Saturday, August 14, 2010

660 Great Highway, San Francisco Family Dog On The Great Highway: December 12-14, 1969 Canned Heat/Rhythm Dukes (w/Jerry Miller)/Bob McPharlin


(A brief article and a clip from Ralph Gleason's column from the Friday, December 12, 1969 San Francisco Chronicle)
Family Dog: Canned Heat and Bob McPharlin will appear tonight and tomorrow night at the Family Dog on the Great Highway next to Playland. Canned Heat is now featuring Harvey Mandel.
Ad Libs: At the Lion's Share, San Anselmo (F&S), Joy of Cooking, Personal Friends, Jim Trout: Sun: Thompson Brothers...at the Family Dog (F, S&S) Canned Heat (w. Harvey Mandel, Rhythm Dukes (w. Jerry Miller), Bob McPharlin...at the Both And (F, S&S) Big Black...at the Loma Prieta Ballroom (SJ State, Sat.) Mike Bloomfield, Nick Gravenites
In line with some recent research I have done on rather obscure shows at the Family Dog On The Great Highway, also known as Family Dog At The Beach, at 660 Great Highway in San Francisco, some tapes from that venue have surfaced. One tape in particular appears to have The Rhythm Dukes on one side and Canned Heat on the other, and the helpful soul who is circulating the tape was unable to date it precisely, but I can go a long way towards locking it down. Canned Heat and the Rhythm Dukes played the Family Dog on the weekend of December 12-14, 1969, and there is every reason to believe that both these performances on the tape come from one of those nights.

The Canned Heat tape was identified as in the 69-70 period, based on the band's personnel: Bob Hite (vocals), Harvey Mandel (lead guitar), Alan Wilson (guitar, harmonica, vocals), Larry Taylor (bass) and Fito Parra (drums).  Serious Family Dog collectors were aware of the Family Dog poster advertising Canned Heat and Bob McPharlin at the Dog (FD19691212), even though the artist is unknown. The tape of Canned Heat's performance is excellent, similar in style to their 1970 album Live In Europe.

The Rhythm Dukes tape is a considerably more exotic bird. The Rhythm Dukes are mostly known today as a short collaboration between Jerry Miller of Moby Grape and Bill Champlin, when both Moby Grape and The Sons were on hiatus. A fine cd was released privately, albeit somewhat officially, recorded in April 1970. Although Bill Champlin appears to have played a show with the Rhythm Dukes as early as January 7, 1970 at the Matrix, he did not join up with them regularly until after The Sons "Farewell" appearance at the Contra Costa Fairgrounds on February 21, 1970 (I realize The Sons are still playing today, but Ralph Gleason reported it as a sort of farewell in anticipation of a 5-month hiatus). 

The Family Dog Dukes tape sounds quite different from the Champlin/Miller version of the band. The person in possession of it sent it to Bill Champlin, who reported that it was indeed the Rhythm Dukes but that Champlin was not yet a member, which explains why Miller is reported as the only vocalist. This also helps to date the tape somewhat, as well. The original formulation of The Rhythm Dukes featured both Miller and fellow Graper Don Stevenson, along with bassist John Barrett and drummer Fuzzy Oxendine, all of whom shared a house in Felton in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Although Stevenson had been the drummer in Moby Grape, he played guitar and shared vocals in the Dukes. The original Rhythm Dukes did one tour in the Summer of 1969, but they were often billed as Moby Grape, much to their dismay. Sometime in the Fall, Stevenson left the group. Since Stevenson (nor anyone else, apparently) sings lead on the tape, this dates it to the period between Stevenson and Champlin.

The Rhythm Dukes mostly played in the Santa Cruz Mountains and the South Bay, and this show at the Family Dog seems to be one of their earlier forays into San Francisco. The band appears to be a five-piece on the tape: Miller on lead guitar and vocals, bass and drums (surely Barrett and Oxendine), a sax player and someone alternating between guitar and electric piano. I can only speculate on the identity of the last two players. Saxophone can be a relatively easy instrument to make a guest appearance, so it may have been just a friend sitting in. Oxendine and Barrett had been in a band called Boogie that rehearsed with the Sons at Sausalito Heliport, and there were two sax players in the group, apparently called Goose and Crow, so perhaps one of them was part of the group.

As to the keyboard/guitar player, a likely suspect might be Dale Ockerman. Ockerman is a fine player on both keyboards and guitar, and acknowledges jamming with Miller at the time. I had been under the impression he replaced Champlin in late 1970, but perhaps he also preceded him as well. Ockerman lived in Boulder Creek and attended Pacific High School (too much of a digression to explain here), but being only 16 at the time may have been an unwise choice for a band of professionals looking to play bars. When Ockerman turned 18 in 1971, he went on the road as a member of Quicksilver Messenger Service.

The Rhythm Dukes had a reunion at a club called The Crow's Nest on September 25, 1992. Champlin, Miller and Oxendine played, and I believe Dale Ockerman did as well. Certainly Ockerman participated with Jerry Miller at the Summer of Love 'Reunion' in 2007. So Ockerman seems as likely as anyone to be the mystery member of The Rhythm Dukes at The Family Dog in December of 1969.

Some Notes About February 20-21, 1970
For the tiny universe of people concerned with Sons Of Champlin Performance History (probably just me), it has always been troublesome that there was a Family Dog poster for February 20-21, 1970 (above) featured both Big Brother and The Holding Company and the Rhythm Dukes with Bill Champlin and Jerry Miller. Since I had discovered that the Sons were booked at Berkeley Community Theater on February 20 with The Youngbloods and February 21 at Contra Costa Fairgrounds (in Antioch), I had always wondered about the conflict. Newspaper research resolved the problem, however.

Ralph Gleason reported in his February 18, 1970 column that the Sons were taking a break from performing. Ralph Gleason also reported in his Friday, February 20 Chronicle column that The Family Dog will feature Big Brother along with Cat Mother and The All Nite Newsboys. Since Gleason also reviews the Sons performance in Berkeley, there can be no doubt the Sons played Berkeley and Antioch, and the Rhythm Dukes were replaced at the Family Dog by Cat Mother. Since Gleason alludes to Champlin joining the Rhythm Dukes when the Sons go on a planned 5-month break, I have to assume some well-paying bookings came up at the last minute and Champlin delayed joining the Rhythm Dukes for a few weeks.

11 comments:

  1. Corry if you interested in Sons Of Champlin Performance History take a look on my blog "San Francisco Sound" because I recently posted both Sons Of Champlin's "Performance List" and "Family Tree".

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  2. A few corrections about The Rhythm Dukes:

    Corry: "Sometime in the Fall, Stevenson left the group. Since Stevenson (nor anyone else, apparently) sings lead on the tape"

    Bruno: "Don Stevenson left the band in August 1969 (Summer not Fall). Jerry Miller sings lead on the tape not Don Stevenson"

    Corry: "The Rhythm Dukes mostly played in the Santa Cruz Mountains and the South Bay, and this show at the Family Dog seems to be one of their earlier forays into San Francisco"

    Bruno: "The Rhythm Dukes had been playing in San Francisco and at the Family Dog before then, because they already played there on September 26-28, 1969"

    Corry: "I can only speculate on the identity of the last two players. Saxophone can be a relatively easy instrument to make a guest appearance, so it may have been just a friend sitting in. Oxendine and Barrett had been in a band called Boogie that rehearsed with the Sons at Sausalito Heliport, and there were two sax players in the group, apparently called Goose and Crow, so perhaps one of them was part of the group. As to the keyboard/guitar player, a likely suspect might be Dale Ockerman. Ockerman is a fine player on both keyboards and guitar, and acknowledges jamming with Miller at the time. I had been under the impression he replaced Champlin in late 1970, but perhaps he also preceded him as well".

    Bruno: "(a) Goose and Crow never played with Boogie. (b) The band at that time was officialy a five-piece line-up with Jerry, John, Fuzzy + Ned Torney (rhythm guitar and electric piano) and Henry 'Rick' Garcia (tenor sax). (c) Dale Ockerman was never an official member of the band, he only jammed with them during rehearsal"

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  3. Bruno, thanks for the great research and Comments about the Rhythm Dukes. Wasn't Ned Torney in The Other Side and the original (1965) Chocolate Watch Band?

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  4. right Corry!, Ned Torney was the founding member of the Chocolate Watchband and later joined The Other Side, but before this bands he played with 'Fuzzy John' Oxendine in a teen rock band when they were kids.

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  5. The posters, handbills actually, for both the Canned Heat & Bob McPharlin and the Big Brother & Rhythm Dukes shows were done by "Fly By Night Grafix" which was Ken Poli and myself.

    Ken did the actual artwork, drawings, hand lettering and such and I did the "found art" and presstype lettering.

    I was the sound man for the FDGH and Ken did all sorts of odd jobs around the venue.

    Money was tight and Chet couldn't afford to pay "real" poster artists at that time.

    We also did the Lonnie Mack/AB Skhy and the flyer picturing "Millard the Wonder Horse" which was not the name of the band but a backhanded reference to the booking agency that was part of Bill Graham Presents.

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  6. The "unknown" artist, Bob McPharlin was my nephew through marriage. He was an amazing musician.

    He moved to Pennsylvania and opened a small music store, McPharlin Music Shop, with his wife, Shelley McPharlin (my niece).

    The store is kind of a mini-McCabes where they sell mostly acoustic instruments, offer lessons and do repairs.

    He was kind of quiet about his career in S.F in the late 60's and didn't talk much about it but I was able to get out of him that he was a headliner and played with some majors including Eric Clapton.

    Knowing my love of 60's music he did give me of the handbills in question. In return, I gave him a framed guitar pick I got from Dick Dale.

    Sadly, Bob became ill and passed away not too long ago at an age that people should not die.

    His wife, who is also a very talented musician, continues to run the store which is located in a small town called Harmony (founded by the Harmonites) just north of Pittsburgh.

    The store has a Facebook page.
    https://www.facebook.com/McPharlinGuitarandViolin?fref=ts

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  7. Kelly, thank you for this interesting information. I'm sorry to hear that Bob passed away. I had actually seen "McPharlin Music" in a google search, but it seemed incredibly unlikely that an old Avalon hand would wind up in a small town in PA.

    Do you have any idea what his 60s music sounded like? Electric, acoustic, loud, funky, quiet?

    Corry

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    Replies
    1. Bob was originally from Pennsylvania and then moved to California. After a period of time he went back to PA.

      I actually never heard any of his material from that phase but his family is working on compiling recordings that he had which they may put up on the store's Facebook page.

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  8. Bob McPharlin's music was very much in the Jackson Browne, Brewer and Shipley, James Taylor, singer songwriter style.

    His future wife Shelly worked in the Family Dog office and when an opening act was needed that didn't require a lot of equipment or a lot of pay, Bob would get the call.

    Nice man. Sorry to hear that he passed on.

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  9. soundguy, thanks for filling the gap on this piece of information. Just because Bob McPharlin is on to the next gig it's nice that he's still remembered.

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  10. Bob's future wife, Shelley; did not work at the Family Dog. She grew up in various places, but spent most of her life in Pennsylvania. She continues to run the shop that she began with Bob. We'll be getting those recordings sorted out soon.

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