October 31, 1966: California Hall, SF

THE ACID TEST THAT NEVER WAS

"Sell the sizzle, not the steak," Elmer "Fat Boy" Wheeler's deep religious principle, is acutely tuned to the basic elements in American life.
For a week now, Ken Kesey, the Robin Hood of LSD, has been selling the sizzle of a Halloween "Graduation" party, from which the acid heads were supposed to move on to new plateaus. As a salesman and space grabber, Kesey ranks with Dexter Fellows, P.T. Barnum's flack.
But somewhere along the line, something went wrong. Over the weekend numerous people who were involved in Kesey's project as lieutenants or other functionaries, had second thoughts. Kesey's in-group is called The Merry Pranksters.
More and more people remembered that the Pranksters' motto is "Never Trust a Prankster." And in the event, they didn't trust Ken Kesey.
That's what happened. When the lieutenants voted "No confidence" Kesey was way out there in the blue, riding on a smile like Willy Loman, with no one smiling back.
Once the support faded - and great pressure was brought to bear to keep the support in line, with lawyers laying down their reputations like collateral - Kesey couldn't get Winterland for his frolic and ended up in a warehouse with less than a couple of hundred people instead of the thousands he expected to pay $2.50 each to hear and to see him. The Robin Hood trip was in trouble.

Where the people went Monday night was California Hall, which was jammed all night long even though the six witches and Mimi Farina never did appear. Or maybe the witches did. It was hard to tell. They COULD have been there. It was quite an assembly. A theatrical costume house could have outfitted a regimental ball at Prince Charlie's court from the clothes at the dance.
The Quick and the Dead played for dancing. The Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Grateful Dead, that is, and they filled the hall with the wailing of guitars and the beat of the drums all night long. At midnight when Death was supposed to ride through the hall, a lanky, dark man with long stringy black hair and an opulent red brocade Louis XIV jacket climbed into a rickety old wheelchair and was pushed through the crowd by another man wearing a huge pumpkin for a headdress. Girls screamed in mock terror. A small boy cried fretfully in the lounge, but he'd been frightened by a reveler in a bear's costume, not by Death.
It was somewhat anti-climactic when Death left the wheelchair to do his Dance. He appeared to be out of his elements and could only prance around lamely. But the hall was filled with others who added new dimensions to free form dancing.
The girl in the net pants (just net, that's all) and the girl in the diaphanous gauze dress won the prizes for exotica. And the man with the split face, half coal black and half chalk white, impressed everyone.

The Quicksilver Messenger Service gave Death's wheelchair ride a wildly rhythmic accompaniment (the Bo Diddley riff at maximum volume) and the Grateful Dead did "Viola Lee Blues" and "The LSD Millionare" as though were playing for all time. [sic]
Earlier in the evening, numerous people had arrived at Winterland to find it closed (it was Winterland's withdrawal that cooled the Kesey plot) and had gone on to California Hall. During the evening, some cruised the alley where Kesey's party was in progress and returned to report little happening. At the end of the night the sign "Acid Test Graduation Tickets Not Honored Here" was still up alongside the box office and it symbolized what happened. A vote of "No confidence" had been registered and when they stop smiling back at you, even Elmer Wheeler's credo is useless. The only thing that can save you then, is the steak. The sizzle is not enough.

(by Ralph Gleason, from the "On The Town" column, SF Chronicle, November 2 1966)

Thanks to Corry at Lost Live Dead

October 1966: Owsley Stanley, LSD Millionaire

HOMEMADE DRUGS
STRANGE STORY OF BAY AREA'S LSD MILLIONAIRE

Los Angeles
He sped up to the bank of Sunset boulevard on a red motorcycle, screeched to a halt and hopped off.
Then he strode into the bank, clad in boots, black leather jacket, jeans and a white crash helmet. He wasn't the genteel client the bank was used to.
But he had important business.
It came cascading down in a pile of dirty, crumpled bills at the teller's counter. From under his helmet, out of his shirt pockets and finally from his boots he pulled the bills - mostly ones and $5 bills but occasionally a $10 bill - as he built a heaping pile of currency.

PANIC
"Would you change it into 100s?" he asked the startled teller.
He walked from the bank and remounted his motorcycle, but soon came rushing back in a panic.
In his pocket were 250 crisp new $100 bills.
By accident he had also pocketed a wad of the bank's money.
Bank officials were on the phone calling police when he returned it.
Augustus Owsley Stanley III wanted no contact with the law.
It would have meant questions on the source of Stanley's wealth.

MILLIONAIRE
In a year, it was to make Stanley a millionaire - at the age of 31. And it would call for not one criminal act.
For Stanley, known more often simply as Owsley, was the West Coast's major manufacturer and supplier of LSD.
It was lucrative business, but it supplied more than money.
Owsley was a big man among the growing army of "acid heads" and recognition was something he always had sought.
As a student at Washington and Lee High School in Arlington, Va. he got it by trading on the name of his grandfather, a former Kentucky governor.

APPLAUSE
On the West Coast though, he came into his own as "Mr. LSD." Any time he appeared at a public gathering of the acid set, he could count on a round of applause.
In the San Francisco area, where he was more widely known, it often would be a standing ovation.
Although he is known to thousands, even Owsley's close friends and associates do not know his complete name or his origins. But information has begun to trickle out.
On a new Capitol Records documentary LP entitled "LSD," his name, truncated to Owsley Stanley, appears on the record jacket as the sponsor of The Grateful Dead, a way-out rock 'n' roll group supplying the background music.
The dialogue involves him even more.

DIALOGUE
After the narrator comments on a chemist who made $1 million on LSD, users recorded at an acid party are heard talking about their supplier. The dialogue goes like this.
"Owsley makes great acid."
Muffled inaudible reply. "Owsley really knows how to make acid."
Another inaudible reply. "So that - so that all the impurities are taken out."
"Owsley really has dynamite. Righteous acid."
Police have complete dossiers on Owsley and his operations have been detailed before both a California legislative committee and a committee of the United States Senate, but in both cases his identity was not revealed.

LEGAL
The testimony, and Stanley's operations, took place before passage of Federal and State laws outlawing traffic in LSD. His actions were not illegal.
What kind of a man is he?
By reputation, he is a drifter, a dapper ladies' man and a professional student.
One of his two ex-wives calls him "just a little boy afraid to grow up - a Peter Pan."
Stanley attended the University of Virginia, Los Angeles City College and the University of California at Berkeley, but at each institution barely squeezed in.
In June 1956 he entered the Air Force and served honorably at Edwards Air Force Base until his discharge a year and a half later. During his tour he developed electronics skills which later opened the door to a dozen broadcasting and engineering jobs.

JOBLESS
He held few of them more than two or three months. Most of the time he drew unemployment checks.
In 1963 he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and enrolled at Berkeley. He lasted one semester, then dropped out with bad grades.
But there he met a 21-year-old coed who became his girlfriend and later, police suspect, invaluable lab assistant.
Stanley in all his academic meanderings never took a course in chemistry.
His girlfriend Melissa, however, had majored in chemistry and apparently had the skill to master the complicated process involved in the manufacture of LSD.
The two of them dropped out of the university and rented quarters behind a vacant store in Berkeley, where Stanley set up a makeshift lab in the bathroom.
Soon information that Methedrine was being sold to teenagers at the store reached police and they got a warrant and raided it on February 27, 1965.
But the raid was premature. Nine bottles of a drug assumed to be illegal Methedrine which was confiscated along with the lab equipment later proved to be one step shy of the completed product. The charges were dropped.
Stanley then obtained a court order and forced the State to return his laboratory equipment, and he and Melissa left town.

TRIP
By April they showed up at his family home in Alexandria but it was a wasted trip.
"He was only four miles away but we spoke over the phone," his father, a well-placed government official, recalled. "He got mad at me, tried to tell me booze is worse than drugs.
"I told him to wash his hands and come back and talk to me about it. I wouldn't see him."
It apparently was one of a series of blowups between Stanley, who left home at the age of 18, and his father, who said [his son is] emotionally unbalanced but has a brilliant mind.

LA
Stanley left and landed in Los Angeles. The same month he made his first buy of lysergic acid from Cyclo Chemical Corp. Lysergic acid is the basic ingredient of LSD.
Before he was through he had bought 500 grams from Cyclo Chemical Corp and about [X00] grams from International Chemical and Nuclear Corp.
The purchases were not illegal but Stanley was required to sign affidavits that it was for research.
Later [the] president of International Chemical became suspicious and cut Stanley off. But Stanley apparently already had a sufficient supply.
"We didn't cut him off," said Dr. Herman Plant, president at Cyclo. "We filled one order for 500 grams and he never placed another."

INVOICES
Invoices for the purchases, made out to Bear Research Group, were submitted to a Senate committee before which Captain Alfred W. Trembly, Los Angeles Police Department Narcotics [testified in] May.
[illegible paragraph]
...did not [name] Stanley but said he knew that in March, April and May 1965 he had manufactured and wholesaled LSD from a laboratory at his home at 2205 Lafler Road overlooking the campus of California State College at Los Angeles.
Trembly said Stanley paid $20,000 in new $100 bills for the 500 grams of lysergic acid he brought from Cyclo Chemical.

ORDERS
[illegible paragraph]
...order from Portland, Ore. [which was] found in Stanley's trashcan.
Addressed to Owsley, it asked for a shipment of [X] LSD capsules and included a [hello] to Melissa.
With the lysergic acid he bought, Stanley had the potential to manufacture at least [15] million and perhaps many more doses of LSD, which was selling on the streets at around $5 a dose.
Some of Stanley's acquaintances say he turned out ten million [black] aspirin-sized tablets which later became his trademark.

BATMAN
Some were imprinted with symbols, in one case the [image] of Batman, signifying the strength of the tablet.
Eventually he moved back to the Bay Area, which became the center of the LSD craze.
For a while he took a rock 'n' roll group under his wing and allowed them to practice at his cottage behind a dilipidated apartment house on Berkeley way in Berkeley.
But the neighbors complained and he stopped.
In May, Federal laws became effective and Stanley dropped from sight. Police say they don't know where he is and wonder if he is still in business.
One officer said he doubted it. "With all that money, why should he take the chance?"

(by George Reasons, from the San Francisco Chronicle, October 5 1966)

Thanks to Corry at Lost Live Dead

* * *

(The following article, from 1968, draws heavily on the Chronicle article above, and adds some updates.) 

MILLIONAIRE HELD FOR LSD

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. - Millionare Augustus Owsley Stanley III, revered among hippies as the "King of Acid," finally has run into big, big trouble with the federal narcotics boys.
After a year-long investigations, agents raided a two-story home in suburban Orinda, picked up Stanley, his girl friend, and three others.
They said they found a sophisticated chemical laboratory and enough LSD to make more than 200 pills - which at $5 a copy would mean an easy $10 million.

PRISON?
Now they are trying to get an indictment for illegal manufacture of controlled drugs, which could mean some years behind bars for Stanley, if he is convicted.
This would be a sharp turn of fate for the 22-year-old  grandson and namesake of a distinguished U.S. senator from Kentucky. Up to now he has been able to get away from his few brushes with the law with only a reprimand, or at the most a fine and suspended sentence.
And usually he has been able to stay entirely out of the hands of the law.

MYSTERY
Even among his most ardent admirers in Hippie Heaven, the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, he's a mystery man. Few of his associates know his full name, or his strange history. He has tried to guard his identity.
His story has been told in detail to a committee of the California Legislature and to a committee of the U.S. Senate. In each case his identity was not revealed. The story helped prod both committees into recommending passage of a law making LSD (called "acid") illegal.
Before that came about, in April, 1966, Stanley turned out millions of his blue, aspirin-sized tablets, some imprinted with symbols like Batman, to indicate their strength.

"MR. LSD"
In one documented purchase alone, Stanley bought 500 grams of lysergic acid, the basic stuff of the LSD pill, from a chemical company for $20,000 paid for in $100 bills. That's enough acid to make 1,500,000 doses, which sell on the street for about $5 a dose.
On the west coast, Stanley became known as "Mr. LSD." Whenever he showed up at a gathering of acid heads, he would be sure to get a round of applause.
He sponsored a way-out rock 'n' roll group, the Grateful Dead, which later had a run-in with the law over narcotics. That group supplied the background music for a Capitol Records documentary long-playing record entitled "LSD."

COMMENTS
In the record, a narrator comments on a chemist who made a million on LSD. Users, recorded at an acid party, are heard commenting, like this --
"Owsley makes great acid...Owsley really knows how to make acid...so that...so that all the impurities are taken out...Owsley really has dynamite. Righteous..."
One day he drove up to a bank on Sunset Boulevard, the hippie district in Los Angeles, [and] dumped a pile of dirty, crumpled bills at a teller's counter -- mostly ones and fives and an occasional $10. He asked that it all be changed into bigger new bills.
While picking up his own $25,000, he also accidentally picked up a stack of the bank's own money, and he rushed back in a few minutes to return it, even as bank officials were on the phone calling police.
He wanted no contact with the law which would ask him questions about where he got his money.

"UNBALANCED"
Who is Stanley and where did he come from?
He's the son of a well-placed government official who lives in Alexandria, Va. He left home at 18 after a series of family blowups. His father described him as "brilliant, but emotionally unbalanced."
Stanley attended the University of Virginia, Los Angeles City College, and the University of California at Berkeley, but just barely squeezed by.
He married twice, but left both women, each with a child. He was picked up for writing $645 in bad checks and let off with a lecture. He was caught in a hotel room with a 14-year-old girl and given a 180-day suspended sentence and a $250 fine.
He served in the Air Force for a year and a half, [and] picked up some electronics skills, which later opened the way for a dozen broadcasting and engineering jobs, none of which lasted more than a couple of months.
He never earned more than $8,000 a month. Then he met Melissa Diane Cargill, 25, a chemistry major at Berkeley. She became what the columnists describe as his "constant companion." She also had the skills to master the complicated process of manufacturing LSD. Stanley had never taken a chemistry course.
Once police were tipped that Stanley was selling methedrine, known in the hippie set as "speed," to teen-agers.
They raided his lab, set up behind a vacant store in Berkeley, and confiscated nine bottles of drugs along with the lab equipment.
But a later analysis showed that the stuff was just one chemical step short of becoming methedrine and the charges were dropped. Stanley also got a court order forcing police to return his equipment.
He and Melissa dropped out of sight and police figured they had seen the last of them.

WHY?
"With all that money," one policeman commented, "why should he take a chance now that LSD's illegal?"
Then, just before Christmas, federal agents raided the Orinda lab. They found Stanley and Melissa there along with William A. Spires, 24, Robert D. Thomas, 29, and Rona Glisson, 26.
All appeared before U.S. Commissioner Harold W. Jewett in Oakland, each was released on $5,000 bail last Thursday. Jewett set their preliminary hearing for Feb. 2, but federal officials said they expect to come up with an indictment before then.

(by Bob Rose, from the Des Moines Tribune, 15 January 1968)

Thanks to Dave Davis.

See also: http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2018/02/december-21-1967-owsley-bust.html 

July 1964: Mother McCree's Interview

PETE WANGER: Now a while back after these guys were on, my partner Wayne Ott went downstairs in the bottom of the Tangent and got a good interview with these guys, so if you want to know what makes a group that sounds this crazy, if you want to know what makes this kind of a group tick, listen in now with an interview with the jugband by Wayne Ott.
OTT: OK, we're downstairs at the Tangent, and we're going to talk to one of the groups which performed tonight and is on the tape; this is Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, and you are -
GARCIA: Jerry Garcia.
OTT: Why don't you tell us something about the origin of the group, where are the individual people from?
GARCIA: Well, you mean recently, or originally?
OTT: Well, both, if you can cover it.
GARCIA: Well, I'd rather let everybody speak for themselves. I'm originally from San Francisco and recently from Palo Alto. I live in the area and I'm a music teacher.
OTT: Are you more or less the originator or the organizer?
GARCIA: More or less, yeah.
OTT: Well who's next on the list?
GARCIA: Uh...well...go ahead.
WEIR: Who's next on the list.
GARCIA: Go ahead, you are.
WEIR: About everybody's next - oh, well, yeah. My name's Bob Weir, and I was originally from San Francisco and now live in Atherton, and...I have nothing to say. (laughs)
OTT: OK, what are you doing -
WEIR: You won't get anything from me but my name! Oh, what am I doing in the band.
OTT: Yeah, what do you do, what's your function?
WEIR: Well, I play a whole mess of instruments - guitar, washtub bass, jug, kazoo. I sing, I dance -
GARCIA: You tell funny stories.
WEIR: - tell funny stories. Play the [foot thresher] every once in a while and things like that...
OTT: OK, why don't we pass it on?
STONE: This is Tom Stone. I was originally born in Boston, and then my father being an engineer, have mopped around the world until I finally ended up here in Palo Alto, and was playing, and then was somehow drafted into the jug band as banjo player and occasional mandolin player and second guitar player.
PARKER: Great. My name is Dave Parker, I live here in Palo Alto, I joined the jug band about 5 or 6 months ago. I play the washboard and double, as just about everybody in the band does, on a couple other instruments - kazoos and assorted rhythm instruments.
OTT: Very good. That's a pretty fair cross-section, I think, wasn't it?
GARCIA: There are two missing, they also have equally peculiar functions; one of them is Ron Pigpen McKernan. He plays harmonica and sings blues quite well, I might add.
OTT: The total is six, right?
GARCIA: Six, right, and then there's another fellow whose function we haven't quite established but sometimes plays bass and sometimes plays second guitar and kazoo and just a general assortment of things; his name is Mike Garbett.
OTT: Very good. One question I think which many people have is, where is music like this chosen? What gives you the ideas for these selections, where do they come from?
GARCIA: I think there are about four major categories of music that we actually play, and we boil it down under the name of jugband music. Actual jugband music is a sort of early blues-band music that was recorded during the '20s and '30s, not sophisticated music; it might feature guitar and harmonica played blues-style, kazoo, possibly a five-string banjo, possibly a jug, which acts as a tuba does in an old-time dixieland band. That is one of our major areas of material, one of our sources. Another is early dixieland, you know, New Orleans jazz. We get some 1920s, 1930s popular music, and a lot of - not a lot of, but a certain amount of more recent blues, from within the last 10 or 15 years, that includes some very recent, within the last 3 or 4 years, rhythm & blues songs. So we have quite a large area, and it makes it more fun for us, and certainly more satisfying because it doesn't restrict us to one particular idea or one particular style, and the result I think is pretty interesting, and it's a great - just a gas, I'd say. Anybody want to add to that?
OTT: I think it's very interesting for the audience too. One question then, to wrap things up - where does the future lead from here? What are you guys gonna do next?
GARCIA: I'm gonna go home and go to bed! No, it's hard to tell - I think we'll play the music probably as long as we're together, we all live in the same area. Like I say, it's fun, it's rewarding, it's great to get together. We don't expect to make a fortune at it, or ever be popular or famous or worshipped, or hit the Ed Sullivan show or anything like that, or the circuses or the big top or whatever. Anyway, we play at a few places in the area; I think that we may be restricted to that, just because it's impractical to travel too long a distance. But as long as we can play, we'll play, regardless of what it's for, who it's for, or anything. It's fun for us, that's the important thing.
OTT: OK, great, thanks an awful lot for being on the microphone tonight, and thank you also for allowing us to have the recordings. We appreciate them very much.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eJfdPThgD4
http://vidkid.com/McCree.html

1966-1967: Mojo Navigator R&R News Clips

In August 1966 a small San Francisco fanzine came out reporting on the local rock scene: the Mojo Navigator R&R News. Most of it was written by Dave Harris & Greg Shaw (with some later pieces written by Mike Daly & Gene Sculatti). It went through 14 issues - 12 in 1966, one in April '67, one in August '67 - before burning out.

The issues were mostly downloadable here:
http://www.rockmine.com/Archive/Library/Mojo.html
(However, many issues are incomplete, or have pages out of order.)

You can also find a general index here:
http://www.lysergia.com/LamaWorkshop/lamaZinesBody.htm (with some scans of issue 13)
and here:
http://www.beatbooks.com/shop/beatbooks/31164.html

It's an excellent source for the Bay Area rock scene, with many mentions of the Dead and other local (and not-so-local) bands, along with interviews of a few groups. (Mojo would always avidly ask them what the music scenes in other cities were like.)
I've already posted the big Dead interview from issues 4 & 5. Here I've transcribed all the other Dead references, along with some other tidbits of interest, enough to give a flavor of the zine. (The "News, Gossip & Rumors" columns and show listings are much longer than what I quote; I generally just selected news about the big SF names, and whatever grabbed my eye.) I thought it would also be useful to make a detailed list of contents.
Someone should really transcribe all the issues at some point; there's no substitute for reading the full original issues to immerse yourself in the SF rock world of 1966-67.





ISSUE #1 – 8/8/66:

Our plans for the future are to keep a regular weekly schedule and feature reviews of new records that appear, interesting events that happen, and articles we feel will be of interest to rock & roll fans. We will also have a series of ‘special reports’ in which we will in the next few issues have in-depth studies of some of the local r&r groups, or maybe interviews with them. We will also try to keep you posted on everything of interest that is happening in the Bay Area.

CONTENTS:
a page-long article on the Wolf Man’s radio show -
various news & gossip about rock bands -
review of Grass Roots show (“well worth hearing”) -
record reviews – Peter Paul & Mary (“disappointing”), the Byrds’ 5D (“the best album the Byrds have produced”), Yardbirds (“good, but to me disappointing in that both their previous albums were far better”), & Travis Wammack singles; and a complaint that more singles aren’t included on LPs.

SMOKE-FILLED RUMORS: [a representative sample]
Howlin’ Wolf is coming to the Avalon in 2 weeks – Jefferson Airplane will have an album out August 15 on RCA – Country Joe and the Fish have released an E.P. which is available from them at P.O. box 2233 in Berkeley for $1 – The San Francisco Calliope Company is developing into an interesting promotional group which may soon rival the original Family Dog. Right now they are doing mostly out-of-town dances – their next dances will be in San Jose and Seattle this month. The Calliope Co. are providing lights, atmosphere, and S.F. groups. – Bob Dylan was involved in a motorcycle accident in upstate New York last weekend – his press people are not commenting beyond saying he will be out of action for awhile. – Big Brother and the Holding Company have not signed a recording contract with Mercury Records or anyone else as of yet – although they have had offers from many companies they are in the tentative stage. – The Great Society has lost its rhythm guitarist David Miner – most of the singing that he formerly did is done by the bass player now – Darby Slick also sings on one song. – The Charlatans may soon record with Kapp Records – apparently they no longer have any connection with Kama Sutra. – One of the best new groups in the bay area are The Only Alternative and All Its Possibilities – they play at Prince Charley’s Inn in Tiburon – contact them there. – It’s rumored that Dino Valente is out of jail – if so someone should put him on stage because several groups have done things by him which turn out to be their best songs – his Hey, Joe put the Leaves on the map, Dino’s Song (All I Ever Wanted To Do Was Love You) is a standby for Quicksilver, and the We Five’s best record was his Let’s Get Together – someone should record him. – The Beau Brummels new album is out on Warner Brothers, called ’66, it looks like total schlock.

Happening this week: At Fillmore…Jefferson Airplane with the Grateful Dead this weekend… At Avalon, Bo Diddley with Big Brother & the Holding Company.

* * *

ISSUE #2 – 8/16/66:

CONTENTS:
a report on plans for the Straight Theatre (not yet open) -
News & Gossip (“The San Francisco Calliope Company’s San Jose dance has been temporarily postponed because they cannot get the use of Civic Auditorium; there’s some kind of law against long-haired people there… The lead guitar and bass player of the Great Society are studying under Ali Akbar Khan… Hit Parader magazine is an interesting publication because it serves to inform people on the West Coast about the very lively rock scene in and around New York… One of the worst publications to read if one wants to dig New York happenings is Sing Out! Magazine, which consistently has mis-information and argumentative propaganda (musical) in its so-called news columns…”) -
report on local DJs (“mostly unthrilling... The soul DJs are something else totally. Sly Stone has a good knowledge both of the straight soul records and of rock - he's also an excellent musician (not above stealing one song from the Stones)... Tom Saunders deserves a special mention, for it is he who more than anyone else has made the radio scene worthwhile. Some of his shows, especially the Sunday night ones, have been classic and he really knows what's happening.”) -
an editorial on problems with the SF rock scene.

EDITORIAL:
The rock scene in San Francisco is now suffering from a financial, musical, and social hardening of the arteries which could conceivably kill it off despite a fantastic level of ability among the bands and a large and responsive audience.
Just about everyone involved in the scene is in a band. The musicians are burdened down with expensive equipment payments, plus the normal human costs of living. Some promoters seem to want to do different things, but they lack either the intelligence to formulate shows which are unique and lucrative or the guts to take a loss on a good show. For example, why hasn’t someone brought back the Rising Sons from L.A.? Their appearance here in May was the most interesting dance to happen since the early Mime Troupe parties. Instead of hearing them again we get repeat appearances every three weeks by Love, in my opinion an excellent, but imitative and limited group.
Finally, some journalists seem to care, but even they get hung up on talking about the same things every day – Ralph Gleason has written at least ten different columns on somewhat different things about the Jefferson Airplane, yet he has never to my knowledge specifically mentioned Big Brother and the Holding Co. in one of his pieces although they land in the Ad Libs quite regularly. Which group is saying more, Big Brother or the Airplane? …Perhaps Gleason won’t write about anything which the mass audience could not relate to in even the most basic way. How does the mass audience start relating to something? They read about it in Gleason’s column.
…A good review of Big Brother a few months ago might perhaps have prevented their recent changes in repertoire and instrumentation, most of which were not for the better…
The only answer will be promotional groups who are willing to present good and different bands in San Francisco – and take a loss if necessary. It was this sort of courage that produced the original Family Dog dances and the Mime Troupe parties; in other words, produced the whole basis for today’s less interesting, in fact rather bloated scene. (I suspect that the musicians are getting much less than their rightful share in the fat of this bloated scene.)
(D. Harris)

HAPPENING THIS WEEK:
…At Fillmore Fri. and Sat. the Young Rascals with the Quicksilver Messenger Service. At Avalon the Grateful Dead with the Sopwith Camel, and Howlin’ Wolf still scheduled for the week after.
Not to be missed this week is the Mod Hatter’s soiree at Fillmore Wednesday the 17th, from 8:30 till 1. Music will be provided by The Only Alternative and His Other Possibility, one of the best new groups around, the Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, and Mimi Farina (and don’t be surprised if Joan Baez shows up). The other part of the event will be a fashion show utilizing light and sound collages, presented by the Calliope Co., which means it will be good…

* * *

ISSUE #3 – 8/23/66:

CONTENTS:
a report on a new newspaper, the Oracle (to appear next week) -
Rumors, News & Gossip (“The Jefferson Airplane is currently playing in a club in Chicago. – Big Brother and the Holding Co. are leaving for the same city today, with the Quicksilver to follow in two weeks. – The Jefferson Airplane’s album is selling very well in the Bay Area. – The Beatles are being given a hard time in the east and south – a large group of people in Memphis tried to drive them out of town.”) -
review of the Mod Hatter fashion show (the Only Alternative are “developing a truly individual style, though it is the lead guitarist who carries the group…they need a good singer. Mimi Farina, for instance. When she sang with them, it sounded to me like what Richard and Mimi might have sounded like by now if he hadn’t died.”);
recommended event of the week (“the second rock & roll party at 1090 Page… The basement of 1090 is a groovy place for a party; admission is 50 cents (musicians free) and well worth it… We are trying to ‘push’ Freedom Highway because it is one of the finest of the new groups…”) -
editorial complaining that Bill Graham presents too many schlock top-40 bands at the Fillmore to “attract the teeny-boppers,” including the "atrocity" Paul Revere & the Raiders -
review of the rare alternate edition of Dylan’s Freewheelin’ (“If you wish to dub a copy of this tape, bring your recorder and a dollar to our editorial offices.”) -
an ad for ID Magazine’s Bay Area Band Book -
record reviews – Jim & Jean’s Changes, Dylan’s Just Like Tom Thumb B-side (“truly fantastic”), and Jefferson Airplane Takes Off (“This LP was recorded about six months ago…since then they have improved immensely;” notes that they play much better live, and complains about A&R interference in the recording).

HAPPENING THIS WEEK:
Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band with the Charlatans at Avalon – the 13th Floor Elevator with the Sopwith Camel and the Great Society at Fillmore – the Wildflower at the Matrix – the Yardbirds in a shlock performance with the Harbinger Complex, Peter Wheat & the Breadmen, and Just VI at the Carousel Ballroom…
COMING UP: the 13th Floor Elevator next week at Avalon and Howlin’ Wolf the week after. Fillmore will be presenting Paul Revere & the Raiders, Martha & the Vandellas, the Yardbirds, Paul Butterfield…and Muddy Waters still rumored to be appearing with Butterfield, though it’s hard to believe.

Classified Ad:
The Grateful Dead are looking for a place to live where they can practice without bugging anyone; some secluded spot, preferably in Marin.

The Grateful Dead are coming in an exclusive interview! In the next issue of the Mojo Navigator R&R News. Don’t Miss It!

* * *

ISSUE #4 – 8/30/66:

CONTENTS:
Grateful Dead interview (most of the issue) -
editorial praising new Country Joe EP (“sensational…a revelation…the best record issued by anyone this year”) -
another editorial on Bill Graham presenting too many bad bands at the Fillmore (“Graham has been the single most important innovator in the SF rock scene, and the most courageous if not quite the most creative promoter around. The Mime Troupe parties which were the epitome of the SF dance happenings; Lenny Bruce; the Beard; the recent 10-hour Day Camp benefit for which he was generous enough to donate the use of the Fillmore. This month, with the projected appearances of the Yardbirds, Butterfield, and Muddy Waters, he will have the corner on interesting shows. Our point was not that Graham does not present interesting shows, but that he sees fit to intersperse them with rotten shows… I object to mere entertainment being presented at the Fillmore.”) -
another notice boosting the rock & roll parties at 1090 Page with the Freedom Highway (“extremely enjoyable…the newest and most interesting thing happening musically in San Francisco”) -
News, Rumor, Gossip (“The 13th Floor Elevator failed to show at the Fillmore last Saturday night due to contractual obligations with the Avalon – Quicksilver Messenger Service filled in… The Charlatans will soon release a single on Kapp – currently there is some hangup delaying it…”) -
record review – Manfred Mann’s Pretty Flamingo (positive).

HAPPENING THIS WEEK: at Fillmore, Fri. and Sat. the Jefferson Airplane, the P.H. Phactor Jug Band, and Andrew Staples. Sunday is the Grateful Dead, the Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Country Joe and the Fish (don’t miss this one!) and, believe it or not, on Monday, Martha & the Vandellas, Johnny Talbot & the Tangs, and Sam Soul & the Medallions. Next week is the Mothers and the Oxford Circle…

* * *

ISSUE #5 – 9/7/66:

CONTENTS:
Grateful Dead interview continued -
an editorial scorning the Oracle’s “indo-rock” article (see below) -
News, Rumors, Gossip (“Bill Graham says Paul Revere & the Raiders will not be appearing at Fillmore and that he will not book any more rotten top-40 shows… The Jefferson Airplane has returned from Chicago; apparently they were well received and the scene there is pretty groovy; they played L.A. too…”) -
review of the Outfit’s show (“a good group…soon the Outfit should be one of the best and most commercial rock bands in the city”) -
another article praising the rock parties at 1090 Page. (“The Freedom Highway put on a performance the like of which is seldom seen anywhere in this city. They were in top form last Wednesday, and the tapes of them that we made are so good that we are seriously considering putting out a record… The Freedom Highway is playing rock harder and faster than any other group I know of right now.”)

EDITORIAL
The Oracle wrote an article on the SF rock & roll scene, which is quoted:
“The music played by groups such as the Grateful Dead, the Great Society, Big Brother & the Holding Company, and the like…is a rhythmic music played by people who are essentially musically illiterate… These bands for the most part don’t swing. They pound, they hammer, they chug along like freight trains. The beat is closer to German beer hall music than to jazz – cowboy music with a loud drummer.”
Mojo replies:
“And what does the unnamed writer of the article wish to see in local R&R bands? “The gentleness of Clifford Brown, the quick nuances of Bird, the exaltation of Coltrane.” In other words, this article constitutes an attack by a jazz buff on a music which he doesn’t understand, for anyone who has been listening to and understanding the music can feel those nuances, that gentleness, that exaltation in the music of “illiterates” like Darby Slick, Jerry Garcia, Jim Gurley, or for that matter in the music of anybody in the three groups that he specifically put down… Care to name anybody on the local jazz scene who plays better guitar than Jerry Garcia, anyone who sings better than Grace Slick, or perhaps someone who plays better drums than Bill Sommers or Jerry Slick? …One cannot write a criticism of a music which alienates one from the outset; it is absurd for someone who doesn’t seem to like rock ‘n’ roll to try to evaluate the merits of various bands.” (Dave Harris)

GOSSIP:
The Grateful Dead are now in the process of cutting a single, with an album projected to be out around the beginning of November.

HAPPENING:
At Avalon this week, the Great Society and the Quicksilver Messenger Service. At Fillmore, the Mothers and the Oxford Circle. Coming up is the Byrds next week, and then Butterfield, Muddy Waters, the Airplane.

* * *

ISSUE #6 – 9/18/66:

CONTENTS:
a review of ID Magazine’s San Francisco Band Book (a directory with photos of all the SF groups, in which “the bands designed their own material…an extremely useful magazine”) -
News, Rumors, Gossip (“The Velvet Underground has released a lousy single on Verve Records – Andy Warhol produced it, Nico sings (hah-hah) on it. It’s the musical equivalent of a painted Brillo box which sells for $400… The Great Society has broken up… The reason why the Jefferson Airplane’s album sounds so relatively poor as compared with their recent live performances is that RCA Victor remastered [it.]”) -
report on the New York radio scene -
review of the Both/And benefit show (see below) -
an ad for Berkeley’s new poetry magazine -
record reviews – Troggs’ Wild Thing (“the worst album I’ve heard”), Donovan’s Sunshine Superman (“holds one’s interest”), Lovin’ Spoonful’s What’s Up Tiger Lily (“a second-rate Spoonful LP…can’t really recommend”), and the Butterfield Band’s East-West (“The music is quite different here than it was at the Fillmore…Bloomfield seems much more restrained here” – he was better on the first album, though the rest of the band is better here – East-West “is a 13-minute mind-blower on which Bloomfield puts together what will probably become a classic R&B solo.”)

BOTH/AND BENEFIT AT THE FILLMORE
Last Sunday night’s benefit dance at the Fillmore Auditorium to raise money for the Both/And was a resounding success both in terms of the music performed and the audience turnout. Not since the Mime Troupe parties has any audience at the Fillmore reacted with such enthusiasm to the music, nor have the musicians played with such fire and brilliance. Perhaps because a benefit is less of a commercial venture, some bond is made between an audience which is essentially contributing to a cause, and a group of musicians who are contributing their talent to the same cause. At any rate, everything swung well.
The jazz which occupied the first five hours on the bill was excellent music and well-worth listening to, but the packed and hot atmosphere of the Fillmore was not the place in which to listen to it. Once the rock bands came on the audience, which up to that point had been desperate to dance, relaxed somewhat and made moving around the auditorium a bit easier.
The Wildflower sounded better than ever before; although I must admit they have never been my favorite group. It will be interesting to see them on the same bill with the Byrds. The Jefferson Airplane and the Great Society turned in the two best performances by either of those groups which I’ve witnessed in the last month or so.
The Grateful Dead, who were not billed, closed the show with a set played on other people’s equipment. The first few songs were a bit loose, but the Dead rounded into form with a good version of “Happy Home,” then did one of the best “Midnight Hour”s I’ve ever heard by them. Pigpen was in excellent voice, as was Bob Wier. With their own equipment, they might have put on a classic show; as such it was good.
In short the Both/And benefit was a complete gas. I wish that the same sort of thing could happen more often. For some reason Fillmore benefits are always a stone groove; regardless of whether they’re held on a Sunday or any other night of the week.
(Dave Harris)

HAPPENING THIS WEEK:
Fri & Sat, Sep. 16 & 17 –
Fillmore: the Byrds, the Wildflower…
Avalon: Grateful Dead, Oxford Circle.
Matrix: the Second Coming…
Pauley Ballroom: (Sat) Quicksilver Messenger Service, Loading Zone.

* * *

ISSUE #7 – 9/27/66:

CONTENTS:
short interview with Tommy Saunders (an SF DJ) -
News, Rumors, Gossip (“The Quicksilver Messenger Servive may soon record for Vanguard… Country Joe and the Fish’s E.P. has gone through two pressings and a total sale of 2,000 copies to date… Big Brother and the Holding Co. have signed with Mainstream Records…[and] may have a single out soon… Grace Slick of the Great Society may soon join the Jefferson Airplane…”) -
a review of the Unquenchable Thirst show (formerly known as the Grass Roots – “an excellent, solid dance beat…well worth going to see”) -
a strange letter to the editor & a reply -
a new Tolkien fan magazine, Entmoot, is available -
record review – Tom Rush’s Take a Little Walk With Me (recommended).

BIG BROTHER & THE HOLDING CO. HAVE RETURNED:
They “were in Chicago for the past few weeks playing a gig at Mother Blues. Apparently they were poorly received…” They played “last week at Avalon and “sounded better than they had at any time previously… The whole sound of the group has in fact undergone a radical change since the inception of the band last January, and in the long run this change has been for the better. As Jerry Garcia prophesized a few issues ago in our interview with the Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Co. have returned from Chicago with a tighter, more organized sound than they had before they left.”

HAPPENING THIS WEEK:
Friday Sept. 30 –
Avalon Ballroom: the 13th Floor Elevators, the Quicksilver Messenger Service.
Winterland: the Butterfield Blues Band, Muddy Waters, Jefferson Airplane
S.F. State College: 48-hour happening beginning at 3:00 P.M. which will include a dance in the Women’s Gym with the Grateful Dead, Mimi Farina, and the Only Alternative & His Other Possibility. $1 for students, $2 others.

Friday, Oct 7 –
Avalon Ballroom: Jim Kweskin
Fillmore Auditorium: Butterfield Blues Band, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane.

* * *

ISSUE #8 – 10/5/66:

CONTENTS:
Big Brother & the Holding Co. interview (most of the issue) -
Los Angeles News & Gossip (“The Doors, a former Whiskey house band and good local group, are recording a single and an album for Elektra… L.A. needs the Grateful Dead”) -
Local Gossip (“Darby Slick of the Great Society has left for Calcutta to study under Ali Akbar Khan along with Peter, bass player”) -
an ad for the October 6 rally in the Panhandle (“The date that the California law prohibiting the possession of L.S.D. comes into effect, the day of the fear-produced legislation against the expansion of consciousness…we will gather IN A LOVE-PAGEANT RALLY – to affirm our identity, community, and innocence from influence of the fear addiction of the general public as symbolized in this law… Bring Toys.”) -
record reviews – the Seeds’ Web of Sound (“a decided improvement over their first LP…this is a very good album”), Slim Harpo’s Baby Scratch My Back (“not as good as much of the material in the Excello catalogue [but] pretty good”).

BIG BROTHER
[The long Big Brother interview is mostly about their stay in Chicago, with horrifying descriptions of the Chicago scene – they talk about their reception in Chicago and mention a newspaper review they got.]
JANIS: They said we weren’t as ugly as the Grateful Dead but we were pretty ugly.
MOJO: Heh heh heh. Have they seen the Grateful Dead out there?
PETER: No, they’ve heard about them… As far as I know the Grateful Dead will be out there. We were trying to discourage them but… Pigpen was horrified.
MOJO: Oh really?
PETER: Yeah, he doesn’t want to go, I think.
JANIS: I don’t think anybody’s going to go.
PETER: No, they’re gonna go for sure, they’ve got the contracts.
JANIS: No shit? They’re gonna…?
MOJO: When we talked to them they were very… “Let’s go out to Chicago and spread our music around.”
JANIS: I don’t know. I can’t see…

[This is the kind of thing that would’ve dismayed the Dead - ]
PETER: The kids were supposed to dance, but the teenagers would not dance…they’d just sit there, and they wouldn’t cheer…or hoot or holler or anything, they just sat back and clapped.
JIM: Nobody gets stoned.
JANIS: They don’t get stoned. Nobody was having any fun, man, they were all just drunk.
JIM: It was like they were watching television or something…
PETER: No dances whatsoever.
JANIS: They don’t have any big dances at all.
PETER: …A couple of people said that they were going to put on a dance but nothing ever came of it.
JANIS: It’s really different than here.

[Back in the Dead interview, Mojo had asked Garcia what he thought about Jim Gurley – he’d first heard them at the Trips Festival and said he was “in no condition to comment” – now it’s Gurley’s turn.]
SAM: Ask Jim Gurley what he thinks of Jerry Garcia’s guitar playing.
(Great laughter from all.)
MOJO: Jim, what do you think of Jerry Garcia’s guitar playing? Or were you too bombed the first time to understand it?
JIM: Yeah, something like that…

[There’s a lot of talk about not getting paid for shows – “we’ve gotten burned more than any other band in San Francisco” – and problems with going through the union for money.]

MOJO: What are the bands around here that you find interesting?
PETER: Let’s start with you.
DAVID: Start with me? Let me think for a second. The Dead are real good. They’re really very good. The Quicksilver for certain reasons. It’s hard to explain like, they turn me on sometimes really heavy. Their songs are so nice.
MOJO: Sam, what bands do you like?
SAM: Same two.
JANIS: Oh, Sam.
MOJO: Sam, what’s your comment for the interview? Say something. You would really complete the interview by saying one thing that would stand out, like Pigpen’s comment.
SAM: What was Pigpen’s comment?
MOJO: ‘Fuck it.’ The only thing he said.
JANIS: He’s a good blues singer but he has terrible taste in wine.

HAPPENING THIS WEEK:
Friday, Oct. 7 –
Avalon Ballroom: Jim Kweskin Jug Band, Big Brother & the Holding Company, the Electric Train, 9 PM $2.50
Winterland: Butterfield Blues Band, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, 9 P.M. $3 in advance, $3.50 at door.
The Matrix: Lightning Hopkins

* * *

ISSUE #9 – 10/17/66:

[The scan of this issue is out of order, has missing pages, and page 5 is in the scan of issue #8.]

CONTENTS:
Jim Kweskin interview -
News & Gossip (“There’s a new version of Hey Joe out which is by far the best yet recorded. It’s by a cat named Tim Rose… Eric Clapton and the Powerhouse have split up – Eric and the bass player, Jack Bruce, who by the way is the best on his axe in England, have formed a group with the fantastic drummer Ginger Baker called “The Cream”. This should be one of the most interesting English bands very soon as all three of these cats are almost legendary on their respective instruments... Bob Dylan is not dead, hairless or decapitated. He will play the Festival of Roses in New York City with Joan Baez in the near future…”) -
more praise for the scene at 1090 Page and a new band, the Flying Circus -
record-collector’s article on Dootone R&B records of the ‘50s -
record review – Chuck Berry’s latest (“quite lacklustre…one of Berry’s least interesting albums”). [Chambers Brothers Live album review is missing.]

AN INTERVIEW WITH JIM KWESKIN –
MOJO: How do you feel about the San Francisco scene from what you’ve seen of it?
KWESKIN: I think it’s great, I think it’s fantastic, I think it’s developing, but it’s still got a ways to go. I think most of the music is right now not as exciting as I like music to be, but I think the whole scene is a fantastic scene.
MOJO: What bands have you heard so far?
KWESKIN: I’ve heard Jefferson Airplane, Blackburn & Snow, the Electric Train, Big Brother & the Holding Co., the Butterfield Blues Band, Muddy Waters, and Country Joe & the Fish.
MOJO: What are your individual impressions of some of the local ones?
KWESKIN: Well, I think that each one is into their own thing, and most of them have not completely developed to the point that pleases me… The one I enjoyed most was Muddy Waters… Most of these bands are still developing and don’t quite know what their own thing is yet…
MOJO: How does what’s going on around here compare to the way things are in Cambridge?
KWESKIN: Nothing like this anywhere in the country. I’ve been all over the country, and the closest thing to this is fancy discotheques in New York, and that isn’t even close.
MOJO: How do you feel playing a large dance?
KWESKIN: I dig it here. It’s a little hard for us to get into our more subtle things because people are so used to really loud music, and lots of distracting strobe lights and color shows, that it’s very hard for us to get into our things, you know to work with an audience. But nevertheless I still find that I have a good time on the stage.
MOJO: …Have you had a chance to hear the Grateful Dead yet?
KWESKIN: Why, do they do one of our songs?
MOJO: Yeah, “Viola Lee.”
KWESKIN: Oh they do, huh?
MOJO: Yeah. Wild version of that. If you get a chance to pick up on it…

THE SCENE:
There have been a lot of exciting things happening on the scene in the last couple of weeks. Paul Butterfield has been at Fillmore, and has finally gone. The last weekend there, with Big Mama Thornton (who brought down the house), the show ran over until about 3:00 AM, with the Butterfield & Airplane jamming. At Avalon, Big Brother has been playing just about every week and sounding better every time. The group is sounding tighter and cleaner, and they are adding new songs every time they play. The Jim Kweskin Jug Band was at Avalon and will be returning in a couple of weeks.
On the 6th of October there was a rally in the Golden Gate Park Panhandle with the Grateful Dead, Big Brother & the Holding Co., and the Wildflower, followed last Sunday by another Panhandle festival, the Artists Liberation Front’s Free Fair. Bands appearing were the Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Grateful Dead, Country Joe and the Fish. It was a fine affair on a warm afternoon and a good crowd of people was present. Free food was given out and large walls were put up and paint provided for people to express themselves artistically. The music came across fairly well, though the sound system was poor, and this weekend the Free Fair will continue at Hunters Point.
After the Fair, the Family Dog held its first anniversary dance at Avalon, with Big Brother & the Holding Company, sounding great, the Sir Douglas Quintet, sounding terrible, the Oxford Circle, the 13th Floor Elevators, and a couple of jam-groups. Jerry Garcia played one song with the Holding Company, which came off extremely well, then a group called “The New Peanut Butter Sandwich” composed of Pigpen and Garcia of the Grateful Dead, David Getz of the Holding Co., David of the Messenger Service, and the rhythm guitarist from Sir Douglas, later joined by Gary and John of the Messenger Service, and a Negro blues singer. They did a very long and boring pseudo-Butterfield blues instrumental.
The most interesting group musically was the 13th Floor Elevators. They are a really freaky group. They look strange, they sound strange, and they are all good musicians, doing all original material. The lead singer, whose voice is truly odd, also plays lead guitar pretty well. The drummer is excellent. They have one guy who does nothing but boop-boop-boop with a jug. The songs they do are new and different, though they tend to have a sameness because of the unchanging quality of the jug sound and the singer’s voice. They will have a new single out soon and an album.
There is a place called “The Barn” in Scotts Valley near Santa’s Village which has been putting on some weekly happenings lately with the New Delhi River Band and a couple of others. They have light shows too and the cost is $1.50… This week on the 22 and 23 of Oct. the S.F. Mime Troupe will be there. I think the place is actually a barn…
The Calliope Company, which helped to put on the Free Fair, will be putting on another dance on Halloween with the Dead, the Messenger Service, and others…

SEE:
http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2010/01/jerry-sitting-in-with-big-brother.html
http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-peanut-butter-sandwich-october-16.html

NEWS & GOSSIP:
The Grateful Dead are about to sign with Warner Brothers – currently the contracts are being worked out; plans are for the group to record in L.A. during November, with an album and a single following the sessions.
The Grateful Dead now have a fan club, send goodies to P.O. Box 31201, San Francisco, Calif. I’m sure all of you will be happy to learn that the Dead will soon market a fantastic new item: the Pigpen sweatshirt. Available on October 21 & 22 at the Fillmore Auditorium. Friends, buy one and love it.

EVENTS:
Avalon Ballroom: Oct 21 and 22, Country Joe and the Fish, the Daily Flash…
Fillmore Auditorium: …Fri. and Sat. Oct 21 and 22, the Grateful Dead, Lightning Hopkins, and the Loading Zone. Sunday, Oct 23, the Yardbirds and Country Joe and the Fish. $3. 2-7 PM.
The Matrix: The Only Alternative & His Other Possibility, Oct. 18 through Oct. 22, Jefferson Airplane, Oct. 23 through Oct. 27.

* * *

ISSUE #10 – 11/8/66

CONTENTS:
Mystery Trend interview, part one -
Bill Graham bans the Mojo staff from the Fillmore! -
an editorial on Graham (see below) -
Gossip (“There is a long article with photos in the current issue of San Francisco magazine all about Bill Graham and the Fillmore Auditorium – There will be an article in Newsweek which will attempt to cover the whole SF rock scene and present it to the general public in a favorable light.”) -
record-collector’s article on Little Richard’s ‘50s Specialty records -
New Fish E.P. Due Soon – an article about Country Joe recording their next EP & other activities -
record reviews – S&G’s Parsley Sage Rosemary & Thyme (“doesn’t come across as strong as ‘Sounds of Silence’ did”), Big Brother’s new single Blind Man/All Is Loneliness (“excellent”).

BILL GRAHAM:
On Friday, October 28, the editor of the Mojo Navigator…[was] banned from Fillmore Auditorium by Bill Graham. Graham took this action after terming the paper “a rag” and screaming for several minutes in a rather incoherent fashion, all the while insisting that “I’m not mad, you are beneath my anger.” When explictly asked by the editor…whether he would be allowed to enter the Fillmore Auditorium after purchasing a ticket in the future, Graham replied, “No, I won’t take your money.” [ … ]
There are certain people in this scene…who are here not because of any sincere interest in the music or the enjoyment of the beauty of the scene itself, but only for the opportunity to wheel and deal and play politics. Such a man is Bill Graham. If a band in an interview says something derogatory about some people they noticed in an audience at Fillmore once, Graham takes it as a personal affront and threatens not to hire the band again. If a newspaper gives one of his dances a bad review, he withdraws advertising from that paper for a few weeks. This kind of power-wielding is the spice of life for Bill Graham…
Because we do not fawn on him and wax rapturous about the scene at Fillmore every week, Bill Graham evidently feels it necessary to see us [as] a malignant force opposed to him, an enemy to be attacked, another power threatening to exercise its influence against him. So Graham has to start a childish feud, to satisfy his own psychological deficiencies. It is regrettable that we should have to become involved in a silly hassle like this, since we are not in the least interested in this kind of shit. There are too many good, positive ways of occupying our time… If you want to talk to the Mojo men at a dance you can come to the Avalon, and we suggest you do. You’ll have a better time anyway. (Greg Shaw)

EVENTS:
At Avalon Ballroom this weekend is the 13th Floor Elevators, with Moby Grape. I saw Moby Grape at the Ark last week and they are fantastic. The Ark, in Sausalito, has been holding all-night jam sessions lately, from 2-6 AM on Fridays and Saturdays. It’s a good place to go after Avalon. Admission is $2. Last week when I went Moby Grape, the Oxford Circle, and the Holding Company played in various combinations…
Sunday there will be a special benefit dance at Avalon with the Grateful Dead, the Quicksilver Messenger, and Big Brother & the Holding Company.

“Save the grass and fuck the people!” –Phil Leish
“Did you know that George Washington had wooden teeth?” –the Grateful Dead

(There's a picture of Garcia playing live on a Record Reviews page.)

* * *

ISSUE #11 – 11/22/66

CONTENTS:
Country Joe & the Fish interview -
Mystery Trend interview, part two -
letters to the Mojo about the Sunset Strip “riot” in LA & the oppressive police crackdown, and comparing LA to SF (“The music is far from weak in Los Angeles…[for instance,] the Peanut Butter Conspiracy…this band should be heard in the Bay Area. Somewhere in the area of the Jefferson Airplane yet entirely different... Another band, now doing a New York date and greatly improved, The Doors, are scheduled for an Elektra release.”) -
a mysterious open letter from Bill Graham to Chet Helms, offering to discuss their differences in public, & Helms’ opaque reply -
News; Events (notes the “rather dull radio scene… KFRC airs about three new things a week, KYA maybe four or five…the time is growing close for a new element to make itself felt on the local radio scene… The Oxford Circle’s single is out…it’s Foolish Woman/Mind Destruction. The latter is five minutes long – one of the all time longest 45 sides… The Sopwith Camel’s record “Hello Hello” on Kama Sutra is a stone smash after three days of KFRC airplay; the single is well-arranged and well-recorded and looks like the first national breakthrough for a local band… John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers (with Eric Clapton on lead) recorded an album for English Decca which shocked the music industry over there by bouncing into the top 10 albums… Mayall’s band has since broken up. American release of the L.P. is uncertain… Dylan may start his own record company soon to escape from the pressure which Columbia puts him under… Dylan’s TV special which was scheduled to be shown this month will not be shown at all – the network claims the tapes have rotted, or something like that… Boston’s Crawdaddy magazine is an excellent publication for Mojo freaks to subscribe to… New York’s Lothar and the Hand People are currently in S.F….”) -
record reviews – Dr. West’s Medicine Show jugband single (“amusing, but not particularly impressive”), the Remains (“a really interesting foray into a kind of total hard-rock sound”), the Blues Magoos’ Psychedelic Lollipop (“fairly decent”), the Blues Project’s Projections (“an advance over their last piece…essential”).
“It seems that record companies feel much more confident about taking a chance in releasing an L.P. of an unknown group if that group is from the East or L.A. rather than San Francisco; witness the release of only one L.P. from an S.F. based group... As in the case of the second Butterfield L.P., the band does not come across nearly so well here as they did in person; I think some of the A&R work and sound mixing is at fault… The work presented on these L.P.s is uneven when compared with the sounds which a local rock freak is used to hearing in person. Much of this must be blamed on the production of the records…[the groups] all probably come off better in person.”

LETTER FROM LOS ANGELES –
Talking with a record company scout: “The S.F. bands are overly impressive on first hearing. They are so pulled together and professional that you are bowled over at first. On repeated hearing, you realize that one tune sounds like the next and nothing of an individual nature is happening. You can’t record on togetherness.”
No comment on this, but maybe San Francisco’s contribution to the music scene might be the total scene, bands, light shows, posters, auditoriums, the way people look and most of all, the intelligence of the audience.

THE MYSTERY TREND ON BILL GRAHAM –
LARRY: It seems pretty obvious to me he started out with like a benefit for the Mime Troupe, and all of a sudden he saw like these thousands of people, man, and thousands of dollars…and he put two and two together and said, “Shit.” And then all of a sudden he went into some other area. And in his head, too, as far as dealing with anybody, whatever kind of love went into the original things went out real fast when he saw the dollar signs. That’s pretty obvious. And accordingly his relationship with us was based on that.
JOHN: The main thing I think he was always bugged about was the time factor. He always said, “Keep your sets short” and if we played a little longer he always got uptight…
MOJO: [One time] it was like 19 songs you guys played…and Graham was like tearing his hair out… A few times he’s tried to do that to other groups. I remember one time with the Grateful Dead…
LARRY: I remember the first dance at the Fillmore, the second Mime Troupe thing, we played with those guys, and it was really a weird thing, they’re so like different, just personality-wise, and like that.
MIKE: That was when they were the Warlocks. And also Sam Thomas was there, and the Great Society. The Gentlemen’s Band.
MOJO: Yeah. They used to get the people moving. They’d play like two hours at the beginning and people would be just jumping. The cats that sang with them would be like they just walked out of the audience and got on stage.
[This would be referring to the Gentlemen’s Band.]

FROM THE COUNTRY JOE INTERVIEW –
JOE: We haven’t started to do what I want to do yet, but it amazes me, the musicians, the hippy musicians that make rock ‘n’ roll music came out of their houses where they have Ravi Shankar records and Allen Ginsberg poems and articles by Timothy Leary and all kinds of other stuff that’s very thoughty, and they get up on the stage and perform teeny-bop songs and folk songs which they don’t have anything in common with really… We all used to be folkies, but we changed to rock because we found folk wasn’t our music… So the words and the music should be a total experience, and it should be a hippy experience… What we’re doing now is just like a hint of what I think should be done, and when the performer comes on the stage, the rock ‘n’ roll musician, the hippies gave the rock ‘n’ roll musicians the chance to be the gurus of their generation, and they’ve in a sense blown it… When you go on the stage you should take the audience with you on a trip, so to speak, and…you can teach them something, you can educate them, more than entertain them. Eventually it should be a total experience in light, sound, movement, everything, from the time you get on the stage to the time that you get off the stage should be a religious pageant…
BARRY: People come up to us all the time and they’re stoned on acid when they watch us play, right? So I figure that the rock ‘n’ roll bands are now the psychedelic guides, man.

[This quote isn’t really representative of the interview, which overall is quite fun & humorous.]

EVENTS
California Hall – Wed & Thurs, Big Brother
Matrix – through Thurs, James Cotton & the Wildflower
Avalon Ballroom – Quicksilver, Big Brother, Country Joe
Fillmore – Fri & Sat, Jefferson Airplane, James Cotton, Moby Grape
Sunday – nursery school benefit with Quicksilver & Country Joe

(There's a picture of Bob Weir playing live on a Record Review page.)

* * *

ISSUE #12 – 12/22/66

(The last page of this issue, with part of the News column, is missing.)

CONTENTS:
British Blues Scene – an article on early ‘60s English R&B bands (mostly Alexis Korner, the Stones & Yardbirds – this was meant to be Part One, but never completed) -
Country Joe interview, part two -
Mystery Trend interview, part three -
News (“The Beatles are not breaking up at this time. At just about the time you read this they are cutting their new single in London… The Beach Boys are happening in just about every respect. “Good Vibrations,” in my opinion one of the most brilliant records in recent years, has opened up a new spectrum for the group… England’s The Cream, with Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker, are touring the U.S. very soon… The Doors from L.A. are currently playing Ondine's in New York and doing very well there... Country Joe & the Fish have just signed with Vanguard. Their contract guarantees them two LPs a year, the first to appear this coming April. Sales of the Fish’s EP are booming. 3000 more are being pressed… The Holding Company recorded six songs in L.A. last week. Their next single, out in a few weeks, will be “Ball and Chain.”) -
short summary of the San Diego rock scene (what there is of it) -
record reviews – The Real Donovan (“‘Hey Gyp’ alone makes it worth it”), Hums of the Lovin’ Spoonful (“varied and interesting…the songwriting has improved immensely…the first really fully realized L.P. from the Spoonful”); the Stones’ Got Live If You Want It (“not particularly well done…really inferior”); the Charlatans’ single ("very good").

FROM THE COUNTRY JOE INTERVIEW –
MOJO: What’s your favorite group, David?
DAVID: My favorite group in the area is the Grateful Dead. They are really a tight group. They’re good musicians and they’re good people.
JOHN: But they’re not saying anything new. They’re a tight group and they’re really good musicians and they’re really groovy people and they’ve really got it down pat, and it all sounds good, but it’s been done before.
DAVID: So what? It doesn’t matter if it’s been done before.
ED: Of course not.
DAVID: It’s done in a new way. And that’s why I disagree with Joe about rock ‘n’ roll groups getting up and doing folk songs. Cause we do songs that other people have done. We do songs like “30 Days” and “My Gal”.
MOJO: Who do you think the best group is, Bruce? …
BRUCE: I think the best group or the group I’ve liked the best is the Dead. I think that instrumentally, they individually make it. Garcia plays really beautiful guitar, and I really like the bass player’s bass.
JOHN: The drummer’s a boss drummer, man.
BRUCE: Also they work very well from whatever structure they have, they’re very free. And you can tell it. And they communicate very easily and they pull you into whatever they’re doing. I think they should be doing other things. They do songs I’m surprised they do.
MOJO: Like which ones?
BRUCE: They rely mostly on folk music, and some of the songs are just a basis around which to play the instruments, you know, the words are meaningless. I’ve heard them stick two verses together which don’t rhyme; sort of half of one and half of the other. Cause you know it doesn’t really matter what you sing. Usually I have a terrible time judging when I go see a rock band what’s good and what’s bad. [ … ] I’ve enjoyed almost every band I’ve heard. So it’s almost irrelevant to say what’s better.
BARRY: I think the best group in the area doesn’t exist. I think there is no best and better. A lot of people in a lot of different bags. There’s some people that don’t make it but I can name any number of people from the Dead and the Airplane, etc., who do. I would say that most of the people who get hired in the Fillmore or the Avalon are pretty good. [ … ]
MOJO: Who’s your favorite group, Tom?
TOM: Well, loyalty would compel me… I know which side my bread is buttered on. I think Country Joe’s the best group. They’re doing the most exciting things. The Great Society used to do some very exciting things too, but they aren’t doing them any more. [ … ]
ED: I don’t think there’s a good group in the Bay Area… This group is the only group I’ve seen that’s got the potential to make any music. Most of the other bands, frankly, I don’t think they’ve got any musicians in them… I don’t think they know what music is… There are a lot of people who can play blues; they don’t play it that well; I’ve listened to a lot of these bands try to do that Chicago stuff and most of them are not as good as the records they’re copying. The Muddy Waters Blues Band, decrepit as it is, is still the best blues band playing in town. And if they can’t come up to Muddy Waters ten years after his thing is over, you know they’re just wasting their time.
[The rest of the group praises the Butterfield Band for “doing things that jazz solos weren’t doing five years ago;” Ed says local rock bands don’t turn him on.]
MOJO: Okay, how about Big Brother and the Holding Company, they’re not doing Chicago blues.
ED: No, they’re doing 1920’s blues. I mean, it’s another dead end. I like that guitarist…[Jim] Gurley – I like what he’s doing with the guitar… But, looking at the national scene as a whole, the best band instrumentally is the Blues Project. The best band as far as making songs is the Lovin’ Spoonful. [ … ]
MOJO: Joe, who’s your favorite band?
JOE: […] I don’t know, I like the Grateful Dead, the Quicksilver Messenger Service… I like the Daily Flash… We did a gig with them. I thought they were good. […] I listen to the Jefferson Airplane too, but they don’t give me what I want. My music gives me almost what I want, but not yet. Eventually I hope it will. So when you’re really into your own thing, you listen to other people’s stuff, and I get ideas from almost every band in the area.

MOJO SPEAKS OUT
According to all who attended, Bill Graham’s Thanksgiving-eve party at the Fillmore Auditorium was a big success. The Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Grateful Dead played; the admission was free by invitation and there was a lot of good food, also free. Regardless of past happenings on the so-called “scene,” I think that Graham deserves the thanks of all who attended and the compliments of those who didn’t for what must have been a pleasant affair.
(Dave Harris)

FROM THE MYSTERY TREND INTERVIEW:
MOJO: Around the time of the first few Mime Troup benefits all the bands with the exception of the Mystery Trend were playing at such a terrific volume that their sound was just a blur of notes…
RON: One of the things that wasn’t obvious at the time was that everybody was playing with a tremendous amount of indiscretion… I think a lot of bands even now have a lack of subtlety; no subtlety, no sensitivity, no lacework of parts.

NEWS –
Plans are underway for a travelling Family Dog-type road show, which will take San Francisco bands around the country and present them in an SF-dance-like environment with lights, etc. New, young bands are needed.
The Airplane will have another album out soon which should be very good. They are now doing many old Great Society songs. Jerry Garcia, incidentally, is technical advisor on that new Airplane album.

Why did Ken Kesey want 5000 people to sit down in chairs and listen to the Grateful Dead at the Acid Test Graduation?

* * *

ISSUE #13 – APRIL 1967

(Page scans on the Lama Workshop site.)

CONTENTS:
editorial on the rock scene (“The past year has seen an amazing growth in rock & roll, not only in popularity but in the quality of the music itself. Recording companies have drastically changed their policy regarding rock groups, and a band now can put just about anything they want on their records, no matter how far-out it may be. We are at the point now where virtually every group in existence, even those formed only within the past month or so, have recording contracts. In short, it’s become a field day for rock musicians, and the situation shows every sign of continued escalation in the coming year.” – also criticism of Crawdaddy magazine, Ralph Gleason & other rock reviewers) -
record-collector’s article on Phil Spector -
Blues Magoos interview -
article on the Lovin’ Spoonful’s participation in a drug bust -
Record News (mostly on the latest releases – “Country Joe and the Fish will release their first LP on Vanguard April 1… Big Brother and the Holding Co.’s new single on Mainstream “Call On Me”/”Down On Me” has been released and is doing pretty well… The Steve Miller Blues Band from Chicago have decided to remain in San Francisco. They’re an incredibly good band and a welcome addition to this city… Newsweek reports that in one month 57,000 Wes Wilson posters were sold. SF dance posters are being sold now all over the country, the usual price is $1 here, $2 outside SF. By now every house in the Bay Area that contains a kid age 12 or older also contains several poster reprints. By the time every kid in the country has as many of the hundred or more that are available as he wants, everyone connected with the poster scene will be a millionaire several times over. First editions of the posters and copies of posters that were never reprinted are bringing fabulous prices from fanatical collectors here. It’s really too much.”) -
a survey of local FM rock stations (KPFA is the best, KMPX a close second) -
notice of a new rock fanzine, the Electric Frog -
record reviews – the Doors (“the whole music world should soon be talking about them…perhaps the best group to come out of Los Angeles, and this album is certainly the finest yet by any West Coast group”), Youngbloods (“a very worthwhile first album from one of New York’s best groups”), Buffalo Springfield (“very high quality…reminiscent of Moby Grape”), the Byrds’ Younger Than Yesterday (“this is a modern symphony…an album you should not let slip by”), the Electric Prunes (“Dave Hassinger, former L.A. hero engineer, ought to be awarded a medal for making a fairly minor band sound good”), the Psychedelic Sounds of the13th Floor Elevators (“fairly unique, if not always appealing…not that interesting,” with the sound but not the talent or appeal of the Great Society & the Seeds), the Kinks’ Face To Face (“the Kinks’ Rubber Soul…a new Kinks music which is softer, infinitely more textured, and stylishly more sophisticated”), Tim Buckley (“unlistenable…Mr. Buckley can’t sing”), Love’s Da Capo (“a great advance over the first LP…a very fine musical achievement”), the Stones’ Between the Buttons (an advance on Aftermath; “everything here is brilliant, classic, worthwhile”), Bobby Darin’s If I Were A Carpenter (“pretty bland…at best tolerable”).

RECORD NEWS:
The most important recording event so far this year is the release of the Grateful Dead album on March 20. We will probably review it in depth next issue. – In case you weren’t aware, the Grateful Dead almost released a single last year on the Scorpio label, “Stealin’”/”Don’t Ease Me In”. This side is destined to be a really rare item, since the only copy that we knew of to date (the Dead hated the cuts and didn’t allow the record to be released) was in our possession. Not so. Eight more copies have turned up in a junk shop near Ukiah. Apparently a syndicate was formed for distribution up there, and after buying out the entire remaining stock of this extremely rare non-masterpiece at 10 cents a copy, the Ukiah locals have begun to jack up their friends for the exorbitant prices that this 45 can bring – the first few went for 2-3 dollars apiece.

DOORS REVIEW:
Their music has a tightness, a solidness, a totality of sound that is unequaled on the West Coast except perhaps by the Grateful Dead… “Light My Fire” features a five minute instrumental break, consisting of first and organ and then a guitar solo. The effect is similar to that achieved by the Grateful Dead in such songs as “Viola Lee” (the live performance of it), and is indicative of some of the trends toward use of jazz techniques in recent rock albums, best exemplified by the Blues Project’s Projections album and Butterfield’s East-West album. An extremely exciting song.
(Then the reviewer raves about The End, “an amazing song… a breakthrough in the development of rock music,” for a whole column.)

BLUES MAGOOS:
(The Blues Magoos mostly talk about the LA and NYC music scenes, and ask about San Francisco – they predict that the SF scene will be ruined once national magazines start writing it up.)
PEPPY: Too much of it is going to screw up the whole thing.
MIKE: It’s getting national attention out here, and that’s not what you want, really… As soon as you have a centerpage thing in Life, you’re through.
MOJO: No, I disagree, because there’s a real audience for this music, almost like a cult of thousands and thousands of people. The time is right for this thing to spread, to get nationwide attention. There’s no limit to how big this thing can get.
MIKE: It’s gonna be nationwide in 10 years, maybe five… You’d be surprised. You go into a town, and no matter how small it is, say 300 people, you’ll find a group of hippies.
RONNIE: You go across country, you run into a lot of weird people.
MIKE: Right here you have the topless thing, that’s the commercial branch-off of the LSD thing.
MOJO: Yeah, that’s really catching on here.
MIKE: Are there any groups out here that really psych-out electronically?
MOJO: Big Brother & the Holding Co. The Oxford Circle. The Sparrow.
MIKE: Do they have all kinds of gadgets, or what?
MOJO: No, nobody uses the gadgetry. They’re really fast out here, that’s the emphasis. The guitar players are fast.
MIKE: What about feedback?
MOJO: Yeah, they use it a little bit. It’s not so much feedback as the ‘fastest guitar in town’ bit.
MIKE: I noticed that. Everybody tries to outdo each other. I went to the Matrix the other night and there was a guitar player sweating because there were about five other guitarists watching. They all have one fast run and they do it about a million times a night. It shouldn’t be that way. It looks like a very friendly thing. On top it looks like “wow, they’re really digging each other.” But it’s not that at all. You can’t get away from the envy thing; everybody out here is good musically, they concentrate on it. But they concentrate on it not to better themselves but to be better than the next guy.
MOJO: Yeah, but there’s a terrific amount of friendly jamming that goes on.
MIKE: Are the bands around here just interested in making it locally or nationally?
MOJO: Many of them don’t particularly care about national.
MIKE: That’s what I thought. They just want to play. You see, it’s an entirely different thing in New York…[He talks about NY bands getting record contracts immediately.]
MOJO: Around here most of the groups are skeptical about how they’ll be treated by the record companies.
MIKE: A lot of the groups around here are writing great things. They should…
RONNIE: I don’t think they’re really good enough.
MIKE: The groups? They’re all concert groups.
RONNIE: That’s not where it’s at. A group has to be good enogh to listen. Otherwise they’re no good at all.
MIKE: I found most of the groups that we heard very listenable.
RONNIE: No, I’m talking about them listening to other people… The groups here just haven’t got what it takes. It takes an awful lot to make a national hit.
MIKE: Well, it’s all underground, cause the underground reaches New York, it reaches everywhere. It’s amazing, I heard about the Airplane and the Holding Co. a long time ago. A year ago.

(This issue has the full-page Egyptian-themed Grateful Dead ad.)

* * *

ISSUE # 14 – AUGUST 1967

(Cover of Hendrix playing in the Panhandle. Mislabeled #13 on the Rockmine site.)

CONTENTS:
Doors interview (Jim barely says anything – the rest of the band does the talking) -
worshipful all-caps article on Chuck Berry -
Monterey Pop Festival review (see below) -
article on The Powerhouse Guitar of Eric Clapton (“The guitar playing of Eric Clapton is currently the topic of much praise thanks to the long-awaited American release of Clapton’s two most recent recorded endeavors, John Mayall & the Blues Breakers and Fresh Cream. Clapton’s work has long been the object of a cult of both avid fans and imitators on both sides of the Atlantic, for although to my knowledge he has never appeared in this country, several records featuring his guitar playing have managed to sneak into release here… [He has] relatively the same spot in the United Kingdom which Mike Bloomfield holds here.”) -
record reviews – three SF albums (see below); West Coast Love-In (a “piece of trash”), the Left Banke’s Walk Away Renee (“powerful…the highest quality”), Gene Clark (“worthwhile”), the Blues Magoos’ Electric Comic Book (“less effective than their first LP…basically dull”), the Who’s Happy Jack (“excellent”), Kaleidoscope’s Side Trips (“pleasant, well-recorded, and somehow not deeply interesting”), the Mothers’ Absolutely Free (a long, ravingly positive review), the Mystery Trend’s single (“excellent”), Are You Experienced (another long, awestruck review; “superb…must be heard to be believed”).
[News, Gossip, Rumors section missing.]

RECORD REVIEW:
If there is one thing which links together the San Francisco groups it is not a specific or definable sound to which they all cling, but rather a common approach to music, a common style of digging and responding to music. There is only one generalization that can be made about the top San Francisco bands and that is that, regardless of any one group’s featured style (say the Dead’s special proclivity with blues, or Country Joe’s affinity for the koto music of Japan), they all listen to a wide variety of different kinds of music from all over the world, they all listen to each other, and they all try to constantly incorporate fresh ideas gathered from their listening into the music. I would say that the San Francisco bands have most effectively demonstrated that different styles of music can blend and co-exist with each other; it is this very quality of unity or tightness of performance within a compositional structure of duality which I think has been both the most misunderstood and in many ways the most valuable thing to emerge from the scene.
All three of the albums in question are works of art of high merit. They are the best three American albums to be released this year, without question. All three are also flawed in some small ways.

The Grateful Dead album sounds by and large as if it were an attempt to recapture the sound of the band in person. This is an admirable pursuit, since the Dead have perhaps the all time great band sound on their hot nights. However, it does not work completely in the recording studio. While the music on this record is of real quality, I think that the Dead’s next album, on which they will hopefully do more overdubbing and use more esoteric production techniques will be much better than this one.
The best things to my mind on this record are “Cream Puff War”, “Morning Dew”, “Cold Rain and Snow” and “Sittin’ on Top of the World”. On these particular tracks the whole ensemble sound of the band shines, especially the amazing rhythm section work of Phil Lesh and Bill Sommers and of course Jerry Garcia’s lead guitar. Some of the other tracks are less effective. On “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” Pigpen’s voice isn’t recorded properly at all – sounds too quiet and strained at the outset. “New, New Minglewood Blues” lacks an element of drive which it should gave, and in “Viola Lee Blues” the end of the instrumental jam should have been done a bit more cleanly. Other than that I have no complaints – even those minor criticisms are tifling compared to the real quality and high artistic level of the music on this record.

Country Joe and the Fish have issued an L.P. which presents to me almost precisely the same problems in reviewing as did the Dead album. Overall the music on this record is brilliant in conception and performance; a few tracks that particularly impressed me were “Death Sound”, “Porpoise Mouth”, “Flying High”, “The Masked Marauder” and “Grace”. I think that the Fish projected their musical identities onto this record very well – I think that working at Sierra Sound in Berkeley puts them in an advantageous position in the recording field since they’ve used this studio often in the past and they know how to make it record their sound properly. I have only one objection to these sides – I wish that rather than whispering “LSD” at the end of some of their tracks they had instead recorded their acid commercial – gets the point across much more audaciously and effectively.

I found the Moby Grape album to be really tasty, especially considering the P.R. campaign which Columbia launched, one of the themes of which was “Moby Grape…does not scream distasteful lyrics or go off into uncontrolled, so-called psychedelic binges of electronics.” … The overall feel of the L.P. is tight, well-produced and somewhat fast. The accent in the choice of material was most definitely toward possible chart tunes in that 10 of the 13 cuts on this side were also issued on various singles. … This does not hurt the sound of the group in the least; Bob Mosley’s bass lines are very well constructed and are executed with a technical proficiency which is at most frightening. The same could be said for Jerry Miller’s lead guitar patterns. The vocal sound of the group, which is superb in person, comes across as extremely warm and harmonious on the record, but without the distinct clarity in enunciation which one would hope for. When Moby Grape eventually get around to recording “Jerry’s Blues”, they will immediately attain the status of classic performers; until then this album will provide many high times.
Of course, it should be obvious to all concerned that these three albums are so ridiculously essential to anyone who digs music of any sort that any minor criticism of them I might make is made with the recommendation that you immediately go and buy all three…

INTERVIEW WITH THE DOORS:
(Mojo asks about how audiences are in different cities, and most of the interview is devoted to discussion of how the LA, NYC, and SF scenes differ.)
ROBBY: I think the San Francisco audience listens a lot more…
RAY: L.A. hasn’t been our best audience…up here it’s a much better audience.

(Mojo asks about whether audiences appreciate both jazz and rock, and all the Doors agree they don’t.)
MOJO: Around here you find generally avant-garde jazz groups will be playing, like at the Fillmore. Mostly in benefits, like you’ll have Elvin Jones playing, then the Grateful Dead will play.
ROBBY: But you’ll find that when Bill Graham puts a jazz group in there, or even John Lee Hooker, that he’ll always have a big drawing group with them, cause he knows they aren’t gonna draw. He puts the jazz group in there for prestige among the hippies, mainly.
(They feel jazz & rock have entirely different audiences, but Ray says that in SF, “It’s a sophisticated audience up here, I think they understand jazz a little bit…there’s some appreciation of the music. But, the jazz people…I don’t know any of them that are digging rock, really.”)

MOJO: Which groups around here have you heard, and what’s your judgment of them?
RAY: I like Country Joe and the Fish. I like some of their stuff.
ROBBY: And we really liked Big Brother.
MOJO: What’d you think of the Grateful Dead?
JOHN: They weren’t too good, the night we saw them. Like, they’re really good musicians, and they’re tight, but so’s Wilson Pickett, you know?
[In return, Garcia loathed the Doors.]

MONTEREY:
… The Dead were really a gas – doing about four or five long numbers, the major part of each being a fantastically tight instrumental excursion with each guy just using his axe to cut in and out of and around and through what the other guys were doing – like watching the insides of a watch working. …

[Most of the Monterey review is transcribed here:
http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2012/02/june-18-1967-monterey-pop-festival.html ]

[Note: This issue was about 40 pages, but the scan cuts off on page 32 - it's missing most of the Clapton article, the end of the Monterey article, and all of News & Gossip. If anyone has the end of this issue, please contact me.]

August 1966: Grateful Dead Interview

THE GRATEFUL DEAD SAY:
“Come one come all! Hard-working honeys, willing to take care of and feed a band, must be eighteen or over, with their own car and plenty of $.”

INTERVIEW

MOJO: Let’s interviews, boys; come on.
DEAD: Well come on, ask us questions.
LEISH: You mean we’re supposed to ask you questions? Hey that’d be a switch.
GARCIA: Where’d you get that coat?
MOJO: What’s your favorite color?
LEISH: What kind of microphone do you like? Would you rather have a fifteen dollar condenser?
MOJO: Yeah, I would.
LEISH: Oh.
MOJO: I’d feel more comfortable with it. (Pause) Let’s see… How do you feel about people putting out…
GARCIA: Wier, quiet.
MOJO: …newspapers that try hard but probably misunderstand?
LEISH: I hate ‘em.
MOJO: How do you feel about audiences?
LEISH: We love audiences!
GARCIA: Audiences are where it’s at. That’s what playing is all about… I mean audiences… It’s between the musicians and the audience. If we play by ourselves it’s one thing. We get into a thing by ourselves, but like if there’s a few people listening it makes a big difference. It gives us somebody to work against.
MOJO: We got a question that we gotta ask…
LEISH: Oh, the Wolfman, didn’t you hear about the Wolfman? (to Wier and Pigpen)
WIER: ununh
LEISH: Oh the Wolfman is really wild, man. He’s from Chula Vista, California…
MOJO: He isn’t anymore. He’s moved to Sunset Strip…
LEISH: Oh no!
MOJO: …they’ve commercialized him. He plays soul records now…
LEISH: …during all his songs he has this wolf howl RARROOH! in the middle of the song, and at the end of the song he goes RARRR! that was a record!
MOJO: …the Wolfman went down bad… He used to put out an album of his own stuff that was supposed to be pretty…
GARCIA: Oh that’s a groove…
MOJO: …yeah he’s a really good singer too.
LEISH: Wow.
MOJO: …he sings just like Captain Beefheart.
LEISH: Oh yeah?
WIER: I heard he was a Howling Wolf freak.
MOJO: Yeah. Lately it hasn’t been that much… We got a question we gotta ask Pigpen… Our downstairs neighbor has to find this out. We had a rumor that you are seventeen years old.
PIGPEN: No, I’m thirty-five, man.
(Laughter from Weir, Leish, and the rest of the Dead)
MOJO: Well, as long as you’re not seventeen.
GARCIA: He’s not seventeen. He’s over seventeen and under twenty-six.
WIER: The only thing you can find out about him is his draft classification. It’s the only thing we admit, that we release about him.
LEISH: Also his measurements. We have his measurements.
GARCIA: He remains a man cloaked in mystery.
LEISH: His arms are short.
WIER: He got short arms.
PIGPEN: My arms are short.
GARCIA: Twenty-one inches is enough.
LEISH: So anyone with short arms you might meet…
WIER: But other than that his draft classification is 1A and fit as a fiddle.
MOJO: And did you ever actually live in San Bruno, California?
PIGPEN: Sure.
(Laughter from Wier, Leish and Garcia.)
MOJO: We used to live there too so…
GARCIA: That’s his home town.
WIER (to Pigpen and Leish): Hey that’s right man, we don’t have to practice here after this week because uh…
GARCIA: I know we’ll work one…anyway that’s another point.
WIER: It’ll cost us five dollars a day.
PIGPEN: Fuck it.
WIER: Oh man that’s nothing.
GARCIA: I know man, that’s cheaper than renting a studio…
PIGPEN: What about Gene’s?
GARCIA: What about it?
WIER: Well he’s still busy.
GARCIA: …yeah he’s still building it…anyway we’re working for this independent producer who’s got his own scene, four-track machine.
WIER: Oh yeah, you might print in your newspaper that we’re looking for a place…
PIGPEN: We’re looking for somebody to take care of us.
WIER: A beautiful expensive place, with plenty of land around it so we can practice there, because otherwise the neighbors always complain man, even if they’re hip.
GARCIA: Yeah, we have to get an isolated house somewhere…
MOJO: Marin, or something like that?
GARCIA: Yeah, Marin county preferably; maybe out by the coast.
WIER: Someplace beautiful.
PIGPEN: No, not on the coast man.
MOJO: Laguanitas.
GARCIA: We’re in Laguanitas, they won’t let us practice there.
PIGPEN: Yeah, don’t move to the coast, it’ll be miserable.
WIER: I don’t know, it won’t be hard-edge, but it won’t be miserable.
PIGPEN: It’ll be miserable, all the time.
MOJO: There’s a lot of people up in Peacock Gap right now.
GARCIA: Peacock Gap? Where’s that?
MOJO: It’s a country club up by San Rafael.
GARCIA: Oh really?
MOJO: Yeah, a lot of people moved from the Crystal Palace to Peacock Gap more or less instantaneously…
GARCIA: Oh I see. Hunhh… (Laughs)
MOJO: So you know…but they’re not gonna have the bread…
GARCIA: …Well anyway we start recording this week. That is when we start recording, and hopefully we’ll have something out. I don’t know what it’ll be. Presumably it will be the best we can do under the circumstances, a single and then probably an album.
MOJO: What kind of titles are you thinking of?
GARCIA: Oh, don’t even know. We just…we have a lot of material and we just uhh… It’ll be between us and the producer whether what’ll be first released, whatever one we put out.
MOJO: What was the story behind your record of ‘Stealin’’?
GARCIA: Well that was with the same producer, but we did it before we rushed off to L.A. and we never got around to…we never got in on the mixing of it and we didn’t really like the cuts and the performances were bad and the recordings were bad and everything else was bad so we didn’t want it out.
MOJO: We have the record.
GARCIA: Well, you’re one of the few.
WIER: Go burn it.
MOJO: It’s a treasure to, you know, like the people who have it.
GARCIA: It’s not that bad, but…
PIGPEN: Bullshit.
MOJO: It’s better than a lot of the stuff on the radio.
WIER: Oh the fuck it is.
GARCIA: Well it might be and then again it might not be.
MOJO: It doesn’t sound like you though.
GARCIA: Right, yeah, right that’s the big thing about it is that it doesn’t sound like us…
MOJO: Did you ever hear what they did with the Great Society?
GARCIA: Well that was with Autumn Records the way I heard about it… Anything I know about that is pure hearsay and Autumn Records folded, I don’t know what exactly they’re up to now.
WIER: Tom Donahue is working for Warner Brothers now.
GARCIA: It’s possible they may be recording for Warner Brothers but I don’t know about that, whether it’s for sure or not.
MOJO: Why did you change sound systems?
GARCIA: Well, mostly because this stuff is less of a hassle to move around, and we like the sound of it better, in the long run.
MOJO: What would you rather play, the Avalon or the Fillmore? Or is there a difference? …Can we print this?
GARCIA: Yeah, you can print whatever you want. Yeah, there’s a difference. But they’re…they both are different; they’re different, but they’re both good. I like to play both of them. I don’t have a, really a preference one over the other. They’re both good places to work for. Chet and Bill Graham are both good guys to work for. And, you know, I think they’re doing a good thing.
MOJO: What about L.A.? What was happening down there?
GARCIA: Well, we just went down there mostly…we went down with Kes—well, not Kesey; he was gone by then. With the Pranksters and the Acid Test. And we played down there some, but mostly we just practiced and holed up kind of, you know, and worked out new material and whatever.
MOJO: You played that Trips Festival in Vancouver, didn’t you?
GARCIA: Right.
MOJO: What was it like?
GARCIA: It was kind of funny. Stiff, is what it was. And the people are a certain kind of reserved.
MOJO: Who was there besides you and Big Brother?
GARCIA: The Daily Flash, and some local band, I don’t remember what their name was. The Painted Ship I believe. And the P.H. Phactor Jug Band.
MOJO: How did they react to the San Francisco sound?
GARCIA: Well, actually we did much better on the next weekend, when we played again at another dance, and had a fairly good crowd; but it was really good, you know, it was responsive. Much more so than the Trips Festival because the Trips Festival wasn’t really a Trips Festival; it was just a light show…a very complex light show, but in terms of what it did with the music it was pretty meaningless also. The whole thing didn’t work out, being very together, you know. It was more like, there was one thing happening on the screen, there was another thing happening on the stage; it wasn’t very well run, and it wasn’t well-conceived, and it was mostly done by people who weren’t very experienced at it. So it wasn’t really…the way I see it is the amount of money they spent they would have done better by, you know, using what they had a little bit in a more intelligent way. They would do things like have every band every night, so a band would only get to play maybe one set a night and it would be a short one. You couldn’t really get warmed up, you know, or get any kind of thing going. It wasn’t really much fun to play. The next weekend was much better.
MOJO: Do you think there’s any possibility, commercial possibility of getting San Francisco sound across in the Top 30 nationwide?
GARCIA: I think it’s just a matter of the stuff, the bands being recorded and promoted in a good way, you know. They’re all making pretty good music. And Lord knows there’ve been enough guys, record guys and promoters of one sort or another trying to find some way to package the whole thing up neatly and carry it off to New York or whatever. Actually, right here, all the bands here are on their way to Chicago. Big Brother is leaving for there tomorrow, Jefferson Airplane’s there now. Let’s see, the Holding Company’s leaving tomorrow and then the Messenger Service in about two weeks. And then we’re going in November.
MOJO: Wow, this is something else. What’s happening in Chicago?
GARCIA: There’s just clubs there that are finding out about us and all and are sending for us. Contacting our managers.
MOJO: Like Big John’s?
GARCIA: Well, clubs is what they are, six night a week clubs… Yeah, Big John’s is one of them I believe, come to think of it. I’m not sure. There seems to be a chain of them, maybe three or four, all owned by the same guy, or the same group of guys maybe, and they’re sending for the San Francisco groups.
MOJO: I never even heard about that. That’s pretty scary.
GARCIA: Yeah, it’s pretty new. So anyway most of the bands won’t be around for a few weeks or maybe a few months.
MOJO: That’s funny because Butterfield’s coming to San Francisco.
GARCIA: That’s right. That’ll be good too. With Muddy Waters. Right after the Monterey Jazz Festival. I think the week following the Monterey Jazz Festival Howlin’ Wolf will be up here. That’s another good thing. Memphis Slim’s down at Both/And.
MOJO: Okay, here comes an influence question. What was the first record that really turned you on; hit you between the ears?
GARCIA: You mean, the very first?
MOJO: The first sound that really influenced you. –Not back to the cradle.
GARCIA: Well jeez, that’s a… I don’t know man, I’ve listened to so much stuff and played so many different kinds of things that, I don’t know, I couldn’t say, I wouldn’t want to have to pick one, there’s really a lot of them. The first stuff I started playing when I first started playing the guitar was Chuck Berry stuff, and I guess that’s when everybody was learning from that stuff.
MOJO: A sort of personal question. How did you form, were you friends or what?
GARCIA: Yeah, we’ve all been friends for awhile before we ever got together. Me and Pigpen and Bob used to be in a jug band together and Phil’s an old friend of mine, and Bill was the only really good drummer in the town we were in. We were in Palo Alto you know, around there.
MOJO: Did you play around the peninsula?
GARCIA: Yeah we organized down there and played in clubs mostly and bars…the Fireside, the In Room, stuff like that. We played that stuff for about three or four months, six nights a week, and that’s where we really learned how to play. In that kind of grind. That was a really good thing. That’s where the best stuff goes down. You know, if the group’s energetic enough you know you can get into more…playing five sets a night you really get hot by the third or fourth set, and you can start playing some really insane stuff.
MOJO: I heard Bloomfield say something about like that. He said the only time he felt he was really playing great was when drunks were falling all over his amplifiers, and all that stuff.
GARCIA: The same thing. We used to have that. The place would be real crowded on the weekends and there’d be all kinds of balls and hassle going on all the time.
MOJO: A homey atmosphere…
GARCIA: Yeah right. A family bar…
MOJO: What about the Trips Festival we had last January?
GARCIA: That was a Trips Festival. That was the only Trips Festival. Probably the first, last, and as far as I was concerned the only really good one. That was really great.
MOJO: Yeah, I agree.
GARCIA: Well it was fun…
WIER: There was a feeling of unity.
GARCIA: Yeah it was… Everybody in the place was having a really good time on Saturday night.
WIER: Everybody got gassed…
GARCIA: Everybody was stoned and all on the same trip and everybody having a good time, and a lot of people who were responding to everything that was going around and doing stuff to change it, you know, when it was time to change it, you know, it was a responsive atmosphere, the whole thing. So it really worked good, and everybody had a good time. It was a great big party, is what it was. It wasn’t a dance or anything else, it was a huge party; it was a very successful one.
MOJO: Remember the New Brothers?
GARCIA: Sure.
MOJO: What ever happened to them?
GARCIA: I heard that they re-organized and…
MOJO: Re-organized? Only two of them?
GARCIA: Well, they got together again…
PIGPEN: Next week…
GARCIA: …but I don’t know how true that is. I’ve also heard that they were playing around somewhere but I don’t know how true that is either.
MOJO: That’s funny because they were so…
GARCIA: They’re good…
MOJO: Yeah, good.
GARCIA: …real good, real fine sound.
MOJO: What about the Trips Festivals they’ve had in L.A. and other places? Just a gimmick, or what?
GARCIA: Well, I think that’s mostly what it is, whether that’s the intention of the people involved or not that’s the result. You know, I think it’s mostly a matter of…
WIER: A look-at-me thing…
GARCIA: People making money. You know, L.A. is kind of freak-conscious is where it’s at, you know, they’re not really into anything besides that; there’s nothing behind it.
WIER: It’s just a great big look-at-me thing.
GARCIA: Right. San Francisco is really different from anyplace else. And the result of the things that happen, the way they go… People are better. (laughs) I hate to say that but it seems like it’s true. Really good people in this city.

(The second half of the Grateful Dead interview will appear in the next issue of the Mojo Navigator.)

(From the MOJO NAVIGATOR R&R NEWS #4, August 30 1966)


GRATEFUL DEAD EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
PART TWO

MOJO: What did you think of Jim Gurley’s guitar playing the first time you heard it?
GARCIA: Well, the first time I heard it, I was in no position to comment about it, or you know… (Laughs from the rest of the Dead) I don’t know. I like it. I think that his approach to it is a lot different from mine; he plays with fingerpicks you know; I play with a flat pick. I like his playing.
MOJO: He hasn’t been playing the same recently as he did when he started…
GARCIA: That’s true, but I think that’s largely because of his amplifiers, which he’s been complaining about to some extent…
MOJO: And his wrist…
GARCIA: Well you know… I mean, those guys are pretty new at electric instruments and…
VOICE FROM OUTSIDE: You’re all busted for loitering.
GARCIA: Oh, go away… And they still have to get used to what comes out and what doesn’t come out… I don’t know. I think they are going through an adjustment, a period of adjustment.
MOJO: What about the singer that they added?
GARCIA: I really like her. I think she's an incredibly powerful singer and her knowledge of style and her control is really phenomenal, as well as her range. I think that the big thing is that they need more material that's adapted to her style, which they don't have so far, just a few things.
MOJO: They've just got their old stuff...
GARCIA: Right, and I don't think that'll work out too well.
MOJO: You've heard the old stuff so much that the change...I don't know, it sorta sounds like Minnie Mouse at 78...
GARCIA: Hunhh.
MOJO: ...mixed with Peter Albin's voice.
GARCIA: Right, it's a different, a whole different thing and I think that they just have to get used to working that way, is really where it is, I mean I sorta, I can sympathise with that, it's a rough adjustment to make, but if they can once find a way to really showcase Janice and get good material for her as well as her and Peter working together... you know it's, mostly what they need is experience and I think that they'll come back from Chicago a lot tighter than they are and will have learned a lot by the time they're back.
MOJO: It's a funny thing, you know, you hear the bands and you go out and listen to 'em and you'll listen to somebody like...I heard you guys last January when you were still the Warlocks and you were playing at a pretty high level, I thought it was a pretty high level and yet the band seems to get better and better and better, and they keep changing, like the Great Society, I've heard them, gee many times and for awhile there they went through a real bad period, then they came out of it.
GARCIA: Yeah, it's one of those things, you have your ups and downs like you kinda get into a slump behind playing the same material for awhile so you work on new material and maybe it takes awhile for you to really work into it, to make it your own material, or if it's like a new song that you've just written you have to get natural with it, you know and that means going over it and over it and performing it a lot of times and starting to develop some ideas with it. That's another thing about playing, when you play six nights a week, you have a chance to go, you know, you play the same song maybe three times a night, sometimes you know if you want to you can do it and get away with it, nobody ever knows and you can get something to really turn into a whole different thing, that's the way most of our longer material has gotten, we've just decided to let it go and see what happens to it and that's the way we play, in fact. There's no, you know, some of our stuff isn't arranged at all, it just happens, however it happens, we sort of prescribe a way it's kinda gonna go.
MOJO: Are you playing for the music or to make a living at it?
GARCIA: I played music before I could ever make a living at it and I've always played music and that part of it isn't that important to me, the importance is just being able to play and that's the way we all feel about it, I mean you know we're not playing for money, that's for sure.
MOJO: So many musicians are.
GARCIA: Yeah.
MOJO: Bad musicians.
GARCIA: I know, it's too bad, I think it brings the level of the music down.
MOJO: The funny thing I've noticed is good musicians play, you know, like people that could be playing at a pretty decent level you know, backing up Jan and Dean or…
GARCIA: (laughs) Well, here’s the thing: it’s these guys that are good musicians and they’re playing what they think is bad music, and because they think it’s bad music it is bad music, they get paid for it, but you know, where is that? It’s like having any other kind of job, it certainly doesn’t seem very rewarding. I really respect everything we do; I can’t play anything besides what we play, really; I’m not a jazz guitarist.
MOJO: What about recording in San Francisco…?
GARCIA: I think it’s starting to develop into… There are two or three good studios, I think there’s two or three four-channel machines and I think more bands are gonna want to record in the city because just the conditions of living in L.A. are so lousy, I wouldn’t record down there.
MOJO: The thing I was thinking of is for a recording scene to develop here like they have in New York, where somebody like Al Kooper can make a pretty good living just playing in the studios and turn out good records.
GARCIA: I don’t think that San Francisco recording as it is can really support any studio musicians. I don’t think there are any in town.
WIER: Anyway it’s a group thing. The whole idea is a group thing, pretty much, because each group is unique.
MOJO: What about studio technicians?
GARCIA: There are engineers in town; there aren’t any A&R men that I know of, none…with a few of the smaller companies there are…
MOJO: Is it this thing of they want to change your sound for you?
GARCIA: Well, what an A&R man usually does, his usual function is to produce, to make whatever material you have that’s potentially saleable more saleable, by suggesting maybe some changes or whatever…a good, I don’t know how far that gets into because I haven’t really observed that many recording sessions, but frequently A&R men don’t have much taste and don’t really understand a group or who they’re working with or anything like that, and as a result sometimes records’ll have the sound of the A&R man rather than the group. And that’s unfortunate.
MOJO: Something like what happened to the Jefferson Airplane, or what RCA Victor tried to do to the Jefferson Airplane?
GARCIA: Yeah, kinda uhh… Well, you know, just little things like the guy playing glockenspiel on “Come Up The Years” or whatever. That was the A&R man, you know it was his idea, thought it’d be cute or something… But you can get your record contracts, you can get, if you work ‘em right, so that you have the artistic control. In other words you can do your material the way you think it should go.
MOJO: Was the Scorpio Records that you were on the same Scorpio Records that somebody called the Golliwogs recorded for?
GARCIA: Geez I don’t think so, it was just the first, or actually the second record put out by this guy, or rather the independent producer that we’re working for.
MOJO: If not it’s a funny coincidence because a record came out just about the same time as your record called “Brown Eyed Girl” by the Golliwogs, and it made the charts, and it wasn’t a bad record actually.
GARCIA: Well, what happened with the Scorpio label was that the guy went ahead and applied for it, had the labels printed up and everything like that, but after the record came out and after he had the labels out, they discovered that there was some other label named Scorpio, so the big clearing house, wherever it is, said “No, you can’t use that name.” So at any rate I don’t think our next record will be out on Scorpio, I don’t know what the label’ll be. Could be a major company, we may work a thing like that. Record it here and then…
MOJO: Lease the masters?
GARCIA: Yeah, something like that.
MOJO: O.K., so you’re going to Chicago next?
GARCIA: November.
MOJO: November you’re going to Chicago, and you’ll be around here for the next few months.
GARCIA: Right, playing whatever we got. I think we’re booked up.
MOJO: That’s good; booked solid… What kind of a deal do you work out with Chet and Bill, anyway? Who gets the bread?
GARCIA: We arrange for a price and we’re paid for a specific amount; it’s agreed upon in the contract and everything like that.
MOJO: And it isn’t based upon the door intake?
GARCIA: No, they could, you know, if we wanted it that way we might be able to work it but…
WIER: The union wouldn’t like that very much…
GARCIA: Yeah, I don’t think the union would go for it. See, the union is insisting that you get half your pay in advance.
MOJO: You’re in the union?
GARCIA: Sure.
MOJO: What kind of a hassle have you had with them?
GARCIA: Well, the usual hassles. The hassle is that there are unscrupulous promoters in town (actually there’s only one) is uh, you know, been hiring bands that are in the union and paying them ridiculous amounts of money. And it looked pretty, for awhile they were demanding that Chet and Bill you know, the guys that are legitimate, they were demanding that they pay half the pay for bands in front, a lot of things like that, really picayune and stupid things, I think. But we really, went down there enough times and gave them a bad enough time often enough so that they haven’t been hassling us too much lately.
MOJO: That must have been interesting.
GARCIA: All the bands in the city were doing that, I mean it was it really was, you know, rock ‘n’ roll bands usually don’t have any other source of income, and when it might mean if you don’t get paid on the night you play you might not eat for the next few days, and we weren’t getting paid until Wednesday of the following week, we’d have to go down to the union and get the money, and so forth, and it was really, you know, more than inconvenient, it was stupid as well.
WIER: Besides that they took more than they should get, they took something like 20%. And uh, who needs it?
GARCIA: Don’t go putting down figures, man, they didn’t take no 20 percent.
WIER: They took it from the Quicksilver.
GARCIA: No, I don’t think 20% cold shot.
WIER: They did.
GARCIA: Oh well, man, I wouldn’t say it.
MOJO: O.K. let’s just say they took a large amount, a substantial amount.
GARCIA: Yeah.
WIER: Yeah, who needs it man, it never does anything for us, you know, the union, and all it does is take money from us and bum kick us. And it never gets you any jobs.
MOJO: Do you guys know of any groups in other cities that are doing stuff that’s comparable to the San Francisco sound, the type of music we’re doing here?
GARCIA: I don’t know what the other groups in the other cities are doing, there’s a lot of stuff that sounds like…well, it sounds like it could be San Francisco groups, the 13th Story Elevator…
MOJO: Floor.
GARCIA: …the Thirteenth Floor Elevator, they’re supposed to be up at the Avalon this weekend, their sound is like a San Francisco sound sort of, a little like Big Brother.
WIER: Oh there’s a lot of groups around. I mean it’s not really, I wouldn’t go so far to say it’s San Francisco sound so much as a San Francisco scene.
MOJO: Yeah, well it’s the new sound in rock ‘n’ roll that’s happening here.
WIER: Yeah, it’s happening here but it’s happening in other places too.
GARCIA: The thing is that there are a lot of really imaginative people around here and each of the bands sounds different from each other as it does from everybody else, and you know the San Francisco bands aren’t alike at all really. But that’s the thing about it: like the L.A. bands are all very similar.
MOJO: There are groups like Thorin’s Shield in L.A. that nobody there knows about, they come up here and do a set every once in a while and they’re doing stuff which is really different…
DIFFERENT MOJO: …the Rising Sons. You talk to people from L.A., they don’t know about the Rising Sons.
GARCIA: The Rising Sons have broken up.
MOJO: Oh have they? When was this?
GARCIA: I don’t know, I think it was awhile ago.
MOJO: They’re such a good group.
GARCIA: They were. (laughs)
PIGPEN: They’re going to be on Elektra now, Elektra’s putting together some kind of blues package.
MOJO: Oh really, maybe they got the tapes from Columbia, cause Columbia had all kinds of things from them.
GARCIA: Yeah, it’s possible, there’s no telling…
MOJO: Do you have any last message for all the little kids out there in the world who read our publication, all them little teeny boppers…?
WIER: Yeah, we could use some hard-workin’ honeys up at the house.
THE REST OF THE DEAD (in chorus): YEAH!
MOJO: We’ll put that on the masthead…
WIER: Put an ad in the paper for uh, “Come one, come all healthy, well-fed young honeys, willing to do work, and uh…
GARCIA: Take care of…
WIER: Take care of the group, preferably with their own money and stuff like that.
PIGPEN: Their own money, their own cars, and 18 years old.
MOJO: I’ll see what I can do. Thanks a lot!

(From the MOJO NAVIGATOR R&R NEWS #5, September 7 1966)

THANKS TO JGMF.BLOGSPOT.COM FOR THE MOJOS.

The Vancouver Trips Festival tapes:
http://archive.org/details/gd1966-07-29.sbd.GEMS.94633.flac16
http://archive.org/details/gd1966-07-30.sbd.GEMS.94631.flac16