March 6-8, 1970 Family Dog on The Great Highway, 660 Great Highway, San Francisco, CA: Lee Michaels/Rhythm Dukes/Robert Savage [FDGH '70 VIII]

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."

The Family Dog In 1969
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 27-March 1, Grateful Dead) see here
  
• For a summary and the link to the most recent entries in this series, see here

March 6-8, 1970 Family Dog on The Great Highway, 660 Great Highway, San Francisco, CA: Lee Michaels/Rhythm Dukes/Robert Savage (Friday-Sunday)
By 1970, Lee Michaels was just starting his rise as a popular solo artist with a unique sound. Michaels had been in numerous different bands in Southern and Northern California since at least 1964, but he had found a niche by performing as a duo, with just himself on Hammond organ and vocals and an accompanying drummer. A Hammond/drums duo had been a common configuration in nightclubs and "organ lounges" since the 1950s, but they mostly played jazz or rhythm and blues. It was mainly a sound for black neighborhoods, and the best known practitioner had been the great Jimmy Smith. A duo would play popular songs of the day, but jazz them up a little, while usually providing enough of a beat to encourage people to dance. In smaller urban spaces, fitting an organist and a drummer into a club was easier--and more economical--than squeezing in an entire band. Sometimes an organ duo would have a saxophone or guitar as an additional soloist, but it was still compact. A good Hammond organ player could use his feet to play bass pedals (called "kicking bass"), so there was a full range of sound.

The San Mateo Times of November 12, 1965, advertised the Joel Scott Hill Trio and singer Joni Lyman (with Lee Michaels and John Barbata) at the Tiger-A-Go-Go near the SFO Airport

After starting out in a San Luis Obispo surf band (The Sentinals), Michaels had played Hammond organ in various bands since at least 1965. He had been in the Joel Scott Hill Trio with guitarist Hill (later Canned Heat) and drummer John Barbata (later The Turtles, CSNY and Jefferson Airplane), and at one point Bob Mosely (later Moby Grape) had been in the band, too. They had played nightclubs in California (like the Tiger A Go Go near the San Francisco Airport), getting dancers to work up a sweat. When the San Francisco underground hit in late 1966, Michaels led a quartet that played around some places, and he was soon signed to A&M. His first two albums (Carnival Of Life and Recital, both 1968) didn't stand out. 

By his third album, appropriately just called Lee Michaels and released in July 1969, as if it was his debut, he had figured it out. Michaels played Hammond organ, kicked bass and absolutely belted out the blues with his high tenor. South Bay drummer Bartholomew Smith-Frost, better known as "Frosty," was his only band member. It wasn't like a jazz thing, but incredibly loud psychedelic blues. Still--Michaels and Frosty jammed like an organ duo, but with a rock beat and a much louder sound. Michaels' drove his Hammond with a wall of rotating Leslie amplifiers. Leslies were common with Hammonds, but Michaels had a huge stack of them and turned them up high. 

Lee Michaels had included a modest hit called "Heighty Hi" which was actually played a lot on FM radio back in '69, and its surprisingly familiar even today. Michaels also recorded a dramatic version of T-Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday," and it too got played regularly on FM. In 1971, the Allman Brothers classic version of "Stormy Monday" became the best-known cover of that song, but Lee Michaels' version was probably the first one most rock fans had heard. 

Lee Michaels started to tour the country in 1969, and his unique sound stood out. He was earsplittingly loud, but he was direct. His jamming with Frosty was very musical, but easy to follow with just two players. He was a great vocalist, some of his songs were catchy and he was a skinny, handsome dude. He was definitely on the rise (there was a Detroit duo called Teegarden and Van Winkle who had a similar sound, but they never caught on nationally). Michaels went on a National tour in the Fall, playing all over the country. 

Michaels had opened twice at the Fillmore West, first in June 1969 (when Lee Michaels had been released) and then in August. As at most Family Dog shows, Bill Graham was getting first bite of any apples. Lee Michaels had just headlined Fillmore West the weekend of January 22-25, over Albert King and Zephyr (Michaels had replaced Savoy Brown). The Lee Michaels album was slowly getting better known as it continued to get attention on FM radio. Michaels would make his Fillmore East debut on the weekend of March 19-21, 1970 on a bill between the Moody Blues and Argent. 

Our only eyewitness for the Lee Michaels shows was Bill Champlin's legendary road manager, Charlie Kelly. Kelly mentioned in a private email that Lee Michaels was "impossibly loud." Keep in mind, Kelly had managed equipment for the Sons of Champlin at the Fillmores, the Avalon and everywhere else, and had seen any and every 60s band you have ever heard right from the stage, and even he said Michaels was impossibly loud. The Leslie sound was really something when it was turned up. Lee Michaels was kind of an acquired taste, but I definitely acquired it, and it must have been really powerful in a tiny, sweet sounding place like the Family Dog.

The Rhythm Dukes had formed in the Santa Cruz mountains in 1969, and had played the Family Dog on The Great Highway on December 12-14, 1969. Originally the band had featured two former members of Moby Grape, lead guitarist Jerry Miller and ex-drummer Don Stevenson (who switched to guitar). They were supported by bassist John Barrett and drummer Fuzzy Oxendine, formerly of the 60s group Boogie. The band was often billed as Moby Grape, and Stevenson had left by the end of Summer '69. The Rhythm Dukes carried on as a trio, finally adding two more members by December (saxophonist Rick Garcia and keyboardist Ned Torney), when they had played the Dog.

By January, however, the two extra members had left, to be replaced by Bill Champlin from the Sons. By early 1970, despite a loyal Bay Area following and two excellent Capitol albums, the Sons of Champlin were frustrated and broke and they decided to go "on hiatus." Effectively that meant they were breaking up, although they continued to finish an album they owed Capitol (released in 1971 as Follow Your Heart). The Sons had concert obligations through February of 1970, so while Bill Champlin played a few gigs with the Rhythm Dukes, he was also finishing up with the Sons. By March, the Sons had stopped performing--that "breakup" didn't last long, but it's another story--and Bill was full time with the Rhythm Dukes and Jerry Miller. 

The Rhythm Dukes at the Family Dog on The Great Highway, sometime in 1970. (l-r) Bill Champlin, Fuzzy Oxendine, Jerry Miller.

We have some photos of Bill Champlin with the Rhythm Dukes from the Family Dog, although the exact date is unknown. Champlin played organ and rhythm guitar with the Dukes, and was the principal lead singer, although Jerry Miller was also a fine vocalist. Our only tape of this era of the Rhythm Dukes was a privately released 2005 cd of some demo tapes, recorded in a Marin studio on April 16, 1970 (appropriately entitled Flash Back) but they were plainly an excellent live band. The Rhythm Dukes would go on to play the Family Dog again, but they only lasted until July.

Guitarist Bobby Arlin (aka Robert Savage), from the inner sleeve of the 1971 album.

The Robert Savage Group was led by Bobby Arlin, formerly the lead guitarist for The Leaves, a Hollywood band who had had a hit with "Hey Joe" back in 1966. I believe Savage was based in the Bay Area at this time. His current trio had Don Parrish on bass and Tommy Richards on drums. They would go on to release an album on Paramount in 1971, The Adventures Of Robert Savage. 

For a link to the next post in the series (March 13-15, 1970, Country Joe and The Fish), see here