Ok here's a real sixties story. You know what they say about the sixties, if you can
remember them you weren't there. Well I was there and for 33 years I didn't know if I
really remembered this event or if was just a hallucination.

New Year's Eve between 1968 and 1969 I went to the Shrine Auditorium to see POGO (later
to be renamed POCO because Walt Kelley, creator of the Pogo comics, sued them), LEE
MICHAELS & FROSTY, and the headliners CANNED HEAT. The people on the floor of the
Shrine were packed like sardines. It was so hot and there was so much smoke that
people were fainting to the floor around me.

At the stroke of midnight Canned Heat took the stage. I was there because I loved the
Blind Owl. I was just learning to play harmonica and he was my man! I had a good
spot near the stage, close enough to see everybody well, Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson, Henry
"Sunflower" Vestine, Larry "The Mole" Taylor, "Fito" De La Parra. But where was Bob
"The Bear" Hite? Just then the big front doors to the Shrine swung open and there was
The Bear! He was riding high on the back of a baby elephant! And he plowed that
elephant right through the packed crowd! As he got closer to the stage I could see
that the baby elephant was painted day-glo purple with psychedelic slogans and
designs!(Just like in that Peter Sellers movie "The Party") And both the elephant and
The Bear were wearing nothing but matching diapers that had 69 painted on their butts!
The Bear rode that elephant right up to the front of the stage, hopped off and started
the "Fried Hockey Boogie". The crowd went nuts!

Years passed and I started to doubt I ever saw that elephant. I'd taken a bus to the
concert alone and hitchhiked home (hitchhiking was still a common and safe mode of
transportation for 14 year old boys in 1968) and my friends just thought I was trippin
when I tried to convince them of what I'd seen.

But then last year I bought a book called "Livin The Blues" the Canned Heat Story by
Fito De La Parra. My heart skipped a beat when there, in the middle of the book, was
a photo of the legendary purple elephant in the middle of the Shrine and I could even
see myself in the crowd! Instant validation after all these years!

They sure couldn't get away with anything like that in a concert today! The animal
rights people and the liability lawyers and insurance companies would have a shitfit!
But back then, according to the book, the biggest hurdle was just convincing the Bear
to get up on the elephant! He had no idea that their manager had arranged the stunt!

So that's my story. And don't forget to boogie!

By Jazmaan