October 23-31, 1970 The Shelter Inn, Miramar Beach, 131 Mirada Road, Half Moon Bay, CA (Lost Horizons 1970 XIII)

The Berkeley Barb of October 23, 1970 lists Patrick Simmons playing at the Shelter Inn at Miramar Beach in Half Moon Bay. Simmons had probably just joined the Doobie Brothers at this time.

Recently I have been focusing my research on rock shows in the Bay Area in the early 1970s, focusing particularly on the lower tiers. With patience, I have done good research on the Matrix, the Keystone Berkeley, the Long Branch and a few other clubs. Yet I consistently come across tantalizing details of other venues, different untold stories and an insight into the unexplained. Without further information, I am often stuck with just the hint, not anything like the actual story.

My research method focuses on finding dates and venues where bands have performed, and constructing a narrative based on available sources. It sounds simple, but it reaps many benefits. Rather than assume what the motives and goals of different bands or promoters might be, I can let the evidence of actual performances tell me what is desired and what has resulted. The limits of this method, ultimately, are constrained by the limits of my available sources. From the 1960s and '70s, we don't always have that much evidence, so it can be hard to figure out the story. Not all old sources have been digitized, and in many cases a lot of shows were not advertised in any paper. If no local flyers were preserved, or there aren't other sources we can be left with very little. 

Lost Horizons, 1970
The Lost Horizons posts are a series of posts that I can't complete. In some cases I wish someone else would write the post, in other cases I'm hoping someone else has already written it, and in some others I am hoping for more information so I can try and take them on. There's no real connection between any of these topics, save for the device that there was a live performance in 1970 that intrigued my interest. My blogs have an explicitly rock and roll orientation, but my methodological approach veers off in different directions. Fernand Braudel, Reynar Banham, Marcy (emptywheel) Wheeler--it's still rock and roll to me. I'm hoping that the magic of the Internet and eternal Comment Threads will yield up information hitherto unknown to me. If you have any insights, corrections or entertaining speculation, please Comment.

The Berkeley Barb
The Berkeley Barb had been founded by Max Scherr in 1965. The weekly paper made a point of documenting the local counterculture. The readership was distinct from anyone subscribing to the local daily papers (the San Fransisco Chronicle or Examiner, the Oakland Tribune or the Berkeley Gazette). The Barb reported on protests, pot busts, sexual freedom and local rock shows. The ads were for organic foods, head shops or local crafts. The Barb was an alternative paper for an alternative audience. It was sold by hippies to other hippies for a dime or a quarter.  I don't know if the Berkeley Barb was the first such "underground" paper, but it was one of them, and it was a model for such papers all over the country.

By 1970, the Barb was being read well beyond Berkeley. I don't know the exact details, but I believe that even outside of Berkeley the paper was available in Head Shops, espresso joints and other hip places throughout the Bay Area. At the back of every issue of the Barb was "Scenedrome," a summary of upcoming and ongoing events in the next week that might be of interest to its readers. While that would always include shows at Fillmore West, for example, it also included performers at Telegraph Avenue coffee shops, foreign movies, political meetings, self-help groups and all sorts of other gatherings. Getting listed in Scenedrome any week was free--someone just had to call the Barb by Tuesday at noon. So for hippie events that were on a shoestring, or just free, calling the Scenedrome was the cheapest way to get publicity. 

While Berkeley events had always been posted in Scenedrome every week since 1965, by 1970 it was plain that the rest of the Bay Area was paying attention as well. The Friday and Saturday listings in Scenedrome went well beyond Berkeley, a clear indicator that the Barb had a broader readership beyond central Berkeley. So we get tantalizing hints of what was going on around the Bay Area, without really knowing exactly what it might have been. Most of my notices below come from little more than the barest of listings in the appropriate issue of the Berkeley Barb, with occasional supplements from other sources.

 

 

The Ocean Beach Motel, at 131 Mirada Road in Half Moon Bay. This infamous roadhouse was probably the site of the The Shelter Inn in 1970

The Shelter Inn, Miramar Beach, 131 Mirada Road, Half Moon Bay, CA
October 23, 1970 Shelter Inn, Miramar Beach, Half Moon Bay, CA: Patrick Simmons (Friday)
October 25, 1970 Shelter Inn, Miramar Beach, Half Moon Bay, CA: Bill Middlejohn (Sunday)
October 28, 1970 Shelter Inn, Miramar Beach, Half Moon Bay, CA: Patrick Simmons (Wednesday)
October 30, 1970 Shelter Inn, Miramar Beach, Half Moon Bay, Patrick Simmons (Friday)
October 31, 1970 Shelter Inn, Miramar Beach, Half Moon Bay, CA Paul Ziegler and Bill Andrus (Saturday)
November 1, 1970 Shelter Inn, Miramar Beach, Half Moon Bay, CA: Bill Middlejohn (Sunday)
November 4, 1970 Shelter Inn, Miramar Beach, Half Moon Bay, CA Patrick Simmons (Wednesday) 

For a few weeks during October 1970, the Barb regularly listed shows at some place called the Shelter Inn. The only address listed was "Miramar Beach." Now, Miramar Beach is in Half Moon Bay, and even now the direction "Miramar Beach" would be sufficient. Back then, it definitely would have been all you needed. I'm not certain what building the Shelter Inn was in. I hope it was the former Ocean Beach Hotel (pictured above, at 131 Mirada Road).  In any case, it was some old roadhouse. It turns out that something may really have been going on in Half Moon Bay during the 1960s.

Half Moon Bay, on a rocky coastline 25 miles south of San Francisco, had a lengthy history for a California city. There was settlement as early as the 1840s, and it was San Mateo County's first real town. Half Moon Bay, however, was on the opposite side of the Santa Cruz Mountains from the San Francisco Bay, so it was the Peninsula side of the county that was connected to the Southern Pacific Railroad. There wasn't even a good road over the mountain until 1914. Half Moon Bay's isolation, however, made it an excellent harbor for Rum Runners during Prohibition. So Half Moon Bay had a rowdy tradition, near to San Francisco but a world away.

The Ocean Beach Hotel, right on Miramar Beach, was run by one Maymie Cowley from 1918 until 1955. It was a haven for rum-runners, as well as a speakeasy and a bordello. Ms. Cowley was apparently notorious for getting into knife fights at other bars, so you can only imagine what a tough joint she ran. Although the town of Half Moon Bay was finally incorporated in 1959, like many beach communities it had a streak of--shall we say--non-conformity. There seem to have been plenty of hippies around in the late 1960s. Would I be surprised to find out that boats landed at Half Moon Bay during the 60s with other sorts of contraband? You decide.

As far as 60s music went, I only know of one rock band from Half Moon Bay. Petrus featured Jorma's brother Peter Kaukonen on guitar and singer/songwriter Ruthann Friedmann (she wrote "Windy" for the Association). Nosing around, there seems to have been one bar/coffee shop that presented music, called The Spouter. The Spouter then changed its name to The Shelter Inn. When I have read about the Spouter/Shelter, all of the locals don't identify the building since everyone knew it. That's why I think it was familiar, established building like the Ocean Beach Hotel. 

As for October 1970, the venue had just changed its name to the Shelter Inn, and was probably putting notices in the Barb to let Coastside hippies know there was music going on. There wasn't even a hippie rock club on the Peninsula side of San Mateo County, so there would have been no competition at all on the empty coast. The bookings were fairly repetitive for a few weeks, with the same names playing residencies each night. But the names turn out not to have been quite nobody.

[update 20250324] Cam Cobb's article on Weird Herald in the Winter '24 issue of Ugly Things (UT #67) sheds a little light. The Shelter in Half Moon Bay was a successor to an infamous mid-60s San Jose joint called The Shelter. The Shelter had been at 438 E Williams St in San Jose, not far from the San Jose State College campus. It was open from Fall '64 through mid-66. The principal operator of the San Jose Shelter was guitarist Paul Ziegler, who would be in the band Weird Herald and later in Hot Tuna. 

Thus it is no surprise to see Saratoga/San Jose area musicians like Pat Simmons, Paul Ziegler and Billy Andrus playing at The Shelter in Half Moon Bay.

Bill Middlejohn, who held down Sunday nights, wasn't a major local music figure. Still, he was a guitarist in various Bay Area bands throughout the 1970s. He would end up in a band with Keith and Donna Godchaux in 1979, right before Keith's tragic death. A Half Moon Bay nostalgia site remembers his playing well.

Patrick Simmons, who held down both Wednesday and Friday nights at the Shelter Inn, went on to massive world-wide success. Right around October 1970, Simmons would join a San Jose rock trio to form the Doobie Brothers. Simmons would remain the only constant in the Doobie Brothers for the next 50 years--he's still leading the band--and sell literally millions of albums, selling out thousands of concerts along the way. The timeline is hard to discern, but by October '70 Simmons was probably already hanging out with the future Doobies. They may have started playing their earliest gigs, at Ricardo's Pizza in San Jose (at 218 Willow Glen) and the Chateau Liberte as well. 

This building on Big Basin Way in Saratoga housed the Brass Knocker folk club (photo taken in 2010, the address is next door to 14523 Big Basin Way)

On Saturday, October 31, the bill was Paul Ziegler and Bill Andrus. Ziegler and Billy Dean Andrus had been the two guitarists in the San Jose band Weird Herald. Before that, In the mid-60s, Ziegler had been the Master Of Ceremonies and main performer at a coffee house called the Brass Knocker in Saratoga, just above San Jose. It was Ziegler, in fact, who had given a teenage Pat Simmons his first chance on stage, at the Brass Knocker back in '66. Whatever issues there may have been between Ziegler and Andrus--Weird Herald had fallen apart during 1970--, Billy Dean was back playing with Paul. Billy Dean Andrus, a huge talent, was just as striking playing as a solo acoustic guitarist as he was playing sizzling electric leads. Whatever, their pasts, Paul and Billy Dean were back together at least one time. 

[update 20250324] Per the Ugly Things Winter '24 issue (#67), Ziegler and Andrus were making plans to put Weird Herald back together, so a duo booking at The Shelter makes sense. Dean would die a few days later.

Billy Dean Andrus ca 1969

The SF Examiner of November 6 reported on the funeral of Billy Dean Andrus, who had died on Monday, November 2. On the night before,  the band Mountain Current had played a biker party at the Chateau Liberte. Mountain Current leader Matthew Kelly, later in Kingfish, told me the story. A big blow-out was planned--Kelly's regular drummer (Chris Herold) had a bad feeling and refused to play. Kelly got someone else, but the drummer was right. The party went on all night, with the bikers both encouraging everybody with infinite amounts of crank and discouraging everybody from leaving. Eventually, in the morning, the party died out. Kelly described leaving the event worn to a crisp from too much speed. Billy Dean Andrus, apparently, tried to mellow out with some pretty hard drugs, and overdosed. His friends and family were devastated.

Billy Dean's old pal, Jorma Kaukonen, wrote a song called "Ode To Billy Dean," and Hot Tuna was playing it within a week. They are still playing it today. At least Paul and Billy Dean had played one last gig at the Shelter Inn in Half Moon Bay, the last whiff of the Brass Knocker and Weird Herald, before Billy Dean traveled on. Pat Simmons had one more Sunday night at the Shelter Inn, too, but then he traveled onwards, too, but upwards from Ricardo's Pizza all the way to headlining the Oakland Coliseum Stadium. 

The Shelter Inn changed identities again, to the Miramar Beach Inn. They also "went electric," apparently, although it was probably the same musicians plugged in. But--something was happening at Miramar Beach in the Fall of 1970, and everyone has forgotten or just won't say.

The November 6, 1970 SF Examiner reported on Billy Dean Andrus' funeral. He was buried in Soquel.

 

Petrus w/Ruthann Friedman and Peter Kaukonen (Half Moon Bay, CA-1968)

The SF Chronicle Datebook from March 1, 1968 announces what appears to be the debut performance of the band Petrus, at the Straight Theater in the Haight-Ashbury

The San Francisco Bay Area band Petrus, which seems to only have existed in the Spring of 1968, was hardly a major band. They never released an album, and I have only been able to find evidence of a small number of shows. Still, despite their low profile, they are fairly intriguing. In this post, I have attempted to put together what I could find out about the band.

Petrus was based in El Granada, near Half Moon Bay, of all places, on the opposite side of the hill from San Mateo. The lead guitarist was Peter Kaukonen, Jorma's brother. Peter had been Jorma's first choice as electric bassist for the Jefferson Airplane back in October '65, but Peter had had to stay in Stanford to avoid the draft, so the bass chair had gone to Jack Casady instead.

More intriguingly, the lead singer and principal songwriter of Petrus was Ruthann Friedman. Friedman was an interesting Los Angeles songwriter, best known for writing "Windy," which hit #1 for The Association in July 1967 (when you hear it, you'll realize that everyone knows it's "Windy").

Friedman (b.1944), from the Bronx, had moved to Southern California as a young teenager. She had fallen in with the young folk crowd, playing guitar and singing. After 1964, she bounced around a bit, first to Denver and then to San Francisco in 1966.

Around the time that Signe Anderson left Jefferson Airplane (October 1966), Ruthann was living in Haight-Ashbury with members of the band. She was briefly considered to be their new vocalist. “The Jefferson Airplane gave me enough money to buy boots… They didn’t take me, which was smart. I mean, Grace Slick, how can you turn that down? While I was up there, I sang with Country Joe and the Fish at the Avalon Ballroom and learned the pleasures of Southern Comfort from Janis Joplin and purple acid from Owsley.” 

Back in Los Angeles by1967, Friedman began working with various Los Angeles players, including songwriter Tandyn Almer, who had written "Along Comes Mary" for The Association."

“Tandyn asked me if I’d like to come in and sing on a Goodyear tire commercial. It was a parody of Nancy Sinatra’s hit, (sings "These tires are made for walking"). Soon after Tandyn asked Ruthann to sing on a new song he wrote with John Walsh called “Little Girl Lost–and–Found.” “I fell in love with that song. Tom Shipley [of Brewer & Shipley] and I sang the vocal parts. It was Tandyn and Larry Marks’ studio project. Why they didn’t release it under my name I could never understand. That could’ve been my entrée.”

“Little Girl” was issued by A&M in April 1967 under the moniker The Garden Club and the single was a regional success, especially in Los Angeles where it received a significant amount of airplay. As a result, Ruthann was asked to form a live “Garden Club” to help promote the record. Jorma Kaukonen (Jefferson Airplane) suggested his brother Peter for the “Club.” As a result, Ruthann and Peter became fast lovers, traveled up and down the coast, and formed a band called Petrus.

Concurrent to this activity, Ruthann received a call from Association member Jim Yester’s wife, Jo-Ellen, inquiring if she had any songs suitable for them to record. Ruthann suggested a new tune she had written while living in a single underneath David Crosby’s house on Beverly Glen. “It only took me 20 minutes to write, and I wrote it as an escape."

“Windy” went to Number One in July 1967, staying there for four weeks, and reached Number 3 on Billboard’s Top 100 Songs of 1967. “I ended up not getting any of the publishing, and if I had a decent person representing me, I would’ve made out much better.

Ruthann Friedman's 1970 solo album Constant Companion, on A&M Records. Peter Kaukonen played some guitar parts, co-wrote some songs and did the cover art. The album is the only hint of what a Petrus albummight have sounded like

I have only found traces of a few Petrus shows in the Bay Area, and the Carousel one seems to be the most notable. Petrus broke up later in 1968, as did Peter and Ruthann. Friedman went on to release one interesting solo album in 1970, Constant Companion, which included some co-writing credits, guitar parts and cover art from Peter Kaukonen. Friedman only recorded and performed intermittently after that, but she is still around. Peter went on to play with Hot Tuna, Jefferson Starship and even the final version of the Jefferson Airplane, and has continued to have a long and interesting musical career. If there are any lost Carousel tapes in the Owsley Archives, I hope Petrus is one of them. If they had recorded, the combination of a famous songwriter and a talented Kaukonen could have been interesting indeed.

Owsley Stanley notes Marvin Boxley's presence (upper right) on his tape of the Grateful Dead at the Matrix in San Francisco on December 1, 1966

I think Petrus was a conventional rock quartet, with Peter Kaukonen on lead guitar, Ruthann Friedman on gutar, and a bassist and drummer. But I don't even know that for sure.

[update 12 Jan 2023] Petrus was a quintet, and its members were identified in the Palo Alto Times.

Ruthann Friedman-vocals
Peter Kaukonen-lead guitar
Marvin Boxley-guitar, harmonica
Mike Eggleston-bass
David Prentice-drums 

Marvin Boxley (1946-2003) had moved from Texas to San Mateo in 1962, where he had attended the College Of San Mateo. No doubt CSM is where he fell in with the Albin brothers and other folk hipsters, since he sat in with the Grateful Dead once at the Matrix (December 1, 1966) and with Mickey Hart and The Hartbeats (Garcia/Lesh/Hart/Kreutzmann) at the Matrix in October 10, 1968. Since it's the Dead, we have tapes: on the 1966 tape, Owsley has written "Marvin" (upper left). On the 1968 tape, Garcia says "oh, Marvin's here--did you bring your harmonica." He comes out of the crowd to play harp on "Next Time You See Me," "The Rub" and "Look Over Yonder's Wall." Boxley even sings "Yonders Wall."[thanks to The Yellow Shark, RunOnGuinness and Hawk for solving this 40-year old mystery!!]

Bassist Mike Eggleston would end up in the Loading Zone in 1969, and stayed through 1971. David Prentice is otherwise unknown to me.

March 1-2, 1968 Straight Theater, San Francisco, CA: Charlie Musselwhite/Santana Blues Band/Petrus
The Straight Theater was at 1702 Haight Street, in the heart of the Haight-Ashbury. By the time it had opened in late 1967, however, the hippies had moved out of the Haight, and the neighborhood itself had declined. Kids from the suburbs, the real rock audience, weren't going to drive all the way into the neighborhoods. The Straight, though fondly remembered, floundered as a business. A lot of cool San Francisco bands played there, but mostly to tiny crowds.

Charlie Musselwhite may have still had Harvey Mandel on lead guitar. The Santana Blues Band was still 15 months from their debut album and Woodstock tour de force, but they were a good blues band. Carlos and organist Gregg Rolie were the only band members at this time who would appear at Woodstock.

April 16-18, 1968 The Poppycock, Palo Alto, CA: Petrus
Petrus lived on top of a hill in nearby Half Moon Bay, about 22 miles Northwest of Palo Alto, only a mile or so from the beach and not convenient to anywhere. However, the Poppycock, at 135 University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto, would have been the nearest venue to the band’s hilltop home.  The Poppycock was Palo Alto's leading rock club from 1967 through 1970. Although not a major club, lots of original bands played the Bay Area circuit, playing clubs like The Poppycock in the hopes of getting an opening slot at the Fillmore or the Avalon.

The Palo Alto Times reviewed Petrus on April 17, 1968 (reproduced on Ruthann Friedman's now-incactive website). This itself was rare: the conservative Times generally paid no attention to rock music, and certainly not to the Poppycock. For some reason, the Times reveiwed the Thursday night show at the club.

Ralph Gleason's Ad Lib column in the SF Chronicle mentions Petrus at The Poppycock on Friday and Saturday, May 10-11, 1968 (they probably played Thursday May 9 as well)

 

May 10-11, 1968 The Poppycock, Palo Alto, CA: Petrus 

Things must have gone well, as Petrus returned to the Poppycock a few weeks later (they probably played Thursday, May 9, as well).

 

May 18, 1968 Straight Theater, San Francisco, CA: Allmen Joy/Curley Cooke's Hurdy Gurdy Band/Petrus

May 19, 1968 Straight Theater, San Francisco, CA: Flamin' Groovies/Curley Cooke's Hurdy Gurdy Band/Petrus

Petrus returned to the Straight a few months after their debut. The bands playing the Straight were, if anything, more obscure than before. Allmen Joy was not Duane and Gregg Allman's band (their band was called Hour Glass, and based in Los Angeles). James "Curley" Cooke had been in the first Berkeley version of the Steve Miller Band. The Flamin' Groovies were a local band who preferred British Invasion-style music to the typical SF blues-jamming.

May 31, June 1-2, 1968 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco, CA: Grateful Dead/Charlie Musselwhite/Petrus (Friday-Sunday)
Jun 2, 1968 The Panhandle, San Francisco, CA: Grateful Dead/Charlie Musselwhite/Petrus (Sunday afternoon free) 

Everything to do with the Grateful Dead takes on a much higher profile historically than they usually did at the time. The Dead were infamous, of course, and genuine rock stars by 1968, but they weren't enormously popular. The Dead, Jefferson Airplane and others were trying to run the Carousel Ballroom as a competitor to Bill Graham and Chet Helms, and it was failing dismally. For this weekend at the Carousel, the Dead headlined over Charlie Musselwhite and Petrus for three days. On the last day, the bands played a free concert in the Panhandle.

 

Among other things, the dates on the poster are wrong, and Petrus' name is mispelled as "Petris."  Like most shows at the Carousel, this was poorly attended, and the venue closed within a few weeks. Bill Graham took it over and renamed it the Fillmore West.

 

Given that Marvin Boxley would sit in with Jerry Garcia at the Matrix in October (see below), it's not unreasonable to think he played a little harmonica on stage with the Dead during this three-night stand.

June 7-8, 1968 The Ark, Sausalito, CA: Petrus/Flamin' Groovies

The Ark was a grounded ferryboat in Sausalito Harbor. The Charles Van Damme had been made into a sort of floating restaurant and hangout. Bands would play on Friday and Saturday night, and another band would play a "Breakfast Show" from 2-6am on Sunday morning (this weekend it was the Marin band Transantlantic Railroad).

 

September 26-27, 1968 The Matrix, San Francisco, CA: Petrus

I can find no trace of Petrus for three months, but then there was a final weekend at the Matrix. 

Petrus drops off the radar after playing the Matrix. They probably broke up shortly after. Ruthann Friedman continued to record, and then abruptly retired from the music industry for family reasons around 1973. In 2006, after getting her degree at UCLA and raising a family, re-releases of Constant Companion led to her return to performance. Peter Kaukonen went on to play in Hot Tuna, Black Kangaroo and various solo projects, in a professional music career extending many decades. He was in the initial touring lineup of Jefferson Starship, and later part of the reunified Jefferson Airplane in 1990. 

 

October 10, 1968 The Matrix, San Francisco, CA: Jerry Garcia and Friends

Colloquially known amongst Deadheads as Mickey Hart and The Hartbeats, Garcia, Phil Lesh and both drummers played the Matrix for three weeknights (Tuesday through Thursday, October 8-10). We have some tapes, and various friends dropped in to jam, including Elvin Bishop and Jack Casady. As mentioned above, Marvin Boxley is invited up on stage by Jerry Garcia on Thursday night (October 10). Garcia asks him if he has his harmonica, and when he does not, one is found for him. There aren't many musicians who can say that Garcia invited them up on stage from the audience, in 1968 or any other year, so Boxley obviously made a mark. Boxley would have been at the Carousel just a few months earlier (May 31-June 2, above). 

 

Based on the chronology of his obituary, it seems that Boxley would have left UC Berkeley around 1967, so it makes sense that he returned to action. He went on to have a notable career as a musician, playing on records by Mike White and Babatunde, and apparently working with many local notables. 

 

Marvin Boxley's obituary in the Marin Independent-Journal, October 2, 2003