When The Music's Over

It's forty years since the mischief & mayhem of Haight Ashbury reached monumental propotions with an influx of thousands to the Valhalla of the day in San Francisco. Psychedelia reigned supreme and the dawning of a new cultural revolution was on the brink of exploding across the globe. Surrealistic Pillow, Sgt. Pepper, Moby Grape, were all instrumental in defining The Woodstock Generation as we pandered to the Peace & Love motif that soured by late that year predicated on the distribution of dangerous two narcotics. The zest for personal identity would soon become obscured by the increase in crime as psychedelics and marajuana gave way to cocaine & heroin. The hype that was ignited by the sensationalism of the neoteric "hippies" of the daybegan to simmer and political bands like Country Joe & The Fish were now relegated to mediocrity as the news was not about the past but involved in the trappings of the genre and the increase of death by the drugs now honing in on the bay all the way from NYC. The pundits of The Counter Culture would immerse themselves in various activism endeavors but the damage had been done and enchantment that lingered over this tiny bastian adjacent to Golden Gate Park during it's brief existence as a Bohemiancapitol was now relegated to the memories of those who were there. The dissention that once existed has endured although tolerence was the bi-product of our involvement with protest that led to global polarization. Cynicism was synonymous with the poltical war in Vietnam and escalation of troops would only mean more demonstrations. We are back now, survivors of a weary generation but prepared to celebrate the ideology and music that we used as a commom elixor for our problems. Gone are the fabled haunts like The Matrix, The Fillmore West, Winterland & The Avalon Ballroom, and gone are Pigpen, John Cippolina, Spencer Dryden Janis Joplin, and a few others of this iconic Mecca. Actually most are still there in spirit but under the guise of a tea garden or coffee boutique. I suppose we gather more for each other than for selected bands or musicians but...we remainas a force in todays society, 64 % of the population are those referred to as baby-boomers. To perpetuate may be the key as the youth of today must come to terms with their own political quagmire, i.e., Iran &Iraq. Just as we did back in the day, they are accountable for the perspective of their decade just as we were with ours. Although some things really do change, our clandestine collection can now ponder over our choices as we await the efforts of this generation. There is a possibility that someone will take the reigns of luxury and off we will go seeking a better way for cultural acceptance through the work of each other and a committment to make co-existing on thisplanet a priority for perpetuity. Much like American Indians, we were many and now somewhat less, but we were adventurous, experimental, curious and daring so along our chosen path, amny of our selected familu have passed on from this realm long with many of the heroes of our youth. The saving grace is and will remain that if there is bt one of us left, we all live vicariously through that survivor. It's a four decade triumph, a celebration of our defiance as the first generation to rebel against traditional values all the while combating the decadence and destruction of haphazard politics and an unwarranted war. We are more weathered now, but the search continues as we seek universal harmony through the music that defined us and continues toconjur the memories of protest and anti-stablishment. As we embark on these selected sojourns to Monterey and Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park, a toast to those who were the pillars of our beloved culture and lifesryle seems appropriate. So, for Jerome John Garcia, Pigpen, John Cuppolina. Janis, James Marshall Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Skip Spence, Spencer Dryden and others, Bill Graham and my friend Chet Helms....we venture for you and because of you.

Cheers to the ghosts of Avalon and to all of us, ..the wheel continues to turn.

Peace - Don