASSADY
"Never put his eyes on the road ever" ha ha
Yeah I got away with that for 15 yrs. & then stop 🛑 b4.....
Jerry Garcia we need you man
Without the illusion, without the myth, all that's left is the despair. Suffering is the great equalizer. With hopelessness comes surrender, and from there everything is provided.
Brings to mind Keith Moon. l think there's a Jerry story about Keith Moon in the room next door at a NYC hotel. Off the hook hilarious!
Awesomeness
Jerry and that gang are like adult children that never grew up, never wanted to grow up, why should any of us grow up? Makes me sad I grew up.
“Born to Be”
{🔥}:=}
I had a boy but when I was pregnant if I had a girl her name was going to be Cassady Mckenna lol. I thought up that name years ago and still if I have a daughter that's going to be her name. Unfortunately I couldn't think of anything I liked that was Grateful Dead related for a boy ,so no my son is not named Casey Jones 😂 though I was half tempted.
I'm glad you didn't name him Ripple.
I named my boy Cassady.
old dean moriarty
This clip is from some documentary???
No. This is taken from an interview with Jerry called "The History Of Rock and Roll". The video/photos of Neal etc. were added by me
@@jonbonner5734 Thx
"He had this thing, you know?" Nope, I don't.
im him
He was a time travler or lived on 4th demension
Garcia: No melodies or hits. Stoner. Nice guy, though.
hit's aren't important when you can play guitar like Jerry did.
@@patriceripley3067 Meandering solos that never went anywhere. Stoner freak hippy dippy douchebag.
I'm surprised as a heron addict, he can even talk, he can't sing, write or play guitar
Your an idiot
So why did u watch the video?
Agreed. I can't think of many bands that are as objectively crappy as the Grateful Dead.
@@MarkAtkinson1968 Your jealous. stfu you little shit. The Dead have garnered critical acclaim by musicians of every genre. You don't know what your talking about. So stfu. And if you want to tell me what you think in person, I'll give you directions, you irrelevant, puny, imbecile. Your talking about a man who's been dead for over twenty-five years. But a year after your dead no one will even remember your name. You are jealous. lol
You mean the bird? What did he do to be addicted to herons?
That's far out man!
Find yourself somebody who talks about you the way Jerry Garcia talks about Neal Cassidy
Neal Cassady was a speed freak who died at 41. No thanks!
@@svonkie missed the joke fam
@@svonkie 41, but immortal
@@svonkie he didn't mean it that way you idiot
I don't think that'll be possible for me. Or most others.
The Kool Aid Acid Test was one of the most entertaining books I've ever read
Good, but great FOR IT'S TIME.
That Neal cat could drive, man…
On the road is my favorite book of all time. Acid test is 3rd fav book. I liked Neal’s antics more in on the road too
@@marcsalzman8082 just great.
the cosmic village drunk, perfect
This puts me in even greater awe of Jerry. He was on a different level of existence, and so full of good cheer. And so open to experience. Neal Cassady would have been too much for me, but not Jerry. He loved such characters.
I was watching some more recent interviews with Bob and he absolutely struck me in the same way. He even mentioned that Jerry often comes to him in his dreams and he shared one of them where he said Jerry brought him a jazz ballad to show him and it entered the room like a big ol shaggy dog! I think these fellas just spent so much time diving into their art that their entire perception was sorta built with their artistic sensibilities in mind, I definitely think we still have so much that we could learn from them!
That is one twitchy dude, tell ya that. Half of that "physical comedy" was the hilarious effects of speed!
He could go long before that trip.
Neal at the wheel
".....cowboy Neal, at the wheel..." is how the song goes:)
@@williamjc7195 bus to never ever land!!!
Coming around y'all
Love listening to Jerry talk and tell stories.
Amen
@@jeffchristianson-ziebell7727 such a jolly person in interviews!!!
@@currentriver4951 Yeah, like a speed-ball driven Santa Claus, wasn't too jolly down the road... People really have selective perception & confirmation bias regarding Jerry which was a denial & enabling thing, nearly everyone HELPED him die way too young but he wasn't 1 of the 27 Club either. Ultimately it was on himself.
Fukn' sad, but never a hero for me, by my 30s the musician as role model, hero,
THE guy to follow was over.
I love Jerry's stories about Neal. The video footage here was also excellent. Without having done any of the normal kinds of things people are remembered for, Cassady stands up as one of the more memorable figures of the 20th century.
Me too, maybe because pill skeeds, or spill keeds, dill speeks, deek spills..........? The power of amphetamine.
He's Gone. Sigh......!
@@stefanschleps8758 Skill peeds!
that was the basis of his energy and persona...speed
Jerry said onetime that if you had a flat tire in the middle of nowhere neal would be the one to show up and hand you a cold beer a joint and a lug wrench if you think about it that's the perfect epitaph
amen, brotha
Beautiful
They all took us "Further" down the path of Life.
Way Further!!!!
I was scanning and I thought about all the people surrounded by The Grateful Dead and I thought about the crazy story that Jerry said about the driving incident going down the hills at ninety miles an hour and there is this video the next one I scrolled to
A legend talking about another legend
Early years
Cassady was born to Maude Jean (Scheuer) and Neal Marshall Cassady in Salt Lake City, Utah.[3] His mother died when he was 10, and he was raised by his alcoholic father in Denver, Colorado. Cassady spent much of his youth either living on the streets of skid row, with his father, or in reform school.
As a youth, Cassady was repeatedly involved in petty crime. He was arrested for car theft when he was 14, for shoplifting and car theft when he was 15, and for car theft and fencing stolen property when he was 16.
In 1941, the 15-year-old Cassady met Justin W. Brierly, a prominent Denver educator.[4] Brierly was well known as a mentor of promising young men and was impressed by Cassady's intelligence. Over the next few years, Brierly took an active role in Cassady's life. Brierly helped admit Cassady to East High School where he taught Cassady as a student, encouraged and supervised his reading, and found employment for him. Cassady continued his criminal activities, however, and was repeatedly arrested from 1942 to 1944; on at least one of these occasions, he was released by law enforcement into Brierly's safekeeping. In June 1944, Cassady was arrested for possession of stolen goods and served 11 months of a one-year prison sentence. Brierly and he actively exchanged letters during this period, even through Cassady's intermittent incarcerations; this correspondence represents Cassady's earliest surviving letters.[5] Brierly is also believed to have been responsible for Cassady's first homosexual experience.[6]
Personal life
See caption
1944 Denver mug shot of Cassady
In October 1945, after being released from prison, Cassady married 16-year-old Lu Anne Henderson.[7] In 1946, the couple traveled to New York City to visit their friend, Hal Chase, another protégé of Brierly's. While visiting Chase at Columbia University, Cassady met Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.[8] Although Cassady did not attend Columbia, he soon became friends with them and their acquaintances, some of whom later became members of the Beat Generation. While in New York, Cassady persuaded Kerouac to teach him to write fiction. Cassady's second wife, Carolyn, has stated, "Neal, having been raised in the slums of Denver amongst the world's lost men, [was] determined to make more of himself, to become somebody, to be worthy and respected. His genius mind absorbed every book he could find, whether literature, philosophy, or science. Jack had a formal education, which Neal envied, but intellectually he was more than a match for Jack, and they enjoyed long discussions on every subject."[9]
Carolyn Robinson met Cassady in 1947, while she was studying for her master's in theater arts at the University of Denver.[10] Five weeks after Lu Anne's departure, Neal got an annulment from Lu Anne and married Carolyn, on April 1, 1948. Carolyn's book, Off the Road: Twenty Years with Cassady, Kerouac and Ginsberg (1990), details her marriage to Cassady and recalls him as, "the archetype of the American Man".[11] Cassady's sexual relationship with Ginsberg lasted off and on for the next 20 years.[12]
During this period, Cassady worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad and kept in touch with his "Beat" acquaintances, even as they became increasingly different philosophically.
The couple eventually had three children and settled down in a ranch house in Monte Sereno, California, 50 miles south of San Francisco, where Kerouac and Ginsberg sometimes visited.[13] This home, built in 1954 with money from a settlement from Southern Pacific Railroad for a train-related accident, was demolished in August 1997.[14] In 1950, Cassady entered into a bigamous marriage with Diane Hansen, a young model who was pregnant with his child, Curtis Hansen.[15]
Cassady traveled cross-country with both Kerouac and Ginsberg on multiple occasions, including the trips documented in Kerouac's On the Road.
Role of drugs
Following an arrest in 1958 for offering to share a small amount of marijuana with an undercover agent at a San Francisco nightclub, Cassady served a two-year sentence at California's San Quentin State Prison in Marin County. After his release in June 1960, he struggled to meet family obligations, and Carolyn divorced him when his parole period expired in 1963. Carolyn stated that she was looking to relieve Cassady of the burden of supporting a family, but "this was a mistake and removed the last pillar of his self-esteem".[16]
After the divorce, in 1963, Cassady shared an apartment with Allen Ginsberg and Beat poet Charles Plymell, at 1403 Gough Street, San Francisco.
Cassady first met author Ken Kesey during the summer of 1962; he eventually became one of the Merry Pranksters, a group that formed around Kesey in 1964, who were vocal proponents of the use of psychedelic drugs.
Travels and death
During 1964, Cassady served as the main driver of the bus named Furthur on the iconic first half of the journey from San Francisco to New York, which was immortalized by Tom Wolfe's book, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968). Cassady appears at length in a documentary film about the Merry Pranksters and their cross-country trip, Magic Trip (2011), directed by Alex Gibney.
In January 1967, Cassady traveled to Mexico with fellow prankster George "Barely Visible" Walker and Cassady's longtime girlfriend Anne Murphy. In a beachside house just south of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, they were joined by Barbara Wilson and Walter Cox. All-night storytelling, speed drives in Walker's Lotus Elan, and the use of LSD made for a classic Cassady performance - "like a trained bear," Carolyn Cassady once said. Cassady was beloved for his ability to inspire others to love life, yet at rare times he was known to express regret over his wild life, especially as it affected his family. At one point, Cassady took Cox, then 19, aside and told him: "[T]wenty years of fast living - there's just not much left, and my kids are all screwed up. Don't do what I have done."[citation needed]
During the next year, Cassady's life became less stable, and the pace of his travels more frenetic. He left Mexico in May, traveling to San Francisco, Denver, New York City, and points in between. Cassady then returned to Mexico in September and October (stopping in San Antonio, on the way to visit his oldest daughter, who had just given birth to his first grandchild), visited Ken Kesey's Oregon farm in December, and spent the New Year with Carolyn at a friend's house near San Francisco. Finally, in late January 1968, Cassady returned to Mexico once again.
On February 3, 1968, Cassady attended a wedding party in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico. After the party, he went walking along a railroad track to reach the next town, but passed out in the cold and rainy night wearing nothing but a T-shirt and jeans. In the morning, he was found in a coma by the tracks, reportedly by Anton Black, later a professor at El Paso Community College, who carried Cassady over his shoulders to the local post office building. Cassady was then transported to the closest hospital, where he died a few hours later on February 4, four days short of his 42nd birthday.
The exact cause of Cassady's death remains uncertain. Those who attended the wedding party confirm that he took an unknown quantity of secobarbital, a powerful barbiturate sold under the brand name Seconal.
...a sad but somewhat poetic ending beside the RR tracks...always on the road, on the train, on the bus. I was gonna also say "speed kills", but in this case it was booze and Seconals.
Burned the candle a little too bright and hot for a long life,all bright stars flame out.
This is fantastic! Just yesterday at Christmas family dinner when I saw the picture I had taken of my brother 43 years ago, reading On The Road. Little did I know that in 3 years' time he would lend it to me. I gave it a try, and like so many 17-year-olds in the world, it struck some unknown part of my soul. To this day, it remains my favorite book ever. And this just pops up in my suggestion box. Thanks for the upload.
Hope Neal, Jerry and Brent are grooving in the cosmos. The fans still love you all more than words can tell
Pigpen
And it won't fade away!!!
And Keith and Vince too.
Don’t forget Bear Owsley
Ken Kesey
He was the art.
Jerry is very engaging, you get really drawn in to his vibe.
Jerry's laugh is the best...miss this guy
When Jerry talks about Neal, it is the only time Neal makes sense to me outside of Kerouac’s books.
read his book with all his letters
@@1bigbillz Neal’s book of letters? What’s it called?
@@sealevelbear Grace Beats Karma
@@slashcomic Thank you so much, just ordered it!
@@sealevelbear no problem!
I was part of that generation, about five years behind, but I experienced the LSD transformation of consciousness while in my teens. I was a big reader and musician so was aware of Neal from many angles. He was the original free spirit to which the beats and later the hippies aspired. And yet I sensed he was never really one of them. Today we would probably call him a narcissist and that might be too judgmental. For better or worse he was his own man, few can say this. I wish I had known him but would not have relied on him. And he would have been cool with that I think.
I reckon today's people could benefit a great deal from reading a bit more. Print is still alive, albeit close to life support, but I think there's something important about that physical type.
This video is so Perfect in commemoration of the great, unforgettable Neal Cassady. TY
Miss you, Jerry.
Always.
What a childish business it all seems , looking back,
Boys club
There was a method to their madness. Absurdity is being numb to war and nuclear holocaust. After the Cuban missile crisis that threat became very real. And their rejection of a society that would normalize the apocalypse was the only mature thing to do. Were you alive then, waiting for your draft number to come up? Vietnam, the Cold-War, etc.? Think about it. Peace.
We're all going to die. What are YOU doing before it happens?
I agree, childish for sure. Doesn't make it a band thing. I think we could all use a little fascination.
Why come here to hate on somebody who is gone because of their addictions? Most people I know are addicts, they habitually use crutches of various kinds that help keep them comfortable (and sane, perhaps) despite these things holding them back from coming closer to their true selves and long term goals. Cassidy was a great person, maybe not the best friend or husband or father, but a good person who inspired many great artists, who in turn inspired half a generation that started a whole new culture, based on unconditional love, non violence, community and freedom. He was no average “speed freak” - but that is obvious to anyone who knows anything about that era. How many speed freaks have left behind a legacy like Neal Cassidy’s? And that’s saying nothing of his horrible childhood. I feel sorry for people who are so hurt inside that they have to put their negative feelings and energy out into the world in such an unproductive and hurtful way.
Dean Mori-otty
Jerry sounds like a fan. a really big fan.
Maybe so, Neal was quite a bit older than Jerry. He probably did look up to him back in the mid 60s. They were on the same trip. Maybe Neal admired Jerry too for his talent. A little of each I guess😄
He sounds like every boring stoner trying to tell a story and just fucking rambling
What beautiful stories. I really wish I could have been a part of that 60's counter culture. Seems like it would have been the best time ever, but I wasn't born until the 70's.
I'm 5 minutes into this and I have to say, can you imagine what it would have been like to hang out with Jerry Garcia and Neal Cassidy at the same time. The way Jerry tells the story so stream of consistence is amazing.
CASSADY
Shouts to Wavy Gravy, peace officer of eARTh !!!
Jerry was so wise
Extraordinary. You can learn about life from a man who is multi-facited and connected like the rest of the human race would be years afterwards. He is an example of trend setting like no other. The only thing I could think is NC a lion or the softer side of tenderness? A lion would caress his own kind? A tender man would oblige someone in need. Is he a muse because I wrote with JK and the Beats in mind before finding my truest voice. He is better. He is a teacher and inspirer. A stepping stone.
BEST LIVE BAND EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE jERRY
I think I was 17 and read Kool Aid Acid Test and Cuckoo's Nest and On the Road in the same summer and wanted to be Neal Cassady. I didn't have a driver's license yet and couldn't juggle but that wasn't going to stop me.
I hope you learned to juggle one day!
Everyone should read The Electric Koolaid Acid Tests! 😁🌿
We did, I in 1974. You might want to read Dharma Bums too. (And as soon as it is published.
The Last Adventures of an American Hippie. )
Stay strong. Peace.
@@stefanschleps8758 I just listened to Dharma Bums on an audiobook recently recorded by Ethan Hawke. Recommended.
I have/share : James Dean + Neal Cassidy+ Jules Verne's Birthday@
Thats a trip, I have John Lennon's
I named my son Cassady. He's now 5 and by all indications is going to be a spectacular human being.
Jerry i love you
I’m wondering if Cassady could have been Cassady if he WASN’T a speed freak. What do you all think? Would it have been possible?
Probably not... he probably would have still been a character, but I think the energy came from speed. I’m just curious how many car accidents that man got into!
Rumor has it.... too many
Kesey thought he could have lived to be an old man if he stopped using speed and moved to oregon where he was where there were people who would love him and understood him. How long can you go on speed and insanity without some help?
I don’t think he could handle real life.
Neal behaved that way in the 1940s, before he had gotten into speed.
I used to think this shit was so cool as I followed the Dead as a teenager way before UA-cam I even had a Neal Cassidy t shirt I bought in the upper Haight back in the day, but as an adult now who’s kids are grown I find stories of Neal’s antics less impressive and more reckless, sad, and pathetic. If he hit and killed a child or woman with a stroller no one would be laughing but by the grace of God & pure luck he didn’t we are supposed to idealize him. Idk maybe I’m turning into a boomer but nothing about Neal is as impressive to me as it was decades ago after reading On the Road etc
Overated AF ...boring AF
I recall this (paraphrasing of course) from the Electric Kool Aide Acid Test, Tom Wolfe said Neal Cassidy would flip a hand axe, for hours on end. Cassidy's way of staying in shape. Neal probably had other reasons for doing it.
hammer not axe
...a sledgehammer I think?
Guess you had to be there. Seemed kinda crazy. Would I sit in a bus with Neal driving? No. Damn, I would have missed out. Why doesn't he wear a shirt? Because he had a pretty tight body, I would understand that . Plus he was on acid, on acid, and he drove like a maniac yak yak. He was a free living man, and he passed away like one. Would like to know what the rest of his life would have been like had he lived a few more decades.
When you’re so mad about living you live as long as you want
Pick up the box. Empty the box.pick up the sticks. Put them in the box. Empty the box.
It’s been a long time since I read “ On the road”, but didn’t it say that when that they rang his doorbell- he would answer the door completely naked.
It Sounds like there were a lot of anfetimines inside of Neal..
Thats true, thats how he died. The rumour is he died of a heart attack on a railroad track in Mexico. Or that he died from low blood pressure, and subsequent respiratory failure, brought about after eating Seconal ( a barbiturate) on top of Tequila to bring himself down from a five day amphetamine binge. But although all these vectors are plausible it is more likely that he died from liver failure from years of abusing uppers and downers and alcohol. Thats how all giants go, by their own hand. Like so many other things, Amphetamine poisoning destroys the liver. RIP Cowboy Neal.
@@stefanschleps8758 its not amphetimine that gets your liver,its all the nasty impuities the drug is cut with
García the bridge from LSD to Santa Claus
I think the best description of Neal was in notes of a dirty old men from bukowski... also the description of jack kerouac
NC was one of a kind.
Where joe cocker got his body movement's from
Be free ✨peace and love to everyone,never stop being who you truly are 🎵
Just realized my dad was born in 1926. Both of Irish descent but two more different persons you couldn't imagine - dad a buttoned down engineer, Neil a Merry Prankster.
The fastest man alive
Hippie King
I keep hearing such amazing things about the guy and his history, but every time I check out films and recordings of him, he doesn't live up to it all.
Jerry said it best...he WAS the art...like reading about the Mona Lisa...just ain’t the same as seeing the REAL thing...in short it was his charismatic uniqueness that made him such an icon.
read his book with all his letters.
He didn't like being n spotlight
@@Justdon-s2s plus a lot of speed....dude was hooked on methamphetamines...actually speed was the basis of his persona and energy
@@babkeebabkus8177 The basis? Or the fuel?
Ya know, ya know, ya know
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us and our world ☦ 🙏🌍🙏✝️
I guess I'm a character in my own way. Just being myself and making an impression.
SIR SPEED LIMIT TO THE RESCUE
Blazing down Franklin Street, not appearing to look at the road, I would have died many times on that journey, at least in my own mind.
It’s all fun and games until you wipe out a pedestrian.
Neal never did, apparently.
@@fuzzballzz36 Fortunate for the pedestrians.
You realise he probably had a dollar bill in his pocket that he switched for yours.
He is talking about Kramer from Seinfeld.
I'm trying to think who besides Cassady was a living link between the Beat Generation (from its beginnings) and the Hippies (right through their peak). Maybe Ginsberg. I didn't know who Dean Moriarty actually was till 1968 when Tom Wolfe's book about the Merry Pranksters was published.
@Doug Richardson Amen! As a teen around 1964 I only became aware of Dylan when I realized how many of the songs I liked by Joan Baez, Peter Paul and Mary and The Byrds were written by him. Then I heard "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" and I was hooked. Dylan provided the soundtrack for my personal/spiritual/political awakening through the next decade or so and what a trip it's been...
there were more than a few, but only a few became well known, like Ginsburgh, Cassidy and Garcia
@@davidfradin4625 I wouldn't go so far as to include Garcia. Being a teenager he was old enough to be influenced by the Beat scene but too young to have deep roots in that milieu. He did read Kerouac as a teen and the Beats certainly helped make him who he became.
@@dontaylor7315 yeah, Jerry was a little bit on the young side to be part of the beats, but he certainly was well aware of them and identified with them. Hunter too, and they carried it forward.
@@davidfradin4625 Totally true.
Decadence, and here we are. Time to get serious again.
♥ u Jerry but this guy was insane. adios muchacho
Is that who the song Cassidy is about?
Jonah Hill, um, nah.
Entp personality type
Jerry, the road took Neal for the ride!!! & you all went along...those days were the best!
in the end the train track took him because he passed out in the cold I think walking to somewhere from a wedding and didn't make it
2:00 what was that tube he was eating from?
It’s a whistle.
Oh ffs it’s just all drug behaviour we’ve all been there nothing special
Yeah, maybe so... but they went there 1st. 😎 🤙
Watching Jerry Garcia interviews you can see why he was the most admired member of the band. Bobby got the girls and Jerry got the fans. RIP my friend.
that kind of reckless driving gets innocent people killed for no good reason.
K, Dad.
Nah. Do to an extremely traumatic childhood, he was an addict, seeking escape. And he found it.
Your "Nah" is meaningless. And idiotic. The rest of your statement's fine. Although I doubt you're in any position to make such pronouncements. Perhaps a biographer or doctor is.
Thank you for sharing this. That deserved a subsription. Cowboy Neal was at the wheel of a bus to never-ever land. I got on the bus, in 1967, and in 1972, thats when it all began. If you have any more of this interview please upload it for posterities sake.
Jerry is God. LSD saves.
NFA. 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 ooopps! Better get some sleep. Peace.
Just wasted a couple of minutes on this horrible nonsense. Not funny, not cool.
At least you admit that you are not cool.
You know what I mean...Neil Cassady best stand up comedian. Riiiight....these guys were so stoned they were easily influenced...you know. Hippies. Jeez. That was the most incoherent interview...you know what I mean.
you're more incoherent than the interview .... Jeez, you know, you know what I mean (and you aren't even stoned)
@@davidfradin4625 "Wow man I mean like, you know?" How many times did we hear that back in the day? 😂 I knew some very articulate people in the 60s, and then again there were some who just weren't very verbal. Quite often the latter were musicians. Intelligent, talented, but not articulate verbally.
Cowboy Neal at the wheel.
There is a great film in Neal's story. Will it ever get made?