Back In The Day (from Lifesongs 8)

I got out an old video tape last night
while riding the exercise bike,
or as my youngest daughter would say;

something from ‘back in the day’,

yeah, I put Woodstock in the VCR,
and no I wasn’t there,
although sometimes I think
I must have been the only one
who wasn’t;

but it brought back a lot of old memories,
so it was kind of like I was there.

Wavy Gravy and the Hog Farm,
the Merry Pranksters,
living for the moment
like some lost ancient tribe,
it made me wonder
where they are today,
probably dot.com execs,
living in the hills
around San Francisco,
in multi-million dollar mansions,
or dead (farewell Kesey).

Richie Havens,
righteous and dignified,
singing of freedom and truth;

as if he really knew.

Canned Heat and the Bear,
bouncing around the stage
like a hippopotamus in heat,
lithe and graceful;

poetry in motion.

Joan Baez,
rambling on about
county jails and causes,
blah blah blah,
fast forward,
I suppose she was cool
for the times,
but a little hard to take today;

the wounded dove,
sad, little puppy dog eye look
gets a bit old.

Daltry,
young and god-like,
with Moon
wild and crazy eyed,
playing drums with demonic possession,
as Townsend
sends whirlybirds round and round.

The workout came to an end,
there was other things
I had to take care of,
so I didn’t watch the rest of the video,
but it was enough,
memories from ‘back in the day’
only go so far,
before you remember
how badly you wanted them
to be over;

when you were living them.
.
.