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Learyfan
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Today in counterculture history (03/07) 1
#14079685 - 03/07/11 05:40 AM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Arthur Lee (March 7, 1945 – August 3, 2006) was the frontman, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of the Los Angeles rock band Love, best known for the critically acclaimed 1967 album, Forever Changes.
Love
Lee said when he first heard The Byrds, he felt vindicated since he'd already been writing music that had a similar folk rock sound. In 1965, The Grass Roots, his folk rock unit eventually changed their name to Love because there was already a signed act called The Grass Roots. Several other names were considered, including Bryan MacLean's choice of Summer's Children as well as other such as The Asylum Choir, Dr Strangelove and Poetic Justice and The Love. The name Love was chosen after a club audience voted it as the best choice. According to Barney Hoskyns' 2001 book Arthur Lee: Alone Again Or, Manson Family member and sometime Grass Roots guitarist Bobby Beausoleil claimed that Arthur had named the band Love in honor of one of Beausoleil's nicknames, Cupid.
Lee's early appearances were at clubs in Hollywood. He played them all, including the Brave New World, Hullabaloo, Bido Lito's and the Sea Witch. At Bido Lito's, a tiny hole-in-the-wall club located on a cul-de-sac known as Cosmo's Alley, Lee first showed he had superstar potential. The Bido Lito's audience was sometimes dotted by celebrities, including actor Sal Mineo, and rock stars Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix, who would go on to collaborate with Lee on future recording projects. Lee then got the opportunity to play the larger Whisky a Go-Go on Los Angeles' Sunset Strip, after which Love received a recording contract by Elektra Records.
Love's music has been described as a mixture of folk-rock, psychedelic rock, baroque pop, Spanish-tinged pop, R&B, garage rock, and even protopunk. Though Lee's vocals have garnered some comparisons to Johnny Mathis, his lyrics often dwell on matters dark and vexing, but often with a wry humor. The group's cover of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David composition "My Little Red Book" (first recorded by Manfred Mann for the soundtrack of What's New, Pussycat?) received a thumbs-down from Bacharach: Love had altered the former Marlene Dietrich bandleader's chord changes. Nonetheless, the record was a Southern California hit and won Lee and Love a spot on American Bandstand.
Love released three albums with core members Lee, Echols (lead guitar, vocals), Bryan MacLean (guitar, vocals) and Ken Forssi (bass). The drum chair revolved between Alban "Snoopy" Pfisterer (Love, "Seven & Seven Is") and Michael Stuart (Da Capo excepting "Seven & Seven Is", Forever Changes). However, it has been reported that Pfisterer found the demanding drum parts on "Seven & Seven Is" so exhausting that he and Arthur alternated takes, with Lee himself drumming on every other take.[citation needed] On Da Capo, Tjay Cantrelli was added on saxophone and flute while Pfisterer was moved to organ and harpsichord. Both were out of the group by the time Forever Changes was recorded.
Love (1966) included their cover of "My Little Red Book". Side two of Da Capo (1967) featured just one song — "Revelation". The first side, however, contained six individual songs, including their only single to achieve any success in the Billboard Top 40 chart: "7&7 Is". Forever Changes (1967) followed, the album a centerpiece of the group's psychedelic-tinged sound, bolstered by David Angel's arrangements.
Forever Changes is regarded by critics and fans alike as Love's finest recording, and one of the best records of the '60s. Despite this acclaim, the LP sold moderately in its time (reaching #154 on the Top 200 albums, and stayed on the charts for 10 weeks, without the benefit of a hit single), although it reached the top 30 in the UK. Nonetheless, its cult status grew.
After Forever Changes, the band managed to record one more non-album single ("Your Mind and We Belong Together" b/w "Laughing Stock") which was released in June 1968 and failed to chart. Love then dissolved due to drug and money issues, only to have Lee revive the group name shortly thereafter. The new Love featured a lineup consisting of Arthur himself on vocals and guitar, Jay Donnellan on guitar, Frank Fayad on bass, and George Suranovich on drums despite a few tracks featuring The Crazy World of Arthur Brown drummer Drachen Theaker on the kit. Arthur chose to sign a record deal with Bob Krasnow's Blue Thumb label during this time. However, Lee did not mention to Krasnow that he was technically still signed to Elektra Records. Arthur had wanted out of his Elektra deal since 1966 (the year the self titled debut was released). Elektra founder Jac Holzman did not want to let Lee out of his contract because he admired his talents so much, but he also did not want to keep an artist who did not want to be kept, so a deal was worked out between Jac Holzman and Bob Krasnow. This deal would allow Arthur to record for Blue Thumb as long as Holzman gets to pick the ten songs he likes to fulfill the Elektra contract of a fourth album. That album would become "Four Sail." Arthur originally wanted to call it "For Sale" but being wordsmith that he was, chose the more clever "Four Sail." A mere three months after the release of "Four Sail," Blue Thumb records would release their Love album titled "Out Here."
The album titled "Out Here" would feature essentially the same line up as "Four Sail" sans guitarist Jay Donnellan who would later be replaced with Gary Rowles. Lee felt that Donnellan was getting a little too egotistical for his tastes. This new lineup consisted of musicians who were not fans of "Forever Changes," thus a harder edged, almost acid rock/country rock sound was to be the new direction of Love. During the initial sessions for "Four Sail/Out Here" Bob Krasnow approached Arthur Lee about the possibility of rounding up the original members of Love. Krasnow felt there was some magic missing with the new line up. Lee obliged him, and started rehearsing and even recording some with original members Johnny Echols, Michael Stuart, and Ken Forssi. Bryan MacLean had refused to work with Arthur. Heroin proved to be too dominant in the lives of guitarist Johnny Echols and Ken Forssi. Both men were constantly pawning off the rented equipment for drug money and were eventually let go yet again. Love would also tour both "Four Sail" and "Out Here" for what would become their first ever trip to Europe where they were always more popular. This Love however would go on to do a nationally televised performance on Dutch television and would also feature promotional videos for older songs from the Elektra years. Out Here managed to chart at #29 in the UK in May 1970.
The next album to appear from Love would be titled "False Start" and would also be a part of the Blue Thumb label. This album continues on with the heavier sonic direction of acid rock, while featuring more elements of classic R&B. One new member was added to this incarnation of Love, a vocalist/guitarist named Nooney Rickett. The most notable aspect of this album remains the fact that the opening track (titled The Everlasting First") features Jimi Hendrix on guitar. Apparently Arthur ran into Jimi while in England, and they decided to record on Bob Krasnow's dime. For years there would be rumors that Arthur and Jimi recorded an entire record together but the truth surfaced in 2009 when an acetate from Blue Thumb made rounds and it was revealed that there was only a long jam session (titled Jam on the actual acetate, to accompany "The Everlasting First" and an early version of "Easy Rider"). According to legend, Arthur overheard Bob Krasnow telling someone that if the "False Start" album did not crack the top 10 he was going to release the band from its contract. Moreover, Arthur made Krasnow give him that in writing. The album would not even grace the top 200 on the billboard charts. Not even the inclusion of Jimi Hendrix's last recording would save this album. Arthur would break up this version of Love a mere two months after their tour was over.
The post-"Forever Changes" albums were never really well received by fans and critics alike. The sound had changed, and Arthur was being accused of trying to imitate Jimi Hendrix, especially after his death.
In 1971, Lee was signed to Columbia Records and spent the better part of the summer recording, all of the songs were deemed unworthy of issue. (The entire Columbia project, along with a handful of demos were released for the first time in 2009 on Sundazed as "Love Lost.")
Prison
In the autumn of 1996, Arthur Lee was sentenced to 12 years for illegal possession of a firearm. Lee was convicted of negligent discharge of a firearm. California's three strikes law meant Lee was forced to serve a prison term, having previously been convicted on "a couple of assault and drug charges" in the 1980s.[citation needed] While in prison Lee refused visitors and interviews. Former bandmates Bryan MacLean and Ken Forssi both died while Lee was incarcerated, ending any speculation as to a full-fledged Love reunion.
One bright spot for Lee was the inclusion of two Love tracks, "My Little Red Book" (from Love) and "Always See Your Face" (from Four Sail), on the soundtrack of John Cusack's adaptation of Nick Hornby's High Fidelity. (Lee's songs have been heard in other films as well, notably "7 & 7 Is" in both 1990's Point Break and 1996's Bottle Rocket).
On December 12, 2001, Lee was released from prison, having served 5½ years of his original sentence. A federal appeals court in California reversed the charge of negligent discharge of a firearm, as it found that the prosecutor at Lee's trial was guilty of misconduct. After Lee was freed, he put together a new incarnation of Love and planned a Forever Changes 35th Anniversary Tour, to kick off at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
Final years
In April 2006 it was publicly announced that Lee was being treated for acute myeloid leukemia. A tribute fund was set up shortly after the announcement, with a series of benefit concerts to be performed to help pay medical bills. The most notable of these concerts was produced by Steve Weitzman of SW Productions at New York's Beacon Theater on June 23, 2006, and featured Robert Plant, Ian Hunter, Ryan Adams, Nils Lofgren, Yo La Tengo, Garland Jeffreys, Johnny Echols (Love's original lead guitarist) and Flashy Python & The Body Snatchers (featuring Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah). Robert Plant, backed by Ian Hunter's band performed 12 songs, including five Led Zeppelin songs and five recorded by Love in the 60s ("Seven And Seven Is", "A House Is Not A Motel", "Bummer In The Summer", "Old Man" and "Hey Joe").
Lee underwent several months of aggressive treatment, which included three bouts of chemotherapy, followed by a stem cell transplant on May 25, 2006 using stem cells from an umbilical cord blood donor; Lee was the first adult patient in Tennessee to receive this treatment. His condition worsened, however, and Lee died on August 3, 2006, at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis, with his wife Diane at his side.
(https://en.wikipedia.org)
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Michael Bowen (December 8, 1937 – March 7, 2009) was an American fine artist known as one of the co-founders of the late 20th and 21st century Visionary art movements. His works include paintings on canvas and paper, 92 intaglio etchings based on Jungian psychology, assemblage, bronze sculpture, collage, and handmade art books.
An icon of the American Beat Generation and the 1960s counterculture, Bowen is also known for his role in inspiring and organizing the first Human Be-In in San Francisco. Chronicled in books and periodicals reflecting on the turbulent 60s, Bowen's historical impact on both the literary and visual art worlds is well documented. He remains influential among avant-garde art circles around the world.
Exile from San Francisco
In 1963, police brutality and persecution drove many of the Beat Generation writers, musicians, and artists out of San Francisco. Michael Bowen, along with many of his artist friends moved to an old Abalone Factory in Princeton by the Sea, where they lived and painted for many months. Bowen's singer friend, Janis Joplin was a frequent guest at the Princeton Abalone studio.
In 1963, on one of Bowen's visits to be with his mentor in Tepoztlan, he was initiated into an ancient Aztec shamanic ceremony that inspired his future work with world consciousness transformation. After his initiation, Bowen traveled to New York City, where he established a studio in the Lower East Side and met with many of the Beat Generation artists, writers, and musicians living on America's East Coast. He often visited the two former Harvard professors Timothy Leary and Ram Dass, then Richard Alpert, in their mansion at Millbrook, New York, where a new variety of consciousness experimentations were being conducted.
Haight-Ashbury and the Summer of Love
In the summer of 1966, Michael Bowen traveled back to San Francisco and established a studio/ashram in the middle of the newly burgeoning Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. Along with the poet Allen Cohen, Bowen co-founded the underground newspaper, San Francisco Oracle that broadcast the 60s counterculture ideology. Bowen became the art director and let his studio become the offices for the Oracle, while Cohen was the editor. As the S.F. Oracle guru, Bowen hosted the first underground press meeting at his studio at Stinson Beach.
On October 6, 1966, Bowen and Cohen organized the Love Pageant Rally, a celebration against the new law criminalizing LSD in California. Because of Bowen's friendship and invitation, Janis Joplin came to the event along with her band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and played for free. About 3,000 people attended the Love Pageant Rally, and towards the end, Ram Dass, Cohen, and Bowen discussed having another event, this time much bigger, to celebrate the newly developing hippie counterculture and consciousness expansion in San Francisco.
The Human Be-In
The event the three counterculture leaders previously envisioned became the Human Be-In, which took place on January 14, 1967. The event was primarily organized by Bowen. He created the poster promoting the event, organized the city permit, invited the Beat Generation speakers, including Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Lenore Kandel, Michael McClure, and Timothy Leary, and scheduled the San Francisco rock bands, including The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, who played for free at the event. The Hells Angels provided security, and a flatbed truck with amplification driven by a gas generator was donated to create a stage. The Human Be-In was a coming together of people for no other reason than to just "BE"; to make love, not war, to share and commune with new friends and to celebrate life. The Human Be-In, sometimes referred to as a Love-In, was specifically designed by Bowen to be imitated and to be remembered into the future. As a lifelong fine artist, Bowen considers his creation of the Human Be-In to be performance art.[citation needed] This notion was confirmed by an Italian journalist, who calls Bowen "The father of performance art" for his Human Be-In creation.
Flower Power
On October 21, 1967, 75,000 anti-war protesters surrounded the Pentagon in Washington D.C.. On that day, Bowen organized 200 lbs. of daisies, purchased by his New York friend Peggy Hitchcock, (the wife of Walter Bowart), to be dropped from a light aircraft onto the Pentagon, but the FBI heard of the plan and seized the aircraft, so the flowers were distributed to the protesters as the Military Police protected the Pentagon from the massive anti Vietnam War demonstration. The daisies, brought to the front lines of the tense confrontation by Bowen and others, were taken by the demonstrators and put into the nearest holder that symbolically communicated their anti-war sentiment. The iconic photograph "Flower Power", taken by photojournalist Bernie Boston, of the daisies being put into the bayoneted gun barrels of the soldiers by the unarmed anti-war demonstrators, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1968. The photograph "flower power" is listed as #30 amongst the top 100 wartime photographs and the idealism of flower power remains as an anti-war symbol.
Personal life
Bowen married three times: first to actress Sonia Sorel (1921–2004).[49] The marriage ended in divorce. His second wife was Martine. His third marriage was to Isabella—the marriage lasted until Bowen's death. Bowen is survived by his sons Michael, Ramakrishna and Indra, and daughters Maitreya and Kaela.
Death
Bowen died in Stockholm of complications of childhood polio.
(https://en.wikipedia.org)
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Edited by Learyfan (03/06/21 09:08 AM)
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
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Re: Today in counterculture history (03/07) [Re: Learyfan] 1
#14079695 - 03/07/11 05:52 AM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
John Cusack's adaptation of Nick Hornby's High Fidelity
Dude, there's a movie of that book? I didn't even know. When reading the book, I was constantly reminded of a music store I used to go to when I was still at school; the proprietor was this crummy chap with nearly non-existent social skills who was apparently trying to scrape a living off his shop, which never did really well. His business apparently went belly-up a couple of years after I left school.
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vinsue
Grand Old Fart



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Re: Today in counterculture history (03/07) [Re: Learyfan] 1
#14079731 - 03/07/11 06:23 AM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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"All mushrooms are edible; but some only once." Croatian proverb. BTW ... Have You Rated Ythans Mom Yet ?? ... ... HERE'S HOW ... (be nice) . ...
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!



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Re: Today in counterculture history (03/07) [Re: vinsue]
#14082905 - 03/07/11 06:39 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Love - "Alone Again Or"
Edited by Learyfan (03/07/14 05:44 AM)
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!



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Re: Today in counterculture history (03/07) [Re: Learyfan] 1
#15912700 - 03/07/12 05:50 AM (11 years, 10 months ago) |
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Love - "7 And 7 Is"
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Edited by Learyfan (03/07/14 05:46 AM)
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!



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Re: Today in counterculture history (03/07) [Re: Learyfan]
#17917335 - 03/07/13 05:44 AM (10 years, 10 months ago) |
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Love - "She Comes In Colours"
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Edited by Learyfan (03/07/14 05:48 AM)
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Le_Canard
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Re: Today in counterculture history (03/07) [Re: Learyfan] 1
#17917460 - 03/07/13 07:15 AM (10 years, 10 months ago) |
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Forever Changes is an awesome album! I urge everyone to give it a listen at least once.
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vinsue
Grand Old Fart



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Re: Today in counterculture history (03/07) [Re: Le_Canard] 1
#17917530 - 03/07/13 07:59 AM (10 years, 10 months ago) |
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"All mushrooms are edible; but some only once." Croatian proverb. BTW ... Have You Rated Ythans Mom Yet ?? ... ... HERE'S HOW ... (be nice) . ...
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!



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Re: Today in counterculture history (03/07) [Re: vinsue]
#19662222 - 03/07/14 05:51 AM (9 years, 10 months ago) |
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5th anniversary of the death of Michael Bowen today.
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!



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Re: Today in counterculture history (03/07) [Re: Learyfan]
#21374223 - 03/07/15 11:20 AM (8 years, 10 months ago) |
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Happy 70th Birthday Arthur Lee.
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!



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Re: Today in counterculture history (03/07) [Re: Learyfan]
#22981672 - 03/07/16 05:37 AM (7 years, 10 months ago) |
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Annual bump.
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!



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Re: Today in counterculture history (03/07) [Re: Learyfan]
#24142935 - 03/07/17 05:39 AM (6 years, 10 months ago) |
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Annual bump.
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!



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Re: Today in counterculture history (03/07) [Re: Learyfan]
#25044576 - 03/07/18 05:42 AM (5 years, 10 months ago) |
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Annual bump.
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!



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Re: Today in counterculture history (03/07) [Re: Learyfan]
#25857682 - 03/07/19 06:29 AM (4 years, 10 months ago) |
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10th anniversary of the death of Michael Bowen today.
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Crazy_Horse
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Re: Today in counterculture history (03/07) [Re: Learyfan] 1
#25857700 - 03/07/19 06:40 AM (4 years, 10 months ago) |
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Jimi Hendrix and Arthur Lee
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Learyfan
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Re: Today in counterculture history (03/07) [Re: Crazy_Horse]
#26521928 - 03/07/20 09:35 AM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Yes sir. And today would have been Arthur Lee's 75th birthday.

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Edited by Learyfan (03/07/22 04:09 AM)
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!



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Re: Today in counterculture history (03/07) [Re: Learyfan]
#27241721 - 03/07/21 10:41 AM (2 years, 10 months ago) |
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Annual bump.
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!



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Re: Today in counterculture history (03/07) [Re: Learyfan] 1
#27685844 - 03/07/22 04:14 AM (1 year, 10 months ago) |
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Annual bump.
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!



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Re: Today in counterculture history (03/07) [Re: Learyfan]
#28218401 - 03/07/23 04:08 AM (10 months, 19 days ago) |
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Annual bump.
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