“All Smoke and Broken Mirrors” :: The Legend of Stan Hubbs and His 1982 Classic - “Crystal”

Born and raised in the cautious, yet captivating catacombs of Chicago with his younger brother Gil Hubbs, famously known for his work on Bruce Lee’s “Enter The Dragon”, during the very beginnings of the Second World War, musician and harmonious herbalist, Stan Burr Hubbs, came from both an aristocratic and academic family whose values relied heavily on the volume of high society and social commentary on education as well as class. Like most of his generation, Hubbs wanted to break away from the cold chains of these certain societal projections in order to cut his very own path in the cosmic connection towards the counterculture movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Prior to his historical move to California, he worked as a security guard for a local bank in Chi-Town, while struggling with a debilitating drug addiction before eventually taking refuge on the retro routes towards the West Coast, where he drove across country sporting a visceral van dressed in a Dionysian portrait of the late and great Hemingway that the musician had hand painted on the side of the vehicle. Succumbing to the gravitational pull of the still lingering freedoms and happenings in 1980s California, Hubbs found his new home among the extraterrestrial elements of the still positively beating pulse of a time and place that had receded back into the tonal twilight of past, present and future like that of some ghostly expression waving in spiritual signs, while simultaneously speaking a valuable vocabulary before disappearing into the neighboring night.

The atmospheric aromas of the hippie movement could still be seen, heard and felt among the city’s radiating history, but by the time Hubbs planted roots into its sonic soil, the state had changed drastically. Manson and his followers had been imprisoned for well over a decade at this point, Father Yod had been long gone, Richard Ramirez, known famously as the “Night Stalker”, had yet to roam the streets during the height of the infamous “Satanic Panic” and the legends of Laurel Canyon were now all middle-aged and occupying an entirely different landscape of success and commercial commitments. So where was the counter culture and its poetic pawns? Were they still alive, or had they simply begun working someplace supporting their families, while simultaneously co-existing alongside the very same things they fought so hard against during the prime of their youth? No matter the change and its complicated history, Hubbs was now there and wrote and recorded an album that not only captured the exciting essence of the ‘good ole’ days’, but used the poetic paraphernalia of the prehistoric past to help guide and influence an album that occupies an incredibly unique and transcendental space beyond the geological depths of underground music in American music history.

Landing in the rural vastness of Meeker, CA, known to the locals as “Damp Sneaker” in Sonoma County, Hubbs recruited a band of ruffians to help bring his vision of “Crystal” to life, but before recording and rehearsals began at both Hubbs’ and his estranged wife’s residences, the initial line up of these mystery musicians were quickly replaced by a more quaint and less dangerous, assuming players such as Larry Doyle - guitars, Ron Castro - drums and Kriss O'Neill - vocals. While they say the ‘third time is a charm’, this was unfortunately not the case for Hubbs as he eventually entered his fourth and final marriage to Rosemond Reese, who fundamentally financed and sonically supported the cosmic conception of his album “Crystal”, which was born in just under two sessions in his Sonoma cabin on his pristine reel to reel recorder. Occupying some odd jobs such as a restaurant employee at Tides Warf in Bodega Bay, known for its infamous connection to Hitchcock’s film “The Birds”, as well as a gas station attendant in order to support himself and his musical vision, Hubbs never had the chance to properly string together a tour, or a run of shows to help spread the message of his work and what he was ultimately trying to express, but the band did perform locally at a multi-function type establishment called Flori’s, which was both an Italian restaurant and a dingy dive owned and operated by a Chinese family in Occidental. To be a bar fly on the wall, while Hubbs and his band played, and quite excessively it’s been said, the entirety of “Crystal” would indeed be one for the ages if only anyone was there to hear its dissonant magic.  

Though Hubbs never wrote, or recorded any other music outside his lone LP, it has been said that he continued to play off and on with a group of local heavy metal kids, all of whom had known Hubbs during his final years leading up to his untimely death due to complications after surgery removing part of his lung in November 1996 at just the age of 57. This is the part of the legend and its rich legacy in lore that the public has eagerly filled in over the years with a radical rumor that the late Stan Hubbs had passed away due to an unheard of THC overdose shortly after the recording of the album, thus making him the first documented person in history to have fatally died from smoking “too” much pot. While this only adds to the depth and melodic mystery of Hubbs and his music, it's simply not true and honestly makes for an even more upsetting case, as his life didn’t exactly pan out the way one would imagine at that age. He endured domestic abuse from his last wife, his music seemed to have isolated him in a way that was both personal and severely spiritual, and he never got to enjoy, or reap any sort of benefits from the growing interest that eventually took place as the years went on. Like some worldly wine, “Crystal” has endured the typical cultism of becoming a cosmic classic that gets better and better as time goes on, but an interesting question worth casting into the night sky is — “would Hubbs have been proud of his work and its esoterically expanding reach towards its listeners both high and low, or did it reflect a time and place best left in the past? Would he be performing the atmospheric anthems like “Juggernaut”, the album’s title track, “Lets Go on Back to Camp” and the melodic mastery of “Golden Rose” to audiences worldwide? Would there be outstanding offers for signing over music rights to film features and proper royalties from reissues billowing all around him?" The list of opportunities goes on and on and so does the music and legacy of Stan Hubbs, wherever he may be.