Author:
Dave OB (Cherry Acid)
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Date Posted: 05:03:47 01/30/07 Tue
In reply to:
Tom M
's message, "Re: strawberry fields festival" on 19:00:19 05/22/04 Sat
>This is an excerpt from a somewhat longer story of
>those times. The whole thing is at:
>
>http://www.monmouth.com/~tamatthews/pirates.htm
>
>-------------------------------------------------------
>----
>
>Strawberry Fields Forever
>Strange because I remember all of Procol Harem and they WERE amazing-the drummer was beyond belief and their style had a feel to it like no other band I've ever seen-pure magic, but Alice I don't remember at all and I brought my own cherry acid so I didn't pass out from downers??? Maybe from fatigue because I got about 2 hrs sleep the night before waking up next to a small bonfire covered with smoke and dirt powder.
>
>Let me take you down
>
>‘cause I’m going to
>
>Strawberry Fields
>
>Nothing is real
>
>And nothing to get hung about
>
>-John Lennon, Strawberry Fields 1966
>
>
>
>
>
>In August of 1970, we heard about a Canadian rock
>festival called Strawberry Fields. It was to be held
>in Moncton, New Brunswick. Rumor had it that one of
>the organizers was none other than Dr. Winston O
>Boogie himself, John Lennon. Scheduled to appear were:
>
>Procol Harum
>
>Mountain
>
>Jethro Tull
>
>Jose Feliciano
>
>Ten Years After
>
>Sly and the Family Stone
>
>Grand Funk Railroad
>
>Alice Cooper (must be some female folk singer, eh?)
>
>This could make up for missing Woodstock, just about a
>year earlier. By this time the "Asbury Street People"
>were fully organized and we were not about to miss
>this one. I will attempt a listing of those who were
>there, in no particular order:
>
>Anne Furlong
>
>Keith S.
>
>Curtis W.
>
>Brian "Captain America" P.
>
>Gary "Koko" C.
>
>Billy G.
>
>Katie F.
>
>Nancy F.
>
>Freddie S.
>
>Twiggy
>
>We set out hitchhiking in small groups on Tuesday or
>Wednesday, to give us plenty of time to get there for
>the start on Friday. My traveling companion for this
>trip was Keith S. from good old First Baptist Church.
>We were all supposed to meet at Lake George, spend the
>night, and head out again for Moncton, but Keith and I
>got a good ride that went way past Lake George. We
>figured that we would probably get there kinda early,
>but that was OK with us. What we did not know was that
>the festival had been moved from Moncton to Mosport,
>Ontario, about 800 miles west!
>
>The ear infection that I had picked up at Powder Ridge
>was in full bloom by now. I remember waking up in a
>ditch by the side of the road somewhere in Maine,
>shivering with a raging fever, and not believing how
>cold it was in August. We were almost to the Canadian
>border in Maine when some guy in a blue pickup truck
>(Stephen King, maybe?) picked us up and told us about
>the festival being moved. We decided that before we
>could hitch another 800 miles, we had to do something
>about my ear infection. Someone told us that the
>nearest hospital was in Quebec City, so that’s where
>we headed off to. In Quebec I got a shot of penicillin
>and some eardrops for free. God bless socialized
>medicine!
>
>After Quebec City we headed west towards Mosport
>Racetrack near Toronto. I had a raging fever and was
>sleeping a lot, so Keith was doing most of the
>hitching with me lying on the shoulder of the road.
>Must have been quite a sight! I woke up once on the
>side of a busy highway near Montreal and found that we
>had company, a hooker on the run from the Mafia who
>had gotten dropped off on the same ramp as us.
>
>We finally arrived at the festival on Saturday
>afternoon (so much for being early) and snuck in
>though a well used break in the fence. The first
>person from Asbury Park that we met there was Anne. We
>were playing Frisbee while "Strawberry Fields Forever"
>was playing over the stage sound system. Curtis was
>traveling with Anne, but Frisbee was a little too
>physical for his condition, and I’m not sure he was
>even with us. Anne filled us in on who was there, the
>acts we had missed the previous night, (Jethro Tull,
>Mountain…) and how they had found out about the change
>of venue when they regrouped in Lake George. We set
>about finding some refreshments for the nights
>festivities. I think what I wound up with was
>Psilocybin and LSD, but do you ever really know?
>
>The performers for the night were Jose Feliciano,
>Procol Harum, and Alice Cooper.
>
>I think that the Psilocybin was just about kicking in
>when Feliciano took the stage, and I am sure that I
>was peaking when he launched into an amazing version
>of "Hey Jude". I was lying on my back, watching the
>stars. It seemed that the sky was an immense
>multidimensional polyhedron with a different colored
>star at each vertex. I thought back to the other times
>I had listened to that song, the night before high
>school started, Menlo Park, and my first psychedelic
>Romilar experience. I took stock of my situation, in
>this beautiful place with Anne at my side, and I
>decided that "Yes indeed, Mr. McCartney, I remembered
>to let her under my skin, and we are beginning to make
>it better."
>
>At this point I think that Anne, Brian P., and I were
>the only one’s left awake from our group, since there
>were some folks selling sleeping pills as Psychedelics
>(wonder where the Kilpatricks were). We were waking
>people up to point out high points of the show, but
>they would be up for a song or two, and then fall back
>to sleep.
>
>Procol Harum were next, and they were great. "Whiskey
>Train" rocked, and they finished with "A Salty Dog".
>That was one of my favorite songs at the time, and I
>think that Anne may have first developed a taste for
>those guys after hearing it under those conditions.
>
>Next up was Alice Cooper.
>
>Definitely not a female folk singer.
>
>After the peacefulness of Jose Feliciano and Procol
>Harum, Alice Cooper was a shock to all systems. He was
>a crazed, demonic presence on the stage. He was doing
>things with screen doors and rubber chickens, and the
>sound was phenomenal!! We watched him raise the dead
>with "Black Juju", and then came "Fields of Regret".
>
>The main part of the crowd was in a valley with the
>campers spread out over the hills on either side. We
>were watching from the hill on stage right, about a
>quarter of the way back. The valley was full of smoke
>from campfires, cigarettes, etc., and the lighting
>guys were having a great time with it. At one point
>during the song they turned the entire valley a deep
>crimson red, and with all of the people dancing, it
>looked like a vision of the inner circle of Hell,
>complete with bodies writhing in the Lake of Fire.
>
>All in all, a pretty intense religious experience
>(give me that old time religion).
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