Preface
I may have had to play around a little with some of the timing of the gigs and events. A lot of this is loosely based on my own experiences, some is borrowed. I’ve tried to keep it real and capture the vibe of the spirit of those idealistic days.
Jack is real, a real person, even though he is really a composite of a few of my friends. He embodied the moment, larger than life.
This is the ultimate sixties book – a road novel for the British Underground with all its sex, drugs, dreams and music; those times of crazy people high on life and mad for experience – when anything was possible.
Capturing all that idealistic naïve impossibility permeated with vitality, careering love and dreams, the wild rush for adventure without a thought for the future because it was going to last forever.
As Love said: Forever Changes!
Spanning continents as it trips its way through time, space and minds in a mad rush to discover life and the full gamut of experience or die trying.
Now was all there was and it had to burn, burn, burn or it was dead.
In the days of dope and poetry, where the world was ripe for changing, there was a mystical buzz of unity. In the shadow of an establishment that stood for war, prejudice, work, isolation and the rat-race with all its status seeking power games, racism and slow death signified by getting the lines straight on your lawn, Jack’s cackling laughter and bright eyes, death-defying madness and care-free attitude showed there was an alternative.
Maybe dope was never enough and when we grow up it is time to put aside childish things where they are confined to our dreams and memories. But somewhere out there the spirit of Jack still lives where it is real.
We did change the world!Opher 16.8.2014