Things and People I Have Lost or Can't Find....

I was pretty sure I made a blog post some years ago on the time we saw George Clinton and Funkadelic at the Republic New Orleans in, of course where else but New Orleans. I distinctly recall posting a photo of  Diaper Man as he played his guitar and I can't locate it anywhere in the cyberspace and in fact as if it would help I am reading the sci Fi novel by William Gibson, "Neuromancer" written in  1984 where the term cyberspace was first introduced. That has not helped either with the fact that I can only remember the first name of one person in this old photo of me, the second tuba from the left marching with the Stephen F. Austin State University Band some time between the years of 1975-78.    

Way back in those years I hit it off real well with a young black man whose real name I cannot recall (I'm writing all this down as fast as I can before I forget more) but preferred the nickname JT. JT was also a tuba player and an East Texan from a now renamed high school. We became good college band buddies. 

One day JT invited me over to his apartment to listen to music. Music was a bond, being the reason we were both at school. I accepted and after classes we headed to his place. JT began spinning records and he liked his music really loud. I mean really loud. In those days the speakers to stereos were big, I mean really big. None of this blue tooth stuff. Seems I remember hearing albums that had fantastical covers of aliens and space ships while incenses and stuff  burned. I think back and that music was probably George Clinton.

Now these old efficiently apartments were pretty shabby with paper thin walls and lots of students living there. I had also been living at places like this and had occasionally had to discuss such behaviors as loud music with the authorities. And it was East Texas. A white guy and a black guy listening to wild tunes in an apartment in the middle of the afternoon was pretty edgy but JT was fearless and I guess we were invisible that day. No one seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary.  

The old George Clinton record Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow is 50 years old this year. I'd like to think it's one we listened to that day because that's sort of what happened to me. Though I soon left college and lost track of JT I wish there was some way to look him up. I'd ask if he still had those speakers, if he still had those records and if he ever got kicked out of those apartments. 

You can put on Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow and dance and burn incense to the song of that same name. But I'd like you to put on the record and listen to this song and think. The words and the message come near the end so feel free to skip on to it. Not everyone has the patience or time these days to sit in an apartment listening to music you have never heard before.