Scott: Thank you for pointing me in the direction of both the original Sante review, and Mr. Goldman's reply. You all know that no big Beatles fan am I. Had I been a Beatles fan at any point in my life, you can bet that I would have read Goldman's book as it sat on my parents bookcase, I remember, at some point in time. I understand that this Goldman fellow was quite a rabble-rouser when it came to his biographies of both Elvis and Lennon; they apparently pissed a lot of people off. The Sante review really does a bang-up job of destroying the credibility of Goldman, after reading it, I almost detest Goldman. My earlier post was not really about the character of this Goldman bloke, who is of zero interest, but rather about how close to the surface of 'normal culture' were ideas pertaining to dope, drugs, rebellion. (I have a great many interests to insert here about drug culture in the 70's that I am almost frustrated) My initial point, however, about drugs being prevelant in the 70's is extremely obvious, and perhaps was a induced by the contact high from sorting through the book collection of man interested in popular culture throughout the 1960's and 1970's. Albert Goldman was born in 1926, meaning he was 40 years old in 1966, meaning he was was 25 in 1951! (if it is 1951 right now, what will happen in 1966?) I am afraid that Sante might have a point in saying Goldman was a bit out of touch. It is funny that all his 'research' is now sitting in boxes (and I mean BOXES AND BOXES) up there in Butler 615, as I am sure many people were once eager to have seen 'proof' of that research. The interview tapes do exist, there are hundreds of them with neat labels. I wonder what they actually say?
The tapes that are of more interest to me are from the period of research Goldman must have done to write his book,
Grass Roots: Marijuana in American Today. There are tapes with smugglers and dealers of all shapes and sizes, about their Cessna adventures in Colombia, Mexico etc. Dealing dope in the city, smuggling techniques, phone interviews with double-agent CIA informant types.
Anyway - nice to see the blog so blisterous, or is that just the weather!!
