by Rebecca and Quinn Miller

We grabbed two delicious veggie burgers from Sparky’s 24 Hour Diner, regaled by our statuesque server on how his psychic powers were coming unveiled by the full harvest moon and the autumnal equinox. Heads full of moonlight, we headed over to the Swedish American Music Hall last Wednesday for a book reading by Joe Boyd with musical embellishment by Robyn Hitchcock.

Boyd was a man in the right place at the right time - 60’s London, where he discovered, signed and produced some of the greatest English bands of the era, as detailed in his memoir White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s.

Like Dr. Who (sans TARDIS), he transported the standing-room only crowd back to the infamous UFO Club where Pink Floyd turned Swinging London on to psychedelia in the days before Syd Barrett's solo shot to the dark side of the moon. As Boyd talked, sometimes Hitchcock would interpose questions about the recording sessions, obviously as fascinated as the rest of us. It was touching how the two seemed like old friends, getting together to talk about old times and strum the guitar.