Ken Babbs (born 1939) is a famous Merry Prankster who became one of the psychedelic leaders of the 1960s. He along with best friend and Prankster leader, Ken Kesey wrote the book Last Go Round. Babbs is best known for his participation in the Acid Tests and on the bus Furthur.
Ken Babbs attended Stanford University and was in NROTC, where he became a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps. Soon after becoming second lieutenant, Babbs became a helicopter pilot where he got orders to go to Vietnam. Babbs had no understanding of the impact the war had on him until he was drafted. His insight soon began to take definition. According to an interview, Babbs’ opinion towards the Vietnam war was that he “had no perceptions of the right or wrong of the situation before I went to Vietnam, but it took about six weeks to realize we were wasting our time there.” .
However, Babbs stated on what he learned from war: “Being humble, respect local customs, learn the language and helping does more good than hurting”.
On the contrary, his college experiences were not merely about the war. In 1958, Babbs took a writing class where he soon met future Prankster leader, Ken Kesey. Babbs explains meeting Kesey as “a moment of mirth and sadness, highness and lowliness , interchanging of ideas and musical moments.” They soon became best friends and formed the Merry Pranksters.
What started as a Happening emerged into a global frenzy and inspired people, still today. According to Babbs, a Happening is something that “can’t be planned ..It just happens! It takes place in public or private and involves everyone present. In Phoenix in 1964, we painted ‘A Vot for Barry is a Vot for Fun’ on the side of the bus and waved flags and played stars and stripes forever..this qualified as both a prank and a Happening.” .
The most famous happening of the Pranksters was the nationwide trip on the Furthur. While on a trip to New York, the Prankster’s needed an automobile that could hold fourteen people and all of their filming and taping equipment. One of the members saw a “revamped school bus” in San Francisco that was for sale. The pranksters bought the bus and named it “Furthur”. Babbs was the engineer for the bus. Babbs is mostly credited for the sound systems he created for the Trips Festival. Prior to Babbs’ creation, it was discovered that particular music usually sounded distorted when cranked to high levels because of the cement floor on the San Francisco Longshoreman’s Union Hall(where the Trips Festival was taking place). Babbs being a sound engineer resolved the problem. He made sound amplifiers that, when turned up to high sound levels would not create distorted sounds.
The purpose for this Happening was to link the psychedelic tribes from the west and the east. Many people tend to remember the east tribe because of Timothy Leary and LSD. Many misjudgments have been made on the Pranksters and their promotion of LSD. However, Babbs makes it clear that “just because we used LSD does not mean we were promoting its use. (LSD) is a dangerous drug..[It’s] a way, I guess, of breaking down the conformist ideology.” .
During the legendary Prankster cross country bus trip to the New York World's fair in 1964, an epic movie was filmed and shown at several “Acid Tests”. The film is called "The Merry Pranksters Search for a Kool Place" and is available for purchase in two parts at [1]. Some have compared the Prankster’s trip to the Acid Tests. Babbs assures that the “Acid Tests came after the bus trip and came about because we were editing the movie of the bus trip and began renting places to show the movie and play our music.” What inspired the Acid Tests was when the Pranksters met the Grateful Dead. Babbs relates to that time as “it was the power that propelled the rocket ship everyone rode to the stars and beyond the whole night the acid test took place.” [IBID]
Looking back at his experiences as a Merry Prankster, Babbs says he wants younger and future generations to carry on “love, peace, and happiness; extended in practicality to the simple act of helping one another out, being kind and generous.” [ibid]
Babbs current project is promoting Ken Kesey's book Kesey’s Jail Journal. Babbs recently had a showing at an art gallery in Oregon to display Kesey’s artwork. Babbs said that the art gallery’s main attraction is “the artwork from Kesey’s Jail Journal”. Because of Kesey’s popularity and inspiration, Viking Press brought his jail journal last November. The exhibit consists of all Kesey’s artwork during his lifetime. Babbs hopes that “this exhibit will tour the country and the rest of the world.”[Iibid]
Babbs currently lives on his farm in Dexter, Oregon (near Kesey’s house) with his wife. In 1994, he helped Kesey co-write The Last Go Round, about the oldest and largest rodeos in America. Babbs is also founder and leader of the Sky Pilot Club. Many of Babbs's trips are now available to watch on YouTube. Babbs is also finalizing a first-person memoir of his life in the armed forces during the first years of the Vietnam War
"At first, a bunch of us were going to go in a station wagon. Then it was getting too big for that."
"For me and Kesey, too, we were trying to move into a new creative expression which was movie making, and being part of the movie. This was all a tremendous experiment in the arts. We always figured we would be totally successful and make a lot of money out of it."
"People always were saying, ‘Is this the real bus?’ and he would say, ‘Yes, there’s only one bus, like there’s only one Starship Enterprise."
