Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Why 60's Music at Ski Lodges?

I was skiing over the Holidays in the local mountains and stopped in for a rest when suddenly I heard an old Doors song blaring out o the lodge. The song was "The Spy". It transformed me back to a previous ski trip at June Lake where there were no lift lines, no dour-faced kids on snowboards trying to be the baddest or the coolest, there were just old skiers.

On this particular day at June Lake, I was with my sister and brother-in-law at some highly remote "blue square run" at what must have been the top of June Mountain . This particular run took a 3-hour chair lift to reach the top. We laughed, and drank lots of some liquor called "Drambuie", so the time passed quickly, though it seemed we had reached somewhere near the Himalayas. There were no other skiers to be seen, the sun was bright, the snow, powdery and white, and as we skied down to another lift, we stopped at this rustic, remote, log cabin outpost that was serving up burgers and beer. We and sat back to enjoy the scenery and breathe in the cool mountain air when suddenly, in full-bore, the music blares out over the loudspeakers and it's Quicksilver Messenger Service playing "The Fool".

Quicksilver Messenger Service was a 60's San Francisco band that played long guitar solos and incredible riffs that made you feel like dancing. They had an unforgettable sound. This particular song (The Fool) came from an album that was one of my favorites. I think it had a black cover with artistic red lettering drawn by artist Rick Griffin. On the back of the album was the images of the band members and they all had hair down to their asses and they looked all soulful and into the Haight love theme.

I never saw Quicksilver on any of my my trips to the Avalon Ballroom. If anyone reading this did, I hope that they'll share their experience here. I do know that after an album called "Happy Trails" they did another album with some Italian guy named "Dino" and he kind of took over the original Quicksilver sound with his nasal wails.

So there we are, looking out at the bright sun on snow, quaffing a Heineken, and having a severe 60's flashback.

I guess this begs the question -- why do they always play 60's music at ski lodges? Does anyone know the answer?