Timothy Leary: You Can Be Anyone This Time Around (1970)

Older, if not wiser, "heads" will know exactly who Dr Timothy Leary was -- an advocate of the widespread use of LSD to change cultural consciousness and to open individuals to the vastness of the cosmos within and without.

Tune in, turn on and drop out became a mantra in the late Sixties.

His album You Can Be Anyone This Time Around was one of the first cut'n'splice albums of the rock era (Teo Macero would do something similar for Miles Davis' lengthy studio sessions to create albums such as Bitches Brew by editing) and in many ways it anticipated hip-hop -- not the least because none of the samples were credited or paid for.

This was the work of Alan Douglas who later curated the Hendrix estate and controversially put Hendrix's studio jams over the top of other musicians to create albums after Jimi's death.

Hendrix, Stephen Stills, John Sebastian and drummer Buddy Miles appear on the 14 minute track Live And Let Live (on which Leary is credited with the "rap") here.

But the idea was to put all kinds of music, sounds and words into a blender powered by LSD to evoke an acid trip. Leary was being taken to the flats and apartments of America where people could toke or drop acid and listen to whatever this all meant.

It's a rare one alright.

You can be anyone listening to this . . .

For more on-offs or songs with an interesting back-story see From the Vaults.