The Keystone Berkeley calendar for May 1975 lists quite an astonishing, amazing set of shows. For blog and List purposes, I post to note Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders on Tuesday, May 6, 1975, heretofore unknown to me.
I am not sure what to make of the May 23rd listing. There are tapes of Legion at Keystone May 21-22, 1975. TJS has a listing for May 23rd, but this calendar shows Sons of Champlin and Alice Stuart. Thoughts?
Also note the coming attraction of Keith and Donna Band at the top left. I list Heros and Osiris as the opening acts for those shows (respectively, June 13 and June 14, 1975). Was Roger "Jellyroll" Troy associated with either of those groups, or did something change between the ca. late April compilation of this calendar and the actual event? I wish I could learn more about ol' Jellyroll.
It turns out that there was a different lineup for Keith & Donna in May 1975, with Roger Troy on bass and Tom Donlinger on drums (http://hooterollin.blogspot.com/2012/03/may-11-1975-town-hall-kresge-college.html). By June, Kreutzmann was on drums, with Mike Larscheid on bass.
ReplyDeleteI just came across this factoid, and it's as if I have never seen this before. I had no idea this was the case. Awesome, thanks!
DeleteAs a side note, Kraftwerk and Paul Pena (Sunday May 11) has to be one of the all-time mismatched double bills. Kraftwerk--who could forget "Fahrn Fahrn Fahrn on der Autobahn" on late night FM radio?--were booked into Berkeley Community Theater, but the show was switched due to the absence of ticket sales.
ReplyDeleteWasn't Osiris Pigpen's brother's band?
ReplyDeleteYes, Osiris was Kevin McKernan's band. Supposedly they did a killer version of "Hard To Handle."
ReplyDelete"who could forget "Fahrn Fahrn Fahrn on der Autobahn" on late night FM radio?"
ReplyDeleteThis is hilarious, even though I don't know the song. Do I dare go to youtube and check it out?
"Autobahn" (the actual title of the song) sort of became a hit at one point, which is how Kraftwerk ended up touring America. They were true Kraut Rock, very forward looking with a lot of synthesizers. I first heard "Autobahn" late night on Fm radio. The track is very hypnotic, and 22 minutes long, with Beach Boys like harmonies singing "Fahrn fahrn farn on der Autobahn" wind in and out of the track. The band would have been very aware of the bilingual play on words ('Fun Fun Fun' equals Driving Driving Driving, sung like the Beach Boys). I originally thought the song was called Fun Fun Fun On The Autobahn.
ReplyDeleteI went to school the next day and told my friends "imagine if some robots tried to imitate the Beach Boys." About 18 months later, an edited version was made into a semi-hit single. A few decades later, when America was truly ready for Kraftwerk, it was made into a Volkswagen commercial. You will probably recognize the song.
One reason I am entirely dismissive of modern "trance" and "electronica" is that they are just remakes of bands like Kraftwerk, Can and Gong. Kraftwerk sounds pretty normal now, but early 70s America was not ready for their music. The contrast with bluesy Paul Pena would be something else.
An evening-only free form FM radio station here in Chicago (Triad Radio, WXFM 105.9) seeming determined to create a hit, played "Autobahn" every night. I guess it actually worked.
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