http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAQE-tHjPAc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2uQyP-I2VI

now, this one was my vocal with our band...we couldn't figure out how to get the slide effect on the guitar...it was an open tuning which was over our heads as little kid imitators...

I read in Keef's book that when they hooked up with Brian Jones he was the top slide guitarist in London...

Gawd, I misread the title - I thought it said Dobie Gray GRIP and was expecting to read of a variation on the 'six pack grip'...

here's another corny harmonizing tune but for me just as evocative of the 70s as Dobie Gray...the smell of soaked thru woollen underwear that we used to wear in the snow in the winter in the woods in Oregon, of sodden boot leather an' me thinkin' do I want to do this forever as I was a heartbeat away from becoming a career logger...I soon chucked it and returned home to friends and family in LA but remembering the following tune...Poco was formed from the remnants of Buffalo Springfield in the 60s...

and then there was Neil Young who was with Poco in the beginning and left an imprint in the late 60s...and I remember walking about the Sierra in northern Calfornia with suitable gear in winter having taken too much acid in the immediate past and humming 'round and round we spin...' eating cheap mac and cheese cooked on a little stove and sleeping in the snow with a good down sleeping bag (no tent, just a piece of plastic to cover) and fresh as the new fallen snow the next morning...put boots in the sleeping bag so that they wouldn't freeze...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmkqUbCU7xE

then...there is the rockin' Neil Young

folks, they would say: 'why you like wanderin' about in de snow when you could be snug in bed wid a good woman?'...and I would say: 'cobwebs...too many cobwebs and clutter...and personal freedom is no freedom at all...and Lenin slept in de snow whe he crossed into Russia from Finland...mutter, mutter...'...

and here

tutsi returning to the SF bay area to successfully pursue engineering studies after bein' drunk and in jail 10 years previous...but I fooled 'em...it's so corny it makes me cry but a nice song none the less...

and then there was tutsi on the platform waititng for the 'M' car in front of SF State ruminating over a bad engineering exam result and then I saw a young woman with a short skirt approaching a handsome man and both smiling like they had sex together recently and I stared...in wonder as I could not believe that I had been so stupid with the bad exam result...they excluded all the others on the platform with their sexual enthusiasm and probably would have jumped each others bones right there on the streetcar platform...they were young university students and in love and I was a miserable engineering student, on looking...

and then I swore to the heavens above that I would be happy too with a big salary and lots of money...and then I tasted the fleshpots of south east asia and was hurled from the etherial western sky in hideous ruin and combustion...those kids on the streetcar platform had a story to tell...

R.I.P. Etta James

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQXxxx7OybU

R.I.P. Etta James

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQXxxx7OybU

amen...Etta used to play in small clubs around Oakland in the 70s but I never did get to see her, she was an institution...a guy I knew that fronted a band named his unit The East Bay House Rockers...he took his moniker from the name of one of Etta's early bands...a white boy and he was an ace guitarist but an insipid vocalist but we useta have a few drinks and a laugh talkin' about music at Brennan's...he was a great Etta fan...

oh,man...'knock on wood' I remember from my adolescent sojourn in Nashville in 1967...them white southerners may have been racist as shit but they liked good music...couldn't reconcile somehow and I remember heaving sweaty masses of white flesh on the dance floor when that tune came on...listen to it carefully and you can see where Jimi Hendrix got some of his moves...

let's see now...

we useta play this in a band I was in in 1964...my mate got his mom to buy him a brand new Fender Precision Bass but ended up as lead singer with maracas and tutsi was the bass player....

recently in VN at the site office the attractive female admins were seated in an alluring arrangement I couldn't help but burst in and shout: 'pretty maids all in a row!' and then do a James Brown turn...that got a lot of giggles....the managers were unimpressed but they were a dour stalinist lot anyway...

when I was living in Brighton on the way walking into work I would pass a black man exercising frequently on the pavement from steep grade from the rail station down below...I thought: 'that can't be Rufus Thomas...he must be 100 years old'...then later I discovered that it was the english middle weight prize fighter Chris Ewbank who lived in the neighborhood and the resemblance was remarkable...

I had always acknowleged with a nod when on my in to work like most folks do in western countries...then one day I said: 'hey, Chris..' and he passed by and said: 'say...' with a smile that said: 'now you know who I am...'

he killed an opponent in the ring once that ignited a debate regarding boxing sport in England but it wasn't his fault...quite a character...

They're having a Northern Soul all nighter in town on the night after my 63rd birthday. I've bought myself a ticket. Apparently the dance floor is full of backflips with zimmers

They're having a Northern Soul all nighter in town on the night after my 63rd birthday. I've bought myself a ticket. Apparently the dance floor is full of backflips with zimmers

you talkin' about the Assembly Rooms in Derby? then rock on, boy...maybe the local CAMRA will set up a beer stall...them anoraks know how to party...

http://www.soulovereasy.co.uk/

I was hoping for something a bit more chemical than beer...

chemical substances at the assembly rooms in a market town in the east midlands of England...that takes some thinking about...but hold on, I'll check me schedule and join ye...

and then there's tutsiwarrior doin' the hully gully with the cutest asian gurl in town... and then some punk sez: 'keep yer filthy hands offa me sister...' an' tryin' to uphold family honor...and then tutsi sez: 'get fcuked, Ranjit as I have only10 more years to live...' and then the cudgels come out and the baseball bats and endure and tutsi stand firm on the dance floor...

someone should prepare the film treatment now...

chemical substances at the assembly rooms in a market town in the east midlands of England...that takes some thinking about...but hold on, I'll check me schedule and join ye...

and then there's tutsiwarrior doin' the hully gully with the cutest asian gurl in town... and then some punk sez: 'keep yer filthy hands offa me sister...' an' tryin' to uphold family honor...and then tutsi sez: 'get fcuked, Ranjit as I have only10 more years to live...' and then the cudgels come out and the baseball bats and endure and tutsi stand firm on the dance floor...

someone should prepare the film treatment now...

That depends on whether Ranjit is a hansum man...

chemical substances at the assembly rooms in a market town in the east midlands of England...that takes some thinking about...but hold on, I'll check me schedule and join ye...

and then there's tutsiwarrior doin' the hully gully with the cutest asian gurl in town... and then some punk sez: 'keep yer filthy hands offa me sister...' an' tryin' to uphold family honor...and then tutsi sez: 'get fcuked, Ranjit as I have only10 more years to live...' and then the cudgels come out and the baseball bats and endure and tutsi stand firm on the dance floor...

someone should prepare the film treatment now...

That depends on whether Ranjit is a hansum man...

ah ha...a new twist to the plot...

then Ranjit sez with his menacing crew: 'yew think that a stinkin' yank and his objectionable associate shall intimidate us???...this is the east midlands of England!!!...'

blood and mayhem ensues and tutsi shouts: ' we'll kick yer bleedin' hindu <deleted> up and down the street!!!...'

to continue: the CAMRA anoraks sip their beer and observe, bemused...

just another Saturday night in a market town in the east midlands of England...while motown pulses in the background...

'hey Shaheelah...come over here babe...yew gots de finest brown equipment I ever did see...'

then, Keef powers up with Brown Sugar...

meanwhile, out in de street the mayhem continues...

so, then one could say that there is a connection between rock an' roll, violence and unwanted teenaged pregnancies and the founding fathers in the 50s were correct in wanting to banish the corrupting influence...

'do you really think that my brown equipment is sexy?...'

'I just know that I want to smell your unclothed private parts...'

queue jimi and Foxy Lady: 'here I come babe...I'm comin' t'getcha...'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC4WXown03c

R.I.P. Etta James

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQXxxx7OybU

I gotta say that this recording is one of the best I've heard of dust my broom even with the harp substituting for the slide bit...Etta's vocal is huge but the production is fantastic...it's like I was sittin' in front of the stage at a blues club in Oakland...that tight rockin' sensibility is something that I miss the most about the US and it's music...

doped up an' sittin' around with me mate and Mississippi Fred Mc Dowell he sang: 'I woke up on Monday mornin' and I throwed my books away...I wrote the teacher a letter and said I'll try hiway 61 today...'

the letter writing theme and de blues...you dig? get yer sleeping bag an' head on down to de freeway on ramp and move on down de road...a crisp early morning in winter in 1969 hitchhikin' on de 101 highway outside of Monterey, CA and traipsen down blowin' notes on de harmonica; a late 60s version of ultimate personal freedom... we whooped and hollered and there were folks waitin' fer us in town for Thanksgiving...

I slept in my sleeping bag under a road bridge outside of Canberra on Highway 31 one night back in the 70s.

Never been so cold in my life, woke up and had to shake the frost off my blanket.

Yes, Canadians, I know it wasn't REALLY cold but it still seemed like it to me.

yeah...sometimes sleeping out on the road ain't so romantic...I haveta admit...

a cop comes by, all mirror shades and menace and sez: 'I see you here 30 minutes from now and yer goin' to jail...'

'bbbut...what about the freedom of the road?, Jack Kerouac and Bob Dylan? it's our right and part of our great American Heritage...' pissin' in the wind; most cops are uneducated, bullying ignorant shits anyway...but they got families to support, I know, I know...

And if you're sleeping on the road you got no money to contribute to said law enforcement expenses.

Surprising the lack of love you get though, I was hitching with a mate near a place called West Wyalong around dusk and we were thinking about lighting a fire and heating up a few tins when a woman pulled up in a car and asked if we had seen two teenage girls who had gone missing.

I think we ran the next 5 miles (away from West Wyalong) until we got a lift.

yeah...an' I remember housewives in curlers in gigantic recreational vehicles givin' me the finger...and little kids sticking out their tongues and waggling them about in total disrespect and I shook my fist and shouted: 'Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman would never forgive what you do!!...'

sometimes couldn't even get a burger at the local Dairy Queen drive in...'this is a drive in and ye gots to have a car to be served around here...'

but then one time I was outside a fried chicken place lookin' at the menu with a tall bud in a paper bag and the attendant inside came out with a bag of chicken wings and said: 'here's your order...'...I wasn't hungry but I wanted to hug and kiss him...

I slept in my sleeping bag under a road bridge outside of Canberra on Highway 31 one night back in the 70s.

Never been so cold in my life, woke up and had to shake the frost off my blanket.

Yes, Canadians, I know it wasn't REALLY cold but it still seemed like it to me.

Hitchhiking from Whitehorse to Coeur d'Alene in 1976. Had to sleep under a bridge outside Kamloops B.C. overnight. How was I to know that the public had been alerted not to pick up hitchhikers due to a nearby prison escape? Had to walk into town and take the bus to Spokane. I was a lot more durable then.

I was up near Mackenzie in northern BC in 1971 walkin' down the road and coming from the other direction was a dude headin' south down to Kamloops to go fruit pickin'...we exchanged the usual pleasantries regarding jobs and etc and some tobacco and then he reached in his pocket and came up with a handful of seconals and said: 'have some...'...I took three and then watched the sun go down over Mackenzie lake...the dude just smiled and walked on down the road...

memorable...

hey...this is great...let's hear some of your hitch hiking stories and the music to accompany...a brit I knew was picked up by a bunch of drunken indians (native americans) near Seattle and he thought that they were gonna scalp him and escaped outta a bathroom window leaving his goods behind...I was with a bunch of crazy drunken indians on payday near Fort St James in BC goin' about 100mph on a dirt road near the sawmill where we worked and I was drunk too but I thought that we were gonna die...

then one night I was dropped off near some creepy junction somewhere in northern BC in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night and I went off into the brush to sleep and there were frightening noises...heavy crunching sounds like there were threatening wild beasts...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHF558u6Q_8

I hitched from Cairns in North Queensland to Adelaide and Brisbane to Adelaide another time, some long distances.

I never thought much about real danger but a guy stalked me in a car once, I'm pretty big and I was young then so I wasn't too worried but there was something about how he kept driving past and slowing down and looking at me.

Years later I realised I was in an area known as the Belanglo State Forest where a guy named Ivan Milat buried seven backpackers a few years later.

Maybe he was cruising around building up his courage back then.