Freewheelin On Duty


San Francisco 1967

Hell's Angel, Freewheelin Frank was guarding the sound truck at the Human Be-In. He was sitting on top of the truck looking into the sun, tripping on LSD. Some guy on the ground below started taunting Frank. The guy got really abusive to the point where Frank had to act (like a Hell's Angel) and attack. Frank jumped down on the guy hitting him square in the face with both of his motorcycle boots. The guy got up unfazed and picked Frank up by grabbing him by the nose (like a bowling ball), then flipping him over on to ground in front of me. Stoned, Frank was getting beaten-up. Someone ran to get his brother Angels who came in a rush; the crowd parted like a zipper opening a jacket. Their code, as I remember it, is "all on one, one on all." We got to witness the "all on one" part. They all jumped the guy and beat him until the crowd started to boo and chant then the Angels stopped hitting him. Frank came over to me and asked if I got any shots of the fight. I did not because of my 300mm lens focused from 25' to infinity and the fight was at my feet. When I saw Freewheelin a few weeks later, he told me his eyes had gotten burnt staring into the sun on acid.