"Excerpts from The Acid Test" Promotional Record
A Sound City Production
San Francisco: Sound City Productions, circa 1966
Promotional 33⅓ rpm vinyl record, issued For Radio Play Only, Not For Sale.
 
An exceptionally scarce promotional recording produced to publicize The Acid Test, documenting the legendary psychedelic gatherings organized by Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters during the formative years of San Francisco's counterculture. Side one features an interview with Ken Kesey conducted by Frank Frey, followed by One Way Ticket, described on the label as having been recorded from fourteen hours of the actual "trip" and photographed for LOOKmagazine. Side two includes a series of audio excerpts titled Ken Babs & Harmonica, Bells and Fairies, Levitation, Trip X, and The End, offering an evocative sonic record of the Acid Test experience.
 
Produced to promote the original 1966 pressing of The Acid Test, itself reportedly issued in an edition of approximately 500 copies, this promotional record was distributed exclusively to selected radio stations. Because relatively few stations were expected to air material associated with the burgeoning LSD counterculture, only a very small number of promotional copies are believed to have been produced, with surviving examples reportedly numbering as few as twenty. As such, it ranks among the rarest surviving audio artifacts associated with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, documenting one of the seminal moments of the American psychedelic movement.
 
Condition: Excellent.