35053668-Empire-of-the-Soul-Paul-William-Roberts

‘A FLAME OF FAITH’
the pumping of her limbs keeping perfect time, even the rhythm of
her breasts tracing a backbeat narrow and hard to master.
‘Swedish,’ Ray said.
The word meant nothing to me.
‘They’re living here,’ he added cryptically.
‘Who are?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Who are?’
‘Yeah! Up in Baga.’
Only the next day did this exchange finally make sense. The band
playing live on the beach was in fact most of The Who, and they
lived a few miles up the coast, near a place called Baga. I’d known
Pete Townshend slightly in London, and was very surprised to find
him the next day sitting opposite me in a Calangute bar.
The evening went on. Only as a miraculous dawn broke and the
stars seemed to plunge into the black Arabian Sea did people begin
to disperse. Esther and David seemed somehow changed – calmer,
closer to each other. The three of us found our way back to the villa,
sitting on the veranda drinking fruit juice in silence, listening to
the waves and the wind in the palm fronds, the cry of birds and
distant babies, the barking of dogs, the calls of travelling vendors
selling mangoes and jackfruit and coconuts and spices. It was all a
fragile idyll that seemed as if it would break if we moved or made a
sound. We had to be silent and let the wind speak . . .
Ray and Debbie, both looking haggard, returned separately many
hours later, going straight to bed. They did not reappear until early
evening, and were clearly not on speaking terms.
Calangute did seem to be paradise. But after a while the veneer
wore off. A few days later a tourist was found beheaded on the beach.
No one thought Goans were responsible.
Some of the hippies there had been in India for several years
now, had run out of money long before, had no way of getting
home. I noticed many were beginning to look less like flower
children and more like pirates. Teeth were missing – dentistry was
a luxury none could afford – and cunning had replaced their
innocence, a hardness sharpening their features. The girls became
amateur hookers and thieves; the guys developed more dangerous
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