Years ago a friend tried to turn me onto the underground psych-pop band, The United States of America. I could not get into them, but today I stumbled on this track, "I Won't Leave My Wooden Wife for You, Sugar," as well as some other cuts on YouTube, and I'm thinking I may have to reconsider this band. I can now appreciate the whimsy and subtle use of electronics like never before. Are there other prime cuts from their debut or other releases that I should revisit? Did the band members go on to do anything else of note? Thanks.

Sometimes I come up with the germ of an idea for discussion here in the Halls of Rock without knowing exactly where I expect things to go. This is one of those times. I think a lot about the notion of hippies and wish there was some kind of true neo-hippie vibe that I could be swept up in. I'm going to share a few thoughts on the matter and see if any of you have your own thoughts on the subject.

A few of you may have heard me say this story before, but when I was about 6 or 7 years old my parents, who were not hippies in any way but were pretty liberal in terms of the pop culture they'd expose me to, took me to a drive-in double-feature of Easy Rider and Hell's Angels on Wheels. We went with another family and their young boy. I still remember the other boy and I sitting atop the roof of our old station wagon, and I still remember the thrill I got from all the hippie stuff on screen that night: Dennis Hopper's mustache, the football helmet, the choppers, Steppenwolf, the bad biker in Hell's Angels on Wheels getting shot right between the nose bridge of his rectangular Roger McGuinn glasses... From that night forward I wanted to be a hippie.

Maybe a year or two later, I recall an older girl in my grandparents' neighborhood taking a bunch of us little kids to see to see the movie Willard. (Good god! As a parent of two preteen boys myself, what was going on in the late-60s/early-70s, with my not-normal-but-not-progressive, middle class family, taking me to a double-feature of hippie biker flicks and trusting a 12-year-old girl to take a group of 8 year olds to see another flick about a young man who loves rats?) The girl asked us what we wanted to be, and the other kids wanted to be butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers - the usual stuff. The girl got a real kick out of my wanting to be a hippie, but I recall walking her through my thought process - you know, getting to have long sideburns, a 'stache, a chopper, a cool helmet, shooting bad bikers right between the eyes... Honestly, to this day I still want to be a hippie, in the rebellious, searching, cowboy sense Easy Rider, and that's why I'm asking for your help in rebuilding Team Hippie for the Modern Age.

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It's been a little more than 11 months since I first posted this controversial view. One of the characteristics I most admire in our Townspeople is our ability to reconsider past views and objections. Now may be as good a time as ever for each of us to reconsider our initial opinions and for newer members of Rock Town Hall to chime in on this issue.

Frankly, I was surprised at the lack of support my query elicited. I didn't expect the majority of Townspeople to hear things as I heard them, but I surely didn't expect that the closest thing I got to agreement was a vote for plain, old Starship! Why don't you join me in reviewing our first discussion of these matters, replaying the supporting video clips, and sharing any new insights that may have resulted from your growth as a music listener? I look forward to your comments.

This post initially appeared 11/30/08.

Granted, Jefferson Airplane is a favorite whipping band among certain segments of Rock Town Hall - and I don't believe anyone who'd hang here like Jefferson Starship, but when you really think about it, Jefferson Starship may have produced a stronger quartet of songs than any four songs by Jefferson Airplane.

I speak specifically of a quartet of mid-70s Jefferson Starship songs:

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In honor of Peter, Paul, and Mary's Mary Travers, who died last night, what's the first "drug song" you were aware of as a child? By "aware," man, I mean, like, cognizant of the fact that adults around you were mumbling about the song's true meaning. As a young boy, I was aware that "Puff the Magic Dragon" has something to do with smoking...something. A couple of years later, I started hearing about the "true" meaning of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

Considering the demographic of our regular participants, it wouldn't surprise me if these two songs end up being the first two gateway drug songs for the majority of us. However, rumor has it that some of you may not have been shaving until 1980 or later. What would younger folks' first gateway drug songs have been in the second half of the '70s, the '80s, or - if our youngest Townspeople care to participate - the '90s?

If you'd also like to take this into Last Man Standing territory...

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This weekend the band I'm in with a few Townsman played semi-acoustic at a house concert. In 25 years (and then some) with the core of us playing together, I don't think we ever played as acoustic as we did on Saturday night: both of our guitarists played primarily acoustic stringed instruments (our other guitarist, Jim McMahon, played 12-string acoustic, mandolin, and something called a charango) only mic'd, not using any pickups, which we thought would defeat the purpose. The two of us even sat on stools, which I don't think I'd ever done in concert before, not even when I played in a primarily acoustic band with Townsman E. Pluribus Gergely. It was cool. I felt like one of the guys from Badfinger in Concert for Bangladesh.

There were some other firsts for our band that resulted from that gig, but perhaps the most significant one was it was the first time we ever covered a Grateful Dead song. The hosts for our show are Deadheads, and we wanted to give them a treat. The obvious choice was "Bertha," a Dead song that hints at a Motown beat and contains no extraneous "space" breakdowns. For some reason, I was the obvious choice to take the solo. In preparing for the solo, I asked myself, What would Jerry do?

Although I didn't have time to match his facility in moving up and down the neck in his loopy approach to the pentatonic scale, I could focus on a couple of keys that would unlock the secrets of Jerry's soloing style:

• Give all notes equal rhythmic weight, minimizing rests, syncopations, and the like.
• Maintain a pleasant, easy-going facade while soloing, avoiding the urge to make any kind of Rock Faces.

These two simple keys aided my performance. I stumbled on one segment of my solo and another time I unsuccessfully fought the urge to crack a sarcastic smile, but for the most part I felt like I'd learned something. Should I have the opportunity to play this or another Dead song in the future, what other keys might I find in unlocking the secrets to Jerry's soloing style?

For your pleasure, may I invite you to turn on with Eric Burdon and the Animals. Following are some tracks from the band's 1966 to 1968 period. You may recall we discussed this period last week. I'll spare you the studio version of my personal favorite, "San Franciscan Nights," and if you don't think "Sky Pilot" is one of the coolest "acid rock" songs ever we may have to part ways, baby.

As you listen to these tracks, think about the whole concept of Eric Burdon getting tuned in, think about an age in which Angry, Young Eric could begin to feel like he belonged, man. I mean, just a couple of years earlier he had to get outta that place. Check out the video that opens this thread and tell me you're not witnessing the transformation at work. These songs must have begun the process of lifting a tremendous weight off Angry, Young Eric.

"Don't Bring Me Down"

"Inside Looking Out"

"When I Was Young"

"Good Times"

"Monterey"

Another day, perhaps, we can explore the next phase of Eric's career, in which he wrestles with his Black Man's Burdon, so to speak.

As right as it is wrong, all the thrills and spills of a working-class, R&B-based musician dropping acid!

Do you prefer Eric Burdon pre- or post-"turning on?"

In seeking out some tracks and an entire album by Jefferson Airplane last night, I came across an album by another SF band I'd always heard about but never heard, Sons of Champlin. The album I stumbled across is called Follow Your Heart. After checking it out last night, I'm tempted to say that I've finally found a SF band I can sink my teeth into: really soulful singing, nice ensemble playing, little of the melodrama that has always bogged me down with Jefferson Airplane. Along with the title track, I was impressed by "Children Know," "Before You Right Now," "Hey Children," and "Child Continued."

Lately, I've been coming across a lot of articles online that attempt to show neophytes and the hippie-averse how to learn to love, or at least approach, The Grateful Dead.

How To Get Into The Grateful Dead

Resonant Frequency #59: Broken Thoughts and Hand-Me-Downs

Dead Reckoning: What Your Favorite Grateful Dead Song Says About You

For some reason, I love to read these articles, even as I remain apprehensive about listening to The Dead. But that's neither here nor there.

I'm wondering what other artists that could serve as the subject of these kinds of articles. I surmise: Not that many. This is because The Grateful Dead are the Perfect Storm of bands.

The Reasons:

1) They jam. And even beyond that, there is something in the organization of their sound, something about the laid-back-ness perhaps, that easily turns a lot of people off.

2) They have a voluminous catalog, especially with all the bootlegs and whatnot. Steely Dan turn a lot of people off with their jazz chords and tasty licks, but they do not have a legendary live career and tapers' community.

2) Their fans are hippies. Zappa doesn't get as much hatred as the Dead, I think partially because people respect his lifelong disdain for hippies.

But I'd love to be proven wrong. Is any other band such a Perfect Storm of love and hate as The Grateful Dead? Did I miss any other aspects of The Dead's Perfect Storm? Do let me know.

I'm not going to get caught up in some pointless discussion centered around notions of Krautrock. I've been gaining interest in a couple of these German bands from the '70s, but thinking of them as some separate movement solely based on their nationality seems wrong to me, like comparing The Busboys to Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix just because they are all black.

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