The last of the black Rock 'n' Roll pioneers?

@larsman: I played live at some Raves in the 1990’s, and the kids looked to be having a great time. I’ve never heard any bad stories about Ecstasy. Just peace, love, & understanding. And sex ;-) .

I have no doubt Alcohol has caused more misery in the world than any other drug. More of it gets consumed, of course, but it also can lead to very aggressive behavior (mean drunks, of which I’ve known a few). So can Speed. The worst show I ever played was for an entirely-male biker audience. When the Speed and Alcohol kicked in, it got real ugly. Not Altamont ugly, but ugly enough.

Title of a Spacemen 3 album: Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Take Drugs To. ;-)

I was into Psychedelic music only fairly briefly: from the Summer of ’67 (I saw The Grateful Dead and The Airplane live that Summer) until the Summer of ’69. In the Spring of ’68 my best friend and I dropped together, unknowingly haven gotten a hold of some bad acid (it must have been cut with speed, ’cause I was buzzing like a chainsaw!). That was the end of tripping for me. Weed too, as from that moment on getting high made me very paranoid. Been a (light) drinker ever since. I think of that as getting low. ;-)

When I moved to L.A. in October of ’78, my God coke was everywhere. You’d go to a party and instead of joints being past around (as was common in Northern California), a mirror with lines of coke was. A very fun drug, unless you have enough dough to overdo it. Nobody I knew did, except for a dame I briefly dated, who told me she sold her car to buy as much of the stuff as she could get her hands on. Coincidentally, she was an absolute animal in.....hmm, perhaps I should leave the rest to your imagination. ;-)

Uh, yeah @tylermunns, that’s why I said ".....and take it easy with that very dangerous drug." George Harrison said he and the others tripped only a handful of times, and were fine. Syd Barrett, Skip Spence, Peter Green, and Brian Wilson didn’t, and look what happened to them.

I saw first hand what LSD can do. A girl I first met in 7th grade got involved with an older guy when she was 16, and in the summer of ’67 the two of them killed themselves together in a cabin in the Santa Cruz mountains. They had taken a lot of acid, which those who had remained close to her said drove her crazy.

I’ve known a fair number of heroin addicts, including my sister. While heroin addiction (and alcoholism) is not pretty, it doesn’t do what acid can. I've known a few guys who died of liver failure (the great guitarist/singer/songwriter Evan Johns for one), and even more of lung cancer. It killed them, but it didn't drive them insane. Acid can, and has. 

It's interesting how the younger generation is coming to embrace psychedelic music. Are the psych bands dropping acid? ;-) Hope they have learned from history, and take it easy with that VERY dangerous drug. We don't wanna see anymore Syd Barrett's, Skip Spence's, Peter Green's, and Brian Wilson's.

@dabel: L.A. nightlife? You had great local talent right there in San Diego! The Beat Farmers (roadhouse Rock ’n’ Roll), The Paladins (a 3-pc. Blues band, and a good one), The Crawdaddy’s (early-Stones influenced), and a 3-pc. Rockabilly band whose name escapes me at the moment.

The 3-pc instrumental band I was playing in during the 1990’s (one of the band’s numerous bassists---five over the years---was in an early incarnation of Los Lobos. Real good player. Another has been playing with Los Straitjackets for about twenty years now.) played a show with the Rockabilly band at The Casbah. They had a female bassist, Asian if my memory hasn’t gone fuzzy.

Why so many 3-pc. bands? More dough per member ;-) .

@dabel: The Continental Drifters were an "underground" super group, the members being Susan Cowsill (of The Cowsills obviously), Vicki Peterson (of The Bangles), Peter Hopsapple (of The dB’s), Mark Walton (of The Dream Syndicate), Gary Eaton (a mighty fine songwriter and singer, formerly of The Ringling Sisters), a great drummer named Carlo Nuccio (and I mean GREAT. I say that having seen & heard live Ringo Starr, Charlie Watts, Keith Moon, Ginger Baker, Mitch Mitchell, Buddy Miles, Jim Keltner, and many other drummers far more well known than Nuccio. You can hear him on albums of Tori Amos, Dr. John, and Emmylou Harris), and a succession of lead guitarists.

The Drifters had a "residency" at Raji’s in Los Angeles (a club in the basement of a very old hotel on Hollywood Blvd.), playing every Tuesday night for much of 1992. And let me tell ya, they were one of the very best live bands I’ve seen & heard in my many years of attending music shows. Every week they would have a different local band or artist (or two) opening for them, and the place was packed with musicians and songwriters and singers (both well known and aspiring). They made a buncha albums while they were together, but Nuccio tragically died last year at only 61 years of age (good ol’ liver "complications").

@dabel: Did you ever see & hear The Continental Drifters while they were residing in "Nawlins"? I did a buncha times when they were living in Los Angeles. A fantastic band!