Something Happened Here, But You Still Don’t Know What It Is, Do You Mr Jones?

I hitchhiked across the USA in Fall, 1965, to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I was an insurance broker in San Francisco, and the ’60s were exploding around me. I had smoked pot — at age 28. (Think about it — 28 years before encountering alternate universes.)

 On my way back to NYC from visiting my cousin Mike in Provincetown, I got picked up by some students from The Rhode Island School of Design. They said I could crash at their loft in Providence, Rhode Island, and they were going to a Bob Dylan concert that night, did I want to go?

$3.50 to get in and I told the cops I was a newspaper reporter, and I got to roam in front of the stage. 

Black and white Tri-X film on a Nikon. I didn’t know much about Dylan. I was a Beatles and Stones fan. The first half was solo acoustic folk music. The second half was rock and roll! A lot of folkie fans walked out at intermission, but I had stumbled into the early part of Dylan’s 2 years of brilliance.

I looked at the photos 40 years later. Jeez, that’s Robbie Robertson! I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more…

What is this? Holy shit!

 I’ve just been looking at these photos, after they’ve been 42 years in the archives.

I came back to San Francisco and quit my job and went to work as a carpenter — 1965.

All this to preface:

1. I’m recuperating from almost a month on the road.

2. I’m working on a book of the ’60s, from my own point of view. I’m a native San Franciscan, went to high school in Haight Ashbury district, was 10 years older than the movers and shakers of the cultural revolution. I had a quite different experience in the ’60s than I see talked about in the media regarding the — ugh — Summer of Love. I’m still in the stages of seeing if the book is going to work. 

3. Getting shoulder operated on tomorrow. Long recovery period.

A new octave coming up.

See ya when I can see see ya…

About Lloyd Kahn

Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include Shelter, Shelter II (1978), Home Work (2004), Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008), Tiny Homes (2012), and Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:

8 Responses to Something Happened Here, But You Still Don’t Know What It Is, Do You Mr Jones?

  1. Time does fly, doesn't it! Sounds like it would be a very interesting book. I'm enjoying Small Homes (of course!)… got my copy a few weeks ago. Best wishes for the speediest recovery possible!!!

    C

  2. What an amazing photo! Convalescing over back surgery myself now and jonezing to get back in the water. Looking forward to more tales of YOU shredding your skateboard and ripping the patch! All the best from the North Coast!

  3. I recently finished 'Testimony' a very enjoyable and well done book and a whole lot about those infamous tours with Dylan that you caught that night, wow. I will look forward to yours as well!

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