Party like it's 1973! A celebration chez Cassady

As the Centenary of great Beat matriarch Carolyn Cassady approaches later this month, son John Allen reports from the roistering frontline five decades ago, just after his mother turned 50 years old

Email, April 14th, 2023

Hi Simon,

Mom threw a giant party at the house on Bancroft Avenue in Los Gatos, California, in May of 1973 and she called it the ‘Spring Solstice Concert’ or something like that.

The house had a huge backyard ( a quarter of an acre), on which she had to have the weeds mowed down every Spring. I had just returned from running an artsy movie theater in the college town of Tuscaloosa, Alabama for 2 years (long story), and when I returned, mom said, ‘Johnny, I'm throwing a party! I invited everybody!’ Cool.

So, when the day arrived, there was a knock on the door. It was Allen [Ginsberg] and a few other guys who drove him down from San Francisco (He was from New York; nobody drives in New York, ha ha). He was on crutches with a cast on his left leg, ankle to hip.

I said, ‘Allen, how did you break your leg?’ He winked at me and said, ‘Chasin' women!’ Everyone laughed (we all knew THAT wasn't true, but bless him). Turns out that he had slipped on the ice on his pond in Upstate New York.

I had a huge poster of Allen at that big anti-war rally in New York where he is wearing a red, white, and blue top hat. You've probably seen it. He put the crutches down and climbed up on the bed. I was worried.

He pulled out a Sharpie and wrote a poem in the white stripes of the top hat. He called it ‘The Big Dirt Backyard’ and signed it. (That poster could be worth, like, 50 cents on eBay these days! But I'll never sell it).

The concert was fantastic. Three live bands (the Grateful Dead couldn't make it, darn), and Allen doing his Indian finger cymbal poems. But he had a new toy: a harmonium, which you pump air into with your right hand and play the small keyboard with your left.

He only knew 3 chords, C, F and G, and I asked him, ‘Allen, where did you get THAT?’ He said, ‘Dylan taught me the blues!’ I said, ‘Can he jam with us, too?’ ‘Sorry, not today,’ said Allen.

Of course there were a gazillion cars parked up and down one-lane Bancroft Avenue and beyond, and when the cops finally showed up, they said. ‘Your neighbors can't drive to the store’, etc. One of the cops recognized Ginsberg, and started nudging his partner and pointing. I swear they dipped into the beer keg. They were laughing.

So, leave it to Carolyn to throw the party of the Century!

We all miss her still,

John Allen Cassady