> > > > Wow. Acid flashback, man. > > > > > > > > Really. I was in the first row, on acid. > > > > > > Was it enjoyable? Or a bit overwhelming? > > > > A bit of both. I'd met Jimi backstage earlier that day > > (I was on crew at Monterey...that's how I got to sit in > > the front row), but had no idea who he was. Almost nobody > > had any idea who he was except Lou Adler, who had booked > > him, The Who (who didn't want to follow him in the lineup, > > which is understandable), and Brian Jones, who introduced > > him. > > > > I saw him many times after that. He was a force of nature, > > by far the best musician of his rock generation. > > I never met him or saw him live, but some guys I was playing > with in a band went to his gig in Hartford, CT in the Spring > of '68 and spent the night in his hotel room getting stoned. > I had left the band to hitchhike to California, but after > that experience, they were inspired and called me back to CT, > wiring me $75 for the plane fare the first time I had ever > been on a jet. I hitched from JFK out to CT, and I remember > two rides. One near the airport from a guy who had hash in > his glove compartment and shared it with me, and another > from a truck driver who wanted me to have sex with him. That > was the first and perhaps only time I was ever propositioned > by a man and it made me very uncomfortable. I stayed with > that band several months, until I learned to meditate. We > could never remember what songs we knew because we were too > stoned to keep track. We played in a battle of the bands, > after several months of practice. The local kids greatly > anticipated this event as we each had good reputations as > musicians. We somehow assembled a huge wall of amps, and > before we went on, we went out to smoke some dope. While we > were gone, a member of a competing band turned all the bass > amp volumes up to the max.
Up to 11? :-) > When we started playing, it was booming confusion and none > of us could figure out what was wrong. One by one, the players > just walked off the stage, finally leaving me alone at the > drum set. Then I walked off. Fun stories, Rick. And fun times. It's nice to be able to look back on them and laugh at ourselves. I was never a musician myself. But back in college me and a bunch of friends promoted rock concerts and light shows around Southern California. We never made any real money, but we got to hire (and better yet, party down with) bands like Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Grateful Dead, the Doors, Buffalo Springfield, and others. Your story of trying to figure out what was wrong with the amps while stoned was like my stories of trying to run a concert while similarly impaired. :-) We never got to hire or work with Jimi Hendrix, but because it was a small community of rock promoters at that time and everybody knew each other, we got to get into every other promoter's concerts for free, so I got to see a lot of bands and hear a lot of music. That's how I wound up working on the crew at Monterey; Lou Adler needed bodies to help out with the first- ever rock festival, and so he called all the other promoters in California and asked them if they'd be willing to help out. We didn't get paid, but we got passes that got us backstage and into any of the concerts when we weren't working, and again we got to party down with the bands. I can thus tell you from personal experience that although The Who were the biggest name band there, the Grateful Dead had the best parties. And that Otis Redding was the nicest guy there. And that Brian Jones was possibly the most stoned individual I have ever encountered on planet Earth; he was so out there I began to wonder if he was really *from* planet Earth. And that Janis Joplin was very sexy but had bad breath. But then again, I probably did as well, because I was crashed in a camper with six or seven other people, with nary a toothbrush or a bar of soap among us. :-) Ah, the Summer Of Love. Better in memory than in actuality in some ways. And in other ways, maybe not. We weren't jaded then; life looked like it was going to be one long adventure. And for some of us, it turned out to be just that. As the Grateful Dead sang so sweetly: Sometimes the light's all shining on me Other times I can barely see Lately it occurs to me What a long, strange trip it's been Quicksilver at Monterey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqVVnExlX9c Buffalo Springfield: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFUFWVbPy5k Janis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGJynZNr7rk Ravi Shankar, part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3lRkHX_1zA Ravi Shankar, part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxEj_QRsdgE Simon and Garfunkel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqVhsGCotsQ The Grateful Dead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axAfNjgdey4 Jefferson Airplane: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWESLfWIEd4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZZ-3TC6D_w Pete Townshend on "Who plays first": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoK1LAugWnw The Who: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0duLjwVdJqE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHfEeKvK44M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYyuS-FFh58 Canned Heat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEOUWQ1Qm5I Otis Redding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZQwCwbWGfI The Byrds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAGylaoBt6M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noswW9LtXGU The Animals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULdHgO3eDzQ The Mamas & Papas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g0cRRak-i8 Jimi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz01umFhxTo
