Hippies at the Bar
When we heard Cosmic Spacers would be playing at Dew Drop Inn
all the freeks in the park got real freaked out.
An acid rock bamd in a bar? we said.
Like with all the juicers around amd all?
You think they will be serving beer that night?
Bad vibes, man, all that alcohol energy. Shit.
Dig it, hey listen, I bet they have a cover charge.
You have to pay money just to get in the door.
Oh, wow, man, bad karma.
Do the Cosmic Spacers know how bad
they're losing touch with their brothers amd sisters?
Are they that hungry for money
they're going to start playing our music for the straights?
Bad scene, baby.
Well you know they can't really play acid music without us.
Our spiritual energy supports their riffs.
Without telepathic feedback from us, their jams would go nowhere.
They might be tripping on a thousand mikes,
but without freeks there grooving on the music,
all they can play is strictly from fucking Surf City.
We ought to leave them alone and let them learn that.
Our music is sacred like acid, you know?
Nobody has any right to charge money for it.
Just like with acid, if it's not free it's fucking worthless.
So nobody among the real people was going to go
down to hear the Cosmic Spacers play at the bar.
Later, though, we heard Moon Man was going to be at the door.
Moon Man was supposed to take the money to get in.
He said he would let all the hippies go in for free.
If that cost his job, well, it was worth it.
There were always other jobs.
If not, what the fuck?
Life wasn't about jobs.
Life was about helping your brothers and sisters hear their music.
Dig it, can you dig it?
Right on, Moon Man. See you down there.
The day of the show was the first day those two runaways were at the pad.
Blossom found them at the park and brought them in for some stir fry.
They had some real righteous hash.
That was, I think, Melissa and Merilee.
They looked, I don't know, about fourteen or fifteen.
Melinda was the tall one with sandals and that long shirt thing,
and Mary Sue with the chest wore jeans and that neat see-through blouse.
But I think it was the other way around. I always get their names wrong.
We took them with us to see Cosmic Spacers.
Moon Man was sitting on a stool at the door of Dew Drop Inn.
He was waving hippies through and stopping the straights to ask them for money.
Well, that was cool. The straights believed in money.
They were the ones who should have to pay it out.
He looked at us funny when he saw Marybeth and Melanie.
Shit, if he wanted ID's he would be out of luck. None of us had any ID's.
I waved at him and we all went in.
Talk about some fucking juicers, man.
Most of those people looked like they were just there for the beer.
Like, it was sleazeville all over.
A lot of the stools were taken up by rowdy rednecks.
Two tables were full of noisy bikers.
A bunch of spade cats from uptown had some of the booths.
Those older chicks with the cool clothes but lousy makeup,
must have been real whores.
A tight little knot of pointy-shoe gangsters kept a table
to which scrawny pale nervous junkie types came and went
swiftly like messengers.
There was a sore-thumb pair of brown-shoes in the uniforms of plainclothes cops.
The other straights with all the elbows to lean on
lounging in favorite stools like they were home
yeah they were regulars, the real juicers.
You had to wonder if all these people really cared about love and peace.
The heads like us were all milling around with no drinks
waiting for the band to crank up.
I could feel waves of anticipation wash through the crowd
and my acid was coming on.
I hugged Blossom and showed her Medicine Bow and Snake Eyes coming in the door.
Meribelle and Melinda went over to talk to the bikers.
Somebody on stage plucked out a random note.
Snake Eyes gave me a joint.
Medicine Bow hugged Blossom.
See, Blossom had stayed with him a couple days last week.
That was cool, he didn't use it up.
I checked out Blossom real good.
None of her parts were worn out.
Medicine Bow told me if our karma went different ways
he could care for a lady like Blossom.
I said cool but Angel was taking Blossom to Boston.
He said whatever is, is right.
I didn't tell him how much that saying annoyed me.
I thought it was bullshit.
So that's where that was at.
Medicine Bow was rapping to Blossom and edging her away.
So I went over to the bar to buy a Coke.
Snake Eyes went with me.
She told me Medicine Bow was going to Florida
and wanted Blossom to go with.
I said to Snake Eyes if Medicine Bow left town
she should come down to our pad.
She said that was groovy because it was so much closer to the park.
I gave her a couple hits of acid and she ate them.
The band fired up a down-home blues number.
I got my Coke and looked for Marianne and Melody.
They were rapping with the plainclothes narks.
That didn't seem like such a good idea.
I eased over their way to try to catch their eye.
Blossom picked up my vibes from across the bar.
She shook off Medicine Bow and drifted in to help.
The band signed off the blues and tried a good-rockin' song.
Together Blossom and I wedged the teenyboppers away from the pigs
and out toward the door. Snake Eyes ran interference as our rear guard.
When we went out, Moon Man grinned at me.
Man, you like living dangerously, he said.
No way, man, I just like living, I told him.
He peered in at the dark bar.
Heat's on, he announced. He pulled out a key.
Go in here for a little while.
Wait on the stairs till the cops leave.
He opened a creaky door for us.
I stumbled up a dark staircase with four neat chicks.
Somebody rubbed my ass but I didn't care who.
We sat on the wooden steps and felt the bass notes shake them.
I pulled out the joint Snake Eyes had handed me earlier and we toked up.
The music got quiet and we could hear Moon Man talking loudly to the cops.
After a minute we heard their flat feet bouncing around the corner.
I ate the roach and passed my Coke around to the thirsty ones.
Snake Eyes was on my step.
I caressed her breasts in the dark.
I figured she was really pretty if you like blondes.
A person could learn to like blondes.
The girls seemed to be waiting on me to say something.
I said, we need to head back to the pad.
Oh wow, Blossom said. The band's just getting started.
They were spinning into their third number.
I laughed. It actually was a surfing song.
I said, they can't jam out tonight. It's not their crowd.
They feel too cramped, and they can't cut loose.
Oh yeah, it'll get better in about an hour or so,
but they'll never feel free tonight. It's not worth hanging around for.
Anyway, we have to get our M & M's off the street.
Merilee and Melinda giggled.
So let's split this scene. Dig.
The teenyboppers went out.
Blossom followed.
Snake Eyes said just a minute.
She gave me a kiss that didn't mean what if
and didn't mean maybe later.
We would have to see about this. We walked out.
Blossom said somebody had to tell Medicine Bow what was going down.
Right, I said.
We would walk the back way if she wanted to catch up with us
or else we would be at the pad.
Blossom looked at me and nodded real slowly. Right on, she said.
I felt a real tight lump in my throat.
Blossom went back in the bar
and the rest of us trucked on down the street.
Outasite.
 |
 |
 |
rev 980309
