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Part V
June 6, 2008
"Call them freaks, the underground, the counter-culture, flower children or hippies - they are all loose labels for the youth culture of the 60s ..."
Barry Miles, author of Hippie
"This is how I remember my life. Other folks may not have the same memories, even though we might have shared some of the same experiences."So begins David Crosby's autobiography, Long Time Gone (co-written by Carl Gottlieb). As it turns out, quite a few other folks seem to remember some people in Crosby's life who are all but ignored in the lengthy book. The names are casually dropped only once, and not by Crosby but rather in a quote from manager Jim Dickson in which he describes the scene at the Sunset Strip clubs when The Byrds played: "We had them all. We had Jack Nicholson dancing, we had Peter Fonda dancing with Odetta, we had Vito and his Freakers."
Following that brief mention by Dickson, Gottlieb briefly explains to readers that, "Vito and his Freakers were an acid-drenched extended family of brain-damaged cohabitants." And that, in an incredibly self-indulgent 489-page tome, is the only mention you will find of "Vito and his Freakers" - despite the fact that, by just about all other accounts, the group dismissed as "brain-damaged cohabitants" played a key role in the early success of Crosby's band. And the early success of Arthur Lee's band. And the early success of Frank Zappa's band. And the early success of Jim Morrison's band. But especially in the early success of David Crosby's band.
Comment: Continue to part VII