In 1970 the police raided the house of Owsley Stanley - famed financial backer of Blue Cheer, architect of the dread "Wall of Sound" and LSD producer of renown. It was the third bust of note. The first, in December of 1967 found him with millions of dollars of acid. He was released on bail. Three years later, in Jnnuary, 1970, he was arrested along with the Grateful Dead in New Orleans - as related in "Truckin".
This last arrest resulted in the revocation of his bail and he spent the next two years in prison.
On his release, Stanley returns to the Dead - a band that he initially bankrolled - to run sound for them again, but all is not the same. He's no longer the player he was. The road crew has emerged as a power center. He builds the Wall of Sound but the band goes on hiatus in 1974. The Wall is dismantled and Owsley never works with them again.
The whole arc of his time with the Dead inspired Steely Dan's "Kid Charlemagne" - working in his kitchen clean lab in San Fransisco while the music plays, relocating to LA, a technicolor motor home - all recounting the early days with the Dead, the Acid Tests, maybe Kesey. This is all before the jail doors slam, if not the '67 raid.
The narrative isn't linear. The next verses show our subject after the fall. His patrons have left him, Day glow freaks have sold out or grown up. He's "obsolete". The narrative here is post '74.
Lastly - in a flashback - the song gets to a bust, "is there gas in the car?"as, supposedly, Owsley was nabbed when his car ran out of gas. Which bust was it? I'd have to delve deeper into the hagiography of the scene, but does it matter? He doesn't do time with either one alone.
Very interesting! By coincidence just last week I ran into a friend wearing a t-shirt with OWSLEY written on it. I didn’t catch the reference, which he then explained to me but not it as much detail as dadrock101! Thanks, dude.
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