Arlo Guthrie Playing in Sebastian florida

Arlo Guthrie/Coming into Los Angles Pt 2 - YouTube: "http://youtu.be/i4y1Asq2hic"


Love and Arlo
this my story about attending the concert




I dropped by Sebastian Inlet Florida to look at a friend's sailboat that was moored
there. I met Doug at his trailer and we went down and toured the boat and went to a
nearby bar for a beer. it was doug's local and we had a very friendly pretty young
waitress named Nancy who Doug introduced to me in passing. She was sort of in and out
of the conversation as we downed 3 or 4 beers. Then she asked if we were going to the
Arlo Guthrie concert. I lit up, I am an old folkie and love Arlo. So she tells us
that Arlo live here and every year he gives a free concert in the park for the
locals. sounds good to me so Doug and i decide to get some dinner anc catch the
concert. We pay the tab and say good bye to sweet young thing and head for a great
thai/sushi restaurant. After dinner we hit Doug's Biker Bar right beside the park for
a few beers before the show starts we soon hear the music and join the crowds and it
is great Only we didn't have any chairs and the ground was uncomfortable. Doug got in
a conversation with someone and I waved and moved on trying to find a better spot.

So there was a sound tent halfway to the stage and a long bare patch in the crowd
behind it because it blocked the view to the stage. So I walked up behind the tent
and tried to sidle around for a better view. As I tried to squeeze into the pack the
cround surged and I was shoved cheek to jowl with a rather lovely lady. She seemed
happy with situation and even seemed to snuggle closer. Introductions were in order.
Gary
"Jennifer, are you from around here?"
"no are you.'
"yes I own a little furniture store on highway 1"
Arlo sings the motorcycle song  and the crowd cheers.
"So you are not here with anyone"
"No I got a friend has a sailboat here and i just dropped in to say hello.I'm from
Canada. I don't know anybody else around here.
I love Canadians she coos.
It is a great time and jennifer makes it even better. Our forced closeness  seems to make us old friends.

Alice's Restaurant! Alice'e Restaurant! the crowd chants.
I cant remember the words says Arlo.

Somehow in the ever shifting crowd  we are pushed forward a bit and she grabs my hand
and pulls me down to a small wall with room for one to sit on. She pushes me down and
sits on my lap, her lips brush my cheek as she settles.

Arlo sings with his daughter Sara and her husband. great version of mr Customs man,
Jennifer whispers she has some great dope at home.
Too soon it is City of New Orleans time and it is over.
I agree to go with Jennifer as soon as I say good bye to Doug. the audience is
dispersing.
Jennifer stands up. suddenly there is a commotion. the crowd parts suddenly a girl
is running from a slightly wet biker.
We turn to look the girl screams GARY SAVE ME!  and jumps into my arms.

Jennifer looks at me horrified" I thought you didn't know anybody here. she sniffs and walks
away.
"No Wait!"
I am stunned facing this angry biker I am still holding Nancy the waitress.
"What happened?"
"This guy grabbed my ass and I threw my drink on him." says Nancy
I am big enough that the biker walks away.
I see Jennifer disappear in the distance,
Nancy is much too young but looking more interesting,
Ohh she says There is my husband john." "John John this is Gary he saved me.
Hi I say and look for Doug. I need a drink.

The story is true Names have been changed to protect the innocent

Mariposa 63

In 1963 I was working in Toronto and spent a great deal of time at the village Corner and the Yorkville folk scene. I was hanging out with ken Danby at the new Gate of Cleve when he did the Mariposa Folk Festival Poster. In this milieu I met Ed Cowan and Jack Wall and ended up as Assistant Food Manager at the 63 Mariposa Festival in Orillia.
I worked with Wally cowan Ed's brother and we put together and suppled the several food booths that served the festival. I was staying at the crew motel as we set up the week before, and in the next room was the coolest guy I had ever met. he was from New York and did the lighting. We had a few beers together everyday. Chip had little round blue sunglasses and a young hippie wife with a baby and he knew everybody and was just cool. So the day befor the show he is looking real sad and I ask why. he says he is leaving. he broke his most important light and it cost $150.00 and he didn't have enough to pay for it. I asked if he could get it in Orillia he said yes. So we went and bought it and I charged to the Festival. So the show went on and saved his business. That cool guy was Chip Monck one of the principle founders of the Woodstock Festival.
One of our big sponsors was Canada Dry  and their reps were great quick to buy dinners and drinks and I was friend with a couple of them for years. the week before i had a van and set up freezer space for tons of Frozen pizzas hamburger patties hotdogs etc. organizing carpenters etc.
Somewhere in this I manged to back into the TR3 of lord Athol Layton the wrestler( it took him about 5 years to find me to sign off the insurance)
I also partyied most nights, eventually making a bed in the Van. I found a neat girlfriend to share it with. the only problem was the baker delivered the fresh rolls to the van at 4 in the morning. the festival itself was a zoo.
 I remember the mayor of orillia's introduction. Last year I said the Town is Yours. This year we would like it back!
The money rolled in from the booths so fast we ended up using my volkswagan bug as a vault. Wally and I had keys and would pick up handfuls of cash and stuff it in the back of the car under a blanket. I  once went into the festival office to get some change and found Irving the accountant sitting at a desk counting by stacks of money. I surprised him and he pulled a gun on me. when he saw it was me he apologized and put it away.
When it was over I helped clean up and got half my pay and was told I would get a cheque for the rest. after no cheque for a couple of weeks and getting the runaround from Wally I went to fith peg to see Jack Wall. he pleaded poor and offered me a week of free dinners and shows at the 5th Peg.
 So I had a week of having dinner with John lee hooker as he performed to a very small crowd. As it turned out Jack ripped off everybody he paid nobody. he didn't pay most performers, suppliers. I don't know how he did it, the fith peg closed and he dropped out of sight.

Tokyo Matsu the Singing Japanese cowgirl

She was a big star for a while in the 70's nashville and all a big record and she's gone she dont google or anything. I saw her at the Horseshoe
So Tony Vice had the house band at the old Horseshoe in the country days. They were backing up Tokyo Matsu the Singing Japanese cowgirl. No rehersal but she played her fiddle and sang the country standards and it went well until she left the the orange blossum special solo and took off into some weird Jappanese tune with completley alien chord strucure. She bowed and scraped some shades of the Sukiyaki Song and many unknown regions of the music scale. The band looked on stunned, the audience politely clapped, sort of. She hoed down and up, danced around the stage hit her high note stamped her little foot and and shouted TAKE IT? Tony looked at her shaking his head "Take it the f**k Where? and all came crashing to a halt.

David Milne & Duncan McPherson

David Milne lived in Uxbridge then and I occasionally played with his son David. David's mother tried to repay some kindness showed by another schoolmate's mother by offering her one of David's oil paintings. The mother handed it back sniffing "I wouldn't hang that in the house.'

Dr. Carl and Sheila Puterbough were dear friends of our family too. Carl made the mistake of turning down an offer of a painting for some dental work from David Milne too.

Later Duncan Macpherson moved to town. My dad told me a story about sitting with Duncan and David Milne on the train to Toronto. Somewhere near Stouffville David pointed out the window and remarked what a beautiful green this haystack was.   
Duncan said he was crazy that haystack was red. 
Dad said he didn't say anything but that haystack sure looked yellow to him

Duncan was a wild man. He was banned for life from the Uxbridge Legion at least 3 times.

One time he took my mother to the Stouffville Sales Barn auction to buy some garden tools. Duncan bid and got a huge box of garden tools for a dollar. There was  an axe, a shovel, a rake, and a hoe even.  but that came with a dozen or so old cellar window screens. As they carried them to the car Mother asked Duncan what she was going to do with all the screens. Don't you know anything? says Duncan as opened the nearest car door and threw them in the back seat and walked away.

-- 

Jail on St Patrick's Day

In 1962 St Patricks day came on Saturday. I was 20 and just got out of the navy and four of us decided to go to Buffalo for the weekend. We had lots of beer and I taught them a couple of songs I learned in the Navy.(SONGS BELOW)



So Mike, Hans Orville and I get Buffalo and get a couple of hotel rooms and head for Santisaro's for a famous pizza and a bottle of chianti in a basket bottle. Pizza was a rare commodity in those days.

We had a few drinks and a case of beer and went back to the hotel had a few drinks and went to bed.
We went for breakfast and then 10 pin bowling.
As the day wore on and since it was St patricks day we decided to get serious and started to hit the bars 1 drink in each bar.
At one Irish bar a pretty lass talked into some regalia and we soon had our shamrock buttons and were having a good time.
We hit the street and Mike decides to swing on a sign pole.
I guess a car had hit it because it snapped off at the bottom and came down on Mike's head and he collapsed on the pavement.
I looked back at him just as it happened and went rushing back to help him. Before I could pick him up a buffalo policeman hauled him to his feet.
'where are you from ?" He demanded.
"Canada" mumbles slightly stunned Mike.
"Do you do that in Canada"
"yYah " but the poles are stronger."
"Oh a smart guy."Says the cop.
I say "Come on officer it must have been a weak pole.'
"Oh another smart guy."Says the cop and whistles.
A police paddy wagon k9 division pulls up and takes us off to jail.
"What are we charged with?"
"Him with drunk and you Drunk and disordlerly
"How was I disorderly? i asked, "I did everything you asked of me."
"You were still standing." laughed the cop.
Mike was drunk but I really wasn't.
they took away our Irish ribbons and buttons AND We are put in the drunk tank, the usual large dank cell with 3 irish drunks and about 20 black guys and one toilet etc.

Mike starts singing
Oh the Eri-e was a risin' and the
Gin was a gettin' low
And I did not think we'd get a drink
Till we got to Buffaolo ho ho
Till we got to  Buffa lo
the irishmen join in.
Mike fumbles the words and switches to

Sambo was a lazy coon,  Who used to sleep in the afternoon,
I managed to choke him quiet before the black guys heard it.    

After a terible night we are taken Sunday court. We now have a half a dozen more irish drunks and they all got to keep their buttons and ribbons. It is an Irish judge and he has about a half a dozen grand children in the first row dressed in green and white. they are all going to church after court.
The judge is in a hurry. Every drunk with a St.Patrick button is released. They come to us  Mike pleaded guilty $25.00 or seven days. me Not guilty, remand $100.00. what I dont have time for that I have to go back to Canada and my job. "Canadians? says the judge, "I'm tired of you undesirables coming down here and..
"Who the fuck are you calling an undesirable." I say,
"We come down her as visitors we spend our money  caused no trouble started no fights, We wernt drunk, My buddy grabbed a pole and it snapped off and hit him. I dont believe you fucking people.
The judge Went apoplectic, he could believe his ears he sent his grand kids out.
"Get them out of here" he fumed
"Not in my court." he could hardly speak"You cant talk like that here." Take them to Canada! Take them to border. Get them out of here!"
That was it, no money, no fines, We were put in a crusier and taken to immigration.
it was sunday and this guy was filling in. He could't figure out how to fingerprint us so he took us to the border where Hans and Orville were waiting.
'This doesn't mean anything" he says "you come right back if you want to."

We were forty miles from Albany and
Forget it I  never  shall
What a hell of a storm we  had one night
On the Er-i-e Canal
On The Er-i-e Canal
Our Captain he came up on deck
With a spyglass in his hand
And the fog it was so fuckin thick
That he could not spy the land
That he could not spy the land


chorus
Oh the Eri-e was a risin' and the
Gin was a gettin' low
And I did not think we'd get a drink
Till we got to Buffaolo ho ho
Till we got to  Buffa lo




Two days out of Syracuse
Our vessel struck a shoal
We foundered when we hit a chunk
Of Lackawanna Coal ho ho
Of Lackawanna coal lo


Chorus




Our cook she was a grand old gal
She wore a ragged dress
We hoisted her upon a pole
As a signal of distress
As a signal of distress


chorus


When we got to Syracuse
The off mule he was dead
The night mule had blind staggers
So we cracked him on the head
And we cracked him on the head


the captain he got married
and the crew was tossed in jail
And I'm the only Son of a bitch
That is left to tell the tale
That's left to tell the tale

And unfortunately this one too.


Sambo was a lazy coon,         
Who used to sleep in the afternoon,        
 So tired was he, so tired was he.         
Off to the forest he would go,         
Swinging his bollocks too and fro,         
When along came a bee, a fucking great  bee,        
 Buzz, buzz, ubzz,
fuck Off you bumble bee,
I ain't no fucking rose,         
get off my fucking nose.                           
Arseholes rule the Navy,
 arseholes rule the Sea        
If you want a bit of bum, 
 better get it from chum,         
Cause you'll get no bum from me.

Goodbye Mr. Grossman Hello Mr. Fong.

I can tell you about a lot of years

That I watched going down At good old Grossmans Tavern

The best Honky Tonk in town

So we better have another beer, it might not be for long

Goodbye Mr. Grossman Hello Mr. Fong.

There were many friends and many girls 

We made along the way.

We drank our beers and whiskies 

And passed the time of day

And we listened to the Downchilds or Kid Bastien

Sing a song

Goodbye Mr. Grossman Hello Mr. Fong.

We we may have a few years yet

Before they tear it down

And new feet tramp away the memories

Of our old stomping ground.

As Chinatown keeps growin' on dollars from Hong Kong.

Goodbye Mr. Grossman Hello Mr. Fong.

Well cities grow and change their ways

And we feel the growing pains

but we'll always find a place to meet

Tho it might not be the same.

We better have another beer before we move along

Goodbye Mr. Grossman Goodbye Mr. Fong.


Thanks to Gynts Skudra for keeping a copy.
I wrote this when Grossman's was sold
It was performed by Boxcar Bruce

Murray McLauchlan New York

In 1976 I invited Murray to come to New York with me for the July 4th weekend and the tall ships. I had to fly down to pick up the van for the SORC sailboat Bonaventure V. The boat was racing in the Onion Patch in Bermuda and coming in to New York to go up the Hudson river and Erie Canal etc. back to Toronto and they wanted me to drive the van back. Besides July the 4th is my birthday and where else to celebrate? An added goody was an invitation from the Canadian Norwegian ambassador to have a sail on the Christian Radich.