Music
When thinking of altering consciousness music has to be an equally strong
component.
I was always aware of music. Sound has been a large part of my life from
infancy. In fact, one of my first memories was of music. My mom had a piano
which she practiced on daily.
These were times when I twirled and danced
and spun around and made up songs. I was a ballerina, I was a ballroom
dancer, I was high!
I also remember on a summer vacation (maybe to the campsite) when my father
tuned in a country western station. I had never heard music with a beat like
that. Guitars twang, base guitar with the beat of it's own, and the drums.
Pleasure must have shown on my face. My dad said, "you like that music don't
you? " Please don't ever let it end" is all I could reply.
At is 1965, I was 15 and going to one of the kick-ass concerts of my
life. Big Brother and the Holding Company was coming to the Terrace Ballroom
on Main Street, Salt Lake City.
The Terrace Ballroom has long since been torn down. Sad that such a
wonderful piece of Americona and icon of the old days is plowed under to
make room for more corporate offices or parking lots of large corporate offices.
Some really great musicians came from SLC.
The backup members of the Mothers studied at Westminister Collage, and attended
Highland High .Zappa
COQ: Another woman of infamy in your world was Suzy Creamcheese.
What's her storv?
Zappa: Suzy Creamcheese was a girl named Jeanme Vassoir. And she is the voice
that s on the Freak Out album. The mvth of Suzy Creamcheese, the letter on
the album, I wrote myself. There never really was a Suzy Creamcheese. It
was just a figment of my imagination until people started identifying with
it heavily. It got to weird proportions in Europe, so that in 1967. when
we did our first tour of Europe. people were asking if Suzie Creamcheese
was along with us. So I procured the services of another girl named Pamela
Zarubica, who was hired to be the Suzy Cream cheese of the European tour.
And then she maintained the reputation of being Suzy Creamcheese after 1967.
The first one went someplace, we don't know where. She's back in town now;
I saw her.
COQ: What was the origin of the name Suzy Creamcheese? Is there a sexual
connotation?
Zappa: I think it came from a dream.
COQ: A wet one?
Zappa: No, it wasn't even a cheesy one.
ME: i thought i might be able to fit it all in the thing i was growing on
my harddisc if you're reading this, it means that i succeeded
in putting (at least part of) it on the net.
"Everything in the Universe is made of one element, which is a note, a single
note. Elements are really vibrations you know. With your extentions of the
Big Note, EVERYTHING IS A NOTE.
(Zappa, Lumpy Gravy)
Stevie Nicks Stevie Nicks official
site went to Skyline High, (my almamater) for a term in 67.
In her own works.. S. Nicks
See I moved a lot. I was born in Phoenix and I moved from there when I was
a baby to Los Angeles and I lived there until I was about five and a half
or six. And then we moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico and I lived there for
a year and a half, two years. And then we moved to El Paso, Texas and I lived
there for five years, 'till the end of the seventh grade. Then we moved to
Salt Lake City, Utah and I lived there until the end of the ninth grade.
Then we moved back to Los Angeles, and I lived there for my tenth grade and
eleventh grade year. And then we were transferred again to San Francisco
~ to up by Stanford University ~ so I was a brand new senior there. Then
I went to junior college that was halfway down the peninsula, in San Mateo
for two years. Then I went all the way back to the other side to San Jose
State [University] for another three years, then, when I was in a band with
Lindsey. And then Lindsey and I moved back to Los Angeles in about 1971.
~Stevie Nicks, Special RKO Radio, December 21, 1981
[On the effects of moving so much while growing-up] I did make friends
I just didn't have time to make too many. So I was very adaptable, I learned
to make friends quickly and to accepted quickly because I didn't have enough
time to waste ~ to be snooty for 6 months until I decided to come down to
earth and be a part of everything didn't work at all. So, I just had to be
real amiable, and friendly and open to people, Or, I would be alone for a
year and then we would move.
~Stevie Nicks, Special RKO Radio, December 21, 1981
Back to Janice Joplin .. Our friends had been the opening band, Holden Caulfield
with Mike Johnson, Mike Smith and another bud, Rick, had a big old bus, with
seats removed and pillows made of paisley design strange hanging incense
burners, various hippy items on inside and peace signs, flowers and butterflies
on outside it was the love bus of SLC. We were given the honor of going to
airport to pick up the bands equipment and transport it to The Terrace. We
smoked a joint on the way. A first time for me. I was so nervous I don't
know if I even felt it.. But did notice my arms and legs were numb.. Later
at the concert, we were crammed in the front row, dancing, swaying and singing
along with all the others.. I was directly in front of the base players’
7 foot speaker. Which he kept getting so close to knocking off the stage
as he staggered here and there, I wondered if I would make it out alive.
I pictured myself a pancake under the massive weight of that speaker. After
the concert we were all invited to a big bash at the hotel.. It actually
ended up being at someone’s home and not a motel room. This has to be the
best of all times. But my parents are strict and I have a curfew. If I were
to call and explain, "This is a one time, never to happen again, happening,
I am going to get bombed with Janice and the Holding Company, Janice!!."
Well, they would have sent the police to pick me up.
When we stepped out the Terrace our bus had been vandalized. Tires
slashed. Some sticky stuff thrown all over and the words "Fucking Hippy"
and "Die Hippy" where painted all over the windows.. and sides of the bus.
I thought Rick would die. The boys of our gang gave chase to anyone looking
suspect. A fight was on. "These hippies are not all about love.. we will
kick your ass..!"
In those days the lines were drawn between Greeser and Hippy .. between jock
and stoner, between drinkers and smokers, even between Heads and surfers,
and as strange as it all seems to me today, back then there was no tolerance
for different ways of altering consciousness, or of being counted among..
The Hippies hated the necks. The necks hated everything! the stoners hated
drinking and drinkers hated smokers. Too much hate and intolerance, but those
were the 60's in Utah.
Later that same year they opened a club called The Abyss.. it was a coffee
house/music club.. With beat-poets, bands and all sorts of cool goings on.
It too was in downtown SLC. Growing up in Utah was like setting your watch
back 5 or 10 years. The local powers that be did their best to keep any unacceptable
culture from taking root here.. or even having a comfortable visit to the
land of Zion. Our wonderful public radio station KRCL often chanted
"Coming to you live behind the Zion Curtain its Radio free KRCL broadcasting
with listeners support. owned and operated by the people for the people ....."
Even that is slowly becoming a different situation.
In the Spirit: Wendy Weir
Conversations with the spirit of Jerry Garcia
Talking on love: love that is freely given and received without the devastating
fear of harm, guilt, abandonment, ridicule or manipulation. The love that
I have sent to you os only a small fraction of the love of God..All that
is
Music as the Vehicle for love.. Its energy, its vibration, breaks
through the subtle barriers of human consciousness to free our inner selves
to give us the opportunity to discover who we truly are.
Drugs have been misunderstood. Under proper shamanic guidance and ceremony
they enable one to glimpse more deeply into the sacred. Taken as recreation,
for a quick high or to avoid deeper recognition of pain, they become destructive,
for they dull our higher senses and block out innate ability to heal ourselves.
Our higher consciousness cannot help or even be heard when our energy field
is filled with the stagnant black blobs left by drug use. These dark, dead
matters of energy bring our vibration down and keep us heavy in the lower
frequencies of the physical. I know I have been there. It is not the way.
We can go hand in hand with the Earth as she frees herself of the darkness,
the negative energy that has held her back form her won growth and evolution
of consciousness. This negative energy is represented and held here by the
actions of man: social injustice, environmental pollution and actions of
man destruction, greed, fear, control, political manipulation and much more.
This must end. The Earth will be free of it. We have the option to go with
her into the light, or to remain back in the darkness. The music is the mission.
It will lead all those willing to hear its message forward. But it will not
get you there. Only each one of you can do that within yourselves.
Hate: There is not room in our Universe for hate, That is a very low, destructive
energy, It means that you do not recognize that aspect of the other within
yourself. Other act as mirrors in our lives. If you feel hate, ask yourself,
why. What part of you needs to be looked at, embraced and released? Same
with anger. When used as a force to motivate you through a personal trial,
it is good. When it takes up residence within your being, when you hold on
to it, it is not good for you. Look at why it is there in your life, why
you are holding on to it. Then embrace and accept the understanding that
comes to you and release the anger. Once free in the universe, that anger
- which is a form of negative energy - cann be transmitted into a more positive
energy.
Look at you efforts as a reflection of your fears. Then look at your fear.
Where do they come from ? why are they here? go deep within to find the answer.
You know that past lives of which we will not speak have influenced ...transform
that negative energy of fear, which holds the frequency of our vibration
down, into the energy of love, which can grow and expand and help to heal
others.
