October 4, 1970: Janis Joplin Dies

October 4, 1970: Janis Joplin dies of a heroin overdose at the Landmark Motor Hotel in Los Angeles. She was 27 years old.

She had starred at the Monterey Pop Festival in California in 1967, became a symbol of the Hippie era, and had also played Woodstock. Jimi Hendrix had done each of these things as well. He died on September 16, as a result of mixing drugs and alcohol. When asked for her thoughts on his death, Janis said, "There but for the grace of God go I."

She wasn't kidding. She died just 16 days later.

When he found out about Jimi's death, Jim Morrison, the lead singer of The Doors, himself a hippie icon with a booze problem and a drug problem, asked his friends, "Do you believe in omens?" Like Janis, he didn't take the hint. When Janis died, Jim told his friends, "Believe it or not, you're drinking with number three."

If any of those friends tried to get him to stop, it didn't take. Nine months after Jimi and Janis, Jim Morris was dead, too. All 3 of them died at the age of 27, giving rise to the idea of rock and roll's "27 Club."

*

October 4, 1970 was a Sunday. The NBA, the ABA and the NHL were still a few days away from starting their new seasons. But Major League Baseball had begun its Playoffs:

* In Game 2 of the American League Championship Series, the Baltimore Orioles beat the Minnesota Twins, 11-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. It was only 4-3 O's going into the 9th inning, but the Birds scored 7 runs to put it away. Frank Robinson and David Johnson hit home runs for Baltimore, and Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva did so for Minnesota.

* In Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, the Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-1 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Bobby Tolan hit a home run for the Big Red Machine. Pete Rose went 0-for-4, and Johnny Bench went 0-for-3 with a walk, but they weren't needed. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-4 with an RBI, and Willie Stargell went 0-for-4.

Baltimore and Cincinnati would clinch their Leagues' respective Pennants the next day, each completing a 3-game sweep.

*

And there were NFL games that day: 

* The New York Giants lost to the New Orleans Saints, 14-10 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. It was 1 of only 2 games the Saints would win all season, the other coming on November 8, when they beat the Detroit Lions at home, on the last play of the game, a record-setting 63-yard field goal by Tom Dempsey.

* The New York Jets lost to the Buffalo Bills, 34-31 at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo.

* The Baltimore Colts beat the Boston Patriots, 14-6 at Harvard Stadium in Boston. The next season, the Patriots would move to Foxborough, Massachusetts, and change their name to the New England Patriots.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 33-21 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the San Francisco 49ers, 21-20 at Atlanta (later Atlanta-Fulton County) Stadium.

* The Houston Oilers beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 13-10 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 13-10 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Dallas Cowboys, 20-7 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Denver Broncos beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 26-13 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat the San Diego Chargers, 37-10 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

You'll notice that this accounts for 20 of the 26 teams then in the newly-merged NFL. On Saturday, October 3, the Miami Dolphins beat the Oakland Raiders, 20-13 at the Orange Bowl in Miami. And the Cleveland Browns beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 15-7 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

And, on October 5, in the new phenomenon of ABC Monday Night Football, which had begun just 2 weeks earlier, the Detroit Lions beat the Chicago Bears, 28-14 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

September 18, 1970: Jimi Hendrix Dies

September 18, 1970: Jimi Hendrix dies in his apartment at the Samarkand Hotel in London. He was just 27 years old. Often called the greatest guitarist in rock and roll history, he made the mistake of mixing alcoholic beverages and barbiturates.

Just 15 months earlier, just 3 miles away across Hyde Park, Judy Garland had made the same mistake, and died at age 47. She had already been through tough times for most of her life, little of which was of her own making, and looked considerably older. It wasn't hard to imagine that her story had come to an end.

But Hendrix was still in his prime, and apparently healthy. He had released 4 albums, all of them considered "instant classics." With the Jimi Hendrix Experience, he had released Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold as Love in 1967, and Electric Ladyland in 1968. With Band of Gypsys, he had released an album of the same title only 6 months earlier.

I have never been a fan of his -- the version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" he played as he closed the Woodstock festival a year earlier particularly bothers me -- but it's clear that he had more to say. It's not hard to imagine him going through the 1970s, working, experimenting, finding new things that worked (and some things that didn't), much in the same way that Miles Davis, David Bowie and Lou Reed did. It's also easy to imagine him approaching age 50, in 1992, by making a cultural shift like Davis and Paul Simon did. (Indeed, Miles attended his funeral in Seattle.) But we'll never know.

When asked for her thoughts on the death of Hendrix, who had starred at the Monterey Pop Festival in California in 1967, became a symbol of the Hippie era, and had also played Woodstock, all things she had also done, Janis Joplin said, "There but for the grace of God go I."

She wasn't kidding: She, too, had a drug problem. She died just 16 days later.

When he found out about Jimi's death, Jim Morrison, the lead singer of The Doors, himself a hippie icon with a booze problem and a drug problem (but hadn't played either Monterey or Woodstock), asked his friends, "Do you believe in omens?" Like Janis, he didn't take the hint. When Janis died, Jim told his friends, "Believe it or not, you're drinking with number three."

If any of those friends tried to get him to stop, it didn't take. Nine months after Jimi and Janis, Jim Morrison was dead, too. All 3 of them died at the age of 27, beginning the idea of rock and roll's "27 Club."

I've read that Jimi Hendrix liked football, but I can't find any reference as to whether he was a baseball fan. He grew up in Seattle, which had a team in the Pacific Coast League, but only played 1 season in the major leagues during his lifetime, 1969, with the American League's Seattle Pilots. They quickly went bankrupt, and moved to become the Milwaukee Brewers in 1970. The Queen City of the Northwest didn't rejoin the major leagues until the AL added the Seattle Mariners in 1977.

I once read a list that somebody made up of the best-dressed and worst-dressed athletes. This was in 1980, and Rich Gossage of the Yankees was then one of the top relievers in baseball. Whoever was writing it put the Goose on his worst-dressed list, saying he "has one tie that could have doubled as Jimi Hendrix's headband."

*

September 18, 1970 was a Friday. Actress Aisha Tyler was born.

The NFL played games 2 days later, and the NBA, the ABA, and the NHL started new seasons a few weeks later. But there was an entire slate of Major League Baseball games: 

* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-0 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. A 4-run 1st inning, including a 3-run home run by John Ellis, was all Ron Klimkowski needed, as he pitched 3-hit shutout in one of the best hitter's parks in baseball history.

* The New York Mets lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2 at Shea Stadium. Steve Blass outpitched Jim McAndrew.

* The Chicago Cubs swept a doubleheader from the Montreal Expos at Jarry Park in Montreal. In the opener, Fergie Jenkins won his 20th game of the season, and the Cubs won 3-2. In the nightcap, Ron Santo singled in the winning run in the top of the 10th, and the Cubs won 5-4. Ernie Banks did not appear in the 1st game, and only appeared in the 2nd as a pinch-hitter, unsuccessfully.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Don Baylor singled home a run in the bottom of the 11th inning to win it for the Birds. Neither Brooks Robinson nor Frank Robinson played.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves, 11-6 at Atlanta (later Atlanta-Fulton County) Stadium. For the Reds, Pete Rose went 1-for-5 with 2 RBIs, Johnny Bench went 1-for-3 with 4 RBIs, and each hit a home run. For the Braves, Hank Aaron went 0-for-2, but did draw 2 walks.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-4 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Neither Harmon Killebrew nor Rod Carew entered the game.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Kansas City Royals, 4-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-7 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the San Diego Padres, 3-2 at San Diego Stadium. Ken Henderson drove in the winning run with a double in the top of the 10th. Willie Mays went 2-for-5.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 3-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the California Angels, 3-2 at the Oakland Coliseum. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. The bottom of the 9th began with the game tied and Ken Tatum walking Don Mincher, included a wild pitch that got Mincher, kind of chunky and not fleet of foot, to 3rd base, and intentional walks to Reggie Jackson and Frank Fernandez to load the bases. After Dave LaRoche was brought in to relieve, he struck out Dick Green. But with the bases still loaded, he walked Gene Tenace, and the A's had beaten the Halos.

August 17, 1969: Woodstock, Day 3

August 17, 1969: The Woodstock Music & Art Fair wraps up on Max Yasgur's dairy farm outside Bethel, Sullivan County, New York.

At 12:30 AM, Creedence Clearwater Revival took the stage. As Bruce Springsteen said when giving their induction speech for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, "They were never the coolest band in America, just the best."

Janis Joplin came on at 2:00, not with her original band, Big Brother & The Holding Company, but with The Kozmic Blues Band. Having become famous at the Monterey Pop Festival in California 2 years earlier, here, she cemented her legend for all time.

As did Sly & The Family Stone, who came on at 3:30, and played 50 minutes of psychedelic soul. It was footage of this performance that led jazz legend Miles Davis, already 43 years old, to shift gears, and incorporate rock and roll and psychedelic ideas into his music, giving him one of the great second acts in music history.

Billy Joel was at Woodstock -- not as a performer, but as a fan. A very dissatisfied fan:

I went to Woodstock, and I hated it. I think a lot of that "community spirit" was based on the fact that everybody was so wasted. Because everybody was stoned. Everybody was passing around pot and acid, and I wasn't into it.

There'd been a lot of rain, it was all muddy, and you couldn't go to the bathroom unless you stood up and went right where you were. I was there for a night and a day, and then I left just before The Who went on. I really wanted to see them, but it was very hard to, because everybody was hopping up and down and banging into you. So I walked out and hitched a ride home.

The Who came on at 5:00 in the morning, and gave one of the earliest live performances of songs from their "rock opera," Tommy. By this point, with The Beatles bringing their story to a close, The Rolling Stones were already getting people to call them "The World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band." The Who blew that idea over the Catskills.

According to their lead guitarist and main songwriter, Pete Townshend, at the end of the band's gig at 2 weeks later, at the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival, the field was covered in rubbish left by fans, which inspired the line "teenage wasteland" in their 1971 song "Baba O'Riley." In another interview, Townshend said the song was also inspired by "the absolute desolation of teenagers at Woodstock, where audience members were strung out on acid and 20 people had brain damage. The irony was that some listeners considered the song a teenage celebration: 'Teenage Wasteland, yes! We're all wasted!'

The Sun came up, and so did The Jefferson Airplane. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine for the Festival's 20th Anniversary in 1989, lead singer Grace Slick said it was the worst performance of her career, and that, "The music was better at Altamont." A sacrilege? Maybe, but she was at both, and was in as good a position as anyone to know.

A break was taken. The show resumed at 2:00 PM, with Joe Cocker and The Grease Band. Among the songs Cocker sang was The Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends." They left at 3:25, and then, the rain came back. For 3 hours, no one wanted to take the risk of going on. There was nothing for people to do but endure the rain and the mud -- or, perhaps, play in it.

Country Joe & The Fish played from 6:30 to 8:00. By this point, the show should have been wrapping up, but several acts hadn't yet gone on, and wanted to. Ten Years After then played for an hour. The Band started at 10:00, and lasted 50 minutes.

Come Midnight, Monday, August 18, Johnny Winter, the albino Texas blues guitarist, went on, and played for over an hour, including 3 songs with his brother Edgar, also an albino, and a master of several instruments, as he would prove on his 1973 chart-topping instrumental "Frankenstein," on which he played guitar, keyboards and saxophone. At 1:30, Blood, Sweat & Tears came on, and played for an hour.

At 3:00, in only their 2nd performance together, came Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: David Crosby from The Byrds (whose current lineup were invited to play, but turned it down), Graham Nash from The Hollies, and Stephen Stills and Neil Young from The Buffalo Springfield. They played an electric set, then Young left, and Crosby, Stills and Nash sang an acoustic set. In later years, when asked about their signature show, Crosby would call it "The W Word."

People began to drift off. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band started at 6:00, with the Sun coming up. At 7:30, a bunch of Columbia University students who loved doo-wop, calling themselves Sha Na Na, took the stage, and sang for half an hour. Nobody knew it yet, but Woodstock, the ultimate 1960s event, had just given birth to the 1950s nostalgia movement.

By 9:00 AM, there were maybe 200,000 people left, most of them there because they were still waiting for access roads to be open so they could get out. And Jimi Hendrix came on, and played the National Anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," like nobody had ever heard it before: A loud, screechy, even ugly performance, which sounded more like the bombing of Vietnam than an expression of American pride. At 11:10 AM, he, and the festival, were done.

The immediate reports on the mainstream news said the whole festival was a disaster, full of rain, mud, drugs, naughty behavior, and bad music. But in the middle of the final full day, the venue's host, dairy farmer Max Yasgur, a proud Republican small businessman, addressed the crowd, and said:

I'm a farmer. I don't know how to speak to twenty people at one time, let alone a crowd like this. But I think you people have proven something to the world. Not only to the Town of Bethel, or Sullivan County, or New York State. You've proven something to the world.

This is the largest group of people ever assembled in one place. We have had no idea that there would be this size group, and because of that you've had quite a few inconveniences as far as water, food, and so forth. Your producers have done a mammoth job to see that you're taken care of... They'd enjoy a vote of thanks.

But above that, the important thing that you've proven to the world is that a half a million kids — and I call you kids because I have children that are older than you are — a half million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music, and have nothing but fun and music, and I God bless you for it!

The legend was born. The reality was... better seen in the movie theaters the following Spring, and experienced on television, and now on the Internet, than live. The cover for the film's soundtrack became a classic. The names of the couple in the blanket were Bobbi Kelly and Nick Ercoline. They married shortly thereafter, and as of August 17, 2022, they are still together. (UPDATE: Bobbi died on March 18, 2023, at age 78.)

Seattle Pilots pitcher Jim Bouton did not mention the Festival in his diary of the 1969 season, published the next year as Ball Four. But in Dog Days: The New York Yankees' Fall from Grace and Return to Glory, 1964-1976, Philip Bashe wrote:

Woodstock forced mainstream America to swallow its antipathy and reexamine some of the counterculture's utopian ideals. Maybe, just maybe, these kids were on to something.

Interestingly, in the process of lauding the festival-goers' conduct, commentators drew frequent comparisons to spectators at sporting events, nothing that if you assembled an equal number of beery bleacherites under similar conditions, they'd probably dismantle the stage and cart off every square inch of turf as souvenirs -- once the brawls subsided, that is.

Though many professional ballplayers belonged to the same generation as the Woodstock crowd, the majority of major-leaguers no more identified with this group and its concerns than did your average middle-age Republican from Peoria. Anytime the Yankees team bus pulled up on a red light in some American League city and someone spied a longhair on the street corner, insults inevitably came hurling out the window.

And Bashe quoted Bouton himself as saying:

Many of the players were feeling the social earthquakes going on in the country. But like a lot of our leaders and politicians, they tended to blame things on these longhaired people with bare feet who didn't bathe and smoked pot.

They said, "That's what's wrong with this country. If it weren't for those hippies, Communists and agitators, the war would be going okay and we wouldn't have civil-rights problems." They saw those people as the problem.

A 10th Anniversary show was held in 1979. The times, they had a-changed too much: Only 1,000 people showed up. The whole world was getting more conservative: Israel elected Menachem Begin and his Likud Party in 1977, the first time a right-of-center party had won there. China, under new "paramount leader" Deng Xiaoping, began its move toward a free-market economy in 1978.

In 1979 alone, Iran had its Islamic Revolution, Britain elected Margaret Thatcher and her Conservatives, and Canada voted out Pierre Trudeau and Liberal Party and voted in Joe Clark, though Clark's Conservative Party government (as in Britain, nicknamed the Tories) quickly fell apart, and Trudeau was voted back in the following year. France elected François Mitterand and his Socialist Party in 1981, but West Germany elected Helmut Kohl and his Christian Democratic Union in 1982.

But, as they always do, the times changed again. The Woodstock organizers tried again in 1994, for the 25th Anniversary, but, ironically, couldn't get the original site. This time, 25 years after rejecting them, the Town of Saugerties said, "Yes," and 250,000 people saw a nice show, with a combination of Woodstock veterans, acts from that period that hadn't played the original show (including Bob Dylan), and more recent acts. By this point, people knew how to properly stage a concert of that size or larger, and there were no logistical issues. There was enough food, enough restroom facilities, enough medical facilities, and no rain.

That should have been the last attempt. Another was made in 1999, on the 30th Anniversary, with mostly current acts, and it was another mess, including several women claiming to have been assaulted. There was no attempt at a 40th Anniversary show in 2009, and an attempt at a 50th Anniversary show in 2019 was canceled in mid-preparation.

In 2006, on the site of Yasgur's Farm, a 15,000-seat outdoor amphitheater opened, the Bethel Woods Center for the Performing Arts. Next-door, the Museum at Bethel Woods tells the story of the area, including the Woodstock Festival. It is 103 miles northwest of Midtown Manhattan -- and 60 miles southwest of Woodstock, New York, the original intended site of the Festival.

In 1988, after a game, I came out of Yankee Stadium, and heard what sounded like the Hendrix version of "The Star-Spangled Banner." It was, and there was a guy on 157th Street, in front of the parking deck, dressed like Hendrix, and playing guitar lefthanded like Hendrix. He was playing it perfectly. But when the song got close to the end, it went back to the beginning. It was a looped tape, and he was faking. The busker still got some change tossed into his guitar case.

*

August 17, 1969 was a Sunday. It was also the day that Hurricane Camille crashed into America's Gulf Coast, and the day the New York football teams, the Giants and the Jets, played each other for the 1st time. I have separate entries for those events. Also, basketball star Christian Laettner and New Kids On The Block singer turned actor Donnie Wahlberg were born on this day.

And these Major League Baseball games played:

* New York Yankees 5, Chicago White Sox 2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Jimmie Hall hit a home run for the Bronx Bombers. Stan Bahnsen started, and Mike Kekich won it in relief.

* Another doubleheader at Shea Stadium: The New York Mets beat the San Diego Padres 3-2 in each game. Duffy Dyer hit a home run in support of Jerry Koosman in the opener, and Ed Kranepool and Bud Harrelson each got 2 hits in support of Don Cardwell in the nightcap.

* Houston Astros 3, Philadelphia Phillies 2 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.

* Minnesota Twins 4, Washington Senators 3 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington. Tony Oliva's RBI single won it in the top of the 13th inning.

* Los Angeles Dodgers 9, Montreal Expos 3 at Jarry Park in Montreal.

* St. Louis Cardinals 5, Atlanta Braves 3 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Hank Aaron, Bob Tillman and Rico Carty hit home runs for the Braves, but all were solo blasts, and Steve Carlton was the winning pitcher for the Cards, as Lou Brock went 2-for-5, and Joe Torre went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* Pittsburgh Pirates 8, Cincinnati Reds 5 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Gene Alley, Al Oliver and Willie Stargell hit home runs. Roberto Clemente went 2-for-5. The Reds got homers from Pete Rose, Bobby Tolan, Johnny Bench and Tony Perez, but it wasn't enough.

* Boston Red Sox 1, Kansas City Royals 0 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-4, but Vicente Romo, Sparky Lyle and Sonny Siebert combined for a 4-hit shutout.

* California Angels 7, Cleveland Indians 6 at Anaheim (now Angel) Stadium.

* Detroit Tigers 9, Oakland Athletics 4 at the Oakland Coliseum. Catfish Hunter was knocked out of the box in the 4th inning, as the Tigers got 2 homers from Al Kaline, and 1 each from Jim Northrup, Don Wert, former Yankee Tom Tresh and Mickey Stanley. Denny McLain went the distance, despite giving up a home run to Reggie Jackson.

* Doubleheader at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. 1st game: San Francisco Giants 5, Chicago Cubs 3. 2nd game, Cubs 3, Giants 1. Over the 2 games, Willie Mays went 2-for-4 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Ernie Banks only appeared in this game as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* Baltimore Orioles 4, Seattle Pilots 1 at Sick's Stadium in Seattle. Dave May (filling in at right field for Frank Robinson, who got the day off), Don Buford and Brooks Robinson homered for the O's, while Don Mincher hit one for the Pilots. Tom Phoebus won it, Fred Talbot lost it. Jim Bouton did not get into the game. A sweep for the Birds over the Pilots.

As Pilot manager Joe Schultz no doubt said, "Ah, shitfuck. Let's get 'em tomorrow, and then go pound some Budweiser." If Jim Bouton and his book Ball Four are to be believed, Joe Schultz would not have fit in well at Woodstock.

July 3, 1971: Jim Morrison Dies

July 3, 1971: Jim Morrison, lead singer of rock band The Doors, dies in Paris. It wasn't publicly announced until July 8, as the circumstances of his death were unusual.

With the release of their self-titled debut album on January 4, 1967, The Doors -- lead singer Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robbie Krieger and drummer John Densmore -- merged the influences of rock and roll, jazz and classical music, and Morrison's interest in older literature and poetry for their lyrics, to form one of the most spectacular bands of all time.

Morrison's looks, stage presence and lyrics made them stand out. Krieger wrote the lyrics to their hits "Light My Fire," "Love Me Two Times," "Touch Me" and "Love Her Madly," but Morrison wrote most of the others.

The Doors during their controversial appearance

on The Ed Sullivan Show, September 17, 1967.
L to R: John Densmore, Robbie Krieger, Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek.

But Morrison was an alcoholic and a user of psychedelic drugs, and as they went along -- releasing Strange Days later in 1967, Waiting for the Sun in 1968, The Soft Parade in 1969, Morrison Hotel/Hard Rock Cafe in 1970, and L.A. Woman in 1971 -- he became more controversial and less reliable.

Much like a later Los Angeles-based band, Guns N' Roses, a Doors concert was unpredictable: You never knew when the lead singer was going to join with the others to give you a transcendent experience, or when he was going to start a riot, or whether he was going to show up at all.

On September 18, 1970, another of the icons of psychedelic rock, Jimi Hendrix, died as a result of mixing drugs and alcohol. When asked for her thoughts on it, bluesy rock singer Janis Joplin said, "There but for the grace of God go I." She wasn't kidding. She died just 16 days later.

When he found out about Jimi's death, Morrison asked his friends, "Do you believe in omens?" Like Janis, he didn't take the hint. When Janis died, Jim told his friends, "Believe it or not, you're drinking with number three."

In March 1971, Morrison left Los Angeles for Paris, the adoptive home of so many writers and composers he'd admired, in the hopes of getting away from L.A., clearing his mind, and getting ready to make great art again. By this point, he had gotten fat, and had started using harder drugs like heroin. He was joined by Pamela Courson, his longtime girlfriend.

At first, the sabbatical seemed to work. He wrote of taking long walks through the great city. He lost weight, including some of the puffiness in his face that had led him to grow a beard.

But on July 3, at around 6:00 AM local time, Pam found Jim in the bathtub, dead. She said he seemed to be looking up, with a smile and a look of peace on his face. He had seemed to celebrate death in some of his songs, and now he had achieved it. He seemed not to have found peace in life. I hope he found it in the afterlife.

No autopsy was performed. The official cause of death was heart failure, which was possible, considering his weight gain and his heavy drinking. It has been speculated that the real cause was an accidental heroin overdose. It has also been rumored that his death was faked, and that he went elsewhere, to live out his years in obscurity, away from prying eyes. Pam definitely died from heroin, 3 years later.

Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison. All 3 of them, dead within 10 months. All of 3 of them, dead at the age of 27. (The New York Times, who relegated Jim's death to a minor Page 1 story, mistakenly listed him as 25.) This gave rise to the idea of rock and roll's "27 Club."

Pamela died on April 25, 1974, from a heroin overdose in Los Angeles. She, too, was 27 years old. Ray Manzarek died of cancer in 2013, at the age of 77. As of July 3, 2022, the other 2 Doors are still alive: Robbie Krieger is 76, while John Densmore is 77.

*

July 3, 1971 was a Saturday. Actor Benedict Wong was born. So was arch-criminal Julian Assange.

It was the off-season for the NFL, the NBA, the ABA and the NHL. But there was a full slate of Major League Baseball games that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 2-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. Luis Tiant allowed only 3 hits, but 1 was a home run by Roy White. Fritz Peterson was the winning pitcher.

* The New York Mets beat the Atlanta Braves, 7-1 at Shea Stadium. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4 with an RBI, and Mike Lum hit a home run to help knock Gary Gentry out of the box in the 1st inning.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Montreal Expos, 6-3 at Jarry Park in Montreal.

* The Washington Senators beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-1 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Merv Rettenmund hit a home run, Brooks Robinson went 2-for-4 with an RBI, Frank Robinson went 0-for-4 but drew a walk, and Paul Blair went 2-for-2 with 2 walks and 4 RBIs. For the Tigers, Jim Northrup hit a home run, but Al Kaline went 0-for-4.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks did not play for the Cubs, but Don Kessinger hit a home run. For the Pirates, Roberto Clemente went 1-for-4, but Willie Stargell went 0-for-3.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-1 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-4, but had an RBI on a groundout. Rod Carew went 2-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 1-0 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Tommy John pitched a 6-hit shutout.

* The Houston Astros beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-3 at the Astrodome in Houston. Jack Hiatt singled home the winning run in the 13th inning. Pete Rose went 3-for-4 with 2 walks, and Johnny Bench went 1-for-6.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 1-0 at San Diego Stadium. (It was later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium, Qualcomm Stadium and SDCCU Stadium.) Al Downing outdueled Dave Roberts, pitching a 6-hit shutout.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the California Angels, 5-3 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Reggie Jackson went 1-for-4.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 10-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. For the Giants, Chris Speier, Bobby Bonds and Ken Henderson hit home runs; Willie Mays went 1-for-3 with 2 walks, and Willie McCovey did not play. Steve Carlton got knocked out in the 6th inning. Lou Brock went 0-for-3 with a walk, and Joe Torre went 0-for-4.

June 16, 17 & 18, 1967: The Monterey Pop Festival

June 16, 1967: The Monterey Pop Festival begins, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. The performances came to symbolize the San Francisco-based "Summer of Love," and turned some performers from little-known to superstars.

The next year, the documentary Monterey Pop made millions feel as though they had been there, and made the following year's Woodstock festival in New York's Catskill Mountains possible.

The performers on day one at Monterey: The Association, The Paupers, Lou Rawls, Beverly Kutner, Johnny Rivers, The Animals, and Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel.

Despite it being a Friday, there was not a full slate of Major League Baseball games played that day. The New York Yankees, the Chicago White Sox, the Detroit Tigers and the Kansas City Athletics were not scheduled.

* The New York Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 4-3 at Shea Stadium. John Boccabella drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly of Don Shaw in the top of the 10th, making a winner of Joe Niekro.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-3 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The California Angels swept a doubleheader from the Baltimore Orioles, at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Halos won the 1st game 2-1, and the 2nd game 5-3.

* The Washington Senators swept a doubleheader from the Boston Red Sox, at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington (later Robert F. Kennedy Stadium). The Senators won the opener 1-0, and the nightcap 4-3.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Minnesota Twins, 2-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Chuck Hinton's single won it in the bottom of the 10th. Luis Tiant went the distance for the Tribe.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 9-8 at the Astrodome. In the top of the 10th, Hank Aaron got aboard due to an error, and former Yankee Clete Boyer got him home on a groundout.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. In Monterey, 109 miles to the south, few cared. Psychedelic music seemed like the path to the future, while baseball increasingly felt like a pastime that was for the past time.

And German soccer manager Jürgen Klopp was born that day.

*

On Saturday, June 17, the musical lineup was: Canned Heat, Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin singing lead, Country Joe and the Fish, Al Kooper, The Butterfield Blues Band, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Steve Miller Band, The Electric Flag, Moby Grape, Hugh Masekela, The Byrds, Layra Nyro, Jefferson Airplane, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, and Otis Redding.

Quicksilver Messenger Service, like The Grateful Dead and many of these others, were out of San Francisco. Sometimes, those two bands would be booked together, as "The Quick and the Dead."

MLB games for that Saturday:

* This time, the Yankees and the White Sox did play, against each other, at Comiskey Park, on the South Side of Chicago, birthplace of the electric blues that so many of the Monterey acts tried to copy, some with more success than others.

The ChiSox won, 1-0. The only run came in the bottom of the 8th, on a double off Fritz Peterson by Walt Williams, an outfielder known as "No Neck," who would later play for the Yankees. Joe Horlen pitched the 1st 8 innings for the Pale Hose, and Hall of Fame knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm pitched the 9th for the save.

* It was also New York vs. Chicago in the National League, and, again, the Mets lost to the Cubs at Shea, this time 9-1.

* The Pirates beat the Phillies, 6-5 in Philadelphia.

* The Orioles beat the Angels, 7-5 in Baltimore.

* The Red Sox beat the Senators, 5-1 in Washington.

* The Indians beat the Twins, 7-3 in Cleveland.

* The A's and the Tigers did not play the day before. They made up for it on this day, playing 3 games' worth of baseball at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. In the 1st game of a doubleheader, the Tigers won 7-6. The 2nd game went 19, before Dave Duncan, these days best known as the right-hand man on Tony La Russa's coaching staffs, hit a home run off Mike Marshall to give the A's a 6-5 win.

Believe it or not, 28 innings is not a record for most innings played in 1 day. In 1964, the Mets hosted the Giants in a doubleheader where the nightcap went 23 innings, for a total of 32.

* Another doubleheader was played at the Astrodome. In the opener, another Aaron hit and a wild pitch helped to give the Braves a 3-1 win in 10 innings. But the Astros won the 2nd game, 4-3.

* The Dodgers beat the Reds, 6-1 in Los Angeles.

* And the Giants beat the Cardinals, 3-2 in San Francisco.

*

On Sunday, June 18, these were the performers at Monterey: Ravi Shankar, The Blues Project, Big Brother and Janis Joplin again (because they wanted to be in the film, and their Saturday set wasn't filmed), The Group With No Name (not to be confused with The Band, who were not there), Buffalo Springfield, The Who, The Grateful Dead, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and, closing the show, The Mama's & the Papa's, led by John Phillips, with guest vocalist Scott McKenzie.

Phillips had written, and McKenzie had recorded, a song they hoped would be the theme for the Summer of Love: "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair."

But that's not what the festival would be most remembered for. First, The Who closed by playing "My Generation," and, as they so often did, destroying their instruments onstage. Then came the Dead, with their "Relax, man" vibe. Then came Hendrix, another really intense performer. It was the psychedelic rock equivalent of the Yankees' early 1950s pitching rotation of fastballer Allie Reynolds, followed by junkballer Eddie Lopat, followed by fastballer Vic Raschi.

But Hendrix went even further than The Who. He didn't just smash his guitar -- which caused somebody to tell Who leader Pete Townshend, "He's stealing your act," and Pete to say, "He's not stealing my act, he's doing my act" -- he put the remains on the ground, and, while bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell kept playing, poured lighter fluid, struck a match, dropped to his knees, dropped the lit match it on the guitar, and knelt there, fanning the flames.

He had done this before, but this was the first time it had been widely reported. He went on to do it so many times, it's a wonder he lived another 3 years.

The MLB games for that Sunday:

* The Yankees got swept by the White Sox in Chicago. In the opener, despite a home run by Bill Robinson, Al Downing didn't get out of the 3rd inning, and the South Siders won 7-3. In the nightcap, a young man named Tommy John pitched a 6-hit shutout, winning 4-0. The Yankee pitchers were Fred Talbot and Dooley Womack, both immortalized in teammate Jim Bouton's later book Ball Four; and Steve Hamilton.

* The Mets split with the Cubs at Shea. In the 1st game, Tommie Reynolds hit a walkoff home run off Cal Koonce in the 10th, giving the Mets a 4-3 win. The Mets must've liked something they saw in Koonce, because they soon traded for him, and he would still be with them when they won the World Series in 1969. Jack Fisher was the winning pitcher, in relief of starter Bob Shaw.

The 2nd game would also be 4-3, but a Cubs win. In the top of the 8th, Lee Thomas hit a sacrifice fly to make a losing pitcher out of Tom Seaver. Seaver, of course, went on to become the NL Rookie of the Year, and the face of the Mets' 1st run of glory.

* The Pirates beat the Phillies, 5-3 in Philadelphia.

* The Angels beat the Orioles, 5-3 in Baltimore.

* The Senators beat the Red Sox, 3-2 in Washington. Hank Allen, brother of Dick Allen, singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th.

* The Twins beat the Indians, 4-2 in Cleveland.

* The A's beat the Tigers, 8-4 in Detroit, mercifully in only 9 innings.

* The Astros beat the Braves 2-0 in Houston. This time, Hank Aaron didn't get a hit. No Brave did: Don Wilson pitched a no-hitter for the Astros. It wasn't all that close to a perfect game: He walked Denis Menke in the 5th inning, Aaron in the 7th, and Menke again in the 8th. But it was a no-hitter against a dangerous-hitting team.

* The Dodgers beat the Reds, 5-3 in L.A.

* And the Cardinals beat the Giants, 4-1 in San Francisco. So, that weekend, if you were in Northern California, the place to be was definitely the Monterey County Fairgrounds, not Candlestick Park.