Deep into December 1969, I took the train into New York for my interview at Columbia University.\u00c2\u00a0 I remember walking up from the train station in Harlem, past the football field, onto campus where I was questioned by a recently graduated hipster completely unlike anyone I had previously encountered in the college application process.\u00c2\u00a0 I believe it was our discussion of movies and music that led to my acceptance.\u00c2\u00a0 But what I remember most about that blustery day was my stop at the local newsstand, where I purchased my very first issue of\u00c2\u00a0 "Roling Stone", for the ride back to Connecticut.<\/p>\n
The cover featured a pink scan of Mick Jagger and there were endless pages dissecting the tragedy at Altamont.\u00c2\u00a0 There was news that only I thought I was interested in.\u00c2\u00a0 I got home and I instructed my mother to cut a check, I needed to subscribe to "Rolling Stone".<\/p>\n
My first issue came a few weeks later, along with a copy of Jefferson Airplane’s "Volunteers".<\/p>\n
We were all familiar with "White Rabbit" and "Somebody To Love".\u00c2\u00a0 But although I heard "Surrealistic Pillow" at parties, I’d never purchased it, or "After Bathing At Baxter’s", or "Crown Of Creation", never mind "Bless Its Pointed Little Head".\u00c2\u00a0 But a free record from the San Fransisco icons?\u00c2\u00a0 That I wanted.<\/p>\n
I was enraptured by "Volunteers".\u00c2\u00a0 I can sing every note on the album.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only the title track and their take on "Wooden Ships", but "Good Shepherd", and "Eskimo Blue Day".\u00c2\u00a0 They played "Eskimo Blue Day" over our high school public address system, on the faux radio show before class, and the station was bounced from the air for two weeks.\u00c2\u00a0 It might not mean shit to a tree, but to the administration, swearing over the intercom was a federal offense.<\/p>\n
It was good to get out of jail, otherwise known as the public education system.\u00c2\u00a0 And towards the end of my first semester at Middlebury, my "Rolling Stone" subscription was drawing to a close.\u00c2\u00a0 I needed to re-up.\u00c2\u00a0 And stunningly, my money, around eight bucks if I remember correctly, was going to garner me TWO albums, "The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane" and "Blows Against The Empire".\u00c2\u00a0 Greatest hits albums have little impact, they don’t stick with you.\u00c2\u00a0 But concept albums, like this first opus from Paul Kantner’s Jefferson Starship, stay with you.\u00c2\u00a0 I had to download the tracks from Napster when the P2P system broke.\u00c2\u00a0 I needed to hear "Have You Seen The Stars Tonite".<\/p>\n
They don’t make music like this anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 Every album needs a hit.\u00c2\u00a0 Or if it’s not made for Top Forty, it’s not made for anybody but fans.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas "Blows Against The Empire" was a record you could play in your dorm room, no matter what was happening, and someone would always say "WHAT IS THIS?"<\/p>\n
The record was ethereal.\u00c2\u00a0 It was an aural adventure.\u00c2\u00a0 It was not of a genre, but a personal vision of the artist.\u00c2\u00a0 And I thought of its best track, my favorite track, "Have You\u00c2\u00a0 Seen The Stars Tonite", as I had dinner on a hillock, a few miles from Ayers Rock, in the dark.<\/p>\n
There were so many stars, you’d think it was a painting.\u00c2\u00a0 And the astronomer whipped out a telescope wherein we could see that so many of the stars were doubles, and colored.\u00c2\u00a0 It made me feel both insignificant, and part of something.\u00c2\u00a0 I was reminded of the old "Twilight Zone" episode "To Serve Man".\u00c2\u00a0 There HAD to be big foreheaded people out there, more developed than us.\u00c2\u00a0 There had to be SOMEBODY out there.<\/p>\n
And when the southern cross was pointed out, I thought of that Crosby, Stills & Nash record.\u00c2\u00a0 Overplayed, but written in the spirit of wonderment.<\/p>\n
We’re only here for a short time.\u00c2\u00a0 There are very few reference points that stick with us.\u00c2\u00a0 Two are the stars and the music.<\/p>\n
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