WEBVTT - Richard Lloyd 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:12.720 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast. 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:18.400 My guest today is guitarist Richard Lloyd. Richard, why do 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:22.000 you start your live shows with the song respect? 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:28.760 Well? I was asked to do a Nuggets, a reunion 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:33.400 or a couple of the songs. I chose where one 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:38.320 of them was respect But it's not the it's the 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:43.280 Vagrance version, so to say. The lyrics are a little different, 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:46.600 and there's no R s P E C T in it, 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:51.080 and it's not Aretha. It's you know, a modern take 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:57.120 of it by Moir, but based on the Vagrants. You 0:00:57.160 --> 0:00:58.560 can look it up on YouTube. 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:03.560 Okay, I've been I will the Vagrants version came before 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:05.199 or after Wretha's version? 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:07.520 I have that. I have no idea. 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:10.440 Can you tell us any of the lyrical changes? 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:17.920 Just instead of the rspcis there's just hey, hey, hey hey, 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:28.600 after every verse and you know, no, I can't I 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:31.720 play it? And what the hell? 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:34.240 You also do the velvets waiting for my Man? 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:38.360 Not really. I do two verses of it and embedded 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:40.520 in another song of mine called the Word. 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:45.080 Okay, for those who haven't seen you act, tell us 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:45.839 a little bit more. 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:49.440 I don't want to really talk about music with you, Bob. 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:53.040 You gotta have something else. Let's have it. 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:59.040 Ohkay. Let me be clear, you have something very specific 0:01:59.080 --> 0:01:59.960 you'd like to talk about. 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:05.000 Uh uh huh, anything you like? Okay, but you don't 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:06.360 subjects interest you. 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:08.600 You know, we believe I got a lot of somejects 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:11.160 interest me. I just want to you would rather not 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:12.280 talk about music. 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:16.320 Well, you're asking me pointing questions about my own performance, 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:22.080 which is my own performance, and I'm not scheduled or 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:26.080 I'm not able to give a critique of my own 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:33.080 work in that regard, Okay, And you're asking me to, 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:39.200 you know, talk about songwriting and the intricacies of putting 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:42.240 a set together and why I did this and why 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:45.480 I do that? Is not something that interests me at all. 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:48.960 I play and people come to see it and they 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:52.600 enjoy it, and we've been getting a great deal of 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:57.079 We're playing small places, but we're getting sellouts and people 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:01.560 are very excited about it and really happy smiles everywhere 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:05.920 we go. So that's enough for me. Okay. 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:08.320 Do you enjoy the process of going on the road 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:09.200 and touring? 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:13.240 I do. I do. It's interesting to be paid to 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:17.160 go where tourists pay to go, and when you get there, 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:22.640 they applaud usually unless they're throwing tomatoes at you, but 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:23.720 they don't do that for me. 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:28.800 Okay, are you the type of person who stays in 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:31.960 the hotel room all day or do you take advantage 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:35.360 of these places that normal tourists pay to go to. 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:39.440 You know, I've been to Paris like eleven times, and 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:43.560 I've never been to the not the Statue of Liberty, 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:44.560 that other thing. 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:45.440 The Eiffel Tower. 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:50.080 Eiffel Tower. And I've walked past the Louver many times, 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:54.480 going to a restaurant or such, or just taking a walk, 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:57.560 but I've never been inside the Louver. So it's a 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:02.920 mixture of I am joy the geography and the people 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:09.400 and the cuisines, but as to the touristy type of things, 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:11.160 I really don't partake in that. 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.160 What's the most interesting place you've been to? 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:22.520 Oh, gosh, everywhere. Athens, Greece, where you can't breathe because 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:26.120 the pollution is so bad now and the cars are 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:33.320 crazy and the driving is crazy. Japan, where you look 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:36.240 out and there's two thousand people and not one of 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:40.560 them has anything but black hair. That's very interesting and 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:47.960 just about anywhere in the States is cool? San Francisco, 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:51.960 you know, La New York. 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:53.640 Have you been to South America? 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:59.680 I've been to San Paulo where we played the Rio Festival, 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:02.120 and San Polo and Rio. 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:08.120 Yeah, I've been to Rio. Interesting place. So are you 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:10.760 the type of person who's deep into your own world 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:12.960 or do you follow the news. 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:15.880 I've been following the news now that I get a 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:20.200 little older, But I don't really talk about politics either. 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:26.479 Music and politics are kind of they're preculiar tastes that 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:30.360 people have. I may follow of a man named George 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:34.440 Ivanovitch Kerdyev. Are you familiar with that? 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:36.599 I am not. I'm not, I don't think so. Tell me. 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:39.680 Well, he was a I guess you'd call him a 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:45.040 mystic or a master of himself. And he tried to 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:50.159 impart to mankind the possibilities that are open to human 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:57.000 being who's quote working on themselves end quote. And he 0:05:57.120 --> 0:06:04.320 provided steps to achieve a greater potential for man than 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:08.080 he usually is. He's sleepwalking. If you look, you can 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:13.520 practically see people dream daydreaming, and daydreams are nothing. They 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:19.440 don't exist. When reality hits you, they're gone. And so 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:24.720 to live one's life in clouds. So to say is 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:29.839 you know a negative and people are fulled with full 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:31.159 of negative emotions. 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:35.520 Let's just talk about you. Have you followed this gentleman's 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:38.479 precepts and to what degree have they helped or changed you. 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:45.560 I'm free of most of the former habits that I 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:49.800 had and negative emotions that I carried with me. There's 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:53.920 no point to having negative emotions. They don't do anything 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:58.560 for you except to ruin your health. And I'm talking 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:07.520 about pride, lust, anger, fear, apathy, grief. They're all useless. 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:11.040 They don't do anything for you. They don't act in 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:15.000 the world. 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:17.120 Just to get a spectrum here. Let's say you buy 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:20.640 a pizza, pizza, slice of pizza and it falls on 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:24.040 the ground. Are we talking about something as minor as that? 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:28.240 Or could you say, what's the point of crying over 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:32.800 spilt milk? That's the old saying. So a pizza is 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:36.680 the same thing. It falls from your hands. You know, 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:38.840 if you pick it up and it falls again, it 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:43.120 can get frustrating to some people. But I mean that's physics. 0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:45.880 Now we want to talk about physics. 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:49.560 No, I'd rather not talk about physics, not an area 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:53.280 of expertise for me. What about as we get older, 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:57.400 we have contemporaries who pass away. How does one deal 0:07:57.440 --> 0:07:58.640 with the emotions of that. 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.080 I don't have much emotions around death. It's a natural 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:06.520 part of life. In fact, it's the goal of life 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:11.200 is to reach death, but put it off as long 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:16.440 as it's necessary to gain some kind of spiritual beingness. 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:22.160 I mean, the point of man is to reflect the 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:25.200 glory of the creator, if there is such a thing, 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:29.480 or you could call it out of space, and the 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.480 glory of the Sun and the planets and the Earth 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:37.079 and the moon and the galaxies. We could talk about 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:40.640 astrophysics if you like, but you don't deal in physics. 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:43.280 Whit Wait wait, wait, wait, wait, a couple of things. First, Yeah, 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:45.080 do you believe in it after life? 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:50.040 It depends. It depends what you mean by an afterlife, 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:54.200 and it would take a great deal of discussion, hopefully 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:58.160 not one sided discussion, to come to any kind of 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:05.680 uh and understanding. I don't think the physical body reanimates, 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:12.400 that's certain. The emotions and the kind of cloud of 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:18.679 consciousness departs, and maybe it goes somewhere and lasts for 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:22.400 a while in the atmosphere of the Earth. Maybe it's 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:27.640 drawn towards the moon, where mister Gridjief said that organic 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:33.320 life on Earth feeds the Moon and that it's a 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:39.680 young being, not quite the but that we don't look 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:47.400 at cosmic time the way that archaeologists do. We're talking 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:53.040 about cycles of Brahma. We could talk about the Indian 0:09:53.120 --> 0:10:00.160 Hindu religion and it's start in the never changing Wisdom. 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:05.560 Okay, let's go back to astrophysics. If it's something that 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:09.480 you have expertise in, I'm certainly willing to be edified here. 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:16.760 Well, expertise is not not what I would claim for myself. 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:22.640 It's just a strong interest. I have many, many interests. 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:25.600 I believe. We sent you a copy of my book 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:28.360 where you yes, look through it? Yes, yes, I was 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:30.959 through read it from cover to cover. It's yes, full 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:34.360 of vignettes. Yes, we could talk about any of those 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:37.080 or the ideas in the book. 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:42.080 Well, what I find in the book is a strong 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:46.600 sense of alienation and a strong sense of going down 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:47.520 your own path. 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:50.319 Well, those are both true. 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:57.560 And also finding yourself observing a lot. So yes, as 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:02.640 you have gone through life, do you find your self 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:07.240 feeling that you're outside or that you have moments when 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:10.920 you're feel totally connected, you know, what has been your 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:12.440 experience on the planet. 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:18.360 I am connected. I can't say totally because there's a 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:23.960 degree to it. There's a percentage I'm awake in the 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:28.840 sense of being vertical, such as the New Testament talks 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:34.320 about sleep not you never know the time. There are 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:39.800 all the parables we could talk about that if you like. 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:43.480 Let's go to some of the specifics of your life. 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:47.800 You did not finish senior year of high school in 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:51.760 one year, then you went to another school and didn't 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:55.280 finish senior year there, can you tell us what happened? 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:59.160 I was at Stuyvesant High School, which is in all science. 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:01.760 It was a boys' school at the time. There were 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:07.319 no women and no girls. And I was to graduate 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:12.480 in sixty nine. And then when they stopped teaching, I 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:17.200 quit and I refused to take a diploma because I 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.320 had already in the twelfth grade. I had taken my 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.320 guitar to school and I remember my physics teacher saying, 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:26.040 where are your books? And I said they're in the case, 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:29.079 and he says, well, open the case and get out 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:32.560 the books. So I opened the guitar case and there's 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:35.720 my electric guitar. And he says, so that doesn't look 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:38.200 like a physics book to me, And I said, it's 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:44.840 the physic physics book I'm studying, and it's not going 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:48.600 to change for me. And I was delighted. I'd be 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:52.160 delighted if you were to teach, But to ask your 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:56.400 students to go and teach themselves by reading materials that 0:12:56.520 --> 0:13:00.360 you didn't write and you're not enthusiastic about is not 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:03.079 the way to teach. I had a math teacher in 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:05.520 seventh and eighth grade. I was on the math team 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:10.400 in the algebra competitions in New York City and we 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:14.600 actually won one year that I was there, that was 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:16.800 the seventh and the eighth grade. It was a Japanese 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:21.719 man named Tad Saphora, who then later became the principal 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:25.360 of the grade school that I was going to, the 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:29.160 junior high that I went to, and he was a 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:34.360 remarkable man. He was a fifth degree black belt in 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:42.000 karate and in ikido, and he would stop. The junior 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:45.320 high school I went to was rather difficult. There were 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:49.800 a lot of beatings and robberies, and you had to 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:52.840 put money in several places when you went to school 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:56.000 because you were certain to get mugged and someone would 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:58.120 take your lunch money, so you had to have more 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:02.960 in your shoe. Anyway, he could stop those just by appearing. 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:08.960 People would drop their knives and chains upon seeing him, 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:15.440 because he could dismantle them quite easily. Anyway. He taught 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:18.360 only four days a week. That we went to school 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:21.800 five days a week, obviously, and he had us for 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:26.800 forty five minutes each of those days. And on Fridays 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:32.280 he would lecture on various subjects, all of which were 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:37.600 extremely interesting to him and to us. We were a 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:42.800 group of children who were like sponges ready to absorb, 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:50.120 and he had a fascinating ability. Six weeks before school 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:52.800 ended in the eighth grade, he came and he said, 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:56.880 I have good news, and I have good news. Which 0:14:56.920 --> 0:15:01.040 do you want? And he said, well, we've all passed 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:05.720 this year, and I've thought you half of next year's curriculum. 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:09.040 In case you don't have me as a teacher. You 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:12.600 should not rest on your laurels, but you should continue 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:18.840 to study anyway. I wasn't so good in trig trigonometry, 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:23.680 but algebram I was very good at and chess and 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:27.640 games like that go. He taught us Go. Do you 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:27.960 know Go? 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:31.680 I am familiar with the game. I've played it for 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:33.560 like five minutes, so keep going. 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:37.840 Oh it's quite terrific. It's a game where you could 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:41.520 think you're winning and one move will flip everything on 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:45.080 the board. And these games go on for weeks. In Japan, 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:50.680 maybe one move a day. People contemplate this. It's a 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:55.800 game of borders and of surrounding your enemy. It's a 0:15:55.920 --> 0:16:00.760 fascinating game, and it's precedes chess according to you know, 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:05.160 studies of ancient gamesmanship. 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:18.280 Okay, since this gentleman taught you half of next year's course, Yeah, 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:22.080 what happened the following year, Well. 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.360 I didn't have him, and that was very sad to me. 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:29.600 But I visited him in his office a number of 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:34.280 times and asked for his direction. He was a as 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:38.600 I said before, he remarkable man, you know, versed in 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:44.800 many many subjects, which is something I aspire to, which 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:48.520 is why I'm not trying to be hostile. I'm trying 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:52.960 to talk to you in something that will entertain us 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:57.160 and the audience both. But I do music as a 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:01.880 it's not a hobby what I do for a living, 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:09.440 and it's very personal to me. I don't want to 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:16.040 dismantle and have an autopsy of my performances. So I 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:20.359 could talk about anything you like. No, No, that's not 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:22.119 bring me anything to the table. 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:26.199 Well, if I was going to row Bob, if I 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:28.280 was going to bring to the table, it sounds like 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:30.560 you're a person. If you were on the Bath team, 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:36.240 your person who dedicates yourself and is totally involved in school, 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:41.080 you will apply and get into Stevenson what happens to 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:45.040 make you go left as opposed to Stingo left? 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:48.440 I stayed the course of my own direction. 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:52.080 Well, that's my question. Why did you do that? 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:55.080 The world would be a better place? But we all 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:58.360 succumb to the hypnosis. 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:04.360 Since most people's coucil. Since most people succumb, how did 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:05.480 you not succumb? 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:11.040 I was born this way. I was born awake, and 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:14.880 I looked around and it grieved to me the way 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:20.720 human beings, they didn't think and feel the same. They 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.919 would get into the They for instance, they took poisons 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:28.359 such as alcohol, and then they got into fights. And 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:34.159 if you took away alcohol, you can't And probition proved 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:39.080 that you can't really take the pleasure out of ordinary 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:45.080 people's lives. And so I've been this way since. I 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:51.000 used to meditate as I'm taught now, sitting on my 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:56.200 heels in the living room, stopping my breathing and trying 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:59.520 to stop my heart when I was two and three 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:04.080 years old. So I've been around the block in terms 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:09.959 of the human condition and find it mostly lacking. But unfortunately, 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:14.600 that's not how most people see it. They see their 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:21.040 lives as full and entertaining. I'm not interested in that. 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:24.119 Okay, let's go back to the fact pattern. When you're 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:27.480 bring your guitar to school and you don't get your diploma, 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:30.840 what do your parents say and to what degree were 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:32.880 your parents in influence in your life. 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:38.040 Well, at that time, my parents moved from New York, 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:44.680 from Manhattan, from Greenwich Village to Montclair, New Jersey, and 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:48.400 they said to me they bought a big house and 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:52.800 I had I took over the third floor of the house. 0:19:54.600 --> 0:20:02.000 Remarkably affluent, I'll say, where in the village we weren't 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:06.919 that affluent. So my step dad reached a point of 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:11.879 affluence and bought himself a Mercedes in this house, huge house, 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:16.280 and he was a film editor, mostly did TV commercials. 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:21.520 Once brought me a Mickey Mantle signed baseball to Ricky 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:26.159 from you know, Mickey Mantle, and I used it in 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:29.440 a game and somebody hit a home run and the 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:33.520 ball was lost out in the woods. And it's never 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:36.639 bothered me. It was a baseball. It was meant to 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:42.480 be used in a game. And people that collect these things, 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:44.960 you know, just make me sort of smile. 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:49.920 What did your stepfather say, if anything, when he found 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:51.520 out the ball was lost? 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:59.479 Nothing, No, he was astute. Anyway, They said, listen, you 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:02.159 could do one of three things. You could get a 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:06.760 job and pay rent to be here, you could move out, 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:11.360 or you could go back to high school. And finished 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:14.199 the twelfth grade. So I went back to high school, 0:21:14.680 --> 0:21:20.800 although I didn't really go to take courses because this 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:25.359 was an ordinary high school, not a specialized high school. 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:29.000 And I went and I borrowed a saxophone, and I 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.359 went and sat down on a park bench across the 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:36.920 street from the steps leading into the registration hall, and 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:40.119 all the kids would come and laugh at me because 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:44.680 I really can't play the saxophone. I was honking and bleeding, 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:49.600 and this young black guy came up to me and 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:52.080 he said, what are you doing? And I told him 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:55.080 I'm calling you, And it turned out to be a 0:21:55.119 --> 0:21:57.919 fellow named Albert Anderson who went on to play with 0:21:57.960 --> 0:22:02.840 Bob Marley, mostly because he could smoke pot the way 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:05.879 they did, and if it weren't for me, you wouldn't 0:22:05.920 --> 0:22:09.439 have smoked pot. I talked him into it after a 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:13.119 couple of months of pressure, peer pressure. I talked everybody 0:22:13.200 --> 0:22:17.720 into getting high at the time and had a great 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:18.480 deal of fun. 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:23.160 Okay, the high school that you went to to repeat 0:22:23.240 --> 0:22:26.200 senior year was that in the suburbs in Montclair? 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:29.600 Yeah, right, Montclair High School. 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:32.199 That must have been huge culture shock after being in 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:32.720 New York. 0:22:32.920 --> 0:22:37.120 Yes, it was. But we Albert and I and a 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:40.760 guy named Ed Rogers. They were in a band called 0:22:40.880 --> 0:22:46.360 Redbread who won Battle of the Bands in New Jersey. Anyway, 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:49.760 we used to bring our electric guitars into the senior 0:22:49.840 --> 0:22:54.720 lounge and play during the breaks or when we cut classes, 0:22:54.760 --> 0:22:59.680 and after about three months the place, the senior lounge 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:03.000 was so full of kids that they shut it down. 0:23:04.040 --> 0:23:07.880 I mean, we've always drawn a crowd people who are 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:12.399 interested in our interests, and at the time, you know, 0:23:12.680 --> 0:23:16.920 we were playing electric guitars with no amplifiers. Just trading 0:23:17.640 --> 0:23:23.760 licks back and forth, you know, all reaching that unapproachable 0:23:23.880 --> 0:23:28.560 goal of so called making it in the music business. 0:23:29.760 --> 0:23:32.919 Okay, let's go back to Greenwich Village. You know a 0:23:32.920 --> 0:23:36.280 lot of the sixties emanated from Greenwich Village. 0:23:36.920 --> 0:23:37.400 That's right. 0:23:37.480 --> 0:23:39.760 Did you just feel that you were living there or 0:23:39.800 --> 0:23:42.040 were you feeling that something was going on? 0:23:45.280 --> 0:23:48.840 Definitely felt that something was going on. We were at 0:23:48.880 --> 0:23:52.680 the top of the rocket of civilization in New York 0:23:52.720 --> 0:23:57.760 and Greenwich Village specifically in the early and mid sixties. 0:23:58.160 --> 0:24:02.520 I mean it was incredible. And you know, we chased 0:24:02.600 --> 0:24:08.080 Bob Dylan around in coffee shops and Jimmy Hendrix is 0:24:08.119 --> 0:24:11.000 playing the cafe. Wha. I never went down the stairs 0:24:11.080 --> 0:24:13.840 of the cafe why? And I I kind of regret that, 0:24:14.040 --> 0:24:18.840 but I later on met him and many other of 0:24:18.880 --> 0:24:21.800 the so called rock stars. I didn't want to really 0:24:23.160 --> 0:24:25.880 grovel in front of them. I wanted to meet them 0:24:25.880 --> 0:24:31.480 as older peers, older brothers, and I did that and 0:24:32.080 --> 0:24:37.320 hung out with many of the top musicians of the day. 0:24:37.720 --> 0:24:42.200 And the day was pretty bright, you know, sixty four 0:24:42.280 --> 0:24:44.800 to sixty to sixty nine. 0:24:45.960 --> 0:24:51.320 Okay, why do you think society changed and pulled back? 0:24:51.920 --> 0:24:56.200 I mean, the cliche would be the army stole the slogan, 0:24:56.280 --> 0:24:59.240 you know, be all that you can be. That was 0:24:59.280 --> 0:25:04.040 the etho of the teenagers in twenty somethings. What happened 0:25:04.080 --> 0:25:08.959 in society? What do you attribute the change in the 0:25:09.000 --> 0:25:12.359 outlook in people over the ensuing decades. 0:25:13.560 --> 0:25:18.400 Well, we were in a Cold War, and I went 0:25:18.480 --> 0:25:22.320 through the Cuban missile crisis with everybody else, and we were, 0:25:23.040 --> 0:25:27.480 you know, the United States and Russia, we're in a 0:25:27.520 --> 0:25:31.960 real tussle. And then we got into a war in Vietnam, 0:25:32.080 --> 0:25:37.120 and that was ridiculous foreign war where we're killing people 0:25:37.160 --> 0:25:42.480 that do nothing to us, can't do anything to us, 0:25:42.520 --> 0:25:46.560 They couldn't send. The United States has been isolated. Nobody 0:25:46.640 --> 0:25:50.000 can reach us because we have two oceans protecting us. 0:25:50.760 --> 0:25:58.639 And anyway, we get in these ridiculous wars. And I 0:25:58.760 --> 0:26:01.960 was drafted and I got out of it because I 0:26:02.000 --> 0:26:07.240 had had psychiatric problems prior, and I had good documentation 0:26:07.440 --> 0:26:11.320 and a psychiatrist that said, you know, you can't put 0:26:11.400 --> 0:26:16.240 them in the army. He'll shoot officers just that, Would 0:26:17.400 --> 0:26:18.480 you know stop the war? 0:26:19.600 --> 0:26:21.360 Were you afraid that you were going to have to go? 0:26:22.480 --> 0:26:25.720 I was number seventeen in the draft, so I would 0:26:25.760 --> 0:26:30.199 have been cannon fodder for sure, But I wasn't going 0:26:30.280 --> 0:26:34.960 to run. I was going to take whatever came my way. 0:26:35.880 --> 0:26:39.040 And when I went down to the draft board, a 0:26:39.280 --> 0:26:43.320 funny thing happened because during the hearing test, you're wearing 0:26:43.359 --> 0:26:46.720 your headphones and everybody else if you hear something in 0:26:46.760 --> 0:26:48.560 your right or raise your right hand, you know, and 0:26:48.600 --> 0:26:52.000 I'm raising my left and I'm raising my right opposite. 0:26:52.119 --> 0:26:55.480 I'd put the headphones on backwards and the guy says, 0:26:55.560 --> 0:26:58.560 you're going in the army man, you ain't getting out 0:26:58.560 --> 0:27:02.080 of this. But when I saw the psychiatrist, he was 0:27:02.960 --> 0:27:05.320 of a different shade of color. 0:27:07.200 --> 0:27:10.560 What caused you or what motivated you to go to 0:27:10.600 --> 0:27:11.680 the psychiatrist? 0:27:12.840 --> 0:27:16.879 That alter everybody went to the psychiatrist, and people wore dresses, 0:27:17.119 --> 0:27:21.960 you know, boys were outrageous clothing and stuff to try 0:27:22.000 --> 0:27:25.560 to convince the psychiatrists. And they'd come out with their 0:27:25.600 --> 0:27:30.119 head hung low. They were going, and you know, somebody 0:27:30.200 --> 0:27:33.200 come out with their papers and go yeah, and everybody, yeah, 0:27:33.400 --> 0:27:36.120 you got out of it. So it was a thing 0:27:36.200 --> 0:27:36.560 to do. 0:27:36.760 --> 0:27:38.920 Well. I thought that you said though, that you had 0:27:38.960 --> 0:27:42.840 previous psychiatric history prior to the draft. 0:27:43.880 --> 0:27:50.280 That's right. I'd been in Roosevelt Tower ten, and later 0:27:50.359 --> 0:27:55.360 on I've been in two state mental institutions that make 0:27:55.440 --> 0:27:58.160 one flew over the cuckoos and nest looked like a 0:27:58.240 --> 0:28:03.520 kindergarten party, and I'm serious, tied to a gurney. 0:28:04.119 --> 0:28:06.320 Tell me about the first todd First. 0:28:07.560 --> 0:28:13.200 Well, I was fifteen, and I was sick of my parents, 0:28:13.280 --> 0:28:18.760