See this man? This is Stephen Stills and this is what he looked like when I met him on November 19, 1969. Now he looks like Mr. Porter, my high school history teacher.
Today is his 65th birthday.
My friend Beverly and I had whipped ourselves into adolescent frenzy about Buffalo Springfield. She "got" Neil Young and I got Stephen. He was 24. I was 14. It would never have worked out.
They appeared in Richmond along with what have been a Lollapalooza line-up later.
Now that I look back on it, I'm amazed that such a booking ever occurred in Richmond.
The consisted of:
The Strawberry Alarm Clock. (I'm sorry. That really was the name of the band. "Incense and Peppermints." One-hit wonders.)
The Box Tops. (A two hit wonder - "The Letter" and "Expressway to your heart." I'm serious.)
Buffalo Springfield.
And the Beach Boys.
I think there were one or two other bands in there, but Bev and I were there for our guys.
We should have embarrassed ourselves by screaming and shrieking when they were on stage because 99.9% of the audience was very polite and sitting quietly and applauding nicely. Bev and I were like maniacs.
Before the show, Bev and I had ditched my folks and went walking around the arena. We found the Buffalo Springfield bus parked way in the back, inside. The guys came out when Bev and I mobbed the bus. I gave Stephen Stills gold love beads that I'd strung myself. And a short story I had written. No, I have no idea what possessed me. I was a feral child, you know.
Stephen Stills looked bemused and put the beads on. I probably wet my pants.
I have no idea what happened between Bev and Neil Young but I know that eight years later she bore a daughter by the manager of Redbone.
I've heard that Stephen Stills is ill. I'm sorry to hear it.
Even though I know we all get older, I try to avoid photographs of him now. I had a weird thing for Mr. Porter, too, and the less said about that, the better.
No comments:
Post a Comment