Upon leaving the Knolty nest (the boatshop rehearsal facilities)"Blake" were left with but one alternative for their noisy calesthenics. The hard working Harvey family was busy at "The Store" afternoons so the boys set up shop in the living room of the Harvey's Kutrus Park home. Sir David had previously fried the family stereo by blasting his guitar through it but an important peripheral survived unscathed. One Montgomery Wards Airline reel to reel stereo tape recorder. With this they would record the primal sounds of a rock band in transition. Raw and unburdened with artistic pretension these early works paid tribute to their masters (Cream, Hendrix, the newly formed Led Zeppelin, and their countless imitators) and also featured the group's early attempts at original composition.

Also paid tribute to and of great influence to "Blake" and many other local scenesters and neophyte rockers was a local group "Trakstod Station" featuring one Jim Berick, a versatile guitar player in the Beck-Claypton-Hendrix-Page style. The sound of Mr.Berick's Les Paul, Jr. guitar played through a Marshall stack (with all potentiometers at their zenith) in Redding's answer to the Fillmore, the Vet's Hall (a cavernous hall with the acoustics of a blimp hanger) was enough to nearly soil the corduroys of many a young axe slinger.

"Trakstod" as they were called by their fans drew not only male rock fans but young "Hippie Chicks" as well and it went without saying that some of the band members with their long flowing hair nearly reaching their buttocks were "balling"(a sixties euphemism for sexual intercourse) some of these female fans.

This fact would be filed for future reference.

Another subject deserving attention at this point is the hair of the band known as "Ed Blake". By some rite of passage they were not aware of or simply the fact that their parents had given up, mandatory haircuts became a thing of the past. These three would never see a "barber" again. When next their tresses would be manicured they will have taken part in a historical national election, the first allowing eighteen year olds the right to vote, have "won" their freedom and possibly their lives in the last draft lottery (an egalitarian conscription scheme designed to supply the armed forces of the United States with fresh cannon fodder for Viet-Nam) and yes even witness the retreat and defeat of the United States in Viet-Nam and when said locks were eventually shorn it would take place in a "Salon" by the hands of a "Stylist".Both Sell and Huff would earn the distinction of having "hair down to their butts" but Harvey,due to the curly nature of his locks,would achieve an "Afro" look not unlike that featured on the cover of Jimi Hendrix' first album "Are You Experienced".

With hair goes fashion. The "uniform of the day" consisted of a Pendelton shirt worn over a whiter than white Fruit Of The Loom T-shirt and matching briefs over which were worn blue Levi 501 jeans rounded off by black Converse "Chuck Taylor" low top basketball shoes (they only came in black and white during this decade) worn over white "sweat" socks. Girls wore the obligatory "mini" skirts and if lucky a "Letterman's" sweater, a sweater given a participant in school athletics upon completion of a season of a particular sport thereby earning his "letter", an "N" for "Nova" or an "S" for "Shasta", sweaters of course being in the "school colors". A young lady fortunate enough to "go steady" with the owner of one of these woven wool trophies would have the right to "cross dress" as it were. A class ring (the athlete's fingers always large) would be worn on a chain around the neck or in desperate cases when a girl would require the unquestionable effect of a wedding ring, on the left ring finger wrapped in string or tape for a secure fit. Mens clothing was purchased at either "Thompsons'" of "Giramonte's"; locally owned stores and the only sources of the required brand name clothing for. Brand names were mandatory.Similar clothing bearing the labels "Sears","Wards" or worse "Pennys" were looked on with disdain, the unspoken inference being the wearer was "poor" or at least not of the class of people, sons and daughters of lawyers, doctors and sundry business owners and professionals who were looked up to as student leaders. This "upper class" of Shasta High School students resided in a real estate development called "Sunset Terrace". By today's standards a tract of modest homes with well manicured yards but then considered a suburban "Valhalla".

Our lads wore uniforms of sorts as well. Old flannel shirts, Levi's pants with holes worn through, floppy work boots, large stretched out sweaters. Second hand clothes deemed both non-establishment and functional during the long wet Northern California winter. With the change of the seasons brought, appropriate modifications. Ironically, twenty years later a popular musical genre called "grunge" with it's beginnings in an area (the Pacific Northwest) with similar winter weather would spawn a nearly identical look.

The teenage girls, already having long hair, were left to growing it even longer or tease it into an "Afro"." Hippie" inspired ebroidrery adorned "peasant" blouses and accessories alike, while the "mini" skirt skirted all fashion boundarys. High leather boots and fringed leather jackets and beads, beads, beads.

Conflicting testimony has placed the acquisition by David Harvey-lead guitarist-of a "Kustom" 100-watt amplifier head and a Gibson SG Special into this time frame. There were also recollections of a James B. Lansing D-130 fifteen inch speaker in a Knolty cabinet. Bassist Huff had no bass (he had traded in his harmony rocket for a used Gibson Melodymaker while still a rhythm guitarist in "Sand Hill") and the remnants of a 100 watt solid state Silvertone amplifier with two twelve inch Jensen speakers transplanted into yet another Knolty cabinet (both cabinets featuring the aforementioned American flag grill cloth). A solid body Harmony bass (what else?) was owned by David's older brother Terry and it is believed that this was used at practice sessions until said older brother returned home from after-school forays and demanded it's return. A Heathkit 35-watt amplifier assembled by Huff's father served as a P.A. system. (This amp would suffer an un-explained tumble from atop a four and one half-foot Knolty cabinet and be re-fashioned into an amplifier head without it's mated speaker) Shure microphones were purchased at wholesale prices through the Harvey family jewelry store account.

At limited disposal to the group at this time was the bass (of unknown Japanese origin) and amplifier and speakers of their former bandmate and now mentor Jack Knolty.Two sixty watt Dynaco tube amps hand assembled by Knolty (now highly sought after by audiophiles) fed by a mono Dynaco pre-amp powered two James B. Lansing D-140 speakers in a custom built cabinet. A true "seat rattler".

It is here, 1969;the lads are sophomores now at Shasta High School, that a pivotal event catapults "Blake" to a modicum of status and consequently some badly needed employment.

The school talent assembly. Not a contest but a showcase for members of the student body to display their extra-curricular interests and talents to their peers.

The boys jumped at the chance and prepared a program that would leave many older musicians in the audience gasping for breath and cursing their god for his misplaced bestowment of talent. This writer humbly submits that "Blake's" debut packed as much impact in it's own small town way as young Elvis Presley's high school performance of the tear-jerking "Old Shep".

They opened with an original tune penned by Huff entitled "Suicide". Huff recalls:"I was never suicidal so it was not an autobiographical sing. Think I just liked the way the word (suicide) sounded when I shouted it in the breaks between the riff. Afterwards kids I didn't even know existed would stop me in the halls and tell me they really liked the song. From what I hear about teen suicide these days I think I really hit a nerve with some of these kids. When I was in the seventh grade a kid down the street from us blew a hole in his head with a .22 and I walked right by his dead body on the way to the bus. I was so groggy I didn't even see his body even though it was in plain sight. Maybe that's where it came from. The part (in the song) where the guy is dead and still telling a story was pretty stupid. I guess I'm lucky some student didn't commit suicide after hearing the song. I could have been sued like Judas Priest."

Their second song was Led Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker-Livin' Lovin' Maid". "Heartbreaker" featured a mind-numbing finger flashing guitar solo filled with triplet hammer-offs that most guitarists of the day found incomprehensible. David Craig Harvey would this day perform Jimmy Page's solo flawlessly. This solo and the fact that it was a Led Zeppelin solo would earn young David near cult status.

A curious metamorphosis was taking place among the "Jocks" and their consorts (the clean-cut student leaders who participated in sports and promoted school spirit). They too, through the magic of eight track tape machines in their Detroit "muscle cars"(some even ordered their cars in the school colors-purple and white) and the acceptance of marijuana as a harmless enhancement to a six-pack of beer had discovered Rock.Not the "Rock" played on Top 40 radio but Hard Rock.Like Led Zeppelin.

When it came time to hire entertainment for the "Senior Party" the three sophomores who played "The Zeppelin Song" would be their choice.

The subject of "Jocks" having been broached here and now seems an appropriate point to find a rest area, pull over and take a few steps back in time to examine the social behavior of Shasta County teens in the late sixties. While these descriptions will apply to the adolescent population they will also mirror the beliefs and prejudices of the shapers of youth, the parents, educators and religious leaders.

Earlier we heard the tale of young Huff's first day in the Shasta County School District.Other incidents had occurred. Most notably a confrontation in the Sycamore Elementary School (seventh grade) boy's locker room where two ruffians cornered Huff and a longhaired companion and prepared to "take their shirts and turn them into skirts". The timely arrival of an athletic coach fortunately foiled the rascal's plans. A bizarre confrontation bearing a striking similarity to the opening scene of a prison rape vignette. There were no sixties cinematic examples of this kind of behavior (a movie rating system had only recently been instituted), no neo-Nazi death-cult rock groups sending secret reverse speech messages imploring young teens to police and enforce gender-specific hairstyles, and video games were the subject of science fiction writers. These young "Brown Shirts" must have obtained their beliefs and prejudices from a source other than the "media" of the times.

The school year of 1968-69 was the second year of operation for a new school ironically dubbed "Nova". This institution was unique in that all students were ninth grade "Freshmen" culled from three greater Redding high schools. It was reasoned that by having all the "Freshmen" in a separate school, hazing and harassment by upperclassmen would be avoided and the naive young students (many from small rural schools) would enjoy a smooth transition into high school life.

Our three subjects were in attendance for this second year session of "Nova". Also a newcomer to "Nova", Redding and educating was a recently retired marine corps Viet-Nam veteran, Coach "Hoot" Moore.Coach Moore was appalled by the youth movement known as "Hippies"." Hippies" with their long hair, drug use,"free love", and anti-war sentiments were seen by the now civilian Marine as a threat to the American way of life he had dedicated his own life and career to.Coach Moore had a plan. Running his physical education classes like a Marine Corps boot camp afforded him the opportunity to berate and harass his young "Hippie" charges with impunity. Physically torturous punishments were dealt out. The "Dummy Mile" an endless circling of the "track" carrying a fifty pound athletic equipment sack. The Ninety-Ninety-Ninety.The subjects would place their backs against the gymnasium wall and assume a sitting position (back, thighs and calves at ninety degree angles) until limbs would quiver and and they would fall to the floor (try it). When weather prohibited the "Dummy Mile" the "Crab Walk" would be sentenced. Ten times around the perimeter of the gymnasium,"walking" on all fours with stomach facing the heavens (again, try it). At the beginning of class ranks were formed and the command "front and center" preceded by the students family name would require said scholar to make his way-without breaking the horizontal formation of the assembled "squads"(as the coach called them)-to the "front and center" location of their "Coach" to be quizzed "why do you want to look like a woman?" the humiliation designed to cause the longhair to rethink his choice in fashion statement and run post haste to a barber. Breaking of ranks was punishable by "Tennis Shoe Swats", usually administered by a beefy student (but always a student) nicknamed "Buzz" with the business end (rubber sole) of a Converse All Star.In today's atmosphere of sensitivity regarding child abuse and corporal punishment and the litigation resulting from the slightest perceived or real abuse these acts would provide lawyers and students alike with quite a nice "settlement". Coach Moore was no "dummy" though. By employing self-inflicting physical acts and a student to deal out pain he sagely indemnified himself against the non-existent complaints of parents and superiors.

This brings us to Coach Moore's "grand plan". A plan in which the coach unwittingly betrays the Constitution of the country he and countless others swore to fight for and defend and makes a pact with the same devil Hitler and Stalin invoked for the good of "The People".

Using "The Panther Club"(an exclusive athletic coven limited to "Nova's" athletic elite) as an ad-hoc "Brown Shirt" police force he whipped his troops into a "Hippie" hating frenzy with a fiery speech and the "suggestion" that they take matters in hand and "clean up their school" once and for all by ridding it of the "Hippie" element. The "Jocks" hit the campus pumped for action (no steroids were needed and not in use among athletes yet)." Hippies" were confronted.Pushing, shoving and name calling ensued and minor outbreaks of fisticuffs (peace and love had it's limits) were reported (Sell, Jr., never one to think before swinging got in his share of licks).

Although this atmosphere gradually faded there were many reports of "drive-by" incidents. Older boys from the "real" High Schools dealing out improvisational "haircuts" to longhaired boys caught alone followed by a savage beating (the attacker more than likely experiencing a turgid erection of the penis as an "extra-added-bonus" to the thrilling sensation of meat hitting meat).

The psycho-sexual aspects of this male aversion to longhaired men in the sixties is best left to others (this author, being loathe to grant scientific status to the charlatans who bilk the public while pretending to treat mental illness, shall leave their professions nameless). It is curious to note however that several of these "Hippie" haters later in life came to the realization that they were homosexual and had come to terms with their sexual orientation. Were the longhaired boys triggering feelings of lust,"the love that dare not speak it's name", in the minds and glands of these confused teens?" Fighting and fucking". It's a thin line for many men and being a "man", especially in the eyes of other men is a teenage boy's main preoccupation.

No "Jeffery Dahlmers" have emerged from the Shasta County area as of this writing although by a curious twist of fate Shasta County now has the highest population per-capita of sex offenders thanks to the California State Parole Board's practice of "dumping" "pay-rolled" rapists and pedophiles in the area.

During the sixties Shasta County had the distinction of holding another world title, the "per capita" record for divorce. The hot summers inspiring prodigious beer drinking, the long winter rainy season inducing "cabin fever" in the mobile homes that dotted the area like a pox no doubt a contributing factor.

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The ethnic makeup of the area at this time can best be described as "Caucasian". Although the local native Indian tribes began to make their presence and dissatisfaction known by way of several standoffs with the Federal Government during this era of social unrest, Shasta County was devoid of racial strife due to the absence of any sizable number of African or South and Central Americans.The small African community, largely due to their ability and willingness to adapt, was generally treated as a curious and novel addition to the community's if they had discovered a strange and alien life form that behaved and spoke "just like us" the students of Shasta High School,in an attempt to deny their "redneck" heritage and reputation in a decade fraught with racial strife would nominate and elect their lonely "Negroes" to high and coveted office in their student goverment.As a "Jock",the young African athlete would of course be expected to conform to the current attitudes held about "Longhaired Hippies", betraying both himself and the civil rights movement not unlike Coach "Hoot" Moore's betrayal of the Constitution of the United States.

On the road to Kelsyville, a small vacation town near Clear Lake, California for a special engagement and clandestine visit to "TheCity"(the Kelsyville jaunt being parentally approved but the side trip omitted from the itinerary). A birthday party in honor of a female friend of Jack Knolty (Knolty will serve as road manager-sound technician) paying two hundred dollars. Enough to pay for a "U-Haul" cargo van to be rented by and piloted by Knolty who has now reached the age of majority. The van will be packed with equipment and musicians and "along for the ride" three very young "Hippie Chicks", the Dubois sisters and Jodie Erickson squired by Knolty, Harvey and Sell, Jr.respectively and respectfully.

After their performance the entourage retires to their sleeping bags in a wet field. Wet and uncomfortable, in the wee hours it is decided to forge on to "The City", a two hour journey, for they have important business this morrow. With Huff's Gibson Melodymaker and the gross profits from their nights labor they will march en masse through the doors of the world famous "Don Weir's Music City" and with luck and wit emerge with a new Gibson EB-3 bass just like the bass used by the fiery Jack Bruce of "Cream".

Crossing the Golden Gate at dawn Knolty reins the orange and white rental van to a halt in a parking lot along the "Great Highway" bordering the Pacific Ocean.The roar of the waves lull the fatigued young men into a short and fitful sleep.

Later that morning the doors of "Don Weir's Music City" were opened to admit the rumpled and bleary-eyed delegation from the north. With a bartering session concluded to the satisfaction of both parties (and Huff minus one Gibson Melodymaker and indebted to the "group") our lads set forth "north to (wards) Alaska" with a gleaming cheerywood EB-3 electric bass with two chrome Humbucking pickups in a flimsy case constructed of a cardboard-like material. (This "case" will fail to protect it's contents in an accident involving some slick ice covering the parking lot asphalt outside a bar and a sometimes physically uncoordinated David Harvey who will break his fall with the instrument and consequently break the headstock-the thin "top-end "area holding the tuning peg mechanisms- of the instrument into two pieces at a jagged angle).

The year of nineteen seventy was also pivotal in the "Ed Blake" legend in one other way. It would be the year the three struggling musicians reached the magical age of sixteen years and the American teenager's most liberating privilege, the granting by the state of California of a license to legally operate an automobile on the streets and highways of the United States would be within their grasp following the completion of a "Driver's Safety Course" (a state financed one semester course taught during regular school hours in a driving simulator along with after school sessions taught by the same specially trained instructor in an auto provided by the state).the only rite of passage comparable to this in Shasta County would be a boy's first "deer season".After completing a "Hunter's Safety Course" that drilled the proper handling and care of firearms into their young minds, a twelve year old lad was eligible for his first hunting liscense."Buck Fever" was accepted with an admiring wink as an excuse for school absence during hunting season.

Robert Sell, Jr. would be the first to hit the road driving a 1962 Ford F-100 "pick-em-up" truck stripped of paint and chrome and re-painted in rust brown primer. This truck, recently retired from the Sell fleet, would take the expert driver (remember, he has been driving since able to walk) both far and wide. Through his travels he would meet and befriend a small legion of characters and his sphere of acquaintances would expand throughout the county.

One of these new friends was an older (by two years) guitarist who had recently taken up a new instrument. The flute was enjoying its fifteen minutes of fame largely due to the English rock group "Jethro Tull". Local group "Trakstod Station" rhythm guitarist-singer Bob Carson had also dallied with the instrument which endowed it with even more credibility in "Blake's" eyes. The flute's natural sonic properties allowed it to cut above a din of electric guitars and it was also easy to transport.