November 11-12-13, 1966: Buffalo Springfield/Country Joe and The Fish/Bola Sete, Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA

"For What It's Worth"-Buffalo Springfield (Atco Records, Dec '66)

Everybody recognizes it now: the droning guitar chord, and Neil Young squeezing out a sustained note. On cue, just as we expect, the voice of the young Stephen Stills conspiratorially sings "There's something happenin' here/What it is ain't exactly clear." As the music rises, he goes on "There's a man with a gun over there/Telling me I got to beware." Whether it's the radio, the muzak at the supermarket, or a beer commercial, we all subconsciously join in on the chorus "I think it's time we stop children/What's that sound/Everybody look what's going down." Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth," released in late 1966, is one of the classic songs of the 60s, full of anger and yet reserved, catchy and memorable, featuring two guitarists who were eventually among the most well-known names in rock.

"For What It's Worth" was Stephen Stills reaction to the so-called 'Sunset Strip' riots. Although the problems on Sunset Strip were actually spread out over a number of weeks, the critical event was on the night of Saturday, November 12, 1966, when dozens of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department officers cleared the streets of teenagers, mostly around a teen club called Pandora's Box. The Sheriff's Department had been anxious about the number of teenagers coming to Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood to drive around and hang out, and they finally decided to put the hammer down and clear the streets. Unlike in Berkeley, where cops battled college student protesters over the Vietnam War, in West Hollywood it was mostly suburban teenagers with cars and nothing to do, and they were only "protesting" their right to have fun. The cops were afraid of a replay of the previous year's Watts Riots, and so they put a stop to all the hanging out in the most heavy handed way possible, immortalized by the Stills song, which was quickly recorded and turned into a massive hit by his band The Buffalo Springfield.

No one thinks Johnny Cash shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die, and yet he wrote and sang "Folsom Prison Blues" with power and conviction. So it was that Stephen Stills was not present at the climactic event of the Sunset Strip Riots on November 12, as the Buffalo Springfield was playing the Fillmore in San Francisco that weekend. "For What It's Worth" captures the ambiguity of the event with power and dignity, while maintaining the confusion associated with protests in general. Allowing teenagers to hang out on Sunset Strip at night was hardly the most important issue facing America, and yet it was where the flash point was in Southern California in 1966. On the other hand, as the song warns about people "singing songs and carrying signs/Mostly saying 'hooray for our side,'" a cautionary note about protests in general. Stills was working out of town that night, so he missed the whole event, and yet he seems to have captured the importance of it from a distance. At the time, Stills was just an aspiring folk-rock nobody, looking for a break with an out-of-town gig.

Entertainment listings for Friday, November 11, 1966, from the SF Chronicle

November 11-12-13, 1966, Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA
Bola Sete/Country Joe And The Fish/Buffalo Springfield
Bill Graham and Chet Helms began what we recognize as the modern rock concert industry with a Jefferson Airplane concert at the Fillmore in San Francisco on February 4, 1966. The Fillmore, at 1805 Geary Boulevard, was a former big band dance hall, built in 1912, and by the early 1960s it had become a prime stop on the African American R&B circuit, featuring acts like B.B. King, Ike & Tina Turner or Little Richard. When promoter Charles Sullivan retired, Graham took up the lease and started presenting rock shows  in the style of Ken Kesey's notorious 'Acid Tests' with lights and loud music. Rock music was art now, not just entertainment for kids.

By the Fall of 1966 the San Francisco rock underground was in full swing. The Fillmore was the coolest place in town, except perhaps for its rival the Avalon Ballroom, run by Helms, who had split with Graham in the Spring. People went to the Fillmore because it was the place to go, and the posters looked cool. Although the names on the posters are famous to us now, many of them were largely unknown at the time. The weekend of November 11-13 was one such booking.

Bola Sete
Bola Sete is a considerably less memorable name than either Country Joe and The Fish or Buffalo Springfield, but he was far and away the best known act at the Fillmore, so he headlined the show. Brazilian Bossa Nova music was becoming very popular around this time.  Bola Sete was a Brazilian guitarist who had lived in California since the early 1960s.  Bola Sete (a nickname meani)ng “Seven Ball”;  his real name was Djalma de Andrade) had recorded on Fantasy with pianist Vince Guaraldi who by 1966 was best known for the "Peanuts" theme music.  Whie Brazilian music was integral to Bola Sete’s style, but he was more of a West Coast jazz artist.  Nonetheless, thanks to the popularity of Gilberto Gil and others, his excellent music had a much higher profile.  At the time, he was touring as a trio with two percussionists, Paulinho de Costa and Sebastian Neto.

Bola Sete had released several albums and he was a "name," so he was the headliner. One of the ways that the Fillmore stood out was the way in which it mixed rock, blues, folk and jazz artists on the same bill. While Bola Sete played jazz, it was lively and energetic and would have been a good fit for the lively scene at the Fillmore. Since the capacity of the room was only 1500, his trio would still have communicated well with the crowd. Compared to the groups below him on the bill, however, Bola Sete is now just a footnote, if a very talented one.

Country Joe And The Fish's 1966 EP on Rag Baby Records

Country Joe And The Fish
Country Joe And The Fish had originally been a folk duo, featuring Berkeley folkies "Country" Joe McDonald and Barry "The Fish" Melton. Their nicknames were obscure references to Joseph Stalin and Mao, respectively, but Berkeley residents at the time probably recognized the allusions. After having seen The Paul Butterfield Blues Band at the Fillmore in February, Barry and Joe decided to "go electric." They got some folkie friends and plugged in, figuring out how to be rock musicians as they went along. Country Joe And The Fish, the band, played a fluid sort of bluesy rock, with avowedly political songs.

CJF had built up a following in Berkeley, and had started to generate interest in San Francisco. With typical Berkeley iconoclasm, the band had recorded a three-song EP in June and released it on their own Rag Baby label. The Country Joe and The Fish EP was sold through used bookstores and head shops and the like, and sold something like 15,000 copies, an amazing number for the time. For much of the country, even the Bay Area, the San Francisco underground scene was just a rumor, and the EP was often the first "psychedelic" record many people had heard. Country Joe and The Fish had filled in at the Fillmore on August 27 and September 4, but the November date was their first formal booking at the auditorium. Since they had a sort of underground hit record, they were higher on the bill above the Buffalo Springfield. Even so, Country Joe and The Fish were still really underground. Drummer John Francis Gunning refused to learn any of the songs, simply letting the band start up and then drumming along however he felt.

Buffalo Springfield
Stephen Stills, Neil Young and Richie Furay, all singing guitarists and aspiring folkies, had decided to form a rock group instead. The story of how they met is too well-known to recap here, but suffice to say they all found themselves in Southern California in early 1966. Along with bassist Bruce Palmer and drummer Dewey Martin, they debuted on April 15, naming themselves after a tractor company. Since The Byrds were huge stars, record companies were looking to snap up their own folk-rockers, and Atco Records rapidly signed the Buffalo Springfield and put them in the studio.

By November of 1966, the Buffalo Springfield had recorded their first album, but it hadn't been released yet. They had released one single, "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing," a Neil Young song that featured Richie Furay on lead vocals, since Furay's voice was considered more salable than the reedy Young's. "Clancy" had reached the Top 25 in Los Angeles, but hardly made a ripple anywhere else. Perhaps a few San Francisco radio listeners had heard their song played on one of the big AM stations (KFRC-610 and KYA-1260), but in general the Buffalo Springfield was completely unknown outside of Southern California.

The Buffalo Springfield would have played two 35-minute sets each night. Probably they appeared first and fourth in the evening. Generally, Bill Graham instructed groups to play different sets, since many patrons at the Fillmore sat through all six sets. The first Buffalo Springfield album had been recorded, but not released. While it's not a bad album, most of the songs that we associate with the Springfield, like "Bluebird," "Mr. Soul" and "For What It's Worth" were still in the future, so while they were a great band, it may not yet have been entirely obvious to the Fillmore audience.

Meanwhile, back in West Hollywood, the confrontations between the Sheriff and the local teenagers were escalating, and they reached a peak on November 12, while Stills and the Buffalo Springfield were playing the Fillmore 400 miles to the North. Filmmaker Roger Corman produced a quickie movie called Riot On Sunset Strip that, for all it's cheesy production values, provides a pretty good snapshot of the situation. The total budget of the movie must have been about $11, but it does feature the wonderful Chocolate Watch Band, and most of the extras are wearing authentic fashions (probably their own clothes). Under the circumstances, the script is a fairly good accounting of the tensions, even if it's delivered by less-than-Oscarworthy acting performances.

Stills and the Springfield had been around Hollywood as the confrontations started, and they must have gotten back for the aftermath. It is generally elided from rock history, however, that Stills was working out of town when it all came to a head. Just as Joni Mitchell managed to capture the spirit of Woodstock without actually being present, Stephen Stills managed to capture not only the Sunset Strip riots but the tension of protest in the air throughout America. "For What It's Worth was debuted a few weeks later, over Thanksgiving weekend at West Hollywood's hippest club, the Whisky A-Go-Go. The Springfield immediately went in to record the single, and it was on the air by the end of the year. By early 1967, "For What It's Worth" was turning into a big hit.

Atco had released the Buffalo Springfield's debut album to little acclaim in December 1966, but around March 1967 they replaced one of the songs with "For What It's Worth," and the single and the album took off. The single apparently sold a million copies, and remains a powerful song to this day, and Stills and Young had finally gotten the career break they had been hoping for. Just as Johnny Cash never shot a man in Reno, however, Stills wasn't there for the event that triggered his most famous song. If anyone tells you that they saw Buffalo Springfield at the Fillmore in November of 1966, they were lucky indeed, but don't listen when they tell you that Stills sang "For What It's Worth."

Aftermath
Bola Sete had a reasonably successful jazz career, but he never really got any bigger than he was in the mid-60s. He died in 1987.

Country Joe and The Fish were signed to Vanguard Records a few weeks after these Fillmore concerts. As a condition of their contract, they had to destroy all the remaining copies of their EP. In December, the band recorded their memorable Electric Music For The Mind And Body album, which was released in April. Along with its successor, Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag, Country Joe and The Fish made some of the most memorable music of the 1960s. The band broke up after 1970, or more accurately Joe and Barry broke up, since the band members had already changed several times (other than Joe and Barry, none of the band members playing in the Woodstock movie would have been at the Fillmore in 1966, for example). Joe and Barry have periodically reformed the band for brief tours and benefit performances, although less so n recent decades.

Buffalo Springfield's last live performance in the 20th century was May 5, 1968 at the Long Beach Arena. Neil Young went solo, while Stephen Stills went on to form Crosby, Stills, Nash, soon rejoined by Young. Richie Furay did not reach the heights of either Stills or Young, but he put out many excellent albums with the group Poco and had some fine solo albums as well.  Bass player Bruce Palmer died in 2004, and drummer Dewey Martin passed on in 2009, but on October 23 of 2010 Stills, Young and Furay performed again as the Buffalo Springfield, at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA, just South of the Fillmore. They played a brief concert tour in California in June 2011, followed by a festival performance (at Bonaroo). According to Furay, Buffalo Springfield will be touring again in 2012.

November 10-11, 1969: Winterland, San Francisco, CA: Procol Harum/Pink Floyd/H.P. Lovecraft

The picture sleeve for the UK 45 of Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade Of Pale," released in May, 1967

The so-called "British Invasion" of the mid-60s, led by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, effectively introduced Americans to American music. Although the popular English rock bands all put their own styles onto American rock, rhythm and blues and country music, the likes of John Lennon and Keith Richards were firmly rooted in an American sound. Thus when A Hard Day's Night caused a legion of folk musicians to grow their hair and start playing rock and roll, those folk musicians had already grown up with the music. It took a few more years for a distinctly British rock sound to arise, linked to but separate from the American roots of rock and roll and rhythm and blues. Thanks to the rise of FM rock radio, the best of this British music was almost instantly popular. One of the earliest major concerts exemplifying the new British sound was a concert at San Francisco's Winterland ballroom on November 10 and 11, 1967, featuring Procol Harum and Pink Floyd. Both bands had only released their first albums, and were on their first American tour, and yet they were headlining the 5,400 seat Winterland because they were already too big for the Fillmore Auditorium.

Procol Harum
The best exponents of returning American music to Americans were the Beatles, although they were followed closely by a raft of others, such as The Stones, the Yardbirds, the Animals, Them and many others. Paradoxically, since access to American music was limited for most English teenagers, the likes of Paul McCartney and John Lennon had to get the most out of whatever they heard. American teenagers, in contrast, got to choose between rock, country and soul stations, with all the attendant cultural distinctions that went with it. This left English teenagers much more able to see how much Carl Perkins, the Everly Brothers and Muddy Waters shared, rather than seeing them as distinct. By the time of Rubber Soul and Revolver, the Beatles seem to have merged all American music styles in their vocal and instrumental palette. Being the Beatles, once they had climbed the mountain, they simply found a new one.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was a groundbreaking album for any number of reasons, most of which I won't attempt to detail here. However, many songs, particularly the epic final song on the album, "A Day In The Life" presaged an entirely different kind of music. On one hand, it had a rock beat and a touch of R&B vocals, so it was firmly rooted in the rock tradition. Conversely, it did not have a conventional verse/chorus structure, and was heavily orchestrated. To top it off, it had some weird electronic effects, which were unprecdented for a popular group at the time. The lyrics themselves were quite serious yet elusive, while not at all in the metaphoric style of Bob Dylan. Since The Beatles were enormously popular, regardless of whatever experiments had been going on in the rock world (and there were a lot), all of a sudden people's ears got opened to the idea that all rock music didn't have to sound like a Carl Perkins tune sung by the Everly Brothers.

Sgt. Pepper's was released in June of 1967, and one forward looking song from around that time was already becoming a hit in the UK. "A Whiter Shade Of Pale," full of mysterious lyrics and a classically influenced organ theme, recorded by an unknown English band called Procol Harum, had been released in May. Soon it was zooming up the charts, first in England and then in the United States. Procol Harum was a pretentious name, a sort of fake Latin name, but such names were common in the 1960s.

Procol Harum singer and pianist Gary Brooker had been in an R&B cover band called The Paramounts from 1964 to 1966, but they hadn't made much headway. He had gotten hooked up with an aspiring lyricist named Keith Reid, and along with organist Matthew Fisher they concocted the glorious "Whiter Shade Of Pale." Ried's lyrics were evocative and literate without being too specific, and they were perfectly set off by the gently melody and Fisher's Bach-cantata-inspired arrangement on the organ. Brooker's soulful, knowing vocals embedded the song with an emotional complexity that magnified its power while retaining its mystery:

But I wandered through my playing cards

and would not let her be

one of sixteen vestal virgins

who were leaving for the coast

and although my eyes were open

they might have just as well've been closed

And so it was that later

as the miller told his tale

that her face, at first just ghostly,

turned a whiter shade of pale

"A Whiter Shade Of Pale" was an instant hit in England when it was released. John Lennon supposedly said "why didn't we think of this," or words to that effect, although of course within a month "A Day In The Life" would be released. In fact, Procol Harum hardly even existed when the record came out, but "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" was such a striking song that the three band members instantly formed a band to go with it and set out on tour. Guitarist Robin Trower and drummer BJ Wilson, both former members of The Paramounts, rejoined Brooker, and along with Fisher and bassist David Knights they immediately set out on tour (lyricist Keith Reid did not perform, but sometimes accompanied the band on the road).

Thanks to KMPX-fm and the rise of album rock radio, by the time Procol Harum got to San Francisco, they were headlining for three nights, Thursday night at the legendary Fillmore (Nov 9) and on the weekend at the much larger Winterland (Nov 10 and 11). By this time, Sgt. Pepper's was playing on every turntable in the land, and the Beatles had carved out a distinctly English style of rock. Procol Harum was the first English group playing in this style to launch a major tour of the United States, and thanks to KMPX the band was huge in San Francisco.

A 1999 cd by South Carolina bluesman Pink Anderson, one half of Syd Barrett's inspiration for Pink Floyd's name (the other being North Carolina bluesman Floyd Council)

Pink Floyd
Second on the bill was another distinctly English band, Pink Floyd. Although the name Pink Floyd had been inspired by an album featuring two bluesmen (Pink Anderson and Floyd Council), the band's music was very far removed from the R&B inspired music of most English bands in 1965. There was an underground music scene in London and a few other places, comparable in certain ways to the Fillmore scene in San Francisco. The two main bands were Pink Floyd and the Soft Machine. The Soft Machine are a fascinating story in their own right, but the Floyd were bigger, more important and arrived in America first.

The Pink Floyd were an underground cult hit throughout London, playing "happenings" with light shows and other innovations for London's hippest. They were signed in February 1967. For all their penchant for long jams and feedback, lead guitarist Syd Barrett had a brilliant ear for pop music, and their second single, "See Emily Play" was a huge hit in England, reaching number 6. The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, Pink Floyd's debut album, was released in August 1967, and it too was inspired. Pink Floyd joined Procol Harum and other groups in defining a uniquely British approach to rock music. Pink Floyd also received heavy airplay on KMPX-fm, so they too were popular in San Francisco before almost anywhere else.

Pink Floyd had been scheduled to make their United States debut on October 30, 1967, at the Fillmore. However, due to visa problems, the band did not arrive until a few days late. In fact, Pink Floyd made their US debut opening for Janis Joplin and Big Brother and The Holding Company at Winterland in San Francisco on November 3. Amazingly, Pink Floyd appeared on American Bandstand the next day, and returned to Winterland that night (November 4). This was followed by an appearance on the Pat Boone show and a show at the Cheetah in Santa Monica (November 5).  The next weekend Pink Floyd would return for a showcase performance with Procol Harum at Winterland, after a Thursday shakedown cruise (November 8) at the smaller Fillmore.

Wish You Were Here
In the last 40 years, a style of British rock has evolved that is distinct from its American counterpart. It's most popular formation has been in so-called "progressive rock," which indeed was progressive at one point, and also in a kind of baroque pop that Americans have difficulty pulling off. Plenty of English musicians play music that owes more to American roots music, but groups like Pink Floyd and Procol Harum, along with the Beatles, carved out a path that was traveled on by the likes of Yes, Genesis, Supertramp, Radiohead and dozens of others. A time traveler would very much like to see it when it all began, with two of English rock's original exponents on their first American tour.

Procol Harum, 3/5 of whom were the former Paramounts, were a pretty steady performing unit. There are tapes from the early days of Procol Harum, if not quite this early, and they could rock pretty hard when they needed to, always helpful when playing a big place. Drummer BJ Wilson was so good that Jimmy Page tried to steal him a few years later for his new band, but when Wilson stuck to his mates in Procol Harum, he got an unknown named John Bonham who played in a similar style, so you can take Page's word that Wilson could drive that train.

As for Pink Floyd, they were years ahead of their time, but Syd Barrett, genius that he was, was not ready for stardom and the physical exhaustion of heavy touring. By the time of this tour, Barrett was not comfortable on stage, and Pink Floyd suffered dramatically for it. I don't think it had quite reached the stage that it did on the subsequent English tour, when Barrett would barely touch his guitar, and another player (Davey O'List from The Nice) had to play the parts on stage, but San Francisco fans would surely have found Pink Floyd a far cry from their glorious first album. At the time, it would have seemed that Procol Harum was on a path to become huge, while Pink Floyd already looked like a one-hit wonder.

Unfortunately, we don't have a tape or even an eyewitness account of the Winterland shows that I am aware of. Procol Harum were a solid live band, since most of them had been knocking out R&B in The Paramounts, so they were battle tested. Pink Floyd, on the other hand, were at a low ebb with a very fragile Syd Barrett as the most important member of the group. I doubt they played well, and most people there probably figured that Procol Harum had the ticket to ride. The opening act, H.P. Lovecraft, from Chicago, was also an excellent group. They, too, were not wedded to the blues, and they featured two vocalists, one operatically trained, so despite being from the States they pre-figured the English style that Pink Floyd would later help to define as "English" in the 1970s. So between Lovecraft and Procol, fans probably had a pretty good time, and they must have known they were seeing something really different than the blues and folk based rock that was prevalent in San Francisco at the time. 

Aftermath
Procol Harum had a pretty good career, releasing 10 albums through 1976, but they never quite topped their first hit. They had a few other hits, including a 1972 remake of their early song "Conquistador," but they never got over the hump. They broke up and reformed, as groups do, and a version of the band still tours. Sometimes Gary Brooker has even been known to sing the rarely heard third and fourth verse of "A Whiter Shade Of Pale."

Pink Floyd, of course, replaced Syd with David Gilmour. Usually, replacing a band's lead singer, chief songwriter and lead guitarist is a recipe for disaster, but not if you have Roger Waters as your bass player. Pink Floyd went on to become one of the biggest bands in the world, and one of the all-time concert attractions. Indeed, one of their biggest albums was essentially about Syd Barrett himself, the unforgettable Wish You Were Here, released in 1975. The Floyd pretty much epitomizes the English style of rock in all its respects, having opened the door in 1967 and much to everyone's surprise having wound up owning the house.

November 7-8-9-10, 1969: Quicksilver Messenger Service/Grateful Dead/Linn County Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA

The cover to Quicksilver Messenger Service's Capitol album Happy Trails (March 1969)

Live albums are often the records that cement a band's reputation. A band that has been around for a little while has figured out how to play their best songs, and a live album usually offers a chance to include their best songs while providing new material. There's enough room for changed arrangements to make it a new album for old fans while providing a nice introduction for new fans. It's also an excuse to play some cover versions without seeming bereft of new material. Often, however, the most memorable live albums present a very different picture than the actual band itself.

From mid-1969 onwards, one of the staples of FM radio, college dormitories and late night grooving was the Happy Trails album by Quicksilver Messenger Service, released on Capitol Records in about March 1969.  This was Quicksilver's second album, and save for a jokey version of the title track--Roy Rogers' theme song--it was all recorded live at the Fillmore East and Fillmore West on consecutive weekends in November 1968. San Francisco "acid-rock" was popular in the 1960s, but it wasn't universally acclaimed. The Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and The Fish and Big Brother and The Holding Company were all kind of acquired tastes. As for the Grateful Dead, while their adherents are dedicated beyond those of other fans, those fans in particular had a well-deserved reputation for driving everybody else nuts.

Quicksilver Messenger Service seemed to be the exception to the rule. While all psychedelic rockers had put Quicksilver at the top of the tree from the beginning, even fans and critics who were uneasy about Grace or Jerry were quick to acknowledge Quicksilver's ability to be "psychedelic" while still keeping their groove on. Happy Trails was most famous for two tracks, both written by Chicago rocker Bo Diddley, a hero from a previous decade. Somehow, Quicksilver took Bo's "shave-and-haircut-two-bits" rhythm and slowed it down to create room for some magical exploration. A lengthy version of "Mona" was only topped by the 20-minute version of "Who Do You Love," which took up all of side one. Gary Duncan's guitar and vocals were true to Bo's tale of sexual longing, and Duncan, bassist David Freiberg and drummer Greg Elmore kept the pulse going, wherever the music went. John Cipollina added his magical vibrato and feedback that gave the songs an unearthly twist, and the interplay between Duncan and Cipollina's guitars was as good as rock music could be in late 1968.

Great as Happy Trails was and is, the reality of Quicksilver live in late 1968 was somewhat different than the album would make it appear. This post will look at where Quicksilver Messenger Service stood on November 8, 1968, when they appeared at the Fillmore West. It's unknown to me precisely which pieces of the November 1 and 2 Fillmore East and November 7 thru 10 Fillmore West shows, but they were all part of the ingredients of the Happy Trails album. And a good thing, too--the classic four piece Quicksilver broke up a few weeks later, and although they reformed, they never returned to the configuration that made them legendary. So the first two weeks of November were really the end of a great band, fortunately preserved by the magic of recording tape.

Quicksilver Messenger Service 1966-68
Quicksilver Messenger Service was formed in San Francisco in late 1965, aspiring hippie musicians whose other bands had been decimated by drug busts or the draft. The original group was

• John Cipollina-lead guitar
• Jim Murray-guitar, harmonica, vocals
• Gary Duncan-guitar, bass, vocals
• David Frieberg-bass, vocals
• Greg Elmore-drums

Quicksilver were charter members of the San Francisco underground, and they were relatively experienced musicians, so they stood out compared to the general run of converted folkies. By the end of 1966, they were already headlining the Fillmore and making a living, pretty remarkable for a band with no whiff of a record contract, much less an actual record. Early tapes that circulate (such as on Wolfgang's Vault) show us that many of the pieces of the Quicksilver recipe were already in place: the push-and-pull rhythms, the dueling guitars, the jolting shiver of Cipollina's whammy bar.

Quicksilver had a shrewd manager, a former Chicago labor organizer named Ron Polte, and unlike some City bands Quicksilver held out until they could get a good contract. Quicksilver finally signed with Capitol in Fall, 1967, and soon after that Jim Murray departed, apparently afraid of committing himself to the required effort. The remaining quartet started working on their debut album, long after contemporaries like the Airplane and The Dead had already released theirs. The self-titled debut album took a couple of tries, so it wasn't released until May 1968. It was a fine album, but there were only seven songs, and only three were originals.

No matter. FM rock radio had started in San Francisco on KMPX in February, 1967, and by early 1968 most major cities had an FM station playing rock music 24/7. The Quicksilver Messenger Service album got played by djs all over the country. Popular tracks were the band's reworking of Hamilton Camp's "Pride Of Man," with great ringing guitar from Cippolina, or the awesome take on Dave Brubeck's "Take Five," called "Gold And Silver" (the band called it "Acapulco Gold And Silver," but that was apparently too risque). Quicksilver started to tour the country in the middle of 1968, and their best album tracks were being played in every city. True rock stardom seemed just around the bend.

The back cover to Happy Trails

Quicksilver Messenger Service, November 1968
By the end of 1968, Quicksilver Messenger Service was receiving glowing reviews throughout the country. Great instrumentals like "Gold And Silver" were mixed in with extended versions of classic R&B covers like "Mona" or 'Back Door Man." Even fans who were not convinced by the "San Francisco Sound" thought that Quicksilver were the best of the lot. And as for the people who loved the Dead, the Airplane and Big Brother already, Quicksilver seemed to be as good as it got, with the dueling guitars of Cipollina and Duncan riding on top of Freiberg and Elmore's steady beat. It was weird and spacey, like the Fillmore was supposed to be, but with some real Chicago-style drive. Quicksilver's late 1968 sound was immortalized on the Happy Trails album, released in March 1969, much of it recorded live, albeit edited together from different shows.

Quicksilver Messenger Service was indeed San Francisco's best live band by the time they got to the Fillmore West to play a four night stand from Thursday thru Sunday, November 7-10, co-headlining with their buddies the Grateful Dead. Thus it's no surprise that Happy Trails is a 60s rock classic. The only problem was, Quicksilver Messenger Service was pretty much finished as a band. The four members had played together none stop for three years, with no break, and the pressure of road, recording and the usual temptations of stardom had completely stalled any new creative juices. As a result, the band just played the same twelve songs or so night after night.

Now, Quicksilver played those dozen songs really, really well. Since much of their touring was now outside of Northern California, fans hearing the Quick tear up "Pride Of Man" and "Smokestack Lightning" for the first time must have been floored. But for San Francisco fans, who'd been hearing the same arrangements of the same songs since 1966, it was the same old stuff. Sure, Quicksilver didn't play things over note for note, but they weren't that different anymore. The band hadn't a new song since the end of the previous year, and they hadn't even added a new cover version since then. Wolfgang's Vault has some early '67 tapes from the old Fillmore, and there are all sorts of new pieces they are working on, all of which seemed to get dropped.

By November 1968, Quicksilver had played their concert set so many times it wasn't new anymore. They were musician enough to know it, and they broke up the band shortly after the Fillmore concerts, as they had a few more dates. Strictly speaking, what happened was that Gary Duncan quit the band, but that left the group high and dry. So the November 1968 Fillmore West concerts were the last stand of one of the great 60s rock bands, who had captured the San Francisco ballroom sound to perfection, and walked away while it was still great. Sic Transit Gloria Pyschedelia.

Aftermath
The original iteration of Quicksilver Messenger Service gave up at the end of 1968, playing New Year's Eve at Winterland with the Grateful Dead, after which Gary Duncan quit the band. At that point, Quicksilver only existed as a name, since Cipollina, Freiberg and Elmore didn't really constitute an entire band. Capitol released Happy Trails in March of '69, however, and it got massive play on FM radio all over the country. The remaining trio got Nicky Hopkins on board, and borrowed a few songs from their friends and made the unsatisfying Shady Grove album. At the end of 1969, Duncan returned, along with his friend Dino Valenti. Valenti was a real character, but at least he had songs, so the 1970 version of Quick was the quartet plus Valenti on vocals and Hopkins on piano.

The afterglow of Happy Trails made Quicksilver a successful concert attraction for years to come. But Valenti's nasally vocals weren't to everyone's taste, and the flowery elegance of the 1968 quartet was never equaled, so QMS declined over the next few years and finally broke up. In fact, they had peaked long before they had broken up the first time, but at least a reasonable facsimile had been preserved before they were gone.

November 6-7-8, 1969: Led Zeppelin/Roland Kirk/Isaac Hayes/Wolf Gang, Winterland, San Francisco, CA

An ad for Bill Graham-promoted shows in October and November 1969

The history of the modern rock concert as we know it today actually began on February 4, 1966, when Bill Graham and Chet Helms put on a Jefferson Airplane concert at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. The show was modeled on an event called "The Trips Festival", held two weeks earlier at another San Francisco auditorium, Longshoreman's Hall. Graham and others had held rock shows at the Fillmore prior to February 4, but that weekend was the one where rock music presented itself as public art on sensory overload. Prior to the Fillmore, "Art" was quiet, like jazz or classical music, and "entertainment" was loud, like the circus or rock music. After the Fillmore, rock was art, but rock was an art that assaulted your senses, with loud music, flashing lights and few distinctions between performer and audience.

Since that February night in 1966 there have been thousands and thousands of rock concerts, all over the world, and it would be impossible even to list them all, much less talk about each of them. A list of categories or a ranking would try even the most patient of readers, so I am adopting a different approach to telling the history of rock concerts as they actually happened. Each post will be about a different rock concert, a different moment in time, and I will let the cumulative effect of all the shows piece together the history of rock concerts since 1966. The story will never be finished, but that's what makes it a worthwhile tale. Over time, as readers participate, hopefully readers with their own tales to tell, the story will grow richer and broader.

November 6, 1969
Led Zeppelin/Roland Kirk/Isaac Hayes/Wolf Gang
Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, CA

When people write about how rock concerts "aren't what they used to be," they often cite this November 6-8 weekend in San Francisco, when Led Zeppelin headlined a 5400-capacity arena over jazzman Rahsaan Roland Kirk and soul legend Isaac Hayes. It's true that there aren't concerts like this anymore, but there's also a pretty good case to be made that they weren't like this before, either. True, although Bill Graham had moved his operation from the Fillmore Auditorium (at 1805 Geary Ave) to the larger Fillmore West (at 1545 Market Street), he still made a point of having diverse triple bills. In this case, Led Zeppelin had become so big that the concerts were moved to Winterland (on Post and Steiner), just two blocks from the old Fillmore, and the largest of the regular rock venues in San Francisco. Since Led Zeppelin was going to pack the joint anyway, Graham booked possibly his most diverse bill ever, with high profile jazzman Roland Kirk and soul legend Isaac Hayes, some years before his memorable hit with the "Theme From Shaft." It's a stunning enough bill to think about from today's perspective, but here I intend to look at it in it's original context.

Winterland, Post and Steiner Streets, San Francisco, CA
Winterland was an ice skating arena built in 1928. It was renamed "Winterland" in the 1940s. Winterland's big event in the post-WW2 era was regular extended runs of the Ice Capades and the Ice Follies. These events continued into the 1970s, even when the hall became Bill Graham's primary rock venue. All along, however, the arena had been used for concerts and other performances. Since it was two blocks from the Fillmore Auditorium, whenever Bill Graham had a 60s show that was too big for the 1500-capacity Fillmore, he moved it across Geary Blvd to Winterland. Some of the most legendary of Graham's Fillmore bills actually took place at Winterland. Even when Graham moved a mile away to the Fillmore West, he still took his biggest shows to Winterland, and in late 1969 Led Zeppelin was a very big deal indeed.

One very big difference between 60s rock concerts and rock concerts today was the order of the bands. At the Fillmore Auditorium and the Avalon Ballroom, the first two modern rock venues, and many of their various progeny throughout the nation, the headliner did not only come on last. Or, put another way, the headliner played two sets, but the bands "on the poster" went on twice, going around the bill so that the opening act would follow the headliner for the fourth set of the evening. The headliner generally played the third and sixth sets of the evening. Isaac Hayes is great and all, but it must have been pretty daunting to come on after Led Zeppelin blasted the house for their first set.

Often on weekends, Graham would add a fourth band to the mix, and they would play a single opening set, giving people who had come early something to watch. Since Winterland had "festival seating," if you wanted any of the seats around the edges of the floor, or you wanted to get up close, you had to get there early. The opening act was usually a local band, but sometimes it was a new band associated with the management or record company of the headliner.Thus the normal weekend configuration for this show would have been

• Set 1-Wolf Gang
• Set 2-Isaac Hayes
• Set 3-Rahsaan Roland Kirk
• Set 4-Led Zeppelin
• Set 5-Isaac Hayes
• Set 6-Rahsaan Roland Kirk
• Set 7-Led Zeppelin

Although most patrons came early and stayed late, this scheduling allowed people who had to leave early, such as teenagers, or who could only arrive late, such as working people, to still see every act on the bill. As people left, the BGP staff would sell a few more tickets, so the show remained packed the entire time. Winterland had no seats or chairs on the floor, just the "festival seating" that characterized the Fillmore from the beginning. For rock shows, there were seats around the edges of the floor and seats in the balcony, but well over half the audience would be on their feet, so the place would rock. Winterland was a cement dump, but it rocked like crazy. If a band wasn't good at Winterland, they weren't good. If a band was good, they were better at Winterland. If they were great, Winterland was where legends were made.

The Bands
Led Zeppelin's first album had been released in January, 1969, and they were an instant sensation. FM radio put most of the tracks on heavy rotation before the album was even released, so when Zeppelin toured North America in January of '69 they were popular even before the album was released in some cities. Zeppelin had been booked as second on the bill, on the basis of Jimmy Page's history as guitarist for the Yardbirds, but they often dominated the proceedings, blowing away the headliners in city after city. On their first tour through San Francisco, Led Zeppelin had opened for Country Joe and The Fish for four nights (January 9-12, 1969). Although CJF played very well (a cd was released on Vanguard in 1994), Zeppelin had been the sensation, and their album was barely available in local stores.

Led Zeppelin had come back to headline the Fillmore West in April (April 24-27, 1969), but by then they were even bigger. By the time the Fall of '69, the band had released their second album, and Led Zeppelin II was even more powerful than their debut. Bill Graham booked them for thee nights in Winterland, since Winterland's 5400 capacity was more than twice that of Fillmore West. By showtime, Zeppelin could have sold out much bigger places than even Winterland, but the show had probably been booked before LZII was released, and it was hard to believe that they would top their first album, but they did. As a result, it hardly mattered who were booked with Zeppelin, since the shows would sell out anyway.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1935-77) was a blind multi-instrumentalist jazz musician. He was a successful sideman in the 1960s who stepped out as the decade wore on. He had amazing breath control, using a "circular breathing" technique, so he could play three saxophones at once and play a true chord, or hold notes indefinitely. Although a conventional hard bopper in some ways, he brought a variety of influences to bear in his music, and his versatility made him stand out. Some people felt that the circular breathing and other effects were just gimmicks, and his music doesn't seem as far out now as it did then. Nonetheless his jazz was accessible without being weak at the knees, and his breathing techniques allowed him to play more dramatically than other jazzers, so he was a good choice for a jazzman at a big rock show.

The cover to Isaac Hayes' 1969 Stax album Hot Buttered Soul

Isaac Hayes (1942-2008) had been a Stax producer from way back, responsible for producing many classics with Sam & Dave and others. In the late 1960s, he started producing himself as an artist, emphasizing a kind of orchestral soul that merged various styles that had not been used together. Hayes emphasized his deep bass voice, and he shaved his head to add to the effect. Although his biggest hit did not come until 1971's "Theme From Shaft," that was a good idea of the type of music he was playing. Hayes' 1969 album was his double-lp, Hot Buttered Soul, featuring a lengthy version of "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" with an eight minute spoken intro in Hayes' immortal bass voice.

Hayes had co-written songs like "Soul Man", so all the English musicians had known all about Hayes forever, and I don't doubt that the members of Led Zeppelin were watching raptly from the side of the stage during many of his sets. I have to think that would have been particularly true the first night.

Wolf Gang was added to the bill at the last minute, a typical approach to a sold out show. I know nothing about them. I assure you, that means they were incredibly obscure.

Bonzo Dog Band
The original posters for the show featured Led Zeppelin, Roland Kirk and the Bonzo Dog Band. The Bonzo Dog Band, formed in 1966 as the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, were a band of truly lunatic English satirists. They had a legendary stage show that did not translate well to big venues, but they were one of the few truly inspired satirical rock groups, whose ideas did not grow old. Not to minimize their weirdness, but one of their showstoppers was a faux blues song called "Can Blue Men Sing The Whites?" Like most legends, the band never made a dime. Their most lasting legacy, oddly, was a brief appearance in the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour movie, performing their song "Death Cab For Cutie." Among many other things, lead singer Vivian Stanshall narrated Mike Oldield's Tubular Bells, and pianist Neil Innes was the de facto music director for Monty Python, and he also played "Ron Nasty" in The Rutles movie (All You Need Is Cash). The Bonzos canceled, however, and seem to have been replaced by Isaac Hayes.

November 6, 1969
The brilliantly curated Led Zeppelin site has a platform for collecting memories for each show. Someone who attended the November 6 show recalls--somewhat vaguely, he concedes--that Roland Kirk did not play that night. That would explain why the obscure Wolf Gang was added to the bill at the last second. I assume Kirk played the other two nights, but I don't know for sure. The attendee does recall, with some confusion, that "everyone played two sets," confusing because it's so atypical of concertgoing today. The set list for the evening seems to be

Good Times Bad Times (intro) ~ Communication Breakdown, I Can't Quit You Baby, Heartbreaker, Dazed and Confused, White Summer / Black Mountainside, What Is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, How Many More Times (medley incl. Boogie Chillen', Hideaway, Bottle Up 'n Go, "Lemon Song"), C'Mon Everybody, Something Else.

I don't know where the set break might have been. Keep in mind that many Led Zeppelin numbers were quite extended, so do not confuse the short set list with short sets. I do feel sorry for Wolf Gang, whoever they were, having to play the fourth set of the evening, probably at about 11:00 oclock, after Led Zeppelin in their prime had just jolted Winterland's cement walls.

Coda
Led Zeppelin's star continued to rise, and very soon afterwards, the idea of seeing them in a 5400-seat venue would have only been a dream, much less with Isaac Hayes as an opener. Hayes, after a long musical career, became famous as the voice of "Chef" on the TV show South Park. Kirk died in 1977. Wolf Gang remains unknown to this day.

Anyone with additional knowledge, corrections, insights or recovered memories (real or imagined) about this show is encouraged to Comment or email me.

Additional Information
Led Zeppelin.com Timeline