Just watched one flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with my youngest son, who is 15, and he loved it. What a great storyteller this guy is. genuine, lovely, curious. I would love to have met him.
@@hksoundpro We've actually both read it, I love it but also think the film stands on its own even though its a different interpretation. Both great works of art
I watched ( never give an inch) in Indiana when I was around 12-13. This movie moved me. The towns around me were mostly auto and steal factories. Strikes were going on frequently. What a cool movie. Vietnam,watergate and time for strong feelings and more. I am 62 now and would like to talk with Mr. Kesey.
I sit and think. What was so special back then. I think people lived their lives richly. We were drafted. We thought we would die. We knew life was not on our control except to the degree in which we could life it deeply. With that became our ability to tell textural stories. Now- influencer’s, metaverse etc. seems pretty awful. Thanks ken. An authentic soul.
Influencers/metaverse are CIA tools, best thing you can do is forget you ever heard of them and keep doing your thing and engaging with life, Art, and real intellectuals.
Television is just awful now. There are one hundred times as many movies, talk shows, ect. to click on and there is nothing of value to merit anyone wasting their time siting front of a TV screen. I know that this has been said for the past sixty years but it has become intolerable.
As was said below,a lot of talented people around at this time--musicians,writers,actors,comedians.Maybe...10% of that number here in 2023.Where has all the talent gone?There's SOME left,but not much.
this is a perfect metaphor for where the hippies ended up. some like kesey doing late night mainstream talk shows and some becoming stock brokers on wall street. perfect summation and it shows why the world is the way it is today
Go home old man. Kesey is the OG but look beyond what the media pushes in your face, put in some effort and find other artists interview. Your statement is so broad and ignorant.
I agree blacklodge - I’ll be talking to an older person and they’ll be like I have no faith in this next generation” and just right to my face.. soo pretty rude. The web of heightened consciousness is being spun before our very eyes…. We’re in the middle of a struggle between good and evil however. Being authentic? Being honest? We’re no different
I used to think similar thoughts until I started reading deeper and deeper finding out that he was implicit in working with the CIA and spreading the use of LSD in order to understand its use and its other practical applications so that the CIA could then gain knowledge on how to use this drug LSD I'm speaking of anyway about how to use it for espionage mind control brainwashing and etc etc but when you really find out how deep and dastardly the whole scenario becomes you really wonder who are the good guys again I'm not really sure who was doing what with what intentions but let me tell you it's not all above board as we once thought I know I'm sure I can be thrown into the category of conspiracy theorist but conspiracy theories only stem from following the trails of information and as far as driving at any serious conclusions well I guess that's up to the individual
@@arlenmargolin1650 sorry, no sale. Kesey wangled an invite to the CIA program. He was just curious and it is ridiculous to think the CIA boys divulged the purpose of the program to all the subjects. In fact, when his time was up he broke the rules, stole some acid and went about his merry way. Kesey was not CIA.
Hey Don, look up "wakeem leaving letterman", a 2 part doc about the former members of Letterman's Late Show crew and what they are doing now. Very professionally done.
Thanks -- yeah, I've known Walter for many years. He posted Part 2 yesterday and Part 1 a couple months ago. Yesterday he "promised " a Part 3 to be called "What's In Don's Apartment?" :) Are you on the facebook?
It was Kerouac that kicked off the whole counter culture of the sixties, even though Jack would never admit he was a hippie, he freed people to live a full life.
Great segment. I saw the show the night it aired. It didn’t get much better than having Kesey and Red Foxx as the guests. I wonder if Kesey ever did see the film version of his book.
@@NoLefTurnUnStoned. I checked online today, and one seemingly credible story says Kesey was always angry that the movie version deviated from the novel. One time he supposedly saw a few minutes of the movie on TV before realizing what it was and then switched channels.
He was probably tripping while being interviewed so it’s a little hard to understand for all but I feel he is nodding towards a synchronicity or a special energy he has felt in his experience If you have read the book the electric kool aid acid test it covers the time in his life when Kennedy had just recently passed and he and some companions took a trip across the country on their bus ‘furthur’ loaded on psychoactive chemicals like lsd and peyote. Doing silly things like driving the bus backwards through the main street of a town or swimming in a segregated pool. While Kesey has very real intention of mystic manifestations, ‘future games’ They largely had no idea what they were doing and happened to have found themselves on a long strange trip through some fascinating and unbelievable moments, even psychic moments, happenings tangled so deeply within the nature of coincidence and convenience that it makes you scratch your head a bit. Ultimately kind of being for the 60s what keuroac was for the 50s and influencing culture beyond anyone comprehension. I’m sure this is something he was trying to touching on when he was caught up in the sudden spike in anxiety,something I like to call the acid affect lol. You can find footage of all of this in the pretty recent film ‘magic trip the search for a kool place’
Notice how Kesey - an Oregonian - made sure the Californian got on I5 heading South. Let’s him stay awhile but then sends him back to where he once belonged.
It's very strange how could it be that they make a movie out of your book and they don't pay you any money it just doesn't make any sense I'm wondering how that happened
Lawyers are tricky. When he sold the rights to the play, they may have also had fine print, to sell movie rights. So he may have inadvertantly gave away his rights, before anyone would know how big it would become.
What a life that guy lived. The book is an American classic just as much as anything Hemingway wrote but damn if Jack Nicholson wasn't good in the film though.
Don would know better than anyone, but 2 I remember are Don Rickles' first appearance where he tells David "you're my whole life" - the other being when Chris Elliott was playing Marv Albert, and he gives Dave a chocolate football helmet. I don't know why, but both of those struck me as big, genuine laughs
WHY did he swear to never see the movie? Because they gutted his novel's insights about the control American society puts on Everyone, and made it a drama just about the problems on a psyche ward.
My expensive Tilley Hemp hat was about the worst hat I ever owned. Only about 5 years old and the hemp crown became so thin I was able to stick my finger through it. Don't buy a Tilley hemp hat.
Crazy how square Dave seems here. He has no idea what Kesey's talking about. Doesn't seem like he can keep up. I wish we got to see Kesey with a much more seasoned Letterman.
What 1960s treatment for depression was ended? Labotomies? Electro shock therapy? Spraying autistic children in the face with high pressure water hoses? Life sentences in mental institutions without a criminal conviction? "Hysteria" in women treated by doctors with sex devices? Patients drugged into mute and incoherent states so they could not complain? Straight jackets? Chaining humans to floors and pillories? Forced internment? Alienating parents from children? Quackery, cold reading, astrology, pseudoscience monetizing more compliant consumers? The true Russian -Scotsman fallacy reason for hospitalizing political dissidents? Lawyers, bureaucrats, and clergy with no medical training determing mental health conditions and lengths of stay? Forced narcotic drug dependency on kids? Human subject scientific experimentation without consent for military, Big Pharma, and For Profit Prisons? Chaining a human to a chair and macing them til they have a heart attack? Allowing parents to refuse life or death medical treatment for a child on basis of religious beliefs? Using medical terminology to convince public that slaves that escape slavery, are mentally ill and medical persons. immersing themselves in environmental stress to fit an illness inducing job role and schedule, practicing sadism on their support persons, for money, for peerless elitism, for Mass Munchausen? Mental Health doctors, heal thyself. How about a hypocratic oath? How about before all else, do no harm. Love what you do, with your own love. You heal you, mostly with time.
Rick Ruffin most people need to be spoon fed their entertainment with every nuance explained that's because they have trouble concentrating on the story ....
You don't follow, Rick Ruffin. Why? I'm not gonna guess. Tell me. The man spoke wisely and clearly and he SEARCHED, as not everyone does, for the best way to present ideas.
Just watched one flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with my youngest son, who is 15, and he loved it. What a great storyteller
this guy is. genuine, lovely, curious. I would love to have met him.
Have your son read the book. It's an inestimably richer story.
@@hksoundpro We've actually both read it, I love it but also think the film stands on its own even though its a different interpretation. Both great works of art
@@6ecko Absolutely!
Interesting comment lol, makes me think you didn't watch the whole video? He has nothing to do with the movie.
@@fishylee19 ‘lol’
Thank God for the video recorder because this man is amazing to watch, so full of might, true stuff. I'm talking about Ken of course!!!
The man was insanely far ahead of his time. Incredible
Brilliant & insightful man, terrifically talented writer, we can learn so much from Kesey.
Thats what happens when you do all the LSD.
@@MrLoobu Unfortunately it isn't or I'd be giving away to everyone.
I watched ( never give an inch) in Indiana when I was around 12-13. This movie moved me. The towns around me were mostly auto and steal factories. Strikes were going on frequently. What a cool movie. Vietnam,watergate and time for strong feelings and more. I am 62 now and would like to talk with Mr. Kesey.
And 6 days after this was shown I was born into this world...Nice!
I was 5 months and 6 days old
Kesey is such a class act!!!
Ken, we miss you buddy. Thanks for the gifts, we using em best we can figure
I sit and think. What was so special back then. I think people lived their lives richly. We were drafted. We thought we would die. We knew life was not on our control except to the degree in which we could life it deeply. With that became our ability to tell textural stories. Now- influencer’s, metaverse etc. seems pretty awful. Thanks ken. An authentic soul.
Influencers/metaverse are CIA tools, best thing you can do is forget you ever heard of them and keep doing your thing and engaging with life, Art, and real intellectuals.
Ken Keseys of this world are always the minority
A great American and the reason I moved to Eugene...thank you , Ken
I'm here too!!!
Ive never been but Ive several friends who have moved there and ashland. I always say im going to visit but been saying that for 30 yrs
So you know Lyle Wagman from Eugene?
@@zampieritto no Sir ,I do not.
"I didn't have any uh hot sauce."... lol this dude is subtly hilarious!
gets to 11:34 .. not so subtle lol
Makes me wonder who was peddling hot sauce at the time...
I love this!✌️❤️😊
Easy Kesey, rest in peace brother
All those years later and you still look good girl!
“Oregon is the citadel of the spirit “ Ken Kesey rip ❤️
about the only time dave was serious...a real good talk between two iconic men
After all that acid, to still be cogent, intelligent, personable, and funny on a national stage.
Acid does not make you incoherent, dumb, unsociable, or dreary unless that's what you were to begin with. Witness Mr. Kesey.
Because it's harmless, if anything it increases intelligence. Alchy hol on the other hand...
Glad Kerouac had Kesey doing the business for him. A warm sympathetic soul.
Television actually used to be interesting in the late 70's, early 80's
Letterman had alot of good people on
Agree 100%, actually starting in the late 60's maybe.
Television is just awful now. There are one hundred times as many movies, talk shows, ect. to click on and there is nothing of value to merit anyone wasting their time siting front of a TV screen. I know that this has been said for the past sixty years but it has become intolerable.
As was said below,a lot of talented people around at this time--musicians,writers,actors,comedians.Maybe...10% of that number here in 2023.Where has all the talent gone?There's SOME left,but not much.
They don't make em like they used to 🎉❤
this is a perfect metaphor for where the hippies ended up. some like kesey doing late night mainstream talk shows and some becoming stock brokers on wall street. perfect summation and it shows why the world is the way it is today
Oh yeah I remember when people actually were capable of being real, authentic, original and interesting.
Kesey was a pretty down to earth guy
Well said mi amigo
Go home old man. Kesey is the OG but look beyond what the media pushes in your face, put in some effort and find other artists interview. Your statement is so broad and ignorant.
I agree blacklodge - I’ll be talking to an older person and they’ll be like I have no faith in this next generation” and just right to my face.. soo pretty rude. The web of heightened consciousness is being spun before our very eyes…. We’re in the middle of a struggle between good and evil however. Being authentic? Being honest? We’re no different
@@djshad1885 hm Hahahha that sounds uncomfortable
always a treat. thanks ken!...
A man for the world to be proud of- just a stunningly stunning man who speaks of love and peace - what we need always
I used to think similar thoughts until I started reading deeper and deeper finding out that he was implicit in working with the CIA and spreading the use of LSD in order to understand its use and its other practical applications so that the CIA could then gain knowledge on how to use this drug LSD I'm speaking of anyway about how to use it for espionage mind control brainwashing and etc etc but when you really find out how deep and dastardly the whole scenario becomes you really wonder who are the good guys again I'm not really sure who was doing what with what intentions but let me tell you it's not all above board as we once thought I know I'm sure I can be thrown into the category of conspiracy theorist but conspiracy theories only stem from following the trails of information and as far as driving at any serious conclusions well I guess that's up to the individual
@@arlenmargolin1650 sorry, no sale. Kesey wangled an invite to the CIA program. He was just curious and it is ridiculous to think the CIA boys divulged the purpose of the program to all the subjects. In fact, when his time was up he broke the rules, stole some acid and went about his merry way. Kesey was not CIA.
Stunningly stunning. 🤔lol
great film adaptation of 'sometimes a great notion' with paul newman (1st time directing) and henry fonda...
Sorry, strongly disagree. Interesting film, but no where near the depth of the novel.
I always found lacking the true substance and story of the family and Oregon.
Yes ,I love it, It's got to have more going for it than reading a book.
Hey Don, look up "wakeem leaving letterman", a 2 part doc about the former members of Letterman's Late Show crew and what they are doing now. Very professionally done.
Thanks -- yeah, I've known Walter for many years. He posted Part 2 yesterday and Part 1 a couple months ago. Yesterday he "promised " a Part 3 to be called "What's In Don's Apartment?" :)
Are you on the facebook?
Man, that set was Spartan.
Wow. How he talked about Kerouac, gives me a ton of more respect for him. Holy shit! Beautiful words
It was Kerouac that kicked off the whole counter culture of the sixties, even though Jack would never admit he was a hippie, he freed people to live a full life.
Great segment. I saw the show the night it aired.
It didn’t get much better than having Kesey and Red Foxx as the guests.
I wonder if Kesey ever did see the film version of his book.
What?
It was made in 1975!!
@@NoLefTurnUnStoned. That doesn’t mean he saw it.
@@charleswinokoor6023
true
@@NoLefTurnUnStoned. I checked online today, and one seemingly credible story says Kesey was always angry that the movie version deviated from the novel.
One time he supposedly saw a few minutes of the movie on TV before realizing what it was and then switched channels.
His best buddy, Ken Babbs reports in his recent book, “Cronies,” that no, he never did see it.
A total American original. Wow.
Wow he was only 48 here
Amazing!!!!
Someone please explain the tuxedo story/ president being killed. It went over my head.
It's a shaggy coat story
He was probably tripping while being interviewed so it’s a little hard to understand for all but I feel he is nodding towards a synchronicity or a special energy he has felt in his experience
If you have read the book the electric kool aid acid test it covers the time in his life when Kennedy had just recently passed and he and some companions took a trip across the country on their bus ‘furthur’ loaded on psychoactive chemicals like lsd and peyote.
Doing silly things like driving the bus backwards through the main street of a town or swimming in a segregated pool.
While Kesey has very real intention of mystic manifestations, ‘future games’
They largely had no idea what they were doing and happened to have found themselves on a long strange trip through some fascinating and unbelievable moments, even psychic moments, happenings tangled so deeply within the nature of coincidence and convenience that it makes you scratch your head a bit.
Ultimately kind of being for the 60s what keuroac was for the 50s and influencing culture beyond anyone comprehension. I’m sure this is something he was trying to touching on when he was caught up in the sudden spike in anxiety,something I like to call the acid affect lol. You can find footage of all of this in the pretty recent film ‘magic trip the search for a kool place’
It's called an anecdote
Epic
💛
Ken is a trip.... Was that a pun?
he's definitely an interesting guy
Hah
Notice how Kesey - an Oregonian - made sure the Californian got on I5 heading South. Let’s him stay awhile but then sends him back to where he once belonged.
Quaint little “Hells Angel’s” analogy there Ken 😳😬😳
He's tripping, and he's a f-ing pro.
It's very strange how could it be that they make a movie out of your book and they don't pay you any money it just doesn't make any sense I'm wondering how that happened
I think he’s talking about his screen play that they rejected.
Lawyers are tricky. When he sold the rights to the play, they may have also had fine print, to sell movie rights. So he may have inadvertantly gave away his rights, before anyone would know how big it would become.
LAwyer stuff
That Hell's Angels rape comment made me LOL. I think that officially makes me a bad person.
...the panic in Daves eyes as he cringes thinking of the network suits at NBC. Classic Letterman schtick
What a life that guy lived. The book is an American classic just as much as anything Hemingway wrote but damn if Jack Nicholson wasn't good in the film though.
What's the hardest you've ever seen Dave laugh during an interview?
First guess would be with his Comedy Club buddies -- Jeff Altman, Jay Leno, George Miller. I wouldn't sweat by that, though.
Swear, either.
Don would know better than anyone, but 2 I remember are Don Rickles' first appearance where he tells David "you're my whole life" - the other being when Chris Elliott was playing Marv Albert, and he gives Dave a chocolate football helmet. I don't know why, but both of those struck me as big, genuine laughs
He seemed to genuinely enjoy Norm Macdonald too.
Haha, I loved that chocolate football head moment.
WHY did he swear to never see the movie? Because they gutted his novel's insights about the control American society puts on Everyone, and made it a drama just about the problems on a psyche ward.
they missed (or intentionally tossed) the metaphor....the ward is society
and they lost the Chief's POV and +made it about McMurphy
They censored the whole “combine” bit about dehumanization and dumbed it down for popular consumption
Nearly 35 years ago today.. good thing you copied it to digital. VHS is well known for degrading in 10 years or less; let alone 3.5 decades.
"Have a goog trip back to Oregon'
The movie was really good tho.
Life is full of "coincidences".
That is an understatement.
@@boofert.washington2499 nope. If one leads a spiritual life it soon becomes evident there are very very few coincidences
@@boofert.washington2499 Do you lead a spiritual life, Boofer?
Them red socks. Lol
The postman
My expensive Tilley Hemp hat was about the worst hat I ever owned. Only about 5 years old and the hemp crown became so thin I was able to stick my finger through it. Don't buy a Tilley hemp hat.
Sisal is unworthy to touch hemp. It is a treacherous fiber.
They didn't know about Muhammed Ali's condition yet. 😔
Ali was a little slow long before he had a real condition.
Able Archer
Crazy how square Dave seems here. He has no idea what Kesey's talking about. Doesn't seem like he can keep up. I wish we got to see Kesey with a much more seasoned Letterman.
HEMP!!!!
Ken Kesey is more Americun than Hulk Hogan, Captain America, and Ronald Mcdonald
That last little bit was terribly awkward.
Yup. Went a little too far and weirdly specific with that metaphor.
Almost like he did it on purpose. What a rebel...
So the cuckoo's nest movie not only ended an effective treatment modality for depression, it also cheated Ken Kesey. Figures.
What 1960s treatment for depression was ended? Labotomies? Electro shock therapy? Spraying autistic children in the face with high pressure water hoses? Life sentences in mental institutions without a criminal conviction? "Hysteria" in women treated by doctors with sex devices? Patients drugged into mute and incoherent states so they could not complain? Straight jackets? Chaining humans to floors and pillories? Forced internment? Alienating parents from children? Quackery, cold reading, astrology, pseudoscience monetizing more compliant consumers? The true Russian -Scotsman fallacy reason for hospitalizing political dissidents?
Lawyers, bureaucrats, and clergy with no medical training determing mental health conditions and lengths of stay? Forced narcotic drug dependency on kids? Human subject scientific experimentation without consent for military, Big Pharma, and For Profit Prisons? Chaining a human to a chair and macing them til they have a heart attack? Allowing parents to refuse life or death medical treatment for a child on basis of religious beliefs? Using medical terminology to convince public that slaves that escape slavery, are mentally ill and medical persons. immersing themselves in environmental stress to fit an illness inducing job role and schedule, practicing sadism on their support persons, for money, for peerless elitism, for Mass Munchausen? Mental Health doctors, heal thyself. How about a hypocratic oath? How about before all else, do no harm. Love what you do, with your own love.
You heal you, mostly with time.
You mean EST?
Or worse yet, lobotomy?
I don't know if it was the movie that ended lobotomy, but was it an effective treatment?
Four seasons restaurant will be closing soon.
Night shows are now political. No fun.
They were always political.
At the 11:25 point.
You got it.
Ken has troublevtelling stories. Acid?
Seems like he was a bit nervous.
Exiles Of The Underground Nah he's fine, he's just not a professional type TV entertainer that people are so use to seeing
Rick Ruffin most people need to be spoon fed their entertainment with every nuance explained that's because they have trouble concentrating on the story ....
You don't follow, Rick Ruffin. Why? I'm not gonna guess. Tell me. The man spoke wisely and clearly and he SEARCHED, as not everyone does, for the best way to present ideas.
See my reply to Rick, Don. I only saw yours afterwards. You got my thumbs up.
cringeworthy, but he was very talented man. I read his books.... I guess we know he didn't do well in public speaking.
Cringeworthy? Why? What are talkin about? I don’t really even want to hear your answer. You my friend are the only thing makin me cringe rn
Davey cringing too, ah, those suits must have been squirmin
Now you can buy pot in any deli, strange
Now that the party's just about over, you'll be buying just about everything over the counter. Not a good sign.
@@martitinkovich4489 The over the counter -culture?
Caveat emptor.
Ted Nugent isnt buying that