FRETS AND FRAILS [excerpt]
... Pete Rowan, guitarist from Boston, has joined the Bill Monroe group ... Scotty Stoneman is playing with the Kentucky Colonels ... Dave Grisman found the Warlocks to be the best rock-and-roll group he heard in California. He especially liked a song written by their lead guitarist, Jerry Garcia, titled "Bending Your Mind." ... Eric Andersen is writing a 35-minute song for the opening sequence of Andy Warhol's eight- or ten-hour movie to be called Poor Little Rich Girl ...
(by Israel Young, from Sing Out! magazine, November 1965)
Showing posts with label 1965. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1965. Show all posts
Jul 22, 2020
Mar 15, 2018
1965: The Warlocks (Massachusetts)
 | |
| Cash Box ad, June 5, 1965 |
NEW YORK - The Warlocks, the group that introduced the Temper Tantrum dance in a Boston night club, has recorded a single, "Temper Tantrum," for Decca.
The dance, introduced May 12 at the Forum, a Hub discotheque, was shown in film clip form on "The Tonight Show." It has received exposure on Boston radio and TV stations and in the local press.
Dick Jacobs, Decca a&r man, recorded the disk in Boston. Charlotte Holicker, one of the dance's inventors, explained the dance on "The Mike Douglas Show" Friday (28).
(from Billboard, 5 June 1965)
* * *
BOSTON - Alan Ross of Decca Records may be responsible for a new dance known as the Temper Tantrum, by the Warlocks, ready for release on Decca. It grew out of a session at Boston's Forum with most of the record distributors present. Alan secured tape of music and film of the dance and sent it to New York. Presto! a new record and perhaps a new dance. Hub dancer Charlotte Hollicker will show it to Mike Douglas and Patrice Munsel on the Douglas Show soon.
(from Billboard, 12 June 1965)
* * *
TEMPER TANTRUM RAGES, DECCA RUSHES OUT 1ST DECK
NEW YORK — Decca Records has rushed into release a single record based on the new dance, “Temper Tantrum.” The dance was introduced last month at The Forum, a Boston discotheque, that had invited the Hub press, radio, television and the general public to the first public demonstration of this new “tension relieving” dance conceived by Charlotte and Joe Holicker. The room was jammed to capacity as the dancers stamped their feet and gyrated, as a small child in a fit of temper, in time to the music, as the patrons joined in and a new dance craze was born.
The next day the Boston press and radio-TV carried the message that this was the dance to do in Boston and the surrounding areas. “The Tonight Show” heard about the excitement generated by the dance and showed a film clip of the steps of the “tantrum” to a national viewing audience. At the same time it was brought to the attention of A&R staffer Dick Jacobs, who immediately flew to Boston to record “Temper Tantrum” with The Warlocks, the musical group that first introduced the dance.
The Decca record was cut, mastered and shipped all in the period of three days to keep pace with the national excitement being generated by the fad. Charlotte Holicker made a guest appearance on “The Mike Douglas Show” this past Friday (28) to tell the story of the dance to the show’s vast syndicated audience. Many national publications are now planning spreads on the dance.
Decca’s full promo forces are going all-out to garner similar reaction in all areas to “Temper Tantrum” as happened when first introduced in Boston.
(from Cash Box, 5 June 1965)
from the Record Reviews:
WARLOCKS (Decca 31806)
THE TEMPER TANTRUM (2:25) - Easy driving beat behind smooth vocals on this outing make for possible clicking with dance crowds. The free moving rhythm could connect with good sales and spins resulting.
I’LL GO CRAZY (2:46) - Pounding beat on this rock number.
The Temper Tantrum (by Joseph & Charlotte Holicker; A-side)
I'll Go Crazy (by James Brown; B-side)
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| http://www.45cat.com/record/31806&c=642646 |
October 1965...
Phil Lesh: "I was browsing in a record store and found a single by a band called the Warlocks, on Columbia. I brought the bad news to the guys, and we started to bandy new names about...but nothing really sounded right, and we just couldn't decide. Meanwhile, we were recording some demo songs for a local record label, and we needed not to be the Warlocks anymore. So we agreed on a temporary name - the Emergency Crew - for our first recording sessions. What on earth to call ourselves?..."
Jerry Garcia: "Our name was originally the Warlocks, [but] we discovered that there was a band back east or something like that recording under that name, and we decided, 'Oh, no, we can't have that. We can't be confused with somebody else.' So we were trying to think up names..."
 |
| http://www.dead.net/features/blog/literary-underground-grateful-dead-dictionary-dead |
Feb 12, 2013
December 10, 1965: Fillmore Auditorium, SF
LESSON FOR THE S.F. IN THE MIME BENEFIT
The benefit for the San Francisco Mime Troupe Friday night at the Fillmore Auditorium (it was billed as "Appeal II, For Continued Artistic Freedom in the Arts") was a roaring success. Over 3500 people paid $1.50 apiece to be there.
But it was a great deal more than a benefit. It was substantiation of the suspicion that the need to dance on the part of a great number of residents of this area is so great it simply must be permitted.
The Friday night affair was basically a rock 'n roll dance such as the ones the Family Dog put on at the Longshore Hall.
If this city was run for the citizens, such affairs would be commonplace and conducted, say, once a month at the Civic Auditorium where there used to be numerous dances during the swing era.
At 9:30 there was a double line a block long outside the Fillmore Auditorium. At 1 a.m. it was still there, the individuals were new but the packed house still existed.
Inside a most remarkable assemblage of humanity was leaping, jumping, dancing, frigging, fragging and frugging on the dance floor to the music of the half dozen rock bands – the Mystery Trend, the Great Society, the Jefferson Airplane, the VIP's, the Gentlemen's Band, the Warlocks and others. The costumes were freeform Goodwill-cum-Sherwood Forest. Slim young ladies with their faces painted a la Harper's Bazaar in cats-and-dogs lines, granny dresses topped with huge feathers, white levis with decals of mystic design; bell-bottoms split up the side! The combinations were seemingly limitless.
At each end of the huge hall was a three foot high sign saying LOVE. Over the bar was another saying "No Booze," while the volunteer bartenders served soft drinks. Alongside the regular bar was a series of tables selling apples! The only dance (outside of Halloween) I've ever been at where they sold apples, Craaaazy! In a corner past the apple table was a baby in a carriage, sound asleep with a bottle and a teddy bear clutched in his (her?) arms.
This crowd was so far out that when Milton Hunt, the distinguished North Beach boulevardier, entered wearing a serape and a black sombrero and escorting a girl dressed in a Vikki Duggan skirt (cut six inches below the hipline and supported by a thin net top and that's all!) no one turned a hair. It was that kind of a night.
Although it was a benefit for the Mime troupe in its fight against "the law's delay, the insolence of office" to which their handout refers in Shakespearean terms, there were thousands there who never heard of the Mime Troupe or at least never had been to one of their shows, as Ronnie Davis pointed out.
They were there for a multitude of reasons, and the reasons bear examination. Some were there because the Mime Troupe represents, along with Jerry Ets Hotkin, a battle for creativity in the arts. Others, and more I suspect, were there because the Mime Troupe's park use hassle dramatizes another aspect of the struggle of US against THEM.
Still others were there as part of the rock revolution. They don't need booze (as the swing era dancers did). All they need is the sound of the guitars. They get high on decibels alone. And they are hurting to dance.
San Francisco has been hell on dances for years. The police obviously regard mass proximity of the sexes to the sound of music as a hazard equal to a time bomb. But I suspect this attitude will have to be tempered. The actual demand for dances is going to increase. The whole rock revolution points to dancing, the music ineluctably moves one to move.
Another thing about the Friday night revel. There were no guards inside. There was an absence of uniforms and there was no trouble. It was the kind of crowd where over a dozen people stopped dancing, got down on their hands and knees to help a girl find a contact lens that had popped out during a particularly dramatic movement. They scrambled on the dance floor for a few minutes and found it. She cleaned it in her mouth, popped it back in and the dancing continued.
Don't knock the rock, as the British used to say.
(by Ralph Gleason, from the "On the Town" column, SF Chronicle, December 13, 1965)
http://www.goodbear.com/concert_art/12_10_65.html
http://rockarchaeology101.blogspot.com/2010/03/1805-geary-blvd-san-francisco-fillmore.html
The benefit for the San Francisco Mime Troupe Friday night at the Fillmore Auditorium (it was billed as "Appeal II, For Continued Artistic Freedom in the Arts") was a roaring success. Over 3500 people paid $1.50 apiece to be there.
But it was a great deal more than a benefit. It was substantiation of the suspicion that the need to dance on the part of a great number of residents of this area is so great it simply must be permitted.
The Friday night affair was basically a rock 'n roll dance such as the ones the Family Dog put on at the Longshore Hall.
If this city was run for the citizens, such affairs would be commonplace and conducted, say, once a month at the Civic Auditorium where there used to be numerous dances during the swing era.
At 9:30 there was a double line a block long outside the Fillmore Auditorium. At 1 a.m. it was still there, the individuals were new but the packed house still existed.
Inside a most remarkable assemblage of humanity was leaping, jumping, dancing, frigging, fragging and frugging on the dance floor to the music of the half dozen rock bands – the Mystery Trend, the Great Society, the Jefferson Airplane, the VIP's, the Gentlemen's Band, the Warlocks and others. The costumes were freeform Goodwill-cum-Sherwood Forest. Slim young ladies with their faces painted a la Harper's Bazaar in cats-and-dogs lines, granny dresses topped with huge feathers, white levis with decals of mystic design; bell-bottoms split up the side! The combinations were seemingly limitless.
At each end of the huge hall was a three foot high sign saying LOVE. Over the bar was another saying "No Booze," while the volunteer bartenders served soft drinks. Alongside the regular bar was a series of tables selling apples! The only dance (outside of Halloween) I've ever been at where they sold apples, Craaaazy! In a corner past the apple table was a baby in a carriage, sound asleep with a bottle and a teddy bear clutched in his (her?) arms.
This crowd was so far out that when Milton Hunt, the distinguished North Beach boulevardier, entered wearing a serape and a black sombrero and escorting a girl dressed in a Vikki Duggan skirt (cut six inches below the hipline and supported by a thin net top and that's all!) no one turned a hair. It was that kind of a night.
Although it was a benefit for the Mime troupe in its fight against "the law's delay, the insolence of office" to which their handout refers in Shakespearean terms, there were thousands there who never heard of the Mime Troupe or at least never had been to one of their shows, as Ronnie Davis pointed out.
They were there for a multitude of reasons, and the reasons bear examination. Some were there because the Mime Troupe represents, along with Jerry Ets Hotkin, a battle for creativity in the arts. Others, and more I suspect, were there because the Mime Troupe's park use hassle dramatizes another aspect of the struggle of US against THEM.
Still others were there as part of the rock revolution. They don't need booze (as the swing era dancers did). All they need is the sound of the guitars. They get high on decibels alone. And they are hurting to dance.
San Francisco has been hell on dances for years. The police obviously regard mass proximity of the sexes to the sound of music as a hazard equal to a time bomb. But I suspect this attitude will have to be tempered. The actual demand for dances is going to increase. The whole rock revolution points to dancing, the music ineluctably moves one to move.
Another thing about the Friday night revel. There were no guards inside. There was an absence of uniforms and there was no trouble. It was the kind of crowd where over a dozen people stopped dancing, got down on their hands and knees to help a girl find a contact lens that had popped out during a particularly dramatic movement. They scrambled on the dance floor for a few minutes and found it. She cleaned it in her mouth, popped it back in and the dancing continued.
Don't knock the rock, as the British used to say.
(by Ralph Gleason, from the "On the Town" column, SF Chronicle, December 13, 1965)
http://www.goodbear.com/concert_art/12_10_65.html
http://rockarchaeology101.blogspot.com/2010/03/1805-geary-blvd-san-francisco-fillmore.html
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