Expecting Rain

..When did it stop being burned before the shows...? I have been meaning to ask someone for a while.

It wasn't there in summer 2010, before that I don't know.

Too bad, I liked the Nag...

Yup, me too. I was reminded of it the other week because my friend mentioned buying some incense, I suggested she get nag champa — she said she wouldn't buy that because of some kind of issue with the company who make it or the bloke behind it... I can't remember now what she said. I was saying to her that I though nag champa was just a certain smell and it wasn't specifically made by one company? I know I used to get that stuff in the blue boxes, but I'm sure I've bought other brands of nag champa. Maybe that wasn't real nag champa. I'm not sure how it works? Anyway, after she was saying this it crossed my mind whether this was the reason Bob stopped burning it. I was just having a search on the internet for nag champa related corruption, but couldn't find anything.

Oh I see... just having a look online, so Satya made the original nag champa? Maybe it was a problem with this company that she had.

Nag Champa is not a brand, although someone might have tried to own it. It's just a flower essence mixed with sandalwood. It is doubtful that the market is being monopolized by one company, expecially when we consider the source, India. There are dozens, or hundreds of manufacturers in India. They've been burning it for centuries in the ashrams there. Copyright and patents don't really transfer that well internationally. Maybe Yik or Santos, or someone on the staff, is allergic to it. Or maybe they just got burned out on it, kinda like what happens with pachuli, or with Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat or Don't Think Twice in the set list.

Your friend's probabyly concerned about the popular Nag Champa incense because of the manufacturer's association with the late guru Sathya Sai Baba (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satya_Sai_Baba :"(...) Unverified charges leveled against Sathya Sai Baba by detractors and ex-followers included money laundering, fraud in the performance of service projects, child sexual abuse and murder. (...)".

There wasn't any incense used during the Asia tour this spring, and at the time I put it down to Bob or whoever makes these decisions being sensible to the locals' custom of burning incense for religious ceremonies - he might have had come across as someone presenting himself as some kind of god, appearing in front of his worshippers, or so I guessed (what an absurd presumption ... )

I miss it, it was quite helpful to mask the stank of any working class blokes I happened to get stuck sitting by.

True Sai Baba burned incense with the nag champa aroma and became associated with it, but so did many, many, many others before him and during his stay on the planet. It IS possible that "Dylan, Inc." thought that it might be best to dis-associate and distance themselves from the rumors that came soon after Sai Baba's death this past spring. Apparently, the boy had amassed quite a fortune, some of it apparently by questionable means. I get it. I had darshan with Sai Baba once. I went to his primary ashram in Whitefield and was blown away by the passion of the devotees and the obvious presence of vast fortune. We drove up from Bangalore and were given wrist bracelets upon arrival, like Ticketron used to do when you stood in line to buy tix to Dead shows in the 80's. It was very orderly. Thousands of us filed into the arena-like temple and were put in different lines based on our wristband numbers. We were eventually seated in rows on the marble floor of the spare-no-expense mandir. Sai Baba came out and walked around the audience and smiled and looked at us for 15 or 20 minutes and then left. People were raving about how it was the most amazing experience of their lives! I thought had an open mind, but figured that I musta missed something and decided to get back to Bangalore for a meal at the Dalai Llama's sister's restaurant. The one with the really good stereo system. Too bad about the nag champa. Sai Baba didn't own that scent. It's been used for centuries...

It was there in 2009 in New York City and was there again in Bethlehem 2010. It wasn't there the last two shows I saw in 2011, but those shows were outside so...

It was there in France during summer 2010!

Neither Sathya Sai Baba, nor any organizations associated with him, have been charged or convicted with sexual abuse or any other crime in a court of law

That's what the Wiki article says, I didn't mean to suggest those claims were valid. I just quoted that line as reading about claims like that surely will make some people boycott the company.
(I won't for sure, I need to stock up on Sathya Nag Champa at the Christmas market soon - best incense ever).

This guy wrote a little article about Sai Baba and sex. A little too intense for me, but interesting none-the-less for those that relate Nag Champa to to this (recently) "living god." To each their own.
http://www.saibaba-aclearview.com/contents1.html