Rocking At the Red Dog: Psychedelic Age Begins

Planting the Seed(s) of the Psychedelic Age

We've been doing a lot of research as of late, using the '67 Summer of Love as a focal point. Arriving late to the party, what George Harrison saw disturbed him as he played street minstrel to thousands. His first-hand summation was amplified by PBS's American Experience worthy retrospective presented 40 years later (view it online for free). All of the sour grapes makes Floydian Slips glad we didn't accept Dr. Tim's admonition to tune out—not completely, anyway. (Tuning in and turning on were suggestions more easily accepted.)

The Beats aside, what's not well-known is the real backstory to the burgeoning Haight-Ashbury scene before the tour buses put the district on a freak show site-seeing route. It starts two years earlier, with the opening of the Red Dog Saloon in the unlikely location of Virginia City, NV.

The story gets two pages in I Want To Take You Higher—The Psychedelic Era 1965-1969, a magnificent coffee table volume issued by the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. As worthwhile as this volume is for any collector's library, the complete story is best told in Rockin' At the Red Dog—The Dawn of Psychedelic Rock. The expose that Life magazine missed, this comprehensive video includes rare photos, original footage of a pre-Janis Joplin Big Brother and the Holding Company, and interviews with many of those who were an integral part of the scene.

The best documentary on the ‘60s
ever made. Red Dog Saloon rocks!

Michael Simmons—Rolling Stone, L.A. Weekly, High Times, BAM

The Charlatans get a lot of attention for reasons best told by the video, an obvious labor of love for Director Mary Works (Assistant Editor, Titanic, Saving Private Ryan). Other groups included in the piece are Quicksilver Messenger Service, Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane, although the viewer should not expect them to be a focal point. Rather, Rockin' At the Red Dog is really the story of how a handful of people began a cultural revolution that spread across America in a few short years. Interesting sidenotes include noted poster artist Anton Kelly on the advent of rock posters, and a look at Bill Ham's development of the de rigeur psychedelic light show.

It should be noted that, without the Red Dog's pioneering trailblazers, there very well may never have been an Avalon, a Fillmore, a Winterland, a Grande Ballroom, a Boston Tea Party, a Monterey Pop Festival, or a Woodstock. Netflix subscribers may instantly view this entertaining documentary; others may stream it over the 'Net using Amazon's Video On Demand service for a nominal fee.

Eddie Kramer—From Jimi Hendrix To Woodstock

This August marks the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, the original event spawning two multi-record sets and a feature-length movie (recently restored and expanded). Leading off with Richie Havens (he was the first artist on the scene with an intact band), a few of the other acts included Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills & Nash, a pregnant Joan Baez, Country Joe & the Fish, Santana, Sha Na Na, Sly & the Family Stone, Ten Years After, Janis Joplin, the Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Joe Cocker, the Band and the Grateful Dead. What is burned into everyone's consciousness, however, was the show-closing set by Jimi Hendrix (sans Experience) and his interpretation of The Star-Spangled Banner.

What is not widely known is who was in charge of recording the music for all to enjoy long after Max Yasgur's farm had been turned into a sea of mud and debris. Running on adrenalin and vitamin shots for those three mad days was the legendary Eddie Kramer, audio engineer extraordinaire. From the Beatles to Traffic, Led Zeppelin to Kiss, Rolling Stones to Ted Nugent, Kramer was often the guy behind the studio mixing desk, soldiering on to this day.

...I felt intimidated...when the Beatles came to Olympic on
two separate occasions to record All You Need Is Love
and Baby, You’re A Rich Man with George Martin.

Eddie Kramer, on taking rock photographs

By chance it was young Kramer—then a budding engineer with Olympic Studios in London—who was called upon to record the first tracks featuring a sensational guitarist just over from America—none other than Hendrix. The two formed a bond that lasted the duration of the latter's career, with Hendrix following Kramer's lead in the production of the star's albums—including several posthumous releases.

In 1992 John McDermott collaborated with Kramer to write Hendrix: Setting the Record Straight. Not only is this account the most accurate of the many Hendrix tomes, the book features many of Kramer's photos taken during Hendrix recording sessions. Also included are several by the late Linda McCartney.

Kramer continues to consult with Experience Hendrix; a recent project involved updating original VH1 footage to produce an enhanced At Last...The Beginning: The Making of Electric Ladyland DVD. Notable album "session musicians" interviewed for the video include the likes of Dave Mason, Steve Winwood and Jack Casady, the latter with whom Hendrix had jammed backstage at the '67 Monterey Pop Festival.

Bassist Noel Redding having walked out on the Experience at that point, here Kramer discusses All Along the Watchtower in this video segment:

Ryan Sparks, writing for Classic Rock Revisited, recently interviewed Eddie Kramer about how he came to be chosen to record the '69 Woodstock Festival and what that experience was like. A portion of that interview is presented here (by permission of the author).

[Sparks] Woodstock was a truly unique, one [of] a kind festival. How did you become involved?

[Kramer] I knew that Jimi was going to be playing up there and the film company called me and said, “Hey, you record Jimi, why don’t you come up and record the whole thing?”

Continued...
[Sparks] After you surveyed the scene, did you think you’d have enough time to get everything in order to be fully prepared for when things started?

[Kramer] No way. I had doubts that we were ever going to get anything, but…[the] crew was tremendous and they pulled it together. We got going and three days of drugs and hell became part of American history.

[Sparks] Tell me about your recording setup.

[Kramer] [We had] two eight tracks, a twelve channel board and some little Shure mixers. [To call it] primitive [would be] a mild understatement.

[Sparks] You and your crew had to stay awake for three days straight. Was it just Lee Osborne and you?

[Kramer] Yeah... The stage crew…were the ones who we were trying to communicate with, which was rather difficult. We had vitamin B12 shots to keep us all going [and] slept on the floor of the truck for a few hours. [We] rolled tape all the time, whereas the poor film guys they were struggling with five cameras trying to keep it all going.

[Sparks] You’re not only a legendary producer/engineer, but you’ve also captured some great images of some of rock’s greatest musicians with your camera…In addition to Jimi, did you manage to shoot anyone else at the festival while they were performing?

[Kramer] No…Once the recording had settled down on Jimi I said ‘OK, guys, watch the meters, watch the machines, I’m going to run out for like ten seconds.’ I ran out with my camera and shot about two or three pictures of Jimi and then ran back to the truck.

[Sparks] [Did] any of [the groups] pose any kind of challenge?

[Kramer] Every artist presented his own peculiar set of challenges. You’re dealing with battlefield recordings here; these are not for the faint of heart [laughs]. You had to figure out where each microphone was, which band was coming out, what they were going to be playing, who’s playing, what’s playing. You know that old Abbott and Costello routine, "Who’s On First?" It was just like that.

[Sparks] With such an impressive and extensive back catalogue of work, where does Woodstock rank on your list of achievements?

[Kramer] Woodstock has to stand out; [pauses] how does one even begin?

[Sparks] You’ve captured some of rock’s most iconic live albums; how would you compare it to some of those?

[Kramer] It was the most difficult, but it also yielded some of the great performances of our time. It certainly stands out in my memory....It continues to influence subsequent generations, which I’m very pleased about.

[Sparks] [In] that moment, did you think you were capturing something magical that people would still be talking about forty years later?

[Kramer] No. I was only too concerned about getting the…stuff to record and making sure it appeared on tape; that was my main concern. Who cared about history then!

Anita O'Day: Jazz On a Summer's Day

As a hardcore jazz concert film, this fails. But wait! If you view all of the commentary stuff *first*, then watch the actual film, it's a surrealistic journey back in time.Jazz On A Summer's Day* is cross-cultural, interracial—even abstract at times.

When you consider Newport, Rhode Island, in 1958 as the backdrop, then this film is an absolute cultural gem and a must-see for anyone interested in sociology of pre-60's America. In fact, Woodstock (the movie) would not have been what it was had not this film predated it by 10+ years.

Wikipedia cites that in "1999, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.'"

Anita O'Day in Jazz On a Summer's Day

Louis Armstrong, Dinah Washington, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, George Shearing, and even Chuck Berry all appear, but it was the inimitable Anita O'Day who absolutely stole the show! Alan Kurtz provides a more thorough review of the event, the film, and related audio recordings over at jazz.com.

P.S.—Of note is that, at 1:33 in the embedded video clip, Atlantic Records' founder, Ahmet Ertegun, is seen in lower right portion of the video. Atlantic, of course, was the label for a veritable who's who in the music world, including Ray Charles (before jumping ship to ABC Dunhill).

*Using Amazon's Video On Demand, instantly watch this film on your PC by clicking the DVD cover image or the adjacent film title text link above.

Of Two Johns: Lennon & Sinclair

Last weekend we watched The U.S. vs. John Lennon. After the show, I told Joanna another Forrest Gumpian story from my past. No, I didn't teach Elvis his moves, but it's another of those Six Degrees of Separation things that amuse me to no end, especially since the degree of separation—for me, anyway—is usually two or three (four at most).

Walking past the smaller of the two school gynasiums one afternoon in 1968, I heard the coolest music playing from within. I stepped inside and, inquiring of my English teacher, Dave Lundin, learned that I was hearing Upper & Lower Egypt from Pharoah Sanders' Tauhid LP.

More important, Dave told me he was setting up the gym for a be-in, to occur that Saturday night and would I like to participate? Sensing that this was something not to be missed, between the two of us we agreed I'd stage a shadow show during the goings on.

6/21/09—This just in from John Sinclair, London, England:

Thanks for the warm memories and the
nice post. Dave Lundin, what a great guy

Love, John

(Only 40 years later did I learn that Dave had been a regular at Wayne State University's infamous Cass Corridor, where he was picking up counterculture influences and importing them to the NW Detroit suburbs for those emulating the Cleaver family in the post-Eisenhower era. About the same time I discovered that Yoko Ono had been an early participant in both Manhattan, then London, be-ins, such as The 14 Hour Technicolour Dream held at the Alexandra Palace to the music of Pink Floyd and Soft Machine. But more on the Yoko connection later.)

At home I dug up all sorts of small treasures for the shadow show which, as it turned out, I performed onstage adjacent to the 10,000 megawatt, 150 decibel, full-on assault of the legendary MC5, followed thereafter by the jazz grooves laid down by the Charles Moore Ensemble. For a good portion of the evening, band manager, poet, musician, Fifth Estate music columnist and White Panther co-founder John Sinclair—attired in vertically striped green and white pants—was prancing around like a leprechaun on an elevated walkway, handing out cinnamon sticks to all those in attendance.

Facing a ten-year sentence, Sinclair was shortly sent to the Michigan State Penitentiary for possession of three joints. After first talking to Lundin about the idea, I wrote to Sinclair and received a very nice reply shortly thereafter. He was obviously very happy to hear from anybody on the outside. Too bad I didn't save his letter!

"The people at Woodstock really were a bunch of hypocrites
claiming a cosmic revolution... while John Sinclair
rotted in jail after a trumped-up drug bust."

Pete Townshend, from The Road to Woodstock by Michael
Lang with Holly George-Warren, Ecco/HarperCollins, © 2009

Two years later "the stars aligned" for the John Sinclair Freedom Rally at Ann Arbor's Crisler Arena. Having been involved on the fringe of radical politics in the U.S. for some time, organizers were able to enlist the aide of none other than that other John—late of Beatles fame—along with his ever-present other half, Yoko Ono. Also about this time Lennon had recorded the song, John Sinclair, released on his Some Time in New York City album. Sinclair was freed and the city of Ann Arbor soon reduced the fine for smoking marajuana to a paltry five dollars.