Thursday, May 17, 2012

after bathing at baxters


on this day in 1968 i saw jefferson airplane, live, in california. this was probably the first concert i saw, other than the symphony. there was a great light show. and while i dont recall the song listing there is no doubt it was a great show, being the airplane afterall. drag out that copy of baxters folks, still one of the greatest records ever, and what a cover!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

not so long ago

several months ago someone asked me to tell them about the time i went over to see a j weberman in new york city to purchase some dylan tapes, in fact in august of '77. i said ok, but before i go into that i should preface the story with how i came to be in new york in the first place. well...35 years ago next week i left for my first trip to europe. ostensibly to buy records, and to visit morocco. both of which happened. left out of frisko...to new york...to iceland to change planes...landed in luxembourg....spent the next 6 weeks or so in germany, france, england - - with a delightful trip down to cornwall - - amsterdam, et al. eventually i went down to the south of france to see where the stones recorded 'exile'. in the delightful village of villefrance sur mer. i also saw nice for the first time. then it was train travel down the coast of spain, with a nite in valencia near the bull ring, and a night in marbella. then the ferry from algeciras to tangier. i wanted to talk to paul bowles about moroccan music. and i did. every day for 3 weeks. came back with 6 or 7 hours of cassette tapes. well, i missed a day. 'where were you yesterday' he asked. i dont remember! then, it was back to france for the flight to new york city for 5 days or so before returning to california...

ege bamyasi

its not that i havent wanted to speak with you, but there obviously have to have been some distractions these past few months. / not that i can mention them coherently right now, so you're going to have to trust me. but these past few weeks have been rather rainy, after a somewhat dry spring. we were gifted a dragon, so we should be able to put forth some transcriptions of what we affectionately refer to as kitchen table ramblings, maybe even prior to the solstice. finishing up 'always in trouble: the oral history of ESP Disk', a book recommended to all. the latest bernie krause title is also over here on the table. am also trying to make some sense of a manuscript i've been working on for years, ostensibly a memoir entitled 'tropical delusion'. most of it is written, we just have to shuffle some paragraphs around. wear white if you're on your bike, and do check back soon now, eh?