One summer night in 1973 my friend Peter Gore and I were tripping on LSD and decided to catch the dawn rising from the Atlantic. We got into my VW and drove north out of Boston. Traffic was very light that early in the morning. Peter tried to find something groovy on the AM radio and caught Looking Glass’ BRANDI.
We sang along the popular hit, until Peter spotted a young woman hitchhiking by the side of US 1. The blonde was wearing a torn white dress and carrying high heels in her hand. One of them was broken.
“It’s her. It’s Brandi. What a fine girl. Stop for her.”
I jammed on the brakes and pulled over to the shoulder. The girl ran up to the passenger’s door and Peter let her into the car. She sat in the back and asked, “Where are you going?”
“Gloucester to see the sunrise.” I checked her in the rearview mirror.
She had been crying and a bruise was rising on her face.
“I’m heading to New York.” She sounded determined to get there.
“Now?” I could help flashing on that our passenger was a modern-day Cinderella.
“My boyfriend beat me up and I whacked him with my high heel. I’m not going back. There’s nothing there anymore.”
“And what’s in New York?” I wanted to know, since I was thinking of moving there after college.
“I don’t know.” The unknown was a better option for her than the known.
“You want to come see the sunrise with us. We’ll put you on a bus later.” Looking Glass was singing the last chorus of BRANDI.
“Why not? It’s not like New York is going anywhere.”
“We also have Acid.” I figured that she was 19.
“Cool.” She was game for anything.
Peter handed her a tab.
The dawn was glorious. We swam at Good Harbor Beach and laid in the sun until the mothers brought their young children to the beach.
“I have to be going.” She stood up with the grace of a gymnast.
“Where?” I had hoped that she had changed her mind.
“New York.”
“Okay.” I was coming down and so was Peter. “But you could chill with us.”
“No, I have to go or else I won’t go.”
I understood her logic and we put her on the bus to New York that afternoon. Peter and I never asked her name. She will always be Brandi. She was a fine girl.
To hear Looking Glass’ BRANDI go to this URL