Fall of ’69, I’m in elementary school, my brother is in high school and we’ve got just a handful of LPs in the basement rec room of our house in western New York – including “In a Gadda Da Vida” and the “Easy Rider” soundtrack. Our two favorite bands are Iron Butterfly and Steppenwolf. (In two years that would switch to The Who and Jethro Tull, but we weren’t there yet.) I come home from school one day and I see that the “In a Gadda da Vidda” LP is missing. “What happened to it?” – I asked. My brother replies, “I traded it for something else.” He never did show me what that was… and it took me a couple of years to forgive him.
– Pat Thomas is the author of the recently released work, Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975
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