“Tune in, Turn on, Drop Out” or “Turn On, Tune in, Drop Out” ?

“Tune in, Turn on, Drop Out”

The slogan for an entire generation, or at least the ones on the counter-cultural spectrum, from Haight & Ashbury to Woodstock and beyond. The phrase itself was coined by LSD guru, Timothy Leary, who insisted he was a “hope pedlar”, and whose zest for life inspired drug experimentation and free love.

However I was surprised to see the cover of Timothy Leary’s book, because the phrase is actually “TURN ON, Tune in, Drop Out”, instead of “TUNE IN, Turn on, Drop Out”

I thought there was a mistake, but I confirmed on a wiki that it had been that way since the Human Be-in: “Turn on, tune in, drop out” is a counterculture-era phrase popularized by Timothy Leary in 1966. In 1967 Leary spoke at the Human Be-In, a gathering of 30,000 hippies in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and phrased the famous words, “Turn on, tune in, drop out”.

Looking through the archives, it seems there’s some genuine confusion surrounding the phrase, attributing “Tune in, Turn on, Drop Out”, to Timothy Leary, the documentary of the same name and the rallying call for a rebellious generation.

I think Timothy Leary would have enjoyed the delight of an apparent omnijective world!

See more “Tune in, Turn on, Drop Out” news clippings:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsm6Q3kE9