From Dropping Out in Earnest and The Vipers
Warren is the songwriter, singer, rhythm guitar player, and he’s watching all this with some amusement because he’s known me for a couple of years now, all the way from when we first met when his band, which was then called The Vipers, after him, because he was known as The Viper then, when they invited me to come play with them the first time, up at Homer Lane, behind the campus, because they had their band together but they really needed a better drummer. It was great the first time we played together because it was probably also the first time a San Francisco rock band ever played with a light show, which of course became a very big thing. Roy Sebern had been working on mixing colors in big dishes which he would project up onto a screen while he was mixing and swirling them, and he figured it would go great with rock and roll. He was with the Pranksters, up in La Honda, at Kesey’s place, but they hadn’t really connected with the Grateful Dead yet, who might even have still been called the Warlocks. Anyway, somehow Roy found out Warren was going to be auditioning a new drummer and they put it together to do it in an abandoned shed at Homer Lane, so Roy could try out his light show idea. It was great playing along with the colors, and he swirled along with our music, and it all started flowing in together in a most amazing way. We knew we were on to something.
Excerpted from Warren and I On the Sidewalk in Front of the Blue House
The claim to historical precedence is almost certainly not accurate, It is a function of the manic enthusiasm of the narrator of that piece.