BANDS AND A BIT OF THE DOORS IN SAN FRANCISCO IN THE 60'S
San Francisco in the 60's was a vortex of mainly cool change, people's attitudes shifted, and people began to think outside of the box. Activism came back to life and proved once again that people united as a force you can't ignore or deny.
The Doors was a band with songs and lyrics of parables and others that found its way into the record charts.
An excellent band by all means and fronted by the charismatic erotic, magnetic lead singer, Jim Morrison, whose skin-tight leather pants; and pushing the envelope on live performances were building blocks to become one of the icons in that period.
The first live footage of the Doors was at a concert that we had heard about and it was on a handbill and, the irony was, they seemed to have been passed out at Ghirardelli Square as a last minute thing. Being a hangout at times was how we heard of the concert, and sometimes a go and sometimes not, depending on other events or "I forgot".
The irony was we must not have given a good look at the handbill as we only noticed the Stone Poneys, and at the bottom were the Doors...now in defense of a cursory-look we were given a lot of handbills. Some we shoved in our pockets and some we threw away, sometimes remembered or were many times reminded or told as the news of the day.
There were many venues in that time period around 1965...the matrix was a smaller venue (300 capacity but many times much, much more) but did have some classic bands...considered the first folk club and was in the marina area and it showcased the new band "the Jefferson Airplane"...the biggest deal were Beatles at the Cow Palace...the Stones, the Byrds, Beau Brummels and Paul Revere and the Raiders. Which was why I had seen them at the Ghirardelli Square and when I decided I would have long hair, making that the one venue I never attended, the Cow Palace...not sure why, just never did. The Family Dog Collective, which were four people and the family dog name came from friends' recently deceased dog, and they lived together in a communal house on Pine Street of which, eventually opened the Avalon Ballroom with major venues besides the Fillmore auditorium…used longshoreman hall at Fisherman's Wharf. Other local bands at that time were the Charlatans, Country Joe and the Fish, the Great Society, then soon Santana, Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Beautiful Day, and many others.
At that time, San Francisco allowed dancing in hotel ballrooms, then tried to stop dancing but a positive article from Ralph Gleason in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Jefferson Airplane telling the audience to come on and get up and dance. This was the many variations of psychedelic dance form, but most coolly it made bands more than just listening to a garage band. By dancing, there was a new connection to music and singers and the band. Dancing became part of the experience at a concert. There were many forms of psychedelic dance-much free-form its own form of ballet as it was not only creative and cool but in its way a freeing of the soul..
The Warlocks became the Grateful Dead at a concert at the Fillmore (about the first) for the San Francisco mime troupe-added to the bill-Jefferson Airplane-John Handy quintet and others. This was the birth of dance concert venues in San Francisco. There were anti-Vietnam organizations beginning to form and be heard, and it was heard at times at concerts from people inside, speakers, band members even venue sponsors. Activism was now in the air, civil rights, the Vietnam War, the drudgery of straight persons world, there was an awakening and a revolution that was not going away. This is part and parcel of the whole scene and is still part of us today.
In 1966 concerts became part of our lifeblood and was an awareness that somethin' but innovative- is happening here. There were peace marches, Black Panther rallies, anti-draft and Vietnam movements-helping children centers-it all was a life of its own.
The Fillmore hosted a few joint concerts with the Family Dog, Andy Warhol... the Velvet Underground and Nice and Frank Zappa and the Mothers. The bills presented were beyond belief in those years and too, rock and roll icons were born…Blues Masters played, R&B legends performed it was a heyday in music too. Lenny Bruce and the Mothers of invention at the Fillmore. Poets of the day performed and read at the Fillmore. The Temptations, Ken Kesey (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and his merry pranksters. Percy Sledge, Allen Ginsberg, the Yardbirds, Otis Redding, and the list goes on...but you had support for activism and the community. There were concerts for peach-for the united farm workers-student non-violent coordinating committee, SNCC-benefit for the legalization of marijuana-angry arts Vietnam mobilization-and community help concerts too.
The Avalon Ballroom opened and there was an old fire station used for concerts. An alternative newspaper, the Guardian, small but out of the mainstream. The Beatles played at Candlestick Park and the Beach Boys at the Cow Palace. Three day concerts were happening once in a while like the "three day trips festival at the Longshoremen Hall. The Acid Test at San Francisco State Commons.
There was the "Peace March" down Market Street in downtown San Francisco, and large numerous others around the day consistently.
Truly the melting pot was the Haight Ashbury, at the least, the mecca. You had the panhandle on the way to Golden Gate Park. And yes, people panhandledand some just gave you a flower and a smile, it was not a judgement call if you panhandled, in it's own way an awareness of for some, what it was like to have nothing and lose the conventional concepts that were imbued into them as they grew up.There were concerts or people playing conga drums and flutes, guitars, banjos,cymbals, or whatever the instrument…people just grooving and kicking back...or in deep conversation...some tripping, some smoking...truly an air of peace and friendliness. Probably the coolest thing was the unity, people were just people, a perfect example of how many have strayed off a positive path. The three or four story houses, mainly Victorian style, on each side of the panhandle were communal where not all people would have an area for a sleeping bag or a mat-bed. In some there were several to a room. There was a restroom and a communal kitchen, and some paid and some were crash pads as an answer to the flow of people. Mainly based on the honor system and split of some house duties. It was like a hostel of sorts. Single people and many times families with kids were the anchor of the house. The decor varied, but was stunning at times from florescent colors to soft gypsy-like with scarfs and unique materials covering the room with cool light sources from subdued light to merely candles. Incense was often the case and yes patchouli oil was about and it was never subtle. Incense was two-fold and scented the room to quell any pot smoke or smell. So commune living did work for some. Some shared a flat and were more private.
As expected, most homes were two or three story walk up each floor usually lacked a kitchen and many were set up that way. The other route was to have a hot plate with, although limited, did the job. Microwave ovens we a thing of the future so not yet an option.
You could go through the Haight and people would offer you food or drink they were eating/drinking, some just did that out of kindness.
People from all walks of life and from the world over were found visiting or coming to stay in San Francisco or the Haight itself, which opened all walks of life's eyes to the huge universe we live in and that there is a commonality to all, as opposed to a xenophobia for all.
Much critical thought and calm debates, although usually along the same thought lines, anti-draft, anti-war, anti-establishment, anti-discrimination, anti-social "norms", many marches and rallies that did work there was rebellion on all levels. The Vietnam War and all that went with it, drafts-the war machine-and even in what was considered to be the way your life was set in a square stone, incapable of any movement beyond a scope so small as to be stifling. . The square life mostly was expected of you by established "norms". There were civil rights' marches and rallies, the Black Panthers and the acceptance of racism by elders was rejected by the youth. More enlightened people, Martin Luther King, and the freedom marches and rallies, and the emergence of now not just black rallies but among many races and religions. The unacceptable violence and segregation was not going to just "be the way it is" activism was becoming a real force and there were many detractors, but people carried on and there was change.
The Avalon Ballroom and Fillmore Auditorium were the main venues people, the locals, and needless to say, me, Bart and friends went to. There was Winterland, a Fillmore venture.
The Doors began playing at both the Fillmore and Avalon Ballroom in 1967 and after years of playing, mainly clubs like London Fog and events in L.A. The Doors were also the house band at Whiskey a-Go-Go…and ironically were fired. The Doors had an invite to play in New York once.
It seemed in 1967, it was also their years to come into the limelight from Ed Sullivan to the New Haven Connecticut concert for public indecency and obscenity arrest.
That being said, going to concerts happened frequently...from free ones that went on here and there...if I was helping with the puppet show at least Friday, Saturday and Sunday(if opened)...if not, that was a day when free concerts happened too. Tuesday night jams, special fundraisers or rallies could make it a week of concerts, which was a way of life at that time.
One night at the Fillmore, as I made the preverbal rounds and saw a few friends or mainly acquaintances (other concert goers whom you may not recognize outside of the concert as this was where you put on that lace dress you found and the make-up to the 9's or that satin shirt) and now this wasn't the first time I was at a concert where the Doors ("Light My Fire" was just making the charts) were but at that time an outside concert and there were so many bands it was fantasy fair and socializing. Looking around, which those from L.A., a concept after renaissance pleasure faire many said Topanga Canyon just moved to the fair, and it was a fundraiser for Hunters Point Child Center, which was behind Potrero Hill where most of my old school friends came from. It was two bucks to get in. It seems we don't have fundraisers focused on local bands for the causes that were well needed to be addressed. We've lost that to a degree and seems more involved in making money for themselves and the line of hands out from the companies. It was a two day event. We made the first day here and few of the bands of the day were there (with my road dog, Bart) (some didn't make it to the event) the Sparrow (to eventually become Steppenwolf) Dionne Warwick, Canned Heat, the Doors, Jim Kweskin Band and others. The next day, Jefferson Airplane, the Byrds with Hugh Masekela, the Seeds, the Grassroots, Steve Miller Band, the 5th Dimension, Country Joe and the Fish. This concert was the rule of the day with no violence and the real unity was that people cleaned up as they left and just a cool concert. This was put on by a local radio station and imagine $2.00 for entry to a concert.
I digress, at the Fillmore, the Doors were coming on, and Jim Morrison was always the focal point of the Doors and "Light My Fire." The doors played often, Jim in leather or snakeskin pants and then the music.
After years of doing clubs and local events mainly in L.A, all knew at this point, unless you were completely out of it, the Doors were about to take the stage...you heard a key or two on the keyboard ...anticipation was there...a tuning on the guitar...and less than more, Bill Graham came on stage afterwards...to applaud a band and make a comment or two, then lights came on the stage and there were the Doors with Jim Morrison up front in skin-tight black leather pants. He had that magnetism some entertainers have...women would just stare and the crowd would wait in anticipation of the first song. Jim gripped the mike...one of the legends of rock and roll gave a performance you would never forget!
]]
THE DOOR ADUDIONING AT THE WHISKEY A GO-GO IN 1966
San Francisco in the 60's was a vortex of mainly cool change, people's attitudes shifted, and people began to think outside of the box. Activism came back to life and proved once again that people united as a force you can't ignore or deny.
The Doors was a band with songs and lyrics of parables and others that found its way into the record charts.
An excellent band by all means and fronted by the charismatic erotic, magnetic lead singer, Jim Morrison, whose skin-tight leather pants; and pushing the envelope on live performances were building blocks to become one of the icons in that period.
The first live footage of the Doors was at a concert that we had heard about and it was on a handbill and, the irony was, they seemed to have been passed out at Ghirardelli Square as a last minute thing. Being a hangout at times was how we heard of the concert, and sometimes a go and sometimes not, depending on other events or "I forgot".
The irony was we must not have given a good look at the handbill as we only noticed the Stone Poneys, and at the bottom were the Doors...now in defense of a cursory-look we were given a lot of handbills. Some we shoved in our pockets and some we threw away, sometimes remembered or were many times reminded or told as the news of the day.
There were many venues in that time period around 1965...the matrix was a smaller venue (300 capacity but many times much, much more) but did have some classic bands...considered the first folk club and was in the marina area and it showcased the new band "the Jefferson Airplane"...the biggest deal were Beatles at the Cow Palace...the Stones, the Byrds, Beau Brummels and Paul Revere and the Raiders. Which was why I had seen them at the Ghirardelli Square and when I decided I would have long hair, making that the one venue I never attended, the Cow Palace...not sure why, just never did. The Family Dog Collective, which were four people and the family dog name came from friends' recently deceased dog, and they lived together in a communal house on Pine Street of which, eventually opened the Avalon Ballroom with major venues besides the Fillmore auditorium…used longshoreman hall at Fisherman's Wharf. Other local bands at that time were the Charlatans, Country Joe and the Fish, the Great Society, then soon Santana, Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Beautiful Day, and many others.
At that time, San Francisco allowed dancing in hotel ballrooms, then tried to stop dancing but a positive article from Ralph Gleason in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Jefferson Airplane telling the audience to come on and get up and dance. This was the many variations of psychedelic dance form, but most coolly it made bands more than just listening to a garage band. By dancing, there was a new connection to music and singers and the band. Dancing became part of the experience at a concert. There were many forms of psychedelic dance-much free-form its own form of ballet as it was not only creative and cool but in its way a freeing of the soul..
The Warlocks became the Grateful Dead at a concert at the Fillmore (about the first) for the San Francisco mime troupe-added to the bill-Jefferson Airplane-John Handy quintet and others. This was the birth of dance concert venues in San Francisco. There were anti-Vietnam organizations beginning to form and be heard, and it was heard at times at concerts from people inside, speakers, band members even venue sponsors. Activism was now in the air, civil rights, the Vietnam War, the drudgery of straight persons world, there was an awakening and a revolution that was not going away. This is part and parcel of the whole scene and is still part of us today.
In 1966 concerts became part of our lifeblood and was an awareness that somethin' but innovative- is happening here. There were peace marches, Black Panther rallies, anti-draft and Vietnam movements-helping children centers-it all was a life of its own.
The Fillmore hosted a few joint concerts with the Family Dog, Andy Warhol... the Velvet Underground and Nice and Frank Zappa and the Mothers. The bills presented were beyond belief in those years and too, rock and roll icons were born…Blues Masters played, R&B legends performed it was a heyday in music too. Lenny Bruce and the Mothers of invention at the Fillmore. Poets of the day performed and read at the Fillmore. The Temptations, Ken Kesey (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and his merry pranksters. Percy Sledge, Allen Ginsberg, the Yardbirds, Otis Redding, and the list goes on...but you had support for activism and the community. There were concerts for peach-for the united farm workers-student non-violent coordinating committee, SNCC-benefit for the legalization of marijuana-angry arts Vietnam mobilization-and community help concerts too.
The Avalon Ballroom opened and there was an old fire station used for concerts. An alternative newspaper, the Guardian, small but out of the mainstream. The Beatles played at Candlestick Park and the Beach Boys at the Cow Palace. Three day concerts were happening once in a while like the "three day trips festival at the Longshoremen Hall. The Acid Test at San Francisco State Commons.
There was the "Peace March" down Market Street in downtown San Francisco, and large numerous others around the day consistently.
Truly the melting pot was the Haight Ashbury, at the least, the mecca. You had the panhandle on the way to Golden Gate Park. And yes, people panhandledand some just gave you a flower and a smile, it was not a judgement call if you panhandled, in it's own way an awareness of for some, what it was like to have nothing and lose the conventional concepts that were imbued into them as they grew up.There were concerts or people playing conga drums and flutes, guitars, banjos,cymbals, or whatever the instrument…people just grooving and kicking back...or in deep conversation...some tripping, some smoking...truly an air of peace and friendliness. Probably the coolest thing was the unity, people were just people, a perfect example of how many have strayed off a positive path. The three or four story houses, mainly Victorian style, on each side of the panhandle were communal where not all people would have an area for a sleeping bag or a mat-bed. In some there were several to a room. There was a restroom and a communal kitchen, and some paid and some were crash pads as an answer to the flow of people. Mainly based on the honor system and split of some house duties. It was like a hostel of sorts. Single people and many times families with kids were the anchor of the house. The decor varied, but was stunning at times from florescent colors to soft gypsy-like with scarfs and unique materials covering the room with cool light sources from subdued light to merely candles. Incense was often the case and yes patchouli oil was about and it was never subtle. Incense was two-fold and scented the room to quell any pot smoke or smell. So commune living did work for some. Some shared a flat and were more private.
As expected, most homes were two or three story walk up each floor usually lacked a kitchen and many were set up that way. The other route was to have a hot plate with, although limited, did the job. Microwave ovens we a thing of the future so not yet an option.
You could go through the Haight and people would offer you food or drink they were eating/drinking, some just did that out of kindness.
People from all walks of life and from the world over were found visiting or coming to stay in San Francisco or the Haight itself, which opened all walks of life's eyes to the huge universe we live in and that there is a commonality to all, as opposed to a xenophobia for all.
Much critical thought and calm debates, although usually along the same thought lines, anti-draft, anti-war, anti-establishment, anti-discrimination, anti-social "norms", many marches and rallies that did work there was rebellion on all levels. The Vietnam War and all that went with it, drafts-the war machine-and even in what was considered to be the way your life was set in a square stone, incapable of any movement beyond a scope so small as to be stifling. . The square life mostly was expected of you by established "norms". There were civil rights' marches and rallies, the Black Panthers and the acceptance of racism by elders was rejected by the youth. More enlightened people, Martin Luther King, and the freedom marches and rallies, and the emergence of now not just black rallies but among many races and religions. The unacceptable violence and segregation was not going to just "be the way it is" activism was becoming a real force and there were many detractors, but people carried on and there was change.
The Avalon Ballroom and Fillmore Auditorium were the main venues people, the locals, and needless to say, me, Bart and friends went to. There was Winterland, a Fillmore venture.
The Doors began playing at both the Fillmore and Avalon Ballroom in 1967 and after years of playing, mainly clubs like London Fog and events in L.A. The Doors were also the house band at Whiskey a-Go-Go…and ironically were fired. The Doors had an invite to play in New York once.
It seemed in 1967, it was also their years to come into the limelight from Ed Sullivan to the New Haven Connecticut concert for public indecency and obscenity arrest.
That being said, going to concerts happened frequently...from free ones that went on here and there...if I was helping with the puppet show at least Friday, Saturday and Sunday(if opened)...if not, that was a day when free concerts happened too. Tuesday night jams, special fundraisers or rallies could make it a week of concerts, which was a way of life at that time.
One night at the Fillmore, as I made the preverbal rounds and saw a few friends or mainly acquaintances (other concert goers whom you may not recognize outside of the concert as this was where you put on that lace dress you found and the make-up to the 9's or that satin shirt) and now this wasn't the first time I was at a concert where the Doors ("Light My Fire" was just making the charts) were but at that time an outside concert and there were so many bands it was fantasy fair and socializing. Looking around, which those from L.A., a concept after renaissance pleasure faire many said Topanga Canyon just moved to the fair, and it was a fundraiser for Hunters Point Child Center, which was behind Potrero Hill where most of my old school friends came from. It was two bucks to get in. It seems we don't have fundraisers focused on local bands for the causes that were well needed to be addressed. We've lost that to a degree and seems more involved in making money for themselves and the line of hands out from the companies. It was a two day event. We made the first day here and few of the bands of the day were there (with my road dog, Bart) (some didn't make it to the event) the Sparrow (to eventually become Steppenwolf) Dionne Warwick, Canned Heat, the Doors, Jim Kweskin Band and others. The next day, Jefferson Airplane, the Byrds with Hugh Masekela, the Seeds, the Grassroots, Steve Miller Band, the 5th Dimension, Country Joe and the Fish. This concert was the rule of the day with no violence and the real unity was that people cleaned up as they left and just a cool concert. This was put on by a local radio station and imagine $2.00 for entry to a concert.
I digress, at the Fillmore, the Doors were coming on, and Jim Morrison was always the focal point of the Doors and "Light My Fire." The doors played often, Jim in leather or snakeskin pants and then the music.
After years of doing clubs and local events mainly in L.A, all knew at this point, unless you were completely out of it, the Doors were about to take the stage...you heard a key or two on the keyboard ...anticipation was there...a tuning on the guitar...and less than more, Bill Graham came on stage afterwards...to applaud a band and make a comment or two, then lights came on the stage and there were the Doors with Jim Morrison up front in skin-tight black leather pants. He had that magnetism some entertainers have...women would just stare and the crowd would wait in anticipation of the first song. Jim gripped the mike...one of the legends of rock and roll gave a performance you would never forget!
]]
THE DOOR ADUDIONING AT THE WHISKEY A GO-GO IN 1966 