SunRay Kelley, Keith Richardson, building domes

…SunRay Kelley and his girtlfriend Bonnie are coming by here today in their in-progress Tacoma hybrid biodiesel/electric/solar-powered camper. Watch for pix in the next few days.

…Heard good interview with Keith Richardson by Terry Gross the other night. he talked about using acoustic guitars, later electrified, to get the effects he wanted in some of their best songs. Also, that he writes for Mick, saying,  You know Mick, he’s this outsized personality, kind of across between James Brown and Maria Callas…and I just hope he’ll like the song…

…Which has just caused me to put on “Let It Bleed,” boy what a record, starting out with, ahem, Gimme Shelter. I’ll always associate this album with a brilliant sunny November Thanksgiving feast in 1969 at the renegade Pacific High School in the Santa Cruz mountains. There were about 50 kids and ten teachers and we were building geodesic domes for the kids to live in. I mean, it was a teen-age commune in the middle of the Psychedelic Times, and we putting up our own shelters, feeding everyone, and trying to keep some sense of order. Most people were stoned most of the time. Oh yeah! Anyway, we’d been at for 3 or so months, and on this Thanksgiving day everything came together. Steve the cook prepared the whole turkey lalapalooza, there was great great veggie fare, and we all sat around eating, listening to this album, watching the sun go down over the ridge. I remember listening to the words,

You can’t always get what you want,

but if you try sometimes, 

you might find, 

you get what you need.

and thinking how brilliant this was. No shit, really.

…Music this week: Howlin’ Wolf. I’ve been loving songs by him on radio lately. Also this morning, a great Jimmy Reed song. Plus see next post.