In the winter 1963, famed author of “Brave New World’ 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’t even know it had happened.
Three years later, in the winter of 1966, the song “Pushin’ Too Hard” 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.
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.
Yesterday, the Seeds’ creator and lead singer Sky Saxon passed away at the estimated age of 63.
I met Sky in a school bus in front of DiPiazza’s 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 “teen idol” records he cut as Ritchie Marsh – his real name was Richard Marsh.
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.
Then he talked about his days with the Seeds and the band’s growing popularity and a felt competition with the Doors’ Jim Morrison. “I couldn’t get past Jim Morrison; since he was dead, I couldn’t get past him. The Doors were good for people who were down, the Seeds were good for upbeat, happy music.”
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… thus Sky Saxon.
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’t work and I looked around that small town for his bus, to no avail.
Then I heard about yesterday’s 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’t seem concerned.
Today I checked the L.A. Times. All Michael Jackson, some half dozen pages of coverage and two pages coverage on Farrah Fawcett’s death. Sky? Nothing.
On oldies KRTH, which went to all-Michael Jackson programming, to his credit, Shotgun Tom Kelly managed to sneak in one play of “Pushin’ Too Hard.”
And Sky Saxon’s connection to Huxley? Huxley’s 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.
So history repeated itself. On any other day, Sky Saxon’s 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.
One of Sky’s memorable quotes about the Seeds and other bands he created was thus: “I 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’s no personality involved, just to get the message out, how do you fight for peace? You have to earn it, you can’t fight for peace, that’s war. We can’t give awards or stars for killing somebody. That’s the cradle of civilization.”