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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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."
Chet Helms had opened the Family Dog at 660 Great Highway to much fanfare on June 13, 1969, with a packed house seeing the Jefferson Airplane and The Charlatans. One of the goals was that the Dog would feature mostly San Francisco bands and a variety of smaller community events and groups. Since so many San Francisco bands were successful, and had record contracts, this didn't confine the venue to obscurity. A lot of great bands played the Family Dog in 1969, but the distant location and the gravitational pull of major rock events hosted elsewhere in the Bay Area kept the Family Dog isolated. We know only the most fragmentary bits about music played, events and audiences throughout the year. Despite the half-year of struggle, Helms had kept the Family Dog on The Great Highway afloat. He had entered the new year of 1970 with a new plan.
- For a complete list of Family Dog shows (including FDGH), see here
- For the previous entry (February 13-14, 1970 Steve Miller Band) see here
- For a summary and the link to the most recent entries in this series, see here
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| The Rhythm Dukes (with Jerry Miller and Bill Champlin) were originally booked to open for Big Brother on February 20-21, 1970, but they were replaced by Cat Mother |
February 20-21, 1970 Family Dog on The Great Highway, San Francisco, CA: Big Brother and The Holding Company with Nick Gravenites/Cat Mother and The All-Night Newsboys (Friday-Saturday)
No band was more synonymous with Chet Helms and the Family Dog than Big Brother and The Holding Company. Back in the Fall of '65, Helms would host jam sessions in the basement of a big boarding house at 1090 Page Street. Some bands formed out of the jams, and a list of potential names was made up. Chet took two of the most promising--"Big Brother" and "The Holding Company"--and combined them for the group he would manage. The band's first gig under their new name was at Berkeley's Open Theater (at 2976 College Avenue, near Ashby).
Big Brother and The Holding Company would go on to play all the hippest, most underground shows in the thriving but still somewhat invisible underground rock scene. The band was a quartet with two guitarists (Sam Andrews and James Gurley), a converted folkie on bass (Peter Albin) and a former jazz drummer (Dave Getz). Big Brother was still figuring things out, but they weren't a cliche nor a copy of any other band. Their weakness was their vocals, compounded by the fact that they didn't really have a compelling figure to be the center of attention on-stage.
Manager Chet Helms had a solution. Back in 1963-64, Helms had become friendly with another expatriate Texan, a folk singer from Austin by way of Port Arthur with a big voice. She had returned to Austin by 1965, as some of her excesses were getting the better of her. So Helms commissioned his friend Travis Rivers to fetch Janis Joplin, and she joined Big Brother and The Holding Company. She made her debut with the band at June 24, 1966 at the Avalon. An eyewitness described her singing as "like tape being rewound," but Janis was compelling. Big Brother and The Holding Company were breakout stars from San Francisco, and Joplin became a one-name celebrity: even today, when we just say "Janis" we know it's her.
Helms was the manager of Big Brother and The Holding Company until late 1966. He had opened the Avalon Ballroom in April 1966, and Big Brother would be regular attractions. Even when Big Brother split with Helms--somewhat amicably--they were still booked at the Avalon. When the Avalon finally folded, Big Brother and The Holding Company had played the final show there on December 1, 1968. It was also Janis Joplin's final show as a member of the band, as she had left for stardom on her own. Big Brother disintegrated after her departure.
Big Brother Members-1969Big Brother still had a warehouse for their equipment, and thus a place to rehearse, but they didn't have a band. Guitarist Sam Andrew had joined Janis' Kozmic Blues Band, and James Gurley had retreated to the desert. Peter Albin and Dave Getz were jamming in the warehouse with Albin's old friend David Nelson and others. They even played a one-off gig at the Matrix in January of 1969. In late February, however, Albin and Getz joined up as new members of Country Joe and The Fish, for a National tour that went through May.
By the Fall of '69, the original members of Big Brother were ready to reconstruct themselves. They had been a band prior to Janis, and they would be one afterwards, even if the expectations were now forever changed. Janis Joplin had changed her band, so Sam Andrews was available. David Nelson could have thrown in with Big Brother, but chose a different option: starting the New Riders Of The Purple Sage with another old folkie friend, Jerry Garcia. James Gurley had returned, too, but only wanted to play bass, rather than lead guitar. The versatile Peter Albin could switch to guitar, so that was no problem. They re-debuted, if you will, at the Family Dog benefit at Fillmore West on November 19, 1969. Big Brother and The Holding Company were back.
Big Brother and The Holding Company, 1970
Big Brother and The Holding Company was still a famous name in rock and roll, even without Janis Joplin, so there was plenty of interest. The band was still signed to Columbia Records, too. Sam Andrews had started recording a solo album in Los Angeles, sometime in 1969. This project evolved into the reunion album for Big Brother. Nick Gravenites was signed up as producer. Gravenites had been the producer for Quicskilver Messenger Service's debut album, and he and Mike Bloomfield had helped Janis get her Kozmic Blues Band together, so he was intimately connected with the band.
Gravenites was a good singer and writer, too, so he was booked to perform with Big Brother at the Family Dog. My general understanding is that Gravenites would come out and sing some numbers with the band, but did not perform the whole show. By this time, Big Brother had added a fifth member, David Schallock. Schallock had been in various Marin bands such as Freedom Highway. Schallock also played guitar (and bass), so Big Brother had a comparatively unique lineup with three lead guitarists.
The headline weekend at the Family Dog marked the formal return of Big Brother. Since their November date at Fillmore West, they had played a few gigs, but their presence had been low-key. Returning to Chet Helms' venue had a symbolic importance that most fans recognized, even then. Like most Family Dog events of the time, however, we know nothing about the actual shows. Were they well attended? What did the band play? What songs did Gravenites sing? We really have no idea.
Big Brother and The Holding Company would release the underrated Be A Brother album on Columbia in mid-1970, produced by Gravenites. Gravenites sang two of his own songs on the record ("Heartache People" and "I'll Fix Your Flat Tire, Merle").
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| The Street Giveth and The Street Taketh Away, the debut album of Cat Mother and The All Night Newsboys. Jimi Hendrix produced the album for Polydor, released in 1969. |
Cat Mother And The All-Night Newsboys
The Rhythm Dukes had originally been booked at the Family Dog as the opener, and were advertised on the flyer (above). The Rhythm Dukes were led by Jerry Miller of Moby Grape, and had originally included another ex-Grape, Don Stevenson (on guitar rather than drums). Stevenson had left, reducing the band to a trio. Briefly the Rhythm Dukes were a quintet, with which they had played the Family Dog in December, where they had opened for Canned Heat. After yet another gyration, their new lineup would feature no less than Bill Champlin on organ and vocals, as The Sons were sort of breaking up. It turned out, however, that the Sons had what was announced as their final gigs (in Berkeley and Antioch, respectively). As it actually happened, it wasn't the Sons final gigs--not even close--, but Champlin would join the Rhythm Dukes for a few months. Champlin would play with the Dukes at the Family Dog a few weeks later (March 6-8, opening for Lee Michaels).
Instead of the Rhythm Dukes, the opening act for Big Brother was a Greenwich Village band called Cat Mother and The All Night Newsboys. Cat Mother and The All-Night Newsboys had formed in 1967. By 1969, they had been signed by Michael Jeffery, the manager of Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix had even produced the band's debut album on Polydor, The Street Giveth and The Street Taketh Away. Thanks to the Jeffery connection, Cat Mother got to open for Hendrix and a number of other high profile events. Cat Mother even had a minor hit in late '69, with medley of oldies called "Old Time Rock And Roll." In fact, the band's sound was more country-folk oriented, but they were versatile musicians.
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