I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — an exhibition entitled Immigrant Artists and the American West will be at the Tacoma, Washington Art Museum through June of 2020.
On display thru June 2020HAIL and FAREWELL to the guitarist/songwriter J.R. Cobb— who was someone I noted in a recent profile as having co-written hit songs for the Classics IV and the Atlanta Rhythm Section — who has died at the age of seventy-five.
And with the passing of naturalist Jim Fowler at age 87 — I always think of him doing the heavy-lifting for Marlin Perkins all of those years: "While Jim tracks the wild cheetah .... I'm speaking to you from my air-conditioned trailer about Mutual of Omaha insurance".
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Sebastian the Cat— a Utah kitteh who apparently hitched a ride on a semi truck from Salt Lake City to Florida and authorities are trying to track-down his family.
Sebastian the CatCHEERS to a citizens group in Australia named GetUp!— which is campaigning to turf out several right-wing members in the parliamentary elections on May 18th — seeking a result of “sensible climate policy and a conscionable approach to refugees”.
xNorth Korea's government leaves the outside world in the dark about the situation in the country. But night lights offer an insight https://t.co/zdfGYEUlx5
— The Economist (@TheEconomist) May 7, 2019HAIL and FAREWELL also to Peggy Lipton— who starred in the Mod Squad in the 1960’s, and in Twin Peaks in the 1990’s — who has died at the age of seventy-two.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Daenerys the Cat— gee, wonder where that came from? — an Ohio kitteh up for adoption.
Daenerys the CatBRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
CHEERS to a man who sold a 4th of July tie on eBay, but when the buyer noted that he wanted it to wear at his US citizenship ceremony— the seller sent it free, and was delighted to receive a photograph of the South African native with his family outside the Columbus, Ohio courthouse following the ceremony.
SEPARATED at BIRTH — recently convicted opioid pharma CEO John Kapoor and the Grammy-winning comic Lewis Black.
Insys founder John Kapoor Comedian Lewis Black..... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… regular readers know that I seldom feature larger-than-life figures … what else can I add? Yet one non-performer is someone I’ve mentioned so often, it seems ungrateful not to feature him in a profile … and there are many interesting aspects to his sixty years on this planet that the casual music fan may not know. Twenty-eight years after his death, it is time for the story of music impresario/promoter Bill Graham to be told anew.
Born Wolfgang Grajonca in 1931 (to parents who had just emigrated to Berlin, Germany from the Soviet Union) his father died just two days later from an industrial accident blood infection. His mother had six children to support, yet had to send him to a home after the Nazis launched the anti-Jewish Kristallnacht in November, 1938. He saw Hitler’s motorcade drive by, and eventually he and his sister made their way across Europe (although she perished from pneumonia). Bill himself walked 200 miles from Lyon to Marseilles and finally arrived in New York in September, 1941 weighing only fifty-five pounds.
He became a foster child for a couple from the Bronx and — while Jewish — he had to work to lose his German accent (which his classmates thought indicated a Hitler Youth bent). He became a regular at the Palladium Ballroom, learning to love Tito Puente and other Latino musicians (which informed his musical tastes later on). While not temperamentally cut out for Army life: he was drafted to serve in the Korean War and won both a Bronze Star as well as a Purple Heart, and was granted a hardship discharge after his foster mother died.
He honed his early business skills first while working at the resort hotels Grossinger’s and The Concord: first as a waiter, then running poker games, and finally unionizing the dining room staff. Yet he caught the acting bug (travelling between California and New York) when his big break came in San Francisco.
He became the business manager for an avant-garde performance art group, the Mime Troupe. In the autumn of 1965, some members of the group were arrested on obscenity charges … and Bill Graham organized a benefit concert on November 6, 1965. The show was such a success — featuring The Fugs, the Jefferson Airplane and poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti (who recently turned age 100) — that he organized a second and third, with a band called the Warlocks (soon to be re-named the Grateful Dead) that launched his career as a showman/promoter.
He worked with local promoter Chet Helms (and his Family Dog outfit) for a time, organizing shows at the Fillmore Auditorium, which had long been a venue for African-American performers. He wanted a dance permit, not just a concert permit … and was assisted by Charles Sullivan, the black man who owned the lease. Sullivan worked with Graham in battling the city fathers, which proved key in opening the venue to the emerging San Francisco Sound (although Sullivan was murdered in the summer of 1966, still unsolved).
Eventually Graham also became a manager for some of the emerging West Coast bands in addition to being a concert promoter. The All-Music Guide’s Jason Ankeny called him the P.T. Barnum of rock and roll, and he recounted it in his autobiography (not quite completed before his death), Bill Graham Presents— which is a terrific read that you can probably get from the library.
Stylistically, he was both gruff, idealistic, ahead-of-his-time, yet did not suffer fools lightly. In part, having to escape across Europe from the Nazis will do that. In his own memoirs, The Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek described him as “A hardass ……. but a fair hardass”. Graham’s light shows and slide shows were legendary and in the early days he had a full slate of tasks: taking tickets, cleaning the bathrooms and even putting a basket of apples by the entrance to the orchestra section.
More importantly: he not only booked white rock acts (Dead, Airplane, Quicksilver, Big Brother, Butterfield Blues Band, et al) but also — on the same bill — black performers (such as the Staple Singers, Freddie King, Otis Redding, Howlin’ Wolf), Latino acts (Eddie Palmieri, Tito Puente) plus jazz acts (Charles Lloyd, Gary Burton, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Miles Davis). He is alleged to have said, “I never give the public what it wants ...I give the public what it should want”. All of this made him an ideal partner for those in the record business, who were able to showcase their artists from different genres: in his first (1975) autobiography, record business legend Clive Davis said simply, “Bill and I get on very well” — and would share information about up-and-coming bands regularly.
A classic story: in his own autobiography, B.B. King related how he was booked into a 1968 Fillmore gig (which he had played at when it was an African-American patronized hall) when the audience for his music began to evolve: Upon arrival and seeing the audience entering he said, "When we first pulled up, I thought we'd come to the wrong place!" and backstage even asked for alcohol, he was that nervous.
"All these white kids, long-haired kids," Mr. King recalled. "I never played to people like this before. My knees were trembling.When I got near the stage, Bill Graham gave me the best (and the shortest) introduction I ever had. He said, 'Ladies and gentlemen .... I bring you the chairman of the board, B. B. King.' Everybody stood up, everybody. It was the first time I ever got a standing ovation in my life. It was so touching that I cried. Big grown man crying."
He later added, "If there's any such thing as a crossover, that was the night it happened".
Graham also helped break British acts to the West Coast, such as The Who, and booked my heroes (Cream) for six consecutive nights. He befriended Carlos Santana and his new local band, and pushed to have them invited to perform at the Woodstock Festival — which broke them nationally (and in the concert film: as the band walks offstage to massive cheers, you can see Bill Graham patting keyboardist Gregg Rolie on the back, pointing at the crowd).
In mid-1968, he moved operations from the Fillmore Auditorium to a new venue (which he re-named the Fillmore West), opened a second venue (Winterland) and then took over an old theater in the East Village of New York City that he named the Fillmore East— and here is the marquee from April 1971 (just two months before it closed) that exemplifies just how important this venue was.
April, 1971 … the end was coming soon, but for now ..The economics of the music business began changing at the dawn of the 1970’s and Bill Graham both chafed at the changes … and yet embraced them, as part of his odd combination. He closed his Fillmores during the early 1970’s (Winterland lasted through 1978) and got into promoting concert tours and stadium gigs. The Last Night at the Fillmore was a documentary of the late June final show that went until 8:00 AM the next day.
The final concert by The Band (The Last Waltz) was filmed at Winterland in 1976 (with an eclectic supporting cast) and he also put on the 1985 Live Aid concert in Philadelphia. From 1979 to 1990, Bill Graham finally got some of the acting roles he had trained for years earlier: appearing in small roles in Apocalypse Now, The Cotton Club and Bugsy.
One of his low points came after he sponsored a 1985 rally in San Francisco’s Union Square to protest President Reagan’s idea to visit a cemetery in Bitburg, Germany (where members of the Waffen SS were also buried). His Bill Graham Presents offices were firebombed; losing most of its contents in the subsequent fire — most distressing to someone who had escaped the Holocaust.
While continuing to promote shows, Bill Graham was returning from an October, 1991 Huey Lewis show in a helicopter (along with two staffers) when during a storm it struck a high-voltage electrical tower, killing all. Graham was age sixty. Several days later, a free memorial concert was held in Golden Gate Park with an estimated 300k attendees, with several of the bands he supported appearing.
Bill Graham was inducted posthumously into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (in 1992) and the Rock Radio Hall of Fame (2014). The San Francisco Civic Auditorium was re-named after him, and in 2008 the Bill Graham Foundation was launched, with music education only part of its mission statement.
Numerous live albums were recorded at the various Fillmore venues, with one band in particular worth noting. The first time that the Allman Brothers played there was late December of 1969 — when Graham had not heard them, yet had to take them in order to get other bands he wanted. Their debut album was not yet released, yet the iconic photo of the band members (naked from the waist up in a river) was all they had. In his autobiography, Graham noted they arrived very late for the soundcheck — a sin in his mind — then asked for an advance to buy pizza! (Graham later realized they had probably driven straight-up from Georgia). One of Graham’s staff even asked if they would keep their clothes on ... and the staff then went on preparing the house for the soon-to-be-arriving patrons when the band started playing. Bill Graham said (one-by-one) the staff stopped what they were doing, turned around and said …. “Ohhhh”. The Allmans not only became one of Graham’s favorites, their Live at the Fillmore is among the most famous live albums in rock history.
Despite the losses in the firebombing, several years ago much of the memorabilia he retained went on sale as Wolfgang’s Vault— with its posters alone a treat.
Two quotes sum-up his life:
Bill Graham howled. He talked. He shouted. He harangued. He laughed. He threatened. He barked. He sang (a little!)…Bill was one of the great mavericks who redefined what freedom really meant in the U.S.A. – Pete Townshend
But from his autobiography: he said his greatest moment came when he walked into the men’s room at one of his venues, when two young men (who did not recognize him) were talking. Undoubtedly on chemicals, one asked the other: “Hey, do you know who’s playing tonight?” The other thought for a moment, shook his head … and then replied, “Nah ……….... but hey: it’s the Fillmore, man!”
Bill Graham (in 1966) ……. Circa 1990, a year before his deathWhat on Earth to use as a song for his career? I backed-into this choice … someone who appeared at the 1968 opening of the Fillmore East and the 1971 closing night, and below is a video of the great Memphis bluesman Albert King appearing there in 1970 (with a brief introduction by Bill Graham himself). This was the type of performer Bill Graham wanted rock music fans to hear.
Oh, Pretty Woman (obviously, not Roy Orbison’s tune) was written by Memphis disk jockey A.C. Williams and later covered by Jimmy Witherspoon, Junior Wells and John Mayall.
Oh pretty woman, what are you trying to do? You kept on fooling around 'till I got stuck on you So you just drop that mess and come down off your throne Stop using my poor heart as just a stepping stone
Oh pretty woman, that's all right for you Now you just go on doing what you want to do But someday when you think you've got it made You get in water deep enough so you can't wade
Pretty woman What's the matter with you? Can't make you love me, no matter what I do
x xYouTube Video