Drive 1

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 1999

Label: Intrepid Trips

NEAL CASSADY: DRIVE #1 CD
I'm going through a pile of tapes called the Drive tapes. They are good Ampex recordings of Neal Cassady at his best. Mountain Girl and I recorded them in the Backhouse at La Honda thirtysomethin years ago. You see we realized that Cassady couldn't be well recorded driving the bus because it was too loud and he bounced around too much to keep him close to the mike. So we rigged up an old Plymouth station wagon with earphones and mike, and a girlfriend so he could have somebody to talk to. We played him a rock 'n' roll tape I had made, so he'd have some sounds to respond to. In the other channel was engine sounds. It was the perfect setup. He was comfortable in that station wagon. He ripped and rapped and ranted and wrenched at the steering wheel and tromped at the food pedals from midnight to dawn.
I consider these tapes the most valuable artifacts that I possess - more than the old bus film or the bus or even the Cuckoo's nest manuscript. Neal Cassady was a prophet of some sort - an avatar; a necessary link to something necessary. Everybody that knew him knows this. - Ken Kesey

Published by Intrepid Trips, Box 764, Pleasant Hill, OR 97455. www.intrepidtrips.com Copyright 1999. Ken Kesey, Ken Babbs and the Merry Pranksters. Distributed by Key-Z Productions.