Tales from the Tour Bus

I've been watching Mike Judge's latest creation on Cinemax, "Tales from the Tour Bus." These people's lives (which Judge narrates in animated form) is hilarious, pathetic, and wholly incredible. I think it's great and wanted to recommend it to you folks. The season 1 episodes are all about country music "outlaws" and it'll make you laugh and cry at the same time. Well, anyway, it did for me.

I have been watching this show every weekend when they drop a new episode. They are all Great episodes but Billy Joe Shaver is one of my All Time Songwriting heroes and his episode was Awesome. The part about the brown recluse spider that decided to keep biting him on the arm when he was tripping on Acid from The Grateful Dead cracked me up! Said he woke up in the morning on the asphalt in the parking lot and noticed that this Brown Recluse spider had started biting him on the arm throughout the night and in the morning he was still on his arm. Said he went to push him off his arm and the spider was dead LOL! Billy Joe had so much "Stuff" in his system that the spider Overdosed when he bit his arm for the 5th time, LOL!

That and burying their drugs and weapons at a mile marker on the interstate before crossing the border into Canada and then not being sober enough to remember what mile marker it was on the way back so they slowed down at everyone looking for a dirt mound trying to find their stuff.

All of the episodes I have seen were all great and I look forward to seeing more episodes in the future. If you think about it the series could go on and on with all of the stories from different artists out there. Great show and Kudos to Mike Judge for coming up with the idea.

TX

Hope he gets around to the granddaddy of 'em all:



From "the usual source":

"Kesey needed to return to New York the following year for the publication party for his novel Sometimes a Great Notion and hoped to use the occasion to visit the Fair after it opened. This plan gradually grew into an ambitious scheme to bring along a group of friends and turn their adventures into a road movie, taking inspiration from Jack Kerouac's On the Road. As more Pranksters volunteered for the trip they soon realized they had outgrown Kesey's station wagon, so Kesey bought a retired yellow school bus for $1,250 from Andre Hobson of Atherton, California. The license plates read "MAZ 804". Hobson had already added bunks, a bathroom, and a kitchen with refrigerator and stove for taking his 11 kids on vacation."

"Beat legend Neal Cassady was the driver on their maiden voyage from La Honda, California to New York ...



Contrary to legend, Tim Leary did welcome the Pranksters, at first:


"They left on June 17, 1964, but because of various vehicle problems it took them 24 hours to go the first 40 miles... Their route took them first to San Jose, California and then Los Angeles. Chloe Scott bailed out in San Jose, but Cathy Casamo joined them there."

"In Phoenix they confounded the Barry Goldwater presidential headquarters by painting "A VOTE FOR BARRY IS A VOTE FOR FUN!" above the bus windows on the left side, and driving backwards through the downtown. Casamo had apparently taken too much LSD in Wikieup, and spent much of the drive from Phoenix to Houston standing naked on the rear platform, confounding the truckers who followed Further down the highway."




"...And it wasn't even Halloween."

Al, buddy, I think Mike Judge needs to hire you on.

So, who was that guy?

TX, right on. Truth is definitely stranger than fiction. At least that spider went out high. I guess. That business about forgetting the mile marker almost made me laugh up a lung!!!

chazmo said:

Al, buddy, I think Mike Judge needs to hire you on.

So, who was that guy?

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The guy who inspired Jack Kerouac to write On the Road and became known to the world as Dean Moriarty in that novel. (see the Christie's link below)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Cassady

And from another thread:

adorshki said:

Which led me into a Cassady veer:

http://www.christies.com/features/N...spx?sc_lang=en&cid=EM_EMLcontent0414447sunA_2

Featuring "the hammer".
He was always juggling the thing, trying to get inside the 30th-of-a-second synaptic gap between us and actual reality.

Because it made him a better driver:

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He's also immortalized for Deadheads in the lyrics of "That's It For the Other One":

...Escapin' through the lily fields
I came across an empty space
It trembled and exploded
Left a bus stop in its place
The bus came by and I got on
That's when it all began
There was cowboy Neal
At the wheel
Of a bus to never-ever land

In fact when I first saw the title of this thread I thought it was gonna be about Deadheads since there was a hardcore group of 'em who were notorious (or envied, depending on who you ask, LOL!!) for following the band around on tour.

If Judge keeps it going, I'll bet the Dead will get multiple episodes. Right now, though, he's doing country music (outlaws). It's crazy stuff. Although, the Jerry Lee Lewis episode was a bit of country and a bit of rock.

adorshki said:

Hope he gets around to the granddaddy of 'em all:

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That is Awesome Al! Where did you find an old picture of The Rolling Stones bus? They truly were The Grand Daddy of Them All!

TX

txbumper57 said:

That is Awesome Al! Where did you find an old picture of The Rolling Stones bus? They truly were The Grand Daddy of Them All!
TX

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Funny you should mention the Stones:
"The second Acid Test happened on Dec. 4, 1965, in San Jose, on the night of a Rolling Stones concert. At the concert, the Pranksters passed out Crayon-lettered handbills for a house party. Their cryptic message was a street address and the words: "Can YOU Pass the Acid Test?" About 300 to 400 people showed up and the Grateful Dead played until the police broke up the party." -- On the Bus - Paul Perry - Page 115

I was already 9 at time the but my folks still wouldn't let me go to parties.

adorshki said:

"...And it wasn't even Halloween."

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Crazy. The only time I went on (a whirlwind) tour was also in a big bus (well, a motorhome) with 10 people, back early 70s, jamming through Dallas and St. Louis, and it was Halloween. I was playing keys behind Bobby Pickett, RIP. We did the Monster Mash, haha!

adorshki said:

Funny you should mention the Stones:
"The second Acid Test happened on Dec. 4, 1965, in San Jose, on the night of a Rolling Stones concert. At the concert, the Pranksters passed out Crayon-lettered handbills for a house party. Their cryptic message was a street address and the words: "Can YOU Pass the Acid Test?" About 300 to 400 people showed up and the Grateful Dead played until the police broke up the party." -- On the Bus - Paul Perry - Page 115

I was already 9 at time the but my folks still wouldn't let me go to parties.

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I was just seeing if I could get a reaction out of you Al, LOL, I know the Dead Bus when I see it even though that was a Generation before me. In the "Tales From The Tour Bus" episode for Billy Joe Shaver I was referring to earlier Billy Joe was supposed to play a show with the Dead. He said he showed up to play and he was a day late as the gig was the previous night. As he started to walk back towards his truck the Dead's Manager was still there and said, Hey Billy, The Dead left you a present." He proceeded to dig around in his bag and then handed Billy Joe a full roll of toilet paper. Billy Joe thought he was making a joke at his expense about missing the gig and the manager said, "Hold On, on every sheet of this roll of toilet paper is a hit of acid courtesy of Cassady for you personally." He said OK and ate a sheet of toilet paper standing next to his truck in the parking lot. He woke up the next day laying on the asphalt next to his truck in the same parking lot after tripping all night. Said he thought he was Jesus. That is when he discovered the spider that OD'ed after biting him several times, LOL.

TX

Yup, that's the story, and do doubt true life is stranger (and funnier) than fiction!

txbumper57 said:

I was just seeing if I could get a reaction out of you Al

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I knew that...I just wasn't gonna bite because...I was pretty sure you didn't know that the second Acid Test was precipitated by anticipation of getting the Stones to show up at the test...

txbumper57 said:

I know the Dead Bus when I see it even though that was a Generation before me.

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Also, that's not "the Dead bus" and no Deadhead worth their, uh, salt would think of it that way even though there's an intimate connection between Kesey's Pranksters and the Dead.
It's Kesey's bus.
The original tour bus, at least in the sense we think of it today as a painted party on wheels.

txbumper57 said:

In the "Tales From The Tour Bus" episode for Billy Joe Shaver I was referring to earlier Billy Joe was supposed to play a show with the Dead. He said he showed up to play and he was a day late as the gig was the previous night. As he started to walk back towards his truck the Dead's Manager was still there and said, Hey Billy, The Dead left you a present." He proceeded to dig around in his bag and then handed Billy Joe a full roll of toilet paper. Billy Joe thought he was making a joke at his expense about missing the gig and the manager said, "Hold On, on every sheet of this roll of toilet paper is a hit of acid courtesy of Cassady for you personally." He said OK and ate a sheet of toilet paper standing next to his truck in the parking lot. He woke up the next day laying on the asphalt next to his truck in the same parking lot after tripping all night. Said he thought he was Jesus. That is when he discovered the spider that OD'ed after biting him several times, LOL.
TX

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Right, I got that and was gratified to learn that certain traditions are being carried on even in outlaw country.
Only makes sense, Garcia having been a big Merle Haggard fan.. :friendly_wink:.
Only thing I really gotta wonder is if it was the LSD or NO-Doz that really did in the spider:



:glee: