‘We tried to levitate the Pentagon’: the almost unbelievable life of Ed Sanders, trickster god of the US counterculture

We attempted to make the Pentagon hover: the nearly unbelievable story of Ed Sanders, the trickster deity of America’s counterculture

He supplied Jimi Hendrix with his equipment, unsettled Frank Sinatra, sparked Norman Mailer’s creativity – and endeavored to dismantle the US war apparatus. As a documentary focusing on his band the Fugs is released, the 87-year-old grants an uncommon interview.

“Charles Manson once sent me a note stating, ‘If I possessed the power you claim, you wouldn’t be here,’” Ed Sanders tells me during a video conversation, relishing the menace embedded in that statement.

Sanders is an American nonconformist; a musician, poet, activist, journalist, and writer whose most notable achievement remains his best-selling 1971 work The Family, where he detailed the lives, offenses, and legal proceedings of Manson and his associates. Sanders was ideally situated to document deranged hippies, having been instrumental in initiating the US counterculture – though he strongly advocated for peace, love, and heightened awareness, unlike Manson’s catastrophic perspective. Continue reading...