Copiapo

You can hear the song Copiapo at my home page.How I came to Write about Copiapó

I was in Santiago, Chile, producing the music to a left-wing movie (Que Hacer) directed by Saul Landau, Nina Serrano and Raúl Ruiz. I got the news: Janis Joplin was dead! She was found in a motel room in Los Angeles choked on her own vomit while high on heroin. She was not yet 30 years old. She was recording with her new band and on top of the world: becoming rich, famous and a "super star." Like the upcoming elections in Chile it seemed as though it was the beginning of a brand new day ... but it wasn’t. A few days later in the remote copper mining town of Copiapó I burned a candle at a small religious shrine in memory of my old girlfriend. Then I walked over to the town square where the film crew had sent the stage for a political rally. But problems had delayed the shoot. So I was asked if I could entertain the crowd ... and stall for time.
So in memory of her that day I sang that song to those people in the little square. As I was singing a young man and woman who had driven all the way from Berkeley, California in a Volkswagen van pulled into the town. They got out and in an LSD fog walked over to one of the film crew and asked "what’s going on?" They were told and looked up and saw me singing the song for Janis. They had seen me many times in Berkeley singing the song. The were amazed at the timing of it all. They got back in their van and drove off. I finished the song and the movie filming went on. Afterwards at the top of a mountain later that night I thought about the last time I had seen Janis … alive.
That evening I decided to walk up the mountain that was very close by and spend the night up there. I took a flash light and a bottle of pisco and a sleeping bag. I walked up the mountain and spent the night up there. The next day I walked down and wrote the song "Copiapó" about my experience.