The year was 1978 at CMU in Mount Pleasant, MI, the U.S. was in a period of “Deep Standby” after the end of the horredndous Vietnam War in 1975, there was the Jonestown Massacre, the beginning of the Iranian revolution, and a historic blizzard that took place in January, which caused over 20 deaths, 100,000 cars to be abandoned on highways, prompting President Carter to declare a disaster area, forcing CMU to close for the first time in 140 years. It was also the same year that Cheech and Chong’s subliminal stoner classic Up in Smoke took over drive-ins all across America, as well as Halloween, Bob Dylan’s Street Legal, and the same year Charlie Chaplin’s remains were stolen from Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland.

But within those school walls, a couple of teenagers shared a dorm room, a hall, and became fast friends theough the prophetic power of music. Roommates Scott Mansfield, Bob Thomas, Alan Bishop, and their neighbor Jim Genette quickly connected and began jamming in the cosmic confines of their sonic space, where time seemed like an illusion and the future burned brighter than a UFO parallel-parking on 1200 S. Franklin St. On this episode, we chat with Mansfield, who had the pleasure and honor of witnessing a young Alan Bishop learn how to play the guitar, Thomas, and his son, Joe, who interviewed Bishop some forty years later for a college project, about their critical connection to a preexisting world that had not yet been influenced by the Sun City Girls, and their metaphysical magic. As we near the end of season two, join us on for this epic expedition into the Salad Days, where the Dire Straits, Bob Dylan, Farrah Fawcett, and anti-draft rallies helped pave the way for our spiritual story to begin.