#alejandro escovedo

Jeff Raphael and Alejandro Escovedo as captured by James Stark backstage at Mabuhay Gardens, SF, in 1977 and the writing is literally on the wall for the dying hippie dream of love, peace and flower power.

By the mid/late-’70s, a burgeoning punk scene was rising from the ruins of the sixties counterculture and the hippy movement that had become the status quo they had initially started out to change. To quote Jeff Raphael, a lot of people involved in punk were rejects anyway and were dissatisfied with things and the anachronistic rock scene. “Punk was about people expressing themselves, being in control of their lives and not having some corporation deciding what they needed” and “If you were in a band in 1975 or 1976 you had to be in what the ‘local scene’ was at the time or there was nowhere to play. We had to create our own place to hang out, so that’s what we did”, Jeff Raphael would tell James Stark in his book Punk ‘77.

"When [the Nuns] started out [in 1977], the punk rock ethic was to do it yourself, so the first thing we did was get in a van and go play for people. We would just travel," Escovedo recalls.

The Kinman brothers and the great Alejandro Escovado formed cowpunk band Rank and File. Loved their sound

Stephen Sondheim Dead at 91

Lin-Manuel Miranda has a message for future historians:

“Stephen Sondheim was real.”

The “Hamilton” composer made the tribute - and comparison to another peerless writer - after Sondheim died Nov. 26 at age 91.

“Some may theorize Shakespeare's works were by committee, but Steve was real and he was here and he laughed so loud at shows and we loved him.”

That love was abundant on social media after the Broadway composer’s death was announced late Friday.

“RIP Stephen Sondheim - I wouldn’t be the creator I am without you,” Rhiannon Giddens wrote on Twitter.

The Tony Awards Facebook page listed Sondheim’s award-winning shows. And it’s a staggering list: “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (1963); “Company” (1971); “Follies” (1972); “A Little Night Music” (1973); “Sweeney Todd” (1979); “Into the Woods” (1988); “Passion” (1994).

“We have lost a great talent but his music will live long and prosper,” Paul McCartney said. “Goodbye Stephen, we love you.”

Idina Menzel said performers of all stripes will “spend our lives trying to make (Sondheim) proud,” while Melissa Manchester eulogized him as a “titan.”

“May the great Stephen Sondheim rest in eternal love and peace and beautiful music,” Todd Rundgren’s Spirit of Harmony Foundation wrote on its Facebook page.

Carole King said she and Gerry Goffin were inspired “early on” by Sondheim’s work and Alejandro Escovedo called the composer “one of my musical heroes.

“He wrote some of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard,” Escovedo wrote on Twitter. “It’s a huge loss.”