Chapter 3: What it Takes to be a Hippie (1962-1971)

It’s 1962, and Joe found himself heading off to college. He knew his life would eventually come to this, leaving home and heading off to school, but it all seemed so surreal, almost wrong.  There was always a haunting figure latching on to the back of his brain everyday now, and that was the fact that he still didn’t know what he wanted with his life. All he had ever wanted to be a was a rock star, the next Clyde, to save music. Ever since Clyde died he was watching music crumble before his eyes. Different genres kept popping up out of the bushes that were slowly starting to involve less and less instruments. But how can you be a musician without an instrument? Joe understood that the voice was humanity’s oldest and most popular instrument, however he wasn’t seeing any soul behind the voices. How was college going to help him save music?

Joe had learned a few weeks before that Sean’s family was actually moving closer down the road, now about three houses down instead of ten. Sean joined him at college and the boys primarily lived at home. They always discussed what it would take for them to save music, but neither of them felt like their talents could carry them to where they wanted to go.

Joe and Sean became minor hippies. They started going to rallies but they didn’t really care about the issues at hand, they were just obsessed with the soul people showed in large groups. “Shit’s about to hit the fan, my friend,” Joe would always mutter to Sean during their smoke sessions. “Well dude, we better stay clear of the fan,” Sean would usually say back with a grin.

Music seemed hollow now that Clyde had moved on. He seemed to be right on the verge of truly changing everything, only to leave the world at the top of his game. Joe was slowly starting to become more and more disillusioned everyday. He saw the hippie culture moving towards a brick wall, and simply didn't know where his life was going. The seed in his soul was trying to steer his life towards a stage and a microphone, but it would ultimately be up to Joe to choose his own path.