{"id":5800,"date":"2009-06-26T12:47:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-26T12:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/remembering-sky-saxon\/"},"modified":"2009-06-26T12:47:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-26T12:47:00","slug":"remembering-sky-saxon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/remembering-sky-saxon","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Sky Saxon"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the winter 1963, famed author of \u201cBrave New World\u2019 and psychedelic pioneer Aldous Huxley died. Normally, the death of such a giant of letters and controversy would have been front-page news, but most people didn\u2019t even know it had happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

Three years later, in the winter of 1966, the song \u201cPushin\u2019 Too Hard\u201d by a proto-punk garage band called the Seeds hit the charts, mainly because it was a great example of the genre, and somewhat because it was taken as a protest over police response to the so-called riots on the Sunset Strip, the subject of various books, films and musical expression.<\/span><\/p>\n

But for the presence of psychedelics, the two events would seem to have little in common, yet as events unfolded over the following decade, the parallels if not eerie, are certainly worth noting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday, the Seeds\u2019 creator and lead singer Sky Saxon passed away at the estimated age of 63.<\/span><\/p>\n

I met Sky in a school bus in front of DiPiazza\u2019s on Pacific Coast Hwy in 2002. Knowing a bit about his rock and roll legend, I wanted to know more and he was most obliging, though the smoke was thick. He told me he was from Salt Lake City, he began singing as an Elvis Presley emulator and cut various early \u201cteen idol\u201d records he cut as Ritchie Marsh \u2013 his real name was Richard Marsh.<\/span><\/p>\n

He talked about being backed by or recording in the Mormon Tabernacle Echo chamber choir, but that part was as clear as the air in the bus: not very. He talked about a recording studio owner who let him record in exchange for Marsh digging him a swimming pool.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then he talked about his days with the Seeds and the band\u2019s growing popularity and a felt competition with the Doors\u2019 Jim Morrison. \u201cI couldn\u2019t get past Jim Morrison; since he was dead, I couldn\u2019t get past him. The Doors were good for people who were down, the Seeds were good for upbeat, happy music.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So death was always in his mind, yet in his post-Seeds days, he went out of his way to characterize himself and his music in terms of sunlight and skies\u2026 thus Sky Saxon.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the end of our conversation, Sky autographed and gave me a copy of his latest CD and a very colorful poster. He also gave me his phone number and told me next time I was in Shasta, to look him up. By the time I got to Shasta, his number didn\u2019t work and I looked around that small town for his bus, to no avail.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then I heard about yesterday\u2019s news, Sky had passed away in Austin, Texas at the approximate age of 63 and I thought about our extended conversation in his school bus parked in front of DiPiazzas. I think I cautioned him about drawing attention to large clouds of smoke that filled the bus, but he didn\u2019t seem concerned.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today I checked the L.A. Times. All Michael Jackson, some half dozen pages of coverage and two pages coverage on Farrah Fawcett\u2019s death. Sky? Nothing. <\/span><\/p>\n

On oldies KRTH, which went to all-Michael Jackson programming, to his credit, Shotgun Tom Kelly managed to sneak in one play of \u201cPushin\u2019 Too Hard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And Sky Saxon\u2019s connection to Huxley? Huxley\u2019s death would have been major international news but for the fact he died on November 22, 1963, the same day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, thus he was completely swamped by history. <\/span><\/p>\n

So history repeated itself. On any other day, Sky Saxon\u2019s passing would have warranted a major article, ironic for a guy who adopted sunshine as his identity, to be put in the shadows by the King Of Pop.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of Sky\u2019s memorable quotes about the Seeds and other bands he created was thus: \u201cI see all these bands as missiles, like we have wars, this way I can be all these different bands, I can send all these bands out in different directions as there\u2019s no personality involved, just to get the message out, how do you fight for peace? You have to earn it, you can\u2019t fight for peace, that\u2019s war. We can\u2019t give awards or stars for killing somebody. That\u2019s the cradle of civilization.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Propes remembers a musical icon that passed away yesterday: Sky Saxon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5800"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5800"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}