R.I.P. Marty Balin, January 30, 1942 – September 27, 2018

Paul Kantner and Marty Balin both gone now. I can't imagine how Grace Slick feels tonight.



I remember in Grace's autobiography that she wrote about sleeping with every member of the band except for Marty, but she made love to him every night on stage. That's so obvious in some of these duets. The Slick/Kantner mix has one kind of magic, but the Slick/Balin blend of voices was the early Airplane sound.

Happy 73rd Birthday to Jack Cassady

Paul Kantner 3/17/1941-1/28/2016

If there was one album that was my interior soundtrack as I finished high school and moved into college, it was Paul Kantner's Blows Against the Empire. I knew (I know) every note and every word up to and including this final song:

Hearing the unexpected news of Paul Kantner's death tonight is hitting me hard.

Syd Barrett would have been turning 70 today.

Here's one of Syd's hits (though Syd himself, perhaps appropriately, doesn't appear in the film):


As I was watching this early Pink Floyd video of 'See Emily Play,' I couldn't help thinking that it looked as if this must have had some influence on the creators of the Teletubbies. A very quick search of YouTube then revealed this:

Tinky Winky needs to start studying the choreography more carefully.

Happy Psychedelic Fourth of July from the US Information Agency (1975)

Jack Bruce 3/14/1943--10/25/2014

Unfortunately, we'll never see another Cream reunion like this one in 2005.

Ginger Baker is pleased at the end of this version of "White Room." But here's a version from the 60s with more vocals from Jack Bruce and more Wah pedal from Eric Clapton.


I'll sleep in this place with the lonely crowd;
Lie in the dark where the shadows run from themselves.

Spencer Dryden - Official Press Release from spencerdryden.com

Spencer Dryden - Official Press Release
Sad to see these icons of my youth passing from natural causes.
Listen to this and relive 1968: After Bathing at Baxter's

-- true blue liberal