In the 1960s and '70s,
Dr. Timothy Leary managed to offend people on both the left and right. President Richard Nixon called him "the most dangerous man in America," and many liberals and progressives felt that
Leary's blatant promotion of LSD hurt their causes. Regardless,
Leary was an icon of the psychedelic '60s counterculture, and some of his psychedelic theories and ideas can be heard on
Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out. David Hancock, a busy classical recording engineer in the '60s, recorded this spoken word album in
Leary's Hudson Valley, NY estate in 1967. Turning these recordings into an actual album required a lot of work on Hancock's part; when
Leary spoke to Hancock, there were long pauses between each phrase -- and Hancock needed to edit out those pauses in order to make
Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out sound like a legitimate spoken word album. On this disc, one hears
Leary expressing his belief that most of society's problems are caused by people over 40 (although
Leary himself was about 46 or 47 at the time) and complaining that the American school system breeds mindless conformity, but mostly, he talks about drugs -- especially LSD, which
Leary believed could dramatically change society for the better.But one doesn't have to agree with
Leary's theories to realize that
Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out has historic value. This recording is very much a product of its time, and it is an intriguing listen despite -- or perhaps because of --
Leary's eccentricities and excesses. [ESP-Disk reissued
Turn On a 58-minute CD in 2009] ~ Alex Henderson