Grace Slick

Ho rivisto di recente l'interessante documentario di D.A. Pennebaker sul Monterey Pop Festival del 1967, il primo festival hippy, rock, psichedelico, dove però c'era ancora un palco regolare e ordinate file di sedie per il pubblico. Un pubblico fatto prevalentemente di universitari all'apparenza benestanti (lo deduco dalle splendide dentature); non misto come sarebbe poi stato a Woodstock due anni dopo.

Grace Slick

C'erano tutti i grandi del momento, quelli che hanno segnato profondamente la vita della mia generazione. Molti di loro non sono più fra noi da decenni come Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, la simpaticissima e dolce Mama Cass, altri invece sono stati dimenticati o quasi, come la oramai settantatreenne Grace Slick dei Jefferson Airplane.

Poco più di due righe dal sito dei Jefferson Airplane per capire il tipo: One of Grace’s oddest and most famous incidents occurred shortly before her pregnancy. In April 1970, the former Finch College student was invited to a reception hosted by President Richard Nixon’s daughter, Tricia, at the White House. The organizers of the affair apparently had little idea who Grace was, or of her opinion of Nixon. (Her song, Mexico, a scathing critique of Nixon’s anti-drug policy, had only just been released as a single.) Upon arrival, however, Grace was barred from entering when she brought a “bodyguard” — ’60s radical Abbie Hoffman! Grace later said that, had they been allowed in, they had planned to spike Nixon’s tea with LSD.

Oggi desidero ricordarla con una delle canzoni meno note, la bellissima Today, che mette in risalto la sua voce inconfondibile: Jefferson Airplane, Today

Today I feel like pleasing you more than before
Today I know what I want to do but I don't know what for
To be living for you is all I want to do
To be loving you it'll all be there when my dreams come true
Today you'll make me say that I somehow have changed
Today you'll look into my eyes, I'm just not the same
To be anymore than all I am would be a lie
I'm so full of love I could burst apart and start to cry
Today everything you want, I swear it all will come true
Today I realize how much I'm in love with you
With you standing here I could tell the world what it means to love
To go on from here I can't use words, they don't say enough
Please, please listen to me
It's taken so long to come true
And it's all for you
all for you