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 nine. 1993-1994

Posted on June 9, 2012 by J L tagged.

1993-1994 Waiting for a Bus to Russia.

Hey, I have an idea. Let’s play some music until the bus comes.

Hold on ! Let me get my effects board, or, as I call it, my affects bored.

12 January 1993 Sam Andrew Band Boulder Creek Brewery Boulder Creek California This was one of the great gigs.

James Gurley.

Cinnamon Morgan Cash Farrar

Anthea Sidiropoulos Bill Laymon.

Bill Ganaye, good friend, a real brother to me.

Joey Edelman, gifted player, fun to be with. When I go see a film I think of Joey because someone in his family is usually writing or performing the soundtrack.

22 January 1993 Phoenix Theatre Petaluma California Another good one.

Greg Anton was on drums. Always a good thing.

And then Steve Kimock played guitar. He always surprises me, always has a fresh idea. He’s a real original. Steve, Greg Anton and John Cipollina founded the band Zero in 1984 and they’ve gone through the usual permutations since then. Steve lives in Pennsylvania now.

Glenn Walters was in the band. He was the principal singer with The Hoodoo Rhythm Devils and The Zasu Pitts Memorial Orchestra. Glenn has an emotional warm tone in his singing. Very beguiling.

28 January 1993 Pahoa Pahoa is a special place, even for Hawaii.

10 March 1993 Stadthalle Neuss (rhymes with voice) This is a large German egg near Neuss.

Neuss is across the river from Düsseldorf.

Ach, du lieber Augustin, Bonnie Tyler is here in Neuss ! That is so neuss, I mean, nice. I wonder if I will see her in Moscow when our bus arrives ?

It was great to play in the same band with James Gurley. He was funny, energetic and sharp.

17 April 1993 Big Brother and the Holding Company JJ’s San José

Michael Mendelsson took this photograph.

23 April 1993 Big Brother Boulder Creek Brewery Boulder Creek California

Peter Albin is the neussist guy in Big Brother.

24 April 1993 Sam Andrew Band Caspar Inn I’m plundering all of the bands. No wonder they stole Cathy Richardson from me.

30 April-1 May 1993 Sam Andrew Band Winthrop Washington When we play here, we look out from the stage at a scene like this.

15 May 1993 Last Day Saloon San Francisco That’s John Wedemeyer on guitar, one of the best.He has a little trick of playing an arpeggio one half tone sharper than the target chord and then resolving it, which makes for a lot of tension and interest.

Canned Heat, now we’re talking.

James Gurley singing All Is Loneliness.

19 May 1993 Sam Andrew Band Horizons Sausalito This used to be The Trident, scene of some rather lubricious activities in the late 60s, early 70s.

Gorgeous place. David Crosby used to sail his yacht right up to the back, tie it up and come on in.

Janis used to hold court at The Trident and drink everyone under the table. No, I mean literally. Under the table. You’d see people down there talking and carrying on.

Horizons is the new name for the Trident. I had a great band in there: Gary Albright, Diane Dutra, Cash Farrar, Snooky Flowers, Bill Ganaye, Dave Getz, Bill Laymon, Cheryl Little Deer, Natalie Martel (above), Cinnamon Morgan, Kim Nomad, Karen White,

Kim Nomad Anthea Sidiropoulos

My big star from Tokyo Shiho-san at the Trident (Horizons).

20 May 1993 Big Brother and the Holding Company Mr. Q’s Tiburon California

28 May 1993 Magnolia’s Santa Rosa California I call it a laminate. My wife Elise calls it a lanyard. We’re both right.

Above is a laminate, so called because it has a plastic covering on both sides. It’s laminated.

The laminate is held by this lanyard. The word comes from 15th century French “lanière,” a thong strap apparatus that held any valuable object, such as a sword, close to the body.

In English, probably the closest equivalent is a “tether,” a way of attaching a valuable object so that it not be lost. ”Lanière” became “lanyard” when it crossed the Channel.

In Germany, they call this die Pfeiffenschnur, the whistle cord. It’s a way of keeping a valuable and much used object close to hand. It’s a lanyard.

The poet Sydney Lanier’s name may have come from “lanière.”

This is my friend Joanne Lasnier (pronounced lanyé). She may have a lanière or a lanyard hanging somewhere in the branches of her family tree.

29 May 1993 Caspar Inn Caspar California You don’t see “Caspar” spelled with an ‘a’ everyday, or maybe ever.

The reverse of a laminate.

James Gurley, Moto-Man.

Tab Benoit Mark Riley

4 June 1993 Cedar Inn Tavern Washington Mark Riley played guitar on this gig. He was so good. Crosscut Saw.

Lips was the bass player in the Sam Andrew Band, Texas Division. Gary played guitar with us. We had fun. Can you tell ?

One of those hot nights in Houston.

17 June 1993 The Sam Andrew Band Houston This wouldn’t be where we were watching the television during sound check and saw OJ driving in his White Bronco, would it ?

J’Net Ward, one of the owners of Liberty Lunch when I was there.

Liberty Lunch seemed like a huge tent to me. It was like playing in the circus.

Cowboy jitterbug at Liberty Lunch.

24 June 1993 Liberty Lunch Austin Roky Erickson came down and walked around the place during sound check, and I was hoping he w0uld sit in.

25 June 1993 Sam Andrew Band Marble Falls San Antonio It’s true, I’m not big on nostalgia. To be nostalgic, you actually have to remember something.

One of the reasons I started writing this history, in fact, was so that I could actually begin to remember what has happened to all of us in the last fifty years.

James Gurley’s guitar… one of them anyway

Serendip was the old name for Ceylon, which was the old name for Sri Lanka. Horace Walpole had the happy idea of coining the word “serendipity” for unexpected wondrous things that could happen.

Bill Ganaye, Ed Earley, Bill Laymon, Dave Getz, Kim Nomad.

14 August 1994 Caspar Inn Caspar California

6 September 1993 Sam Andrew Band opens for Big Brother and the Holding Company. Hog Farm Laytonville California

Snooky Flowers Sam Andrew Kim Nomad Peter Tork Bill Laymon

Do you remember the band Spinal Tap. Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest and Michael McKean playing Derek Smalls, Nigel Tufnel and David St. Hubbins ? Well, Spinal Tap still tours and they play all those great songs like Sex Farm, Jazz Odyssey, Big Bottom, Hell Hole and let’s not forget Lick My Love Pump. Their support band when they tour is the Folksmen, played by Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest and Michael McKean.

Often, when the Folksmen are performing, the audience is yelling at them to get off so that Spinal Tap, the same guys, can come on. I thought maybe this would happen to The Sam Andrew Band while we were opening for Big Brother, but our audiences were more polite or perhaps more stoned, or perhaps more enlightened ? Anyway, we had a couple of encores. They liked it.

19 September 1993 Greenpeace

1 and 2 October 1993 Smiley’s Bolinas There’s a nice feel to the place, isn’t there ?

Anthea Sidiropoulos at 19 Broadway Fairfax.

We played all of these tunes.

Snooky Flowers.

2 October 1993 Sam Andrew Band 19 Broadway Fairfax California

The 19 Broadway in Fairfax was my laughing place, as Brierley Hill in the Midlands was the home place for Robert Plant.

4 October 1993 The bedroom at the Landmark Hotel, room 105, Los Angeles, California. Photo: Howard Sounes.

8 October 1993 Once again the Sam Andrew Band opens for Big Brother and the Holding Company. Grant’s Pass Oregon

Michel Bastian

On this tour we stopped in at a radio station with one or two old friends to do some interviews. I really am as tall as Rich Kirch, but his pompadour is totally dominating this image.

See? Richie is just showing off there in the background, pretending he is taller than I am. How annoying. I notice that Brian Auger is beyond caring about this sort of thing. Oh, well, he’s a genius and speaks French to the audience when he’s in Paris. Plus, he sits down a large part of the time, and so doesn’t have to compare himself to an arrant coxcomb like Richie.

20 October 1993 Sam Andrew Band Last Day Saloon San Francisco

2 November 1993 Munchies Houston I played this one with Detroit Dave, Lips and Gloria Meehan.

There he is again, playing my guitar, always with the pompadour. Richie Kirch, one of the great raconteurs of rock, played with John Lee Hooker for years.

18 November 1993

8 December 1994 The Bruce Latimer Show Pacifica California Bruce is a master of graveyard humor. He has a droll, deadpan delivery that is sepulchral and silly.

Cash Farrar Kim Nomad Sam Andrew Diane Dutra Debi Romek

10 December 1993 Peri’s Silver Dollar Fairfax California

The Sam Andrew Band December 1993 Snooky Flowers, Aviva, Peter Tork, Sam Andrew, Dave Getz, Kristina Kopriva, Ingo York, Joey Edelman.

11 December 1993 Sacramento Aviva plays with soul and expertise.

Sacramento, are you ready, ’cause we’re going to tear this building down.

Thank you, Will Gunter. You did a lot of good for a lot of people.

16 December 1993 Munchies Houston Hey! Beethoven’s birthday. If you’re going to be born, don’t do it in December. Do it in May.

Clayton Dyess, real musician, he played guitar with Dizzy Gillespie.

Fraternizing, or is that sororizing?, with Lips who is a wonderful person and a sensational bass player.

17 December 1993 Hoi Polloi Houston “Hoi Polloi” is Greek for the many, the masses. James Gurley used to use this phrase as a synonym for “the elite.” He never really believed me when I pointed out that that “polloi” is like “poly” and means many, as in polygamous or polymorphously perverse. Both of us were too lazy actually to walk across the room and look in the dictionary.

19 December 1993 The Boatyard Houston Nuri Nuri, DJ in Houston. Nuri Nuri sat in with us on bass now and again and he did a good job.

23 December 1993 The Continental Club Austin Marcia Ball came to see me at this one. I was too shy to ask her to sit in. Dammit.

This didn’t happen, but it was fun talking about it.

5 January 1994 19 Broadway Fairfax California

11 January 1994 Jazzed San Rafael California

9 February 1994 Last Day Saloon.

30 April 1994 Maritime Hall San Francisco

2 May 1994 Chet Helms Tribute

Barbara Hontalas, beautiful, very feminine, intelligent and capable, helped us coordinate all of these engagements.

15 May 1994 Kristina Kopriva and George Michalski are the soundtrack for this Roast.

Kristina Kopriva, la magnifica.

12 May to 11 June 1994 George Michalski, the Elton John of San Francisco, came with me on this tony tour.

George Michalski Barbara Liu

5 June 1994 Vancouver British Columbia

10 June 1994 Redwood Run Willits California

4 July 1994 House of Blues

9 July 1994 Big Brother and the Holding Company Pozo Saloon Paso Robles California

July 1994 Mercury Lounge New York City I liked this place. They were generous and smart here.

15 July 1994 Fez was downstairs from Time, a cool place. Mingus played at Fez. So did I.

Lenny Kaye played with Patti Smith, Eric Ambel played with Joan Jett, and I played with Janis Joplin, so I wanted to call this concert The Submissive Dudes.

3 August 1994 Groove Fest Pinellas Parkway Clearwater Florida Where I met the love of my life, Elise Piliwale.

At this event, Elise was playing violoncello and harp, but at home she played the piano.

So, instead of reliving the 60s, I began to live the rest of my life with Elise.

20 August 1994 Forestville California

27 August 1994 University of California at Davis California

15 September 1994 Sam Andrew Band Manny’s Car Wash New York City I played here once a year for five years. Loved the place.

Jynx Lynx and I see Jym Fahey back there too.

20 September 1994 Visa for Russia. They let a guy who looks like this in, so you know things have loosened up a bit.

Believe it or not, this is the way to handwrite “Sam Andrew” in the Cyrillic alphabet. The printed alphabet is quite close to Greek, but handwriting is something else. St. Cyril was Greek and when he wanted to translate the Bible into Russian he needed an alphabet so he created one from his native language with a few additions for the nonce. This is similar to how Modern German was principally the work of Martin Luther when he translated the Bible into German, and to how Modern English takes its departure from the King James version of the Bible.

3-10 October 1994 Steps To Parnassus Moscow

Aeroflot… lots of Russian men standing around on the plane chain smoking and drinking glasses of vodka straight down.

4 October 1994 Landmark Hotel Los Angeles Room 105 The bathroom sink. Photograph: Howard Sounes.

Moscow ! We met many musicians from all over Europe, great performers. This was something like Russian Idol, only not as cheesy, because Rupert Murdoch didn’t have anything to do with it.

Russians are highly intelligent and they know how to party.

See those great looking guys in the back ? They are Bulgarians, Communists. This is what Communists looked like in 1994. They were Communists about as much as we were Capitalists.

We made some good friends in Moscow.

Margarita Perova.

There’s Bonnie Tyler. I thought she might show up here.

Thank you for the post card. I never dreamed about receiving it. It makes me feel glad. I hope that when you come to Russia you will be in Moscow and it will be possible to see you on the concerts. But if you are going to visit Russia in winter you must take cold weather into consideration. Much snow, ice, so take many warm clothes.

Pravda… Truth. (See ? All those letters are Greek too. The forms are slightly different.)

Friends and lovers. Thank you, Russia.

My name C3M in Russian sounds like Sem or even Syem. They palatalize everything. “Not” is “nyet.”

The name of this event, Steps To Parnassus, gave me quite a start when I first heard it. It’s a very meaningful phrase to me.

I talked about this before in part seven of this history. Steps To Parnassus. Gradus ad Parnassum.

This is the title page to my first counterpoint book, a classic. Gradus ad Parnassum means Steps to Parnassus, the name of our event in Moscow.

Palestrina was the master of counterpoint in the sixteenth century, and we have been following him ever since.

Beethoven, yes, he was young once too, made many notes in his copy of Gradus ad Parnassum, notes that are still lucid and useful.

Everyone who plays or writes music uses counterpoint whether consciously or not. It’s rather like the man in Molière who found out he had been speaking prose all of his life.

The formal study of counterpoint, like that of perspective, is endlessly fascinating.

Haydn, Beethoven and Mozart used the same counterpoint textbook that I did, Gradus ad Parnassum.

So, we are in Moscow at an event that honors Johann Joseph Fux by using the title of his book.

I brought my Gradus ad Parnassum with me to Russia.

When we drove in from the airport to downtown Moscow, James, who was from Detroit, said, “They have cars here !” Maybe he was expecting horse drawn troikas ?

20 November 1994 The Fillmore

Everything but the kitchen sink… oh, wait, no, that’s there too.

16 December 1994 The first of many beautiful letters from Alan Wilson, genius polymath residing in Kyoto.

18 December 1994 Veterans Memorial Santa Rosa

25 December 1994 Love letters and advice from Russia.

Croton on Hudson. Tom Finch, Houston Person, Halley de Vestern.

Bernard Purdy, master drummer on so many 60′s, 70s sessions, came to see us in Croton, but we were too intimidated to ask him to sit in. Damn and damn.

31 December 1994 Eastlake Zoo Seattle Happy New Year !

Part ten is coming up. Thank you for being here. Yes, thank you always.

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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 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.