anyone else doing the barcroft research station ride from socal?

[albatrossklr]

And the wind cries Mary albatross not a poet........ --- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "nakedwaterskier" wrote:

> > The high altitude number was not mine. I copied and pasted. > 12,700 OK? not 127000 ft. > > Eight miles high and when you touch down > You'll find that it's stranger than known > Signs in the street that say where you're going > Are somewhere just being their own > > Nowhere is there warmth to be found > Among those afraid of losing their ground > Rain gray town known for it's sound > In places small faces unbound > > Round the squares huddled in storms > Some laughing some just shapeless forms > Sidewalk scenes and black limousines > Some living some standing alone > > > Many people believe this is about drugs, but the band claimed it was > inspired by a flight where singer Gene Clark asked guitarist Roger > McGuinn how high up they were. McGuinn told him 6 miles, but for the > song they changed it to 8. The band had been doing a lot of drugs at > the time, including LSD, which this is probably about. If the band > admitted the drug references, they knew it would get banned by radio > stations, and that's exactly what happened when a radio industry > publication reported that it was about drugs and stations should be > careful about playing it. As soon as one station dropped it, others > followed and it quickly sank off the charts. > > In his book Echoes, Gene Clark said that he wrote the song on his own > with David Crosby coming up with one key line ("Rain gray town, known > for its sound"), and Roger McGuinn arranging the song with help from > Crosby. In the Forgotten Hits newsletter, McGuinn replied: "Not true! > The whole theme was my idea... Gene would never have written a song > about flying. I came up with the line 'Six miles high and when you > touch down.' We later changed that to Eight because of the Beatles > song "Eight Days a Week." I came up with several other lines as well. > And what would the song be without the Rickenbacker 12-string > breaks?" (Thanks to Kent at the Forgotten Hits newsletter, which you > can join at The60sshop@...) > > This created a genr known as "Acid Rock," which was a kind of > psychedelic music that became popular in the late '60s. Unfortunately > for The Byrds, it also killed their Pop career. > > The band recorded this on their own, but Columbia Records made them > re-record it before they would put it on the album, partly because > they had contracts with unions. The Byrds liked the first version > better. > > Don McLean referred to this in his song "American Pie," which > chronicles the change in musical style from the '50s to the '60s. The > line is "Eight miles high and falling fast- landed foul out on the > grass." McLean could be sardonically implying that the song is about > drugs, since "foul grass" was slang for marijuana. (thanks, Brett - > Edmonton, Canada) >