Albums I Wish I Would Have Brought with Me to Prison
By Whitey McGee

Blind Faith - Blind Faith

" I'm wasted and I can't find my way home ."

Whenever I hear these words spun by wunderkind Steve Winwood in 1969 the first thing that comes to mind is definitely organized religion. In fact, I don't think I've ever prayed in my entire life when I wasn't thinking about Blind Faith as a kid. Suddenly, everything was so lucid: there was obviously a God, she obviously had a plan for each and every one of us and she certainly was on my side. How do I know this? Because on the three bizillionth day the she said, "Let there be Blind Faith." And they were good.

From that moment on, each night before I lay me down to sleep, I prayed to her that they wouldn't break up. Of course, being four rock deities themselves - each with their own special little problems - this was imminent. Somewhere shortly afterwards, my life changed and my obsession with music became far more secular and eventually landed me in this marvelously uncool jail cell. In some twisted way, I find a way to attribute every failure to these false idols of my youth that led me astray.

"Sea of Joy" is symbolic of the decline of my moral character. Everything starts out so peaceful when you're a kid. Nobody asks you important questions, you never have to make tough decisions and nobody gets hurt. Today, like in the end of the song, "concrete blocks my view and it's all because of you." Still, I write letters to Baker, Clapton and Winwood telling them of the sad predicament that they've left me in, but they never respond. I slept on Rick Grech's grave once, thinking that it might give me a sign that would lead me back to that time of unbridled purity that no longer exists. Sadly, the only sign I got was some grass stains on my rainbow Grateful Dead parachute pants that vaguely resembled Buddy Holly with a beard. And even that took me a few days of careful analysis to discover.

In past articles, I have told a lot of jokes about being the raving sociopath that I most certainly am. Sitting in prison makes you bitter about a lot of things. A lot of the other guys use religion the way that I use these songs that I can't listen to anymore. It's something I'll never quite understand. How can you put something so tenable and imaginary over something as concrete as the trinity of Elvis, Chuck Berry and Dylan?

People have killed for religion. I have maimed for the soul of rock and roll.

Blind Faith hurt me like God hurt Mike Bloomfield, Syd Barrett and Marvin Gaye's Dad. I don't feel ill will towards any of them anymore. It's probably just a weird coincidence that their breakup coincided with the time of my first arrest in September 1969 on plagiarism charges for scrawling "Clapton is God" on Pat Boone's tour bus. And I won't lie to you; it was worth it.