Dogfish Head Celebrates 10th Year as 'Official Beer of Record Store Day' with Launch of Collaborative Grateful Dead Vinyl & List of Music Events
Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale
MILTON, Del., April 08, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In celebration of its 10th consecutive year as the 'Official Beer of Record Store Day,' Dogfish Head joins forces with Grateful Dead to launch a vinyl compilation album, which will be available in participating independently owned record stores from coast-to-coast beginning on Record Store Day, Saturday, April 12. The record, titled ON A BACK PORCH VOL. 1, consists of live versions of classic Grateful Dead tunes, all thoughtfully compiled from the band's archives by Dogfish Head Founder & Brewer, Sam Calagione, and Grateful Dead Archivist & Legacy Manager, David Lemieux.
'Spanning the years 1969, 1973, 1977, 1989, and 1991, ON A BACK PORCH, VOL 1 touches upon all eras of Grateful Dead music, and features classics such as 'Eyes Of The World,' 'Here Comes Sunshine,' and rarer cuts including 'Easy Wind,' and 'Big Railroad Blues,'' said Lemieux. 'Mastered by GRAMMY® Award-winning engineer, David Glasser at Airshow Mastering, ON A BACK PORCH VOL. 1 will get you in the mood for sipping your favorite Dogfish Head beer on a back porch in July, or any of the other 11 months of the year.'
Designed to complement back-porch beer-sipping, ON A BACK PORCH VOL 1 best pairs with Dogfish Head and Grateful Dead's latest collaborative beer, Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale. Clocking in at 5.3% ABV, this year-round offering is a refreshing, light-bodied pale ale brewed with Kernza® perennial grains from The Land Institute*, granola, and heaps of good karma. The addition of El Dorado and Azacca hops brings waves of pineapple, mango and passion fruit notes for a vibrant tapestry of alluring aromas and flavors. Available from coast-to-coast, on draft and shelves, in 6pk/12oz cans and single-serve 19.2oz cans. Track some down using Dogfish Head's Fish Finder.
'As a self-proclaimed 'beer geek with a music problem,' Record Store Day has always been one of my favorite days of the year,' said Calagione. 'And this year, I get to celebrate one of my favorite days by partnering with Grateful Dead on a beautiful beer and with David Lemieux on a wonderful album!'
A highly anticipated annual holiday, Record Store Day is a celebration of the culture of independently owned record stores, and the important roles those stores play in their respective communities. Understanding Record Store Day's connection to building community through analog music, Dogfish Head's festivities wouldn't be complete without a host of music-centric events at its coastal Delaware properties. Here's what to expect!
Dogfish Head Chesapeake & Maine (316 Rehoboth Ave., Rehoboth, DE 19971)
To kick off Record Store Day weekend, music-lovers can stop by Chesapeake & Maine, Dogfish Head's seafood and cocktail spot, on Friday, April 11, for a special happy hour featuring interactive crafts benefitting the Developing Artist Collaboration (DAC), an artist-first non-profit focused on career development, peer connection and providing artists with physical spaces to create. The DAC will be onsite to lead guests in acrylic pour art, allowing them to customize records, magnets bottle openers and more.
Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats (320 Rehoboth Ave., Rehoboth, DE 19971)
Dogfish Head's brewpub and world-class music venue, Brewings & Eats, gets in on the Record Store Day fun with a Grateful Dead listening party on Saturday, April 12, from 12-3 p.m. Complete with a DJ spinning vinyl tunes, killer giveaways – T-shirts, records, posters and more – and Dogfish Head x Grateful Dead iron-branded burgers, the listening party will be followed by a live music performance from LoveLight, an electric, high-energy Grateful Dead tribute band. The band takes the stage from 9-11 p.m. No tickets needed!
Dogfish Head's Milton Brewery (6 Cannery Village Center, Milton, DE 19968)
The goodness persists at Dogfish Head's Milton Brewery, on Sunday, April 13, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a special Record Store Day 'Shakedown Street' Market featuring a host of local vendors. The team from Extended Play by Gidgets Gadgets, a local independently owned record store, will be on site with some exclusive Record Store Day releases; To Dye For, a regional tie dye expert, will be helping folks customize their own Dogfish Head x Grateful Dead tie dye shirts; and from 1-3 p.m., DJ Driod and Dogfish Head Founder & Brewer, Sam Calagione, will be spinning some fan-favorite records. Not to mention, Dogfish Head's onsite kitchen will feature a variety of Shakedown Street-inspired food specials, while supplies last.
Dogfish INN (105 Savannah Rd., Lewes, DE 19958)
And last, but certainly not least – the Dogfish INN, the brewery's beer-themed, canal-front hotel, will act as the basecamp for beer- and music-lovers' Record Store Day adventures. Folks staying at the INN will be treated to a special Record Store Day swag package in their rooms, and they will have the opportunity to bike from the INN to a local record store on Record Store Day (Saturday, April 12) with Dogfish Head Founder & Brewer, Sam Calagione. No bike? No problem! The Dogfish INN has bikes for borrowing onsite. To book a room or be added to the wait list, please call the INN directly, at 302-644-8292.
"Nothing quite says 'Happy Record Store Day' like the pairing of Grateful Dead music and a great Dogfish Head beer,' said Michael Kurtz, Co-Founder of Record Store Day. 'Sam and David's curated Grateful Dead Record Store Day album and the Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale are both exceptional. It's exciting to have all of this come together for Record Store Day, something we couldn't have dreamed of happening 10 years ago, but now it's here!"
For more information about Dogfish Head, Grateful Dead and Record Store Day, visit www.dogfish.com, www.dead.net, and www.recordstoreday.com, respectively.
*The Land Institute is a Kansas-based nonprofit transforming agriculture with perennial grain crops like Kernza® that enhance farmer resilience while addressing ecological challenges.
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ABOUT DOGFISH HEAD:
With quality, creativity and non-conformity at its core, Dogfish Head has been committed to brewing unique beers with high-caliber culinary ingredients outside the Reinheitsgebot since the day it opened nearly 30 years ago. Dedicated to exploring goodness of all kinds, Dogfish Head later expanded its beverage artistry beyond just craft beer to produce award-winning portfolios of full-proof spirits – whiskeys, gins, vodkas, rums and more – and spirits-based, ready-to-drink canned cocktails. A Boston Beer Company brand and proud supporter of the Independent Craft Brewing Seal, Dogfish Head is a Delaware-based entity consisting of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, a production brewery and tasting room; Dogfish Head Distilling Co., a production distillery; Brewings & Eats, a brewpub and live music venue; Chesapeake & Maine, a seafood and cocktail spot; and the Dogfish INN, a beer-themed, canal-front hotel. For more about Dogfish Head, please visit www.dogfish.com or follow the brand on social media.
ABOUT THE GRATEFUL DEAD:
The Grateful Dead is a social and musical phenomenon that grew into a genuine American treasure. In 1965, an entire generation was linked together by common ideals, gathering by the hundreds and thousands. This movement created a seamless connection between the band and its fans. As the band toured, Dead Heads would follow. Not because it was a part of popular culture but because it is a true counterculture that exists to this very day-one that earnestly believes in the value of its beliefs. By 1995, the Grateful Dead had attracted the most concertgoers in the history of the music business, and today remains one of the all-time leaders in concert ticket sales. Eventually, the caravan evolved into a community with various artists, craftsmen and entrepreneurs supplying a growing demand for merchandise that connected them to the music. Today, the connection is as strong as ever, and their final tally of 2,318 total concerts remains a world record. The band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and received a Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. In 2024, the Grateful Dead celebrated their 62nd Top 40 album on the Billboard chart, a feat no other artist has achieved, and commemorated in the 47th class of the Kennedy Center Honorees. The Grateful Dead were the 2025 MusiCares Persons of the Year honored at the 67th Annual GRAMMY® Awards.
ABOUT RHINO ENTERTAINMENT:
Based in Burbank, California, Warner Music Group's Rhino Entertainment was founded in 1978 and is the world's leading pop culture label. Emphasizing flawless sound quality, bonus tracks, informative liner notes, award-winning creative packaging, an offbeat sense of humor, and a strong social conscience, Rhino continues to set the standard for excellence in the reissue business it pioneered in both the physical and digital worlds. Rhino is also expanding the definition of what a catalog music company is, as evidenced by the label's recent name and likeness representation deal with Frank Sinatra and its multi-faceted relationship with Grateful Dead. The vast Rhino catalog of more than 5,000 CDs, videos, and digital exclusive albums features material by Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, The Doors, Chicago, Black Sabbath, John Coltrane, Yes, Alice Cooper, Linda Ronstadt, The Ramones, The Monkees, Carly Simon, Curtis Mayfield, among many others.
ABOUT RECORD STORE DAY:
Record Store Day, the organization, is managed by the Department of Record Stores and is organized in partnership with the Alliance of Independent Media Stores (AIMS), the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) and promotes independent record stores year-round with events, special releases and other fun things. Record Store Day, the global celebration of the culture of the record store, takes place annually. Record Store Day 2025 is April 12.
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Grateful Dead x Dogfish Head Record Store Day Release
Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale
CONTACT: Megan Bayles Dogfish Head Craft Brewery 3024993149 megan.bayles@dogfish.comSign in to access your portfolio
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Beijing, China, Aug. 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — This year marks the 80th anniversary of victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) and the World Anti-Fascist War. With films like Dead to Rights and Dongji Rescue gaining popularity during the summer season, they have stirred patriotic sentiments among many Chinese. Simultaneously, several war-themed films have been released or re-released in Japan this summer, which focus on portraying Japan as a 'victim' suffering 'hardships' during the war, while rarely addressing Japan's historical crimes of aggression that caused huge suffering in various Asian countries. What constitutes a correct perspective on World War II （WWII） history? Can history be arbitrarily rewritten through cinema? On the day of the 80th anniversary of Japan's unconditional surrender, the Global Times presents an investigative article, exposing how Japan promotes historical revisionism through film narrative and creates a one-sided image of Japan as a 'victim of the war' so as to distort history. In a sense, this summer is witnessing a 'war of film narratives' between China and Japan. In late July, at a roadshow event for the film Dead to Rights in Shanghai, director Shen Ao told the audience that, beyond the visible war of fire and smoke, there exists an invisible war – a war of culture. 'To this day, this war has not ended; it continues to struggle online and within the public discourse,' Shen said. 'Therefore, I hope this film, these photographs, and these materials can alert the audience to distinguish friend from foe, and recognize right from wrong.' Perhaps not everyone immediately grasped Shen's warning, but a glance at Japan this summer reveals that since July, according to descriptions from Japanese media and publicly released trailers, at least seven films related to WWII have been released or re-released. Most of these films emphasize Japan's suffering as a 'victim,' while seldom mentioning Japan's historical acts of aggression and crimes. Why is there such a stark divergence in the narratives surrounding WWII between China and Japan, despite being situated within the same historical context? What historical perspective is Japan attempting to convey to its citizens and the world through its films? Some scholars studying histories of China and Japan pointed out that these Japanese WWII films, to some extent, aim to distort the narrative of the war, creating a false and biased collective memory among the populace that can essentially foster a 'collective amnesia' which allows Japan to forget its identity as a perpetrator and instead emphasize its pathos of being a 'victim.' A 'pathos factory' This summer, Chinese cinema screens have been presenting a series of films commemorating the War of Resistance. Dead to Rights tells the story of ordinary people risking their lives to preserve and disseminate photographs documenting Japanese atrocities, embodying the national spirit of 'defending every inch of our land.' Dongji Rescuerecounts the humanitarian act of Chinese fishermen rescuing Allied prisoners of war while under Japanese gunfire, offering a different perspective on the history presented in the documentary The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru. Mountains and Rivers Bearing Witness vividly portrays China's significant contributions to the global anti-fascist victory on the Eastern Front. Set for a September 18 release, 731 Biochemical Revelations exposes the heinous bacterial warfare crimes committed by the Japanese army. Yu Peng, chief director of Mountains and Rivers Bearing Witness, told the Global Times that the film extends beyond the battlefield between China and Japan to present the attitudes of countries such as the UK, the US, and the Soviet Union at different stages. From patriotic sentiment to the shared future of humanity, these currently released or upcoming works collectively shape China's cinematic portrayal of WWII history: a remembrance of suffering, but more importantly, a commemoration of justice, resistance and peace. In sharp contrast, around the same time in Japan, at least seven WWII films released or re-released have constructed a completely different historical narrative. The documentary Kurokawa no Onnatachi, which premiered on July 12, according to Japanese media, focuses on some maidens 'who were forced to 'sexually entertain' Soviet soldiers' and aims to 'show the strength of the women who publicly spoke about their tragedy,' while seldom talking about the fact that Japan waged the war as an aggressor. Similarly, Nagasaki: In the Shadow of the Flash, released on August 1, presents the tragedy of the nuclear explosion at Nagasaki through the eyes of three students, repeatedly questioning the value of life, while downplaying the fact that Nagasaki was a crucial military base for the Japanese army during WWII. Friday marks the 80th anniversary of Japan's unconditional surrender. According to Japanese media, the film Yukikaze will be released on this day. The film portrays the WWII Japanese destroyer Yukikaze as a 'lucky ship that rescued crew members,' promoting its narrative of 'saving lives during fierce battles,' while glossing over the fact that the ship was a weapon of Japan's aggression. On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the World Anti-Fascist War, Japan has skirted around its heavier historical responsibilities, using films like these to construct a 'factory of pathos.' On social media, some Japanese viewers expressed emotion over the students in Nagasaki: In the Shadow of the Flash, who, 'in a time when the atomic bombing itself was not yet widely known,' 'faced the destruction of their city and massive casualties – an experience no one had ever endured before.' While the trauma indeed existed, these Japanese films, through single-perspective narratives, transform serious reflections on aggression and anti-aggression, war and peace, into simple laments for Japan's own 'suffering' from its defeat, said several Chinese history scholars reached by the Global Times. Xu Luyang, the screenwriter of Dead To Rights, told the Global Times that Japan has yet to offer a sincere apology or face up to history objectively and honestly. Although 80 years have passed since the war, attitudes and understanding of the war reflect the subjective tendencies of people's spiritual worlds. Germany has continuously reflected on its fascist war through various aspects of national thought, law, intellectuals, and media since WWII; Japan, while having sporadic reflections, lacks a comprehensive and thorough review, standing in stark contrast to Germany, he noted. Against the backdrop of insufficient societal reflection on the war in Japan, it is unsurprising that some Japanese films, which are steeped in a 'victim mentality,' find a market in Japan. Sun Ge, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences focusing on critical Asian studies and comparative ideology, attributed the lack of deep reflection on war in Japan to a 'generational fracture' that emerged in the 1960s. 'In Japan, post-war accountability has primarily been driven by those who personally experienced the war. They advocate for social reflection, emphasizing the need to understand China's position as a victim,' Sun told the Global Times on Wednesday. However, with the restructuring of the Cold War landscape, the strengthening of US-Japan relations since the 1960s, and the complex relationships between Japan and the Taiwan Straits, the continuity of this historical accountability has been disrupted across generations. With the gradual decline of reflection on history by Japanese authorities and society, a 'victim mentality' started taking its place. Industry insiders indicate that this mentality is fully reflected in many Japanese WWII films, which have become one of the main producers and disseminators of Japan's 'victimhood narrative.' Self-proclaimed 'victim' In this 'war of film narratives,' Japan frequently employs the tactic of portraying itself as a 'victim' in its films. In an interview in May 2024, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda frankly said that when Japanese people make films about the war, they very often depict Japan as a victim. 'But when you look at it objectively, Japan wasn't a victim, and we're not good at admitting and dealing with our status as the aggressor. You don't really see that in Japanese films,' Kore-eda said in an article published on the website of the Cannes Film Festival on May 22, 2024. Kore-eda's observations are vividly echoed in Japan's recent WWII films. Some industry insiders and audiences may notice that these movies frequently employ several cognitive tactics to construct and amplify a 'victimhood narrative.' For example, many of these films focus on the tragic stories of certain Japanese soldiers or civilians, creating a 'pathos aesthetic' that evokes sympathy for the 'sacrificed,' thereby sidestepping the causes of the war and the essence of Japan's aggression. Additionally, many films conflate 'anti-defeat' ideology with anti-war sentiment, concentrating on Japan's 'pain of defeat' rather than reflecting on its acts of aggression. Moreover, some of these films prefer to personalize war narratives, delving into the 'growth' stories of one or several Japanese individuals during the war, while downplaying discussions of national culpability. These tactics are evident in recently released films. A Chinese moviegoer in Japan who goes by the name 'Sun' shared with the Global Times her thoughts after attending a preview screening of Yukikaze. She said that despite the film's star-studded cast, she found it difficult to empathize with the content. 'The plot is dry, overly sentimental throughout, and even laughably ridiculous in some parts,' Sun said. A few critical voices have also emerged on social media regarding recent Japanese WWII films, including some sober reflections on history. 'Convey [the reality of] war without beautifying it,' one Japanese netizen commented on X on August 6. 'War must never be repeated.' There are still voices within Japanese academia and civil society calling for honest acknowledgment and reflection on the country's history of aggression. Unfortunately, amid Japan's generally right-leaning social climate, these voices often go unheard, with the truth of history drowned out by nationalist rhetoric. Sun told the Global Times that today, most Japanese born after the war don't feel a responsibility for the war. Although exceptions exist, such as the renowned 'Article 9 Association' dedicated to preserving anti-war and peaceful thought, these voices remain marginal in mainstream discourse in the country. The overall silence in Japanese society regarding historical reflection is due not only to the right-leaning atmosphere, but also to a collective tendency to evade these issues. 'Anti-war stances inherently require presenting the complexity of reality, which entails self-criticism or reflection. For both the media and the public, this is an arduous task – yet for various reasons, the (Japanese) public often shies away from confronting these issues,' Sun said. During an interview with the Global Times, Wang Guangsheng, director of the Japanese Culture Research Center of Capital Normal University, referenced the perspective of Japanese scholar Masaki Nakamasa in his work that can be translated as Japan and Germany: Two Traditions of Postwar Thought. Nakamasa contends that Germany's earnest postwar reflection was, in essence, 'born of necessity,' as it was compelled to improve relations with neighboring nations to secure space for development. In contrast, under the US-Japan alliance framework, Japan's geopolitical reality eliminated the imperative to seek forgiveness from victimized nations like China and South Korea, objectively diminishing incentives for profound remorse, Wang said. Furthermore, disparities in postwar tribunals created unresolved historical burdens: German war criminals faced explicit accountability for crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Japan, however, lacked comparable judicial processes, with its government frequently evading responsibility by invoking 'sovereign immunity,' resulting in its lack of a clear understanding of its own culpability, the expert said. 'Collective amnesia' in Japan The prevalence of Japan's 'victimhood narrative' regarding WWII on the screen is regarded as an inevitable result of the country's long-standing rightward political shift and the pervasive influence of historical revisionism. Ryuji Ishida, a scholar of modern and contemporary Japanese history, told the Global Times that contrary to the notion that 'historical revisionism [only] emerged as a significant trend in the 1990s after the collapse of the Cold War,' the view that 'conservative and right-wing factions of historical revisionism have always been mainstream (in Japanese society) aligns more closely with reality.' In July, the Global Times conducted field interviews in Tokyo and Nagano, Japan, discovering a severe gap in Japanese youth's awareness of their country's modern history of aggression. For example, at the Iida City Peace Memorial Hall in Nagano Prefecture, which permanently exhibits physical evidence of the infamous Unit 731's human experiments, students in the nearby study area were completely unaware of its existence; young Japanese visitors to the notorious Yasukuni Shrine treated it as just a normal shrine, with no understanding of its ties to Japan's war of aggression. This 'collective historical amnesia' is closely tied to Japan's long-promoted 'victimhood narrative.' Recently, Japanese football star Keisuke Honda sparked widespread controversy after initially denying the Nanjing Massacre, then later admitting his mistake after reviewing historical materials. However, after coming under attack from some right-wing netizens in Japan, he claimed that further research was needed and no conclusion could be drawn. Some scholars on China-Japan relations believed that Honda's farce was a stark manifestation of the pervasive influence of Japan's long-standing cognitive infiltration of the 'vicitimhood narrative,' and the tragedy of the 'collective amnesia' in the country. In an environment characterized by collective avoidance and 'amnesia,' lots of Japanese war films, whether intentionally or unintentionally, have become cognitive tools for Japan to gloss over its historical transgressions. Many viewers may have noticed that in this 'war of film narratives' surrounding WWII, numerous Japanese films tend to focus on 'playing the victim' and 'emotional manipulation,' while many Chinese films on similar themes generally document history and restore the truth in an objective way. 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To choose the day, someone approached one of the Haight's resident astrologers, Gavin Arthur, who'd been a socialist and New Ager since the 1930s, a friend of Robinson Jeffers and also of Edward Carpenter, thus linking him to Walt Whitman and revealing a deep connection to American bohemianism. Roots. He chose wonderfully well; mid-January days in San Francisco are often miserably wet and raw, but this one was glorious. Jay Thelin, whose appearance was relatively conventional — a low bar in his circle — went to the city's Recreation and Parks Department to get a permit and found a brand-new person in charge, assistant supervisor of recreation Peter Ashe, a bearded Haight Street sympathizer. The hippies got their papers. On Jan. 6, the Barb headlined the beginnings of the human be-in… a gathering of the tribes. It would serve as a love feast that included both Berkeley and the Haight in a 'new and strong harmony.' Naturally, the Oracle went all out. 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Rumors of a Satanic curse on the event skittered around the Haight, so early on the morning of the 14th, Ginsberg, Snyder, and Alan Watts conducted a pradakshina, a Buddhist purification rite. The poets — Lawrence Ferlinghetti, McClure, Lenore Kandel, Ginsberg, Snyder — kicked off the day with readings, Kandel realizing that the day was about genuine community, about trust, because she was surrounded with people 'that belonged to me and I belonged to them.' Rubin raged against the war. Leary burbled his advertising slogan. The Diggers passed out thousands of hits of Owsley Stanley's finest and served turkey sandwiches, which Stanley had also contributed. Strangely, the SFPD had apparently chosen to ignore the Chronicle, their entire presence that day consisting of two mounted policemen observing from a nearby hill. When a lady looking for a missing child approached them, they suggested she go to the stage and call for assistance: 'We can't go down there, lady, they're smoking pot.' Ralph Gleason estimated the crowd at 20,000; other guesses ranged quite a bit higher. Every tribe that felt connected to the Haight had shown up, from Big Sur and Carmel in the south, to the gold country east of San Francisco, to Sonoma and much farther north. Persuaded by his students, the abbot of San Francisco Zen Center, Suzuki Roshi, attended and sat by the stage smiling and holding a flower. Dizzy Gillespie was there. Two unknown actors named Gerome Ragni and James Rado would channel the day into writing a play called Hair. The queen of groupies, a visiting Pamela Des Barres, was disturbed by the split ends of hair she saw around her but was able to see the obvious: 'Everyone was smiling and glad to be alive on the planet… knowing the world could be saved if we loved one another.' There was trouble with the power source at some point, and the Hells Angels guarded the line and felt useful. Quicksilver Messenger Service played, and 'Girl' Freiberg felt the same as Des Barres: 'This is just like a really big family.' The Grateful Dead kicked off their set, which would also include Charles Lloyd on flute, with 'Dancing in the Streets,' and Dizzy Gillespie pronounced them 'swinging.' A parachutist landed on the field. Sprawled out on blankets, people blew bubbles, shared oranges, lit incense, and gave one another small presents of bells and mirrors. They looked around astonished at the sheer number of people who were part of the gathered tribes. Ginsberg, who had whispered to Ferlinghetti when sitting on the stage, 'What if we're all wrong?' ended the day by urging everyone to practice kitchen yoga and clean up — and they did so, leaving the field immaculate. 'No fights. No drunks. No troubles,' reported Gleason. 'An affirmation, not a protest. A statement of life, not of death, and a promise of good, not evil.' 'My day was full,' said the Dead's co-manager Danny Rifkin, smiling. Though the police had essentially ignored the gathering, they managed to make up for their kindliness by gratuitously arresting around 100 youth on Haight Street for 'blocking traffic' as they drifted home. The hip response would be HALO, the Haight-Ashbury Legal Organization formed by Brian Rohan and Michael Stepanian, young members of Vincent Hallinan's law firm, who would get all charges dropped. McClure would declare that 'the Be-in was a blossom. It was a flower. It was out in the weather. It didn't have all of its petals. There were worms in the rose. It was perfect in its imperfections. It was what it was — and there had never been anything like it before.' Even a black-belt cynic like the writer Hunter Thompson responded to the day. 'There was a…sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting — on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum. We were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave.' At least one Berkeley politico, ED Denson, would write that 'nothing happened at the Be-In, and the opportunity to gather all of those people was wasted.' Few attendees would have agreed. By now, Allen Cohen noted, the Oracle was not a newspaper but a 'journal of arts and letters for the expanded consciousness — a tribal messenger from the inner to the outer world.' Most importantly, the Oracle had switched to a new printer, which allowed them, said Cohen, to 'use the presses like a paint brush' by splitting 'the ink fountain of a web into three compartments with metal dividers and wooden blocks,' with a different color ink in each compartment. Now Cohen really had his rainbows. In something approaching formal journalism, the Oracle in February gathered Timothy Leary, Gary Snyder, Alan Watts, and Allen Ginsberg at Watts's home on the Sausalito waterfront, the SS Vallejo, for what was intended as a serious conversation about where the burgeoning alternative society might go. On the whole, the conversation came down to a sane, sober, and practical Snyder challenging Leary's airy platitudes, which began and effectively ended with 'turn on, tune in, drop out.' A few years later, Snyder would offer the following quote to a speaker's bureau representing him: 'As poet I hold the most archaic values on earth. They go back to the late Paleolithic: the fertility of the soil, the magic of animals, the power-vision in solitude, the terrifying initiation and rebirth, the love and ecstasy of the dance, the common work of the tribe. I try to hold history and wilderness in mind, that my poems may approach the true measure of things and stand against the unbalance and ignorance of our times.' Later still, in Earth House Hold, he summed up his stance as a faith in 'the ancient shamanistic-yogic-gnostic-socioeconomic view, that mankind's other is Nature and Nature should be tenderly respected; that man's life and destiny is growth and enlightenment in self-disciplined freedom; that the divine has been made flesh and that flesh is divine; that we not only should but do love one another.' Such views, suppressed by church and state, now seem 'almost biologically essential to the survival of humanity.' Peering through a roseate fog, Leary predicted that, through LSD, groups of youth would 'open one of those doors' and see 'the garden of Eden, which is this planet,' thus changing their consciousness. Snyder replied, 'But that garden of Eden is full of old rubber tires and tin cans right now, you know?' What was important, he argued, was that 'people learn the techniques which have been forgotten; that they learn new structures and new techniques. Like, you just can't go out and grow vegetables, man. You've got to learn how to do it.' If our culture was to change its relationship to the natural world, it had, he offered, a superb example at hand in Native American culture. Since the central problem of the exploitive modern capitalist society was consumption, Snyder also suggested group marriage as a way to lessen demand. His life had been an ongoing example of 'cutting down on your desires and cutting down on your needs to an absolute minimum, and it also meant don't be a bit fussy about how you work or what you do for a living.' Leary suggested that we 'dig a hole in the asphalt and plant a seed…do it on the highway so they then fix it and when they do we're getting to them. There'll be pictures in the paper' — publicity apparently being the solution to everything. He concluded, 'All right. We'll change the slogan. I'm competing with Marshall McLuhan. Everything I say is just a probe.' About the same time as the conversation, Snyder and Ginsberg created and carried out a ritual that they offered as a way of both showing gratitude to the planet and clarifying one's own mind — namely, a circumambulation of Mount Tamalpais, the guardian mountain that looks down on the San Francisco Bay Area. The legend of Tamalpais had been romanticized and appropriated by Anglos as 'the sleeping Indian maiden,' most notably in a 1921 Mountain Play (there is an amphitheater near the summit that hosts an annual play) called Tamalpa. The Beat response reclaimed the mountain as sacred. In 1965, Snyder and his friend Philip Whalen had designed a hike in the Japanese mountain monk (yamabushi) tradition that followed a route with stations where the pilgrims stopped to chant from various Zen and Tibetan Buddhist traditions, something not only Buddhist but shamanic. In the wake of the Be-In, they led their first public circumambulation on Feb. 10, 1967. Snyder's poem, 'The Circumambulation of Mt. Tamalpais,' would become the centerpiece of his late-life masterwork, the fruit of 40 years of writing, Mountains and Rivers Without End. After taking tea with the artist Saburo Hasegawa at the American Academy of Asian Studies on April 8, 1956, he vowed to write a long and serious poem, and he completed it four decades later. It is a meditation on a classic Chinese landscape painting, something meant to be an invitation to mindfulness in Zen much as a thangka is in Tibetan Buddhism. The poem is a spiritual autobiography, a depiction of ecosystems, and a series of snapshots, all of which reflect one another. It might well be one of the most important artistic consequences of the Be-In and the Haight-Ashbury scene. Excerpted from the book 'The Last Great Dream' by Dennis McNally. Copyright © 2025 by Dennis McNally. 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