w_g: A bad trip is about a frightening experience as one can have in this life. When I had mine (on Lincoln’s birthday in 1968), the feeling of desperate terror was rapidly increasing just as Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow album was starting (my fellow tripper had put on that LP). I suddenly completely understood why some people had jumped off rooftops to end their bad trip nightmare.
I think my acid was cut with speed, cause I was buzzing like crazy (my three previous trips had been very calm and peaceful). Luckily, I felt sick to my stomach, and soon barfed all over the walls of the bathroom (when the vomit came out, it looked like the rainbow in the Yellow Submarine scene with the Blue Meanie. The stream looked like a solid, not a liquid ;-). I think throwing up actually saved my life, because soon after things calmed down, the fear subsiding.
Poor Syd Barrett, Skip Spence, Peter Green, and Brian Wilson were not so fortunate. I’ve been face-to-face with Brian twice, and when I looked in his eyes I saw that look of utter terror. I laughed out loud while watching the movie Ted when one of the characters reads the name of a particularly potent strain of weed: "This is forever" ;-). That was the fear I had at the height of my bad trip, to end up an acid casualty.
Yeah, The Sons Of Champlin were fantastic, one of the very few hippie bands I liked. Guitarist Terry Haggerty is a Jazz player, playing a big ol’ Gibson hollowbody (an L5 I believe). It saddened me to see Bill Champlin join Chicago, but I guess living poor got to be old. I’ve had the first two Sons albums since they were released, and just recently found four others for two bucks apiece at Music Millennium.
Another good San Francisco band was Dan Hicks’ Hot Licks. Originally a 3-pc (guitar, upright bass, and fiddle), when I saw them live in a converted movie theater right by San Jose City College in 1973 they had added a real good drummer, a Jazz player (using brushes a lot of the time). They swung like mad! The next time I saw fiddler Sid Page was when he appeared on stage with Van Dyke Parks, in the little theater in the rear of McCabes Guitar Shop in Santa Monica.
And for Garage Band fans, I can’t leave out The Flamin’ Groovies. They had a new album released a few years back, and they still sound like they always have: 1950’s Rock ’n’ Roll mixed with Merseybeat. I love ’em!
