Category Archives: Monterey Pop 67

ROCK’S IN MY HEAD: CHAPTER 20: 1968-BE INS, TEACH INS, and ASSASSINATIONS

16 Monday Jul 2018

Posted by in Albert King, BigBrotherHoldingCo., Fillmore East, FillmoreEast,BillGraham, Jimi Hendrix, Monterey Pop 67, Rock music, THE MOTHERS of INVENTION, Uncategorized

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ROCK’S IN MY HEAD: CHAPTER 20:1968-BE INS, TEACH INS, and ASSASSINATIONS

1968 polarized me. The news, not only in print but on TV and radio, had vivid news footage with reporting from the field of the Vietnam Conflict. Gun shots could be heard while the reports were being taped. The newspapers and magazines did not concentrate solely on the war abroad but also on the conflict developing on the home front, particularly the protests against the war occurring in every major city. The Anti-War movement was big news. Campus sit-ins, teach-ins, black arm bands, fist salutes, you know “the long hairs versus the hard hats”the hard hats being the ones who despised most protesters as being ANTI-AMERICAN.

“You faggots, you commies, you pussies, you… whatever”… shouted out in the streets. The news, the War, the demonstrations, the politics, the dynamics, I was absorbed with this which finally led to the proverbial, mostly unpleasant, verbal exchange during dinner with my WorldWar 2 Naval Veteran father. He who did NOT understand my opposition to our involvement in the conflict and he actually thought I was too young to understand, which pissed me off to no end. I was not too young, and I understood more than he wanted me to and probably more than he understood. I was 16, only two years away from the draft.

North Vietnam and the Viet Cong troops launched the TET OFFENSIVE  on The Lunar New Year, late January striking villages and towns throughout South Vietnam. More and more I began to understand whom we were fighting. My dad did not see it as I did, he did not understand that the North Vietnam Army and The Viet Cong were NOT the same army but rather two separate armies which coordinated this event. There was a huge difference between guerrilla warfare of the Viet Cong and uniformed soldiers of the NVA, both whom we were fighting. Dad fought in WWII and questioned my anti-war stance. Why should we not fight these Commies, North Vietnamese? I told him I did not want to die in a rice paddy killed by an enemy whom I could not identify.

The My Lai Massacre occurred  March 16 but was not news until later that autumn, somehow it never made the news when it occurred but when it did, WOW. The My Lai Massacre was a mass execution of between 347 and 504 unarmed civilians of South Vietnam; men, women, children and infants killed by U.S. Army soldiers under the leadership of Lieutenant William Calley, Jr. These soldiers, our soldiers, did not hold back, showing no remorse. Women were gang-raped, bodies mutilated. Twenty six soldiers were charged with criminal offenses but only Lt. Calley was convicted. He himself had killed 22 villagers and was given a life sentence. It was a short life in the slammer as he served only 3 1/2 years under HOUSE ARREST and then released.

My alarm clock was set to my favorite FM radio station which usually woke me up most morning, sometimes I needed an extra nudge but usually just the radio . One morning in April  I was awaken to the news that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr , the Nobel Prize winner, was killed. I was a bit depressed, how could any man kill another human. I was confused. This assassination made no sense, Dr. King was a Man of The Cloth, a Man of Peace. Somehow my parents didn’t get upset like I did, not that they were racists, but….

Then the morning the news that Robert Kennedy was assassinated. Those two in rapid succession affected me tremendously.  Kennedy was at least a white Catholic so I saw a few tears shed at our dinner table.

LBJ signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, USSR invades Czechoslovakia, and LBJ ends the “Rollin Thunder” bombing of North Vietnam. He also announces he will “not seek” another term for President. The BLACK POWER salute is seen during the Summer Olympics in Mexico, viewed throughout America  and the world in “living color”.

Students overtake Columbia University (thanks Mark Rudd, Dad will never let me go there now), Apollo 8 orbits the moon, and The Beatles release THE BEATLES aka as the White Album. And what was I doing?

I was listening to the Small Faces OGDEN’S NUT GONE FLAKE and SUPER SESSION.

A blurb written in Howard Smith’s SCENES in the Village Voice (February 17) addressed a Janis Joplin performance at The Anderson Theatre. Wherever The Anderson was to this Long Island boy, it could have been on Mars. I remember being amazed at how Smith described the show. This Big Brother and The Holding Company gig, with B.B. King on the bill,was meant to be a “coming out” party, NY style for the recently (8 months ago) herald band’s performance at Monterey. Smith compared Joplin to Bessie Smith (whom I never heard at that point in time), Areatha Franklin, and James Brown.  Janis, is a white girl. Hmmmm, this had to be good.

At this point in time besides the VOICE with it’s legendary Howard Smith (SCENES) and Richard Goldstein’s POP EYE column, I read CRAWDADDY , RAMPARTS, ROLLING STONE (newspaper format)and EYE magazine along with the weekly hit paraders that the local stations produced, GO(WMCA), etc. I vividly remember THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION ads run that summer in THE VOICE for their Garrick Theater performances. Also, the first Rolling Stone magazine with John Lennon gracing the cover and pictures from Monterey Pop. However, the risk of bringing home or to work a copy of THE EAST VILLAGE OTHER (EVO) was always a challenge. I only consider reading the EVO in the sanctity of my own room as some folks in my home, or anywhere in fact would deem even the comics a bit obscene. Mom would have freaked. I loved it.

But I digress, let’s go back a few months to when FILLMORE EAST opens. The  Village Voice, last week of February 1968, announced a show featuring Big Brother and The Holding Company, Tim Buckley, and Albert King at a place called Fillmore East. I needed to find out where that was. Then a friend at school brought in a program from Fillmore East for a DOORS show he had seen there. Now, I definitely need to go.

See you next time….Chapter 21:Can’t See A Thing Til’ You Open My Eyes . Comments? jazzbus@gmail.com

On The Shelf: IN SEARCH OF THE LOST CHORD- 1967 AND THE HIPPIE IDEA- DANNY GOLDBERG

12 Thursday Jul 2018

Posted by in books, Central Park, Cream, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, John and Yoko, Monterey Pop 67, Otis Redding, Rock music, rock music trivia, Scott McKensie, The Doors, The Great Society, THE MOTHERS of INVENTION, The Who, The Yippies, Uncategorized

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On The Shelf: IN SEARCH OF THE LOST CHORD 1967 AND THE HIPPIE IDEA- DANNY GOLDBERG

Wow, name after name after…you get the idea. This document takes the reader behind the scenes for a comprehensive look at 1967 and as the title suggests, “the hippie idea”. The time line alone, for me, is the gem. Reagan is governor of California, the first Human Be-IN takes place, The first SUPER BOWL, Surrealistic Pillow is released,  the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour hits the air. The Fugs’  ED SANDERS is featured on the cover of LIFE in an issue about HAPPENINGS. “Penny Lane/ Strawberry Fields Forever” is released.Adam Clayton Powell, Jr is denied a seat in Congress, as LBJ announces the draft lottery, and on and on. Names, dates, places, all fully researched, many sources quoted. Needless to say the history buff in me loved every word. All 280 pages.

(A review)   1967 was the year of the release of the Beatles’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and of debut albums from the Doors, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin, among many others. 1967 was also the year of the Summer of Love; the year that millions of now-illegal LSD tabs flooded America; Muhammad Ali was convicted of avoiding the draft; Martin Luther King Jr. publicly opposed the war in Vietnam; Stokely Carmichael championed Black Power; Israel won the Six-Day War; and Che Guevara was murdered. It was the year that hundreds of thousands of protesters vainly attempted to levitate the Pentagon. It was the year the word “hippie” peaked and died, and the Yippies were born.

ROCK’S IN MY HEAD:  CHAPTER 19- THE SUMMER OF LOVE:

11 Wednesday Jul 2018

Posted by in BigBrotherHoldingCo., Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, Monterey Pop 67, Otis Redding, Rock music, rock music trivia, Scott McKensie, Steve Cropper, Summer Of Love, Uncategorized, Vinyl Records

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ROCK’S IN MY HEAD:  CHAPTER 19- THE SUMMER OF LOVE:

“If you’re going to San Francisco,be sure to wear some flowers in your hair…If you’re going to San Francisco, Summertime will be a love-in there”

So sang SCOTT McKENZIE, a true one hit wonder himself but what a hit it was. This so called “anthem” arrived on the airwaves May 13, 1967, and was used as an invitation “across the nation” as a way to publicize the upcoming “charity” concerts called THE MONTEREY INTERNATIONAL POP FESTIVAL June 16 to June 18, 1967. This 3 day event was organized by PAPA JOHN PHILLIPS who incidentally wrote the aforementioned tune, LOU ADLER who produced the tune, along with a host of others who planned this weekend showcase as a way to sanctify “rock” music, similar to the way the Monterey Jazz Festivals gave legitimacy to that genre. All proceeds would be given to charity. Artists were expected to play a 40 minute set without a fee, however their flights, accommodations, etc, would all be first class.

The song becomes an instant radio hit ,#4 on the BILLBOARD charts, and while estimates vary, thousands celebrated rock music that weekend in a fair grounds 120 miles south of San Francisco. Yet, the tune transcended its purpose. The imagery of the song provoked and encouraged thousands of listeners to attend “the party”  which would become THE SUMMER OF LOVE in San Francisco.

HOW DO WE GET THERE? Well, not directional or travel arrangements wise but rather how did this LOVE thing happen?

Well, The BEAT poets of NORTH BEACH, SAN FRANCISCO could be considered the fore fathers of the movement with their non-conformist attitudes while rejecting materialistic values.

Then there was the celebration entitled the HUMAN BE-IN at Golden Gate Park in January of 67, an idea of MICHAEL BOWEN the avant-garde artist and co-founder of THE ORACLE, a premier “underground” newspaper which announced the event. This Be-In inspired  the play HAIR: The American Tribal Love -Rock Musical by Rado and Ragni. Also, TIMOTHY LEARY asked the attendees to “turn on,tune in,drop out”.About 30,000 attended.

The mainstream media picked up the story, highlighting Tim Leary, the drugs (LSD and mushrooms), the clothing and the music. These photos and images were shown on the nightly news. TIME magazine ran a cover story on THE HIPPIES and even CBS NEWS had a special report in August.This influx of “flower children” arrived to the 25 square block area of San Francisco with the cross streets , the intersection of it all, HAIGHT-ASHBURY.

With psychedelic music and drugs prevalent, one could only predict that the future of THE HAIGHT would not be so rosy or happy. Homelessness, drug abuse, poverty became rampant. The BEE GEES even wrote a song, MASSACHUSETTS, in response to what was happening in SAN FRANCISCO, a ditty about someone who lost the vision, the hope, and was homesick.

Yet, the SUMMER OF LOVE despite its misgivings gave us a great soundtrack for that time and for years to come: THE WHO, JIMI HENDRIX, BIG BROTHER and THE HOLDING COMPANY, COUNTRY JOE and THE FISH,THE ELECTRIC FLAG,QUICKSILVER MESSENGER SERVICE,STEVE MILLER,MOBY GRAPE,HUGH MASEKELA,THE BYRDS,LAURA NYRO,JEFFERSON AIRPLANE,BOOKER T and THE MG’s,OTIS REDDING, THE BLUES PROJECT,BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD and the organizers of Monterey Pop THE MAMAS & THE PAPAS.

See you next time…CHAPTER 20:1968-BE INS and TEACH INS and ASSASSINATIONS

Comments? jazzbus@gmail.com

ROCK’S IN MY HEAD:  CHAPTER 18: AND THE JUKEBOX KEPT ON PLAYING…

10 Tuesday Jul 2018

Posted by in Cream, DYLAN, EdSullivan, ElvisPresley, Golden Age of Radio, James Brown, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, LOVE, Monterey Pop 67, Otis Redding, R&B, Rock music, rock music trivia, Scott McKensie, Summer Of Love, The Beatles, The Beatles on Sullivan, The British Invasion (1964-1966), The Doors, The radio, Uncategorized, Vinyl Records

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ROCK’S IN MY HEAD:  CHAPTER 18: AND THE JUKEBOX KEPT ON PLAYING…

“There’s something happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear”, Stephen stills wrote in the 1967 song FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH.

The music of the 60s famously captured the countercultures activism and ethos of those times. Music can inspire, it can galvanize and fuel movements, it can spread the key messages for social causes. However, do we define the music that the artists create or do the songs they sing about the social issues defined us? Sometimes it’s both as its almost impossible to separate the art from the artist.

In my generation’s time the biggest example of music affecting culture had to be the music of the Beatles. Their music created an iconic shift in our culture. Take a look at photos in any high school yearbook before 1964, and you will see the American middle-class males all have really short haircuts. However in just one years time, everyone’s hair was a little longer. The Beatles were influencing culture, as a matter of fact they changed the entire culture. Fortunately during that time the music scene was not as fragmented as it is today. With about only five popular radio stations and/or TV stations( in NY) everyone heard the same songs. It was truly broadcasting in a “broad” sense of the word as opposed to today’s “narrow” casting. Music mobilized people and songs became anthems as music was one of the strongest ways to influence our generation.

By ’67 I was an avid reader of magazines, books, news weeklies, most somewhat politically skewed to the left, well as left as I could get away with in my household. Even my newspaper of choice was the VILLAGE VOICE, a weekly out of Manhattan. My high school’s reading assignments, the general novels assigned, the poems, did little to excite me, but I read what I was asked to read, mostly.  But then, I read Ralph Nader’s UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED which intrigued me. His invitation to the auto makers to produce a safer machine was researched so well, and his requests and suggestions to the industry and to the government made so much sense. Yet no one did anything about it. The CORVAIR car, transmission gear positions on cars, safety to pedestrians, wind shield standards and seat belts.WOW, simple safety. That year Nader was “the man” to me.

THE SUMMER OF LOVE: 1967

A news item came across the screen the other day (2017) declaring that JEFFERSON AIRPLANE’S album SURREALISTIC PILLOW was certified Platinum, I’m talking a few month shy of it’s 50th anniversary of its release. That’s a long haul. The LP went GOLD back in July of 1967, THE SUMMER OF LOVE, finally platinum in 2017.

50 Years ago “it” was all over the press: San Francisco and the “SUMMER OF LOVE”. The SF Chronicle was the first to depict that designation to which I am sure they regretted almost immediately. But, WHAT WAS THAT SUMMER OF LOVE LIKE?

I was 15 and it was no summer of Love for me, summer of Confusion might best describe my circumstances. SURREALISTIC PILLOW was on my turn table yet I actually had to look up and research what the heck “surrealistic” meant and how the hell did it apply to a pillow. This was too far out.

Summer of ’67 nearly 100,000 kids head to San Francisco’s HAIGHT ASBURY  with “flowers in their hair, flowers everywhere”. It is time to “turn on, tune in, drop out”. This coincides with young adults declaring rock and roll was here to stay, it was not some phase we would grow out of. Rock was to be our music, an essential part of our being, the way we expressed ourselves. I’m in, I ready to volunteer. Frank Sinatra, not for me. Even the sounds recorded at that moment in time changed. Listen to JORMA KAUKONEN’s feedback on PILLOW. It was new, unique, and different.We took this music, our music seriously, and so did the musicians who made it . Singles were fading fast as bands/musicians sought to make a statement or two. Albums became the rage. Musicians experimented and so did we.

Our radio changed. AM stuck to the hit parade format. Recent legislation stated that AM stations could no longer simulcast on FM, so the clearer sounding FM was free to experiment and experiment they did. The AM dj’s catch phrases, their gift of gab would not survive the coolness of the FM disk jockey playing THE DOORS Light My Fire (extended version).And in June of 67 The BEATLES released Sgt. Pepper’s which had no singles on it. Truly the listening teens were FM bound.

Reporting on the “happenings” changed also. The cigar smoking, shirt and tie wearing newsman suddenly had long bushy sideburns, bell bottom jeans, smoked a joint and wrote from the heart. Journalism,the reporting of the news was way different from what it was only a few months before. Slanted as it might have been, these new writers helped me develop a better understanding of culture and politics. An example would be RAMPARTS magazine, which started as a Catholic Quarterly, but now in ‘67 it was a full blown anti-establishment rag. It’s articles raised the hair on the back of my neck; Vietnam, the CIA, The Black Panthers. And then the NewYork Times Best Sellers List had names like Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe and other non-traditional authors topping the charts. Hail, hail to THE CLASS OF ’67.These “New Journalists” led me to read authors who influenced the new generation: Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell, and many other so called “muckrackers” as Teddy Roosevelt named their genre.

So what was 1967 through the eyes and ears of a fifteen year old boy? Well, January 15 the very first SUPER BOWL was held with a television audience of 60 million folks.The Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10. Interesting to note that according to all research this singular event catapulted the NFL in viewership which in turn drew advertising money to football. The cost of a 30 second SUPER BOWL ad in 67 was a mere $37,500.

By February my neighbor, a guy I tried to get to take me to see the Lovin Spoonful told me about a new group he saw at Stony Brook, a local university. The band was Jefferson Airplane, yes, same group I read about in NEWSWEEK. Now, I was more than interested in that band.

The 25th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in February 1967 thereby establishing the “succession” to the Presidency which was vitally important as our Vice-Presidency had been vacant at least 16 times through our short history. This Amendment gave us a clear path to what steps were needed to take place, especially after the death of JFK when we had a void. This would prove to be politically significant in subsequent years.

In April Muhammed Ali, aka CASSIUS CLAY the Heavy Weight Champ who became a CO, was stripped of his heavyweight boxing title for refusing induction in to the US Army.

THE SIX DAY WAR (June 5-10) occurred just as we were finishing our school year. The  Arab Forces were defeated and Israel took possession of additional territories.  This news item intrigued me as I knew little if anything about the Middle East which we had studied this past year history class, but not like this.This was for real. My knowledge or lack thereof about the Middle East would soon change.

Thurgood Marshall became the first black Supreme Court Justice in October. These events made ’67 an interesting year. Monterey Pop was held (June), Otis Redding died, and SGT.PEPPERS was released. We listed to Sgt. Peppers almost every afternoon that June at my girlfriend’s house,with the music blasting through the speakers from her brother’s stereo which she placed in the front window while a group of us were playing whiffle ball in the street. Life and relationships were simple then.

My 45’s record collection seemed to grow by the end of each week: The Letter by the Box Tops with Alex Chilton on vocals is still a gem today, Light My Fire by The Doors (the edited radio version of course), The Rascals lovely Groovin’, Little Bit Of Soul, Kind Of A Drag, Expressway to Your Heart, Soul Man, Incense And Peppermints, Somebody To Love,and Whiter Shade of Pale just to name a few. However, I used more of my limited cash on albums: The Doors(first), the aforementioned Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow,  Moby Grape’s first, The Beatles Sgt. Peppers, Jimi Hendrix Experience, The KinKs Something Else,The Doors Strange Days (which my dad bought for me),Cream’s Disraeli Gears, The Who Sell Out, The Rascal’s Collections and The Soul Survivors, which I was led to believe by the guy behind the counter at the local RECORD RACK sounds “exactly” like the Rascals.This proclamation was not necessarily true and another story all together. By years end I included the newly established ROLLING STONE magazine to my mandatory reading list .

By end of 1967 heading into ’68, listening to FM radio and watching television rock was not enough for me. Like every other red blooded discophile I was drawn to the fire of live music. Having no true curfew I started to attend The Hullabaloo, a local teen club in the neighboring town of Lindenhurst. A true TEEN SCENE club serving 15-20 year olds  with an affordable  $2.00 cover. Their stage hosted a few bands each weekend (Friday and Saturday nights), many were local garage style combos, with a few noted National acts tossed in…The Vagrants, The Hassels, and Vanilla Fudge just to name a few.

During this period I saw The Critters (Younger Girl; My Dyingly Sad) at the local Roll N Ice, followed by Every Mothers Son (Come On Down To My Boat, Baby) at my 10th grade dance, The Good Rats (pre-TASTY) at a high school art show(1968), and a WMCA (NY Radio station-THE GOOD GUYS)sponsored “Sock Hop Show” featuring The Left Banke (1967).  And of course Long Island’s own The Vagrants (Leslie West), and The Hassels (Billy Joel) regularly played at the aforementioned Hullabloo.

At home I played Rubber Soul and Revolver over and over again. Two of my favorite albums at that time and probably my two favorite Beatles albums of all times.

See you next time….Chapter19:THE SUMMER OF LOVE. Comments? jazzbus@gmail.com

ON THE SHELF: SMALL TOWN TALK- BOB DYLAN,THE BAND, VAN MORRISON, JANIS JOPLIN, JIMI HENDRIX AND FRIENDS IN THE WILD YEARS OF WOODSTOCK by Barney Hoskyns, DaCapo Press 

28 Thursday Jun 2018

Posted by in Albert Grossman, Bearsville Records, books, DYLAN, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Judy Collins, Monterey Pop 67, Rock music, rock music trivia, Todd Rundgren, Uncategorized

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ON THE SHELF: SMALL TOWN TALK- BOB DYLAN,THE BAND, VAN MORRISON, JANIS JOPLIN, JIMI HENDRIX AND FRIENDS IN THE WILD YEARS OF WOODSTOCK by Barney Hoskyns, DaCapo Press

Yesterday’s post was JUDAS! so I thought this a decent follow up to the exploits of one, Robert Zimmerman.

“There’s a veil of secrecy around all this stuff,” the folk singer Artie Traum told me when I first visited Woodstock in the summer of 1991. “And for no particular reason, because there’s really nothing to hide. I don’t think there are any skeletons that aren’t already public. But one of the whole things that Dylan started was ‘Don’t talk to anybody.” (preface)

This book is small town name dropping at its best. ALBERT GROSSMAN being the star attraction, arriving as his way to escape the hustle and bustle that he brought upon himself,a way to escape those that despised him, he settles on a spread in upstate New York, BEARSVILLE, and consequently an entire army of like minded folks (pun intended) arrive a few years later, BOB DYLAN being the most famous.

They are all here in and around WOODSTOCK , the small town as the title suggest, some only visited, while others settled or “escaped” from drugs, money, spouses, or just for the serenity of what the surrounding had to offer.

MY LITTLE KNOWN FUN FACT THAT I LOVE: Gate Of Horn co-owner LES BROWN who with ALBERT GROOMSMAN opened that Chicago club in 1956:“Les Brown loathed him so much that, after Grossman’s death, he made a special trip to urinate on his grave” (p32)

ROCK’S IN MY HEAD: Chapter 14-SWEET SOUL MUSIC

26 Tuesday Jun 2018

Posted by in Aretha Franklin, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Monterey Pop 67, MOTOWN, Otis Redding, R&B, Ray Charles, Rock music, rock music trivia, Sam Cooke, Steve Cropper

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Do you like good music

That sweet soul music

Just as long as it’s swingin’

Oh yeah, oh yeah

SWEET SOUL MUSIC (Conley/Redding)

How I love that song, presently as well as when it was first released, and I also love the tune it was directly “sampled “ from, “YEAH MAN” by Sam Cooke. The horns blasting, the call and response, the spiritual flavor, the danceability of both songs, and SWEET SOUL MUSIC sings out the history of soul music circa 1967. Hey, I even danced to it which a sight to behold.

Thank goodness I was born in the early fifties and with a kid brother two years younger in tow we got to listen to some great music; me with THE sounds of The BRITISH INVASION and he loving The 4 Seasons harmonies, girl groups and “soul” music. Our record collection was amazing and add to that the AM radio blasting the hits on WMCA, WABC, WINS, WWRL. The sounds,oh my,and our parents were in denial to our obsession with music.

Soul music evolved from the R&B tunes of the 50’s, gained wide spread acceptance (white audiences) in the SIXTIES and lasted into the 70’s.

The R&B hits of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Sam Cooke and Ray Charles transformed rock and roll to another dimension. Soon “white” popular music virtually disappeared leaving rock and soul music in the forefront, standing shoulder to shoulder on the charts as they became the new leaders in popular music.

Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, James Brown, Solomon Burke, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and Al Green merged gospel with R&B to create a new sound, “soul”. As the subsequent years raged on soul and rock became more political, a message to the masses in the tumult sixties.

Mentioned a few times in other chapters, music is the result of the combination and innovations of previous styles. In the case of soul music one can hear the blending of the “sacred” and the “profane”, that being gospel and the blues thus becoming a new art form.

Soul music ruled the “black” charts throughout THE SIXTIES with hits by Aretha Franklin and James Brown. MOTOWN joined in with MARVIN GAYE, THE SUPREMES, THE FOUR TOPS, THE TEMPTATIONS and a youngster named LITTLE STEVIE WONDER. Soon these hits were played on “mainstream” radio.

One of my favorites was OTIS REDDING: My Dad’s friend gave me an OTIS REDDING album “The Soul Album(1966). He gave it up because he didn’t like it. Geez, it was a gem with 634-5789, TREAT HER RIGHT, CHAIN GANG, NOBODY KNOWS YOU WHEN YOU’RE DOWN AND OUT on it, I loved it. A few years later I saw the film MONTEREY POP and WOW, Otis was THE MAN. Unfortunately, he died a few months after MONTEREY and before completing his posthumous hit (Sittin’On The) DOCK OF THE BAY- the whistling part at the end was to be re-dubbed after his return from the tragic event.

“Otis had the softness of Sam Cooke and the harshness of Little Richard, and he was his own man,” Booker T. & the MGs guitarist Steve Cropper told Rolling Stone in 2004.  “He was also fabulous to be around, always 100 percent full of energy. So many singers in those days, with all due respect, had just been in the business too long. They were bitter from the way they were treated. But Otis didn’t have that. He was probably the most nonprejudiced human being I ever met. He seemed to be big in every way: physically, in his talent, in his wisdom about other people. After he died, I was surprised to find out I was the same age as he was, because I looked up to him as an older brother.”

(2018) The recently released “Otis Redding LIVE AT THE WHISKY A GO GO 1966” was added to my collection. Another gem to say the least.

ARETHA FRANKLIN, originally a COLUMBIA RECORDS artist spent years making jazz records. Upon leaving for ATLANTIC RECORDS a new approach was taken by recording Otis Reddings’ tune RESPECT. It was stardom from then on.

See you next time….Chapter15: THE FUZZ BOX and TECHNO THINGS. Comments? jazzbus@gmail.com

SUMMER OF LOVE @ 50

14 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by in Jefferson Airplane, Monterey Pop 67, Rock music, Scott McKensie, Summer Of Love

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“If you’re going to San Francisco,be sure to wear some flowers in your hair…If you’re going to San Francisco, Summertime will be a love-in there”

So sang SCOTT McKENZIE, a true one hit wonder but what a hit it was. This so called “anthem” arrived on the airwaves May 13, 1967, and was used as an invitation “across the nation” to publicize the upcoming “charity” concerts baptized as THE MONTEREY INTERNATIONAL POP FESTIVAL June 16 to June 18, 1967. This 3 day event was organized by PAPA JOHN PHILLIPS who incidentally wrote the aforementioned tune, LOU ADLER who produced the tune, along with a host of others who planned this weekend showcase as a way to sanctify “rock” music, similar to the way the Monterey Jazz Festivals gave legitimacy to that genre.All proceeds would be given to charity. Artists were expected to play a 40 minute set without a fee, however their flights, accommodations, etc, would all be first class.

The song becomes an instant radio hit ,#4 on the BILLBOARD charts, and while estimates vary, thousands celebrate rock music that weekend in a fair grounds 120 miles south of San Francisco. Yet, the tune transcended its purpose. The imagery of the song encouraged thousands of listeners to attend the party which would become THE SUMMER OF LOVE in San Francisco.

HOW DO WE GET THERE? Well, not directional or travel arrangements wise but rather how did this LOVE thing happen?

The BEAT poets of NORTH BEACH, SAN FRANCISCO could be considered the fore fathers of the movement with their non-conformist attitudes while rejecting materialistic values.

Then there was the celebration entitled the HUMAN BE-IN at Golden Gate Park in January of 67, an idea of MICHAEL BOWEN the avant-garde artist and co-founder of THE ORACLE, a premier “underground” newspaper which announced the event. This Be-In inspired  the play HAIR: The American Tribal Love -Rock Musical by Rado and Ragni. Also, TIMOTHY LEARY asked the 30,000 attendees to “turn on,tune in,drop out”. 

The mainstream media picked up the story, highlighting Tim Leary, the drugs (LSD and mushrooms), the clothing and the music. These photos and images were shown on the nightly news. TIME magazine ran a cover story on THE HIPPIES and even CBS NEWS had a special report. This influx of “flower children” arrived to the 25 square block area of San Francisco with the cross streets , the intersection of it all HAIGHT-ASHBURY.

With psychedelic music and drugs prevalent, one could only predict that the future of THE HAIGHT would not be so rosy or happy. Homelessness, drug abuse, poverty became rampant. The BEE GEES even wrote a song, MASSACHUSETTS, in response to what was happening in SAN FRANCISCO, a ditty about someone who lost the vision, the hope, and was homesick.

Yet, the SUMMER OF LOVE despite its misgivings gave us a great soundtrack for that time and for years to come: THE WHO, JIMI HENDRIX, BIG BROTHER and THE HOLDING COMPANY, COUNTRY JOE and THE FISH,THE ELECTRIC FLAG,QUICKSILVER MESSENGER SERVICE,STEVE MILLER,MOBY GRAPE,HUGH MASEKELA,THE BYRDS,LAURA NYRO,JEFFERSON AIRPLANE,BOOKER T and THE MG’s,OTIS REDDING, THE BLUES PROJECT,BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD and the organizers of Monterey Pop THE MAMAS & THE PAPAS.