"Bill Graham Presents Sounds Of The City" Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, CA: September 24, 1974-March 30, 1975
Bill Graham's last show at the Fillmore West had been on July 4, 1971. From that point onwards, Graham had promoted shows all around the Bay Area. But his primary concert homes were at the Berkeley Community Theater and at the Winterland Ballroom at Post and Steiner. Winterland, originally conceived as an ice rink, had been opened in 1928. Just two blocks from the Fillmore Auditorium, in the glory days of the 60s it had been the "upgrade" for Fillmore shows that transcended the auditorium itself, like for Cream or The Band. Many of the "classic" BGP shows of the 1960s had actually been at Winterland, which a careful analysis of the fine print on the posters will reveal.
By the 1970s, the polarity had reversed somewhat. Rock concerts were bigger business than ever. The Winterland ballroom, officially with a capacity of 5400 (ha ha, for any old San Franciscans), was being sized out by the Oakland Coliseum and the Cow Palace. Acts like Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Elton John were not going to play Winterland, even for multiple nights, when they could pack a hall three times as big.
At the same time, the rock audience had gotten older since the 1960s. By the mid-seventies, a lot of rock fans had cars and jobs, and while they weren't as free as they used to be, they weren't as constrained either. Around the Bay Area, nightclubs were making inroads into the rock market. Rock fans were over 21, they could drive, they didn't need their parents permission to do anything and they could have fun on a school night if they were so inclined--they weren't in school, after all. Clubs like the Keystone Berkeley, the Great American Music Hall, the Orphanage and others were booking original music and thriving. Bill Graham wasn't going to let this pass without competing.
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| None
of the bands from the BGP Fillmore poster for the weekend of July 1-2-3
'66 had an album except Love (who were from Los Angeles) |
Back In The Day
When the Fillmore Auditorium and the Avalon Ballroom began putting on regular concerts in 1966, by and large the fans coming to those shows knew nothing about the music being performed. This fact has been muted by the famous posters, where we see a billing with, say, the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service from 1966 and imagine the possibilities. The reality is that in 1966, while the Dead and Quicksilver were written about in the San Francisco Chronicle and elsewhere, they had no records, there was no radio play, and only people who had heard them in concert knew their music. Anyone attending a Fillmore concert by those band was depending on the implied status of word-of-mouth--now the province of "Social Media Influencers"--to make something worthy of checking out. Concerts at the Fillmore were only two or three dollars, not much even then. So fans came from the suburbs to check out the Fillmore (or the Avalon) because they heard it might be cool. In fact, it was--but fans didn't know it until they got there.
By 1974, that had changed, not least because of concerts promoted by Bill Graham Presents. Rock concerts were a regional thing now, not local. When Bob Dylan and The Band had played the Oakland Coliseum in February of 1974, for example, it had been a seismic event across the entire Bay Area. There had been huge rock concerts at Kezar and Oakland Coliseum Stadiums (headlined by the Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young) and entire high schools had made the pilgrimage.
Live rock music was bigger than ever, but it was focused on the biggest artists with the highest profile. To the extent there was fan interest in checking out something new, that had migrated from the old ballrooms to Bay Area nightclubs like Keystone Berkeley or the Lion's Share in Marin. One byproduct of the focus on big stars, however, was that it was harder to find acts to put in Winterland every weekend. There were fewer bands that could fill up the 5400-capacity arena, much less for multiple nights. So it was in Bill Graham's interest to get Bay Area rock fans interested in checking out new music in return for low admission prices.
Sounds Of The City
The
stated concept for BGP's "Sounds Of The City" concerts was that they
would feature San Francisco bands on Tuesday night for a $2.00 or $2.50
admission charge. Of course, regular concert prices were about $5.00 or
$6.00, and even with inflation we can't help but chuckle at that.
Nonetheless, it was shrewd. Tuesday night wasn't a big club night, and
the type of band that would headline a nightclub on a weekend was very
likely free on Tuesday night. Also, by having three bands--essentially
all nightclub headliners--the Winterland show was a bargain.
Back
in '74 a lot of rock fans weren't even 21, or at least didn't have a
21-year old girlfriend. So the fact that Winterland didn't require ID,
didn't have a two-drink minimum and offered 3 bands for one admission
was a pretty good deal. There was a bar at Winterland, in fact, in the
rear on the balcony, but the hall wasn't designed for a drinking
clientele. Graham's strategy was clearly to introduce the local rock
audience to some good local bands, and build some local acts that could
play Winterland on weekends when the major touring acts weren't
available. It was an intriguing plan. It almost worked. i.
September 24, 1974 Winterland, San Francisco, CA: Jefferson Starship/Earth Quake/Link Wray/The Rubinoos (Tuesday)
The Bill Graham organization introduced the Sounds Of The City
Tuesday night series with great fanfare. In particular, they promised a
"Surprise Mystery Guest" for the opening night. In fact, it was
Jefferson Starship, playing their first concert with their new lineup.
The band had toured in the Spring of 1974, but the Starship had released
a new album, Dragonfly, in early September. Although no ads
listed the Starship, it was made pretty clear on FM rock radio that they
would be appearing, so Winterland was pretty full. The lineup of
Jefferson Starship was a classic one, the core of the band that would
lead them back to rock and roll prominence
Grace Slick-vocals
Paul Kantner-vocals, rhythm guitar
David Freiberg-vocals, keyboards, bass
Craig Chacuiqo-lead guitar
Papa John Creach-electric violin
Pete Sears-bass, keyboards
John Barbata-drums
Jefferson Starship had toured in the Spring because the members of the Jefferson Airplane were basically broke. Record sales had declined, and their contract with RCA that allowed them unlimited studio time was of course charged against their royalties, so the band members had no cash coming in at all. Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady had refused to reunite with the Airplane for a 1974 tour, so Kantner had put together another band to tour. David Freiberg, recruited in 1972 to take over Marty Balin's vocal parts, had taken over the bass guitar slot. Kantner recruited lead guitarist Craig Chacuico, then not yet 20 years old, from another Grunt act out of Sacramento, called Steelwind. Jorma's brother Peter, also an artist on RCA's Grunt Records label, was signed on as an additional lead guitarist (who also played bass,when Freiberg played organ). The band sounded pretty good, and ticket sales were good, but Peter Kaukonen wasn't a good fit.
The band had sounded pretty good, and ticket sales were good, but Peter Kaukonen hadn't been a good fit. So Kantner left lead guitar duties to Chacuiqo, and signed up was veteran English bassist Pete Sears, recently relocated to the Bay Area. Sears had played with Rod Stewart and many others in London. Sears excelled at both bass and keyboards, freeing up Freiberg to sing. On stage, Freiberg could take the instrument Sears wasn't playing. It made for a good live ensemble. The band's new album Dragonfly was getting plenty of airplay on KSAN, and the album even featured a guest appearance by former Airplane lead singer Marty Balin on the song "Caroline."
The other acts on the initial Tuesday night bill were more typical of the planned Sounds Of The City fare. Earth Quake had formed at Berkeley High School in the 60s as The Purple Earthquake. In 1972, they would release their second album on A&M Records, Why Don't You Try Me. A&M would drop Earth Quake by the end of that year. Earth Quake had refused to give up, however, and lead guitarist Robbie Dunbar and singer John Doukas kept the flag flying.
By 1974, Earth Quake had built up a huge following at the Long Branch, regularly headlining Friday night shows. With their own fan base, they were starting to build a crowd at the Keystone Berkeley as well. Earth Quake played in a somewhat anachronistic "British Invasion" style, but it would end up coming back into fashion. Earth Quake had original material, but they also covered obscure hits from the 60s (like "Friday On My Mind," by the Australian band The Easybeats), so they distinguished themselves from other bands. Earth Quake would resuscitate their career in 1975 by releasing records on their own label, Beserkeley Records, presaging the punk/DIY movement by some years.
Guitarist Link Wray was a Bay Area club act, but he was also a rock legend. Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray (1929-2005) was from Dunn, NC. Wray's first hit was the 1958 guitar instrumental "Rumble," followed later by "Raw-Hide." Way back in the 1950s, Wray was using feedback and distortion, and he pretty much single-handedly invented the power chord. Wray's records were an inspiration to young guitarists like Pete Townshend. By 1971, Wray had moved to the Bay Area.
Wray had recorded for a variety of
labels throughout the sixties, mostly singles. He started to release
albums in the early 70s, mostly recorded at his own 3-track studio in
rural Maryland. In 1973, Polydor had released Be What You Want To,
recorded at Wally Heider Studios. It had all-pro lineup of Bay Area
session heavies, including Jerry Garcia (on pedal steel) and David
Bromberg. In person, Wray usually worked with members of John
Cippolina's bands. sometimes including Cippolina himself. In 1974,
Polydor had released another album, The Link Wray Rumble, again recorded in Maryland.
The Rubinoos
were the junior partners of Earth Quake. The band was led by lead
singer Jon Rubin, and guitarist Tommy Dunbar, brother of Earth Quake's
lead guitarist Robbie Dunbar. The Rubinoos were much poppier and not as
loud as Earth Quake, but their seemingly out-of-date style also became
more popular later in the 1970s (for the record, I saw the Rubinoos in
Berkeley in 1976, and they were great).
The second weekend of Sounds Of The City had a more typical configuration, with three popular acts in the local clubs, but no marquee headliner.
Butch Whacks and His Glass Packs were a 15-piece rock and roll
band dedicated to performing old style rock and roll hits from the 50s
and early 60s. The band got their start as students at St. Mary’s
College in Moraga playing frat parties, and eventually morphed into a
very popular bay area club and theater act.
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| Gideon & Power's only lp, released on Bell Records in 1972 |
Gideon & Power was a high-energy Gospel/Soul band from San Francisco with a dynamic lead singer, Gideon Daniels. and a swinging soul chorus. Their one album (I Gotta Be Me, released on Bell in 1972) featured former AB Skhy guitarist Dennis Geyer and Elvin Bishop keyboardist Stephen Miller. Gideon & Power was a sort of farm team for the Elvin Bishop Group (apparently Elvin and Gideon had been housemates at some point). By 1974, Mickey Thomas was singing in the Power band, and Thomas credits Gideon Daniels with teaching how to sing. Somewhere along this time, Melvin Seals would join on organ, although I don't know if he was already in the band.
Holly Penfield has been a singing star in London and Europe for over 25 years, known for her sophisticated jazz styles. Yet Penfield was a
native of San Francisco, and back in the 1970s, she was writing
her own songs and accompanying herself on piano. At this time, of
course, Carole King was one of the most popular recording artists in the
world, and the singer/songwriter track was a viable one. Penfield
played many club gigs around the Bay Area, but did not thrive until she
went to London and re-invented herself in the 1980s.
October 8, 1974 Winterland, San Francisco, CA: Alice Stuart and Snake/Clover/Steamin' Freeman/Atlanta Rhythm Section (Tuesday)
Atlanta Rhythm Section was not a local band, of course. They were the house band for Studio One in suburban Atlanta. They had just released their third album, Third Annual Pipe Dream, on Polydor. The band's management got them on to the Tuesday night bill in order to showcase the group to San Francisco fans. The local rock critics (the Examiner's Phil Elwood and the Chronicle's Joel Selvin) both mentioned that there was some "controversy" over ARS' booking for a supposedly local forum. This means that band managers complained to the writers, as some sort of backhanded criticism of Bill Graham Presents, since local fans had no such rigid expectations. ARS was actually pretty good, and in 1977 they would have a big hit with "So Into You."
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| Clover's Fourty-Niner album released by Fantasy Records in 1971 |
Clover was a Marin band, but one whose members were really from Marin. Clover had formed in late 1967, out of a group called The Tiny Hearing Aid Company. Fantasy Records, flush with Creedence money, had signed Clover. The band released two poorly-produced but pretty good albums, their self-titled debut in 1970, followed by Fourty-Niner in 1971. Clover was a four-piece band, with lead and pedal steel guitarist John McFee, lead singer and guitarist Alex Call, bassist John Ciambotti and drummer Mitch Howie (McFee, Call and Howie had been in Tiny Hearing Aid). Clover worked out of Mill Valley.
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| Believin'-Alice Stuart & Snake (1972, Fantasy Records) |
Alice Stuart was a fine blues guitarist and singer. Although she was from Seattle, she had been playing in the Bay Area since about 1964. Stuart had performed and recorded in a variety of solo and group settings. Since 1971, she had been leading an electric trio named Snake, and they had released the album Believing on Fantasy Records in 1972. Stuart was still grinding it out in the clubs, and generally well-regarded, but Snake was treading water. Elwood mentioned that Snake was now a quartet, including organist John Detherage.
Steamin' Freeman
included violinist and lead singer Freeman Lockwood and keyboard player
Dorothy Moskowitz. Moskowitz had been in the unique band United States
Of America around 1968, and had toured with Country Joe McDonald for a
few years in the early 70s. The band would release their debut Greatest Hits album on their own Caramba label in 1975.
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| Journey's debut album on Columbia was released in April 1975 |
October 15, 1974 Winterland, San Francisco, CA: Journey/Redwing/Nightshift (Tuesday)
The ensemble that would become Journey had originally come together in early 1973, with the intention of being a studio band like the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (their original name was the Golden Gate Rhythm Section). Guitarist Neal Schon was the anchor, and initially he was going to work with bassist Pete Sears and drummer Gregg Errico. The unit had evolved, however, and once organist Gregg Rolie left Santana to join them, they realized they were a band and not a rhythm section.
Journey had debuted on New Year's Eve, 1973, opening for Santana at Winterland. The band had been Schon on lead guitar, Rolie on organ and vocals, drummer Prairie Prince from The Tubes, and bassist Ross Valory and guitarist George Tickner, both from an obscure Lafayette, CA band Frumious Bandersnatch. A few gigs later, Journey realized they were a real band, and Prairie Prince in turn remained with The Tubes. For a drummer, Journey had recruited the great Aynsley Dunbar, most famously ex-Mothers Of Invention (and Jeff Beck, John Mayall and others). The new Journey had debuted at The Great American Music Hall in February of 1974, and were promptly signed by Columbia. The band had played Winterland a few times as an opening act, but this Tuesday night was their first headline concert booking there in their home city.
Redwing had roots in Sacramento. Some form of the band had been together since 1963. Initially a folk trio (Tim Ron & Tom), then a surf band (The Contenders) and then Beatles-style (The New Breed). When they were signed and moved to Los Angeles, they had released a heavily produced 1968 album as Glad. When bassist Timothy B. Schmidt left to join Poco in 1969, Glad renewed itself as the country rock band Redwing. By 1973, the band had released four albums on Fantasy. Original Contenders members Tom Phillips (guitar, and later pedal steel), Ron Flogel (guitar) and George Hullin (drums) were still in the band, along with bassist Buddy Halsam (who had replaced Andy Samuel, who had replaced Schmidt). Redwing mostly played Bay Area clubs, and their current Fantasy album was Dead Or Alive.
Frank Biner and Nightshift regularly played weeknights at the Keystone Berkeley. Over the course of the 70s, Tower Of Power recorded a few of his songs, and he put out a few albums as a bandleader, but back in '74 Biner was just another guy working the clubs. Biner was originally from Chicago, where he had recorded a few singles, but he had moved to the East Bay in the late 60s.
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| Pablo Cruise's debut album would be released on A&M Records in August 1975 |
October 22, 1974 Winterland, San Francisco, CA: Stoneground/Pablo Cruise/Nimbus (Tuesday)
Stoneground had originally formed in 1970, as the "house band" for Tom Donahue's Medicine Ball Caravan adventure. They had released a few albums, and had built a sort of following, but they had broken up in early 1973. In 1974, the core members re-formed the group. This time, instead of 5 lead singers, there was just one, and initially there were only four band members, fronted by lead guitarist/singer Tim Barnes and organist Fred Webb. Terry Davis was on bass, and Sammy Piazza (ex-Hot Tuna) was the drummer. Although I'm sure they did some of the same songs, the new Stoneground would have only been vaguely similar to the earlier incarnation.
Pablo Cruise had formed in 1973 with veterans from other local bands. Pianist Cory Lerios
and drummer Steve Jenkins, both from Palo Alto, had been in
Stoneground. Bassist Bud Cockrell had been in It's A Beautiful Day, and
guitarist David Jenkins rounded out the group. Jenkins and Cockrell were
the primary singers, but Lerios joined in for harmonies. The band would
release their debut album on A&M Records in 1975. While Pablo
Cruise had a smooth, poppy rock sound, they actually had a more
expansive and flowing live musical style. Lerios in particular was an
excellent pianist and he sounded great in concert. Pablo Cruise was
starting to make a name for themselves locally, even though their debut
album had not yet been released.
Nimbus was a band from
Southern Alameda County (Hayward or Fremont) that had been around since
at least 1970. It seemed to be a pattern at the Sounds Of The City
concerts that two of the bands were at the level where they headlined
the bigger clubs (like the Keystone Berkeley) on weekends, and the third
band was a little lower on the tree.
October 29, 1974 Ali-Foreman fight pay-per-view at Winterland (Tuesday)
Bill Graham Presents used Winterland as a site for a Pay-Per-View showing of the Ali-Foreman fight.
Since the Ali-Foreman fight had taken up Winterland on Tuesday, Sounds Of The City was moved to Thursday. Thursday was Halloween, and no band was more San Francisco-on-Halloween than The Tubes.
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| Tubes lead singer Fee Waybill as Quay Lewd, ca 1974-75, probably singing "White Punks On Dope" |
The Tubes' members were from Phoenix, AZ. Initially, some of them had been in a band called The Beans (guitarist Bill Spooner, organist Vince Welnick, bassist Rick Anderson) that had moved to San Francisco in late 1970 and had even played the Fillmore West Tuesday audition night under that name. They played jammed out blues-rock, like every other aspiring Fillmore band. Some members quit, however, so two other Phoenix musicians (drummer Prairie Prince and guitarist Roger Steen) joined the band in March, 1972, and the band changed their name.
The Tubes played a sort of progressive rock, quite well, but with satiric lyrics and an engaging stage show. Their roadie John "Fee" Waybill had taken over as lead singer. Prince's art school pal Michael Cotten was added on synthesizer, as well as chief creator of props. The group were supposedly quite popular in gay bars, normally not a money making proposition for long-haired rock bands. In an era where every San Francisco band stared at their guitars and talked about how much they loved the blues, The Tubes were raving about "White Punks On Dope."
Unlike every other San Francisco band, The Tubes played neither jamming blues nor funky soul. More importantly, all of their songs featured Fee wearing different costumes and inhabiting different personas. In the early days, many of the props and costumes were just made out of cardboard, but The Tubes were genuinely theatrical in a way that was unlike any other San Francisco band. In effect, each song was a miniature live music video, but of course MTV was still 8 years in the future. It's hard to fathom today how far ahead of their time The Tubes were back in /74.
By Fall 1974, The Tubes were getting noticed on the club circuit. The Tubes had opened for Led Zeppelin at Kezar Stadium in 1973, and also for a few Winterland shows. In the Sunday Chronicle of July14, 1974 critic Joel Selvin had devoted a whole column to them. Selvin's column introduced the Tubes to the Bay Area music public at large--I had never heard of them before that--even though they had no recordings. The Tubes were soon signed by A&M, and would release their debut album in the Fall of 1975.
A unique feature of the Tuesday night Sounds Of The City shows was that
professional audio and sometimes even video of the performances has been
retained. Always ahead of his time, Bill Graham had a black-and-white
video screens set up behind the stage at Winterland, broadcasting close-ups of the musicians as they performed. We take that for granted, and expect it in color and
hi-def, but even grainy B&W closeups of the guitarist's fingers were
revelatory in 1974. Many of these videos are now accessible at Wolfgang's Vault, on YouTube and the site itself (many more of the tapes
were lost in a 1985 Bill Graham fire, sadly). The Tubes Halloween '74 show is accessible, and it's so far ahead of it's time that it seems contemporary.
The Tubes made for particularly good video, obviously, and their 1974
and '75 Winterland shows were regularly broadcast between sets at other
Winterland shows until the old ice rink closed.
I know that Lightyear
was a local progressive rock band, so they probably fit in with the
Tubes sound, if not their stage act. I think Crossfire was a Marin band.
November 5, 1974 Winterland, San Francisco, CA: Chepito/Dakila/Mingo (Tuesday)
All three of the bands had direct links to San Francisco Latin Rock and Santana.
Jose "Chepito" Areas had been the timbales player in the Woodstock version of Santana. When the band had gone through numerous personnel changes in the early 70s, Chepito had gone solo. In 1974, he had released an album on Columbia.
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| Dakila's 1972 debut album on Epic Records |
Conguero James "Mingo" Lewis had joined the Santana band under emergency circumstances in New York in 1971, and ultimately moved to San Francisco. Mingo was a regular contributor to numerous albums in the San Francisco studios. He was also a regular part of guitarist Al DiMeola's touring band (and albums) for several years in the 1970s, and in 1977 he would join The Tubes.
In 1974, however, Mingo also formed his own fusion jazz band, with some very heavy players. The band included Alameda, CA guitarist Pat Thrall, ex-Cookin' Mama (and later in Automatic Man and the Pat Travers Band), bassist Brian Godula (ex-Stoneground), drummer Chuck Burgi (later Brand X and Rainbow) and keyboard player Kincaid Miller (Sapo).
Joy Of Cooking had been a Berkeley band, founded in 1969. The leaders were guitarist Terry Garthwaite and pianist Toni Brown, both of whom sang and wrote. What distinguished Joy Of Cooking was that while Garthwaite and Brown were fine singers and songwriters, they rocked pretty hard as well. Joy Of Cooking had long improvised sections between verses, just like bands with boys in them. Joy Of Cooking had established themselves at Mandrake's, playing weeknights. By 1972, they had released their third album for Capitol, Castles. While locally popular, they hadn't been able to get over the hump and they had disbanded.
In 1973, however, Brown and Garthwaite reconvened and recorded an album in Nashville (Cross Country, also on Capitol). Toni Brown also released a Nashville album in 1974 (Good For You). By the end of 1974, they were touring together. At this time, their emphasis was more on the singer/songwriter side, rather than the danceable jam music of Joy Of Cooking.
Anna Rizzo had been in the Berkeley band Sky Blue in the 60s. While she sang and wrote, typical of the "chick singers" of 60s Berkeley bands, Rizzo also played drums. In the 70s, Rizzo largely played with Country Joe McDonald in his All-Star Band, mostly as a drummer. In 1974, she fronted her own band, Anna Rizzo and The A-Train. The band featured veterans of many other Berkeley ensembles:
Anna Rizzo - lead vocals
Phil Greenberg - guitar, vocals
Carl Natt - saxophone
Tucki Bailey - saxophone, flute, vocals
Austin DeLone- piano
John Dunstan - bass
Jay David - drums
Some audio from the BGP vaults has persisted as well. Thus, remarkably, even though Anna Rizzo And The A-Train never released an album, and was only together for a short time, a professionally recorded live tape is just a few clicks away. Pretty good music for $2.00 on a Tuesday night.
Opening act Yazoo is unknown to me.
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| Yesterday & Today, probably from the late 1970s |
November 19, 1974 Winterland, San Francisco, CA: Link Wray/Nimbus/Yesterday & Today (Tuesday)
Link Wray returned to a Tuesday night show, this time as an implicit headliner. Nimbus also returned.
Yesterday & Today, later famous in the 80s as Y&T, were a
hard rock band from Oakland. For whatever reasons, they are always
associated with Hayward, but they were actually founded in Oakland. When
Y&T hit it big in the 80s, they were somewhat lumped in with Heavy
Metal--I saw them at Heavy Metal Day On The Green in the mid-80s with Motley Crue and
Poison, for example--but they actually preceded the genre.
Yesterday & Today had been formed in Oakland in 1972, as a cover band. The name was chosen because that Beatles' album happened to be on the turntable when they got a call for their first booking. At some point, guitarist Dave Meniketti joined, and they started playing original material. Yesterday & Today sounded more or less in the vein of Humble Pie, loud and rocking, with high energy vocals, but still playing within a song structure. In the 70s, at least, the band did not fall into the cliche of playing elaborate little hooks that were sort of "pseudo-prog" (one of the marks of latter metal bands).
The band would play all over the Bay Area and open for numerous Winterland concerts in the next several years, even though they did not rise to success until the 80s. Their first album would be released on London Records in 1976. Ultimately they changed their name to Y&T when they signed with A&M in 1980. They would finally hit it big with their sixth album, In Rock We Trust.
November 26, 1974 Winterland, San Francisco, CA: Earth Quake/Grayson Street/Soundhole (Tuesday)
Earth Quake returned, a clear sign that Graham was trying to establish bands as regular performers, not just showcase them once.
Grayson Street were a sort of roots-rock band from the East Bay. They were co-led by harmonica player Rick Kellogg and tenor saxophonist Terry Hanck, both of whom sang. Grayson Street never recorded, but many of its members ended up working with Elvin Bishop, Coke Escovedo, Tower Of Power, Santana and others. Lenny Pickett had been in Grayson Street, prior to answering the call from Tower. Grayson Street played Berkeley's Long Branch even more often than Earth Quake (Grayson Street was actually a short street near the Branch).
Soundhole was a Marin County band that had formed around 1973. In 1974, Soundhole had hired on as Van Morrison's backing band, so they had a certain status around the Bay Area, even if they had never made an album. Soundhole played rock with some jazz and soul edges, appropriately enough in the style of mid-70s Van Morrison. Soundhole never did make an album, but a 50-minute professional video of this performance has been preserved. Most of the band members went on to bigger things. Guitarist Brian Marnell was in SVT (with Jack Casady), organist John Farey was in Zero, and saxophonist Johnny Colla, bassist Mario Cipollina and drummer Bill Gibson would go on to Huey Lewis and The News (tenor saxophonist Brian Hogan was the other member). Soundhole were pretty good, if not well-known.
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| Booker T (Jones of Booker T and The MGs) Evergreen album, released by Epic Records in 1974 |
December 3, 1974 Winterland, San Francisco, CA: Stoneground/Booker T/Dave Alexander (Tuesday)
This show was reviewed by local writer Jack McDonough in Billboard.
Stoneground returned, having added two lead singers. Annie Sampson had been an original member of Stoneground, and Jo Baker had sung in Elvin Bishop's band from 1968 to '73. So with those two and lead guitarist Tim Barnes handling the vocal chores, Stoneground would have had a sound closer to their original front line (which had 5 lead singers).
While Booker T Jones was nationally famous from leading Booker T and The MGs, he in fact lived in the Bay Area at this time. He had left Stax Records and the MGs, and had been living in the North Bay with his wife, Priscilla Coolidge (Rita's sister). Booker T and Priscilla had put out two albums on A&M in 1972 and '73. In 1974, Booker T made a solo album for Epic under his own name. Evergreen had been recorded at the Record Plant in Sausalito, but with heavyweight session men from LA and Memphis (Michael Utley, David T. Walker, Jim Keltner, Bobbye Hall, Bob Glaub). Booker T's band featured Bay Area players: Fred Burton on guitar (ex-Southern Comfort), Doug Kilmer on bass and Pete Melios on drums. Burton and Kilmer were veterans of the San Francisco studio scene, although there were far fewer paying session gigs than their had been a few years earlier. Drummer Melios, meanwhile, had been discovered in some bar.
Oakland-based blues pianist Dave Alexander was actually from
Shreveport, LA. He had moved to Oakland in 1957, after a stint in the US
Navy. He was a largely self-taught piano player, although he had played
with many blues artists. In 1973, he had released his second solo album
on Berkeley's Arhoolie Records, Dirt On The Ground. Often,
Alexander played solo, itself a rarity on the local blues scene, but
McDonough reported that he played as a trio, with a rhythm section.
December 10, 1974 Winterland, San Francisco, CA: Clover/Rowan Brothers/Nielson-Pearson (Tuesday)
Clover returned.
Also on the bill was a revised version of the Rowan Brothers. Chris and Lorin Rowan were a singer/songwriter duo that had been signed to Columbia Records. Their producer was David Grisman, and thanks to that connection, Jerry Garcia got involved. The Rowan Brothers were one of the early 70s bands loosely associated with the Grateful Dead. As a result, Garcia played a few live shows with them and played on their record. The duo's 1972 debut on Columbia was promoted with a sincere, but unfortunate quote from Garcia implying that the Rowan Brothers could be the next Beatles.
The Rowan Brothers were dropped by Columbia in mid-1973 when Clive Davis was pushed out of the company. By mid-74, Chris and Lorin had teamed up with their older brother Peter. The band name was nominally "The Rowans" but just as often they were called the Rowan Brothers. Peter, too, had a critical Grisman/Garcia connection. Grisman and the younger Rowans had moved to Stinson Beach in 1971, so when Rowan left his band Seatrain in 1972, he moved in with them. Peter and David Grisman liked to play bluegrass together and--guess what?--a banjo player lived just up the hill. So Grisman, Jerry Garcia and Peter Rowan had played bluegrass together as Old And In The Way. That band, too, had slid away, and Peter's attempts to get a solo contract didn't reach fruition, so he teamed up with his brothers. The trio would release albums with Asylum starting in 1975.
The Nielsen-Pearson band had its roots in Sacramento. Guitarist Mark Pearson had been in the band Sanpaku, part of the Bill Graham stable in 1969. Sanpaku was an intriguing band with a great history, but they had disintegrated by 1970. Reed Nielsen, mainly a songwriter, had also been a drummer in various Sacramento bands. Nielsen-Pearson would release three albums between 1978 and 80.
Guitarist Les Dudek, who had become well known in the
Bay Area as part of Boz Scaggs' band, was listed in the original ad,
but had been replaced by Nielsen-Pearson.
Moby Grape had reformed, and not for the first or last time. Jerry Miller and Peter Lewis were on guitars, along with Santa Cruz songwriter Jeff Blackburn. Bob Mosely was on bass, and Johnny Craviotto was on drums. Blackburn, Mosley and Craviotto would go on to perform stealth shows in Santa Cruz with Neil Young in 1977 as The Ducks, and Blackburn would write "My My Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)" with Neil.
This Tuesday night show was canceled, however. Lucky Strike was bluesy East Bay band, but I don't know anything about Frisco Kids.
January 7, 1975 Winterland, San Francisco, CA: Mike Bloomfield/Howard Wales/Raw Soul (Tuesday)
The
first Sounds Of The City concert of 1975 had a trio that symbolically
reflected the state of San Francisco music at the time: a genuine star
past his prime, a uniquely talented artist who would never make it, and a
rising band that was still some years away from selling huge numbers of
records and a monumentally successful career. Phil Elwood reviewed the
show in the next night's Examiner.
Guitarist Mike Bloomfield was a genuine rock guitar hero, by any accounting. By 1975, however, he was such a regular at Bay Area nightclubs and smaller venues that the glow of his stardom was tarnished, particularly to younger rock fans who did not recall the Butterfield Blues Band or Super Session. Bloomfield played with a regular, but rotating, set of sidemen, but he never rehearsed. Thus his performances were comfortable but sloppy. I myself saw him in mid-1974 (opening for Jesse Colin Young at Stanford University) and there were a few stunning moments punctuating an otherwise shaky performance. Per Elwood, his Winterland lineup had singer Nick Gravenites, Mark Naftalin (ex-Butterfield) on piano, Roger "Jellyroll" Troy on bass and vocals, George Rains on drums (which was the lineup I had seen at Stanford the year before) and the surprising appearance of Barry Goldberg (ex-Electric Flag) on organ. I'm sure Bloomfield was his usual erratic, engaging self, but this wouldn't have been anything special to regular Bay Area concert-goers.
Organist Howard Wales was known for having played with Jerry Garcia at the Matrix back in 1970. Wales had even released the album Hooteroll?, featuring Garcia, on Douglas Records back in 1971. Wales, with a long history playing rock, blues and jazz in the 60s, in Cincinnati, El Paso and San Francisco, played some seriously out-there music and was a huge influence on Garcia. He had stepped aside, however, leaving Merl Saunders the opportunity to be Garcia's alternate partner. Nonetheless, Wales would periodically leave his cocoon. Elwood reported that Wales' band on this night featured expatriate Chicago guitarist Jim Vincent, who had played with Wales often in prior years.
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| Frankie Beverly and Raw Soul, sometime in the mid-1970s. Raw Soul, though from Philadelphia, was based in San Francisco at the time. They would go on to huge success after they changed their name to Maze around 1977. |
Frankie Beverly was from Philadelphia, and he had recorded some singles in the 60s as part of The Butlers. In 1970, he had gotten signed by ace producer Kenny Gamble, and had formed a group called Raw Soul. Raw Soul recorded a few singles, but wasn't right for the smooth sound created by Gamble, however. Somehow, Raw Soul had gotten support from Marvin Gaye, and they ended up relocating to San Francisco. Raw Soul toured around with Gaye, who suggested they change their name to Maze. Maze would release their first album in 1977, and the band remains a huge success, still touring in the present day.
January 14, 1975 Winterland, San Francisco, CA: Kingfish/Valley Boys/Little Roger and The Goosebumps (Tuesday)
Kingfish
had already existed for several months, but they had taken on a new importance
by adding Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir. The Grateful Dead had given
up performing after some Winterland shows in October, 1974. Matthew
Kelly, a childhood friend of Weir's, had formed Kingfish with his old
pal Dave Torbert back in April. Torbert, the bassist for the New Riders
of The Purple Sage from 1970-73, had grown frustrated with the band and
joined the new group with Kelly. Kelly and Torbert had been in various obscure 60s bands together.
The other Kingfish members were young Los Altos hotshot Robbie
Hoddinott on lead guitar, drummer Chris Herold and pianist Mick Ward.
Ward, sadly, had died in auto accident, and Weir's serendipitous arrival
in the Fall of 1974 had filled the void in Kingfish's sound.
After quietly sitting in with Kingfish on the Peninsula in November, Bob Weir had comparatively high profile bookings at Keystone Berkeley on December 29 and in Palo Alto on New Year's Eve. Even though Weir and Torbert were well-known commodities, Kingfish was a new band. Headlining a Sounds Of The City Winterland concert was a cheap way for prospective fans to check out the new group. There's a nice board tape circulating--Kingfish played a 50-minute set of mostly covers, with Weir and Torbert splitting lead vocal duties.
From various club listings, I know the Valley Boys played some kind of country rock. Presumably they were from the San Joaquin (Sacramento) or Central Valley.
Little Roger and The Goosebumps were a poppy rock group with an
arch sense of humor. They were led by guitarist and singer Roger Clark,
and violinist Dick Bright. In later years, their showstopper was a version of the theme
song to the TV show
"Gilligan's Island," done to the tune of "Stairway To Heaven." I saw the
Goosebumps open at Winterland in 1977 (for Thin Lizzy and Graham Parker), and
when they did "Stairway To Gilligan's Island" the house went batshit
crazy (I can't link it, because the song was blocked for copyright reasons--but you gotta trust me). The group had just formed in 1975 and they weren't doing "Stairway To Gilligan's Island" yet.
January 18, 1975 Winterland, San Francisco, CA: Journey/Yesterday & Today/Fever (Saturday)
Journey
and Yesterday & Today had both played Sounds Of The City concerts
previously. It's worth noting that a decade later, Journey plus Y&T
would have been a major arena booking. The intriguing thing about this
show was that it was on a Saturday, rather than a Tuesday. There weren't
many bands on tour in January 1975, so this show was the only
Winterland event for the weeking.
It's easy to discern Bill
Graham's thinking here, and he was fairly prescient. Although rock
concerts were becoming bigger business, correspondingly there were fewer
events. Graham was trying to encourage local rock fans to come see
local bands for what amounted to half the cost (or less) of a major
show. Whatever you personally think of the music of Journey or Y&T,
they were going to become hugely popular, so these were worthwhile
bargain shows. The scheme to regularly hold Winterland concerts for
half-price would never reach traction, for a variety of reasons, but it
was a good plan, and would have created a parallel track to the larger
events that Graham regularly held anyway.
Fever is unknown to me.
January 31, 1975 Winterland, San Francisco, CA: Kiss/Eli/Third Rail (Friday)
Two weeks after the Saturday night Journey concert, there was a whole weekend of Sounds Of The City concerts. The Friday night show, of course, was headlined by an out-of-town band, yet it was telling that it was advertised as Sounds Of The City.
Rock at the time, and particularly in San Francisco, was predicated on
being new and happening. "Sounds Of The City," as a tag, was meant to
encourage patrons that they were cool and on top of it, which is what
San Franciscans like to hear.
Kiss was a New York city band that had released their second album in November 1974 (Hotter Than Hell, on Casablanca). Kiss was as un-San Francisco band as you can imagine. They played loud, hard rock, they wore elaborate white-face stage makeup, they had all sorts of stage props, and unlike the Tubes it wasn't ironic. There were loud guitar solos, but no jamming. Kiss received no discernible airplay on any Bay Area radio station. They were popular on the East Coast at this time, but not yet out West.
I was in High School at this time. A few friends of mine liked Kiss, so I had heard the records. I thought the records sounded dumb and their makeup looked stupid. But the sister of one of my friends would drive us to Winterland in the big family station wagon, and it was only $2.00. As a High Schooler, I would go to literally any concert I could get to, if I had the money, so despite my distaste for Kiss, I was definitely in. I joined several of my friends in the big car, and the big sister found a parking space in the seedy neighborhood around Winterland.
Eli and Third Rail opened the show, but I don't really recall much about them. One of them was a power trio. Neither were terrible, neither were memorable. By the time Kiss came on stage, Winterland was still awfully empty. There was a clump of several hundred people near the stage, and a few people in the seats. I think the balcony was closed off. In a dark arena, it's hard to tell about attendance--perhaps there were 1000 people, perhaps 2000 at most. Kiss came out and did their full show, dry ice, spitting fire, flashing lights, loud guitars. The crowd, modest as it was, was very enthusiastic.
Now, to be clear--all my opinions of Kiss were confirmed by this concert. If anything, their songs were dumber in person, and whether by accident or design they sounded like a band that could barely play. The "stage show" was idiotic. I have had contempt for Kiss and their music ever since.
I had a great time. It was two dollars spectacularly well spent. For ever and ever--even now--I could say "yeah, I saw Kiss way back when for two bucks and they were terrible then, they haven't changed." In that respect, it showed the value of these Sounds Of The City shows. Instead of feeling like your money was wasted by a bad show, you felt like you were experimenting. That was what a nightclub was for, but I was far too young to go to any nightclub, so it was a great Saturday night. My friends loved the show, but I just laughed at them (it was High School).
The show did not
run late, probably only until about 11:00pm. We walked back to the car
only to find someone in the process of breaking into it. It was a weird
moment which fortunately ended without any trouble (there were five of
us, but we were skinny suburban teenagers). Incidents like that were
what made people from the suburbs leery about Winterland, one of the
reasons that the cleverly conceived Sounds Of The City concerts couldn't gain enough traction.
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| Eddie Money, ca 1977 |
February 1, 1975 Winterland, San Francisco, CA: Earth Quake/Nimbus/Eddie Money (Saturday)
Earth Quake and Nimbus both returned to Sounds Of The City. New to the program was East Bay singer Eddie Money (note the incorrect spelling of "Eddy" in the newspaper ad above). Transplanted former NYPD trainee Eddie Mahoney had become the lead singer of The Rockets in 1972, and they regularly played the Long Branch in Berkeley. By 1974, they were Eddie Money and The Rockets, and by 1975 they were just Eddie Money. They regularly packed them in on weekends at the relatively small Berkeley Long Branch and other East Bay clubs.
This first bite of the Winterland apple was critical for
Money's career. By the end of 1975, Bill Graham would be Eddie Money's
manager, and by 1977 he would have huge nationwide hits like "Baby Hold
On To Me" and "Two Tickets To Paradise." Money (1949-2019) had various
health issues, but he went on to have a hugely successful career. Eddie Money was just one of plenty of soon-to-be-successful performers working in San Francisco at
the time.
Terry Dolan (1943-2012) had arrived in San Francisco in 1965 during the Haight Ashbury hippie migration and began his music career as a guitar-strumming folk singer in North Beach clubs and coffee houses. Warner Brothers had signed Dolan as a songwriter in 1970, and Nicky Hopkins (then living in the Bay Area) had been signed as a producer. Hopkins then left to tour with the Rolling Stones, and the album had been finished by Pete Sears, another transplanted English pianist. The album was completed in 1972. Though a catalog number was assigned, an album cover photo shot, and art designed -- there was even a publicity campaign in place -- Warner decided not to release the recording and subsequently dropped Dolan from its roster without explanation.
In 1973, Dolan had formed Terry And The Pirates,
anchored by guitarists John Cipollina and Greg Douglass. Other members
rotated in and out, including Nicky Hopkins when he was in town. The
band was inherently part-time, but they knew Dolan's material. For a
band that did not record until the 1980s (on various independent
labels), Terry And The Pirates was fairly high profile, performing live
shows on KSAN and getting airplay from tracks of those shows. The exact
lineup for this weekend's show is unknown, although Cippolina and
Douglas can be assumed. David Hayes (also with Van Morrison and many
others) was a regular bassist, and drummers included Greg Elmore or
Spencer Dryden.
Shadowfax was a Marin band, but I don't know much about them.
February 21, 1975 Winterland, San Francisco, CA: Tubes/Hoodoo Rhythm Devils/Fleshtones (Friday)
The Tubes had opened a number of regular shows at Winterland throughout 1974, and had headlined a Halloween Thursday Sounds Of The City
(above). Although still without a record, they had already performed
live on KSAN, and there was a definite buzz about them. Now they
headlined Winterland on a Friday night. This video circulates as well.
The Hoodoo Rhythm Devils were a funky rock band from San Francisco.
They were apparently great live, and much beloved by their fans, but
they never got over the top. In the early 70s, they were led by singer
Joe Crane and lead guitarist John Rewind. The band released an album for
Capitol in 1971, and two for Blue Thumb in '72 and '73, and then broke
up by 1974. By 1975, the band had gotten back together. They
would record an album in 1975 that did not get released, before
releasing two more albums on Fantasy in '76 and '78, and then breaking
up again. I'm not precisely certain who was in the band at this time,
other than Joe Crane.
March 1, 1975 Winterland, San Francisco, CA: Link Wray/Yesterday & Today/Eddie Money (Saturday)
The Sounds Of The City
program ended with two weekend nights in March (Dave Mason had been
booked as the headliner on Friday, February 28, but that show was
canceled). All three Saturday night bands were returnees. Link Wray was a
legend, and both Y&T and Eddie Money would go on to huge success in
later years. Sounds Of The City did not find traction, probably
mainly due to the crumbling arena in a seedy neighborhood, but the idea
didn't fail due to lack of soon-to-be-popular bands.
March 2, 1975 Winterland, San Francisco, CA: Kingfish/Terry and The Pirates/West (Sunday)
Kingfish
returned, and this time New Riders of The Purple Sage pedal steel
guitarist Buddy Cage sat in. Alice Stuart had been booked, but Joel
Selvin reported that her new band wasn't ready, so Terry And The Pirates
returned as well. West is unknown to me (there had been a 60s band called West, with guitarist Ron Cornelius, but they were different).
The Sounds Of The City program was discontinued by Bill Graham Presents with little fanfare. Nonetheless, the idea of cheaper concerts to give fans a chance to see new groups had one last intriguing fare-thee-well. The band Queen had just released their 3rd Elektra album Sheer Heart Attack in November of 1974. At the time, Queen was framed as a sort of Led Zeppelin-type band with Beach Boys harmonies, with a bit of a prog-rock overlay. They were getting some airplay on FM radio, but by and large the Bay Area rock market was still more about hippies and jamming, and less about Glam and hard rock, so Queen was a bit outside the circle. For whatever reasons, Bill Graham Presents booked Queen as a Sunday night headliner for just $3.00. Besides Canadian trio Mahogany Rush, the openers were Yesterday & Today, regulars from Sounds Of The City (and, by this time, other Winterland shows).
In a very similar replay to the Kiss concert several weeks earlier, two of my best friends really liked Queen (these were not the ones who liked Kiss) and were determined to go. I was going along, no question, live rock and roll in any form was all I asked. I had heard the Sheer Heart Attack album (and its predecessor Queen II) and thought they were OK, but it wasn't my thing. Since I had hated Kiss and had had a great time, I was looking forward to the concert no matter what.
I found Y&T sort of dumb. Mahogany Rush (touring behind their second album Child Of The Novelty) were talented, but guitarist Frank Marino just seemed like a Hendrix knock-off. Queen, much to my surprise, were just great. Brian May absolutely killed it as a guitarist, Freddie Mercury had an engaging presence on stage and their songs had a lot more power in concert. There was a little dry ice and some flashing lights, but the band was about music and they could really, really play. I went for fun with my friends, because it was cheap, and came away a big fan (of course, when I saw Queen 15 months later in Berkeley, with the same friends, for the Night At The Opera tour, I was turned off by the advanced theatricality, and missed the long guitar solos. But it was fun while it lasted).
The
low-priced concert concept could have worked, but the stars did not
particularly align in San Francisco. Parking was bad near Winterland,
and the neighborhood wasn't appealing. Yes, there was a racist undertone
to suburbanites fear of a largely African-American neighborhood, but
such were the 1970s. Within a few years, the rock audience would get
older and start preferring nightclubs for checking out new bands, and
the economics of liquor made that more viable. The Sounds Of The City
program was a final whiff of the old Fillmore days, by the proprietor
of the Fillmore. Lots of bands that went on to success played the
concerts--just as such bands had played the Fillmore--but the idea could
not sustain itself.
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