Grateful Dead – Aoxomoxoa [1969]

A squat where obscure music was played and people smoked weed. That couldn’t end up well. This can be seen in the beautiful documentary ‘50 years Boerderij, from squat to international pop venue’ by Marc Waltman.
Yes, there was undoubtedly some weed smoking going on back then. But in essence it was quite harmless, certainly when you compare it to the hard stuff and especially LSD, the psychedelic drug from the flower power era. Hallucinating and dangerous, because a bad trip was always lurking. And could even lead to death. In the words of the American psychologist Timothy Leary: ‘To fathom hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of psychedelic’.

The flower power of the sixties, with its emphasis on peace, personal development and alternative lifestyles, was also the era when the LP overtook the single as the dominant format for making music. No more four-minute songs, but long, ambitious and complex songs. Sometimes a bit too much fiddling due to the LSD intake, but that didn’t spoil the fun. This psychedelic rock was the precursor to the progressive rock of the seventies.
One of the big names of psychedelic rock was the Grateful Dead. The band members liked to show off their use of LSD. On the cover of the 1969 LP Aoxomoxoa, with a bit of imagination (or a pinch of drug use) you can read the band name, graphically alienated, as ‘WE ATE THE ACID' - a verbatim reference to the then intensive consumption of the band's favorite drug.
The cover and title of the album were designed by cover artist Rick Griffin. The title Aoxamoxoa is a palindrome, a word that forms two sides of the same word, pronounced as "ox-oh-mox-oh-ah". I have not been able to find out what it refers to, probably it’s a nonsensical word.
Griffin himself was not averse to LSD. He says that during an LSD trip he had a vision of infinity and 'All is life'. He then designed this special album cover.
The lower part shows death, rebirth and the cycle of life, with fertility symbols and Egyptian-based imagery. On the top is a sun that also serves as an egg that is fertilized. The sperm cells fly around the sun that comes out of a skull. Both sides are provided with stylized incense burners.
For Griffin, the cover represents the entire cosmos. Well. I'm afraid I'm just too level-headed and lacking imagination. But then again, I'm not on an LSD trip like Griffin. Actually, it was just a chemical reaction in his head because of the drug, I think.
Because that's how it all started with LSD. Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann discovered the stuff by chance in a laboratory. I can pretty much get the picture. Hofmann was messing around with ergot, a fungus that grows on rye. He was not aware of its hallucinogenic properties. He still had something on his finger and accidentally put it in his mouth. In one fell swoop, the boring laboratory was transformed into a space with a spectacular light show. Space and Time thought: 'Let's do something crazy'. The space became infinitely large and time stopped for a moment.
'This tastes for more’, Hofmann thought and three days later he took a higher dose. And sure enough: ‘In a dreamlike state, with eyes closed (I found the daylight to be unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors.’ According to our Swiss scientist.
LSD was marketed as a psychiatric drug. Problems and stress, worries and frustrations disappeared like snow in the sun among psychiatric patients. The drug gained popularity worldwide, especially in the hippie movement. The authorities became concerned. Imagine that the vast majority of the population is happy and relaxed, and no longer productive. What would happen to the economy? But the drug deaths at a young age were also a cause for concern. Musicians such as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones died at a young age, partly due to extreme drug use.
Now here we are, more than fifty years later. Smoking or smoking weed is not allowed at De Boerderij. Quite normal in a public space in 2025. A touch of hippie culture is still present. The hippies of that time are now men or women in their seventies who still enjoy the music from the sixties and seventies when scheduled at De Boerderij. All very friendly and nice people. Occasionally a big belly prevails, because beer is still allowed at De Boerderij.
Undoubtedly there will still be some snorting, shooting and smoking weed in other places, because you can't get drugs out of the world. But the essence that Greatful Dead had in mind, still stands: ‘A world of love, peace’ and ‘Everything is life, you have to respect that’. Also at De Boerderij, but without dangerous hard drugs. That’s something the current residents of Zoetermeer do not have to worry about.

Gerrit-Jan Vrielink

Translator: Alex Driessen