It was at a high school basketball game of all things.
The day I first laid eyes on the ‘peel slowly and see’
banana cover, designed by Andy Warhol, of the first Velvet Underground
album.
An acquaintance was
roaming the balcony of the Lawrence High School gymnasium, pausing occasionally
to show his new acquisition to anyone who might be impressed.
This is real time, folks – mid-march, 1967. I was fourteen years of age.
This may sound strange. But I well remember walking the
streets of downtown Lawrence with “Are You Experienced” under my arm, recently
released, newly purchased, enjoying the commentary of friends and acquaintances
who stopped me and asked me about this new artist and phenomenon named Jimi
Hendrix. There was no world wide web, only a handful of rock magazines and
underground newspapers spreading this subterranean culture to a few of us with
our ear to the ground.
This acquaintance later become a friend. Then he was a year or so older. That’s a big
deal when you’re fourteen.
He explained the whole drugs, whips, furs, demi-monde
exceptional-ism of this new band, a teenage wasteland attempt to provide
context.
I filed the information away, curious but anxious.
I heard White Light, White Heat somewhere, some other avant-friend's house. "Sister Ray" freaked me out to tell you the truth. Intrigued,
unsettled by what I heard; I was fifteen.
Then I saw the third album, the self-titled record, in the
bins of a local record shop. I couldn’t leave the store without it for some
reason. That shop is long gone. But that music plays so very often, not just from
my computer, stereo and car speakers, but also in the jukebox of my mind.
The first song that sunk in was “I’m Set Free.” The jangle
reminded me of the Byrds. The lyrics were a quiet rapture and revelation. The
chorus was rousing and dour. And in summation: “I’m set free to find a new
illusion.” Words that would raise my spirits and trigger some sadly absurd
sense of life’s cycles and shortages … over and over again.
1st in a series of Lewis Allan Reed memories and rhapsodies.
