As a member of the septuagenarian generation, I’m probably considered old and in the way. That said, your piece reminded me of a concert I attended in the Sixties, not a big one and probably remembered by few.
I was in high school and went with friends to visit some other friends who had run away from home. They were living in a tent in a town called Canyon or maybe a community is a better way to describe it. It’s in between Oakland and Moraga. We heard the Fish were playing there.
It seemed like no one owned most of the land in the steep canyon and people were essentially squatting there, living in tree houses and other creative dwellings, but my young friends just had a camping tent.
We smoked a bunch of hashish and when concert time was nearing we headed off high on the hillside to the baseball field by the school and post office that were pretty much the whole town.
That song you mentioned came floating through the trees, first the guitars, then Jesse singing...
“Love is but a song we sing
Fear's the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Though the bird is on the wing
And you may not know why”
It was the perfect song for that moment in time, for my somewhat lost g-g-generation. My runaway friends were on the wing without knowing why. I suppose it was for “peace and love,” or “freedom” to do whatever. But as Janis and Kris said, “Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose.”
I’m told my friends ended up living in the Haight eventually, starting on the streets and moving up to a Victorian. I lost track and don’t know where they are now.
Looking Canyon up on Wikipedia I found word of the concert, so maybe it isn’t forgotten: “In the late 1960s, Canyon became a center of political and social protest and creative alternative lifestyles… In the summer of 1967 Country Joe and the Fish with the Youngbloods played a benefit for the Canyon School.”
A Wikipedia mention is something, so I guess we were actually part of history. "You shoulda been there, man."
Thoughts on Get Together
As a member of the septuagenarian generation, I’m probably considered old and in the way. That said, your piece reminded me of a concert I attended in the Sixties, not a big one and probably remembered by few.
I was in high school and went with friends to visit some other friends who had run away from home. They were living in a tent in a town called Canyon or maybe a community is a better way to describe it. It’s in between Oakland and Moraga. We heard the Fish were playing there.
It seemed like no one owned most of the land in the steep canyon and people were essentially squatting there, living in tree houses and other creative dwellings, but my young friends just had a camping tent.
We smoked a bunch of hashish and when concert time was nearing we headed off high on the hillside to the baseball field by the school and post office that were pretty much the whole town.
That song you mentioned came floating through the trees, first the guitars, then Jesse singing...
“Love is but a song we sing
Fear's the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Though the bird is on the wing
And you may not know why”
It was the perfect song for that moment in time, for my somewhat lost g-g-generation. My runaway friends were on the wing without knowing why. I suppose it was for “peace and love,” or “freedom” to do whatever. But as Janis and Kris said, “Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose.”
I’m told my friends ended up living in the Haight eventually, starting on the streets and moving up to a Victorian. I lost track and don’t know where they are now.
Looking Canyon up on Wikipedia I found word of the concert, so maybe it isn’t forgotten: “In the late 1960s, Canyon became a center of political and social protest and creative alternative lifestyles… In the summer of 1967 Country Joe and the Fish with the Youngbloods played a benefit for the Canyon School.”
A Wikipedia mention is something, so I guess we were actually part of history. "You shoulda been there, man."