Our founder Saint Owsley & Little Ergot
The Asafareans (Ancient Mystical order of the Revered Dinosaur – Lahontan Branch) are once again holding their Memorial Day fundraiser concert at the Fillmore. An over zealous member has booked 11 bands with only 10 spots available. Won’t you, our parishioners, would be parishioners or even barely interested pagans please help us by picking one band to headline & one to go on next years list of hopefuls. Be gentle they’re all great folks & just want to help others get their freak in order. Remember – Dinos are fond of a large aural space to frolic in so if you have speakers with a large set of woofers it’ll make them smile. Play thingy on this side to listen to in a blissfully unaware state or play thingy with playlist for those impatient for knowledge on the other side. Click gently so you don’t disturb the dinos.
Now you’ve gone and done it.
The List
1. No One to Depend On – Santana
Classic opening for a concert at the Fillmore. Where else would you hold a Bay Area Benefit. All atmosphere & pulsating bass & cymbal till Michael Shrieve ( he could fill Kezar by hisself) calls the band to order with that great drum line to announce Carlos. Great vocal from one time Renoite Greg Rolie.
2. The Skunk, The Goose, And The Fly – Tower Of Power
From the appropriately named East Bay Grease album this one makes you feel like your dancing in the barbecue. Ribs anyone?
3. Fresh Air – Quicksilver Messenger Service
Takes a bit for the roadies to get the setup done but then Dino Valenti & John Cippolina just rip it up. From the Last Days Of The Fillmore collection, with an introduction by the most un-reverend Bill Graham, it’s a great example of QMS live.
4. Indifference – Moby Grape
Skip Spence was at various turns the original rhythm guitar player for Quicksilver & the original drummer for Jefferson Airplane before putting together Moby Grape. Wiki describes them as psychedelic-folk-country-jazz-blues & I’d say that touches on it. The travails of the 60s limited their output but I can attest they were amazing live.
5. Porpoise Mouth – Country Joe & The Fish
Joe’s psychedelic love waltz to Janis. Like much of the Fish’ output it’s over the top in ways no one else quite did. Just right by me. Well . Not quite enough Barry Melton maybe.
6. Easy Wind – The Grateful Dead
Much as I like the Dead there’s been a canyon sized hole, for now 40 years, left by Pigpen Mckernan’s passing. If I’m holding my dream benefit concert Pigpen’s gotta be there & this track off Workingman’s Dead is pure distilled essence.
7. Sing A Simple Song – Sly And The Family Stone
Back across the Oakland Bay Bridge for some classic funk. The song may be simple but the groove is huge.
8. Mary Ann – Al Cooper & Mike Bloomfield
Anyone who caught Mike Bloomfield on a good night was usually blown away. Performance anxiety ate into him way too often but he & Al are having a great time in the Fillmore with Ray Charles’ Mary Ann. That’s Skip Prokop & John Kahn on drums & bass. Nice rhythm section that.
9. The Last Wall Of The Castle – Jefferson Airplane
What can I say? This one is all about Jorma & Jack just sizzling.
10. Run Through The Jungle – Creedence Clearwater Revival
El Cerrito’s most famous residents managed to carve their own sound out of the Bay Area’s milieu. A drop of Hank Williams, a bit of Chuck Berry, some Dale Hawkins & a heavy dose of East Bay sludge cut with swamp water, all polished into prime little nuggets.
11. Laughing – David Crosby
What’s that you say? David is a southern Cal boy? Yes, but in ’70/71 he was hanging out in San Francisco where this was recorded ( along with the rest of his first solo album If I Could Only Remember My Name ) and the band is comprised of Jerry Garcia – pedal steel guitar, Phil Lesh – bass & Bill Kreutzmann – drums. The rest of the album is backed up by many of the musicians listed above. In 2010 the Vatican listed the album as #2 on it’s top ten pop albums of all time. Maybe they should play it for the Cardinals.
I’ll listen right through later Fintan but, having seen your Pigpen comment (with which I have an enormous amount of sympathy), you may like this 1970 TV performance with groovy visuals. Not only is Ron in fine fettle, the band have nailed the turn-on-a-dime tempo changes.
Finny: Best ever Spill Challenge! I haven’t listened yet, though I lived with and know most of ‘em, but I’ll enjoy them on the 15″ JBL Studio Monitors right after breakfast. Here’s one from that era that I’ve been listening to lately:
Thanks for that Tony. Haven’t listened to that in ages. Goes real well with my morning coffee. Had a great time firing up my 15″ KLH speakers while making this list. Cheers.
One more before breakfast, for all those who were there or wished they were, check out this website, there’s lots of info. and pics,
http://record-fiend.blogspot.com/search/label/Quicksilver%20Messenger%20Service
Fintan – what a lovely list. Casady gets the Yggdrasil plaudits for his Crown of Creation and Volunteers work but some of his playing on Baxters is from another place. Mary Ann is a gem from Live Adventures and Porpoise Mouth is how eroticism should be written, certainly in lyric form. A total treat.
Well, sir, nice to see you here. Fancy doing your own list for us sometime?
I am to websites what Hengist Pod was to the wheel – if I can get my lads to show me the downloading/uploading/whatever you call it ropes. I’ll have a go.
awesome. can i sign you up for any convenient Tuesday in May? You can click the contact tab at the top to get the keys to the castle from Blimpy. I’m available for any tech help needed.
I’ll consult my inevitably empty diary.
1. Santana. I never took to Carlos. The band kick up a great storm, I love the latin rhythms, he’s technically superb but it just comes across as a big ego trip.
2. Tower Of Power. See the flares and afros fly! A great mix of score and improvisation. Ace.
3. Quicksilver Messenger Service. I’ve tried – particularly given gf’s involvement with and admiration for them – but I can’t help but feel they were another band supporting an imaginative guitarist who could go on a bit. This track is fairly restrained, and all the better for it.
4. Moby Grape. From that period when every band was doing speedy songs with tricksy tempo changes and the like. Interesting, imaginative and pretty-well executed.
5. Country Joe & The Fish. And, from the same era, psychedelic baroque….. Some folk think that mash-ups started in the nineties; mid-sixties’ West Coast bands threw anything they fancied into their songs. I like this one.
6. The Grateful Dead. Gets a free pass from me, obv. The sound of Workingman’s Dead is a little sparse but it suits this track. One of the very few on which Pig, Bob and Jerry all took a solo (and none outstayed their welcome). How to use two drummers effectively.
7. Sly And The Family Stone. The acceptable end of ‘soul music’ for a ‘progressive music’ fan (i.e. me), as the sides seem to line up back in the day. Even so, a bit too much in thrall to the ‘groove’, with little sustenance for the head. Man.
8. Al Cooper & Mike Bloomfield. I had a double live album of theirs once. Brilliant, sensitive, emotional playing but it could go on a bit in the same vein. As a one-off, this is quite fantastic, though.
9. Jefferson Airplane. See 4 & 5. All these great musicians just trying stuff out. Great but of it’s time.
10. Creedence Clearwater Revival. Good at what they did. They just did it a bit too often, so you weren’t quite sure whether you’d heard this one before or not. A background groove.
11. David Crosby. Classic. Maybe you need the LA/Laurel Canyon/chill component alongside the frantic SF invention to achieve the complete West Coast phenomenon. Love the way Jerry’s pedal steel avoids the country clichés.
You’d have to prise Easy Wind from my cold, dead hands but I agree with Crosby being top of this bill. I’ll happily let Santana go (it might have been CCR but I simply forgot they were ever there in the first place).
Have to concur with your cut – been downhill all the way for Santana after Woodstock, tho Shrieve may just be the best drummer to come out of the Bay at that time.
Awesome post, and a reminder yet again that i was just born 10 years too late and missed all the fun. Can’t wait to listen to this, but it won’t be until much later tonight after work. Know about a third of them – you got my very favorite Sly, a QMS that i love (see GF, i’m not totally immune to their charm), and a TOP that i don’t know. Catch you much later tonight.
And I too am off to work. Catch you this evening. Happy listening.
Groovy !
I know, and love, about 1/2 of these, top of the bill, for me, will always be the Airplane. a band that ,even in my punk days, I have always had a real soft spot for.
Conversely Santana are gonna get the elbow whatever they play. I don’t react well to Latin sounds for some reasons and Santana have always grated.
Off they jolly well go !
Wotcha Fints! Lovely blurb – I did smile. And aww a bit.
Santana: Lovely opening… I don’t know why, but I prefer Spanish singing accompanying a Latin groove. Somehow someone singing in English over the top sounds a bit, I don’t know, cheesy to me maybe. No, cheesy’s not right because this emphatically isn’t cheesy. Sleazy? Nope, not that either. Inauthentic? Nah… I dunno. But I’d still prefer him singing in Spanish! God knows why. Apart from that, nice vibe and lots of interesting sounds going on. Less appealing to me when we hit the guitar noodling (that’s probably the whole point of Santana, isn’t it?) but I can’t see myself jettisoning it for that.
Tower of Power: Nicely sequenced. I’m getting this sense that this list is going to be more about the groove and the musicianship than the melody, which makes it not really one for me… but I’m liking this chap’s voice very much. Daft lyric but hey, nowt wrong with that from time to time. Keep.
Quicksilver Messenger Service: Ooh what a kerfuffle! That’s live recordings for you, I suppose. Another good vocalist. Sounds a bit like he’s making the lyrics up as he goes along but perhaps that’s the point. (And perhaps he is?!) I think all of these probably need repeated listens and I’m not going to do any of them justice on a first run-through. I’m onto listen two and the melody is already making more sense to me this time. Keep.
Moby Grape: Does the text keep going faint on anyone else as they type? Weird. Anyway… nice change in pace. Yeah, this zips along nicely. Ooh, and I quite like this instrumental bit near the end where it’s changed tack. Deffo keep.
Country Joe & The Fish: Ah, this sounds a little more individualistic to me (not that the others were generic but there does seem to be a similarity to the vocal style, particularly between the last two). And it doesn’t outstay its welcome. I like the waltz time too. And the lyrics are at the right end of the intriguing/bonkers spectrum. Telling someone they have a ‘porpoise mouth’ could go either way, I’m thinking – even if you hunger for it. No one fancied Flipper… I say that; I have a vague memory of some chap getting prosecuted for wanking off a dolphin near Newcastle in the early 90s. Was that just me? (The memory, not the wanking.) I digress. Fave so far. Keep.
The Grateful Dead: I’m afraid it’s all gone a bit samey for me again vocally. I’ll have to give this one a second listen. Hang on… Yep, much better/more individuated on a second listening. (Frankly, you shouldn’t listen to a thing I say.) Still not exactly my bag (and I think I ought to be smoking to really appreciate it) but it’s got a head-noddingly fine groove to it.
Back for the rest in a bit…
Sly & The Family Stone: Yep, love this from the minute it starts. Total conviction. “A simple song might make it better for a little while.” Amen to that. Favourite so far (again).
Al Cooper & Mike Bloomfield: Something charmingly reticent about this… until now when it’s suddenly perked up no end! I like it more when they rock out, I have to say.
Jefferson Airplane: I inevitably like the (relative) poppiness of this.
CCR: Opens like a hippy Heard It Thru The Grapevine. And now it’s got dirty. Yeah, I like this – especially the melodramatic lyrics. Heaven knows which I’m gonna ditch…
David Crosby: Another one (like Sly) that strikes me as singing because he has to and because he means it, not just to create a groove/to display his virtuosity. This is lovely. Such feeling there.
Hm, not sure which one to shove overboard at all. Top of the heap are definitely Sly and Dave. I think I’ll have to lose Al and Mike as they started losing me a tad when they went all quiet. But even they were an enjoyable listen. Thanks Fintan – I feel both entertained and a little bit educated.
Fintan (aka The Hawk) quit tryin’ to hide my liquor and serve me tea!!! A job well done!!! To Chris, a fine rendition!!!
I’ve not been keeping up with the challenge for a while, life keeps intruding on things far too much but this seems like a great challenge playlist to get back into the groove with and I can see me having a huge problem ditching anything from this selection.
1. No One to Depend On – Santana
Couldn’t possibly ditch Santana. Superb stuff.
2. The Skunk, The Goose, And The Fly – Tower Of Power
Yeah, cool man, funky grooves. Love it.
3. Fresh Air – Quicksilver Messenger Service
QMS – how good does it get? Fantastic.
4. Indifference – Moby Grape
A much underrated band, I am very partial to a Grape or two.
5. Porpoise Mouth – Country Joe & The Fish
I don’t want to do it, but Joe might have to Go. Not because I don’t like it, but because I like everything else more.
6. Easy Wind – The Grateful Dead
This isn’t going, oh no. You all realise that, don’t you?
7. Sing A Simple Song – Sly And The Family Stone
People tend to forget exactly how good Sly and the Family Stone were and how much the hippies liked them. This is an excellent reminder. A lovely loose and funky feel.
8. Mary Ann – Al Cooper & Mike Bloomfield
Mike Bloomfield was a fantastic player. Eric Clapton needs to listen to this, because Bloomfield had more blues in his little fingers than Clapton has in his whole body.This is excellent stuff. Another case of heroin taking over and ruining a life.
9. The Last Wall Of The Castle – Jefferson Airplane
Ah, the Airplane. I love their woozy guitar sound. I love the fuzzy bass and the not-quite harmony singing. Yeah, man, I can see the saucers!
10. Run Through The Jungle – Creedence Clearwater Revival
Hey, Fogerty, keep on choogling!
11. Laughing – David Crosby
If I Could Only Remember My Name is one of my favourite albums from this period and this is one of the standout tracks. Brilliant.
OK, this has been great, I want to be at this festival! I’ve got my tie-dye, got flowers painted on my face and I’ve got enough of Owsley’s finest to dose a city. Who do I leave behind? So hard, so unfair. But, Hey Joe, it’s you. Sorry maan, life’s a bummer sometimes.
lovely listen .. thanks for posting .. must get to hear more of Bloomfield .. been reading ’bout Buddy Miles so maybe some Electric Flag .. unless buddy is singing
Alfie, wanna bite the bullet and do a list?
Carole, are you too busy to do another list in May?
Amy, I could probably manage one. We will be moving house at some point, maybe in early May so later in the month would be better for me.
I’m not one to really downgrade Clapton’s playing. He might have been a wanker but he could play. That said, Eric never walked on stage in the South side of Chicago on chops night to play with Muddy Waters & Willy Dixon – well certainly not at 15 in the 50s. Mike had no qualms & Muddy & the Southside crew recognized him as a player & welcomed him in. Great cojones, eh!
I’ve come to the conclusion that Clapton is a wanker who can play some blues licks very well indeed. I used to get immersed in Cream (the music) and found myself carried away by the seat-of-the-pants improvisation and virtuosity. But that was mainly Jack Bruce’s contribution, I feel; Clapton played variations on the same licks, as fast as he could. He couldn’t break out of the ‘blues guitarist’ prison he constructed for himself. Despite having personal reasons to funnel pain and suffering into his playing, he produced sickly pop songs instead, using lyrics to deliver the emotion that any truly great player would channel through their instrument (like the real blues player did). He did/does great imitations of blues guitarists but he’s not close to the real thing. Peter Green, for example, got much closer to Clapton’s goal than Clapton ever could. Mike Bloomfield delivers more imagination, emotion and originality in that one track than Clapton managed in his career.
(I may now be going slightly over the top……)
really enjoying this groovy selection, very sunny and mellow. My favourites are Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, I’m afraid I’ve never got on with Santana either, so he can go.
Fabulous post, great music, lots of super noodling.
For me, headliners would have to be either Santana and/or Moby Grape; Tower of Power would be the ones to go and bunny.
I love Country Joe but still laughing at Bish’s comments (and yes, my text keeps fading too). What’s all that about? I’ve cleaned my glasses so it’s definitely not me. Maybe it’s the smoke from a thousand spliffs …
Really enjoyed this Fintan, thanks for livening us all up.
Alim thanks for livening us all up
What a nice thing to say. Glad to be of service.
I knew I was right, Ali! I’d like to point out that the reason I remember this is not (just) that I am puerile and/or depraved; I was a student in Durham at the time and it was big local news. Especially among puerile and/or depraved students.
“NO EXCUSE FOR DOLPHIN SEX ACT”
The Times, December 13th, 1991
An animal rights campaigner accused of outraging public decency by committing an obscene act with a dolphin might have done so to persuade the animal to prefer him to other swimmers, a court was told yesterday.
David Wood for the prosecution, told Newcastle upon Tyne crown court, that Alan Cooper, aged 38, might have performed the act on Freddie, a 12ft. bottle-nose dolphin, because there was a great deal of competition to swim with the dolphin.
When Mr. Cooper saw a boatload of people approaching, including Peter Bloom, curator of a dolphinarium, who he particularly disliked, “it may have been tempting to do something which he knew the dolphin would like,” Mr. Wood said. However, the reason for Mr. Cooper’s action was irrelevant and he had outraged the boat passengers by going way beyond decent behaviour.
Mr. Cooper, of Gorton, Manchester, denies outraging public decency by masturbating the dolphin off Amble, Northumberland.
Tony Jennings, for Mr. Cooper, said that Mr. Bloom, who prompted the complaints, was a sworn enemy of his client. He said Mr. Bloom had the audacity to condemn Mr. Cooper for the alleged sexual act, yet he had trained dolphins to jump out of the water and remove a bikini top from a woman swimmer for a film sequence.
The trial continues today.
HMMMM? Songs about inter-species love triangles. Could be the tightest topic ever.
Not the sort of article it’s easy to forget, really!!
The List, a veritable blast from the past as they say, I lived through it, was right in the middle of much of it and totally enjoyed it all, a wonderful era full of memories that much of this music evokes.
Santana stays, within the last year I located and edited a live version of Soul Sacrifice from a Fillmore concert with the intention of posting it here but terminal lethargy set in so thank you Finny.
The Tower, primarily a radio group for me, I never saw them live, yeah, I’ll take an order of ribs with that.
Fresh Air, I think I was onstage filming them during this concert. I must offer an alternate pov to Chris’s re. QMS; they were not supporting an imaginative guitarist, he was supporting them, they were all supporting Dino Valenti who, when he got out of jail, imposed his gregarious personality on the group and took over, they ceased to be the most creative group on the SF/West coast scene, and became nothing more that his backing band. They released a few LP’s with him and then broke up. Very sad. Personally I liked Dino but he was the worst thing that ever happened to Quicksilver, John Cippolino was the best thing that happened to them.
The Grape, a keeper, it brings it all back.
Country Joe, there can never be enough Barry Melton. I made a film back then where I wanted to use one of his solos, it was from Silver and Gold, I wrote to him and got a very friendly OK back so I included it in my film.
The Dead, I can thank Chris for my Dead education, they’ve become a permanent part of my iTunes file with 9 of their albums to date, a keeper.
Sly was another constant part of 60′s/70′s radio, this brings so much back.
Mike Bloomfield as Spill regulars will recall has long been a favorite, remember East-West? If so check out Albert’s Shuffle from the classic Super Session LP posted above, a definite keeper.
The Airplane were part of the same scene as QMS, they even shared the same rehearsal space, of course they stay.
I’ve also thought of posting Creedence on here since no one else will, a great original sound, I’ve never been totally clear on what went wrong, John Fogherty seems to get a lot of the blame for the breakup, I always liked Creedence, a keeper.
Crosby; what a great cut to close on, it really reveals what a talent he is both as a singer, a writer and an arranger; I hear CSN in this or perhaps I hear this in CSN, the highlight of the list.
If I must lose one it might be Sly.
I’m real pleased folks are enjoying these. I seem to remember a lot of benefit concerts and Bay Area bands seemed to be so loose & having fun with the atmosphere. Nothing better than musicians getting off on each other. I really loved that version of Easy Wind Chris threw in. And great to see Winslow here. A Winslowboy post is something to look forward to. Plenty of love spread around although I’m a little surprised Santana is not showing that well. Though they were pegged as a Latin band they were more Bay Area fusion. Their original name was the Santana Blues Band & I’m pretty sure they meant it. GF is very right about QMS. They did change massively with the return of Dino Valenti. He was some kind of psychic steamroller and QMS were along for the ride after that. Though I too prefer earlier QMS, this cut from the Last Days Of The Fillmore really filled up the live quotient I wanted. Same with AL & Mike. And, yes Chris, That was from the two disc Live Adventures of Bloomberg & Kooper. OK that is seriously weird. Now my print is fading in & out also. Maybe it’s the vibes. Or Dolphin pheromones.
D’OH! Bloom freaking berg?????????? That’s *ahem* Bloomfield. Fucking politics blogs (mutter mutter)
Feel your pain. I got sucked into one today to back up a buddy (not on the Graun) after i swore off them. And now i’m done again. For sure.
I’m still bitter that i had to drop my acid in New England in the 70′s instead of in the Bay Area in the 60′s. A long time ago someone (BluePeter?) put up an EOTWQ about where you’d like to time travel to and SF in the 60′s was my first choice. (followed by ancient China or medieval Japan, but that’s another story.)
1) Santana – an old familiar, and a goodie, but feeling the need for weed with this one now.
2) TOP – Can’t believe i never heard this one. Funkorama.
3) QMS – Classic. Not going anywhere.
4) Moby Grape – This is great. Somehow never really listened to them back in the day. Missed out.
5) Country Joe – This is going to need another listen. I know you love them, but i never really got into them. Liked it a lot more by the time it ended than when it started. Only song i think i could name by them is Don’t Bogart That Joint.
6) The Dead – Going to get pilloried here. But a long, long way from my favorite Dead tune. Great axework though.
7) Sly – My favorite Sly tune. Rose Stone has some major pipes. You bet this one is staying.
8) Cooper and Bloomfield – Groovy blues. Wonder what guitar he’s playing, it has a fantastic sound. This is great. Nice bass too.
9) Airplane – yeah baby. Like this is going anywhere.
10) CCR – Haven’t heard this in a dog’s age, maybe decades. Forgot they could be groovy.
11) David Crosby – This is just gorgeous. Never heard this before i don’t think.
Thanks for the time trip, Finty. I think i’m going to keep them all, but if i have to pick, i’ll guess go with Dave. If i have to toss, and i don’t wanna, i guess Carlos. But only because of the company he keeps here.
Schedule update -
March 26 – DsD (you ok for next week, mate?)
April 2 – SHA (my email is botanicalphoto[at]gmail.com)
April 9 – tfd
April 16 – debby(m)
April 23 – Fuel
April 30 – Wilemena (did you get the playlist thing sorted out? Let me know)
May 7- TheWinslowBoy(?)
May 14 -
May 21 -
May 28 -
LIke I said before Amy, put me down for May 21st or 28th.
That’s okay by me – couple of ideas already
Guessing you’d be Winslow.
If there are any interested parties the box is stuffed ( hoping this is not a duplicate post).
QSM–so underrated…when I was 12 saw them play “Who Do You Love” for 45 minutes in Golden Gate Park and thought that was it. This is an amazing set, but CCR are overrated (and for this Louisiana boy, a bit of poseurs, with apologies), so much as I love “Fortunate Son,” here they would be the least fortunate ones….you made my evening; thanks. PS Moby Grape’s “Omaha” is underrated, methinks–any others?
Well the obvious keeper for me was Sly and the Family Stone, who were followed by Tower of Power and Santana. Then i liked Jefferson Airplane, CCR and… er… DC, who I didn’t really expect to like. Cheers.
Liked Country Joe.
Quite lIked CCR, Jefferson Airplane and Sly & Family Stone.
Sort of quite liked a bit-ish Santana, David Crosby, and Moby Grape.
QMS and The Dead were all right if you like that sort of thing although, personally, I don’t.
Tower of Power sounded ok at first but went on for hours.
Al Cooper and Mike Bloomfield are clearly very talented musicians but I don’t need to hear the evidence for this. Just not my thing. That’s the track I would lose.
That was a bit like getting in a time machine and Tardissing back to my first flat share – lovely! Giving TOP the elbow because I prefer them funkier and declaring my love for Al Cooper & Mike Bloomfield.
Thanks, Fintan, that was a blast!
Only ones that have any connection for me, would be Sly (funk is timeless) & Country Joe, a fave amongst the artists a hippy friend would play as ambience, while we were setting fire to some of the plants he had carefully cultivated. “Can you put on some Fishy Joe, Hairy James?”, we would often request.