One can cope with the basically organic death of John Coltrane, as disheartening as his loss was, and despite the shock of Brian Jones’ death at least there was some question there as to whether or not the cause was drugs. But with these two, the cause was certainly drugs, of one sort or another, the only definite decision being that they were downers.

So how do we deal with that and how do we deal with those kinds of drugs, death drugs? All the things that were opened to us by acid and grass and mescaline are now being deranged and deluded in a deluge of bogus the, smack, phony cocaine (also smack, often as not), and reds and wine. Not that alcohol is involved with being a scourge except that it is definitely more dangerous than grass and acid, which we all know up in front anyway. But we all know that smack and the rest are killer chemicals, literally deadly, and yet there are numerous members of supposedly hip society who lean back and insist “Well, if it was right there, I’d take it.” As William Burroughs once put it, “Wouldn’t you?”