Big Brother and the Holding Company, part thirteen. 2000-2001

Posted on July 1, 2012 by J L tagged.

2000 – 2001

2000-2001 Lisa Mills. You think she looks good, you should hear her sing.

El Ciego is Blindman and No Te Gusto is Down On Me, but that seems like not such a good translation. No Te Gusto means you don’t like me, and the song means much more than that. Well, No Te Gusto means I Don’t Please You, if you please, but “looks like everybody in the whole round world… DOWN on me” is a whole different kettle of fish. More, kozmic, cosmic, universal… beyond YOU don’t like ME. More like the whole damn world don’t like me. And stronger than that, is DOWN on me.

There IS another meaning to Down On Me, as I was to learn with Marilyn Chambers.

We were going to go on the road together and she asked me to play Down On Me and she was going to sing it. She took the song literally and began acting out the down on me part. That was interesting.

22 January 2000 Six Rivers Brewing Company McKinleyville California

Elise Piliwale in Hawaii, sweet baby.

26 January 2000 Paradise Lounge San Francisco

10 February 2000 Halley DeVestern

Simone Mo took this photograph of my tuner at the Koko Live Club in Biella Castelletto, Italia.

Doing Love, Janis at The Bay Street Theatre Sag Harbor New York

Funny writer. I wish I could remember his son and the circumstances.

Elise and I. Village Theatre, Love Janis.

Rob Clores, and there is Joe Stefko in the back.

James Gurley

I spent February-March in Paris writing songs and recording with Janice de Rosa and Martyn Ingle.

Elise self portrait charcoal and strings.

Elise’s favorite self portrait.

2 April 2000 Record Convention Pittsburgh

My handsome brother Dan Andrew.

John Till Good guitar player, good man.

Elise at the Acropolis.

In Austria, I sometimes stay in a town called Klagenfurt where Gustav Mahler had a Komponierhäuschen, a little composing house, on Lake Wörther.

Don Aters took this photograph.

26 May 2000 The Valley Grill Great Valley New York

27 May 2000 AM JAM Biker Festival Cobleskill Fairgrounds Cobleskill New York

28 May 2000 Joyous Lake Woodstock New York

17 June 2000 Medicine Park Music Hall Medicine Park Oklahoma Lance Dresser

Lisa Mills

24 June 2000 Cuesta College San Luis Obispo California

15 July 2000 Burg Herzberg Open Air Festival Hof Hühnstadt Germany

31 July 2000 Writing about Jerry for Relix Magazne.

19 August 2000 Westover Winery Castro Valley California

Elise Piliwale Sam Andrew Westover Winery Castro Valley Gig 2000

25 August 2000 Kelsey’s New Albany Indiana

26 August 2000 Motown Harley Davidson Taylor Michigan

Sam Andrew Peter Albin

29 August 2000 The Combat Zone Toronto Ontario

30 August 2000 The Ottawa Bar Windsor Ontario

31 August 2000 The Village Inn Leamington Ontario

1 September 2000 Classic Fest 2000 Windsor Ontario

2 September 2000 Rockin’ Rhythm & Blues Fort Erie Racetrack Ontario

3 September 2000 Roach Roast Festival Rainbow Farm Vandalia Michigan

8 September 2000 State Capital Steps Sacramento

22-23 September 2000 Alturas Night Club Reno

4 October 2000 The Landmark Hotel, hallway to room 105 Los Angeles Photo: Howard Sounes

7 October 2000 Schnepf Farms Festival Site Queen Creek Arizona

Tim Robbins Joel Hoekstra

Joel has a large “extra” part in Rock of Ages. He holds his own with Russell Brand in the Strip being destroyed scene, and that is saying something because Russell is very talented and he has the divine spark of energy in him… something that cannot be taught or learned, but is innate. And Joel holds his own. He commands as much attention in that scene as Russell does.

Another Englishman who could be destined for greatness. I hope so anyway. He deserves it.

Joel Hoekstra is probably the best guitarist I have ever known. Not the retiring type either. He did it the easy way. He practiced eight hours a day for twenty years. Anybody can do that, right ? OK, let’s see you do it. It’s time for him to stop doing that hand gesture, though.

OK, full disclosure. Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand fall in love and KISS ON THE MOUTH in this film. Since Brokeback Mountain, all the Hollywood dudes have to do this. It’s right at the top of their resumé: Am willing to kiss same sex on mouth. Actors are such hams. They’ll do anything for a little exposure, or cash, or, preferably, both.

Reminds me of Brezhnev and Honneker, but at least they have the excuse that they’re commies and godless fellow travelers. I bet no one paid them for this. Shame, shame. Oh, well, that’s life under communism for you. You never get paid for having fun.

Tom Cruise can do anything… except stay married… ooh, ouch, no, I didn’t say that, praise god, no, I didn’t say that. This Rock of Ages film is extreme, excessive, poppy, ridiculous and silly, of course, and it has NOTHING to do with being a musician and playing rock and roll for living, but it’s stupid and dumb and I love stupid and dumb movies, so I’m a fan, definitely. Oh, yes, did I mention TOO LOUD.

Whatever happened to the guy in the suit singing “I’m In The Mood For Love” to the simpering young girl ? Ahhh, those days may be gone forever… Moonlight becomes you, it goes with your hair, you certainly know the right things to wear… They just don’t write’em like that anymore. I had to sing these lines in a play once. I thought, wow, someone got paid for writing this ?

Elise and I saw Rock of Ages in the theatre too, before we saw the film, and that helps. How, I’m not quite sure.

13 October 2000 Mississippi Coast Harley Davidson Anyway, Joel was on this gig with us in BillLUCKsee, Biloxi, Mississippi.

People from the Northeast say “OreGON” and “BiLOXee,” probably thinking that here on the Gulf Coast there are lox to be found. Lachs is the German word for “salmon” and that’s where “lox” came from. BUT, in the West they say ORegon and in the South they say BiLucksee.

Sam Andrew Lisa Mills

Wendy Causey Elise Piliwale Biloxi Gig

25 November 2000 Paper Song Oakland

Daphne Graham

25 November 2000 Swan Marketplace Oakland

3 February 2001 Paradise Beach Inn Grover’s Beach California Clams from Pismo Beach.

23 February 2001 Bio tuner ? I love that. It’s so Variety. Slang from the 1940s.

25 February 2001 We put a lot of work into this one.

24 March 2001 Schnepf Family Farm Queen Creek Arizona

Janis Joplin.

26 March 2001

Chet Helms

Musicians in the New York version of Love, Janis.

6 April 2001 New York Daily News

23 April 2001

Larry Etkin Joel Hoekstra Dan Cipriano 23 April 2001

26 April 2001 The after party for the New York Love, Janis.

27 May 2001 Ashkenaz Berkeley

1 June 2001 Sedgwick County Zoo: chimpanzee division Wichita Kansas

2 June 2001 Medicine Park Music Hall Medicine Park Oklahoma

Bill Ganaye.

4 June 2001 Heathrow, what a great name..

16 June 2001 Starlight Amphitheatre San Diego This is in Balboa Park, a lovely place

17 June 2001 Pine Knob Auburn Hills Michigan

Elise Piliwale 1996.

20 June 2001 Experimental Music Project Sky Church Seattle

22 June 2001 Keswick Theatre Philadelphia

23 June 2001 B.B. King’s Blues Club New York City

1 July 2001 Battlefield Harley Davidson Festival Gettysburg Pennsylvania

13 July 2001 Riverside Ballroom Green Bay Wisconsin

14 July 2001 Angel’s Saloon Hamler Ohio

Mimi Fariña

15 July 2001 Motown Harley Davidson Taylor Michigan

18 July 2001 The Borderline London

Peter Albin Chad Quist Sam Andrew Lisa Mills Todd Vinciguerra

19 July 2001 The Masque Liverpool Anthony Edman took this photograph.

You can tune a guitar…

… but you can’t tuna fish.

20 July 2001 The Brook Southampton with Anthony Edman

21 July 2001 Open Air Festival Burg Herzberg Germany

Lisa Mills.

11 August 2001 Trump Taj Mahal Atlantic City New Jersey

12 August 2001 Gathering On The Mountain Blakeslee Pennsylvania

17 August 2001 The Thirsty Ear Tavern Columbus Ohio

Don and Sarah Graham.

Addyson Graham

18 August 2001 Lapeer Days Festival Lapeer Michigan

Clark Walker.

Jan Sullivan Elise Piliwale

19 August 2001 Emerald Queen Casino Tacoma Washington

24 August 2001 The Orbit Club Boynton Beach Florida

26 August 2001 Rockstock Toole Utah

14 September 2001 Elks Lodge Chico California

16 September 2001 Westover Winery Castro Valley California

Kikeriki, unsere goldene Jungfrau ist wieder hie.

20 September 2001 Beth Hart, Jon Nichols standing behind her, Todd Vinciguerra on drums. I never had Beth sing in Big Brother. She’s the only one I missed.

Beth Hart, we would love to have you come sing with us if you ever have the time.

Doodling, always doodling.

I drew Kacee Clanton and Jon Nichols at the Love, Janis rehearsal.

And Todd Vinciguerra, the drummer.

28 September 2001 San Diego opening of Love, Janis.

Dana Anderson Jon Nichols I wish I knew her name.

I met Kacee Clanton on this show. Oh, happy day.

Randal Myler, good friend and straight shooter, wrote this play based on Janis’ letters home to her family.

Iz Mi Hope DeBorse

29 September 2001 Redwood Empire Fairgrounds Ukiah California

2 October 2001 Elise and I are married in Las Vegas. Smartest thing I ever did.

When she was very young, Mary Bridget Davies sent me this photograph of her Hallowe’en costume, little realizing that she would spend a great deal of her time dressed this way while we were doing Love, Janis.

4 October 2001 The Landmark Hotel, room 105 Table by the window Los Angeles Photo: Howard Sounes

17 November 2001 Fox Theatre Redwood City California

21 November 2001 Cyndee-Sue’s Saloon East Bethel Minnesota

23 November 2001 On Broadway Springfield Illinois Clark Walker’s home town.

Clark Walker

I hope your week is a happy and successful one.

Sam Andrew

Lisa Mills

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Big Brother and the Holding Company, part twelve. 1999

Posted on June 24, 2012 by J L tagged.

1999

Andra Mitrovich will do these dates with us. I met her while we were doing Love, Janis.

12 January 1999 Executive Club Corpus Christi Texas

12 January 1999 Top of the Mark Austin My mother and sisters came to this gig. Andra and I sang Since I Met You, Baby.

14 January Blue Cat Blues Club Dallas

15 January 1999 Billy Blues Houston I played here with The Sam Andrew Band and now returning with Big Brother.

16 January 1999 Janis Joplin Birthday Bash Port Arthur

Andra Mitrovich

Museum of the Gulf Coast

a letter from Sam Monroe.

Elise in a work by Robert Rauschenberg at the Museum of the Gulf Coast.

17 January 1999 Whisky a Go Go West Hollywood

Elise campaigning.

Andra Mitrovich sang with Big Brother. I sang with Moby Grape and Big Brother. We had a ball.

David LaFlamme playing on Do What You love.

30 January 1999 Six Rivers Brewing Company McKinleyville California

A third of a century ? Try a half.

When I arrived in Cleveland to do my first Love, Janis, I was given a car and a parking permit.

20 february 1999 Markham Vineyards Napa

2 March 1999 My first Love, Janis production. Cleveland

I love this pose. It’s so “theatah, dahling.” Probably the photographer told me what to do. That’s my excuse anyway.

7 March 1999 The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame They’ll never let us in, but we go and play for them now and then anyway.

Sam Andrew Jane Scott Jimmy Khoury Beth Hart

22 April 1999 Small Planet East Lansing Michigan

23 April 1999 Club Soda Kalamazoo

24 April 1999 Cavern Club Ann Arbor

25 April 1999 Main Event Toledo

An encouraging note from the manager of the theatre company at The Cleveland Play house.

28 April 1999 The Barrel House Cincinnati

29 April 1999 Graffiti Pittsburgh

Maria Stanford sang with us at this time.

30 April 1999 Thunderdome Akron

This is what Madison Square Garden looked like in 1876.

1 May 1999 The Lafayette Tap Room Buffalo

3 June 1999 Great American Music Hall San Francisco

10 June 1999 Clos du Bois Winery Sonoma California

26 June 1999 Freedom Fest Canton Ohio

Francine Sama sang this one with us.

27 June 1999 Adams County Fairgrounds Brighton Colorado

21 July 1999 Starwood Festival Sherman New York

5 August 1999 Television interviews to promote Love, janis.

7 August 1999 Rockin’ The Rockies La Hood Park Cardwell Montana

8 August 1999 Pennington Music Festival Pennington Minnesota where the state bird is the mosquito.

Maria Stanford

10 August 1999 Opening night in Cleveland

10-12 August 1999 Broken Spoke Saloon Sturgis South Dakota

14-15 August 1999

7 September 1999 Janis Joplin: An absolute demand for non conformity.

13 August 1999 Yesterday’s Heroes Cape May New Jersey

14 August 1999 Big Boulder Ski Area Poconos Pennsylvania

20 August 1999 private wedding Philo California

28 August 1999 Barnes Park Memorial Bowl Monterey Park California

23 September 1999 Lisa Mills

24 September 1999 Royal Bear Algona Washington

25 September 1999 Kyoto Benefit Portland Oregon

3 October 1999 The Palace Louisville Kentucky

4 October 1999 Room 105 The Landmark Hotel Los Angeles

7 October 1999 19 Broadway Fairfax California Tom Finch

Peter Albin Karen Lyberger

9 October 1999 Greater Pensacola Motorcycle Rally Pensacola Florida

14 October 1999 The Orbit Fort Meyers Florida

16 October 1999 Magnolia Festival Live Oak Florida

San Geronimo Valley Drive about 1900.

29 October 1999 Woodacre Improvement Club Woodacre (also known as Weird Acre) California

30 October 1999 The Brookdale Lodge Brookdale California

18 December 1999 We went with Margaret and Michael Joplin to see Beach Blanket Babylon.

Elise Piliwale took me on a tour of my birthplace. Taft Kern County California

We were gypsies. My father was in the Air Force, so we moved continually. I don’t remember this place.

My father and I out in the oilfield, Taft, California, 1942.

Thank you for reading. Stay tuned for part thirteen.

Diana Andrew calls me Uncle Sam.

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Big Brother and the Holding Company, part eleven. 1998. 17 june

Posted on June 16, 2012 by J L tagged.

1998 Kate Russo, Kacee Clanton, Andra Mitrovich, Cathy Richardson, Lisa Mills, Lisa Battle, Kathi McDonald.

23 January 1998 Six Rivers Brewing Company McKinleyville California

6 February 1998 Bay Brewing Company Milwaukee Wisconsin

7 February 1998 Marquette University Milwaukee Wisconsin

Margaret Gurley.

10 February 1998 Tuxedo Junction Danbury Conneticut “See ya, James.” “Not if I see you first.” Typical Gurley exchange.

20 February 1998 The Emelin Theatre Mamaroneck New York

Tom Finch, Carl Peachman, Catherine Cavalieri, Sam Andrew, Lisa Battle, Peter Albin, Dave Getz, Judy & Todd Bolton at The Emelin Theater.

Peter Albin.

21 February 1998 The Call Providence Rhode Island

22 February 1998 Bodles Opera House Chester New York ”James, you’re a great guitar player.” “Takes one to know one.”

26 February 1998 Manny’s Car Wash New York City Oh, man, I love being in New York and meeting people like Kate Russo.

27 February 1998 Mexicali Blues Teaneck New Jersey Catherine Cavalieri and Carl Peachman took LSD tonight. That was interesting. We all drove home together. To show you how stoned they were, I was doing the driving. I performed admirably and noticed a still, meditative feeling in the car. Rather different from 99 Bottles of Beer On The Wall.

Having passed her acid test, Catherine begins booking the band. Typical sweet, helpful note from her.

28 February 1998 Van Dyck Schenectady New York Don Wilcock was a jazz writer attuned to the passing scene.

Lisa Battle.

1 March 1998 Khyber Philadelphia

2 March 1998 Letter from Jack Ortman.

Jeannie Anderson James Anderson Elise Piliwale Sam Andrew Margaret Joplin

Dusty Street Gilbert Klein

7 March 1998 Bammies

Koko Dree.

14 March 1998 Cocodrie San Francisco

22 April 1998 Dave’s CC Club Tallahassee Florida This was a real juke joint out in the woods. The owner Dave is a good man.

24 April 1998 Ray’s Downtown Club West Palm Beach

25 April 1998 Cheers Fort Lauderdale

26 April 1998 Mr. Pub Ocala Florida

1 May 1998 Trader’s Lakeland Florida May Day ! May Day ! This pilot’s distress call from World War Two was originally “M’aidez !” Help Me !

2 May 1998 Sebastian Beach Inn Sebastian Beach Florida

12 May 1998

15 May 1998 President Casino Biloxi Mississippi

16 May 1998 Tipitina’s New Orleans

The Mt. Tabor Theater was named after an extinct volcano located within the city boundaries of Portland. The theatre was operating prior to 1941 and was still open in 1950. Although it closed and fell on hard times, it still displayed the name on the marquee and some unique neon tubing. It is situated across and down S.E. Hawthorne Street from the Bagdad, which has fared much better.

12 June 1998 Mount Tabor Portland Oregon

The colorful gentlemen wh0 used to build, finance and own these places in the 1950s called them “carpet joints.”

13 June 1998 Reno Hilton Reno

19 June 1998 Six Rivers McKinleyville California

Peter Walsh Sam Andrew George Michalski

20 June 1998 Altamont Speedway Livermore Caliifornia Speedway ?

25 June 1998 Manny’s Car Wash New York City Look at the people who played here in one month’s time: Kerry Kearney, Susan Tedeschi, Jimmy Vivino.

Talking to Daniel Aloi.

26 June 1998 West Strand Grill Kingston New York

Kingston is on highway 87 almost due north of Manhattan. Woodstock is a little to the northeast of Kingston.

Buffalo is in the western part of the state between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, where the Falls are.

27 June 1998 Mohawk Place Buffalo New York Someone made such a great recording of us here, including a fugue that Tom Finch and I played.

28 June 1998 Stanhope Blues Fest Stanhope New Jersey

1 July 1998 Kingsbury’s Elmira New York Mark Twain’s wife Olivia Langdon grew up here.

The Clemens family lived in Hartford, Connecticut, but they summered at Quarry Farm, Elmira, New York.

Livy’s sister Susan Crane built a study in the form of a pilot house for the author. He wrote his best known books here. Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and The Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. He would breakfast in the main house and then walk down here to the study to write all day.

…since we have perched away up here on top of the hill near heaven I have the feeling of being a sort of scrub angel & am more moved to help shove the clouds around, & get the stars on deck promptly, & keep all things trim & ship-shape in the firmament than to bother myself with the humble insect-interests & occupations of the distant earth.

Twain’s study in the form of a pilot house out in back of the main house where Susan Crane, Livy’s sister, lived.

3 July 1998 Godfrey Daniel’s Bethlehem Pennsylvania

4 July 1998 Burke Estate Hastings-On-Hudson New York

19 July 1998 Uncle Henry’s 90th Birthday Celebration Guerneville California Peter played stand up bass, and I sang How Long Has This Been Going On at this event.

24 July 1998 Atom Club Tokyo

26 July 1998 Shizuoka Royal Hotel Shizuoka Japan Our hotel is at the ‘H.’

28 July 1998 Rag Club Kyoto

31 July 1998 Casanova Makawao Maui Hawaii

1 August 1998 Hapa’s Kihei Hawaii

2 August 1998 Anna Banana’s Honolulu This is Fort Street, about 1930.

Anna Banana’s.

15 August 1998 St. Paul’s River Feast St. Paul Minnesota

16 August 1998 The Twisters Kenosha Wisconsin

19 August 1998 Mad Frog Cincinnati

20 August 1998 Wilbert’s Cleveland I liked this place. Friendly people

22 August 1998 B.B. King’s Los Angeles

23 August 1998 House of Blues West Hollywood

11 September 1998 Teatro Metopolitan México, D.F. One of the best gigs ever. Kate Russo came along and sang and played so beautifully.

I did several interviews in Spanish and they seemed to understand me, which is good, because they often don’t understand me in English.

Danny Uzilevsky came along and played some great guitar.

We were here with Fito de la Parra and his merry men, and that is always fun.

Elise was with me and she made everything so much more memorable, as she always does.

¡ Saludos a México !

Kate Russo.

9 October 1998 The Call Providence Geri Verdi sang these gigs with us.

10 October 1998 Harpers Ferry Boston

11 October 1998 Consolati Performing Arts Center Sheffield Massachusetts

14 October 1998 Ram’s Head Annapolis Maryland

15 October 1998 Friar Tuck’s Norfolk Virginia

16 October 1998 Jaxx Springfield Virginia

17 October 1998 Stanhope House Stanhope New Jersey

18 October 1998 The Schoolhouse Croton Falls New York

22 October 1998 Milestones Rochester New York

23 October 1998 The Van Dyck Schenectady New York

24 October 1998 Sandy’s Glen Falls New York

25 October 1998 Riverstreet Jazz Café Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania

27 October 1998 Hard Rock Café Atlantic City New Jersey

This is when “the Carol guitar” entered the Hard Rock system. She now travels all over the world visiting all the Hard Rocks.

28 October 1998 Khyber Philadelphia

30 October 1998 Mexicali Blues Teaneck New Jersey Kate Russo.

We did these tunes and many others as well.

With Jerry Miller and Bob Mosly at Wetlands, New York City.

27 November 1998 19 Broadway Fairfax California I love the Russell brothers. These guys can burn the house down in fifteen minutes.

5 December 1998 Boulder Theatre Boulder California

Part twelve next week. See you then.

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

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Big Brother and the Holding Company, part ten. 1995-1997

Posted on June 7, 2012 by J L tagged.

1995-1997 To a person in Japan, California is the Far East.

We went to Japan this year with Michel Bastian.

6 January 1995 My first date with Elise Piliwale. Sarasota Florida. Six January is the Feast of the Epiphany, and was it ever.

7 January 1995 Playing at my old friend Virgil Wilhite’s bookstore in Clearwater.

When Big Brother and the Holding Company couldn’t play, I would tour as The Sam Andrew Band. Trying to make a living.

13 January 1995

19 January 1995 Same photo, but as far as you can get from Sarasota, Florida, and still be in the USA.

27 January 1995 Casanova A beautiful club in Makawao, Maui. They used to film westerns in this town and it still has a paniolo (cowboy) feel.

28 January 1995 Pahoa Hawaii Pahoa is the Bolinas of Hawaii.

31 January 1995 Trying to arrange a trip to Japan.

10 February 1995 Dizzy’s in Houston. A good band and a good club.

18 February 1995 Big Brother and the Holding Company Smiley’s Bolinas California Bolinas is like the Pahoa of California.

Expressing our sympathy for Kobe earthquake victims.

Early attempt at writing a history of the band.

3 March 1995 Johnny Otis Club Sebastopol California

30 March 1995 Paradise Lounge San Francisco

Jan Kerouac.

Nihon Nippon Japan

This character means “sun.”

This character means root or base or origin or bottom.

Together they mean “sun origin,” Japan. Land of the rising sun.

JAPAN ! Plant names vary wildly from country to country.

Notice that the shape of Japan is that of a dragon.

Another interesting aspect is that the south to north latitudes almost exactly parallel those of the USA East Coast.

2 April 1995 Café Kenya Hikone Japan

So close yet so far from my beloved Okinawa.

2 April 1995 Bill Hamm and Mike Wilhelm were with us on this tour.

Ongaku. Music.

Tower Records Kyoto

4 April 1995 Rag Club Kyoto Japan

7 April 1995

8 April 1995 Taku Taku Kyoto This is the way they write Kyoto in Kyoto.

9 April 1996 Happy Birthday, Elise !

We traveled in Japan by train and subway, much the best way to go.

12 April 1995 On Air Shibuya Tokyo

Shibuya.

Tokyo to Nagoya.

13 April 1995 Bottom Line Nagoya Japan

NA GO YA

16 April 1995 Earthquake Benefit We played on a dried river bed (Kawaramachi) in Kyoto.

17 April 1995 Quattro Osaka ”Osaka” means “big hill,” but the O has to last longer and to be stressed more. Ooo saka.

19 April 1995 Taku Taku Kyoto ”Taku Taku” is not a “normal” Japanese word

I’m looking up “Taku Taku” trying to understand what it could mean. Sometimes you just have to be a native speaker, and even then some things are a puzzle. We have many similar instances in our language. For example, what if you saw a club called Bowbard, how would you translate that for a Japanese person ? You’d probably say, “Eh, it’s just a name.” And, yes, it IS just a name. Or, you could look the word up in an archaic dictionary where you would find: Bowbard: A dastard; a person destitute of spirit. Considered akin to “boobie” and “buffoon.” Perhaps derived from German “Bub,” which first signified a boy, then a servant, and finally a worthless fellow. In Yiddish inflected English, ”Bubbi made a kischke” has a rather different meaning, but booby is almost universally understood. Hey, Bub, easy enough, huh ? Anyway, I spent a lot of time trying to get to the meaning of “Taku Taku,” and, you know what? It was time well spent.

Michel Bastian.

21 April 1995 Taku Taku Kyoto

23 April 1995 Bar Isn’t It ? Kyoto This is the name of the bar in English. It’s just a name, OK?

Noriko-san is here. James Gurley is here. Michel Bastian is here. Massan, our name for Masuda-san, he is here. I am there somewhere.

Living out my life in stages. These Eastern perceptions of the ups and downs in our lives remind me of a passage in Shakespeare.

His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

25 April 1995 We fly home.

9 May 1995 Hyatt Regency San Francisco High Anxiety.

11 May 1995 Good Times Eugene Oregon

12 May 1995 Bojangles Portland

13 May 1995 Ashland Oregon Speaking of Shakespeare.

14 May 1995 University of California Davis

20 May 1995 Mr. Q’s Tiburon California

Snooky Flowers and Cash Farrar.

9 June 1995 The Sam Andrew Band in Texas. Dan Electro’s is a great place.

10 June 1995 Big Brother Seaside California

Darby and The Slick.

Linda McCartney took this one.

11 June 1995 Santa Rosa California

16 June 1995 Maritime Hall retrospective.

18 June 1995 Fresno California

Rehearsing for Manny’s on the upper West Side of The Rotten Apple, as Tommy Doyle used to call it.

28 June 1995 I loved playing at Manny’s Car Wash. The stage was tiny, the backstage green room almost nonexistent, but the owners were great and the ambience fabulous.

My good looking New York band. Talented too. This is about as many people as could fit backstage at Manny’s.

Jynx Lynx and Kerry Kearney.

Rita Wiegand took these photographs.

4 July 1995 Aquatic Park San Francisco This place reminds me of my “beatnik” days. We used to buy a gallon of Gallo Red Mountain Burgundy for $ 2.89, some avocados and French bread, and then go play guitars and congos, bongos and whatever else we could find.

15 July 1995 with my darling Elise.

29 July 1995 Marin Civic Auditorium San Rafael California

6 August 1995 I loved The Ace of Cups. Diane Vitalich played with me in the Sam Andrew Band a few times. Good drummer. Plus, when Diane was there we got to do Heat Wave and she sang it. Lots of fun.

6-7 August 1995 Moby Grape !

18 August 1995 State Fair Santa Rosa California

19 August 1995 Forestville California

24 August 1995 House of Blues Hollywood

31 August 1995 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Cleveland Ohio You can take me higher anytime.

31 August 1995 Peabody’s Down Under Cleveland

2 September 1995 Nevada City California

Tony Seldin had a special voice, tremulous and emotional. Good for his poetry.

9 September 1995 Glendale State Fair Glendale California

23 September 1995 Fairfax Pavilion Fairfax California

9 October 1995 Golden Gate Park Bandshell San Francisco

22 October 1995 Mountain Home Garcia Tribute Livermore California

Laura Joplin.

Luther Tucker Rich Kirch Bill Ganaye

6 November 1995 Freddie Krc, who played drums with Jerry Jeff Walker, will be mayor of Austin one of these days.

6 November 1995 Sam Andrew Band Last Concert Café Houston

10 November 1995 Hank’s Austin

12 November 1995 The Love Ride Castaic California Jay Leno was the MC at this one.

6 December 1995 DNA Lounge 375 Eleventh Street San Francisco

15 December 1995 Sam Andrew Band Peri’s Fairfax California

18 December 1995

28 December 1995 Sam Andrew Band Seattle

31 December 1995 Sausalito Yacht Club Sausalito California

20 January 1996 Palookaville Santa Cruz

In January 1996, Elise and I went to London where I played a few dates. This was the coldest month we have ever spent there. We were stuffing towels under the doors to keep out the cold.

22 March 1996 Keeping it going in the Pacific Northwest.

9 April 1996 Happy Birthday, Elise.

23 April 1996 Narada ! He played Piece of My Heart with Lydia Pense and me. This is his birthday.

2 June 1996 Maritime Hall San Francisco Hey, kids ! Let’s make a film.

Plotting, plodding and plotzing in the green room.

Let’s have a happy ending, even if there wasn’t one. We’ll write it into the script. Nobody wants a downer.

3 June 1996 Domaine Chandon Napa

22 June 1996 Nudestock Turtle Lake Michigan One of the most incredible gigs ever. First of all, the entire audience was naked.

Then, we were on the bill with Paul Revere and the Raiders, who antedate even us. Paul had an “act,” a vaudeville act. He fired a pistol to punctuate his jokes which were polished and funny.

This was one of Lisa Battle’s first gigs with us, and she is a suburban girl. We drove across the field to the stage and hundreds of naked people came running toward us. I am sure that it was Lisa’s worst nightmare about being in a rock band.

25 June 1996 Manny’s Car Wash New York City

27 June 1996 Sam Andrew Band opens for the truly incredible and gorgeous Bud E. Luv at the Paradise Lounge, San Francisco.

30 June 1996 Maestro’s San Ramon California

4 July 1996 Fairstock Del Mar California

10 July 1996 Trying to get something going, making proposals, waiting for answers.

25 July 1996 Evergreen Ballroom Olympia Washington Duffy Bishop and Chris Carlson.

The Evergreen Ballroom was such a great place to play, and especially fun with Duffy and Chris.

26 July 1996 Detour Tavern Washington

27 July 1996 Sonoma County Fair Santa Rosa

31 July 1996

3 August 1996 Concord Elks’ Club Concord California

7 August 1996 Moto Rally Sturgess South Dakota

10 August 1996 Gathering On The Mountain Poconos Pennsylvania

12 August 1996 Iron Horse Northampton Massachusetts

13 August 1996 Turning Point Piermont New York

14 August 1996 Old Vienna Kafeehaus Westborough Massachusetts

16 August 1996 Harpers Ferry Boston

I have a friend Rob Morse who used to write a column for the San Francisco Chronicle. When I am in Boston, I talk with his brother Steve Morse who writes for The Boston Globe.

18 August 1996 Magic Bag Theatre Ferndale Michigan

20 August 1996 Wilbert’s Cleveland This was a hot gig. I still have recordings that we did here and they are superb.

23 August 1996 House of Blues West Hollywood

Songlist from 1996.

31 August 1996 Rockford Illinois

7 September 1996 Seafood Fest Pittsburgh California This was the first gig where I used my PRS that Paul Reed Smith gave me. She’s a beauty.

7 September 1996 Lost and Found Saloon 1353 Grant Avenue San Francisco

Elise and I were performing these tunes about this time.

5 October 1996 Field of Screams Manteca California

20 October 1996 Peter Lewis and I did a series of gigs together at this time. To me, Peter was the real driving, creative force behind Moby Grape. I mean, I’m in a band. I know that everyone contributes and makes it what it is, but Peter was the mainspring.

26 October 1996 Andrews Hall Sonoma California I sent Peter Albin directions to this place, but he lost them and was very upset when he got there late.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco…

7 November 1996 Roxie Theatre San Francisco We showed a couple of our videos here.

Then we talked a bit about our shady past and took questions from the audience.

James Gurley Sam Andrew

The Roxie is such a great place. Elise and I have seen the Academy Awards presentation here a couple of times which is a lot of fun South of Market, I’ll tell you.

7 December 1996 Transmission Theatre San Francisco I was yelling in James’ ear at this gig. The opening band was loud. All of sudden, wouldn’t you know, and hasn’t this happened to you?, they stopped right on a dime, while I screeched, “She’s a dyke !” into total silence. We laughed so hard. The best moment of that night, definitely. I don’t remember who was a dyke. Maybe me.

29 January 1997 Playing in London with Bob Strano and Billy Ficca from Television. The Twelve Bar Club is a cool spot and I love Denmark Street, which is a London version of 48th Street in Manhattan.

20 February 1997 Turning Point Piermont New York

21 February 1997 Red Creek Inn Rochester New York

22 February 1997 Harpers Ferry Boston Susan Tedeschi opened for us here and she loaned us her equipment which was very generous.

23 February 1997 Manny’s Car Wash New York City Nice, soulful review from Lenny Kaye.

25 February 1997 Hard Rock Café Atlantic City New Jersey

7 March 1997 The Ballard Firehouse Seattle

8 March 1997 Fourth Avenue Tavern Olympia Washington

15 March 199

19 April 1997 Eureka California

20 April 1997 Concord Pavilion Concord California

28 April 1997 Fillmore San Francisco This was a fun gig. Michael Carabello sat in with us and we had a loose, happy set.

Sam Andrew Lisa Battle

8 May 1997 The Cabooze Minneapolis

10 May 1997 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Cleveland

Donovan was there too, and it was interesting to talk with him. I don’t know if you have seen the film Don’t Look Back, the story of Bob Dylan’s first trip to England. Dylan may have seen Donovan as a competitor because he, Bob, savages Donovan and sings It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue at him in a mocking way. I asked Donovan what he thought about the film. “It was difficult,” he replied, “there were fifteen New Yorkers on speed in that hotel and they were on a rampage, and everything was being filmed by D.A. Pennebaker.”

15 May 1997 St. Petersburg Florida

16 May 1997 Hilton Hotel Jacksonville Florida

17 May 1997 Sebastian Beach Inn Melbourne Beach Florida

18 May 1997 Musician’s Exchange Café Delray Beach Florida

24 May 1997 Larkspur Books Larkspur California Jack Ortman throws a party.

Rich Kirch Natalie Martel Dickie Peterson

25 May 1997 The Crossroads Yucaipa California

9 June 1997 Berkeley Community Theatre Berkeley California

20 June 1997 Catherine Cavalieri and Carl Peachman began writing to me shortly before this time asking if we could work together booking the band, which I had been doing by myself for a long time. They were good people and I liked getting to know them. This probably isn’t their laminate or slogan, but it certainly could be. Unlimited Devotion.

Tom Finch, Carl Peachman, Catherine Cavalieri, Lisa Battle, Peter Albin.

Catherine Cavalieri

Carl Peachman and George Coleman

I liked all these people from the Blues Review, all of the Colemans, and especially Catherine and Carl, and I owe them a huge debt.

I booked most/all of these shows with Catherine.

5 July 1997 Godfrey Daniels Bethlehem Pennsylvania

One of the odder Big Brother images. Lisa Battle and Les Dudek.

6 July 1997 Tinker Street Café Woodstock New York

7 July 1997 Stephen Talkhouse Amagansett New York

10 July 1997 Manny’s Car Wash New York City Vince Martel Lisa Battle Mark the Harp

12 July 1997 Stanhope House Stanhope New Jersey

13 July 1997 Hungry Tiger Manchester Connecticut

18 July 1997 Lark Theatre Larkspur California

NAMM Show

Elise Piliwale Karen Lyberger.

19 July 1997 Forester’s Hall Redwood City California This was a mellow evening.

Elise Piliwale Sam Andrew

25 July 1997

7 August 1997 Wetlands New York City With Moby Grape.

We did all of these songs and many more.

9 August 1997 Poconos Pennsylvania

14 August 1997 Swiss Auditorium Tacoma Washington

15 August 1997 Crystal Ballroom Portland Oregon

16 August 1997 Back Alley Port Townsend Washington

17 August 1997 La Conner Blues Fest La Conner Washington

20 August 1997 The Yale Hotel Vancouver British Columbia

21 August 1997 Evergreen Ballroom Olympia Washington

22 August 1997 Cosmos Bellingham Washington Bellingham is a lovely town.

23 August 1997 Doc Maynard’s Seattle I have played many times in this historic spot, including once That’s Entertainment came and filmed us.

31 August 1997 Milwaukee

7 September 1997 Seafood Festival Pittsburgh California

26 September 1997 Woodacre Improvement Club Woodacre California This nondescript modern structure sits on a lot of history. For one thing, Mari Mack sang with us here.

And then there is Adolph Maillard who was the son of Louis Maillard and the grandson of Louis’ “natural” father, Joseph Bonaparte, king of Spain and Naples.

Adolph Maillard brought his bride Annie to Woodacre and they built a home with eighteen rooms and eleven fireplaces on the site of the Woodacre Improvement Club near Castle Rock.

Castle Rock, Woodacre. Annie’s sister Julia Ward Howe (who wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic) often visited Annie at her Woodacre home.

Charlotte Maillard, seen here with Cyril Magnin, was San Francisco’s Chief of Protocol and she inhabited Herb Caen’s columns quite comfortably for years.

Adolph Maillard sold much of his land to the Dicksons who are still here. Their ranch is dated 1870, but they bought the land around 1850. I know a couple of Dicksons. One of them, Dan, is a great stride piano player and his brother Walt is a fine musician.

The original Maillard home became the Woodacre Improvement Club in 1924. This is the train station in Woodacre.

27 September 1997 Brookdale Lodge Brookdale California There is a Brookdale ghost. I should know. I’ve seen it on television several times.

4 October 1997 The Landmark Hotel Los Angeles Table by the window. Photo: Howard Sounes.

9 October 1997 Great American Music Hall San Francisco

Shana Morrison.

Bob Mosley Peter Lewis Sam Andrew Jerry Miller And drummer, do you remember that cab ride in Manhattan ? Unbelievable, right. I mean literally. How did we live ?

12 October 1997 Pozo Saloon Moby Grape

22 October 1997 Club Metronome Burlington Vermont

24 October 1997 Dibden Center for the Arts Johnson Vermont

25 October 1997 Austin

26 October 1997 Dinosaur Bar-B-Q Syracuse New York

2 November 1997 A rather pink letter to Japan.

6 November 1997 Always booking.

So, it finally happens. We go to Japan with Duffy Bishop and Tom Finch.

19 November 1997 Caravanserai Sarai Kochi Japan

21 November 1997 Parker House Roll Kyoto This was like playing in someone’s living room, very small.

23 November 1997 Jyules Pimper’s Paradise Shizuoka Japan

25 November 1997 Taku Taku Kyoto Michel Bastian

27 November 1997 Doshisa University Kyoto This is how Big Brother and the Holding Company is written in Japanese katakana. It sounds something like “Bigu Burazaa & za Horudingu Kanpanee.”

28 November 1997 Viva Hall Hikone Japan

Street art.

Peter Lewis Jerry Miller

Peter Albin Ginger Baker Sam Andrew

Jerry Miller.

31 December 1997 Brookdale Lodge Brookdale California Back with the Brookdale spirit and happy new year to you.

See ? I have my own ghost. A much more interesting one.

_____________________________________________________________________

Big Brother and the Holding Company, part eight. 1990-1992

Posted on May 27, 2012 by J L tagged.

1990-1992 Riches Untold, Wealth Beyond The Dreams of Avarice.

I had to find a place to hide all my money.

You’re not going to take that seriously, are you ? OK, here’s a joke: Did you hear about the musician who won the lottery ? She played gigs until the money ran out.

More truth than poetry in that one.

Michel Bastian and I did a lot of gigs together in Big Brother and also in The Sam Andrew Band.

24 May 1990 Chi Chi Club San Francisco

Elise Piliwale.

John Cipollina Nick Gravenites Pete Sears Ed Pearlstein took this photograph.

25 May 1990 River Theatre Guerneville California

James always called me “mon jumeau malveillant,” or, when he spoke English, “my evil twin.”

Der Übelzwilling.

Geminus maleficus papae.

El gemelo malvado.

La cattiva gemella.

James very modestly called himself Saint James.

In the 1960s, he called himself The Archfiend of the Universe, a much more interesting appellation, not more accurate, just more interesting.

Joe Tate and Maggie Catfish.

26-27 May 1990 Caspar Inn Caspar California

28 May 1990 Live Wire Grass Valley California

14 February 1991 Sam Andrew Band Paramount Theatre Seattle This is a beautiful old theatre.

Our guitar player on this gig was Mick Taylor, and he did a great job. Veronica Vitti came and sang beautifully.

The stupendous Rob Moitoza played bass and Chris Leighton was on drums.

When Chris plays, I always feel like a Klieg light went on somewhere. It’s like, “OK, we’re in the big time now.”

23 March 1991

23 April 1991 I-Beam San Francisco

Kristina Kopriva, marevelous violinist, singer

21 May 1991

1 June 1991 The Cannery San Francisco

20 July 1991 I-Beam San Francisco

2 August 1991 Anna Bananas Honolulu

Elise’s aunt Shirley Piliwale’s stage name was Varoa Tiki. She was a very good singer and she played every instrument.

Silver Piliwale is Elise’s grandfather. Many places in Hawaii are named Piliwale after him.

27 September 1991 The Queens of Denial Seattle

Icepack Jackson and David Cohen. Icepack, you’re looking good. What is that ? A G 9 suspended ?

24 October 1991 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Cleveland Ohio

Janis.

Nothing like misspelling a performer’s name on a poster. It does make it extra collectible, I suppose.

I once saw John Cipollina’s name misspelled on a PROMO photograph.

25 October 1991

Todd Bolton.

7 November 1991 I-Beam San Francisco

In Tacoma with Chad Quist who did some beautiful playing with us, especially on the Hold Me CD.

Cheryl Little Deer made this business card.

Elise Piliwale with Sheba.

13 April 1992 Sam Andrew Band White Rabbit Austin

16 April 1992

23 April 1992

5 May 1992 Michel Bastian

12 May 1992

9 October 1992

One Family Festival Golden Gate Park San Francisco

28 November 1992 An invitation.

4 December 1992 Linda, an old friend of ours, introduced us to her husband at this event.

So, to celebrate the occasion, I threw a party at The Troubadour.

Adolfito de la Parra was the drummer. Goio Villanueva took this photograph.

Larry Taylor played bass.

Mark Riley. And just to show you that he’s not always that serious, he also plays with hairstyles.

Our old road manager John Byrne Cooke came back for this one, and he made everything run smoothly.

John’s friend Debbie Green, seen here with Eric Anderson, invited us to stay at her house. I hope to do some playing with Debbie one of these days.

Lotus Mahon was with me this weekend which made everything extra special.

Linda and David LaFlamme came to the party. Elise and I were once at the Fillmore with some friends of ours, Marion and Christo, both physicians, and when It’s a Beautiful Day began their set, Marion started to cry. Their music meant so much to her.

Lester Chambers was there with his brothers.

Deborah Morrison sang back up with us.

Robby Krieger played.

Carl Gottlieb was there…

… and Howard Hessman.

And a cast of thousands.

Willie Chambers.

Darby Slick was there. Hey, he wrote a book and a song.

And she sang it.

Peter Albin playing my guitar. John Byrne Cooke took this photograph.

31 December 1992 Pescadero California This was a fun gig. We had Peter on bass and Spencer Dryden on drums.

Rich Kirch played guitar.

Peter Albin and James St. Pell.

They weren’t there. Well, maybe in spirit, because a lot of their friends were there.

A lot of her friends were there also, asking the eternal question: Can a blue man sing the whites ?

Kathi McDonald.

Thank you and I’ll see you next week.

__________________________________________________________________________

Big Brother history, part eight, 1990 – 1992

Posted on May 24, 2012 by J L tagged.

Watching

1990 – 1992

This is the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park 1895. The Museum still looked a lot like this when I first visited there in 1960.

1990-1992

Michel Bastian and I did a lot of gigs together in Big Brother and also in The Sam Andrew Band.

24 May 1990 Chi Chi Club San Francisco

Elise Wainani Piliwale.

25 May 1990 River Theatre Guerneville California

James Gurley always called me mon jumeau malveillant, or, when he spoke English, my evil twin. When he broke out into German, I became der Übelzwilling.

James very modestly called himself Saint James.

In the 1960s, he called himself The Archfiend of the Universe, a much more interesting appellation, not necessarily more accurate, just more interesting.

26-27 May 1990 Caspar Inn Caspar California

Photo: Polly Belinda Rendall

28 May 1990 Live Wire Grass Valley California

Tara Coyote-Finch

Peter Albin

14 February 1991 Sam Andrew Band Paramount Theatre Seattle This is a beautiful old theatre.

Our guitar player on this gig was Mick Taylor, and he did a great job. Veronica Vitti came and sang beautifully.

The always inventive Rob Moitoza played bass and Chris Leighton was on drums.

When Chris plays, I always feel like a Klieg light went on somewhere. It’s like, “OK, we’re in the big time now.”

23 March 1991

23 April 1991 I-Beam San Francisco

21 May 1991

Once when we were playing Piece of My Heart (Pizza My Heart?) in Lake Arrowhead, California, Eric Burdon came in, sat in the front row and ordered a pizza to be delivered. Here he is talking to an old friend of mine.

1 June 1991 The Cannery San Francisco

20 July 1991 I-Beam San Francisco

2 August 1991 Anna Bananas Honolulu

Elise’s aunt Shirley Piliwale’s stage name was Varoa Tiki. She was a very good singer and she played every instrument.

Silver Piliwale is Elise’s grandfather. Many places in Hawaii are named Piliwale after him.

The Queen of the Nile

27 September 1991 The Queens of Denial Seattle

24 October 1991 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Cleveland Ohio

Nothing like misspelling a performer’s name on a poster. It does make it extra collectible, I suppose.

Dusty Springfield and Ronnie Spector

How many Cokes have you drunk in your life? Can you imagine anything worse for you? Loaded with sugar and other harmful ingredients. Empty calories.

25 October 1991

Todd Bolton.

7 November 1991 I-Beam San Francisco

In Tacoma with Chad Quist who did some beautiful playing with us.

Especially on the Hold Me CD.

Cheryl Little Deer made this business card.

Elise Piliwale with Sheba.

13 April 1992 Sam Andrew Band White Rabbit Austin

16 April 1992

23 April 1992

12 May 1992

9 October 1992 One Family Festival Golden Gate Park San Francisco

28 November 1992 An invitation.

4 December 1992 Linda, an old friend of ours, introduced us to her husband at this event.

So, to celebrate the occasion, I threw a party at The Troubadour.

Adolfito de la Parra was the drummer.

Larry Taylor played bass.

Mark Riley played guitar. And just to show you that he’s not always that serious, he also plays with hairstyles.

Our old road manager John Byrne Cooke came back for this one, and he made everything run smoothly.

Lotus Mahon was with me this weekend which made everything extra special.

Linda and David LaFlamme came to the party.

Lester Chambers was there with his brothers.

Deborah Morrison sang back up with us.

Robby Krieger played.

Carl Gottlieb was there…

… and Howard Hessman.

And a cast of thousands.

Willie Chambers.

Darby Slick was there. Hey, he wrote a book and a song. Well, many songs actually.

Peter Albin playing my guitar. John Byrne Cooke took this photograph.

31 December 1992 Pescadero California This was a fun gig. We had Peter Albin on bass and Spencer Dryden on drums.

Rich Kirch played guitar.

Peter Albin and James St. Pell.

with Kathi McDonald. Can a blue man sing the whites ?

Some people have made a career out of playing nothing but the pentatonic scale.

Alton Kelley, square deal, always real.

Thank you and I’ll see you next week.

____________________________________________________________

Big Brother and the Holding Company, part seven. 1978-1989

Posted on May 20, 2012 by J L tagged.

1978-1989 The Crash Test Dummy Goes Into Research and Development.

Big Brother crashed in 1972 or 1973. I was the only original member in it for a long time, and finally Kathi and I decided that it was time for a break.

My girlfriend Carol Cavallon decided to move back to the East Coast and attend Windham College in Putney, Vermont.

I went with her and we lived in a little cabin in Grafton, near where this schoolhouse stands.

We ultimately decided to live in Manhattan, first on the Upper East Side with her parents who were wonderful people.

Later, Carol and I moved to 278 West 11th Street between West 4th and Bleecker Streets. I lived in that apartment longer than I have lived anywhere else. The loudest sound I heard all day long was children playing in the gardens out in back, which was good because it was time for some serious study.

8 April 1973 Pablo Picasso died after a long lifetime of reinventing himself.

I went to the New School for Social Research over on Twelfth Street. I had always read music, but I mainly played by ear and wrote music intuitively. Now I wanted to study composition formally.

Frank Wigglesworth, winner of the Prix de Rome, taught me counterpoint, the art of putting two or more independent melodies together so that you can hear them all at the same time. James Gurley and I had done this by trial and error, of course, notably on Summertime and Hall of the Mountain King, but generally throughout our playing.

The top line is the fixed song, the cantus firmus, the original melody, and then you learn how to put a second melody with the first, one note against one note.

Then, you move on to two notes against one… (I see a “mistake” here, but this is just an example.)

Then you learn to put four notes against one and so on until you arrive at a fugue with complex rhythms and four or five voices.

I used two classic works to learn counterpoint: One was Fux’ 1725 treatment Gradus ad Parnassum. (In 1994, Big Brother was to go to Moscow to play an event called Steps To Parnassus, a translation of this title.) Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and many other composers used Fux’ book in their contrapuntal practice.

The second book I profited from in the study of counterpoint was by Knud Jeppeson who interpreted Fux and put him in a historical context. Just looking at this book takes me back to that intense time of study. I wrote hundreds of exercises in this discipline. This was a lot of fun and very educational. Something like three dimensional chess perhaps. Or four dimensional, because time, rhythm is also an essential part of this technique.

The rules for counterpoint are like the rules of perspective in art. They can be a principal or an ancillary study. Some artists, some composers, will make counterpoint and perspective their main focus. Two of those come to mind: J.S. Bach and M.C. Escher.

In 1975, I met Laura Gomez and my motto that year became “Alive in ’75.” I love Laura. She is a very interesting person.

And I wish I would have been a better person for her. Laura and her daughter.

I was writing a lot of cereal music at this point, inventions, fugues, string quartets, a symphony that I heard performed exactly once. (Too bad it wasn’t in the Royal Albert Hall where I could have at least heard it twice.) Sometimes it was cereal music, sometimes it was serial music and sometimes it was traditional music. Snap, crackle, pop.

4 February 1974 Café Wha ? Hey, I’m on the same bill with Richie and Yoko. David Amram, serious composer, showed up and played flute on this gig.

Recording at Atlantic.

1975 Dickie and Donnie. Can you feel the love ? Donnie was known as Rumstud during the early reign of George W. Bush, that is, until he was made a nonperson after the reëlection. Dickie is still with us, commenting on all the ways that everyone else is screwing up now, after he had done so well in his time. Smirking, shirking, jerking.

4 July 1976 The tall ships came sailing into the Hudson and I was there on a pier mere blocks from my apartment enjoying the spectacle along with thousands of other people. This was such a great Bicentennial.

I talked to Ahmet Ertegun about joining Atlantic but Big Brother was in limbo at this time.

25 July 1977 There was a blackout in New York City. I walked the streets enjoying the silence. I could actually hear conversations four or five floors above me. It made me feel as if I were living a hundred years earlier. There was a camaraderie during this emergency, despite all the alarmist stories one hears.

17 September 1978 Mstislav Rostropovich performed at The White House. The violoncello is such a great instrument, tremendous range and a beautiful sound and he played it so well.

1 October 1978 Tribal Stomp Greek Theatre Berkeley

Judy Davis and Patrisha Vestey worked hard on this event.

Look at that phone. You did something called “dialing” with it.,

The Tribal Stomp was a big deal. I had been living in New York for ten years. Now I was coming home.

Big Brother and the Holding Company would start playing again.

We could work with Kathi McDonald and Nick Gravenites and continue some of the good ideas we began after Janis left.

So, imagine my surprise when everyone said good bye and so long after the gig.

They were all going back to their private lives.

James was going back to the desert. Peter was going back to his model shop.

There was no interest in doing Big Brother again.

I had finished my life and left my apartment on the East Coast. Now what to do ?

I had to learn how to paint, sculpt, play the saxophone and do a variety of other activities to keep busy for the next eight years. Keith Haring did this painting.

19 April 1980 Snooky Flowers and I formed a band with a gay man Joey Amoroso who called himself Pearl.

Pearl had more than a little in common with Louis XIV.

19 April 1980 Pearl Heart Oakland Auditorium

Playing with Frank Alsing from the Pearl band.

Pearl, who was very flamboyant, sang Janis’ songs in the same key that Janis did, something that very few of the Big Brother singers have achieved since.

1980 We played the Gay Day Parade at the Civic Center. I played clarinet in one of the gay day parades up in Seattle, but this one in San Francisco was a whole other thing.

We played on a stage right in front of City Hall.

July 1980 I also performed with a band called Little Bumps Garden at The Haight Street Fair. Jym Fahey Lenny Kobiela

16 February 1981 Homesick for the Apple thinking about those lox, er, locks, and that love.

November 1981 Bringing home the pumpkin.

Sculpting some very large heads.

1982 Release of a new coin in the United Kingdom. Obverse of the Half Sovereign valued at £ 100-150. Beautiful design, isn’t it ?

And the reverse.

I was practicing the saxophone wherever I could. You have to play saxophone loud to learn it. With almost every other instrument there are ways to play quietly. With an electric guitar you can simply leave it unplugged and practice to your heart’s content. Even with a trumpet, you can mute it. Drummers can work with practice pads. Not saxophone. You can stuff a sock in the bell, but that’s about it and it won’t make it much quieter. You simply have to blow into it with passion and dedication for it to work. So saxophonists are notorious for playing in some strange places.

Sonny Rollins practiced on the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s perfect because the traffic seems to filter out the mistakes, and no one is complaining about the noise. It’s a bit like singing in the shower.

Trying, and usually failing, to take some decent photographs.

Playing saxophone seriously, scales, arpeggios, memorizing Charlie Parker solos.

This was a long saxophone meditation and it introduced me to some great players besides the masters whom I knew well.

Players like Joe Henderson, Jack Montrose, Dexter Gordon, James Moody, Mel Martin and Cannonball Adderly who played with technical proficiency and intense emotion.

1985.

I started making assemblages and hope to get back to that some day.

I decided to form a group of musicians to play some of these three or four hundred ballads and jump tunes from the 1920s, 30s, 40s that I was memorizing on the saxophone.

In time, this became The Sam Andrew Quartet and we played small clubs all over the Bay Area.

I had the opportunity to hire musicians who were a lot better than I was, good experience for similar activity later with Big Brother.

I learned that if you get the gig, you can get the musicians and the audience.

1985 Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, Theo van den Boogaard was doing some amazing graphic work and I became a fan.

The Sam Andrew Quartet slowly morphed into The Sam Andrew Band and I switched between saxophone and guitar for a while. We played all over the USA, including many places where Big Brother would later play.

People seemed to like what we were doing.

Snooky Flowers, Peter Walsh, Robin Sylvester, Scott Matthews. This was a good outfit. Snooky and I had been playing together since The Kozmic Blues Band.

1985 They’re ALL cults, aren’t they ? Even television. Television seems like the biggest cult of all.

Now THIS, this is a cult.

I was still sculpting, painting and photographing.

I depicted everything in sight, and some things out of sight.

Not “finding myself,” but creating myself.

I have to give a hand to George Bernard Shaw for the insight that one can take hold and change one’s life and not merely accept a given destiny.

21 March 1985 There began to be rumblings of a coming change.

Let’s see, how can I get Big Brother and the Holding Company together again?

I know. I’ll build a rehearsal studio.

They’ll get a good laugh out of that.

1986 Then it happened. An agent called and asked if we would like to play again. The occasion was a special anniversary, the Summer of Love.

The Summer of Love was always a rather suspect phrase.

They used to sell Love Burgers on Haight Street. I wonder how the cows felt about that. Did they feel all that Love ?

1986 Michel Bastian with Peter and James.

20 August 1987 Cotati Cabaret Cotati California

27 August 1987 New George’s San Rafael California

I loved her singing, and her mom’s, and her aunt’s. In fact, I used to rehearse down the hall from Dionne Warwick in New York.

29 August 1987 Fillmore Auditorium San Francisco Our new singer’s name is Michel. That’s the name she likes and that she was born with.

Rehearsing for the Fillmore. Yes, once upon a time we actually rehearsed. Well, most of us anyway.

2 September 1987 WOW Hall Eugene Oregon I told her that Michel was French for Michael, so she changed it to Michelle for a while.

3 Septembeer 1987 Pine Street Theatre Portland Oregon But she is Michel Bastian. She has a warm gospel voice right out of Oakland.

4 September 1987 Seattle Center Exhibition Hall Seattle

5-6 September 1987 Alaska State Fair Borealis Theatre

9 September 1987 Parker’s Seattle

12 September 1987 Twentieth Anniversary Summer of Love Polo Fields San Francisco

24 September 1987 Sweetwater Mill Valley California

17 October 1987 The OMNI Oakland California

I was once playing saxophone in this club with a cordless set up and I wandered off the stage out into the traffic at this intersection, blowing away. That was fun.

20 October 1987 The Church San Francisco Sam Andrew Band, Texas division. Lips played bass. Gloria Meehan sang backing vocals. Good band.

9 December 1987 Palace of Fine Arts San Francisco

12 December 1987 Cotati Cabaret Cotati California

1988 With my brother Dan in Austin.

19 February 1988 Catalyst Santa Cruz

21 May 1988 Golden Gate Park San Francisco

8-19 June 1988 I wish I could have been in Bologna for this event.

22 July 1988 The Backstage Seattle

23 July 1988 Pine Street Theatre Portland Oregon

7 August 1988 Molson Park Barrie Ontario

8 September 1988 Alice’s Champagne Palace Homer Alaska The Kenai Peninsula is a beautiful, beautiful place.

18 November 1988 “Living in Seattle is like being married to a beautiful woman who is sick all the time.” Herb liked that.

19 January 1989 Port Arthur Texas

20 January 1989 Rockefeller’s Houston

27 January 1989 Psychedelic Summer of Love Universal Amphitheatre Universal City California I was trying to chat up Debbie Harry at this gig and a very persistent fan came between us. The moment was lost.

April 1989 Luther Burbank Center for the Arts Santa Rosa California

23 April 1989 IBeam San Francisco Michael Dolgushkin did this poster.

22 April 1989 Club Lingerie Hollywood Vala Cupp Michel Bastian

Sam Andrew Band Washington chapter KK Ryder Mark Riley Todd Zimberg

7 June 1989 Rexville Grange Washington

Bainbridge Island Washington

27 July 1989 Great American Music Hall San Francisco

1989 In Beijing, momentous changes were occurring. The “Gate of Heavenly Peace,” Tienanmen, was an odd name for that place, that day.

18-19 August 1989 Wetlands New York City

4 October 1989

26 November 1989 Earthquake Benefit Kaiser Auditorium Oakland

Downstairs at The Fez under Time, New York City, with David Peel, Dorothy Rothschild and Lenny Kaye.

The Four Stooges at four in the morning. New York City

See you next week. Sam Andrew.

Big Brother and the Holding Company.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Big Brother history, part seven, 1972 to 1989

Posted on May 16, 2012 by J L tagged.

1972-1989

I only have eyes for you.

Big Brother crashed in 1972 or 1973. I was the only original member in it for a long time, and finally Kathi McDonald and I decided that it was time for a break.

Some of the grim events of the late sixties began to be repeated in a minor key in the seventies. In 1968, there were those horrible assassinations. In the 1970s, Lynette Squeaky Fromme (Manson family) and Sara Jane Moore (SLA) make an attempt on Gerald Ford. Instead of Viet Nam, there’s the failed Mayaguez rescue operation. In place of the Moratorium to End the War, we had Chevy Chase on Weekend Update.

My girlfriend Carol Cavallon decided to move back to the East Coast and attend Windham College in Putney, Vermont.

I went with her and we lived in a little cabin in Grafton, near where this schoolhouse stands.

Later, we moved to Manhattan, first on the Upper East Side with her parents who were wonderful people.

Later, Carol and I moved to 278 West 11th Street between West 4th and Bleecker Streets. I lived in that apartment longer than I have lived anywhere else in my life.

The loudest sound I heard all day long was children playing in the gardens out in back, which was good because the time had come for serious study.

I went to the New School for Social Research over on Twelfth Street. I had always read music, but I mainly played by ear and wrote music intuitively. Now I wanted to study composition formally.

Frank Wigglesworth, winner of the Prix de Rome, taught me counterpoint, the art of putting two or more independent melodies together so that you can hear them all at the same time.

James Gurley and I had often played two different melodies over the same harmonic background but we had done this by trial and error, of course, notably on Summertime and Hall of the Mountain King, but generally throughout our playing. I now began a classical study of this technique.

The top line is the fixed song, the cantus firmus, the original melody, and then you learn how to put a second melody with the first, one note against one note.

Then, you move on to two notes against one… (I see a “mistake” here, but let it pass.)

Then you learn to put four notes against one and so on until you arrive at a fugue with complex rhythms and four or five voices.

I used two classic works to learn counterpoint: One was Fux’ 1725 treatment Gradus ad Parnassum. (In 1994, Big Brother were to go to Moscow to play an event called Steps To Parnassus, a translation of this title.) Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and many other composers used Fux’ book in their contrapuntal practice.

The second book I profited from in the study of counterpoint was by Knud Jeppesen who interpreted Fux and put him in a historical context. Just looking at this book takes me back to that intense time of study. I wrote hundreds of exercises in this discipline.

This was a lot of fun and very educational. Something like three dimensional chess perhaps. Or four dimensional, because time, rhythm, is also an essential part of this technique.

The rules for counterpoint are like the rules for perspective in art. They can be a principal or an ancillary study. Some artists, some composers, will make counterpoint and perspective their main focus.

Two of these counterpoint/perspective masters come to mind: J.S. Bach and M.C. Escher.

In 1975, I met Laura Gomez and my motto that year became “Alive in ’75.”

Laura and her daughter.

I was writing a lot of music at this point, inventions, fugues, string quartets, a symphony that I heard performed exactly once. (Too bad it wasn’t in the Royal Albert Hall where I could have at least heard it twice.)

Sometimes I wrote cereal music, sometimes it was serial music and sometimes it was traditional music. Snap, crackle, pop.

I knew a lot of characters in New York. Ronny Sunshine was one of them. Here he is photo bombing the Pope.

4 February 1974 Café Wha ? Ronny put me on the same bill with Richie and Yoko.

David Amram, serious composer, showed up at the Wha? and played flute with me on this gig.

Recording at Atlantic.

1 October 1978 Tribal Stomp Greek Theatre Berkeley

Judy Davis and Patrisha Vestey worked hard on this event.

Look at that phone. You did something called “dialing” with it. Patrisha Vestey.

The Tribal Stomp was a big deal. I had been living in New York for ten years. Now I was coming home.

Big Brother and the Holding Company would start playing again.

We could work with Kathi McDonald and continue some of the good ideas we began after Janis left.

So, imagine my surprise when everyone said good bye and so long after the gig. They were all going back to their private lives.

James was going back to the desert. Peter was going back to his model shop.

There was no interest in doing Big Brother again.

I had finished my New York life and left my apartment on the East Coast. Now what to do ?

I had to learn how to paint, sculpt, play the saxophone and do a variety of other activities to keep busy for the next eight years.

19 April 1980 Snooky Flowers and I formed a band with a gay man Joey Amoroso who called himself Pearl.

Pearl had more than a little in common with Louis XIV.

19 April 1980 Pearl Heart Oakland Auditorium

Playing with Frank Alsing from the Pearl band.

Pearl was very flamboyant. He sang Janis’ songs in the same key that Janis did, something that very few of the Big Brother singers have done since. Pearl was a natural contralto.

1980 We played the Gay Day Parade at the Civic Center.

I played clarinet in one of the gay day parades up in Seattle, but this one in San Francisco was a whole other thing. We played on a stage right in front of City Hall to thousands of people.

July 1980 I also performed with a band called Little Bumps Garden at The Haight Street Fair. Jym Fahey Lenny Kobiela

I miss New York.

November 1981 Bringing home the pumpkin.

I begin to sculpt some very large heads.

I was practicing the saxophone wherever I could. You have to play saxophone loud to learn it. With almost every other instrument there are ways to play quietly. With an electric guitar you can simply leave it unplugged and practice to your heart’s content. Even with a trumpet, you can mute it. Drummers can work with practice pads. Not saxophone. You can stuff a sock in the bell, but that’s about it and it won’t make it much quieter. You simply have to blow into it with passion and dedication for it to work, so saxophonists are notorious for playing in some strange places.

So, I practiced anywhere I could that wouldn’t bother anyone.

Empty buildings were good.

Lots of space, natural reverb, freedom.

Playing saxophone seriously, scales, arpeggios, memorizing Charlie Parker solos.

This was a long saxophone meditation and it introduced me to some great players.

Players like Joe Henderson, Jack Montrose, Dexter Gordon, James Moody, Mel Martin and Cannonball Adderly who played with technical proficiency and intense emotion.

I loved Cannonball, his technique, his sense of humor, his precision, his soulfulness, everything about him. Still love him.

I started making assemblages and hope to get back to that some day.

I decided to form a group of musicians to play some of these three or four hundred ballads and jump tunes from the 1920s, 30s, 40s that I was memorizing on the saxophone.

I had the opportunity to hire musicians who were a lot better than I was.

I learned that if you get the gig, you can get the musicians and the audience.

The gig comes first and everything else will flow from that. It took me a long time to learn this. I thought that if you practiced real hard and seriously, then the gigs would come to you. Uh, uh. You get the gig and practice on the gig.

The Sam Andrew Quartet slowly morphed into The Sam Andrew Band and I switched between saxophone and guitar for a while.

We played all over the USA, including many places where Big Brother would later play.

People seemed to like what we were doing.

Snooky Flowers, Peter Walsh, Robin Sylvester, Scott Matthews.

This was a good outfit, maybe the best ever.

Relaxed, swinging, accurate, sympathetic vibrations. Great players.

I was still sculpting, painting and photographing.

Not “finding myself,” but creating myself.

Let’s see, how can I get Big Brother and the Holding Company together again?

I know. I’ll build a rehearsal studio.

They’ll get a good laugh out of that.

1986 Then it happened. An agent called and asked if we would like to play again.

The occasion was a special anniversary, the Summer of Love.

The Summer of Love was always a rather suspect phrase.

It smacked of commercialism.

They used to sell Love burgers on Haight Street as attested in this Baron Wolman shot.

I wonder how the cows felt about those Love burgers. Did they feel all that Love ?

Anyway, we decided not to play that Summer of Love gig, but it started us to thinking, Maybe we should get together again.

20 August 1987 Cotati Cabaret Cotati California

27 August 1987 New George’s San Rafael California

I loved her singing, and her mom’s, and her aunt’s. In fact, I used to rehearse down the hall from Dionne Warwick in New York.

29 August 1987 Fillmore Auditorium San Francisco Our new singer’s name is Michel. That’s the name she likes and that she was born with.

2 September 1987 WOW Hall Eugene Oregon

3 Septembeer 1987 Pine Street Theatre Portland Oregon She is Michel Bastian. She has a warm gospel voice right out of Oakland.

4 September 1987 Seattle Center Exhibition Hall Seattle

5-6 September 1987 Alaska State Fair Borealis Theatre

9 September 1987 Parker’s Seattle

12 September 1987 Twentieth Anniversary Summer of Love Polo Field Golden Gate Park San Francisco

24 September 1987 Sweetwater Mill Valley California

17 October 1987 The OMNI Oakland California

I was once playing saxophone in the Omni with a cordless set up and I wandered off the stage out into the traffic at this intersection, blowing away. That was fun.

20 October 1987 The Church San Francisco

Sam Andrew Band, Texas division. Lips played bass. Gloria Meehan sang backing vocals. Good band.

9 December 1987 Palace of Fine Arts San Francisco

12 December 1987 Cotati Cabaret Cotati California

1988 With my brother Dan in Austin.

19 February 1988 Catalyst Santa Cruz

21 May 1988 Golden Gate Park San Francisco

22 July 1988 The Backstage Seattle

23 July 1988 Pine Street Theatre Portland Oregon

7 August 1988 Molson Park Barrie Ontario

8 September 1988 Alice’s Champagne Palace Homer Alaska

The Kenai Peninsula is a beautiful, beautiful place.

18 November 1988 “Living in Seattle is like being married to a beautiful woman who is sick all the time.”

Herb liked that.

19 January 1989 Port Arthur Texas

20 January 1989 Rockefeller’s Houston

27 January 1989 Psychedelic Summer of Love Universal Amphitheatre Universal City California I was trying to chat up Debbie Harry at this gig and a very persistent fan came between us.

The moment was lost.

April 1989 Luther Burbank Center for the Arts Santa Rosa California

With Joe Healey

23 April 1989 IBeam San Francisco

Michael Dolgushkin did that poster.

22 April 1989 Club Lingerie Hollywood with Vala Cupp and Michel Bastian

Sam Andrew Band Washington chapter KK Ryder Mark Riley Todd Zimberg

7 June 1989 Rexville Grange Washington

Bainbridge Island Washington

27 July 1989 Great American Music Hall San Francisco

18-19 August 1989 Wetlands New York City

26 November 1989 Earthquake Benefit Kaiser Auditorium Oakland

Downstairs at The Fez under Time, New York City, with David Peel, Dorothy Rothschild and Lenny Kaye.

The Four Stooges at four in the morning. New York

Sam Andrew

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Big Brother and the Holding Company, part six. 1969-1972

Posted on May 13, 2012 by J L tagged.

1969 – 1972 The Long Slow Slide Down the Other Side.

2-3 February 1969

7 March 1969 Dale Burkhardt attends a Kozmic Blues Band show and snaps this one.

28 March 1969

The Kozmic Blues Band played at The Royal Albert Hall, so to celebrate, I took a bath.

Queen Victoria baptised the Royal Albert Hall in 1871. And now we came to play here almost a hundred years later.

The Royal Albert Hall, or, as the London cabbies call it, Halibut Oil (‘ albut o’l), is in the north part of South Kensington.

We had a splendid time here which put me in a party mood.

The acoustics in this Hall were originally so bad that people said it was the only place where a British composer could be sure of hearing his work twice. Eric came to see us.

Bob Seidemann, old friend of ours, who did one of our album covers, plus the magnificent Blind Faith album, was there. He looks like this now. He didn’t then.

I thought about the people who had spoken and played in this space: Winston Churchill, Wagner, Verdi, Elgar, Rachmaninoff.

In 1969, engineers installed sound bafflings that were known as “mushrooms” or “flying saucers,” and the sound was vastly improved.

Suzy Creamcheese was so sweet to me in so many ways. She took me out to Hampton Court and gave me the royal tour. Suzy, thank you forever.

29 June 1969

20 July 1969 Snooky Flowers and I saw this event on television as it was happening. The Chelsea Hotel, NYC.

8 August 1969 660 Great Highway Tyrannosaurus Rex and Tongue and Groove.

December 1969 At a Stax/Volt party in Memphis with Janis Joplin, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Al Jackson, Jr., Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn and Booker T. Jones who is now a San Rafael resident. Duck Dunn died today, 13 May 2012, in his sleep in Tokyo. He was seventy.

25 August 1969

17 October 1969 Austin

18 October 1969 Hemisphere Arena San Antonio Sharrie Gomez and I doing a Macy’s ad.

24 October 1969 I’m listed as playing on this recording, but I’ve never heard it.

Talking god and the universe with Janis and Richard Kermode.

Richard came out of that Hammond B3 jazz scene in Buffalo. A lot of great players including him.

15 November 1969 This was a huge California demonstration against the war in Viet Nam.

19 November 1969 Fillmore West Steve Miller had to cancel this show so Big Brother played it billed as Mumble, Fumble, Jumble and Dumble.

29 December 1969 Geary Theatre 415 Geary Boulevard San Francisco

Janis said, “I don’t look good in this photo, so I’m putting it in just for you.”

Anthony Edman took this photograph of the Carol guitar.

7 February 1970 Encore Theatre Burlingame California

13 February 1970 Pepperland

20-21 February 1970 Great Highway Rhythm Dukes Jerry Miller Bill Champlin

27 February 1970 Alaskaland Civic Center Fairbanks Alaska

5-7 March 1970 Keystone San Francisco

They had some wonderful shows here, but the place was right next door to the police station in North Beach.

13-14 March 1970 New Orleans House Berkeley Horses in Tiburon.

20-22 March 1970 Family Dog at the Great Highway Kaleidoscope Devil’s Kitchen

28-29 March 1970 Lion’s Share San Anselmo California

4 April 1970 Fillmore West Janis joins us for this one. James Gurley.

This photograph seems to be very heraldic of the 1970s. My overheated imagination sees mistrust here, matters gone awry, loss of faith, paranoia, alienation, loneliness. Am I being carried away ? Probably. Was it a weird time ? It certainly was. Richard Kermode Linda Gravenites Janis George Ostrow Bobby Neuwirth

7-9 April 1970 Matrix

12 April 1970 Winterland Kathi McDonald Nick Gravenites Mike Finnegan David Shallock We had a GOOD band.

23-24 April 1970 Inn of the Beginning Cotati California James Gurley. He’s big, huge.

1 May 1970 Family Dog Great Highway San Francisco I think this is a Randy Tuten poster.

8 May 1970 Merced Fairgrounds Merced California

15 May 1970 City Center Kelowna British Columbia

Kelowna is a vacation spot in British Columbia, on the east side of the Okanagan Valley.

16-17 May 1970 Strawberry Mountain Fair Mission British Columbia

20 May 1970 Pauley Ballroom University of California Berkeley

21 May 1970 Pepperland Bermuda Palms San Rafael California Full Tilt Grateful Dead

With the amazing Meyer sound system.

The event is memorable for many reasons.

This is a Hells Angels party to begin with, so the money will be straight and the sound system excellent.

There will also be more drugs and alcohol than would seem to be prudent.

This will be the first time that Janis’ old band and her new band will be at the same venue, so everyone is a little on edge.

Not exactly a battle of the bands, but not exactly not one either. Janis gets into a fight with an Angel and he punches her. She breaks a bottle over his head. This is the peace and love crowd.

22 May 1970 Keystone Korner Berkeley

29 May 1970 Santa Monica Civic Auditorium

9 June 1970 Diamond Head Crater Festival Hawaii

8 June 1970 The Andrews Amphitheater Hawaii This place is used for commencement exercises for the University of Hawaii. I was proud to play here.

My wife is Hawaiian. More Hawaiian blood, as a matter of fact, than most Hawaiians. Here she is with Grant Jacobs, Richard Hundgen, and I wish I knew her name, she has a lovely smile.

The equipment managers that we had at that time, forty years ago, decided to jump ship and become Hawaiian. They are there still.

And of course our President was born there in the same hospital, Queens Hospital, as my wife. Either there or in Kenya, I forget which. Depends on whom you ask, someone who actually knows something, or someone who is incredibly ignorant and backward. President Obama went to Puniho High School, and so did Jonelle DeNike, here with her husband Howard in Paris, old friends from University of San Francisco days.

This proportion may surprise you. It did me, almost as difficult as realizing that the eyes are half way down the head instead of near the top where children draw them.

10 June 1970 Kahului Armory Maui Hawaii

Also called the Pu’unene Armory.

Maui is the island without a military base, so they just had to build an armory here.

My father was in the Air Force, and so I was raised in places like this. Still, it does seem like a rather Spinal Tap place to have a concert.

Remember in Spinal Tap when the lieutenant (Fred Willard), looking at his watch says, “I make it, oh, 1830 hours now, so why don’t you go on about 1900 ?”

And Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) says, “You mean it’s seventy hours until we play ?”

Steve Keyser.

13-14 June 1970 Portland Music & Art Fair Portland Oregon

17 June 1970 Convention Center Las Vegas

19 June 1970 Terrace Ballroom Salt Lake City I have a cassette tape of this gig. We actually played all that music.

26 June 1970 Junction Night Club Kelker Colorado

3-5 July 1970 Euphoria San Rafael California Another Randy Tuten poster.

11 July 1970 Sports Arena San Diego Full Tilt Boogie Band I remember flying home with Janis, Nick Gravenites, Mike Bloomfield et alia from this one. Bloomers was on a roll. He was ranting in that special Bloomfieldian style about taping two baloons full of lukewarm water to a bathroom mirror and masturbating into the sink. You know, typical inflight conversation. It was something else to have Big Brother and Full Tilt in that same small tight space. Good thing we all loved each other. Of course, in those days you could smoke and the flight attendants wore miniskirts. If I remember correctly, there was even a piano bar upstairs. Seat belts were only for taking off and landing, and sometimes not even then.

17 July 1970 Love Valley Festival Love Valley North Carolina There was a counterfeit Big Brother running around about this time. Maybe they played this one ?

I always thought, “Why in the world would anyone want to counterfeit us, when they could just go ahead and be themselves ?”

I mean, it couldn’t be for the money, because we weren’t making any, so how could they ?

Might as well be yourself, as Oscar Wilde noted, everyone else is taken.

31 July 1970 Phoenix Veterans Coliseum Arizona

6 August 1970 Peace Festival Shea Stadium Flushing Meadows New York

13-15 August 1970 Fillmore West San Francisco Commander Cody George Frayne, one of my favorite people. Good artist too.

18-19 August 1970 The Matrix San Francisco No, he wasn’t on the gig, but I love the way he sings, so here he is. Paul supposedly came to the Matrix to see us one time, but when we met him, we asked him about it and he said he wasn’t lucky enough to be there.

26 August 1970 Washoe County Fairgrounds

28 August 1970 Sing Auditorium San Bernardino Mary Swope took this photograph.

25 September 1970 Saginaw Auditorium Michigan

3-5 October 1970 Euphoria San Rafael California

4 October 1970 The Landmark Motel Hollywood A British writer just interviewed me from the very room. He mentioned all of the scrawlings on the bedroom closet wall.

Swimming in the pool, yelling up to the rooms, “Hey, come on down ! Bring Mary Jane with you, OK?”

6-7 October 1970 The Matrix Blues for an old friend.

23 October 1970 Basin Street West Omigawd, we substituted for Sarah Vaughan ? I wonder how that worked ? I can’t remember, but I do know that Combination of the Two doesn’t sound a lot like Over The Rainbow.

26 October 1970 Lion’s Share The Drinks Are On Pearl.

Janis left $ 2,500, a lot of money then, for us to have a party in her honor. We did it right. Music and dancing all night.

27-29 October 1970 The Matrix

30 October 1970 46th Street Rock Palace Brooklyn

2 November 1970 Harding Theatre San Francisco

20-21 November 1970 Winterland San Francisco

5 December 1970 The Birmingham Palladium Detroit

We all signed this one. I was with Carol Cavallon when I bought this guitar on 48th Street, Manhattan, across the street from Manny’s.

8-9 January 1971 Fillmore East Buddy Miles Sweetwater I loved the way Buddy looked when he was on the drums.

17 January 1971 Syria Mosque University of Pittsburgh

18-19 January 1971 Ungano’s New York City

20 January 1971 Capitol Theatre Port Chester New York Carol Cavallon Putney Vermont

29-30 January 1971 ”El Monte” always makes me think of Reuben and the Jets, Frank Zappa.

4 February 1971 Inn of the Beginning Cotati California

13 February 1971 Pepperland 737 East Francisco Boulevard San Rafael California

Whitey Litchfield, millionaire construction magnate, created Litchfield’s Bermuda Palms in the late 1940s. This was “California’s Las Vegas.” I mentioned before that I had played tenor saxophone in numerous big band rehearsals here, little dreaming at the time that Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton and many other stars of the 1940s had played in that same room.

20-21 February 1971 Pepperland

23 February 1971 Broadcast of television series The Turned On Crisis including an episode with Big Brother: Why Can’t You Hear Through The Noise in Your Ear.

6 March 1971 Shasta College

12-13 March 1971 Friends and Relations Hall Great Highway San Francisco Kathi McDonald.

Also on this gig: Clover I see Alex Call Huey Lewis John McFee Sean Hopper

25 March 1971 New Monk Berkeley

The New Monk was in Berkeley where Shattuck and University make a T. 2119 University. It was a funky place. Freddie Herrera bought it in August of 1971, and it became the Keystone Berkeley in March 1972. I think that this expression could fairly be called supercilious. Or even supersillyious.

9-10 April 1971 Friends and Relations Hall Kathi McDonald, one of the best singers ever… and the funniest.

15 April 1971 Inn of the Beginning Cotati California

19 April 1971 Friends and Relations Hall Hubert Sumlin Snooky Flowers Rich Kirch Freddie Roulette

22-23 April 1971 Bimbo’s San Francisco

24 April 1971 Peace Rally Golden Gate Park

Always a good idea.

26 April 1971 Sonoma WELL ! We know when we’re not wanted. We left in a huff. (Actually, it was a Buick.)

7 May 1971 California Hall San Francisco

17 May 1971 New Monk

21 May 1971 Keystone Nick Gravenites

28 May 1971 Selland Arena Fresno California B.B. King Elvin Bishop Elvin liked to play poker after a gig.

10 June 1971 Fox Theatre Long Beach

9 July 1971 Harlingen Texas

August 1971 Release of How Hard It Is

We had a great B3 player on this one, Mike Finnegan, who can sing as well as he can play. He recorded Buried Alive In The Blues with us and we should release that someday. It’s definitely the best version of that song.

Mike went on to play with everyone, including Joe Cocker performing here on American Idol, another of Rupert Murdoch’s panderings to the lowest common denominator. But, as Mike says, “A gig is a gig.” Hey, maybe Kacee Clanton was on this one too ? I think she was.

9 October 1971 Monterey Fairgrounds Clover Jon Sievert took this one.

7 November 1971 Trying to guard Kathi. Can you hear me barking ?

12 November 1971 Winterland

13 November 1971

9-11 December 1971 Inn of the Beginning Cotati California

31 December 1971 Many photographs of this guitar because she is gone now, playing the Hard Rock Café circuit.

1 January 1972

14 January 1972

30 January 1972 Curtis Hall Tampa Florida Sam Lee Bittner Kathi McDonald Mike Pendergrass Peter Albin

13 February 1972 Mama Einstein’s What do you want ? I was the only one left.

15 February 1972 Valentine’s party The Boathouse Harding Road San Francisco You know, out by Lake Merced.

19 February 1972 University of Iowa Iowa City Allman Brothers Vivid memories of partying with these guys. They had a couple of revolvers from the Civil War. Confederate, of course.

26 February 1972 American Legion Hall Merced California

19 March 1972 You have to watch these rock writers all the time. Kathi was our new singer, not Elvin’s.

13 April 1972

22 or 23 April 1972 Dubuque & Court Street Party Iowa City

Kathi and I went out partying in an old farmhouse, deserted, crackly, in the middle of a cornfield. It seemed as if we were there for days.

25 April 1972 Iowa Wesleyan Fayetteville Iowa

29 April 1972 Upper Iowa Mt. Pleasant

1-2 May 1972 Ace Beer Garden Iowa City

June 1972 Pioneer High School Whittier California

2 June 1972 Fort Homer Hesterly Armory Tampa

June 1972 Schererville Illinois Blue Oyster Cult. These guys were great to hang with. Hysterical as a matter of fact.

June 1972 Catholic High School Niles Illinois

June 1972 Romeoville Roller Rink Romeoville Illinois

15 June 1972 Hersey High School Arlington Heights Illinois

June 1972 Grande Ballroom Detroit

June/July 1972 Louisiana Life becomes quite fuzzy along about now. Note that there are often no specific dates for these events.

July 1972 Miami Spirit

22 July 1972 Marine World Redwood City California I love mingling with wild life, marine or otherwise.

4 September 1972

17 September 1972 A slice of life in the 70s. If you read between the lines, this pretty much says it all.

9 October 1972 Berkeley Folk Music Festival Big Mama Thornton Earl Collins Silver String Macedonian Band Frontier

24 November 1972 Marin County Civic Center Auditorium Quicksilver Clover Yogi Phlegm A Cold Turkey Rock Party

Clover ! Johnny Ciambotti. John McFee is there. Mitch Howe. Alex Call. Huey Lewis. Sean Hopper. Good band. Alex has a beautiful voice.

And, talking of Marin musicians, this is one who has been an inspiration to me for years: Terry Haggerty.

Somewhere in my personal effects I have a Local # Six Musicians’ Union directory from the 1950s. Terry’s father is in there along with Paul Desmond and many other noteworthy players from that era.

Terry and David Shallock came to my house in Fairfax one day, and they did a smokin’ version of Frosty, the Snowman. It was so great to hear that. Especially in August.

It’s the whole person, though, you know ? Terry is a great guitar player, one of the best, but it’s as a human being that he shines brightest.

Thank you for being here, and I’ll see you in a week.

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

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Big Brother and the Holding Company, part five. July-December 1968

Posted on May 6, 2012 by J L tagged.

July-December 1968 The top of the mountain.

5 July 1968 Concord Coliseum Concord California

The Concord Coliseum began as a grocery store. Then it was a holy hall of music, and now it has become a Petco.

6 July 1968 Santa Rosa Fairgrounds Santa Rosa California Balls and Chains.

7 July 1968 Golden Gate Park San Francisco

10 July 1968 Provo Park Berkeley

12-13 July 1968 Kaleidoscope Los Angeles

16-18 July 1968 Fillmore San Francisco

20 July 1968 Lagoon Opera House Ogden Utah

I remember taking rides on these fast little cars that could turn on a dime.

A little hippy humor.

Backstage where the magic happens.

22 July 1968 Westbury Music Fair Long Island

25 July 1968 Columbia Records Convention San Juan Puerto Rico Blood, Sweat and Tears were so good that night.

27 July 1968 Newport Folk Festival Newport Rhode Island We had always dreamed about attending this event and now we’re playing it.

Baron Wolman took this one at Newport.

An ad for Cheap Thrills: Notice the emphasis here on the nonverbal experience. Very interesting for an ad from a corporation. But, hey, it’s the 60s.

2-3 August 1968 Fillmore East with the Staple Singers. Big thrill for us to be with the Staples.

4 August 1968 First Annual Newport Pop Festival Orange County Fairgrounds Costa Mesa California This was the first music event to attract more than 100,000 people. Trouble is, I can’t remember if we played there or not, and you would think I would remember something that big. Some of the books say we “may have played there,” but we aren’t on the posters.

We had just played Newport, Rhode Island, only a week before, so the two gigs may be conflated here.

Myra Friedman wrote the first important biography of Janis. She won a New York Times book prize for it.

Some Jewish high school kids in St. Louis, 1949.

Myra Friedman is in the first row left.

9 August 1968 Kiel Auditorium St. Louis

10 August 1968 Forest Park St. Louis

14 August 1968 Indiana Beach Monticello Indiana

When my wife Elise first saw this photograph, she said, “You look mental. Is everything all right?” (She’s a nurse, OK?, so it was a professional question.)

16-17 August 1968 Aragon-Cheetah Chicago

18 August 1968 Tyrone Guthrie Theatre Minneapolis

23 August 1968 Singer Bowl Flushing Queens New York City

Singer Bowl Flushing Queens… Now, could you make up a name like that ?

Jimi broke a string right on the first song. He said, “Don’t worry, I’m going to make it up to you in spades.” He did too.

30 August 1968 Palace of Fine Arts San Francisco

6 September 1968 Hollywood Bowl

10 September 1968

12-14 September 1968 Rick Griffin Wes Wilson Bonnie MacLean Mouse and Kelley Their art will last much longer than our music.

15 September 1968 Rose Bowl Pasadena We hopped in a limousine after the gig, and the fans piled on top. I was afraid we would be crushed.

22 September 1968 Del Mar Fairgrounds San Diego

27 September 1968 University of California at Irvine

28 September 1968 San Diego I got a ticket for driving a hundred miles an hour to this gig.

4 October 1968 Public Hall Cleveland

Little did I realize then that Cleveland would loom large in the Big Brother legend. We will play in Italy in June 2012, and two of the band members will be from Cleveland. Cleveland was the first place where I was music director of Love, Janis in 1999, and I made a CD there in December 2011 with Mary Bridget Davies, Ben Nieves and Jim Wall, all Clevelanders. And of course the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is there, even if they won’t let us in.

5 October 1968 State University of New York Buffalo

10 October 1968 Quaker City Rock Festival Philadelphia

11 October 1968 War Memorial Auditorium Syracuse

13 October 1968 Music Hall Cincinnati

I kissed Susan Ammon, third from left, then, and was lucky enough to kiss her again on Earth Day, forty-four years later.

15 October 1968 Grande Ballroom Detroit

Janis and Peter, all dressed up with everywhere to go.

18 October 1968 Penn State University University Park

19 October 1968 The Spectrum Philadelphia

20 October 1968 Alexandria Roller Rink Alexandria Virginia

Jeff Beck was supposed to be a terror to work with, the bad British blues boy. I found him to be good natured and polite. Plus, he played an SG as James and I did.

25 October 1968 Curry Hicks Cage University of Massachusetts Amherst

26 October 1968 Worcester Polytechnic institute Worcester Massachusetts

1-2 November 1968 Electric Factory Philadelphia We met a man in a gorilla suit here who became the “big brother” in Big Brother and the Holding Company.

8 November 1968 Rocky Point Warwick Rhode Island

9 November 1968 Woolsey Hall Yale University New Haven Connecticut

10 November 1968 White Plains New York

Very characteristic view of John and Janis. I can hear them talking.

11 November 1968 Ridge Tech Arena Braintree Massachusetts

12 November 1968 Jersey City New Jersey Hey, we finally got rid of that messy “Big Brother and the Holding Company” part altogether.

14 November 1968 Hartford Connecticut

In Hartford, I visited Mark Twain’s very interesting home as I do every time I go there.

15 November 1968 Hunter College New York City I was seething with anticipation. I thought maybe Sparta, Corinth, Mycenae and Athens had decided to sponsor us.

But, then, I realized. Oh, it’s just Animal House, a lot of fraternities and sororities. Well, OK. It was a fun gig. I love Hunter College.

16 November 1968 State University of New York Stony Brook

23 November 1968 Houston Music Hall Houston Texas

24 November 1968 Coliseum Dallas

26 November 1968 Denver Auditorium Denver

29 November 1968 Eagles Auditorium Seattle

30 November 1968 Pacific Coliseum Vancouver British Columbia

1 December 1968 Family Dog Benefit Avalon Ballroom San Francisco

2 December 1968

Bobby Neuwirth, serious artist, good songwriter, fellow traveler, intelligent, witty court jester. He wrote Mercedes Benz with Janis and Michael McClure.

18 December 1968 One of the first, if not THE first, rehearsals of The Kozmic Blues Band with Michael Bloomfield and Nick Gravenites presiding.

Mike was a consummate musician, gifted and highly intelligent.

Next time you’re in a restaurant, turn over the salt or pepper shaker and take a look. Very often there’s a tiny B there, B for Bloomfield. Mike’s father was a multimillionaire.

Al Kooper and Mike had a great idea. They would make an album and hire Norman Rockwell to do the cover. I wish I would have thought of that.

Robert Crumb did our Cheap Thrills album cover, of course, but, then, for our other albums we could have had Mr. Rockwell do one, Al Hirschfeld (the line king) do another, and David Levine do a third. Well, maybe next time. Anyway, I loved working with Michael and Nick at those early Kozmic Blues Band rehearsals.

In fact, when I did the guitar part on Little Girl Blue at the Black Rock in New York, Michael was right by my side guiding me through the chord changes.

He was always helpful, lavish with praise and very supportive. Mike did the slide solo on One Good Man, but didn’t credit himself. Maybe because of contractual obligations elsewhere ?

When Dylan went electric at Newport, Michael Bloomfield was the main man. One of the great scholars of the guitar. What can I say ? I miss the guy.

In the 1950s, the Cedar Tavern in Manhattan was the artists’ watering hole.

The drinks were cheap and it was close to lofts and studios. Jackson Pollock was there. Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, everybody from that abstract expressionist scene was there, really. I was in the Cedar Tavern once and said the word “divisive,” rhyming it with “dismissive,” and the most beautiful woman whirled around on her stool and said, “That’s the first time I ever heard any one pronounce that correctly.” (To this day, I’m not sure how to pronounce “divisive” and say it differently each time, but each time, you may be sure, I think of that beautiful woman.)

Le Roi Jones, as he was known then, and Diane Di Prima, probably my favorite beat poet, in The Cedar Tavern.

Carl Solomon, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg, typical denizens of The Cedar Tavern.

Mickey Ruskin founded Max’s Kansas City at 213 Park Avenue South (Seventeenth Street) which, despite the higher prices and the greater distance from the painters’ lofts, became the artists’ locale for the 1960s as The Cedar Tavern was for the 1950s. Big Brother and the Holding Company went often to Max’s and I practically lived there in the 1970s, because I actually lived in a loft quite close by on Twentieth Street, just down the block from Danny Fields. Mickey cashed my checks and put up with a lot of nonsense from me. I used to sit at the bar and draw the sculptures. Here is Mickey Ruskin (right) with John Chamberlain.

Dorothy Dean always sat by the door at Max’s. She was the guardian of the gates. She told me once or twice that she had danced The Tennessee Waltz in Tennessee with Tennessee Williams.

Dorothy was once a fact checker at The New Yorker, a fact that impressed me greatly. She hung out with a lot of gay men, but she hated the term “fag hag,” so called herself a fruit fly.

Dorothy was one of The Factory people and she was in several Warhol films. Here she is inspecting Norman Levine while being serenaded by Eric Anderson.

I liked the clientèle at Max’s, even the ones who weren’t as notorious as these characters below. Andy Warhol held court in the back room of the restaurant. Tim Buckley was a great guy, just like his son in many ways.

Debbie Harry, already quite beautiful, was frequently our waitress and she was a good one.

Lenny Kaye did his time at Max’s. He had roughly the same relationship with Patti Smith that I had with Janis Joplin.

Lenny is soulful, very intelligent, writes books, teaches at Rughers, I believe, and is just an all around good man.

Danny Fields, an “executive at Elektra,” as he is often billed, has been a kind of PR man for Max’s since it opened. Danny brought Jim Morrison to the restaurant, and he introduced Iggy Pop to David Bowie there. Here Danny is with Tammy Faye Starlight.

And somewhat earlier with Nico from The Velvet Underground.

Many people at Max’s were quite well known and many were not, but all were interesting. It was quite a scene. Some of the people in this photograph are: David Bowie, Danny Fields (hey, Danny, where are you now?), Robert Mapplethorpe, Jim Morrison (peeing in a bottle), Lou Reed, Patti Smith. I’m there too. I think I see Lenny Kaye. We’re not posing. This is a typical Max’s scene out on the sidewalk on a summer night. David Bennett Cohen is there.

It’s funny what you remember about a place. I’ll bet that everyone who went to Max’s remembers the little bowls of dried garbanzo beans (chick peas). Everyone ate them like candy while they talked. Very salty, so of course they needed washing down with something.

And now a thank you to Donna Patterson and Anthony Edman for your help on this history. It is much appreciated. Donna is trying to be anonymous, so don’t remember her, OK?