Palo Alto Rock History Landscape and Navigation

998 San Antonio Road, site of the Big Beat and the Palo Alto Acid Test, as the building appeared in 2009

I have published a large number of blog posts about the 1960s and 70s rock history of Palo Alto, CA. The posts are scattered about several different blogs, and go back many years. They do a tell a story, of sorts, when seen together, so I have gathered them here. I had to do this for my own purposes, so it made the most sense to make this generally accessible.

The posts below are about the rock history of Palo Alto, Stanford University and some nearby towns. They cover landmarks, events and bands. Since bands don't really have a location, I have been broad-minded about what counts as a Palo Alto band. My one exception has been the Grateful Dead, where I have only noted them in relation to events actually occurring in or around Palo Alto. Here and there I have included posts from other scholars' blogs, where they have fit my scholarly interests. Nevertheless, I am not trying to make a complete list of other people's posts about Palo Alto, just mine. I have included a number of posts that are planned or in development, but not yet complete, in order to give a fuller picture.

I have included some material about San Mateo County and the Peninsula, mostly from 1966 and earlier, since it wouldn't fit anywhere else.

The Cabana Hotel, 4290 El Camino Real in Palo Alto, in 1963. It looked about the same in August 1965, when the Beatles stayed there. Palo Alto has never gotten over it. The co-owner's wife (Doris Day) wondered why there was a "statue of a Greek whore" in the fountain

Overviews

Palo Alto Psychedelic Rock Shows 1965-66 (Palo Alto I)
The Beatles stayed at the Cabana Hotel in August, and The Grateful Dead had an Acid Test on December 18, 1965. And so it began.

Palo Alto Psychedelic Rock Shows 1967 (Palo Alto II)
The Poppycock opens at the Western end of University Avenue, and downtown has a rock club. The city of Palo Alto holds some free "Be-In" concerts in the downtown park.

Palo Alto Psychedelic Rock Shows 1968 (Palo Alto III)
The Poppycock starts booking rock bands from around the Bay Area, and the city of Palo Alto keeps holding Be-Ins.

Palo Alto Psychedelic Rock Shows January-June 1969 (Palo Alto IV)
The Poppycock hits its high water mark in the first half of 1969, and University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto is almost, kind of, a happening place, at least at the Western end. 

Palo Alto Psychedelic Rock Shows July 1969-1970 (Palo Alto V) 

Palo Alto Rock Concerts 1970-73 (Palo Alto VI)
There was a huge audience for rock music in Palo Alto and Stanford in this period, but the town and the university wished it would quiet down.

The Grateful Dead and Menlo Park
Whatever you think about the history of the Grateful Dead in Palo Alto, much of it was actually next door in Menlo Park.

Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Stanford Landmark Guide (So Many Roads II)
A guide to buildings (or at least locations) in Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Stanford University that played a part in Grateful Dead history.

The New Delhi River Band formed in Summer 1966 in a house on Channing Avenue in Palo Alto. This flyer from August 1966 was their first known publicity. It was a band joke to constantly spell their name differently on different flyers.

Bands

The Tombstones (South Bay 1966)
The Tombstones were not particularly important, in the scheme of things, but they were more or less the first "house band" at The Big Beat, which was Palo Alto's first rock club.   

The Flowers>Solid State: South Bay Psychedelica 1966-68
The Flowers (later called Solid State) were actually from San Jose, but they were the house band at The Poppycock in 1967, and played the major Palo Alto Be-Ins. Along with the Ken Kesey connection, they were a significant part of the Palo Alto rock story (even if they mainly played jazz).

The Good News-Performance History 1966
The Good News were from Redwood City, two towns over (Northwards) from Palo Alto. They were the first Peninsula band to have their own light show (mainly strobe lights), and their membership included a number of players who went to other bands (Dave Torbert, Tim Abbott and Chris Herold). 

David Nelson and The New Delhi River Band, Summer 1966 (David Nelson I) 

David Nelson and The New Delhi River Band, Fall 1966 (Nelson II)

David Nelson And The New Delhi River Band, January-June 1967 (David Nelson III)  

David Nelson and The New Delhi River Band, July 1967-February 1968 (David Nelson IV)
Guitarist David Nelson, later famous as a founding member of the New Riders of The Purple Sage, was a critical part of Palo Alto's rock music history. Nelson, after working with Jerry Garcia in numerous bluegrass ensembles in 1963-64, ended up forming the New Delhi River Band, the second psychedelic blues band to come from Palo Alto. The NDRB story is our best insight about the underground rock scene in the South Bay in 1966 and '67.

Petrus w/Ruthann Friedman and Peter Kaukonen (Half Moon Bay, CA-1968)
Petrus seems to be about the only 60s rock band to ever make it out of Half Moon Bay. 60s bands on the Peninsula that were playing original music had to revolve around Palo Alto somewhat, as there were no other real options at the time.

The Poppycock, at 135 University Avenue, near the train station, was Palo Alto's leading (also only) psychedelic rock venue from 1967 through 1970. This ad was in the February 28, 1969 Stanford Daily.

Venues
The critical 60s Palo Alto rock venue was The Poppycock, at 135 University Avenue, right near the train tracks and the University. For details of The Poppycock, see the Palo Alto annual overviews listed above.

Jerry Garcia, The New Riders Of The Purple Sage and Peninsula School 1961-71
Peninsula School was (and still is) a forward looking K-8 school in Menlo Park, right near the Palo Alto border. Not surprisingly, it turns out to have numerous direct and indirect connections to Jerry Garcia.

Jerry Garcia, The Top Of The Tangent, 117 University Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 1963-64 (Lost And Found) 

Jerry Garcia Live on KZSU-am and fm, Stanford University, 1963-64 (KZSU I and FM Part Zero) 

Jerry Garcia live on KZSU-fm 1973-88 (KZSU II and FM XV) 

Summer 1965, The Top of The Tangent, 117 University Avenue, Palo Alto, CA: The Warlocks
The Top Of The Tangent, at 117 University Avenue, provided the launching pad for not only Jerry Garcia's career, but numerous other future Fillmore rockers as well. While it was a folk club, it played a critical role in the rock history of Palo Alto (and, in fact, the electric Warlocks actually played there in the Summer of 1965).    

The Warlocks At Palo Alto High School (Not!)
No matter how many times you've seen that poster, the Warlocks did not play Palo Alto High School. An interesting Comment Thread as well. 

The Big Beat, 998 San Antonio Road, Palo Alto, CA: Palo Alto Acid Test

Tales from In Your Ear – Live Music in downtown Palo Alto 1971-72
Fellow scholar CryptDev has done an excellent job reviewing the performers at In Your Ear, the club that replaced the Poppycock in 1971-72. In Your Ear styled itself as a jazz club, but its actual musical offerings were broader than that

Live Music in Palo Alto1971-73 - Across the Tracks at Homer's Warehouse
CryptDev also reviews what can be discerned about the last gasp of downtown Palo Alto rock and roll, at Homer's Warehouse. Homer's Warehouse was a beer joint in a Quonset Hut behind the Town and Country shopping center, actually a better place for rock and roll than University Avenue. It was open from 1971 to '73. Ultimately, rock music in Palo Alto moved over to California Avenue (to Sophie's, which became Keystone Palo Alto, The Edge, Illusions and perhaps a few other names). I will eventually get to the Keystone Palo Alto story. 

Sophie's, 260 South California, Palo Alto: 1976 Performance List (Palo Alto VII)
Sophie's opened up outside of downtown. It would later evolve into the Keystone Palo Alto.

Keystone Palo Alto, 260 South California, Palo Alto, CA: Performers List, January-July 1977 (Palo Alto VIII)
Freddie Herrera extended his Keystone empire to Palo Alto, but survival was initially a close call.

Keystone Palo Alto, 260 South California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA: Performance List, August-December 1977 (Palo Alto IX)

The December 2, 1966 Stanford Daily had an ad for a "Happening" at Wilbur Hall, the Freshman dorm complex, the following night. The featured performer was Big Brother And The Holding Company. Stanford University seems to have banned campus rock concerts after this event. Damn, it musta been fun.

Events

January 25, 1964 Little Theater, College of San Mateo Folk Festival, San Mateo, CA: Black Mountain String Band 

January 16, 1965 Hootenanny, Peninsula YMCA, San Mateo, CA: Mother McRee’s Uptown Jug Band Champions 

December 3, 1966: 658 Escondido Drive, Stanford, CA: "A Happening In The Wilburness" with Big Brother and The Holding Company
At the end of Fall '66, the Stanford Freshman Dorm complex had a Multi-Media "Happening" with Big Brother and The Holding Company. That was it for rock concerts at Stanford. Man--must have been a hella good time. 

December 17, 1966 Christmas Dance, Ladera School Multipurpose Room, Ladera, CA: Grateful Dead/Rhythm Method Blues Band  
Ladera is an unincorporated community in San Mateo County, in the hills just above Palo Alto. They had "teen dances." On December 17, 1966, they had the Grateful Dead. Really.

June 16, 1967 Cubberley High School Graduation Dance, Palo Alto, CA: Quicksilver Messenger Service/Freedom Highway
This post also includes a list of known performers at Palo Alto, Cubberley and Gunn High School dances from 1967-69 (of the bands that are "known" anyway) 

4290 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA Cabana Hyatt House "Cabana '67 Presents 'Who Is Miss Boutique'"-Music By The New Delhi River Band 

July 2, 1967, El Camino Park, Palo Alto, CA: Mary Poppins Umbrella Festival and Be-In
Palo Alto's second most legendary rock event (the first was the Beatles spending the night at the Cabana in 1965). The Grateful Dead played a free Be-In concert in downtown Palo Alto's biggest park. Researching this seemingly lost event was one of the reasons I began blogging.

100 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA June 23, 1968 Free You Be-In  

October 5-6, 1968 San Francisco International Pop Festival, Searsville Lake, Palo Alto, CA: Traffic/Iron Butterfly/Blue Cheer/Country Joe and The Fish/Steve Miller Band (canceled)
Stanford University blocked a plan by promoters to have a rock festival at Searsville Lake, right near campus. Tickets had actually been sold before the University canned it. It would have been a debacle. A legendary debacle, though. 

July 28, 1968 Frost Amphitheatre, Stanford U., Palo Alto, CA: Chambers Brothers/Quicksilver Messenger Service/Sons of Champlin/Creedence Clearwater Revival/Santana Blues Band/Morning Glory (“Stanford Summer Rock”)
Rock music had finally gotten big enough  to use Stanford's best venue, the grassy bowl (capacity 6,900) of Frost Amphitheater. This Summer '68 concert was a success, paving the way for judicious use of Frost over the next few decades.

November 21, 1968-Los Altos High School Gym, Los Altos, CA: Santana/Quicksilver Messenger Service
Another fellow scholar (LightIntoAshes) makes a guest appearance to describe the remarkable findings in the 1969 Los Altos High School yearbook. Quicksilver and Santana headline a High School dance.  

August 2, 1969 Baylands Athletic Center, Embarcadero Road East, Palo Alto, CA: Eleven Hours, Eleven Bands (Last Palo Alto Be-In)
The final, thoroughly forgotten Palo Alto Be-In turns out to have been a Signpost To New Space.

October 5, 1969 Frost Amphitheater, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA Its A Beautiful Day/Mike Bloomfield-Nick Gravenites/Cold Blood/Southern Comfort/Sanpaku/Old Davis  

New Riders Of The Purple Sage, Peninsula School, 920 Peninsula Way, Menlo Park, CA May 19, 1970
CryptDev's remarkable photos provide a trip back in time, when Jerry Garcia and the Riders played in the afternoon at Peninsula School. 

September 4, 1970 The Checkmate Inn, Nairobi Village Shopping Center, 1675 Bay Road (at University), East Palo Alto, CA: Dance Concert with Metropolitan Sound Company 2am-? (Lost Horizons VI)
East Palo Alto is usually left out of the Palo Alto story, because, well, it's inconvenient.

October 3, 1971, Frost Ampitheater, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders

December 31, 1974: Stanford Music Hall, Palo Alto, CA: Kingfish/Osiris  

August 9, 1975: Frost Amphitheater, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA: Eric Clapton/Kingfish 

January 9-10, 1976: Sophie's, Palo Alto, CA: The Jerry Garcia Band with James Booker 

December 5, 1977: Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA Robert Hunter and Comfort (Alligator Moon-FM XIV)

"So What" The Jerry Garcia Band: Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA November 3, 1978  

October 30, 1980 St. Michael's Alley, Palo Alto, CA: Robert Hunter

Other Resources
Anyone who has scrolled down this far needs to know about the book Ticket To Rock, by Palo Alto historian Bo Crane. Crane identifies the houses and histories of numerous Palo Alto rock musicians (without embarrassing current residents by giving out exact addresses, which is commendable). Contemporary photos, too. The book is published in conjunction with the Palo Alto Historical Association (PAHA) and the Palo Alto Stanford Heritage (PAST). Order details are here.

An ad for the Tiger A Go Go in the San Mateo Times (Nov 12 '65)

El Camino Real, San Mateo County and The Peninsula
These posts about the Peninsula aren't really part of the Palo Alto story, but they provide a good counterpoint to how different downtown Palo Alto was compared to the rest of the El Camino Real. I threw in a few other posts about the Peninsula, just for completeness.

North To San Francisco: The Warlocks in The South Bay, 1965 

The In Room, Swiss Chalet, 635 Old County Road, Belmont, CA 1965
The In Room opened in February 1965 and did not last a year. Yet an 8-week booking for the Warlocks made the band.  

November 12, 1965: Tiger A Go Go, San Francisco Airport Hilton, Burlingame 

1836 El Camino Real, Redwood City, CA-The Nu Beat (later The Spectrum)  

Hart Music, 894 Laurel Avenue, San Carlos, CA 

4301 El Camino Real, San Mateo, CA: The Trip November 1966-Spring 68 

September 2, 1966, Ayn and Lyn Mattei Debutante Ball, La Dolphine Mansion, 1760 Manor Drive, Hillsborough, CA: The Grateful Dead/Al Trobe 

September 21, 1968 Pacific Recording, San Mateo, CA ("Jam with Vic and David")

The Odyssey, 1606 S. El Camino Real, San Mateo, CA: June-August 1970 Performance List (Lost Horizons V) 

December 12, 1981 Fiesta Hall, San Mateo County Fairgrounds, San Mateo, CA: Grateful Dead/Joan Baez/High Noon "Dance For Nuclear Disarmarment"

August 2, 1969 Baylands Athletic Center, Embarcadero Road East, Palo Alto, CA: Eleven Hours, Eleven Bands (Last Palo Alto Be-In)

The August 2, 1969 SF Chronicle lists "12 bands, 11am-11pm"

Palo Alto likes to see itself as one of the launching pads for 60s rock history, and it may not be wrong. The Beatles stayed in Palo Alto in 1965, and there was an Acid Test, and there was the Grateful Dead. So Palo Alto played its part. Unlike other small towns in the 60s, and even unlike most college towns, Palo Alto had a number of Be-Ins in the 60s. Most college towns had one, or sometimes two, and then gave it up. The City Of Palo Alto actually had six, from 1967 to '69.

The organizers of the Free Concerts were the constituents of the MidPeninsula Free University, or "Free You." Free You was an aggregation of intellectuals, artists and characters, who provided alternative educational opportunities in storefronts and people's homes. While Free You helped popularize the likes of "Underwater Basket Weaving"--thanks, Palo Alto--the model has been copied by University Extenion courses throughout the country, so they weren't wrong. Initially, however, the Free You freaks raised money by having free concerts and asking for donations.

The first Free You Be-In was at El Camino Park in Palo Alto on May 14,1967. El Camino Park, at 100 Alma Street, was Palo Alto's oldest park. The park had opened in 1914, and it was the Western edge of downtown, across from Stanford Shopping Center. The May Be-In was a big success, with a few local rock bands (like The Flowers) providing the entertainment,and since Palo Alto was a tolerant town, FreeYou received a permit for a second one.

The second Palo Alto Be-In was an all-timer--on July 2, 1967, local heroes the Grateful Dead returned to Palo Alto in triumph, and packed the park. Palo Alto was still Palo Alto, though, and FreeYou held a third Be-In on October 1, 1967, with the Steve Miller Band (including Boz Scaggs) on top.

By 1968, sleepy Palo Alto was inadvertently turning into a rock and roll town. There was a popular rock club, The Poppycock, just a few blocks from El Camino Park. The high school kids discovered that a downtown plaza was private property, and held their own mini-Be-Ins and free concerts. University Avenue was full of hippies on Friday and Saturday nights. Things were happening.

On June 23, 1968, FreeYou held another Be-In. All three bands had played the Poppycock, and were probably mainly interested in drumming up audiences for future appearances. When FreeYou asked for another permit, the residents at a new apartment building across the street (at 101 Alma) protested about the noise, but Palo Alto ruled in favor of Free You. The fifth Palo Alto Be-In was held on September 29, 1968. The Steve Miller Band returned as headliner, and one Carlos Santana showed up to jam with him. The house was packed.

The July 3, 1969 Stanford Daily describes how local rock bands risked getting their equipment impounded if it exceeded 25 watts when performing at a scheduled July 4 Be-In at El Camino Park

Palo Alto: 1969

Palo Alto isn't most towns. In most towns, in 1969, the issue with free concerts would have been fear of hippies, long hair, rampant drug use, topless young women, and the dreaded fear of corrupting youth. Palo Alto parents were middle class and extremely progressive, however, the kind of people who had hated Joe McCarthy, liked Pete Seeger and wanted to ban the bomb. It was their own kids who had long hair, and by and large Palo Alto parents were dismissive of those criticisms.

What Palo Alto didn't like, however, was noise, and any big crowds associated with rock concerts. The apartment building at 101 Alma was finally successful in shutting down the Be-Ins on the basis of noise. In the Spring of 1969, Palo Alto City Council had passed an ordnance that limited the amplification of Be-Ins to 25 watts. So Palo Alto would approve a permit for a Be-In, but not a sound system. FreeYou got a permit for a July 4 Be-In, but no sound system. Bands did not want to risk a bust, so no Be-In happened.

Remember, however, most of Palo Alto wasn't opposed to FreeYou or even rock music, as long as it was quiet and uncrowded downtown. So Palo Alto offered a different city site for a Summer Be-In. The city allowed FreeYou to have a free concert at the new softball complex at the Baylands Athletic Center, near the Bay on the Eastern edge of town.

The softball field at Baylands Athletic Center as it looked in the 21st century

Baylands Athletic Center

Most Palo Altans think of the city as ending at the Bayshore Freeway (US101), but it's really not the case. In fact, the city extends East over the freeway, following Embarcadero Road all the way to San Francisco Bay. Just north of it, the extension of University Avenue was East Palo Alto, and the extension of Willow Road was East Menlo Park. "East Palo Alto" and "East Menlo Park" were just designations in the 1960s, as they were unincorporated land in the county next to Palo Alto (East Palo Alto is now an incorporated city within San Mateo County). Out on Embarcadero Road, past the Bayshore, Palo Alto had all sorts of things, an airport, a duck pond, a yacht harbor, a "waste disposal site" (which we called "the dump") and some other ununsed wetlands.

Palo Alto, being Palo Alto, had an idea way back in the 1940s that some of the little-used wetlands should be preserved. Parks were established in the Baylands as early as 1940. By the 1960s, there were serious efforts afoot to preserve the environment of the fragile bayland ecology. Still, Palo Alto had needs, and along with the airport and yacht harbor, Palo Alto built an athletic center, with a lighted softball field and a baseball diamond. The athletic facility (now with the address of 1900 Geer Road), was just on open land between the Bayshore Freeway and the bay itself.

Palo Alto had limited any Be-In at El Camino Park to 25 watts of power, which was effectively a denial of the permit. But in turn, the city offered up the softball diamond, complete with lights, for a 12-hour free concert. We can laugh at Palo Alto--I love to laugh at Palo Alto--but in 1969, what other city was offering up a city facility for free, with parking, bathrooms and lights, for a 12-hour free concert?

The August 1, 1969 Berkeley Tribe says "11am-11pm, free." The only address is "Embarcadero Rd East," which I assure you was sufficient. Once you got past the Post Office, there was nothing on Embarcadero Road save for the softball field.

August 2, 1969 Baylands Athletic Center, Palo Alto, CA; Sunbear/Underwood Jug Band/ Western Addition/ United Circus Band/Divine Madness/ Magic/Cide Minder/Happy Now/ Blu/ Kidd Africa/ Schon & Ice

Who were the bands?

Sunbear, Underwood Jug Band, United Circus Band, Magic, Happy Now and Blu are unknown to me. I assure you, if a late 60s Peninsula band is obscure to me, they are awfully obscure.

Western Addition was some kind of R&B band with a horn section, probably playing covers. Their lead singer, however, was the fabulously talented Wendy Haas. Haas was from nearby Atherton, and had been in an all-girl garage band called the Freudian Slips. The Slips played the lower end of the Fillmore circuit, and got their picture in Life magazine, and then broke up when some of the members went to college (Haas said "we weren't very tight"). Haas knew Michael Shrieve, however, and got connected to the Santana axis, which is how she ended up singing in the wonderful group Azteca. She also worked with the Santana band and others. Haas was the lead singer for Western Addition.

I recognize the name Divine Madness. I think they were a San Jose-area band.

Cide Minder is likely Sideminder, a Monterey County band (maybe they changed their spelling, or it's a transcription error). Sideminder was popular in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, and occasionally made forays into the Bay Area. It was a sound practice at the time to play a free concert if you could, in the hopes that the locals would then pay to see you at a club (in this case, The Poppycock).

KiddAfrica is a familiar name from various billings, but I don't know anything about the band or singer.

Schon is very likely San Mateo's own guitar sensation, Neal Schon. At the time, Schon would have been 15 years old. What isn't clear is whether he had his own band, or he was sitting in with Ice.

Ice were booked by the WestPole agency, who booked Quicksilver Messenger Service, Sons Of Champlin and many other Bay Area acts. WestPole director Ron Polte was extremely shrewd about building a following from the ground up. The Sons, for example, had played a million gigs all over the Bay Area, but by the time their album was released in 1969 they had a solid following all over the region. Ice was a tier below the Sons, and I don't actually know anything about them besides their WestPole affiliation, but Polte was shrewd about using free concerts to build audiences.

The August 2 weather report for the Santa Clara Valley, published in the August 1 Examiner

What Happened?

The free concert at The Baylands Athletic Center in Palo Alto on August 2, 1969 was fairly well publicized, for an event with no "name" bands. So what happened?

No one knows. There were absolutely no reports from afterwards, I've never heard of anyone who went, no one mentions it on Facebook, no band members recall it in their memoirs. There is no trace of the event (and I actually look for these things). The weather forecast (above, from the previous day's SF Examiner) was "mostly fair," so that wouldn't have been a problem.

My guess is that Be-Ins were a downtown phenomenon, with a lot of hippies walking to the event, maybe going to or from a coffee shop or pizza joint before or after. Getting in a car to drive across the freeway for some no-name bands just wasn't attractive. I think the 1969 Palo Alto Be-In was thinly attended and unmemorable, so--execpt for me--it became lost to history.

An ad for a rock concert at the Baylands Athletic Center in Palo Alto, on Sunday, November 15, 1970, featuring Big Brother, AUM, Tower of Power and Nevada.

Never Again?

It's easy to say that the Be-In must have been such a debacle that there was never a concert at the Baylands again. To some extent, that's true. The Baylands Athletic Center had just opened in Summer 1969, and by the next Summer, any Saturday would have found the softball field booked solid with determined players. Good luck ever getting them to accept they should lose Saturday games to a rock concert, when the Fillmore West was just up the highway. Not to mention, a crowd would wreck the outfield grass, and that would never be an acceptable outcome.

For a minute, though, let's think about it. The Baylands was safely separated from residential Palo Alto by a freeway, which in turn gave tremendous access to the site for the entire Peninsula. Parking was abundant, the facility was preexisting, with bathrooms and concession stands. Even in August, being right next to the Bay means there is inevitably a cooling ocean breeze. OK, there's a slight issue of the fact that it was built on landfill, and every once in a while you might smell the rotting waste. But really, it's a rock concert, the whole crowd is going to be burning some fat ones, what are you really going to smell?

November 15, 1970 Baylands Athletic Center, Palo Alto, CA: Big Brother and The Holding Company/AUM/Tower Of Power/Nevada Palo Alto Jaycees Benefit

And it can't have been that terribleof an idea, anyway, since the Baylands Athletic Center was used for a concert the very next year. It was a benefit, sponsored by the Palo Alto Jaycees Youth Advisory Council. Knowing Palo Alto, this was probably a scheme to "keep the kids out of trouble." It was held on a Sunday afternoon from 11am-4pm. Remember, also, that the weather is balmy in Palo Alto, even in November. Maybe people had to wear a sweater, since it was probably windy, but a daytime concert in November is plausible in the Bay Area.

Sure, Janis had left Big Brother, but they were still a name. AUM, a power trio, were a good band who had played around, and of course the great Tower Of Power was up and coming. It was probably a pretty good show. Note that Big Brother's name is taped over Boz Scaggs, so there must have been some changes, so maybe it wasn't going as well as hoped. Still, I know nothing about this event, either, other than the poster. In any case, it was well after softball season, so there wouldn't been a conflict with any games, nor would they have had to worry about wrecking the turf. The header "AUTUMNAL 2" hints that maybe there was an earlier event as well. Still, I can find no trace of a Baylands concert after 1970.

Despite only having apparent failures as events, the blueprint for a concert at the Baylands Athletic Center seems to be a perfect model for a suburban concert venue. And so it was. On June 29, 1986 the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, just 4 miles South of the Baylands Athletic Center, debuted as the Penisnula's premier concert venue. OK, it wasn't free, but it had every other benefit of the Baylands Athletic Center, and no interference from softball bookings. So the Baylands event was a failure, but the seeds of success were embedded within it.

July 28, 1968 Frost Amphitheatre, Stanford U., Palo Alto, CA: Chambers Brothers/Quicksilver Messenger Service/Sons of Champlin/Creedence Clearwater Revival/Santana Blues Band/Morning Glory (“Stanford Summer Rock”)

Stanford's big 1968 rock event on July 28 was headlined by the Chambers Brothers, on top of a bunch of local bands

In 1966, Stanford University had the concentration of finance and young folks to provide extra booking for the hip Fillmore bands. Even when Stanford got nervous about bands on campus, the Stanford-based MidPeninsula Free University were the ones putting on Be-In in Palo Alto's biggest park. By 1968, loud rock and roll was more mainstream, at least in Northern California. Young people up and down the Peninsula wanted to see bands full of long-haired guitarists playing their own music. Palo Alto's downtown, having been gutted by the Stanford Shopping Center in the 1950s, started to add shops selling lava lamps and posters. There weren't any bars in Palo Alto yet--not until 1981--but The Poppycock sold beer, and that was enough. The locus of rock music in town had moved off the Stanford campus and over to the Poppycock. I have written about Palo Alto rock music in 1968 in great detail.

Still, there was one big event on the Stanford campus in 1968. Frost Amphitheatre, a beautiful outdoor arena built in 1937, was an expansive grass bowl with perfect sight lines. With a capacity of 6,900, however, it was generally far too large for 60s rock events. Stanford, like most colleges, was also generally resistant to rock shows that might interfere with classes. By the Summer of '68, the rock business had gotten big enough that using Frost at least made some financial sense. For whatever unknown reasons, Stanford was amenable to a 7-hour, Sunday afternoon rock "festival." It was the only event of its kind at Frost--to the present day--and it is perpetually recalled, albeit in the foggiest ways, when old Palo Alto rock concerts are resurrected.

July 28, 1968 Frost Amphitheatre, Stanford U., Palo Alto  Chambers Brothers/Quicksilver Messenger Service/Sons of Champlin/Creedence Clearwater Revival/Santana Blues Band/Morning Glory  “Stanford Summer Rock”
The July 19 Stanford Daily had a display ad for "Student Police Needed for Folk-Rock Festival at Frost." $1.50/hr for, apparently seven hours of work, was actual money in 1968.

The cover of the 1969 Chambers Brothers lp Shout! (on Vault), recorded in 1967. The cover photo, however, was taken at Frost Amphitheatre on July 28, 1968. On the side, Carlos Santana, blue shirt, back row, 6-r.

Modern readers may think the order of the billing (from the poster) is inverted. In fact, the Chambers Brothers were Fillmore headliners with a successful hit single “Time” (with the memorable chorus “The time has come today”). The Chambers Brothers were popular enough in 1968 that other record companies released crummy old tapes of theirs in order to cash in. Vault Records released a 1967 live Chambers Brothers tape as Shout!, with front and back covers taken at the Frost concert (above and below). It's an inferior, terrible record, by the way--and I like the Chambers Brothers--but the cover is fun if you're from Palo Alto.

The back cover of the 1969 Chambers Brothers Vault Records album Shout!, recorded in 1967, but with pictures from the July 1968 Frost show. Note the tiny backline.

Quicksilver had always been locally popular, their first album on Capitol had only been out for a few months. The Sons of Champlin did have a local following, but were still several months away from recording their first album (also on Capitol), which would not be released until the Spring of 1969. Morning Glory was a Marin band ((with an album on Fontana), but I have never been able to determine if they played. Gypsum Heats is also unknown to me, nor have I been able to determine if they played [update: I have learned that Gypsum Heats was a rock band with horns, with the guitarist from Kensington Market (Chris Guiver) and the future lead singer of Tower Of Power. They had a single on Onyx)

Creedence Clearwater Revival, while performing together as a unit for several years, mostly as The Golliwogs, had only recently become a full-time group because John Fogerty had completed his duties in the US Army Reserve. Their debut album on Fantasy had probably just been released. Possibly their first single “Suzie Q” was getting play on AM radio at this time, as it did become a local hit. Creedence had played The Poppycock, and they had been broadcast live on Stanford radio station KZSU-fm, but they were still just up-and-coming. As it happened, Quicksilver Messenger Service was late, so they came on last, after the Chambers Brothers.

The July 19, 1968 Stanford Daily reports that the Satan Blues Band will open at Frost

As for Santana, they were still called the Santana Blues Band at this time. Organist and singer Gregg Rolie was from Palo Alto, Cubberely High School class of '65. Rolie had been in a popular South Bay band, William Penn And His Pals, who were a local knock-off of then-popular Paul Revere And The Raiders. Rolie, presciently, had quit the popular band to move to the city and play the blues with a young guitarist from the Mission. The Santana Blues Band had a following around San Francisco, but were unknown in the South Bay. For a Palo Altan like Rolie, it must have been a kick to play Stanford's huge amphitheatre. In the Stanford Daily (July 19, above), the group was called the Satan Blues Band.

On the cover of the Chambers Brothers lp, amongst the crowd watching from stage left, Carlos Santana is clearly visible in a blue shirt (back row, 6th from the right), just another hippie checking out the hit band. Three summers later, when Bill Graham closed the Fillmore West, Santana, Quicksilver and Creedence all headlined, and the Sons played as well, and all were broadcast live on FM radio. No wonder this 1968 Frost show looms so large in Palo Alto memory.

The Flowers>Solid State (1967 Palo Alto Psychedelic Rock)

An ad in the April 21, 1967 Stanford Daily for the opening of The Poppycock, a Fish 'N' Chips joint that also presented music. It was Palo Alto's primarry rock club from 1967-1969. The Flowers (later Solid State) were effectively the house band throughout 1967, playing more weekends than not.

Update: thanks to this post, I got in contact with Flowers bassist Gordon Stevens, and I learned the complete story of The Flowerw, plus pictures! Is the internet great or what?

 

 

Palo Alto, California, is only a town of about 60,000, about 35 miles South of San Francisco, and yet it looms large in the world, far out of proportion to its modest size. Palo Alto residents, like the residents of most small towns, think the world revolves around itself.

Palo Alto, by its own accounting, played a big part in 60s psychedelic rock and roll. The history of the Fillmore and The Avalon always begins with Ken Kesey at Stanford, and the parties and acid tests that followed. Of course, Kesey's cottage was really next door in Menlo Park, but that sort of detail never interfered with a Palo Alto story. At the same time, Jerry Garcia and other bohemians were hanging out in downtown Palo Alto, even if they often lived in Menlo Park themselves. Certainly, Jerry Garcia started playing live in Stanford and Palo Alto, and he took acid for the first time in Palo Alto, and by the end of 1965 Garcia was the lead guitarist in an electric blues band. The Warlocks--who debuted themselves in Menlo Park--became the Grateful Dead, and the house band of The Merry Pranksters, and Palo Alto's place in the rock revolution was secure.

For all that, however, there were only four Palo Alto psychedelic bands. After the Dead came David Nelson's New Delhi River Band. Although based in Palo Alto, the NDRB primarily had a following in Santa Cruz and the South Bay. I have researched the New Delhi River Band's history in great detail. There was also the Anonymous Artists Of America, founded at Stanford University, and intimately connected to Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters. They lived in a crumbling mansion in the hills above Redwood City. I have not gotten around to their full story, but they aren't innaccessible on the internet (google "Trixie Merkin" if you aren't at work). So that leaves The Flowers.

The Flowers were the Palo Alto pyschedelic band who played the most in Palo Alto, and they were intricatley connected to the Ken Kesey axis. Because they never recorded, and there aren't even any photographs of the band, they are all but entirely forgotten. That is what rock archaeology is all about.

The corner of University Avenue and High Street in downtown Palo Alto, as it appeared in 2018 (looking East towards downtown)

April 14-15, 1967  The Poppycock, Palo Alto, CA: San Francisco Mime Troupe/The Flowers
April 20, 1967 The Poppycock, Palo Alto, CA: The Flowers 
April 21-22, 1967 The Poppycock, Palo Alto, CA: San Francisco Mime Troupe/The Flowers
Palo Alto's first rock club was a place called The Big Beat, way south of downtown. It is infamous as the site of the Palo Alto Acid Test on December 18, 1965, just prior to its opening. The Acid Test, aside, the club featured bands playing covers, and appealed to factory workers in the South Bay. The second rock club was The Poppycock, which opened on April 14, 1967. It was downtown, near the Stanford campus, at the corner of University Avenue and High Street (hard to make this up). I have written in great detail about the history of The Poppycock.

The first band to play the  Poppycock was The Flowers. They had played on opening weekend after the Mime Troupe, an on Thursday, April 20, they were the only act.  I think The Flowers played sort of spacey jazz. I did google to find out who was in the band, but the only direct reference was in a Roman-a-Clef novel, so the names may have been changed to obscure the guilty. The names I did find were:

Paul Robertson-tenor sax

Don Alberts-Farfisa organ

Gordon Stevens-electric bass, mandolin

Buddy Barnhill-drums

I have no idea if this was actually representative of the regular membership, or just a lineup for one time period. It is generally overlooked that during their acid tests, the Merry Pranksters liked making music on various electric instruments. Ken Kesey had a little money from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and some of it was spent on some comparatively expensive electric gear. The Pranksters habit of performing is overlooked because the Grateful Dead's performances, however spaced out, were far more memorable. Also, limted evidence suggest that the Pranksters weren't very good musicians. In any case, saxophonist Paul Robertson had been Ken Kesey's laywer, and when the Merry Pranksters decamped for Mexico in late 1966 (since Kesey had gotten busted), Robertson got the Pranksters' musical equipment. 

Gordon Stevens was the son of the proprietor of Stevens Music in San Jose (he would turn up in Moby Grape a few years later). Stevens Music, at 1202 Lincoln Avenue in the Willow Glen district, sold instruments to all the South Bay bands, and Don Buchla could be found in the back room constructing strange synthesizers. So the members of The Flowers had the psychedelic credentials, even if there's no actual trace of their music today.

Don Alberts (1932-2018) had been raised in the Bay Area, but had moved to Portland, OR, where he played piano for a variety of touring acts. He returned to the Bay Area, where he not only played jazz, but published jazz compositions and wrote books. What little information I could find about The Flowers came from his novel (linked above) The Rushing: Manbaby and The Crooked Road To The Big Time. Alberts also recollects Stevens playing mandolin with The Flowers, which only adds to the mystery of what they might have sounded like.

Alfred "Buddy" Barnhill (1938-2011) grew up in Los Gatos, CA. He played drums with a wide variety of well-known jazz musicians. So the jazz credentials of The Flowers were well established. Only the Farfisa organ seems to indicate a rock orientation. On the other hand, older hippies liked jazz, so some extended Coltrane style jamming probably went down well when minds were flying high.

April 27-29, 1967: The Poppycock, Palo Alto, CA: The Flowers

May 4-6,1967 The Poppycock, Palo Alto, CA The Flowers

May 11-13, 1967 The Poppycock, Palo Alto, CA: The Flowers

I have listed every booking of The Flowers that I have been able to find. In fact, from April through June 1967, The Flowers probably played just about every weekend, but I am only including those were there has been concrete evidence. Downtown Palo Alto was a peculiar place in the 60s, and The Poppycock was thus a peculiar sort of rock club, even by 1960s standards.

Palo Alto had been founded by the railroad magnates Leland Stanford and Timothy Hopkins as the town adjacent to the new Stanford University. Stanford opened in 1892, but the foundation of Palo Alto dated back to 1875. A condition of Palo Alto's formation was that there were no bars downtown. After prohibition ended, Palo Alto relaxed slightly, and allowed beer and wine to be served at restaurants. Palo Alto residents, however, liked having no bars, and there were still no bars in the 1960s. At the same time, the revolutionary Stanford Shopping Center had opened in 1955, and wiped out many of the downtown Palo Alto business. So downtown Palo Alto was empty, yet had no bars.

The Poppycock was.a Fish 'N' Chips shop, but it also served beer. In 1967 Palo Alto, Fish 'N' Chips counted as ethnic cuisine. The Poppycock was open 7 days a week for takeout, and in a back room they served beer and had performers. There were no bars in Palo Alto, and hippies weren't that welcome, so The Poppycock became the de facto hippie hangout. To my knowledge, there were performances 7 nights a week at the Poppycock. On weeknights, they might be local folksingers, or jazz trios or just old movies, but there was always something. Generally, The Flowers held down the Thursday to Saturday slot, starting at 9:00pm with admission for 50 cents or a dollar.

May 14, 1967 El Camino Park, Palo Alto, CA MPFU Be-In (local bands)

 Have you ever wondered where the cliche started of replacing "Intro To English Lit" with "Underwater Basket Weaving?" It started in Palo Alto, because Palo Alto likes to start things. The Mid-Peninsula Free University (MPFU), or "Free You," was a loose affiliation of young Stanford professors and learned drop-outs who wanted things to be different. This was somehow connected to "The Experiment" (see April 10 '67 above). MPFU published a catalog of unique classes given in people's homes or community centers, offering instruction in all sorts of things. The Free You story is too long and too Palo Alto to go into here, but Palo Alto always documents itself, so you can read all about it.

In order to raise money for itself, the Free You decide to have a "Be-In," rather than a benefit concert. They held a free concert with local bands--I have never been able to find out who they were, although I suspect the Flowers were there--at El Camino Park in Palo Alto. El Camino Park was a grassy athletic field across from both The Stanford Shopping Center and ‘El Palo Alto’ (the tall tree that gave the city its name). The Park (at 100 El Camino Real) was at the intersection of Palo Alto Avenue, Alma Street and El Camino Real at the Palo Alto/Menlo Park border, and within easy walking distance of downtown. It is Palo Alto’s oldest park, first open in 1914.

After the initial “Human Be-In” in Golden Gate Park (on Jan 14 '67), The Diggers, the Grateful Dead and other like-minded souls were holding Be-Ins in the Bay Area and around the continent. There were Be-Ins (or similar events) in Los Angeles (Griffith Park), New York (Tompkins Square) and Vancouver (Stanley Park), for example, and around the Bay Area in Berkeley (Provo Park), San Jose (10th and Alma) and finally Palo Alto. The Palo Alto event capped a brief era that had begun only a half-mile away at Perry Lane. While Palo Alto’s leading hippies were migrating North to San Francisco or West to the Santa Cruz Mountains, the scene’s beginnings were still present. Palo Alto, while unhip, was a tolerant town and seemed perfectly willing to allow revelry to take place in a city park on a weekend afternoon. It went so well, Free You decided to have another one six weeks later.

I have never been able to find out who actually performed at the first Be-In, but I am 100% confident that The Flowers were one of the bands.

May 19-21, 1967 The Poppycock, Palo Alto, CA: The Flowers

May 26-28, 1967 The Poppycock, Palo Alto, CA: The Flowers

July 2, 1967 El Camino Park, Palo Alto, CA: Mary Poppins Umbrella Festival and Be-In

Grateful Dead/ /Anonymous Artists of America/New Delhi River Band/Solid State/Good Word

Since the network news had covered the Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park back in January, the music industry caught the wave, and it all led to the Monterey Pop Festival on the weekend of June 16-18, 1967. All of the San Francisco bands, with only the barest of record sales, if that, were high profile guests with hip acts from London, Los Angeles and New York. Attendance at the Monterey Fairgrounds was somewhere between 20,000 and 50,000, far more than anyone had anticipated. After Monterey Pop ended, the Dead's crew cheerily absconded with the rented Fender amps. According to Rock Scully and a few others, they used the amps to put on free concerts for a short while. The Palo Alto Be-In was clearly one of these events. After a while, Scully contacted Fender and told them in which warehouse their borrowed amps were located, and invited them to pick them up. Scully thoughtfully added, "if you're going to San Francisco, be sure to where flowers in your hair."

Although details about the Palo Alto Be-In have been hard to come by, quite unexpectedly several rolls of film turned up. Happily, they are in the safe hands of the Grateful Dead Archive at UC Santa Cruz, and can be viewed in detail by anyone so inclined. If only every Dead show had 145 photographs. A careful look at the complete photo set shows that the first two bands were neither New Delhi River Band nor The Flowers. From the article in the Stanford Daily (above), we can see that The Flowers were now using the name Solid State. As the band is largely a mystery, I have no idea why they changed their name. It's possible, though, that "Flowers" had become a hippie cliche.

My father, not interested in rock music per se, but having the foresight to recognize cultural touchstones when they occurred in his town, took his whole family—I was nine years old. I mainly recall Bill Kreutzmann’s psychedelically painted drum set, and my younger sister getting her face painted by nice hippie girls. My older sister recalls the Dead playing “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” (which is how that song made it into Deadbase). So it's possible that I even saw Solid State, though not necessarily likely.

July 28-29, 1967 The Poppycock, Palo Alto, CA: Solid State (formerly The Flowers)

Solid State was the new name for The Flowers. Had their been personnel changes in the band? Were they still playing every weekend? (If anyone knows, please Comment). The indication is that Solid State were still the house band, but the information is slight. It may be that Flowers/Solid State only ever played in Palo Alto, a very surprising history for a professional rock band.

October 4, 6-7 1967 The Poppycock, Palo Alto, CA: Solid State

The Poppycock mostly stopped advertising in the Stanford Daily after the Spring '67 quarter, so my information about Poppycock shows is very scarce. For the fist Stanford Daily issue of the Fall '67 quarter, however, The Poppycock had a relatively big display ad in the paper. When there weren't touring acts, Solid State was holding down the weekend. That suggests to me that Solid State still played the Poppycock regularly, but possibly not with the frequency of the Spring. The rock market in the Bay Area (and indeed the world) was exploding, and rock fans wanted to see something new and different each weekend, rather than just the same old house band.

A few Bay Area clubs that featued original rock along with some blues and folk was starting to surface. There was the Matrix in San Francisco, along with Mandrakes's and the New Orleans House in Berkeley. Slowly, the Poppycock would become a South Bay stop on the local circuit. The best bands in each of the counties would play the other clubs, and start to develop a name. In turn they would get the chance to open at the Fillmore or the Avalon. 

Solid State did no such thing. To my knowledge, they only played Palo Alto. I can find no trace of The Flowers or Solid State outside of The Poppycock and El-Camino Park, a unique and peculiar history for any working band.

October 1, 1967 El Camino Park, Palo Alto, CA: Steve Miller Band/New Delhi River Band/Solid State MPFU Be-In

Solid State definitely played the third Palo Alto Be-In of 1967 (it's mentioned in Don Alberts' novel).  This edition of the Steve Miller Band featured the classic lineup with Boz Scaggs, although their first album (Children Of The Future) was still almost a year rom release. The New Delhi River Band, meanwhile, after early success, was starting to lose momentum. The NDRB had a following in the South Bay, but The Barn, their home base, had closed, and the group had not broken into the more lucrative San Francisco scene.

The Solid State trail goes cold after October, 1967. Although my Poppycock lists are not complete, there are more listings in various papers, and none of them mention Solid State. My guess is that The Poppycock bookings became fewer, and the band simpply disappeared.

A flyer for The Poppycock in February 1968, advertising The Flowers on Feb 21. Was it the same Flowers as before, reverting to their earlier name, or another group?

February 21, 1968 The Poppycock, Palo Alto, CA: Flowers

There is one final, mysterious coda to story of The Flowers. By early 1968, The Poppycock was starting to book bands on weekends that played around the Bay Area. Some of them had even signed record contracts, or even had albums. It does appear, from limited evidence, that local rock bands still played The Poppycock on weekdays. 

On Wednesday, February 21, 1968 The Flowers were booked again at The Poppycock. Was this a reunion? Had they been playing somewhere else? Was this a different group using the Flowers name? Like most things about The Flowers, we can only guess. Indeed, given the passage of time, we may never find out

By 1967, Palo Alto had four psychedelic bands. One became a legend, another had well-known members in it, and a third was infamous. The Flowers remain, glimsed distantly from the past, as though in a foggy haze.

135 University Avenue in Palo Alto, the former site of The Poppycock, at the corner of University and High, as it appeared in 2010