"I don't want you to do your own thing, I want you to do MY thing!"

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I asked Jim [Kweskin] what his new act was like. Did he sermonize or what?
"We don't sermonize; but we don't always do what they think they want. I mean we demand that the audience get personally involved in what's happening, and a lot of times they just don't want to. We've been known to sit up on stage for hours and not do a thing. Sometimes you have to create an embarrassing or painful or angry situation just so that everybody's in the same place at the same time."
Wasn't this the sort of intimidation that people often associated with the Jesus freaks?
"Peace and love!" he said scornfully. "I mean, I walk down the street and I talk to some of the Jesus freaks or some of the peace and love people, you know? And they're dead. They're sound asleep. They feel absolutely nothing. All they do is spout out words. I mean, it's obvious we're not spouting out a bunch of words that somebody taught us how to say."

he was hallucinating on LSD, running through the market with a knife

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Craig in a gauzy white Nehru outfit, love beads, bell bottoms and sandals, jabbering excitedly amidst clouds of pot smoke about going to India to seek enlightenment with the Maharishi. Like, yeah, oh wow, everyone’s in India, it looked real nice with the Beatles and the Maharishi and stuff, but India wasn’t like that. I had seen pictures of them throwing dead bodies in the Ganges, and I just thought, man, I never wanna go there. He seemed a little nutty, but I didn’t think he was that crazy. He would meditate and chant at the little altar and stuff. He went from being the golden boy to all of a sudden becoming a Buddhist and becoming totally obsessed with it — not that that was unusual in the ’60s, but he was forcing me to chant with him. ‘You’ve gotta chant with me!’ ‘Wait! I don’t really want to chant.’ ‘No, you have to, you have to...’

In the late ’60s many young Westerners headed out on what became known as the Hippie Trail, in search of adventure, enlightenment, and access to inexpensive, high-quality hashish. The trail began in Istanbul, Turkey. From there travelers headed east through Iran to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and on to India. From India, travelers could head north to Kashmir, south to Bombay, Ceylon or the beaches of Goa, or northeast to the furthest outpost of the trail in Kathmandu, Nepal.

spilling his "genetic wealth" on a basket filled with skinhead gear

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I recently got an excellent write up in the London Review of Books, which is enormously prestigious among the literati, and as a direct result, a great many 'influential' people have suddenly decided that I must be a talented writer who needs to be treated with respect. These people are incapable of forming opinions of their own, they simply venerate those writers who've been handed accolades by others. The vast majority of those who attain positions of 'responsibility' in the publishing industry feel deeply insecure about their ability to do the job for which they're paid, and quite rightly do not trust their own powers of judgement. This fact partially accounts for the abysmal state of British publishing, which is run by twats who are more interested in social climbing than creating a vibrant culture. Snobbery is second nature to these cretins, grasping the movement of post-modern culture is completely beyond them.

a hippie satanist car thief cult-leader sex-maniac bastard butcher.

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During this three-week stay at the house on Gresham occurred the famous Manson gobble-miracle. Zonked on lysergic acid, Manson was being blown by a hysteria-prone young adept named Bo. Bo was a small masochistic girl with thyroid eyes and long black hair, one of Charlie’s favorite pain-targets. The legend continues that during the gobble the girl went nuts and, all in one incision, bit in twain Manson’s virility. Then, through the miracle of magic, Manson, they claim, at once healed his tragic amputation and continued onward.

Mike believed the Maharishi was going to teach him how to levitate

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The Maharishi spoke of eternal happiness and peace - he seemed for all the world a mystical, Eastern sage. But he was far from an unsophisticated hick from the Himalayas. College-educated, with a degree in physics, he had studied Sanskrit and learned the scriptures. The title "Maharishi" was self-adopted. In the late fifties he began to preach his brand of mystic salvation to audiences in various Western countries. Of all the Beach Boys, Mike Love was the most influenced by the Maharishi. "When I heard about TM, I consciously took steps to expand my awareness ... I didn't want to live life at the same level ... And one of the greatest things that interested me was that he said, 'You don't have to give up your Rolls-Royce ... and forsake all your pursuits of material pleasures ... to develop inner spiritual qualities.' That sounded real good to me." He managed to convince the rest of the group that it would be a good move for the Beach Boys to tour with the Maharishi. Billed as "The Most Exciting Event of the Decade," the shows took place in huge concert halls and stadiums. On opening night, "more police showed up than audience." The fans were completely uninterested in hearing the Maharishi, no one cared, which is what everybody told Mike would happen. On a typical tour date, the Maharishi opened with a long, boring, unintelligible lecture while the audience booed and yelled for the Beach Boys. "The Maharishi laughed, he was laughing all the time. He got his money."

Sky Saxon with his leopard skin suit jacket and silver glitter creepers

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BP-O  About 1981, '82 I met Mr. Sebastian in London. At that time he was the only man in Britain who was doing any kind of piercing and tattooing. He did it very, very secretly, only by recommendation from somebody he knew. It was a very secret practice only 20 years ago. They were going to charge him with conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm. The case was known as the "Spanner Case," which is what the police called the squad that was set up, specially. The squad was set up to enforce the idea that any form of piercing or tattooing was illegal. It was illegal to knowingly cause a wound and a wound is defined as the skin being broken. If you tattoo or pierce someone, you are breaking their skin, which is grievous bodily harm, which is one step below manslaughter. So, it was a serious offense. They wanted to set a legal precedent, so they could victimize anybody who was different. They took him to court in the Old Bailey, which is where they put on trial murderers and spies. This is only 14, 15 years ago.

BB When you are walking around the streets now and see a piercing and tattooing parlor on every corner and Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson coming out of windows, you must feel responsible?

BP-O I didn't until Lady Jaye and I were walking down St. Marks Place one day and she turned to me and said I blame you for this.

One of my favorite stories is the one he tells about Julie London. He said that they originally signed her because of what a 'good looking dame' she was. I don't think they had even heard her sing anything. They just thought that the record would sell for the cover. One of the amazing things about that song, aside from how great her voice is, is the stripped down production. Everyone really responded to the different sound that added all that sultriness to her track and voice. The real reason for that was because they had spent all of their money on the cover and didn't have any money left for the musicians.