"Break On Through" traces the birth of the counterculture, from the beboppers to the beatniks to the hippies. From the breakthrough, heroin-laced sounds of Charlie Parker, to the "bop prosody" of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, to the "tune in, turn on, drop out" psychedelic mantra of Timothy... Read Full Summary »
VH1 examines the drug culture and let's you know why the high-life it ain't all it's "cracked" up to be.
Air Date: 6/14/06
"Break On Through" traces the birth of the counterculture, from the beboppers to the beatniks to the hippies. From the breakthrough, heroin-laced sounds of Charlie Parker, to the "bop prosody" of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, to the "tune in, turn on, drop out" psychedelic mantra of Timothy Leary, and the communal "acid tests" of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. and finally to the explosion of creativity and social change in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury in the mid-'60s. Episode One illuminates how marijuana and LSD helped a new generation to open "the doors of perception," and how drugs became the tool for challenging mainstream, conservative American values.
