There are days when the universe throws a gift into your lap, or has it flutter into your inbox, as the case may be.

Last week I had one of those days. A new acquaintance sent me a link to his website of photographs taken in the 1960s, capturing everything from agricultural workers, navy wives, political figures, to some of the great musical artists of the times. Maybe I reacted so strongly because it was a stroll down memory lane, but I think my appreciation was equally if not more driven by the quality of the portraiture across the board – mastery of candid shots.

Here is the link to the Steve Rees’ site Music and Mayhem, so you can see for yourself. I recommend you look at all of the subcategories in the header bar, much to explore.

I figured I’ll pick some of Rees’ musicians’ portraits and match them with songs that comment on the events of last week, which turned out to be a pretty momentous ones both here and in Ukraine.

Let’s start with the prediction business, prognoses, manipulations and wishful thinking around the Midterm Elections in the U.S. November 8th turned out to be a surprise, defying many voices and many agendas. What better fit than Jefferson Airplane‘s White Rabbit. Remember? “Logic and proportion have fallen softly dead…. “

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small,
And the ones that mother gives you
Don’t do anything at all.
Go ask Alice
When she’s ten feet tall.

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you’re going to fall,
Tell ’em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call.
Call Alice
When she was just small.

When the men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you’ve just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low.
Go ask Alice
I think she’ll know.

When logic and proportion
Have fallen softly dead,
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen’s “off with her head!”
Remember what the dormouse said:
“Feed your head. Feed your head. Feed your head”

Of course all these predictions were accompanied by endless requests for donations – I stopped counting how many folks asked for money in the run up to the election. Time to answer with the Grateful Dead in Build to Last

Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Ron McKernan, Jerry Garcia at the Human Be-In 1967

There are times when you get hit upon
Try hard but you can’t give
Other times you’d gladly part
With what you need to live

Don’t waste your breath to save your face
When you have done your best
And even more is asked of you
Fate will decide the rest

In the end, November 8th produced some serious tears – of rage, I guess, and narcissistic insult. Cry Baby, by Janis Joplin comes to mind, although, if up to me, they can all stay out in the cold…

Then there was the takeover at Twitter, reminding us of Big Mama Thornton‘s Down Home Shakedown. Of course it will end in tears, his hopefully – as hound dogs deserve it.

And here is Eric Burdon, with the classic “Got to get out of this place.” It was the song played throughout the Vietnam years for soldiers yearning to make it out alive. I am sure the cannon fodder in the current war feels no different. May the retreat from Kherson be the beginning of the end of the invasion.

Eric Burdon at Monterey Pops.

I’ll leave you with an album that was one of the earliest ones I bought Eric Burdon’s War. (Frank Zappa’s Burnt Weeny Sandwiches was the first ever.) I’ll be humming right along.