Well yes. It was late last night and one item I wanted to include slipped my mind, fell on the floor, and was under my foot where I did not see it until this morning. Besides, I wanted to make some clarifications to something I posted on Facebook yesterday regarding politics and religion. But first, the update.

Going back to Fresh of Breath Air II, there was a section discussing the beginnings of Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band, including Mel Lyman and the proliferation of various hallucinogens in the New England folk scene in the early ’60s. I recall a psychedelic time line that was posted by Patrick Lundborg on one of his many Websites, and also included in the back of the second edition of The Acid Archives, indicating that there were no recordings found that support the use of hallucinogens among the folk community in New England in the early 60s. Well, I found one on the Newport Folk Festival recordings from 1964, specifically Volume 1 released in early 1965. The LP includes Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band, and on, “My Gal,” the last song of their set included on that LP the evidence appears shortly after the first minute of the song: “…but my gal gets high by eatin’ peyote… .” On the recording, at the close of the song the Jug Band received enthusiastic applause. There were no “boos” like there were a year later when Dylan went electric. Funny what gets people riled-up.

A clarification:

Now when I posted on Facebook that this was a music blog, and not a blog about politics or religion, I meant what I said. But then you may see that I have an entire post dedicated to Christian rock, with more to come.

Q: Isn’t this a religious post?

A: No. It is discussing historic facts. And those facts include religion. I’m not proselytizing nor condemning. I am stating what went down. You will note that I have posted about Ram Dass, who was a Jewish gay man named Richard Alpert who spent years in India and returned as Ram Dass, who came up with a different take on the mixing of Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Judaism in his teachings. To discuss only his drug involvement would be missing the point. The impact of Eastern Religions on 60s music cannot be ignored. Nor can the impact of Christianity. It is what it is.

Q: Aren’t you promoting Christian music when you speak highly of Christian recording artists?

A: Absolutely not! If someone is a great guitarist it doesn’t matter what their religion is. And, in Patrick Lundborg’s book The Acid Archives there are many Christian albums listed, not because of the Christian message in these albums, but because they are representative of a particular rock style, or psychedelic trappings, weirdness, or due to rarity and their collectible nature. I simply “follow the facts, wherever they lead.”

Q: Well, what about politics. Aren’t you getting political when you talk about the Vietnam War or Civil Rights?

A: Again, no! I go back to what I said about Christian rock. The Vietnam War happened. The Civil Rights movement happened. Songs were written about protesting against the war and for civil rights. Many of these songs are deeply rooted in the rock ethic, from which later sprang punk, metal, rap/hip hop, and alternative rock. I may as well not write anything if I cannot address the sociopolitical issues of the day and how they impacted the songwriters and performers and how such performances impacted social change.

So, now I have that off my chest I will look forward to creating my next post. The Popeswami has spoken.

See you later.

If you are a Facebook friend, you likely read my post saying I would soon be returning to the blogosphere. So, I’ve decided to keep my promise this time, and will attempt to be more regular in my posts. Perhaps if I keep them shorter it will be easier for me to do.

This is not a placeholder for a later, more informative post. I am going to do a bit of updating on a previous post. Specifically, it is my post of June 30, 2020, titled “A Fresh of Breath Air II.”  In that post I had made a distinction between those albums I own and those I do not. Well, time has changed that. I am happy to report that the following are now in my collection, in CD format:

Jim Kweskin and The Jug Band – Jug Band Music.

Jim Kweskin and The Jug Band – See Reverse Side for Title.

I was extremely fortunate to obtain the outrageously rare “Excerpts from The Acid Test” that was issued in 1966 on a seven inch 33 1/3 rpm record. It is in near mint condition, still in the brown paper sleeve that had some folds but was not torn. The seller told me he attended an acid test sometime in 1966 and Ken Kesey was handing them out. It is marked “For Radio Play Only. Not For Sale,” so I presume they had distributed them to all the radio stations they had planned and had some left over. I got it at a ridiculously low price. In addition, the seller sent a series of emails giving me information about other era happenings and details about the acid tests I would otherwise have never known, including a few photos. I discovered when playing this record that it is groove-locked, meaning you must pick up the needle at the end of one track and manually place it in the groove for the next track. It is a quite tedious process and makes it difficult to digitize without making mistakes. After several attempts at burning this to CDr, I had to rip the best CDr tracks I made to my PC and then edit out the mistakes to get a clean copy. I now have a flawless CDr of this rare item.

Neal Cassady Raps – I now have this seven-inch flexi disc burned to CDr.

In my June 23, 2020 post “Like a Fresh of Breath Air” I have one addition regarding the recordings of British philosopher and author, Gerald Heard. For some reason during the pandemic I began to see several copies of all the Gerald Heard vinyl releases from the late 1950s and early 1960s listed on eBay and Discogs. The first three LPs were listed individually while the second three LP set was listed both individually and in a box set. Long story short, I was able to obtain all three LPs from the first box set, plus the complete second box set all in near mint condition at very low prices. I have digitized and burned all to CDr.

Next time I will finish my post on the origins Christian rock in the United States. I discussed the United Kingdom origins of Christian rock in my post of June 3, 2023. I should be able to to accomplish this in one post. Then I will get back to the Breath of Fresh Air posts which may have to be done in several posts.

No photos this time, but next time for sure.