Provo Park, Berkeley Concerts 1967-69

(this is a substantial update of an earlier post about Provo Park concerts in the late 1960s)

Provo Park in Berkeley, originally named Constitution Park, lies in the center of town, near City Hall and Berkeley High School. It is bounded by Allston Way, Martin Luther King Junior Way (called Grove Street in the 1960s) and Center Street. In the mid-1960s, Berkeleyites started calling Constitution Park "Provo Park" in support of the Dutch Provos (I had thought it was the IRA, but I was mistaken), and the name stuck. This is typical Berkeley politics, and almost no one living there later recalled why the park was called Provo Park.

When free concerts in the Golden Gate Park Panhandle became commonplace, many Berkeley rock bands looked to extend the idea to Provo Park. It was fun, it was cool and anyway it was good publicity for the bands. The first Panhandle show was October 6, 1966, the day LSD was declared illegal, and when The Grateful Dead, Big Brother, Wildlower and Orkustra played an unauthorized event there. By Spring 1967 the idea had spread to Berkeley, and there were apparently almost weekly shows, mostly during weekend afternoons. While many of the performers were simply aspiring local folk musicians or Berkeley High School rock bands, many larger events took place there too.

Provo Park remains fairly similar to how it looked in the day, although the buildings around have changed considerably. I took the top photos on August 11, 2009. Its vantage point is from near Center Street (Stage Right), looking across towards Allston. The Berkeley Community Theatre looms in the background, on the grounds of the High School.

The 60s musical history of Provo Park is considerably less celebrated than that of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, but in fact Provo played a key role in expanding the Berkeley music scene, because local fans had a chance to see groups for free, so a good group didn't have to be well known to become popular in the San Pablo Avenue clubs. This sort of promotion is a microcosm of modern Internet style marketing, but without the Internet, just one of the many ways in which Berkeley was ahead of its time.

It would be impossible to compile a complete list of Provo Park shows in the 1960s, as many of the performances were casual. Nonetheless, I am making an effort here to make a list of scheduled performances at Provo Park, that were publicized in the newspaper or with local flyers, an effort that has been considerably improved by Ross. Anyone with additional memories, additions, insights or corrections is encouraged to Comment.

January 15, 1967 Loading Zone, Ulysses S. Crockett, Drongos

Bands like the Loading Zone were playing for free in Sproul Plaza at anti-war protests, so the idea was extended to the stage at Constitution Park. While this event wasn't exactly sanctioned, it was mentioned in Ralph Gleason's San Francisco Chronicle column of January 13, 1967 (above). Note that Gleason still calls it "Berkeley City Park."

The Oakland-based Loading Zone were one of Berkeley's popular hippie bands, one of the first groups to mix psychedelic rock with R&B. They were well connected to the Underground, having played many seminal events like the Trips Festival. This was a portentous weekend in the Bay Area, as among many other events the Human Be-In had taken place in Golden Gate Park the day before.

Ulysses Crockett and The Afro-Blue Persuasion were a funky modern jazz group who were regular performers in the East Bay and San Francisco. Law student Crockett played vibes and flute, and the bassist at this time was probably Phil Marsh of The Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band. The Drongos were a Berkeley High School band.

January 29, 1967  Loading Zone, New Delhi River Band
The New Delhi River Band were Palo Alto’s leading psychedelic blues band, and featured David Nelson and Dave Torbert, both future members of The New Riders Of The Purple Sage. NDRB were popular in the South Bay, due mainly to having been the house band at The Barn in Scotts Valley, near Santa Cruz. They were looking to expand their horizons, and a free concert in Berkeley was the perfect opportunity to introduce themselves to a different audience.

March 5, 1967  Loading Zone, New Delhi River Band, Motor
The group Motor, while familiar from many handbills, is unknown to me.

March 11, 1967 Mineral Springs, Tilden Park, Berkeley
The Reversal of Planet Earthquake Picnic

After the Human Be-In in San Francisco (Jan 14), similar events were held all over the West Coast and the rest of the country. Ralph Gleason described the peculiar Berkeley landscape in his Friday column (March 10):

Tomorrow, the Berkeley Provos, who are modeled on the Dutch Provos and are similar to the Haight Ashbury Diggers, The Los Angeles Diggers and a new group in Cleveland called the Cleveland Prunes, are having a Berkeley Be-In.

The affair will begin at noon in Tilden Park at the Mineral Springs area. The Provos are organizing a car pool for those without wheels which will leave Constitution Park at 11am. There will be free food and lots of music.

Among the groups which will appear at the Berkeley event--which is being officially called the Reversal Of The Earthquake Picnic--are:
The Loading Zone, The New Delhi River Band, The Junior Teachers Band, Soul Purpose, Motor and Blue Cheer.

Given the basic political orientation of Berkeley, as opposed to the basic non-political orientation of the Haight/Ashbury, this affair ought to be different and even more interesting. It might even achieve the Yellow Submarine (remember, Mellow Yellow!) community envisioned by some who hope to see the two merge.

As it happened, the event was rained out, and re-scheduled for the following Sunday at Constitution (Provo) Park.

March 19, 1967  Loading Zone, New Delhi River Band, Motor, Blue Cheer, Soul Purpose, Haymarket Riot, Ulysses S. Crockett and The Afro-Blues Persuasion
The Reversal of Planet Earthquake Picnic

This event had been planned for the Mineral Springs area of Tilden Park the previous Saturday (March 11), but the event was rained out. The event was held eight days later, with a slightly different set of groups scheduled.

Blue Cheer had formed only recently, and had rarely ventured beyond The Matrix at this point.

April 9, 1967 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley Loading Zone/others
An unscheduled "Happening" on Telegraph Avenue drew several thousand participants. Telegraph Avenue led straight into the Berkeley Campus, and the street was blocked off, which did not make the City comfortable.

April 30, 1967  Loading Zone, New Delhi River Band, Motor, Notes From The Underground
As a result of the friendly but unscheduled “happening” on Telegraph Avenue (a few blocks from the Park) on 9 April, the city agreed with Loading Zone manager Ron Barnett (quoted in an April 21 Tribune article) that the band just wanted a place to play. As a result, the city agreed to regular concerts in Provo Park, thus sanctioning what was already occurring. The first show was scheduled for Sunday April 23.
   
However, there was extensive rain on Sunday the 23rd, and the show was rescheduled for the next Sunday (Apr 30).

May 7, 1967    Loading Zone, SF Mime Troupe

May 28, 1967  Loading Zone, Steve Miller Blues Band, Mad River, Purple Earthquake

May 30, 1967 New Delhi River Band, Motor, Purple Earthquake 

Purple Earthquake were a Berkeley High School band, regular performers in Provo Park, who would later evolve into the band Earthquake, who had a number of albums on A&M and Berserkely in the 1970s (h/t Ross for all the Provo scans).

This was a Tuesday event, probably related to Memorial Day.

June 25, 1967   Loading Zone, Steve Miller Blues Band, Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, Motor
Although the Steve Miller Blues Band were some ways away from their first album, they were a popular group locally. Later in the week they would appear second on the bill to Chuck Berry at the Fillmore, and they backed him on stage (part of it was released on the 1967 Chuck Berry album Live At The Fillmore on Mercury).

[update] a correspondent writes

at one of the Provo Park concerts I attended, the Steve Miller Blues Band was supposed to play, but they didn't show. I'm guessing that it was June 25, 1967, because I would have gone to see Dynamite Annie perform, and it stayed light well into the evening. After the other bands had finished playing, everyone (hundreds were there) went home. The only people left were myself and three other guys playing Frisbee. After a while, a van pulled up and Steve and his band emerged and began to unload their equipment. We went over and told them that since there were only four of us, they didn't need to perform. Steve responded, "We're going to play." And play they did. Eventually, passers-by heard the music and a decent crowd developed, but for 15 minutes or so, the four of us had a free personal concert from Steve Miller. Only in Berkeley in the 60's could stuff like this happen.

July 9, 1967 Country Joe and The Fish, Notes From The Underground, Second Coming, Haymarket Riot
Country Joe and The Fish were established rock stars by this time, regular Fillmore and Avalon headliners with a popular debut album (Electric Music For The Mind And Body). Nonetheless, they played Provo Park for free, too, just as the Dead played in Golden Gate Park as a statement of purpose.

September 17, 1967  Mad River, Notes From The Underground, Savage Resurrection, Hades Blues Works
Savage Resurrection were from Richmond.

September 24, 1967 Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, New Delhi River Band, Strawberry Window
Strawberry Window were from San Leandro.

September 24, 1967 Initial Shock

Initial Shock was newly arrived from Montana. Guitarist Bill ‘Mojo’ Collins had been assigned to an Air Force base there, and had stayed to play lucrative bar gigs for a while. The band eventually left Montana for warmer weather and a chance to make it bigger.

October 8, 1967 Second Coming, Zuckerman Clavichord, Liquid Blues Band

The photo was taken on August 11, 2009, about half way back on the lawn from the Martin Luther King Jr Way side (Grove Street), looking at the whole stage

April 14, 1968 Country Joe and The Fish, Mad River, Loading Zone, SF Mime Troupe
This would have been a fairly substantial event. Country Joe and The Fish were huge, relatively speaking, and Mad River, Loading Zone and the Mime Troupe all had local followings as well.

April 28, 1968 Charlie Musselwhite, Frumious Bandersnatch, Crome Syrcus
Charlie Musselwhite was a blues harmonica player who had relocated from Chicago to San Francisco in 1967. Frumious Bandersnatch were from Lafayette. Crome Syrcus were from Seattle, although they spent a fair amount of time in the Bay Area

May 5, 1968 Steve Miller Band, Ace Of Cups, Indian Headband
Steve Miller had relocated from Chicago in late 1966. After some scuffling, he became a hit at the Avalon and Fillmore and signed with Capitol. He hadn't forgotten his Berkeley cred, however, and still played this free show. Ace Of Cups were a popular all-women band based in Marin. Indian Headband was an interesting improvisational band that featured guitarist Hal Wagenet, later in Its A Beautiful Day. 

May 12, 1968 Phoenix, Martha’s Laundry, Creative Arts Guild Improvisational Ensemble
Phoenix and Martha's Laundry were both San Francisco based groups. The fact that they were playing for free in Berkeley meant that bands recognized the adage that playing for free was a good way to get known.

May 19, 1968 Mad River, The Circus, Crystal Syphon
Crystal Syphon were from Merced. The Circus may have been The Flying Circus, from Mill Valley.

June 8, 1968 35th Annual Berkeley Old-Time Fiddlers Convention

The Finger of Scorn, The Golden Toad, Jose’s Appliances, Dr. Humbead’s New Tranquility String Band and Medicine Show, Styx River Ferry, Stayton Family, Diesel Ducks, others, Fiddle Contest, Banjo Contest 

Back when Berkeley was actually subversive, the idea was fairly inspired. In the liner notes to the Berkeley Farms lp on Folkways, Rita Weill explains the genesis of the event, which was:

Conceived in the back of a Volkswagen bus, on the way to a party in Marin County, by a group of people who wanted to retain the good music and interplay they’d witnessed at Southern fiddle-banjo contests, without the competition and corruption extant there.

In true deconstructionist Berkeley style, bribes and drunkenness were encouraged, and performers were judged on unfair criteria that were never explained. Since first prize was 3 pounds of rutabagas (second prize was 6 pounds of rutabagas), no one cared. Second prize was awarded to someone who wasn’t there, so the rutabagas were thrown into the crowd. A hilarious eyewitness description is provided by banjoist Winnie Winston, newly arrived from the East Coast, startled to see Berkeley hippies smoking joints while the policemen watched placidly.

The local enthusiasm for this event was instrumental--so to speak--in the foundation of The Freight And Salvage, Berkeley's long-running club for traditional folk music (and other cool stuff).

June 9, 1968 Charlie Musselwhite, Linn County, Lazarus
Linn County were a blues band who had relocated from Cedar Rapids, IA. Lazarus was a Berkeley band.

July 10, 1968 Big Brother and The Holding Company, Phoenix, Lazarus
This was a Benefit for Balloon, who provided free food in Provo Park (similar to The Diggers). How a free concert functioned as a Benefit isn't quite clear--I assume they asked for donations.

Big Brother and The Holding Company were already a popular Bay Area headliner, but when Cheap Thrills was released shortly after this, they promptly went global, and free concerts in Berkeley would have overwhelmed the park.

July 21, 1968 Sky Blue, Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, Crome Syrcus
Crome Syrcus were from Seattle, and had an album. The fact that they played for free meant that at least the hipper parts of the industry recognized that Provo Park was a valuable place to get known.

July 28, 1968 Silver Apples

August 10, 1968 All Men Joy, Mad River, Immaculate Contraption 
"GI Teach-In"
All Men Joy was a San Francisco band (Duane and Gregg Allman had been in a different group in Los Angeles, called The Hour Glasss).

October 6, 1968 Youngbloods, Santana, Sons of Champlin, Frumious Bandersnatch
This too must have been a major event. The Youngbloods had moved to the Bay Area the previous year, and they were a headline act by this time. Santana was still a year away from their debut album, but they were a popular local band, as were The Sons of Champlin and Lafayette's Frumious Bandersnatch.

November 4, 1968 Notes From The Underground, Mad River, Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, Sky Blue, Country Weather
Rain is almost never a threat in the Bay Area, and the temperatures are always mild, so outdoor concerts in November were a perfectly reasonable proposition.

March 2, 1969 LeConte School, Berkeley Loading Zone, Lazarus, Purple Earthquake, Dementia

An article in the Berkeley Barb (Feb 28 1969) says that this show was an effort to move the “Provo Park” scene indoors, and suggests that this was the first of five shows. However, I've never been able to identify any of the other events, if there were any.

March 23, 1969 MC5

April 6, 1969 Sons of Champlin, Lamb, Frumious Bandersnatch, Ace of Cups, All Spice Rhythm Band
This may have been the show when Berkeley guitarist Charlie Cockey (ex Melvyn Q Watchpocket) sat in as an Ace because one member of Ace Of Cups was late.

April 13, 1969 Crabs, Lazarus, Mungo's Forest

April 20, 1969 Joy of Cooking/Clover/Flying Circus/Metropolitan Sound Company
Joy Of Cooking were a newly-formed Berkeley band, holding down a popular weeknight residency at Mandrake's (at 10th and University near San Pablo Ave). Clover and Flying Circus were popular Marin bands, and Metropolitan Sound Company was a Hendrix-style "soul rock" band from Oakland.

May 4, 1969 Loading Zone, All Spice Rhythm Band, This Ole World, Gentle Dance

June 21, 1969 17th Annual Old Time Fiddler's Convention
The 17th Annual Old Time Fiddlers Convention, held that day in Provo Park downtown (several blocks away from the Freight) was actually Berkeley’s second. The first, held the previous year, was the 35th Annual Old Time Fiddler’s Convention (see June 6, 1968 above).

The second event was named the 17th Annual contest, and similar lunacy ensued, with a sort of after-party that night at the Freight And Salvage. Note that the proceedings were broadcast live on KPFA--I wonder if anyone thought to tape it?

The contest lasted one more year, and then became too formal and successful, thus defeating its purpose. However, after a brief 34-year hiatus the Festival and Contest were reactivated in 2004 as a multi day event.

September 7, 1969 Lazarus, Syriatuscan, Hades Bluesworks, Eddie's Blues Group, Backwater Rising
"Bahai Fiath Gathering"

September 21, 1969 Maximum Speed Limit, Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, The Crabs
This event was organized by Judy Jackson as a showcase for the local group Maximum Speed Limit.

September 28, 1969 The Tunnel, Sunny Street Blues Band, Purple Earthquake, Brother Brown's Band, Syndicate
"Celebration Of The Solstice"

October 12, 1969 Septentrionalis, Purple Earthquake, Lazarus, Floating Bridge

Floating Bridge were from Seattle, and their twin-guitar act is fondly remembered by those lucky enough to see them. The group had just finished a week at Berkeley's New Orleans House. 

November 23, 1969 KiddAfrica, Lazarus, Scrapple

Berkeley continued to have free concerts at Provo Park, and to my knowledge continues to have them to this day, albeit on a somewhat smaller scale and much more occasionally. However, the taste for free concerts waned over the years, as the crowds got potentially bigger and the expectations higher. We do know of a few additional dates:

• April 11 1970-Festival of Toads
• April 18, 1970-Kentucky Suckers, Rhythm Aces, Artichoke Jones, Emily
• May 19, 1970-Youngbloods (partially released on their album Rock Festival)
• July 5, 1970-Osceola
• August 8, 1971-Mike Finnegan, Pendergrass, Dry Creek, Your Own Backyard
• April 2, 1972-Country Joe McDonald, Joy of Cooking, Commander Cody
• July 30, 1972-Country Joe McDonald, Banana and The Bunch, Asleep At The Wheel

For Berkeley's 100th Anniversary in April 2, 1978, Country Joe McDonald headlined at Provo Park over reformed-for-the-day Joy Of Cooking and Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen, and all the acts mentioned from the stage that it was good to be back in Provo Park. Provo Park is quieter now, and a significant free concert would cause a major parking problem, but it remains largely unchanged from its days as a concert venue. Its easy to stand on the field and stare at the modest stage, thinking about weekend afternoons long ago.

March 3-4, 1970 The New Orleans House, Berkeley: Hot Tuna/Dry Creek Road

Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady of the Jefferson Airplane recorded the first album of their band Hot Tuna at Berkeley's New Orleans House (at 1505 San Pablo Avenue) on September 16-18, 1969. The self-titled album was released on RCA Records in July, 1970. Outtakes from that weekend were recently released as Live At The New Orleans House (Collectors Choice Records). Although there have been some fallow periods, Hot Tuna has remained an active band since 1969, while the Jefferson Airplane is a distant (if fond) memory. Hot Tuna's second appearance at the New Orleans House, on March 3-4, 1970, shows what a flexible band Hot Tuna has always been, and highlights an unrecorded and largely undocumented lineup of the band.

In 1969, the Jefferson Airplane were San Francisco's most successful bands, and one of the top rock acts in the country. The idea that a couple of members of the group would play a different style of music in a different band was an unprecedented development in rock. Now, of course, every band has a spin-off band or two within hours of their formation, and fans expect that creative musicians need multiple outlets. In 1969, however, the concept was unknown.

Kaukonen and Casady had started playing around Bay Area clubs in about February 1969. The earliest known dates seem to be at The Matrix (January 29 and/or February 19). Initially, Jorma and Jack seemed to have played as an acoustic duo, sometimes abetted by harmonica player Will Scarlett, previously of the Cleanliness And Godliness Skiffle Band. When Jorma and Jack played acoustically (Jorma on acoustic guitar, and Jack on an electric bass), it was similar to the sort of music they played in hotel rooms when the Airplane were on the road. As 1969 wore on, Jorma and Jack sometimes played in an electric configuration as well, with drummer Joey Covington and whichever of their musical friends felt like sitting in. The electric configuration was similar to the sort of loud, intricate blues music Jorma and Jack played during Airplane concerts when Grace and Paul stepped aside.

Throughout 1969, however, the name "Hot Tuna" was never used.The first appearance of the name Hot Tuna may have been on the New Year's Eve 1969/70 poster for Winterland (BG209). When Jorma and Jack had recorded their September 1969 performance at the New Orleans House, they had been billed as Jorma Kaukonen And Jack Casady; a few months earlier in Santa Rosa (June 27-28), the electric configuration had been billed as Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady and Joey Covington. By early 1970, however, the name Hot Tuna was known. However, the Airplane were bigger than ever, so when Hot Tuna played a nightclub, they seem to have done it on a rather sub rosa basis. When Hot Tuna came back to the New Orleans House on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 3-4, 1970 there seems to have been little advance notice beyond a reference in Ralph Gleason's column in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Gleason reviewed the band in his column on Monday, March 6 (the Chronicle column is excerpted above). Gleason enthusiastically wrote

One of the best examples of the difference between playing and PLAYING is what happens when Jack Casady, bassist with the Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna, is merely picking at the strings of the bass and when he is digging in and playing it.

The other night he stood on the stage at the New Orleans House for a couple of minutes while Hot Tuna was getting itself together and he picked. It sounded pretty and nice and very musicianly. Then he was joined by Jorma Kaukonen, lead guitarist in HT and JA, drummer Joey Covington and a rhythm guitarist whose name I did not catch.

They began to play a walking bass blues introduction, eight to the bar like an old boogie woogie record. They could have swung Mt. Tamalpais right over to Vallejo. They are really something else again.

Hot Tuna is the group that Jack and Jorma have formed and which has already cut an RCA Victor LP due out this month, I believe.

Gleason goes on to enthusiastically (and somewhat inaccurately, I think) describe Hot Tuna's music, as well as commenting on the rest of the evening. Drummer Joey Covington sang some numbers (I wonder which ones?), and Marty Balin of the Airplane joined in for a few numbers as well. Marty regularly sang with Jorma and Jack in the "Hot Tuna" sections of Airplane concerts, and while I found his R&B singing to be unimpressive, I still give Marty credit for trying to get outside of the slot he had built for himself in the Airplane.

Its remarkable to consider that in the bare year of the band's existence, Hot Tuna had already been through a variety of iterations, and it was still only an adjunct to the Jefferson Airplane. It had started out in 1969 as an acoustic duo (or trio if Scarlett was present), and had an alternative configuration as a sort of electric power trio with guests. The great Hot Tuna debut album recorded the acoustic configuration, but that lineup had effectively ceased to exist by the time the album was released in July of 1970.

Any New Orleans House patrons in March 1970 who were repeat visitors from the 1969 expecting  intricate acoustic blues would have instead heard an electric quartet (Paul Ziegler, formerly of the San Jose band Weird Herald, was the other guitarist). The Spring 1970 configuration of Hot Tuna featured three vocalists (Jorma, Covington and Marty Balin) playing loud, improvised blues, musically on a similar model to the acoustic lineup but with a completely different effect.

The Spring 1970 Hot Tuna remains largely undocumented as well. Covington soon took over the Airplane drum chair from Spencer Dryden (Gleason alludes to this at the end of his review), and for reasons that aren't clear Paul Ziegler did not remain with Hot Tuna. Covington, meanwhile, had met a jazz violinist known as Papa John Creach, and his addition gave Hot Tuna a unique sound that was different from any other electric blues band on the scene in the early 1970s, even though Covington shifted over to the Airplane full time. By the time of the second Hot Tuna album, also recorded live (in 1971 at The Chateau Liberte in Los Gatos), the fully electric Tuna was Jorma, Jack, Papa John, a re-enlisted Will Scarlett and a transplanted Texas drummer named Sammy Piazza.

Where had Piazza come from? According to Airplane historian Craig Fenton, Piazza came out from Texas to drum with a Bay Area band called Dry Creek Road, and through that, he met Jorma and Jack. Ironically enough, Dry Creek Road were opening for Hot Tuna at the March shows at New Orleans House, although it appears that Piazza did not join the group until August 1970 (I assume Piazza met the band when Dry Creek Road opened for the Airplane at Filmore West on September 14-15, 1970).

Hot Tuna's classic debut album and its recently re-released companion (Live At New Orleans House) were a snap shot of a configuration of the group that no longer existed by the time the album was released 9 months later. The March 1970 appearance at New Orleans House also appears to be a configuration that was not repeated, even if it was not so classic as the ones that preceded and followed it. Since the mid-70s, of course, every Hot Tuna show has been taped by somebody, so we have a pretty good idea of the band's evolution right up to the present day, but Gleason's review is all that remains of a long gone lineup.

Lion’s Share, San Anselmo

Slightly off the beaten track for Berkeley, but hey. An article by Dale Curtis that appeared in the October 3-9, 1969 edition of the Berkeley Tribe:

Remember the little places? The coffee houses? The folk-rock bistros?

They were the spots where, for a reasonable cover (or none) you could get beer and wine and coffee and some of the finest music in the world the music that grew up and took over the Avalon and the Fillmore and the whole country as the "San Francisco Sound."

Most of those places have died off now, or priced themselves out of the market, leaving only nostalgia behind.

But. if you are one who remembers: Be Informed! The Lion’s Share Lives again in San Anselmo.

Mike Considine, who operated the Share in Sausalito in the mid sixties, is back in business. In those days he presented such top people as Sandy Bull (whose manager he used to be), the New Lost City Ramblers, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Dino Valenti, and Rejoice (which made its first public appearance there).

After a couple of years of good times like this, Considine suddenly found himself fighting in the Marin County Board of Supervisors and in the Sausalito City Council to keep from being evicted.

The main complaint from the neighbors was noise: but the understood beef was the longhaired types who hung out at the Share.

Considine and his friends packed the Sausalito Council meeting and convinced the village elders that he was not too noisy. They voted 50 to keep him open. Mysteriously, the next night the Lion's Share burned down.

That was in November of'68. There was no fire insurance on the place, and Considine was out of business. One of the REALLY GOOD little folk-rock places seemed gone forever.

Not so! The new Lion's Share, at 60 Red Hill Avenue, does its predecessor proud. It has only been open a couple of weeks operating on Considine's friendships and on goodwill instead of bread, but already the clean sounds of Rejoice, Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, and ROM have been tilling the night air.
The atmosphere is dark with beam ceilings, brick walls, tiffany lamps and relaxed. There are some problems with the sound system, but none with the performers. Saturday night, for example, the bill included guitarist Jeffrey Cain, Universal Medicine, and Dan Hicks. All were smooth, accomplished acts that worked well with a surprisingly full house (there has been virtually no advertising thus tar.

At present, the Share's schedule goes like this: dark Monday and Tuesday, new groups and no cover on Wednesday and Sunday. $1.50 cover on Thursday, $2.00 cover Friday and Saturday when the more established groups perform.

To eat: pizza, sandwiches, wine, beer, cider et cetera.

It is definitely no tie (tie? what’s a tie?) Enjoy.

This Katz Where It's Happening

The following article, penned by Jef Jaisun - then Phoenix bass player and Barb jounalist - appeared in the August 25, 1967 edition of The Berkeley Barb. The photograph of Mr Katz was taken by Gsheidle.

Moby Grape, Jefferson Airplane, West Coast Natural Gas, Melvyn Q.

The names are readily recognizable to anyone who frequents Bay Area dance halls, collects posters, or buys records. And to a greater or lesser degree each of the above groups has contributed to the creation of what the national music industry is today calling the San Francisco "Sound."

There is, however, a much more common yet lesser known meeting ground for the four groups; they all came up through the spotlight ranks while under the knowing managerial guidance of one man.

His name is Matthew Katz (pronounced like "dates") and his business is music.

"You can pay $50 an hour for studio time, press 1000 records, and put them out on the market make two million bucks if it's that easy," Katz recently told the Barb. “But out of every 8,800 records cut, only one makes it. In this scene you've got to have ideas; or you don't make it."

Katz, a 37-year-old Sagittarius who towers well over six feet in his bare boots, began a show business career 15 years ago. I was an entertainer who went into folk music, not only because I liked folk music but because I couldn't stand what was passing for rock and roll."

Though he sports a neatly trimmed beard and longish hair, Katz clings to no particular cultural category, “I wasn't accepted by hippies - they said I was plastic. I wasn't accepted by the straights because I was a hippie. I kind of got squashed between them and I was melted into both."

During the folk boom of the early sixties Katz broke into managing, with dubious results. "I produced a lot of straight music that never made it.

Then about two and a half years ago he received a call from a young singer named Marty Balm. “I’d heard Marty sing before and I told him I’d be glad to help him anytime. As far as I’m concerned, he's still the best male vocalist around."

The call from Balin eventually developed into what has become a national phenomenon, the San Francisco "Sound", an outgrowth of rock and folk, a driving, bluesy, sometimes soft, often screaming expression of musical freedom.

"Jefferson Airplane is a Happening. It's like the Beatles. Not because of singles, not because White Rabbit is number three on Cash Box with a bullet to go higher.” Jefferson Airplane started a musical thing that is turning on the world to an entirely different sound. It's a real sound. "That's what the Beatles were when they hit here. They were real. The S.F. Sound should hit Europe like the Beatles hit the States”

“Go to a record store and you probably find the Dead, Moby Grape, the Airplane. There are 30 or so other groups all trying to get into the psychedelic thing. But they're not San Francisco groups, and, there is definitely a San Francisco sound.”

Where does it come from? "It's brought about by drugs like grass and LSD, which eventually they (musicians) get off because it blows their thing. But it's the mind opener. They get on stage, the audience gets into it, digs it, trips out, and people groove. This is it - the SF Sound!"

Katz' optimism was not nearly as high on the subject of local cooperation in publicizing the Sound. "So far we've done a piss-poor job of getting it out-because no one will get together to work. It’s got to be a family. Everybody pretends it is, right?"

Katz cited the current Joint Show Art Exhibit as the kind of cooperation needed in the music scene.

"If the musicians can just take a lesson from the artists. That five cats can get together and put on a joint show - Kelly and Moscoso and those guys deserve one hell of a lot of credit."

The lack of unity in the SF music community has had a profound effect on Katz. He is currently involved in a multi-thousand dollar breach of contract suit with the Airplane and Fillmore Auditorium owner Bill Graham.

Katz, under whose direction Moby Grape rocketed to the top of national record charts in two short months, always has his ears open for new talent. The recently-signed West Coast Natural Gas from Seattle received a standing ovation at the Avalon two weeks ago, and Katz has even bigger plans for them.

"There's a formula for putting together an outstanding group, and it's not that hard. All you need is four or five better than aver age musicians who can sing - and I mean sing together – and you work like like hell.

"Then you find someone to tell a guy, 'Sorry, man, but we need a new bass player who’s heavier'."

“The reason most groups don’t make it is not because they don’t get the recognition. It's because they don't deserve it."

Katz' latest project is the renovation of the Orkustra, a popular local jazz-rock group into a "musical happening" called It’s A Beautiful Day. "We've added two chick singers and a new sound.”

He also has a formula for getting the San Francisco Sound out to the world. "Five years ago I turned down a thing with Dylan on a TV show because I thought he would hurt the image of the folk group I was handling. The place where I was five years ago is where the big industry is now. They don’t understand yet. They've GOT to know.

“Whatever's happened in the last two and a half years has got to be put into a crash program. Everybody's got to see the whole thing; not garbage, but the real thing delivered by the people who created it”

"We may not make a lot of money, but we’ll deliver the message.”

And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

From the January 20, 1967 (Issue 75) edition of the Berkeley Barb:

Unless the East Bay's only living coffee house, The Jabberwock, gets a swift transfusion from the hearers of folk beasts, it will lie down and curl up its toes, alongside the now extinct Questing Beast, Berkeley's second-last coffee house. The diagnosis: starvation. No bread.

The Jabberwock was roaring during the summer and early fall. Rock bands drew large crowds, and the 'Wock was flying high. Then came complaints about the night-time noise. The choice was to turn down the sound, or close. The Jabberwock decided to sing more quietly in a folky way. Lighting, amplification, and the stage were rebuilt for the return to the softer sound. A small group of people in mid November formed a Jabberwock workers' co-operative to breathe new life into the coffee house. But old bills, inherited errors in bookkeeping, and new unavoidable expenses hacked away at the cooperative effort.

This week, The Jabberwock opened with $4 in the bank. The rent is long past due, and the friendly, patient landlord is starting to twitch. The workers at the Jabberwock say they are beginning to feel forsaken by Berkeley's lovers of folk music, wherever they are. The house stays nearly empty. Is it because of the quality of the performers? The feel of the coffee house? The Jabberwock doesn't think so.

"In the past months we've had traditional performers and people we think are doing new and interesting things in music. It's the only place in the Bay Area where new performers are completely welcome to try new things." Manager Dan Paik pointed out. He mentioned John Fahey, The New Age, Mark Spoelstra, and the Sweets Mill Mountain Boys as examples of known and new musicians recently at The Jabberwock.

To avoid the quick death of the moribund folk beast, they will hold two benefits. The first will be Monday, January 23, to pay their bill to the Berkeley Free Press - which is also ill from lack of funds. A marathon show next weekend, January 27, 28, 29, will--if successful--revive The Jabberwock and put it back on its trail of exploring new folk sounds. It will begin around 8 PM each evening and will end only when all the performers drop out, probably around dawn.

If they can stop the flow of red ink, the Jabberwock workers hope to make the coffee house a center for all the performing arts, open to anyone who would like to use their stage and sawdust. Meanwhile, they are seeking donations of an (at least 25-wait) amplifier, 2 mikes, 2 speakers, filing cabinets, advertising, sculpture, curtains, artwork, beer mugs, chairs and small round tables, candles, cups, and a huge Silex coffeemaker, And money.

In trade, they hope to offer a focus for an East Bay renaissance in the performing arts.

For the January 23 benefit for the Free Press bill, The Smokey Grass Boys, Larry Hacks, The New Age, Phil Marsh and other folk musicians will play, "All we really need to make it is for enough people to come and listen to what's happening in folk music here," Dan Paik said.

So the next two weeks will show whether Berkeley is a place that can support even one scene of traditional and new folk sounds. And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

Bill Ehlert's Oregano

The following article was published in the May 20, 1966 (Volume 2, Number 20) of the Berkeley Barb. It is a story about the Jolly Blue Giant, or simply Jolly, Bill Ehlert who was the owner of the Jabberwock - a coffee house on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley.

Sadly Bill passed away in October 2007, but he did tell me that he never got his can or oregano back.

“Pot” Bust beat With “Lie” Test

Bill Ehlert, owner of the Jabberwock coffee house, passed a "lie detector" test on Tuesday. Charges of possession of marijuana were dropped the next day.

Ehlert told Barb he was asked a number of questions about possession, use, and sale of marijuana. Then he was asked whether he had knowledgeable possession of an envelope of fresh-cut marijuana. He told them "No".

"The polygraph and its operator both said I was telling the truth, which I was," Ehlert said. The polygraph measured his respiration and blood-pressure.

The "possession" charges were made on February 23, after the Jabberwock management called the police.

"I had left the Jabberwock about 2 a.m., and left William Tallman alone to clean up. Around 3 a.m. Tallman pounded on my door and said three cats were at the Jabberwock smoking pot, and wouldn't leave" Ehlert said.

"I went back with Tallman and we asked them to leave .They wouldn't. I signaled Tallman to call the police. When the police arrived, I placed the three under citizen's arrest.

"The police searched them and found roaches in their possession and in the ashtrays where they were sitting," he said. "The police looked for a stash on the premises, and left.

"Then Tallman and I discovered a pan and strainer with fresh debris. We called the police again, they returned, and searched again. This time they found another strainer with old, dried debris, and a pan with 20 or 30 seeds and a cigarette roller in it. We were arrested.

"Later, at the jail, they told us they'd found an envelope of raw, fresh-cut weed in plain sight on the floor of the main room. Ehlert paused in his narration. Then he said, "Oh yes, and they confiscated a five-pound can of .oregano-which I still haven’t gotten back.

Wooden boxes in Chinatown and the bumper sticker ...

From the hand of Country Joe McDonald as published in the first and only copy of the Intergalactic Fan Club magazine Fish Rapper in May 1967. Joe and Janis Joplin were courting at the time.

Janis and I went out to see this movie, and it turned out that she thought that it was a big drag and I thought it was groovy. She said that she would stay and watch the rest of the movie and then we could go around and get some of those wooden boxes in China town, so I said OK. We went down to China town, it was about 1:30; I dropped Janis off when she saw a bunch of boxes and told me to stop. She ran out and started looking there and I asked her what to do with the car, she said to take it and park it. I started driving around and I went all around the block and I couldn't find a place to park. I got mad 'cause I couldn't find a parking place and double parked it on the corner, stopped the car and left it there. I went over to see what Janis was doing and she was still hunting around for boxes. She was fucking around with the boxes. I looked back over and saw there was a cop car over there by the car. I knew that they were going to get me for parking the car right there. So I went back and just walked over and got inside the car and drove off, you know. I figured that if they were going to do anything they would go ahead and do it.

They followed me around the corner and I pulled over and they pulled up behind me. They asked me if I knew that my car had rolled down the hill and I said "No, that I didn't know that," because it hadn't rolled down the hill.

They said, "oh, well, you were double parked."

They checked the car and they said there was a tail light out. No, they didn't see the tail light, oh yeah, they did see the tail light. So they got me for the tail light and then they saw this Fuck Communism bumper sticker that I had on the back. Two patrolmen come walking by on the beat, they talked to the two cops that were in the car and then pretty soon another cop car pulls up and it's got in it this like lieutenant person who comes over and says, "how’s everything going?" and smiles at me. I said, "just fine." He goes over and talks to the guy and gets out a book and they look it up to see what to do about the sticker. Then they have a photographer come in. They decided that its got to be photographed, but I have a choice, I can either take it off or leave it on and they'll photograph it and send our pictures to the D.A. and if he wants to press charges against me he'll do it. I said well ok, we'll do that. They photographed it and this lieutenant person or sergeant left. Then one of the cops knelt down beside the car and looked at me and said, "you know I wouldn't want my children to see a word like that." I just listened and then he said sort of to himself, "of course they're not old enough to read yet."

Then I was stopped another night. We went down to get some more boxes and got stopped on the freeway by the highway patrol for a tail light being out and they cited me for outraging the public decency, by having the Fuck Communism bumper sticker.

There appears to be a ruling, something about topless dancers, that makes it ok to have a Fuck Communism bumper sticker, and our lawyer is appealing it in court now. It will probably be dropped.

I took the car in to get the tail light fixed in Berkeley and the cop told me that if I didn't already have a ticket for that bumper sticker he’d arrest me on the spot.