*
Apropos of Earth Day No. 1, which I deliberately avoided commemorating until today:This mellow Spirit number may be a bit old for even a precocious 59er to have fetished in 1970, but I remember the sounds, sights, and scents of the odd little hippie dungeon Fred's disinterested parents allowed him to construct in the basement. The room started out as a sort of studwall-framed CB radio shack, but was readily upgraded to alternate uses soon after I saw Easy Rider, bought my first pair of railroad stripe bell bottoms, and scored a nickel bag in the middle of the street during broad daylight in a Chicago suburb called Markham. I don't exactly remember the story of Fred's "evolution" at that point. But the important thing was that he tacked fake walnut paneling to the retrofitted basement studwall and we spent plenty of spare hours there listening to "underground" rock, including this song, gazing at blacklight posters illuminated by genuine ultraviolet tubes, and taking aromatherapy so to speak.
I don't know if there's any direct connection between the first Earth Day and "Nature's Way," but Wikipedia says that Spirit began recording the Dr. Sardonicus album in April 1970. I'm guessing yes.
I got sent to the office for "Leafletting." Sadly I can't remember where I got the leaflets. I think I sent away for them and they mailed them to me. I mean, I must have sent away for them. I sure didn't download them.
ReplyDeleteSent to the office --- haha! It must have been terrifying to face Mr. Roland in his Gestapo boots. Somewhere in my collection of artifacts I have at least one original Earth Day lapel button that you gave me. I vaguely remember that you came into possession of some sort of package that included leaflets and buttons, maybe even a blue chip bumper sticker.
ReplyDeleteAllot of what was happening around this period I saw "above ground", but the neighborhoods we lived in before and after were always full of older big brothers and sisters who unknowingly provided a "window", if you were paying attention. The "basement" would emerge a few years later for me at a friends house in the form of a converted bomb shelter that contained this massive record collection.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Earth Day flashback. Classic!!!
59er: in my neighborhood the older kids were either scary "greasers," as we called the gearheads and punks, or total cubes --- fans of the Tijuana Brass and stuff like that there. I pretty much stayed to myself in close proximity to a radio or comic books until that fateful evening with Larry K. and The Tuna when I saw... Easy Rider. After that I was all about bell bottoms and electric blue and pink point collar shirts from Chess King (not discerning that the store was reaching out for an African-American clientele). Then, next thing I know Gurlitzer is giving me Earth Day leaflets and ultra-dorky peace-type lapel buttons --- abstract doves with olive branches in beak, stuff like that....
ReplyDeletecubes??? wtf!
ReplyDeleteBO: you know, Vic --- moldy figs, squares. There was even a brick amongst you all. Zing! Haha!
ReplyDeleteI don't like rain, or snow, or hail /
Or Moby Dick, the great white whale /
But, mmm, I love onions... / Root toot doodle-ee-oot doot doo doot.
i'm hip.
ReplyDeleteIf tin whistles are made of tin then what do they make foghorns out of?
Boom boom.