No fighting, not to worry there. Any "smoke" you see from me is either rhetorical, or for purposes of humor. I'm an old **** kicker, so it's water off a duck's back, believe me.
As for the era of the hippie and tree dwellers, yeah that died long ago. Inexorably. "Hippy dippy" better captures it, a la Carlin. Born in the right spirit perhaps, but the whole thing soon went too far. When the Merry Pranksters showed up proadly boasting "We have come for your daughters" in their LSD laden Kombi bus, you knew the end was within sight. I love a lot of the psychedelic era sound, but those free form excesses were mostly misguided. Even Peter Green got caught up on that merry-go-round without brakes, and if that first solo effort of his was any measure of it, it couldn't end soon enough. "End of the game" captures it rather succinctly, and ironically.
Now that I know you're hip to IABD, you might want to sample IABD Live At The Carnegie as I mentioned earlier (if you haven't already). I say that because you will see that those Haight Ashbury "hippies" could ROCK, and with style! Singer Pattie Santos (RIP) is something else as she pairs off against David LaFlamme, plus you get some great workouts with Bill Gregory on guitar and LaFlamme on violin. Val Fuentes timing on the sticks is flawless throughout, and Tom Fowler (later of Zappa fame) will flat out floor you with some of his bass chops. And if you think they had trouble finding a worthy replacement for Linda LaFlamme, since she was so skillful on the keys but departed not long after that eponymous release, the late Fred Webb more than meets the mark. What a find!
POP, god help us, will live forever.
Great line.
But hey, like Lennon once said, give pop a chance!
Couldn't resist.
Chops Vinnie.