Thanksgiving Excerpt from "Monterey Pop: Summer of Love."
When Marla woke up on Thanksgiving morning she was thankful for some time off work. The café was closed and she had the whole day in front of her. She thought about calling Sandy or Suzi to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving, but didn’t want to disrupt their holiday. Marla walked down to the corner and picked up a newspaper, made a pot of coffee and drank it while she spent the morning curled up in a chair reading.
By late morning she was bored and stood at the window, staring down at the street. Even the Hell’s Angel’s house was quiet. Marla liked having the Angels living next door. Their presence kept the more psycho elements of Haight society at bay and off the block. The Angels were always friendly to her and she had gotten to know a few of them from talking to them on the street. She always had a smile for the boys when she walked down the sidewalk. Today, however, there wasn’t a single bike or biker to be seen.
Unlike her, even Hell’s Angels had someplace to go on Thanksgiving for dinner.
She put on her new peacoat and locked the door behind her. The wind was blowing down Ashbury and she was glad when she turned the corner onto Haight. Most of the shops were closed for the holiday and there were few people on the street. She gave a panhandler she met a dollar. He looked hungry and it made her feel good to be able to help him.
A few blocks ahead, Marla saw a group of people, huddled together for warmth, staring in a restaurant window. She joined them and saw they were enviously watching people eat their holiday dinners. The restaurant had few holiday diners; usually it would be filled with tourists. She looked at the menu displayed in the window and then saw the special.
Turkey Dinner with all the trimmings $2.99!
She walked into the warm restaurant and stood waiting for a table. When the owner, a middle aged, portly man with graying hair, who reminded her of Vern somehow, came walking up, he waved the audience at the window off, but it did no good. They held their ground and continued to stare.
“I’m sorry about that.”
“About what?”
“Those kids. They’ve been standing there for almost half an hour now. No cops around to chase them off. Force is working a skeleton crew today so they can be home with their families. I’d chase them off myself, but there’s too many of them, if you know what I mean? I don’t want trouble.”
“What’s your name?” asked Marla.
“Tomas,” he replied.
“Well, Tomas, why don’t you feed them? It’s Thanksgiving. Give them something to be thankful for. Be good for your Karma.”
He frowned and said, “I’m not running a soup kitchen here. It’s hard to make a living running this place when you don’t have any customers like today. I had to send home two of my waitresses. I mean, don’t you think I’d rather be home with my family like those cops? Drinking beer and eating turkey? I gotta be here. The rent is expensive here on Haight. I can’t afford to close even for a day.”
“The restaurant business is tough, isn’t it?”
“A lot of work.”
“You’re slow today?”
“Won’t even break even after I pay the overhead.”
Marla looked out the window and did a quick head count of the hungry looking kids and determined that she could easily afford to feed them all. She wondered if she could negotiate a better deal on Thanksgiving dinners for the hungry of the Haight.
“I’ve got about $150 in my purse and you’ve got an empty restaurant. How many people can we feed for $150?” Marla asked.
“I see where you’re going with this. Let me see…” He stood and thought for a moment. It was mid-afternoon and the street was deserted. There would be no rush of tourists seeking Thanksgiving dinner in the Haight that afternoon. That was becoming apparent.
“What’re you going to do with all those left over turkeys? You can only sell so many sandwiches tomorrow. Let’s feed some hungry people.”
Tomas thought a little longer and said, “Seventy-five maybe eighty. I like what you’re doing. Giving something back to the community. Tell you what, I got enough turkey for at least a hundred dinners, turkey’s cheap, especially when you buy a bunch of them. You chip in your $150 and I’ll make up the difference. How’s that sound?” Tomas was smiling and he sounded excited. “We’ll serve turkey dinners until we run out of turkey. How’s that? The community’s been good to me.”
“Works for me,” Marla said with a smile. “Let’s get started.”
Marla and Tomas walked out the door and the group that had been looking through the window started to break up and move down the street.
“No, wait,” Marla cried out to them. “Come here.”
They turned around and came back to where Marla and Tomas stood.
“Are you hungry?” Tomas asked.
They all mumbled something in the affirmative. It didn’t matter what they said, their appearance gave them away.
“Good, why don’t you come in and get warm,” Marla said. “Tomas and I want to buy you all dinner.”
“Really?” one girl asked. “I haven’t eaten in two days.”
“Really,” replied Marla. “Well, Happy Thanksgiving! Come inside and we’ll get you something to eat.”
The group followed her in and Tomas said, “You can sit anyplace.”
Tomas watched Marla tie on an apron. She looked at him, smiled and said, “I’ve got a little experience at this.”
Tomas smiled and said, “I guess we better get busy.”
The word quickly spread through the Haight and there was soon a line stretching down the street. People volunteered to wait tables, cook and wash dishes after they ate. It was late afternoon when they finally ran out of turkey and energy. Everyone pitched in to help clean up, and after the last of them left, only Marla and Tomas were left.
“You want a beer?” he said. “I got some in the cooler.”
“Sure.”
“That was a nice thing you did today, Marla. Thanks. You made me a better person. I haven’t felt this good in a long time. It was nice to give something back.” Tomas smiled and took a long hit off his bottle. “All those happy faces made it worthwhile.”
“Don’t forget that you deserve most of the credit. I just helped you out. What would you have done with all that turkey anyhow? Thrown it out?”
Marla put her coat on against the November chill. She kissed Tomas on the cheek and smiled. “Nice meeting you, Tomas. You’re a good man.”
“You want another beer?”
“No, I gotta get going. There’s something I need to do before it gets much later.”
Tomas was nice and she had enjoyed meeting him, but on the walk home she realized how much she missed Sandy’s companionship. San Francisco wasn’t the same without her and she dreaded going home to the empty apartment, but there was something she needed to do before it got too late.
She walked up the steps and unlocked the door. She turned on the light and looked at the clock. It was almost six-thirty. Still early enough to call. Marla picked up the phone and dialed.
“Hello, Aunt Suzie?”
Looking for Hendrix
By Martin Rots
Sparky and I went to Monterey, California recently as part of our decade long program of visiting the historic sites of Classic Rock. Our journeys have taken us to many destinations including Abbey Road Studios, Haight Ashbury, Jim Morrison's Paris grave, and now the Monterey County Fairgrounds, site of the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival.
We arrived around mid-day and after a little wandering on the unfamiliar streets of Monterey, we located the fairgrounds. It was Sunday and there were no scheduled events, the place was deserted. The gate was open and Sparky and I walked in like we owned the place. We only encountered one person on the grounds and when we asked him if it was okay to look around, he just shrugged his shoulders and said, "Sure."
The arena was easy to find, and a smile came to my face as we approached it. Outside the arena, parallel to the stands, were booths that had been filled with vendors of beads, flowers, posters and the rest of the hippie ephemera. It was easy to picture the colorfully dressed flower children moving from booth to booth and celebrating this "gathering of the tribes."
We walked along the stands to the far side of the arena and looked towards the stage. It didn't seem that far from where we were standing. The arena was only built to hold 7,500 people, although there were far more crammed into it during the course of the festival. Standing room tickets sold for one dollar on the day of the concert. Unlike Woodstock, the audience left the arena at the conclusion of the day's show to sleep elsewhere. Most slept on the fairgrounds or the football field of the local community college. The lucky ones had rooms in Monterey.
I stood there, pictured the crowd for a bit and took some pictures before walking back to the arena entrance. Next to the stage, I noticed a pipe sticking up vertically from the asphalt. It was about two feet high and I calculated it was just tall enough to help me scale the six feet to the stage surface. I looked around and saw that Sparky and I were alone.
With very little effort, I found myself standing on stage. I walked about twenty feet towards center stage and stopped to look out over the arena. I thought about all the people who had witnessed the birth of a musical revolution that long ago weekend on the California coast. I started to think about the musicians who had performed on the stage and suddenly had an epiphany. I realized that I was on the exact spot where Hendrix had burned his guitar and began his legend.
I soaked it up for a minute or two before climbing down from the stage with the assistance of Sparky. I told her it was one of my great rock moments. "Better than playing Duane Allman's Strat while you sat on Hendrix's couch?" she asked.
"Nope, but real close."
Live Rock Albums
By: Martin Rots
I recently read a review of the remixed, live Rolling Stones album, Get Yer Ya Yas Out. You know the one where you hear a woman's voice, with a distinct east coast accent yells out, "Play Paint it Black, you devil." In the review he mentions that he thinks it's one of the best live albums ever released. Maybe he likes the picture of Jagger with the Uncle Sam Hat and the donkey roadie carrying the equipment. I'm sure the jack-ass is a metaphor for something, I'm just not sure what. Their earlier live album, Got Live if you Want It!, featured the customary screaming girls and bad sound system.
I was a rabid Stones fan in the day and I bought both of them, but I didn't care for either, that much. Same goes for the Jefferson Airplane live on Bless It's Little Pointed Head. In fact, I don't care a lot for live albums as a rule. Especially from the Classic Rock era. A lot of them suffer from poor sound systems and the archaic audio technology available at the time. You'll notice that the Beatles organization has never been shy about re-releasing the Beatles' catalogue, but we haven't seen or heard The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl released digitally. Maybe the girls' screams were too shrill to reproduce digitally.
Sometimes a live album is the answer when an artist or group of artists have creatively run dry. It's a great way to make some more money by recycling the same old material. If you record an entire tour, it's likely you'll be able to cull together an entire set without any embarrassing mistakes. The release buys time to work on new original material and momentarily at least, satisfies the fans.
In spite of some really lame, live albums, there are a few that were truly outstanding. One of my favorites was atypical for the time. There was no studio album of the material. John Mayall's The Turning Point featured live, inspired performances by a band unique in Mayall's long history. There was no drummer and the music was closer to jazz than rock or Mayall's customary blues. I was fortunate to have seen it performed live at the Mount Clemens Pop Festival in 1969. It is still some of my favorite music to this day.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is the first MC5 album, Kick Out the Jams. I was at the Grande Ballroom to see them record on Halloween night 1968. The Five (as we called them at that time) were the house band at the Grande. We'd been watching them evolve into a powerhouse of energy at nearly every venue in Detroit. Billed as the Zenta New Year, the Five aimed to please that night. It's been over forty years since they took the stage at the Grande, but the album still conveys not only the spirit of the times, but the unbridled enthusiasm of the band and their appreciative audience.
Live at Leeds was recorded in February 1970 and released the following May. It captures the Who at their peak. The product of years of relentless touring, Live at Leeds initially featured just six tracks. Technical limitations prevented the entire set from being released until the digital age. It is often mentioned as one of, if not, the best, live album of all time. The fullness of the sound is remarkable for a trio. Townsend, Moon and Entwhistle are definitely in synch. Roger Daltrey hits all the notes in perfect concert with his band mates. They cover Eddie Cochran's Summertime Blues, Mose Allison's Young Man's Blues and Johnny Kidd's, Shakin' All Over bringing new vitality to the songs. A nearly fifteen minute version of My Generation exemplifies the energy of the original band.
On Wheels of Fire, Eric Clapton displayed the kind of playing that earned him the nickname "Slowhand" and prompted his fans to write, "Clapton is God" on the walls of the London underground. His skill is particularly evident on Crossroads. Recorded at Winterland (not the Fillmore West) in February 1968, his original solo performance allegedly had over ten minutes edited out of the final track. In spite of this sacrilege, Clapton's was at the top of his form that nightl. I'd love to hear the entire unedited performance.
Jimi Hendrix did two shows New Year's Eve 1969 at the Fillmore East. They were recorded to fulfill a contract with Capital Records and released as Band of Gypsys. After an early show, in which Hendrix gyrated and played with his teeth, an angry Bill Graham told him to go out for the second show and "just play." That's what Hendrix did and the results are outstanding on tracks like Machine Gun, Who Knows and Changes with Buddy Miles on vocals. It's the second set that you hear on the recording.
Also recorded at the Fillmore East less than three months later was the Allman Brothers Live at the Fillmore East. Released as a double album, Duane Allman shines playing the slide guitar he would use so effectively on Eric Clapton's Layla. Whipping Post, at almost twenty-three minutes, took up an entire side of the vinyl release. In Memory of Elizabeth Reed was...well, memorable.
J. Geils Band's Live Full House, was if nothing else, full of energy. Recorded in Detroit at the Cinderella Ballroom, in the presence of almost the same audience that had witnessed the MC5 record their first effort on the other side of town at the Grande two years earlier, Live Full House delivered what it promised. In light of the enthusiastic audiences the Geils Band encountered in Detroit, they recorded two live albums there and part of a third one. Once again, I was lucky enough to be in the audience that night. Hard Drivin' Man had enough energy to keep that Detroit audience moving late into the night. The whole album is relentless, like a multiple orgasm that just won't let you catch your breath. The fun never stops, even when they become slightly less manic with a breezy Homework. In between Homework and Pack Fair and Square, Peter Wolf famously declares, "Take out your false teeth mama, I want to suck on your gums."
No one doubted his sincerity.
The English Invasion Is Repelled!
By Martin H. Rots
Freddie Garrity and the Dreamers released the inane dance tune Do the Freddy in late 1965. It's release signaled the last gasp of the British Invasion, a musical death rattle of sorts. By 1966, the English bands had lost their grip on the American charts. The Beatles and the Stones were still selling records to be sure, but the second and third string British Invasion acts didn't stand a chance against the new American bands that rose to prominence in 1965. After the initial wave of English bands came to dominate the American charts, the American musicians gathered their forces, evaluated the situation and rose to the occasion.
The race was on and the prize was enormous. Singers, songwriters and musicians were flocking to Los Angeles for the weather and their shot at fame. The Byrds released Terry Melcher's production masterpieces, Mr. Tambourine Man in June 1965 and Turn, Turn, Turn the following December. Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys still had some surprises up their sleeves when they left the beach behind. In 1966, the B Boys gave us Sloop John B and Wilson's masterpiece, Pet Sounds. In New York, Neil Diamond, Carol King and the rest of the Brill Building bunch weren't exactly sitting on their hands. Motown was churning out hit after hit in direct competition with both coasts and the Brits. As a creative period in popular music, it is unrivaled.
In mid-1964, just about any band or individual with a Beatle-cut, an English accent and an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show could get a hit record in the States such was the hysteria the Beatles had created. American bands even took English sounding names to be more marketable. The Beau Brummels weren't from Notting Hill or Chelsea. In spite of their name, they were recording in San Francisco as part of another nascent scene. In late 1965, New Jersey's Knickerbockers released Lies, which went to #20 early in 1966. It was such a clever imitation of the Beatles that many people still mistake it for an obscure Beatles' cut.
The Beatles were no longer exclusively the domain of thirteen year old girls, they were beginning to mature and along with them, their music and audience. Rolling Stones' manager Andrew Oldham locked Mick and Keith in a room until they came out with an original composition. Their success that day insured their futures. This brings us back to Freddie and the Dreamers and the dance tune, Do the Freddie. In the spring of 1965, they had had a #1 hit in the US with I'm Telling You Now after an obligatory appearance on Ed Sullivan. I'm uncertain if Garrity was truly the buffoon he appeared to be on stage while performing the song, he swung his arms as if he were doing jumping jacks, an idiot's grin across his face and Buddy Holly's glasses perched on his nose. Sometimes, he would only swing the limbs on the left side of his body, other times the right. It was a very short lived dance craze as dance crazes go. He made Joe Cocker's early performances look sedate by comparison. What was effective on an English music hall stage was not necessarily effective with the American TV audiences. Do the Freddie only went to #18 in the US charts and the Dreamers quickly dropped out of sight. Folk rock was the new big thing and Freddie and/or the Dreamers would not be part of it. His comedic stage persona didn't fit anymore. With the introduction of psychedelica in late 1966, he became a musical anachronism.
Rock was maturing and there were few clowns required in the days that lay ahead.
1966 was actually more of a watershed year than the psychedelic period that began in 1967 with the Summer of Love, Monterey Pop and the release of Sgt. Pepper's by the Beatles. Paul Revere and the Raiders released the anti-drug song Kicks in 1966 on the eve of the cultural revolution. Between Kicks and the shtick costumes, they were terribly out of synch with what was about to happen in popular music and would soon be cast into rock oblivion.
The Byrds were hyped as the American Beatles, a title they did or did not really deserve depending on your perspective. By 1966, the Byrds were a well-respected, established act. Los Angeles became a Mecca for rock musicians from all over the United States. Bands like the Doors, Buffalo Springfield and Love were all waiting to emerge from obscurity. In San Francisco, the music scene was exploding with the Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Grateful Dead, Youngbloods, Country Joe and the Fish, Warlocks and many others.
Gone was the two to three minute single that had dominated the AM radio for so long. The Beatles and Bob Dylan put an end to that. Also set to expire was AM radio itself. FM radio was about to overtake it as the predominant delivery system of the new music. An added benefit to FM was that it broadcast in stereo, something AM was incapable of doing. Initially the new "underground" stations were weak and few cars had FM radios in 1966. Ironically, these were the very reasons the existing stations could be bought at a reasonable price. It wasn't long before "underground radio" stations were popping up in every major market in the country. They didn't play top forty from a list generated by the station program director. The DJ played what he pleased as often as he pleased. The three minute single became dead as a door nail.
Not all the British bands folded. The two most notable being the Beatles and Rolling Stones. The marginally talented Brits retired from show business and became accountants and bricklayers and such. Others, like Graham Nash (Hollies) would re-invent themselves. Some big English Invasions acts simply folded or re-invented themselves. The Dave Clark Five who had once rivaled the Beatles as the Brit's favorite rock group became irrelevant as the times washed past them. English music hall favorites like Herman's Hermits became passé. The Kinks became critics of English society and remained a favorite on both sides of the Atlantic.
By the end of the sixties the distinction between American and English bands had faded. Hybrid bands like Delaney and Bonnie had a distinct American sound even with Eric Clapton playing lead guitar. The Rolling Stones were being influenced by American musicians Graham Parsons and Ry Cooder. Joe Cocker fronted Mad Dogs and Englishmen, a conglomerate of Yanks and Brits.
In the end, the importance of the English Invasion is that it revived popular music from the white bread existence it had settled into. Pat Boone would no longer be making the charts with his sanitized renditions of black music cleaned up for a white, middle class audience. The Carnaby Street mod fashions and Beatle cuts led to the wild dress of the sixties and extremely long hair became fashionable as western youth embraced an androgynous look. The era became a continuation of what had started with four young men from Liverpool and a Sunday night variety show in the United States.
Who could have imagined?
Rock and Roll Thanksgiving
By Martin H. Rots
There are two prominent Thanksgiving celebrations that have connections to the Classic rock era. The first, Alice's Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie, has become a Thanksgiving music tradition. The second isn't as well-known, but is as well documented in the concert film, The Last Waltz.
A film was also made using the long ballad as the basis of the story. Today, even though the story is a little dated, Alice's Restaurant does give us a peek at what life in the sixties was like for many people. Communal living, harassment from the establishment and long haired, dope smoking hippies take center stage in a production as rooted in the sixties counter-culture as the Broadway production of Hair. The story tells us of a group of friends gathering to celebrate Thanksgiving in an old church that has been dubbed, Alice's Restaurant. The group of friends celebrating Thanksgiving together is a priceless insight into the era. Their arrival at Alice's country church/restaurant is an event unto itself. Guthrie pulls up in the customary VW Microbus (had one myself back in the day) amid much hugging and kissing. The actual dinner is a raucous, joyous event that leaves the participants happy and spent.
They gather the debris that has been generated from the feast along with other accumulated trash and take it to the dump only to discover it's closed. Not wanting to return with the garbage, they find a way to dump the load anyway. When the garbage is discovered by the local lawman, Officer Obie, a letter at the bottom of the pile addressed to Arlo gives him away as the perpetrator of the heinous crime. Guthrie is duly arrested and convicted of littering. Ironically, in the end, Guthrie's conviction prevents him from being drafted.
Over the years, the song has become a Thanksgiving tradition. Classic rock stations in particular can be counted on playing it at least once on Thanksgiving Day. At almost nineteen minutes, it's usually promoted as a holiday event.
On November 25, 1976 at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, 5,000 people gathered to eat Thanksgiving dinner together and witness one of the most remarkable concerts of the era. The event, dubbed The Last Waltz by The Band, was to celebrate their decision to cease touring after almost two decades on the road. They invited their friends to join them at Winterland in an extravaganza organized and orchestrated by their longtime friend, Bill Graham. Dinner was served cafeteria style to the assembled masses and the clean-up was a happy, noisy communal effort. At 9:00, the music began and the audience settled in for a long, special night.
Among the friends that joined the Band on stage were Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, Dr. John, Eric Clapton and Joni Mitchell. Each artist performed as a solo act in addition to the jam session that ended the concert. A film made of the event by Martin Scorsese was enigmatically entitled, The Last Waltz. It was released in April 1978 to much critical acclaim.
There was something unique about both of these events that exemplified the period. The people that ate together at the relatively modest gathering at Alice's place and the crowd who attended The Last Waltz celebrated Thanksgiving with their extended family of humanity. This is not to say that they had discarded their genetic families, only that they had expanded the definition of family to include most of humanity. It was a time when the notion of treating each other as brothers and sisters was beginning to be taken seriously.
It was a time that came and went all too quickly.
I, myself, am thankful for many things.
I am thankful for the love of a good woman. I am so fortunate to have her love and support in these trying times.
I am thankful for good friends.
I am thankful for good health.
I am thankful to be living in the greatest country in the world.
What are you thankful for?
