THE HILLS OF ARKANSAS

In the summer of 1971, I was 17 living in a small farming town in central Kansas. Tripping down a country road one summer night a friend put in a tape "Lord Have Mercy" comes on, my first exposure to Black Oak Arkansas. The song had an immediate and lasting effect on me. It was a Cosmic experience that made clear to me man's place on this earth and the universe, The Positive and Negative of God and The Devil How ever you want it. The next morning when the stores opened I bought me the Black Oak Arkansas LP (on 8-track). Listened closely to all the songs for the rest of the summer realizing, there is Knowbody Else like Black Oak Arkansas.



In the fall of 1971 BOA headlined the Kansas State Fair, we were there along with about 8,000 long haired freaks. BOA played 2 sets, most of the songs of Black Oak Arkansas and Keep the Faith. I remember Jim starting a rap about all of us being freaks, who were being repressed by the system, he pointed to a barn next to the grandstand that was labeled SWINE, he said something like: "I see you have a lot of Pigs here in Kansas, ya got a whole building of them", then they went into Revolutionary All American Boys. The crowd loved it, Jim was the spokesman for the counter culture revolution. Nobody did it better. Aside from Dandy, Jim Morrison probably came the closest. I remember the paper the next day had a big article about the show saying that when the Fair Board had booked the band they had thought they were Bluegrass band from Arkansas. The article expressed great concern about the negative influence the band had on the youth of Kansas. The Kansas State Fair never had another Rock Band as long as I lived there. Keep the Faith came out later that year and the cover said it all "The Teachings of Black Oak Arkansas".



We began listening to Black Oak Arkansas with a new intensity looking for the messages or teachings. This continued as Raunch and Roll and High on the Hog came out. Back to the land had particular meaning "Back to the Land where the water runs free, Back to them hills that's where I want to be". We envisioned the hills of Arkansas as paradise, and figured if BOA came from Arkansas, everyone there must be cool. In the summer of 1972 we loaded all our camping gear into the car and went to the Arkansas Ozarks. We camped by rivers and lakes, ate a lot of fish

and berries and found out it's hard to live off the land in Arkansas. Ventured into many of the towns and met lots of folks, including several genuine Hillbillies. It was becoming clear that our vision of the hills filled with freaks was far from the truth. Although we met a lot of friendly people there was also a very strong Anti Long Hair sentiment to much of the population. We did love the Hills of Arkansas for their beauty. On the trip home we stopped by what was to become the BOA compound and all we found was some empty land with a sign hanging on the gate "Black Oak's Arkansas". We returned home fondly remembering the Hills of Arkansas.



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