Tad and my early acoustic period hit its peak with a concert at our home college, Antioch, exactly 50 years ago tonight. Towards the end of the evening, something special clicked when we performed "I Don't Want to Hear It."

Tad had composed the song in June 1971. "I remember coming up with the main melody and chords for 'I Don't Want to Hear It' at 12th Street [in NYC], sitting at the desk in my boyhood bedroom, and feeling a surge of rightness." (Email from Tad, Apriil 2003)

Tad quickly recorded it at a relatively fast tempo with his friends uptown.

On this night, though, we slowed it down, and I felt something was afoot when Tad suddenly changed his opening lyric from the past to present tense. Then, during the last verse, an unintended mild feedback occurred at just the right moment. It's tough to explain, but we knew as we were playing that this was one of those magical performances, all the mysterious elements converging.

Thirty years later I added another acoustic guitar to the mix, and Tad overdubbed some extra harmony vocals. Twenty years after that, here it is.

Note: The video opens with a portion of a letter Tad wrote to his dad describing this performance shortly after the concert.