I think, in a way, rock concerts have

Always, um, uh, served a function

It gives a lot of, uh, people, uh, with the same, uh, station in

Life a chance to gather together and kind of, uh, assemble and

Uh, just feel, uh, the sheer mass of them that exists, the numbers

On the other hand, you can take that, the ten thousand people coming

Together, and there's a sense of, of communion, a communal thing

We're all here together and there's no reason-

A lot of energy is dissipated in, uh, in the concert

There's no reason that that same communal kind of

Thing can't be taken out into the outside world

And ideally, hopefully, that's what a rock, a good rock concert can do

People are together inside, and they get outside into the

Parking lot and start driving home and get into their homes

Uh, I hope they still realize that they're together

You know, they were together in the concert and

They're together in their homes, they're together

In their schools, they're together on the street

And if the people can work that togetherness, keep

That thing going and working it, working it

Eventually, uh, everything's gonna turn out alright

What do kids look to you for, as far

As projecting it through your sound?

It's funny, in Europe, the kids were

Much more politically oriented, you know

If we said anything politically, they'd go into a fury, you know

I mean, they'd love it, especially anything against America, you know

But, uh, if we just played, they'd dig that too

But they really dug the political side of it, you know

But, uh, in America, it's just the opposite, really

A lot of people are- at our concerts, at least, uh, they're sort of

It seems like they don't really, uh, come to hear us speak politics

What, what do they come to hear?

I mean, I know you can say-

I think they come more for the religious experience

How does that translate in terms of

Rhythm, riffs, and things like that?

Uh, you really can't, because any rhythm, any riff

Any, any, any set of lyrics is a release, you know

It's just that you're releasing yourself totally

Into whatever you happen to be playing at the moment

How about in, in lyrics?

What's, uh, the difference between a rock lyric and a poem?

Well, there's really no difference

You know, Jim's book is, uh, the same as Jim's lyrics

You know, this, uh- I can read a page and I've

Heard him sing pretty much the same things

You know, for him, I don't think it's any difference at all

This is written poetry, and what he does on stage is spoken poetry

A lot of our, um, most interesting songs develop, uh

Over a period of time playing night after night in clubs

Um, we'd start out into a fairly basic song and then

Uh, the music would settle into a kind of hypnotic, uh

River of sound, which, um, would leave me free to kind

Of make up anything that came into my head at the time

Uh, that's- I think that's- I like songs, but that's the

That's the part of the, uh, performance that I enjoy the

Most, where I have a chance just to, um, pick up vibrations

From the music and what's coming from the audience and

Uh, just kind of follow it wherever, wherever it goes

How's that different from how you write a poem?

Mm, it's very similar

Um, I think, uh, a lot of poetry is very close to music

Except, um, when you're, when you write a poem, often, um

You just, you have to be in a, in a state of mind that music

Can put you in with its hypnotic quality, uh, that leaves you

Free to, you know, just let the subconscious play itself out

I think the two basic types of music indigenous to this country are

Uh, the, uh, black music, blues, and the kind of folk music that

Was brought over from Europe, and, and I guess they call it

Country music, kind of West Virginia, Ohioans, and stuff like that

Those, those are the two main streams of root American music

There might be others, I don't know

But, uh, it looks like, um, and, like, ten years ago, what they

Called rock and roll was kind of a blending of those two forms

Uh, and I guess what's happening now is that rock is kind of

Dying out and everyone is going back to their roots again

Some are going back into country and some

Are going, uh, back into basic blues

I guess in four or five years, uh, the new, uh

Generation's music will be, um, it'll have, uh

A synthesis of those two elements and some third thing

It'll be entirely- maybe it'll be, uh, it might rely

Uh, heavily on, uh, uh, electronics, uh, tapes

I can kind of envision maybe, uh, one person with, uh

Uh, a lot of machines, tapes, and electronics set up

Uh, uh, singing or speaking and, and using machines