October 7-9, 1969 Family Dog on The Great Highway, 660 Great Highway, San Francisco, CA: Holy Man Jam [FDGH '69 XXIII]

The Family Dog on The Great Highway, at 660 Great Highway, ca. 1969

The Family Dog on The Great Highway, 660 Great Highway, San Francisco, CA
The Family Dog was a foundation stone in the rise of San Francisco rock, and it was in operation in various forms from Fall 1965 through the Summer of 1970. For sound historical reasons, most of the focus on the Family Dog has been on the original 4-person collective who organized the first San Francisco Dance Concerts in late 1965, and on their successor Chet Helms. Helms took over the Family Dog in early 1966, and after a brief partnership with Bill Graham at the Fillmore, promoted memorable concerts at the Avalon Ballroom from Spring 1966 through December 1968. The posters, music and foggy memories of the Avalon are what made the Family Dog a legendary 60s rock icon.

In the Summer of 1969, however, with San Francisco as one of the fulcrums of the rock music explosion, Chet Helms opened another venue. The Family Dog on The Great Highway, at 660 Great Highway, on the Western edge of San Francisco, was only open for 14 months and was not a success. Yet numerous interesting bands played there, and remarkable events took place, and they are only documented in a scattered form. This series of posts will undertake a systematic review of every musical event at the Family Dog on The Great Highway. In general, each post will represent a week of musical events at the venue, although that may vary slightly depending on the bookings.

If anyone has memories, reflections, insights, corrections or flashbacks about shows at the Family Dog on the Great Highway, please post them in the Comments.

660 Great Highway in San Francisco in 1967, when it was the ModelCar Raceway, a slot car track

The Edgewater Ballroom, 660 Great Highway, San Francisco, CA
As early as 1913, there were rides and concessions at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, near the Richmond District. By 1926, they had been consolidated as Playland-At-The-Beach. The Ocean Beach area included attractions such as the Sutro Baths and the Cliff House. The San Francisco Zoo was just south of Playland, having opened in the 1930s. One of the attractions at Playland was a restaurant called Topsy's Roost. The restaurant had closed in 1930, and the room became the Edgewater Ballroom. The Ballroom eventually closed, and Playland went into decline when its owner died in 1958. By the 1960s, the former Edgewater was a slot car raceway. In early 1969, Chet Helms took over the lease of the old Edgewater.

One of the only photos of the interior of the Family Dog on The Great Highway (from a Stephen Gaskin "Monday Night Class" ca. October 1969)

The Family Dog On The Great Highway
The Great Highway was a four-lane road that ran along the Western edge of San Francisco, right next to Ocean Beach. Downtown San Francisco faced the Bay, but beyond Golden Gate Park was the Pacific Ocean. The aptly named Ocean Beach is dramatic and beautiful, but it is mostly windy and foggy. Much of the West Coast of San Francisco is not even a beach, but rocky cliffs. There are no roads in San Francisco West of the Great Highway, so "660 Great Highway" was ample for directions (for reference, it is near the intersection of Balboa Street and 48th Avenue). The tag-line "Edge Of The Western World" was not an exaggeration, at least in American terms.

The Family Dog on The Great Highway was smaller than the Bill Graham's old Fillmore Auditorium. It could hold up to 1500, but the official capacity was probably closer to 1000. Unlike the comparatively centrally located Fillmore West, the FDGH was far from downtown, far from the Peninsula suburbs, and not particularly easy to get to from the freeway. For East Bay or Marin residents, the Great Highway was a formidable trip. The little ballroom was very appealing, but if you didn't live way out in the Avenues, you had to drive. As a result, FDGH didn't get a huge number of casual drop-ins, and that didn't help its fortunes. Most of the locals referred to the venue as "Playland."

• For a complete list of Family Dog shows (including FDGH), see here
• For the previous entry (October 3-5 1969 Kaleidoscope) see here
  
• For a summary and the link to the most recent entries in this series, see here

October 7-9, 1969 Family Dog on The Great Highway, San Francisco, CA: Holy Man Jam (Tuesday-Thursday)
Tuesday, October 7: Stephen Gaskin
Wednesday, October 8: Malachi, Alan Watts, Michael Larimer, Rev. Hensley, Alan Noonan
Thursday, October 9: Timothy Leary
With the following groups during the three nights:

Jerry Abrams Headlights, Dr. Zarkov, Holy See, Rainbow Jam, Sweet Misery, Sebastian Moon, Mayflower, Lazarus, Phoenix, Master Choy, Shlomo Carlabach, Golden Toad, Chirhanjeez, Osceola, It's A Beautiful Day, Garden Of Delights

By early October, the Family Dog on The Great Highway was in a terrible financial situation, compounded by a large personal tax bill from the IRS for proprietor Chet Helms, stemming from 1967. The one genuine success at the Family Dog had been something called "Monday Night Class," where popular San Francisco State literature professor Stephen Gaskin would lecture to large audiences. Gaskin, a kind of "hip guru" (in the parlance of the time), would draw crowds of 1000 or more, filling the hall (the interior picture above is from a Monday Night Class). Admission was free, but Monday Nights were the one attraction at the Dog that had its own audience.

The "Holy Man Jam" week was an attempt by Chet Helms to make the Monday Night Class audience into a revenue proposition. Gaskin was booked for a Tuesday, with five speakers in a similar vein on Wednesday, and the infamous Timothy Leary on Thursday. According to the ad, there would be light shows and bands sprinkled throughout each evening. Unlike Monday Night Class, $1.00 admission would be charged, but that was far less than the typical $2.50-$3.00 charge on weekends. A similar run of lecturers was booked for the next week (see below), with a typical rock band weekend booked in between.

Chet Helms has often been criticized for being less successful as a businessman than Bill Graham--criticism that can be leveled at everybody, basically--when in fact he was quite innovative. Gaskin's class represented an interest in young people for what would become the "Human Potential' movement--people speaking some meaning beyond work or play, some way to process their fears and concerns in the modern world, outside of the confines of current religions. This is far outside the interests of this blog, so I won't dwell on it, except to say that it represented a genuine interest of young Americans in their 20s at the time. Helms was looking to create a paying audience for something that had been free, something the Haight-Ashbury bands had pulled off by playing free in the park, and now a common marketing approach on the Web.

There wasn't a review, or anything, like most events at the Family Dog--but we have to think it failed. There were two weeks of mid-week "lectures" and they weren't repeated, so it had to be a bust. It's not hard to deduce the reason. Those that want to hear someone lecture about self-improvement aren't looking to dance and hang out, and vice-versa. That doesn't mean there weren't people who liked both, as I'm sure there were, but when you're in the mood to hear something you consider serious, it isn't the same vibe as a dance party. So the lectures were inherently in conflict with the bands and the light shows.

• Notes on the booked performers

Tuesday, October 7: Stephen Gaskin

Gaskin's "Monday Night Class" has often been alluded to, but there is very little around to describe the experience itself. Stephen Gaskin (1935-20140 was an SF State literature instructor, author and "founder" of a Tennessee commune called The Farm. He was an important counterculture figure in the 60s, and whatever you may think of his ideals, he was neither corrupt nor merely seeking publicity, like so many others. I did find an eyewitness description from a 60s memoir by one Ilene English, who described attending a (presumably) Fall 1969 Monday Night Class in her memoir Hippie Chick: Coming Of Age In The 60s (She Writes Press: 2019). It's an interesting tale, although (fair warning to blog readers) music history plays only a small part in the story.

As we approached The Family Dog, there were groups of people standing around smoking and laughing. There were several far-out looking buses parked up and down the street. One converted school bus had an entire Volkswagen bus attached to the top of it. Another had a giant plastic bubble on top. Some of the buses were hand-painted with bright colors and designs, and several looked like people were living in them. The unconventionality of the scene delighted me.

Inside the hall, people were sitting on the floor, hanging out and talking. I had never seen so many free spirits in one room at the same time. 

"There's Stephen," David [the author's boyfriend] whispered, pointing out this tall, skinny dude with wispy long hair, wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt and bell-bottom pants. David led the way as we snaked over to a small group gathered around him. Up close, I saw that Stephen was staring into someone's eyes who was staring back at him. He looked different close up. A little older than most of the people in the room, his eyes looked kind and full of love. People were just standing around watching...

We found a place to sit on the floor as the hall began to fill up. The smell of grass filled the air, and I hoped some would come my way. Before too long, this long-haired cat sitting in front of us passed me a big fat joint. ...

Stephen went onto the stage, sat down on a pillow, crossed his legs and waited for everyone to settle in. After a few minutes the got really quiet. Everyone focused on Stephen. With microphone in hand, he started talking about how it was feeling in the room right then. He said "notice how stoned it feels in here?" My sentiments exactly.  And then he was silent for a while. The room did feel psychedelic.

"The way it feels in here tonight," he said, "it's like we're a group head." 

English's description of the event (some of which I have elided) does not suggest a crowd, at that moment, that was looking to dance to a band, even when they might have under other circumstances

Wednesday, October 8: Malachi, Alan Watts, Michael Larimer, Rev. Hensley, Alan Noonan
All of these speakers had various roles as thinkers or writers, which you can google, with various degrees of intellectual rigor. Malachi put out a few albums, and may have been a sort of folk singer.

Thursday, October 9: Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary was infamous for the phrase "Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out," but his star had dimmed considerably by 1969. In fact, by this time Leary had a considerable number of legal and financial troubles, but most hippies wouldn't have known that. Leary had never been that popular in San Francisco, however, seemingly too much like an East Coast professor (which he had been). In any case, for those paying attention, Leary was more about making a buck out of his notoriety, which most hippies had figured out, even if they didn't know the details. Leary was a big name, but he wouldn't have been much of an actual draw.

The Groups
Several of the listed groups were Light Shows. I think this was an attempt to establish the Light Shows as artistic ensembles on par with the bands. These was a reasonable position intellectually, but just about no rock fans really felt that way. The light shows were Jerry Abrams Headlights, Dr. Zarkov, Holy See, Rainbow Jam and Garden Of Delights.

Lazarus was a Berkeley band. Phoenix was a San Francisco band with a complicated history, and had existed in various forms since 1966. Osceola was a newly-formed San Francisco band, made up of musicians relocated from Florida. The Golden Toad were led by Bob Thomas, an old pal of Owsley's. They played Renaissance music on (constructed) period instruments, and mostly played the Renaissance Fair. Rabbi Shlomo Carlbach was a folk singing rabbi, well known around the Bay Area. It's A Beautiful Day, in contrast, while a local band, had just released their hit debut album on Columbia, and "White Bird" was getting radio airplay. Why they weren't specifically named for a specific evening isn't clear, since they would have been the one real draw amongst these bands.

Sebastian Moon, Mayflower, Master Choy and Chirhanjeez are unknown to me.

 

October 10-12, 1969 Family Dog on The Great Highway, San Francisco, CA: Sons Of Champlin/A.B. Skhy Blues Band/Brewer and Shipley (Friday-Sunday)
The Family Dog had a regular music booking for the weekend. The bands all had albums, and all were really good. It probably would have been a really good show. Probably almost no one went. Certainly I am not aware of any reviews or eyewitness accounts.

The Sons Of Champlin had released their debut double album on Capitol in May, Loosen Up Naturally. They were a terrific live band, and they had been gigging constantly since they had formed in 1966. The Sons had already played the Family Dog at least twice (June 20-22, August 23 and possibly September 12-14). They were about to set out on an American tour, with a truck financed by Bill Graham. 

There is some doubt that the Sons Of Champlin actually played these shows. Some years ago, I was in touch with then (and still) Sons' road manager Charlie Kelly, and he said that the band only played the Family Dog on two weekends. On some weekends when they were advertised, the Sons did not actually play there, so this weekend may have been one where they didn't actually perform.  

The A.B. Skhy Blues Band had formed when a transplanted Wisconsin trio called The New Blues had teamed up in San Francisco with organist Howard Wales. There was a lucrative rock scene in Wisconsin, particularly around Madison (at the State University), because the drinking age was only 18. Still, while the Madison scene had paid alright, bands didn't get discovered there, so the New Blues had moved West. Wales, meanwhile, had played with Lonnie Mack in the mid-60s, working out of Cincinnati, and then had played in a jazz combo in El Paso, TX with saxophonist Martin Fierro. After a brief time in Seattle, Wales had ended up in the Bay Area and teamed up with the New Blues. 

Besides Wales on organ, Dennis Geyer was on guitar and vocals, Jim Marcotte played bass and Terry Anderson was on the drums. A live FM broadcast of A.B. Skhy circulates from the Avalon (from March 30, 1969) and it's truly inventive. The band's debut album on MGM was released around this time, although I don't know exactly when.

Weeds was the second album by Brewer And Shipley, released in 1969 on Kama Sutra Records. Tom Brewer and Mike Shipley were Midwesterners songwriters who had teamed up in Los Angeles, and they had released their debut on A&M (Down In LA) in 1968. By 1969, the duo had relocated their base to Kansas City, nearer to where they were both from. They started recording in San Francisco, however, produced by Nick Gravenites. On the album, the duo was backed by Gravenites' regular crew, like John Kahn on bass, Bob Jones on drums, Mark Naftalin on piano and Mike Bloomfield and Fred Olson on guitars. In the next year, Gravenites would record "One Toke Over The Line" with the same crew, and Brewer and Shipley would go on to a fair amount of success. For now, they had released a fine album, but no one had really had heard them. They likely performed as an acoustic duo at these shows, even though their session musicians were in town.

October 13, 1969 Family Dog on The Great Highway, San Francisco, CA: Stephen Gaskin (Monday)
October 14, 1969 Family Dog on The Great Highway, San Francisco, CA: Stephen Gaskin/Chinese People/Jim Kimmel/Canterbury Fair/Cloud (Tuesday)
Gaskin returned for his regular Monday Night class, and was also advertised for Tuesday. I have no idea what any of it meant. I have even less of an idea of the booking of "Chinese People." Jim Kimmel is unknown to me (surely not the late night TV host...). Canterbury Fair was a local band, I think from Palo Alto. Cloud is unknown to me. 

October 15, 1969 Family Dog on The Great Highway, San Francisco, CA:  Garden Of Delights/Horror Flicks (Wednesday)
Garden Of Delights was a light show. Presumably "Horror Flicks" meant old monster movies. Trivial as this may have been, remember that there was no other way to see old movies, save for when a local station chose to run an old movie.

October 16, 1969 Family Dog on The Great Highway, San Francisco, CA:Anonymous Artists of America (Thursday)
The poster actually says “The Anonymous Artists of America and The Garden of Delights present Life Music at The Family Dog.” The Anonymous Artists of America had deep psychedelic roots, but they remained an obscure group. They had formed in Stanford in 1966, and ultimately had received all the Merry Pranksters old equipment when they had skipped out to Mexico. Of course, none of the Artists knew how to play any of the instruments. The group did play the infamous Acid Test Graduation on Halloween, 1966, described in Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

By late 1969, the Anonymous Artists had been through many personnel changes and included much better musicians. Some original members (like Jerry Garcia's ex-wife Sara) had moved on, but original bassist and former Stanford tennis star Trixie Merkin (surprise--not her real name) was still in the band. Almost all mentions of the AAA refer to Trixie, since she generally played topless. At this time, the AAA had a communal ranch in Novato. Relatively soon after this, they would move en masse to Pueblo, CO. 

I have no idea what "Life Music" might have referred to, but nothing was ever simple with the Anonymous Artists of America. I assume that the AAA had rented the hall and put on the show, and this was only nominally a Family Dog event. Of course, everybody involved probably knew each other, so the distinctions wouldn't have been large.

For the next entry in the series (October 17-30, 1969-various bands), see here