The Big Broadcast

Time Capsule 1970

Can * nois * seur ( kan' us sur' ) n. one competent to render critical judgement on the qualities and merits of cannabis

"The most amazing property of cannabis is its ability to fog the minds of those who do not use it."

Heads Up: Heavy props to Re-Leaf at 1284 Mission @ 9th St., San Francisco, for dispensing a wide variety of high quality, fair trade herb. While small, they are a major market factor, keeping prices low as other dispensaries raise their rates. They've even been known to throw the occasional barbecue for the neighborhood. Stop by for a taste.


The Big Broadcast
(the continuing day-by-day log of a 1970 freighter voyage to Tangier)

As usual Scorpio went to work after dinner and closed shop just in time to see the bar close. However Pack had taken to buying it by the bottle due to the bar's skimpy hours (4 to 5:30 and 7 to 10), so they settled down to talk it over. They looked for Garfunkel who was across the lounge, playing Scrabble with his collegiate table mates.
A small tribe, consisting of two very long haired cats, two madonna ladies in Rennaisance garb and two dogs, floated by. Scorpio was cornered by an elderly cat from D.C. who was a dedicated fucking racist. After hearing his opening rant earlier, Scorpio had avoided him as best he could--but there he was. Fred Hart was concerned about militant revolution and seemed to think that Scorpio had the answer. Scorpio, taken aback, knew what he could not say.
Pack was huddling with Garfunkel now. As he'd been closely involved with the music business, it gave them more than a few references in common. Again, the room thinned out about midnight, leaving ten or twelve troupers drinking, smoking and listening to Joe Cocker getting by.
Scorpio began talking to a couple of faces, namely Whiting and Mort. Whiting was nineteen and Canadian.He had a passive, shy hip--nice and easy... Scorpio liked his vibration right off.  Mort was a little older and harder around the edges, the diamond glint in his eye reminding Scorpio of those types who always seemed to be the proprietors of head shops, or concert halls. He was a former student looking for export/import opportunites.
Both were agog at the adventure they had found On The Boat, reporting outlines of various scenes: the cat who was dealing lids, Whiting's photo of the tribal dogs copulating, the fact that everyone was on an indefinite trip, the fact that everyone was looking for some elusive further truth...Pack came over to Scorpio and asked if he'd like to hang inside. Scorpio excused himself and followed him back to the cabin. Garfunkle was there sipping a scotch. Some smoke magically appeared and Scorpio went next door for some cassettes.
While Monkey Man crashed along in true Stones fashion, Scorpio nursed his drink and sipped his tea. Then, as the first sweet choruses of You Can't Always Get What You Want began, he turned up the volume full blast. A bit of overkill that floored Garfunkel. When he came to he demanded to hear the rest of the Let It Bleed album immediately. As he listened he commented that he'd like to get that sound on some of his sides. He pulled some cassettes from his own stash. The first was Songs I Learned At My Father's Knee, by the Everley Brothers. Garfunkel reminisced that he'd been hung on the Everly Brothers all through high school, waiting impatiently for their new singles and buying them as soon as they were released. After the Everlies, Garfunkel laid a tape on the room that consisted of various things he liked: a couple of Larry Coryell cuts, the Stones' Sympathy For the Devil, his very favorite McCartney/Lennon song, Here There and Everywhere, and something intricate and majestic by a Hungarian Chorus.
Garfunkle and Scorpio went off to Abbey Road, wondering why such a fine piece of work was ripped and dismissed by the critics. They both agreed it was mostly side two, but the sheer flipped out, unprecedented  brilliance of that side should have earned the Beatles more than an oh yeah.
Scorpio believed the critics were constantly shifting loyalties, as well as their integrity, to survive. First the artist is fawned upon, then yawned upon. More scotch was passed and Pack went into some old memories of Lenny Bruce in LA. Scorpio leaped to offer the Lenny tape he was holding. His sentimental favorite, the Frank Dell at the Palladium routine.
Pack wasn't familiar with the bit, but Garfunkel was very involved. Garfunkle told them that he and Paul blew riffs from that same Lenny solo between themselves, especially when they were on the road playing strange towns and strange rooms. In fact, he was carrying that very 
Lenny Bruce album. Meanwhile the tape ran past Lenny into the Groupie album Scorpio had recorded as an off-the-wall slice of Americana. The album had been distributed mainly through mail order ads in papers like the Voice and the East Village Other, and was rumoured to have been produced by Frank Zappa. The record is a discussion/confession of the rock courtesan life style, by some the ladies who travel that road themselves, notably Cynthia Plaster Caster who takes plaster casts of rock cocks. A reality Scorpio saw as an extension of Lenny's absurd eye..  "the only people laughing were the two usherettes who balled everybody who played the theater," 
                                           Lenny Bruce
                                                        from the Palladium routine
Garunkel was first taken by the rippling voice effect that started the round robin. And when the birds began to sing he was amazed. He wanted to know where he could grab this lurid prize. It was decided to transfer it to a blank tape. Scorpio did pause to reflect what type of groupies Paul and Garfunkle encountered. A poet and a one man band.

Next: The Big Broadcast Gets Bigger

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Author's Note: Are we there yet? Halfway across the Atlantic. Please let me know if you want to keep sailing or cut to the chase. Thanks.