Pow Wow

So many stories. The first time I heard Scot do this song was back in 1979. We had just convinced my boss, the lovely San Francisco Greek lady, who owned the Civic Center restaurant I worked at, to let us book musical acts over the weekend in her place; which she otherwise closed down at 3:00 on Friday afternoon and re-opened Monday morning at 11:00. Little did she know, what that meant in 1979…

Scot and I had just come out as a couple. This is one of the few situations in Scot’s life that I know he had regrets about. I’m not proud about this either, as it hurt a good person, but I think, as it turned out, Scot and I just couldn’t help it.

The debut "opening band" of our newly dubbed punk rock, poetry, and any thing else we felt like club, was “The Double Cross Band.” This band was fronted by a dear friend of ours, Dave Kinney, who was born in those very Oklahoma hills the song talks about, and is himself a part of the Indian Nation. I do believe Dave “taught” Scot this song. John has his own relationship with the Indian Nation, the story of which we’ll save for another day.

Right before Scot and I came “out,” we went on a house-boating trip with my family on Lake Powell, in Arizona/Utah--a float out in the desert? (I had dreams about this trip for years.) Scot did not fit in well there. For one thing, he did not own a bathing suit. He arrived with some flesh colored pajamas and a pair Viet Nam-Ira combat boats. He stowed his gear in a bag, expropriated from the U.S. Postal Service. However unlikely, my family embraced him.

Dave tells the story best, but I can relate because I dropped Scot off on the originating end of the trip--there was this tornado, not uncommon for Oklahoma. I LOL, remembering Dave describe waiting there for Scot--and then Scot emerging from the tornado, decked out in his newly acquired cowboy hat and boots, and a postal bag with all his belongings draped over one shoulder. Some how Paul Bunyan comes to mind.

Getting too long here. Art work, something I couldn’t resist dishing out.

One more little story--John’s beautiful little daughter, loves this song too, and has been known to accompany Plank Road on this song playing the tamborine. I love Scot’s tamborine stomp on this track. I seems to strike the beat of a real Salvation Army.