Lysergic Acid Diethylamide and Me
- Posted on 7th February 2018
- in Entertainment, entertainment books, New York City
- by Ben
This is a highly edited-for-space version of the long story about my singular Lysergic Acid Diethylamide trip. The entire saga is in chapter eight (Life After Broadway) of Three Stages.
“Jeff [Siggins, my fairly new best friend] was heavily into LSD (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide) by now [1966] and we had discussed my taking a “trip”. I remember vividly having an early dinner with him and a woman friend on the fourth of July. We had tickets to a special second late show at Central Park’s Delacorte theater for Comedy of Errors that night. About half an hour before dinner I dropped 1,500 micrograms of acid (so Jeff told me much later). To those of you familiar with LSD this will seem like a very large dose, which it was. However, Jeff had a great deal of experience with the substance and he knew me very well. Not only that but he stayed straight and was with me every minute of the trip. So it was cool.
Jeff Siggins 1966
…
[After the show] “We walked down through the park and came out at Columbus Circle. It was now around 1:30 AM and I was flying. Jeff had a multifaceted crystal around his neck and we were peering through it at the headlights of the cars in the circle. I was mesmerized by the light show and Jeff prevented me from strolling right into the traffic. We slowly wended our wondrous way downtown, through Times Square and finally to my apartment in Chelsea.
“The brick wall was alive! The bricks were pulsating slightly and appeared to be soft and malleable. We put the Gil Evans/Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain on the record player. The first cut begins with a Miles solo trumpet line, a quick “twee, dul, deeeeeee. The duration of the first two notes preceding the sustained “deeeeeee” is maybe a fifth of a second, if that. My perceptions were so heightened that between them I thought, ‘That was a nice note. I wonder what the next one will be.’
…
“We … took a walk to the Village. Greenwich Avenue between Seventh and Sixth was a zoo! Even at that hour the place was full of activity mainly of the gay variety. Drag Queens and their entourages seemed everywhere. I began to get spooked. As we approached Sixth Avenue we came to the Women’s House of Detention which was then on the corner of Sixth and Greenwich. Women were hanging out the windows yelling back and forth with the gay ‘parade’. Now I was really getting weirded out.
“The strange scene overwhelmed me and I became intensely paranoid and frightened. Jeff let me be for a while but I guess I was totally freaking because after we crossed Sixth and things were quieter he backed me into the doorway of a closed shop and grabbed my shoulders. I don’t recall his exact words but he firmly told me to relax, all was well and it was just the acid. I was okay and needed to get hold of myself. Whatever he said worked. I immediately calmed down and we strolled quietly back toward my place as the sky began to lighten before dawn.
“We stopped at a diner in my neighborhood on Eighth Avenue and ate a huge breakfast. At the time I thought it was the best food I’d ever eaten. We got back to my apartment around six I guess and while still high as a kite, I was ready to lie down. I got into bed and as Jeff left he said. ‘Don’t dream about monsters.’
“I don’t remember what, if anything, I dreamed about but I did wake up in time to make the rehearsal. I had a chorister job with the NY Philharmonic and Seiji Ozawa doing Honegger’s King David at Lincoln Center.
…
“That day’s rehearsal was with the full orchestra and in my condition it was a stone gass! I stood among these auditory wonders and rose again above the earthbound consciousness of my fellows. The guy next to me noticed that I wasn’t singing and inquired. I mentioned that I was still in thrall to the Chemical Muse and he moved a couple of inches further away. The session was finally over without my having sung a note. …
“When I got downtown and approached my building I discovered that I had no keys! The super was nowhere to be found so I had to get creative. The front windows were barred and the only other window big enough to accommodate my body was in the bedroom. Although my apartment was on the first floor the ground dropped down at the back of the building so that my bedroom window was fifteen feet or so up a sheer brick wall. I found a rickety ladder in what passed for a backyard next door, leaned it against my wall and climbed to the top. I could barely reach my window but somehow, through sheer insanity I suppose, I was able to hoist myself up and so gained entrance to my pad. The next morning, now completely straight again, when I went to replace the ladder and looked at what I’d done I was amazed that I’d even survived the attempt.”
One Lysergic Acid Diethylamide trip was all I needed.
Many more tales of wonder and weirdness will be discovered when you click here and get Three Stages.
Recent Comments