When I first came to Boston in 1984 I met some local poets and went to readings and listened to people who got on stage. Before that it never occurred to me to write poetry. My first time on stage, before I wrote my own poetry, I read the poem Celebration of the Lizard by the Doors. It is an amazing Jim Morrison poem because of the many shifting cadences. It starts out slow then it’s fast. Then it is loud and that turns into a whisper. I wondered how a 23 year old kid could write something with so much variety. It’s like a roller coaster of ups and downs. Then I heard an interview with Ray Manzarek explaining that at UCLA fil school he and Jim took a class with Joseph Von Sternberg. He was the director of Marlene Dietrich films. He taught them montage….how to juxtapose scenes in a movie fast slow, loud, and soft. So that is where they got it from.
When Jimi Hendrix was playing in Greenwich Village bars in the late 60s he was pretty much ignored. Chas Chandler, late of the Animals, became his manager and took him to London when Hendrix had about$10 in his pocket. On his first night there Chandler took him to perform at a rock club. In that audience was Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Eric Burden, Pete Townshend, and Eric Clapton. Of course he was suddenly a big local hit. Later he came to the Monterey Pop Festival as one of the British rock bands like The Who. That of course got him recognized in America and lead to his appearance at Woodstock.
Speaking of Woodstock which happened in 1969 the history books tell you it was all peace and love and the Woodstock nation/the coming of the tribes. Etc. It was pretty true in away. After the disaster in Altamont a few months later rock journalists said that Woodstock was the beginning of the communal counterculture and that it died at Altamont. That is a complete crock of bull.
I went to the Strawberry Field rock festival in the summer of 1970 with 80,000 people. Everybody got along fine. People helped each other and had a good time. The only minor problem was when this guy on acid ripped of his clothes, ran through the crowd on all fours like a dog and climbed up to the top of the light tower howling at the moon.
Last week I met a woman at a Halloween party dressed as a 60s go-go girl with miniskirt etc. That reminded me of something. When Light my Fire came out, Satisfaction, Sgt. Peppers, etc. in the summer of 1967 we would go to rock clubs and guys and girls would dance to rock and roll music. When I tell that to people they don’t believe me. After disco came around almost no one remembered that people actually danced to rock and roll.
Posted by mcusiman
at 2:01 PM EDT
Updated: Thursday, 3 November 2011 8:14 PM EDT
