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| The Barn in Scotts Valley, as it appeared in Fall 1966. The given address was 3486 Granite Creek Road, although it apparently faced Club Drive. The site is now a parking lot for the Baymonte Christian School. |
The modern rock concert industry was invented in San Francisco, when Bill Graham and Chet Helms presented Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service at the Fillmore Auditorium on February 4, 5, and 6, 1966. The lessons from shows at the Red Dog Saloon, the Family Dog and the Trips Festival were merged into what we know as a rock concert. Not just a personal appearance, nor a teenage dance, nor even just a musical performance, a rock concert was a serious artistic presentation of sight and sound, and the audience participated by dancing. Word filtered out, slowly because of the way media worked, but the word spread, North and South and East.
In 1966 the spread still happened slowly. Perhaps someone had been on vacation and went to the Fillmore, or someone's cousin wrote them a letter from San Francisco. By 1967 things were happening faster. People had heard Surrealistic Pillow, Country Joe & The Fish's Electric Music For The Mind And Body and the debut album by The Doors. There were pictures of the Fillmore and Avalon in Life and Look magazine, even on TV. As Frank Zappa put it, "psychedelic dungeons popping up on every street," in Vancouver, in Boston, in Philadelphia and in Greenwich Village. Every city had to put together their own version, based on what they had and what they could discern from fragmentary details and second-hand descriptions.
Santa Cruz, CA, hitherto just a Monterey Bay resort town 75 miles South of San Francisco, had undergone a huge transformation in the Fall of 1965. The city already had a seaside boardwalk and a windy beach, nestled in some low but rugged mountains, so it was cut off from San Jose and San Francisco. In the Fall of '65, however, the University of California had opened a new campus that overlooked the ocean. A modest Republican town of retirees and hospitality providers became a California hippie enclave, and one with great surfing. Santa Cruz County had a population of just 84,000 in 1960, but by 1970 it had exploded to 123,000 (it's 270,000 today).
The Pacific Ocean provided the surf, the University of California inevitably brought sex and drugs, so it was up to Santa Cruz County to provide the rock and roll. Santa Cruz was going to emulate the Fillmore, of course. The interesting part was that unlike Vancouver or Greenwich Village, they didn't have to guess what it was like. Sure, the two roads to San Francisco were twisty and mountainous, and more so with a buzz on, but you could still get there and back. Psychedelic rock and roll came to Santa Cruz County early, and they didn't have to guess how it was done in the City. This post will begin a series on live rock music in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties, initially focusing on 1965 and 1966. If anyone has additions, corrections, insights or intriguing speculation, please put them in the Comments. Flashbacks welcome.
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| Santa Cruz Sentinel ad, April 1,1966. Cocoanut Grove was on the Boardwalk, and the Tikis had just gotten signed to Warner Brothers Records, a big deal for a local band (later they would score hits as Harpers Bizarre) |
Santa Cruz County
Santa Cruz is nestled on the Northern end of the Monterey Bay. Monterey was the first capital of California, in the Spanish and Mexican era, which ended in 1848 (after the Mexican-American War). In the second half of the 19th century, the Santa Cruz Mountains were a source of Redwood trees and other resources for the development of San Francisco. Railroads shipped lime and logs out of the county, and that provided the superstructure for the region. As the 20th century dawned, Santa Cruz was somewhat logged out, but the existing railroads took advantage of the County as a vacation destination for well-to-do San Francisco.
Some of the grandest plans for the County were upset by the 1906 earthquake, which ended development of a coastal San Francisco-to-Santa-Cruz railroad. A planned direct line from SF, which would have been transformational, was terminated at the tiny coastal San Mateo County town of Davenport. Santa Cruz was left to fend for itself, so it focused on being a resort town. The railroad still got to the city, albeit via Santa Clara County rather than the coast, and the coastal air made the city a welcome respite from a smoky metropolis. The Glenwood highway was completed in 1919, and there was a traffic jam on the first day (parts of it are even still in use). Highway 17 (CA-17) was finished in 1940, and the direct railroad to Santa Cruz was shut down soon after. The tunnels have since collapsed, so the railroad cannot be resuscitated, although a roundabout route through Salinas and Monterey County can still be used.
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| The view from above Cabrillo College in Aptos, CA |
By the late 1950s, Santa Cruz was firmly established as a resort destination for both San Francisco and San Jose. The focal attraction was an amusement park with a wooden boardwalk, just like East Coast beach resorts. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk had been built in 1907, and it had a roller coaster, numerous other rides and an auditorium for dancing. By the 1960s, the dance bands included rock and roll groups for teenagers. Santa Cruz High School had opened back in 1897, but by 1962 Soquel High School had been added for the Southern part of the County, as the Baby Boom was starting to be felt even in sleepy Santa Cruz (Harbor High was added in 1968). In 1959, Cabrillo Community College was opened in the mid-County town of Aptos, becoming the first higher education available in the County. The Junior College was situated on a hillside overlooking CA-01 and the Pacific Ocean. The view from the Cabrillo parking lot rivals that of any first class resort.
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| Santa Cruz Sentinel ad, January 29, 1966. The Cobras were a band from Pacific Grove, near Carmel. |
Santa Cruz Rock And Roll
According to Ted Templeman, a Santa Cruz native and the famous producer of the Doobie Brothers, Van Morrison ("Tupelo Honey"), Montrose, Nicollette Larson and Van Halen, he led Santa Cruz's first rock and roll band. The Dukes date back to 1958. In the early 60s, in the wake of the Beach Boys and the Beatles, there was a growing rock scene in San Jose. Those San Jose bands played many summer gigs at the Monterey County Fairgrounds and the Cocoanut Grove Ballroom on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, as well as the downtown Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium.
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| Cocoanut Grove Ballroom, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, ca 1949 |
The Cocoanut Grove Ballroom, originally called The Casino, had changed its name around 1929. The arcane spelling was done at the same time as the Marx Brothers movie and the Los Angeles hotel ballroom (at the Ambassador). In the 1930s and 40s, the Cocoanut Grove was a major stop for touring big bands, so the likes of Tommy Dorsey and Harry James had played there regularly. In the 60s, the Cocoanut Grove had teen rock and roll dances, too, but that was in fact right in line with its history--young people dancing and having fun to popular music of the day. The ballroom was also used for special events, weddings and other functions that needed a big dance floor and, if necessary, table service.
Some of the San Jose bands were really good bands, too. The Syndicate Of Sound would score with "Hey Litle Girl" in January 1966. The Chocolate Watch Band had been formed at Los Altos' Foothill Junior College in late '65, but after some changes they hit their stride in early '66. San Jose's Top 40 station, KLIV (1590-AM), regularly played singles by local bands, so there was a chance to make real money playing teenage dances.
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| The E-Types, rocking the house around 1966, probably in the South Bay somewhere |
Santa Cruz had indigenous bands, too, that played all over Northern California. Templeman was leading The Tikis by 1964. They would later change their name to the DelFis, and ultimately scored some pop hits as Harpers Bizarre. The hottest dance band was Korny And The Korvettes, with Cornelius Bumpus on saxophone, vocals and organ (later in the Doobies) and drummer Johnny Craviotta (later in The Ducks with Neil Young). "Rivalries" were a promotional thing, and the Korvettes’ "rivals" were the E-Types, out of Salinas, a small town in Monterey County. The E-Types recorded for Dot Records, and had some local hits on KLIV (it goes without saying that all the "rival" bands were friends). The Cobras, in turn, were from Pacific Grove, near Carmel. The bands played around a lot and actually made decent money for teenagers.
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| The July 29, 1965 Sentinel had a photo of Eric "Big Daddy" Nord standing in front of The Barn |
Big Daddy Comes To Town
By 1964, Santa Cruz knew change was coming. The University of California had selected Santa Cruz for a new campus in 1961, and construction had begun in 1964. Cabrillo College had sponsored a "New Music" festival for avant-garde composition, and there was a bohemian coffee shop that served espresso in nearby Aptos, called The Sticky Wicket. The Sticky Wicket had opened in 1959 at 217 Cathcart Street in Santa Cruz (near Pacific Avenue) by Vic and Sidney Jowers, but in 1960 it moved to Mar Vista Drive in Aptos (at Highway 1, on the Cabrillo side; the likely address was 2545 Mar Vista--I think the building is still there). Aptos was a little beach town seven miles South of Santa Cruz. Besides espresso, the Sticky Wicket had art displays, jazz, chamber music on Thursdays and folk music many nights. By 1962, the Sticky Wicket had an outdoor theater in the parking lot, seating about 120, and there were regular theater, operatic and musical presentations.
In October, 1964 a paperback bookstore called The Hip Pocket had opened with a metallic sculpture outside that might have been two nudes. The Hip Pocket crowd was linked to Ken Kesey's infamous Merry Pranksters. Sleepy, conservative Republican Santa Cruz wasn't thrilled with any of this.
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| The Gas House, on Ocean Front Walk in Venice Beach, around 1960 |
Eric "Big Daddy" Nord, 6'7" and not thin, had been dubbed "King Of The Beatniks" by Chronicle columnist Herb Caen. Nord (1919-89) had come to San Francisco around 1943, and in the early '50s he had rented a basement to open a Beatnik club called the hungry i. It was another proprietor, Enrico Banducci, who would make the hungry i famous, but Nord was the type of guy who did things before anyone else did. After selling the hungry i to Banducci, Nord then went to LA and opened an infamous coffee shop in Venice Beach called The Gas House. Then he was in Hawaii in the early '60s, but by 1964 Nord seemed to have been running the Sticky Wicket in Aptos. Due to road changes in Aptos, however, making the club hard to reach, the Sticky Wicket would close in September 1964.
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| An ad in the San Jose State Daily Spartan (October 15 '65) for a weekend of movies, jazz, "folksing" and classical guitar at The Barn |
In Summer 1965, Big Daddy opened a coffee shop and art gallery in a
converted Dairy Barn in rural Scotts Valley. Scotts Valley was on
Highway 17, midway between San Jose and Santa Cruz, but part of Santa
Cruz County. Scotts Valley was 6 miles North of Santa Cruz, and 30 miles
South of San Jose. It was too mountainous for farming, mostly, but it
worked for cows. Frapwell's Dairy Barn had been built in 1914, and was a
two-story facility that had mostly been used for agriculture. Prior to Nord,
it had been an antique store. Scotts Valley wasn't an incorporated
community in 1965, and they didn't really have a way to keep Nord out.
Initially, it didn't matter, since Scotts Valley wasn't ready for an
espresso house nor an art gallery and the business didn't thrive.
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| Inside A Hippie Commune, Holly Harman's 2012 Memoir of her life in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the 1960s. Many of the names mentioned in this blog post turn up in her book. |
The origins of Big Daddy Nord's enterprise at The Barn are murky. The only trustworthy account was from the 2012 Holly Harman book Inside A Hippie Commune. Harman was a teenager when her family moved to the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1964. Her book is a personal memoir of the first, optimistic bloom of self-described Flower Children, when the Santa Cruz Mountains were affordable and largely undeveloped. There are beautiful photographs that seem like a portal into a lost world. Much of the book is taken up with her own experiences, but as it happens Harman's mother was friendly with Eric Nord, so Holly's description of how Nord ended up running The Barn is pretty close to an eyewitness account.
Around 1965, The Barn had been leased by a woman named Cathy Jankich, who had started an antiques business. Her husband left her, however, but somehow Nord came along at the right time. He suggested that the upstairs of The Barn should be a coffee house and art gallery, while the downstairs sold antiques. Holly Harman's mother was one of the first artists to display her works at The Barn gallery. Nord was full of ideas, but he didn't have a lot of capital.
Nonetheless, Scotts Valley, and the Santa Cruz Mountains generally, had a long history of tourist attractions. Besides Santa’s Village, Holy City and The Mystery Spot, a Scotts Valley farmer named Axel Erlandson had a “Tree Circus” of strangely shaped trees. When he died in 1964, another entrepreneur bought it and added 25-foot steel dinosaurs. These dinosaurs were easily visible from Highway 17, causing many children on their way to beach in the 1960s to beg their parents to stop at The Lost World. Thus a beatnik loft ballroom in rural Scotts Valley was just one of a long line of peculiar entertainments.
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| An ad in the San Jose State Daily Spartan (October 22 '65) for a weekend of movies, folksing, classical guitar and a German Music Festival at The Barn |
In a July 29, 1965 article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Nord announced that The Barn was going to become a performance venue. He announced that the upstairs of The Barn, previously a basketball court, would be renamed The Loft. It would feature performances of music, theater, dance and poetry. Holly Harman recalls a series of outdoor movies, but I have only found three ads, from the San Jose State University Spartan Daily on October 15 and October 22, 1965 (above) and November 5 (below). The Barn would advertise a weekend-long program of movies, folk music (called "Folksing," implying a sort of hootenanny) and various other kinds of music. None of the performers are well-known. Long-time Santa Cruz County residents may recognize the name of folksinger Patti DiLudovico (Oct 15, above) as she and her husband Al would go on to found The Catalyst on Pacific Avenue (still open today, albeit at another location and different owners).
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| San Jose State Spartan Daily, November 5, 1965 |
In any case, the local Scotts Valley community did not approve. They felt that The Barn attracted too many Beatniks, according to a later article. In the July Sentinel article, Nord had tried to distinguish between Bohemians, which he considered himself, and Beatniks, whom he looked down on. His distinction seems to be mainly have been for public consumption.
Nord only lasted a few more months at The Barn. According to Holly Harman, Nord opened a "dance club" in Boulder Creek, on Highway 9, but it didn't last long. After Nord left, there are tales of rock concerts at The Barn on weekend nights in late 1965 or early '66, with hay bales all around, loud amplifiers and wild dancing. Of course, there are now rumors that the Warlocks played one of those dances, and maybe they did, but it's important to remember that every single venue, high school or bar in the Bay Area in 1965 has a tall tale about the time the Warlocks played there. Almost all of them--not quite all, but almost--are just imagined. So who can say? In any case, the Scotts Valley residents did not like the noisy incarnation of The Barn at all. After Nord had left The Barn, and it wasn't clear who was running it.
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| The first acid test was held in Soquel, in Santa Cruz County. There is a memorial display at a bus stop on Soquel Drive (at Mattison Lane), in front of the site. When the bus comes by, you can get on (photo Jesse Jarnow). |
November 27, 1965 The Spread, Soquel, CA: Acid Test (Saturday)
Meanwhile, something was definitely percolating in Santa Cruz County. UCSC had opened in Fall 1965. Around that time, Ken Babbs, second-in-command amongst Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters, had rented a rundown old farmhouse in Soquel. Soquel was empty, not the suburban subdivision it is today. "The Spread," as it was known, was on the corner of Mattison Lane and Soquel Drive (catty-corner from the Silver Spur Restaurant--there is now an historic marker at the bus stop thanks to County Supervisor John Leopold). Many of the Pranksters lived or hung out at The Spread.
On November 27, 1965, Kesey and the crew decided to have a party where everyone would take then-still-legal LSD, and rave around with films, music and electronic equipment. They dubbed it "The Acid Test." Numerous friends from Palo Alto and elsewhere were invited, including the members of a Palo Alto rock band called The Warlocks. A certain Mr. Owsley provided the needed substances, and a good time was had by all, even if just about no one remembers anything. To the best of their recollection, the Warlocks plugged in their instruments--Phil Lesh had to borrow a guitar from Ken Kesey--and the experience was too much for them, so they walked away after just a minute. According to a 50th anniversary article by Geoffrey Dunn in the Santa Cruz Good Times newspaper, about 60 people showed up.
The Soquel event was the first Acid Test. Acid Tests followed the next few weekends--in San Jose, at Muir Beach, in Palo Alto and then in Portland, OR. By the next weekend's show in San Jose, the Warlocks had changed their name. By the Palo Alto event, Owsley had met the Grateful Dead. On January 23, 1966, all of the parties held a "Trips Festival" at Longshoreman's Hall, stage managed by one Bill Graham, who worked for the San Francisco Mime Troupe. By February 4, 1966, Graham had taken over the lease on the Fillmore Auditorium at 1805 Geary Boulevard, and presented Jefferson Airplane in concert. Rock music was never the same.
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| This
map (from a late '66 flyer) shows the location of The Barn relative to
Highway 17. Going South on CA-17, it was just South of the Santa's
Village theme park. |
May 22, 1966 The Barn, Scotts Valley, CA: Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band (Sunday)
Peter
Albin of Big Brother and The Holding Company recalled playing The Barn
before Janis Joplin had joined, which means prior to June 1966. The bass
player for Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band, Gary Marker, also recalled playing a weekend at the Avalon and then driving 50 miles South
to "a barn-like structure." Since Marker had to miss his wife's
birthday for the gig, it wasn't just a casual recollection. We can
safely say that Beefheart played Sunday, May 22 at The Barn (Marker was
filling in for regular bassist Jerry Handley).
It's not at all clear who ran The Barn at this point, as Eric Nord had left. I also think that the Captain Beefheart show seems to have been the end of the line for that incarnation of the Barn.
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| Sentinel May 22 '66 |
May 28, 1966 Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz, CA: Jefferson Airplane/Mystery Trend/Flowers Of Evil (Saturday) "Peace Rock"
The Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, at 307 Church Street (at Center), had been built in 1940. It was a typical pre-war Civic Auditorium, holding about 2000, and it served the whole city: sporting events, music, trade shows, graduations and all sorts of other events. It was the biggest venue in town, so it's no surprise that it was used for rock shows. The first "psychedelic" rock show at the Civic was Jefferson Airplane. I would be intrigued to find out who were the promoters behind "Peace Rock." The name, incidentally, clearly pegs the show as a bohemian long-haired rock show, rather than a "teen" show, even if the crowd was likely similar. According to the May 19 Santa Cruz Sentinel, proceeds would benefit the campaigns of anti-war Congressional candidates Richard Miller (Santa Cruz) and Robert Scheer (Berkeley), but that doesn't tell us who organized the concert. Holly Harman attended the show, and recalls it as the first real "psychedelic" rock show in Santa Cruz.
A peculiar feature of shows at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium was that
apparently concerts had to be benefits for some charity. Every Civic
show advertised some beneficiary. To be clear, in general the bands and
promoters all got paid, but profits were directed to some non-profit or
charity. From a prosopographical standpoint, the assigned beneficiary
gives us hints about who was behind the concert promotion. In this case,
the beneficiaries are the campaigns of two anti-Vietnam War
congressional candidates, one of them from Berkeley, tells us that Santa
Cruz was an outpost for something larger.
At this time, the Jefferson Airplane had not yet released their first album. But they had released two singles, and one of them, "It's No Secret" had been a regional hit. Founders Paul Kantner and Marty Balin had brought in singer Signe Anderson, so the Airplane had three-part harmonies reminiscent of The Weavers, but with a folk-rock edge. Jorma Kaukonen, a blues guitarist who knew Kantner from the San Jose folk scene, had "gone electric" in order to join the band. Kaukonen in turn had brought in his old Washington DC pal Jack Casady to play bass. On drums was the mercurial Skip Spence. The Santa Cruz gig would be one of Spence's last with Jefferson Airplane, as soon he would leave to play guitar with the brilliant but doomed band Moby Grape. Jefferson Airplane had played the first Family Dog concert in October, 1965, they were the first San Francisco band to get a record contract, and they headlined Bill Graham's inaugural promotion at the Fillmore on February 4 and 5, 1966, that changed rock concerts forever after.
The Mystery Trend were a super-hip underground band, right at the source of the cool San Francisco scene. In my own opinion, they weren't actually that good, but it's a perfect touch that their name came from a misunderstanding of Bob Dylan's lyrics for "Like A Rolling Stone." The main player was Ron Nagel, later a well-known sculptor. Their presence on the bill indicates that the SF underground was intimately connected with this concert. Flowers Of Evil were a local band, but I know nothing else about them.
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| June 10, 1966 Sentinel ad for a Chocolate Watch Band show at Santa Cruz Civic |
June 10, 1966 Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz, CA: Chocolate Watch Band/The Trolls (Friday)
Two weeks later, the Chocolate Watch Band headlined the Civic. The fine print says "Sponsored by Pony, Colt and Mack League." These three youth baseball leagues, for junior high and high school students, tell us who the concert was directed at. The Sentinel ad said "Teenage Dance," an implicit warning that over-18 men shouldn't drop by expecting to meet underage girls. I have no idea whether this was actually monitored or enforced.
The Chocolate Watch Band had formed at Foothill College in late 1965, but after some early success, the band disintegrated when its members joined other bands. The group re-constituted itself in early '66, however, and used their old name. The new band was absolutely killer, with Mark Loomis on lead guitar and Dave Aguilar on lead vocals. Their specialty was covering cool imported English singles that most locals had never heard, like The Kinks' "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" (the B-side to "Sunny Afternoon"). Their original material was excellent, also, but that did not come to the surface until later.
Later in 1966, the Watch Band would be signed by San Jose promoter Ron Roupe, right before the band played the Fillmore. At the Fillmore, Bill Graham offered to manage them, but they had to turn him down. The first Chocolate Watch Band was released in December, 1966, and they released their great debut album No Way Out in late 1967. Unfortunately, constant battles with their producers and record company caused the band to fall apart by 1968.
The Trolls were a Mill Valley band that would evolve into Stained Glass. Their bassist and singer was Jim McPherson, who had a lengthy rock career, playing with both John Cippolina (Copperhead) and later Mickey Hart (High Noon).
July 2-3, 1966 Monterey County Fairgrounds Dance Hall, Monterey, CA: Big Brother and The Holding Company/Quicksilver Messenger Service/Gladstones (Saturday-Sunday) Karma Productions and Brotherhood Of The Spirit Present "Take A Trip"
Monterey, CA, on the opposite side of Monterey Bay from Santa Cruz, had long been a resort destination for the San Francisco Bay Area. By 1882, the Southern Pacific Railway had established direct train service from San Francisco to both Monterey and Santa Cruz (via Gilroy), and promoted both as resorts. The Monterey County Fairgrounds had been the site of a popular jazz festival. Since 1958, the Monterey Jazz Festival had been the most notable jazz event in the Bay Area. The Monterey area had a number of prominent destinations, including the Pebble Beach Golf Course in nearby Carmel, and the Laguna Seca auto racing track, both world-class attractions. Monterey was an attractive weekend trip, just two hours South of San Francisco. While Monterey was pretty, it was also cold and windy, but since the visitors were from the SF Bay Area, that wasn't the negative it might have been elsewhere.
As it happens, Monterey was not even the biggest city in the county. In 1960, the city of Monterey had a population of 22,000, while inland, the city of Salinas had 28,000. In between the two cities was Fort Ord, an important Army base since 1917. Today, Monterey still has just 30,000, while Salinas has expanded to 163,000, and Fort Ord is Cal State University of Monterey Bay. Monterey, then and now, was an attractive destination, today including the glorious Monterey Bay Aquarium, but it's a coastal city without any room to grow.
The Monterey County Fairgrounds were used for all sorts of events, and they would be used for the Monterey Pop Festival in June, 1967. Many of the rock bands that were popular in San Jose often played shows at the Fairgrounds, both indoors and outdoors. San Jose was just about 90 minutes from the Fairgrounds. American teenagers had access to the family station wagon, so they could get there easily enough. To suburban parents, kids going to the Fairgrounds was far more acceptable than letting them go to big, bad San Francisco.
On this July 4 weekend, there was an outlier of an event at the indoor Monterey Fairgrounds dance hall, with two of the top bands from the San Francisco underground. Janis Joplin had just joined Big Brother and The Holding Company on stage the previous weekend. Quicksilver Messenger Service was still a quintet. Neither band had set foot in a recording studio yet. Both bands’ music were just rumors, familiar only from indecipherable posters for the Fillmore and Avalon.
The Gladstones, according to Ralph Gleason, were a band from Big Sur. Big Sur, a beautiful but inaccessible outpost another 30 miles further South on Highway 1, was already a hippie enclave, and hippies hadn't even been invented yet. The very existence of a psychedelic-art poster, and the announcement of a light show, was a clear marker of a Fillmore-type show. Even teenagers who had never been to San Francisco, much less the Fillmore, would have recognized the semiotics of a Fillmore poster in the Summer of 1966. Per the poster, tickets were available at the Psychedelic Shop in the City, and Kepler's Books in Palo Alto, both regular Fillmore outposts, so their seems to have been an attempt to make the shows a weekend outing for the Haight-Ashbury and Stanford underground. "Take A Trip," of course, had a double meaning, but keep in mind that LSD was still legal at the time.
I am not aware of any eyewitness account or review of this concert. I can't even say for certainty that the shows even happened. Since there weren't any more such concerts in Monterey County until 1969, it must have not sold that well. Still, the fact that the show was promoted at all was a sign that the seeds of change had been planted.
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| A July 28 1966 Sentinel article headlined "SV City Officers Expected To Protest Reopening Of The 'Barn'" |
Los Gatos clinical psychologist Leon Tabory had purchased The Barn at some point in mid-1966. Tabory (1925-2009) was notorious in Santa Cruz County, as he had testified in the trial over the supposedly "obscene" statues and photographic art at the Hip Pocket bookstore. Tabory did not universally condemn recreational drug use, either--remember, LSD wasn't illegal. With respect to history, Tabory had been Neal Cassidy's prison psychologist, but that wasn't yet significant in 1966. Tabory's plan was to turn The Barn into an entertainment venue, with music, lights and dancing, as well as food and beer. Scotts Valley did not like this prospect--here they had just gotten free of Big Daddy Nord, and then someone had come along with an even worse proposition.
In early 1966, Scotts Valley had still been an unincorporated community. Many of the residents were employed in agriculture. There were a few significant homes just above the little town, most famously the one owned by Alfred Hitchcock. Hitch had purchased a beautiful nine bedroom home in a 200-acre estate on Vine Hill Road in 1940, and his family owned it until 1970. While Hitchcock owned numerous homes, he relaxed and entertained Hollwyood stars on Vine Hill Road for decades, with no one the wiser. It's no accident that so many Santa Cruz and Monterey settings appeared in his movies. I don't believe Hitchcock ever dropped by The Barn, but we can always imagine it.
In any case, Scotts Valley had been almost powerless to stop Big Daddy because they weren't actually a town. Thanks to fear of The Barn, the community organized themselves and incorporated as a city on August 2, 1966. As a city, they didn't have to just depend on county zoning, but would be able to pass ordnances that would discourage beatnik interlopers. In Summer '66, Tabory announced that he would be holding a "Discoteque-type" dance at The Barn, and the locals sprung into action to stop him. A Santa Cruz Sentinel article from July 28 (above) outlined the problem:
SV City Officers, Residents Expected To Protest Reopening Of The 'Barn' (Santa Cruz Sentinel July 28 1966)
Scott's Valley's Barn, which became controversial when Eric (Big Daddy) Nord opened a coffee and art house there in 1964, faces more of the same tomorrow.
Leon Tabory is expected to appear before the county board of zoning adjustment to ask for a use permit to open the Barn once again.
After Nord left the Barn, it operated only a few months before closing. But during its brief career it stirred anger among some Scotts Valley residents because of its alleged "beatnik" associations.
Tabory's application calls for "an entertainment hall to produce concerts, lectures, art exhibits, music and dance events and the sale of refreshments, on the northwest side of Club Drive, north of Granite Creek Road.
Scotts Valley city officials, including city administrator Friend Stone, say they expect a large protest tomrorrow against allowing the use. Residents may ask the board to delay any action until Scotts Valley becomes a city Tuesday and has control over zoning regulations.
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| An August 26 1966 Sentinel article headlined "Another Haymaker Knocks Down Barn" |
Later in August, the Scotts Valley City Council met as the Zoning Board, and denied Tabory a permit to use The Barn as an entertainment venue. Tabory argued that he owned the property and it was commercially zoned, so he had every right to use it in any legal way he saw fit. The Sentinel reported on the contentious meeting:
Another Haymaker Knocks Down The Barn by Wallace Wood (Santa Cruz Sentinel August 26, 1966)
Scotts Valley's Barm problem wasn't solved last night, though city councilmen turned down a site permit to make the Barn an "entertainment center."
Owner Leon Tabory today said he will establish all the legal uses he is entitled to as an owner of a commercial property, to prevent the city from putting him out of business by changing The Barn's zoning.
Tabory's attorney, Bob Ludlow of Boulder Creek, also said his client will appeal the city council's decision back to the city council again.
The appeal is possible because last night's meeting, which drew about 50 people to the city hall, was technically a board of zoning adjustment hearing. The council sat as the zoning board.
Tabory asked for the permit as live entertainment and possibly beer or wine might be served at The Barn.
Though Mayor Bill Graham cautioned at the start of the meeting that "we aren't going to get into personalities her," many of the objectors and supporters of The Barn centered their arguments around Tabory, a clinical psychologist.
The Rev. Glenn Culwell, pastor of the nearby Scotts Valley Baptist church, charged Tabory with "hailing the merits" of drugs such as marijuana and LSD, questioned Tabory's "professional opinion" in a court trial about some photographs displayed in the Hip Pocket bookstore, and said Tabory is "in full accord with the type of philosophy of the Free Speech Movement."
Tabory and his attorney replied to such criticism by saying that the psychologist is only giving his "professional opinion" in the bookstore trial, and that he was quoted out of context in describing beneficial aspects of drugs. "The Rev. Culwell did not include all I said about the dangers and the cautions in the uses of these drugs," Tabory said.
Asked if he would display such photographs as were displayed in the bookstore, Tabory said "No, I would not."
The Rev. Culwell claimed that the old Barn operation was so "raucous and noisy we had to call our insurance carrier to be sure our vandalism insurance was in order. Our parking lot was littered with beer cans and trash."
Dr. Richard Smith, 50 Mt. Hermon Road, declared that the old Barn operation was "well conducted and persons there were well-behaved. It drew students, teachers, religious leaders and community leaders, it may have drawn a few so-called Beatniks but they caused no trouble."Patrick Dulane, of Capitola, told the council that 'barn dances and square dances are loud and raucous too. People stomped their feet and clapped their hands. Now the dances are different, but they still stomp their feet and clap their hands."
Joseph Lysowski, 248 Third Avenue, drew wide laughter when he declared "I don't like LSD and I don't like the Baptist church. I think they are both dangerous."Mrs. H.H. Lane of Los Gatos, who has demanded at a planning committee session that The Barn should be condemned as "unhealthy morally and other wise," said she was considering establishing a business in Scotts Valley until she "heard the beatniks were coming in." Later, she drew loud applause and cheers by saying "I've decided not to locate here."
The vote against a permit for The Barn was unanimous, with most councilmen citing a fear it would be detrimental to the morals of the community.
Some historical notes are in order: Dr. Richard Smith was a dentist. His address of 50 Mt. Hermon Road was almost certainly his dental office, over at the other (lower) end of town. Dr. Smith was closely associated with Kesey and the Pranksters, and if you read accounts of how much the Kesey crew liked and used Nitrous Oxide, well, it probably wasn't likely a coincidence. Per Holly Harman, Smith also helped finance some of the local light shows (specifically one called LoveLights). Joseph Lysowski was an artist. He would draw many of the flyers for shows at The Barn in 1966, and he would also paint psychedelic murals on the walls of The Barn.
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| September 2, 1966 Sentinel ad for The Barn |
The Santa Cruz Sentinel was the main daily newspaper for the entire county. The Friday, September 2 edition had a display ad for The Barn. The fine print in the ad said
THE BARN
COFFEE SHOP NOW OPEN
The public is invited to come and enjoy the friendliest, relaxed atmposphere of The BarnDelicious Sandwiches & Homemade Pies
Friday & Saturday, 8pm-2am
Sunday 1pm-10pmSpecial introductory program Friday at 9 p.m. in the beautifully remodeled hall upstairs, a work of art by Joseph Lysowski.
Presented by a PhD, a doctor and artist, who will demonstrate expression of feelings through new jazz sounds.
PUBLIC CORDIALLY INVITED TO INSPECT THE PREMISES
Off Hiway 17 at Granite Creek Road
It seems that owner Leon Tabory was advertising events at The Barn within the confines of the zoning hearing. Since The Barn had already been a coffee shop, it seemed there was no barrier to continuing in that vein. The 1965 configuration of The Barn had a coffee shop downstairs and and the loft upstairs. The upstairs "performance space" was now decorated with psychedelic art.
The language of the ad suggests an almost academic presentation, with the vague hint that a jazz band will be performing. This still seems within the confines of the zoning restrictions. Note that there is no street address, just a turnoff. Highway 17 was the main road from San Jose to Santa Cruz and The Barn was visible from the road. Earlier flyers listed the address 3486 Granite Creek Road, and that it overlooked Club Drive, but Scotts Valley was so small that such details weren't really needed.
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| September 9, 1966 Sentinel ad for The Barn |
The September 9 Sentinel ad for The Barn has a similar tone. The small print has a detailed descriptions of lectures about art and performance from various luminaries. Sharp eyes will note Tom Glass as one of the presenters. It says "Tom Glass makes a living in radio and TV advertising, and lives in his art and music." Tom Glass had moved to Berkeley from Ohio in the late 50s, and was an excellent bass player and graphic artist. Poster collectors may recognize him as the artist "Ned Lamont." Glass was also in the Jazz Mice with Ian Underwood, and various other ensembles.
I knew Tom Glass in the 1980s in his professional capacity as a graphic artist. He was a charming, unique guy, who told me so many things about the Fillmore and Avalon. Of course, I had no idea how hooked in he really was, and so sadly I had no chance to cross-examine him about subjects like this. But his mere presence at The Barn was subversive in itself.
The ad still presents the weekend program at The Barn as a series of lectures, perhaps with some visual presentations, yet there's reason to think what was going on was actually much more interesting.
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| September 16, 1966 Sentinel ad for The Barn |
September 16, 1966 The Barn, Scotts Valley, CA: Butterfield Blues Band (Friday)
The ads in the Santa Cruz Sentinel give the distinct impression of something like an academic reception: lectures, discussion and sandwiches. The story on the ground was a little bit different. I'm pretty sure rock were playing in the upstairs room right from the beginning. I have also heard from various people that Thursday nights--not in the ad--were kind of like a party, with rock bands showing up. Since the total number of proto-hippies was small, it wasn't hard to invite them to a Thursday night party without having to advertise.
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| The monumental debut album of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band was released by Elektra Records in October 1965. A multi-racial electric band was a real thing. |
Almost immediately, The Barn started drawing fans from "over the hill" in Palo Alto and San Jose. Leon Tabory knew Neal Cassady, of course, so he knew of the goings on around Stanford and San Jose State. My original sources on The Barn both lived in Palo Alto. My best source (hi Chris) told me about seeing the Butterfield Blues Band one weekend. In late '66, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band were likely the best electric American band at that time, with Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop on guitars. He recalled a guest being invited up on stage to blow harmonica along with Paul Butterfield, and later he realized it had been Charlie Musselwhite.
I looked into the Butterfield touring schedule at length, and this is the weekend that fits. The band had ended a booking at the Cafe Au Go Go on September 4, and headed West to play the Monterey Jazz Festival on Saturday, September 17, as part of a Blues program (see below). They would begin a long run in San Francisco on September 30. It makes logical sense that the group would play The Barn the night before the Jazz Festival. Butterfield was tapped in to the underground, since they were scheduled to play an Acid Test at San Francisco State on September 30 (canceled due to riots in the Fillmore district, when police shot an unarmed young African-American man. Some things never change). It's possible that Butterfield played the next weekend (September 23-24) instead, but it seems less likely.
The Monterey Jazz Festival had been founded in 1958 by writer Ralph Gleason and dj Jimmy Lyons. It was one of the premier jazz events in the country, and it was designed to provide a seaside weekend for out-of-town visitors. The biggest names in jazz headlined throughout the three-day festival. In 1966, the Saturday afternoon show was called "History Of The Blues." The afternoon was "narrated" (presented) by singer Jon Hendricks, with themes he would later develop into the stage show Evolution Of The Blues. Along with the iconic Muddy Waters and Big Mama Thornton, the festival also presented the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the Jefferson Airplane, both smoking hot rock acts.
At this great remove, we forget that the original pitch for Jefferson Airplane was "Fo-Jazz," an amalgam of folk and jazz. Now, that tag was made up by their (much-despised) manager, Mathew Katz, but appearing at the jazz festival was probably an honor for the Airplane. Jefferson Airplane's first album Jefferson Airplane Takes Off had just been released by RCA in August. Spencer Dryden, from Los Angeles, had replaced Skip Spence on drums, but Signe Andersen was still singing with the band.
Phil Elwood of the Examiner gave an enthusiastic review the next day (September 18) to the entire afternoon. About the Airplane, he said "The Jefferson Airplane, quite young and popular, were the rookies in this league, but they handled their electronic equipment (vocal, instrumental) more professionally than anyone on stage all afternoon." This was a telling point: while the likes of Muddy Waters had infinitely more stage experience than the Airplane, the band had more experience with big amplifiers in a large venue, rather than in a smoky little club.
The most significant impact of the Butterfield and Airplane appearances was the insight of a hip insider named Alan Pariser. Pariser was well-connected in the worlds of music and entertainment in Hollywood, and he came up with the idea of having a three-day "Monterey Pop Festival" just like the Jazz Festival, and at the same venue. John Phillips (of The Mamas And The Papas) and producer Lou Adler (of Dunhill Records) joined Pariser to make it happen in 1967.
September 23, 1966 The Barn, Scotts Valley, CA: New Delhi River Band/Mercy Street Blues Machine (Friday-Saturday) with The Outfit Light Show
On this weekend, The Barn ad explicitly stated there would be music. The ad's fine print says
We are offering an experience that many of you have been hearing about. We will provide an environment of sounds and lights that totally surround.
The Outfit Light Show. The New Delhi River Band. The Mercy Street Blues Machine, at 8:30 p.m Friday
Leon Tabory will give a brief explanation of the evolution of music and art forms, what & why is happening today. Questions will be answere at 12 p.m. Admission $1.50
Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, music. Wednesday conversation, 8:30 pm.
Off Hiway 17 at Granite Creek Rd.
The premise of the ad seems to be that The Barn will present a Fillmore-type concert as an intellectual demonstration of the form. The light show is mentioned first, to help imply that this is "art" rather than just a concert. Of course it is just a rock concert under a thin veneer of "participant observation," but that probably added to the prankishness of it all. The wording suggests this has already been happening. It's unclear who would be providing the music on Saturday and Sunday, but I suspect it would have been the same as Friday night.
The New Delhi River Band, although they never released any recordings, are an essential, fascinating component of South Bay psychedelia. They were Palo Alto's second psychedelic blues band. Guitarist David Nelson, best friend of the lead guitarist of Palo Alto's first psychedelic blues band, had been a bluegrass guitarist who finally decided to "go electric" in mid-1966. His house-mate Karl Moore had the idea to create a club, a band and a light show called The Outfit. The club would be located (for those who know Palo Alto) on Homer Avenue, but across the train tracks and behind the Town & Country Village shopping center.
The Outfit club was created over a period of time, probably in a quonset-hut warehouse space. In the end, although there were a couple of "building parties," there was only one show. The music was provided by a spontaneous electric band that featured Nelson and guitarist Peter Sultzbach. Eyewitnesses place Leon Tabory there, so The Outfit may have been the inspiration. Neal Cassady was at The Outfit event, and that was likely one of the connections. The South Bay underground was so small--I was reliably told "thirty people plus the Kesey crowd"--there was little problem with spreading the word. The Outfit party was likely in mid-June. There would have been no flyer, because it would attract squares, and with them the cops. LSD was legal, but weed and speed were definitely not.
The New Delhi River Band's initial gigs in August 1966 were at a place called Losers South in San Jose, opening for Van Morrison and Them, and then Roy Head (I have covered the known history of the New Delhi River Band in extraordinary detail). The initial lineup had been Nelson and Sultzbach on guitars, with John Tomasi on vocals and harmonica. Tomasi and Sultzbach had been in a Los Altos garage band called Bethlehem Exit. NDRB's first bass player was a friend named Austin Keith, a converted guitar player, and the group had no drummer. They played electric blues, more or less, like the Butterfield Blues Band or John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.
The Mercy Street Blues Machine was a sort of avant-garde duo. Chris Recker and Ralph Saunders were young Palo Altans who hung out with the New Delhi River Band crowd. They were just a few years younger than the likes of David Nelson--who was then about 23--when a few years was a big age difference. Mercy Street was in Mountain View, and had some personal reference for the pair. Chris Recker was one of my primary sources for this entire Barn saga. Interestingly, I actually met Ralph Saunders a few times in the mid-1970s, as I was friends with his brother. I asked him once whether he knew the Grateful Dead, and he just said he knew Dave Torbert. I did not know about The Barn at that time.
The Mercy Street Blues Machine consisted of the pair playing guitars and percussion instruments, and making strange electronic sounds. Ralph Saunders mostly played steel guitar. They didn't play "songs." Sometimes they were joined by friends or even random people, who would play some of their instruments. According to Chris Recker, they would play in the downstairs coffee house before the show, and during any kind of set break, while the headlining act played upstairs. On occasion, the Mercy Street Blues Machine was also called the Hershey Gumbo Band.
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| Holly Harman reprinted the flyer in her book for the New Delhi River Band show at The Barn on the weekend of October 7-8, 1966. The other acts "Tonal Abnormalities (Sat. only)" and "Kindly Dwarf," if indeed they are bands, are unknown to me. Magic Theater did the light show. Although I may be the only one who cares, this flyer is exotically obscure and unseen for the 21st century save for her book (the upper left is the overlay of another flyer). |
October 7-8, 1966 The Barn, Scotts Valley, CA: New Delhi River Band (Friday-Saturday)
This weekend's shows had been only implied by a brief remark in the famous Mojo Navigator fanzine (mentioned below), but Holly Harman reprinted an extraordinarily rare flyer. The Magic Theater are listed as the Light Show (see October 14-15, below) , and rather cryptically "Tonal Abnormalities" are listed for Saturday only. Also, The Kindly Dwarf is noted. I do not know if either of these refer to a band or anything else. The layout of the flyer doesn't shed much light on them, either. It hardly mattered, however. The semiotics of Fillmore-style posters were well-known. For the type of person who wanted to see that sort of thing, the fanciful and hard-to-read flyer did not actually need to be deciphered. The time and date were clear, and the little map was included on the bottom.
By this time the ads in the Santa Cruz Sentinel had stopped. Tabory was putting on rock concerts with a full light show on Friday and Saturday night, and a sort of private party/rock concert on Thursday nights. I actually believe he was sincere with respect to considering the concerts a formal expression of "performance art" rather than just a mere dance party, but I think he had given up on pretending there were lectures before and after the event.
In Fall 1966, there were very few safe, fun places for hip long-hairs to go, save for the Fillmore, the Avalon and a few college campuses. The scene at The Barn rapidly caught on. Eyewitnesses report that people from the Family Dog and the Grateful Dead "family" were regularly seen there. Now, those same witnesses were clear that this did not include Chet Helms nor any members of the Dead, but the underground all knew about The Barn even when they hadn't been there.
Somewhere around this time, the New Delhi River Band started finalizing their lineup. Redwood City, two towns North of Palo Alto, had its first blues band. The Good News played around the Peninsula with their own strobe light setup, a kind of primitive light show. Good News drummer Chris Herold sat in with the New Delhi River Band at The Barn, apparently on a Thursday night, and he joined the group. Since The Good News would only last a few more weeks, the NDRB rapidly become Herold's main group.
The NDRB was still struggling with finding a bass player. Nelson's Palo Alto friend John Dawson tried out as bassist for one gig at The Barn, but it didn't work out. Nelson told me that "Dawson wasn't really a bass player." Herold, however, had a solution. As the Good News was dissolving, that meant that Dave Torbert was available. Torbert, from Redwood City and the son of two music teachers, had been the guitarist and singer for the Good News, but Nelson talked him into playing bass for the NDRB. According to Nelson, he asked Torbert at The Barn, and played the song "Beaumont Rag" for Torbert to convince him to join the band.
The exact timing of all this is uncertain, but the Good News was over by November 1966, and Torbert and Herold were fully on board with New Delhi River Band. According to Good News guitarist Tim Abbott, the band had played at the Fillmore (on October 23 1966) and were asked back a few weeks later, but they had already broken up. Presumably, Torbert and Herold were briefly members of both groups for a short period.
We tracked down this date from the extraordinarily well-researched 13th Floor Elevators list. I am unable to confirm it, but it seems very likely. The 13th Floor Elevators had moved to the Bay Area, and were based in the mountains above San Bruno, near SFO Airport. The band had scored a sort of hit with "You're Gonna Miss Me," and played gigs all around San Francisco. They did not play the Fillmore, and were blocked from playing for some legal reason when they had been booked at the Avalon.
It makes perfect sense that the 13th Floor Elevators would play a Thursday night show at The Barn. They probably didn't get paid, or just barely, but it was the type of underground scene where they would have shined. In Fall '66, almost all rock gigs were only on weekends, so the Elevators weren't likely giving up a paying booking to play at The Barn on a weeknight.
Lincoln Street Exit and Burgundy Runn were San Jose "garage" bands, to my limited knowledge.
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| A flyer for the New Delhi River Band and The Flowers at The Barn, October 13 and 14, 1966 |
October 15, 1966 The Barn, Scotts Valley, CA: The Flowers/Del-Fis/Michael Finch (Saturday)
The first public trace of the New Delhi River Band outside of the South Bay was in issue #9 of the legendary Haight Ashbury fanzine Mojo Navigator (the publication date of the typed, mimeographed 'zine was October 17, 1966). The actual quote was “a place called ‘The Barn’ in Scotts Valley near Santa’s Village which has been putting on some weekly happenings lately with the New Delhi River Band and a couple of others.” Since we have a poster we are certain of Friday, October 14.
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| The Flowers in Golden Gate Park's Botanical Gardens, late 66/early '67. (L-R), Gordon Stevens, Paul Robertson, Terry Otis, Bob Neloms (photo via Gordon Stevens) |
The Flowers, who played The Barn on Saturday night (October 15), were another Palo Alto band. In their case, they were a psychedelic jazz band rather than a blues band. Alto saxophonist Paul Robertson had been Ken Kesey's lawyer, and Kesey had staked Robertson to some electronic equipment. The Paul Robertson Quartet had changed their name to The Flowers, and while they were still playing jazz, they were playing with electric gear and a heavier beat, much more attuned to a rock audience.
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| When The Flowers performed in 1966-67, they hung this banner behind the stage wherever possible. The banner was still intact as of 2020 (Gordon Stevens and his wife holding it up). |
Gordon Stevens recalled playing The Barn, and recalled the interesting fact that the other act was The Del-Fis. The Del-Fis had previously been The Tikis, and would soon become Harpers Bizarre, scoring a big hit for Warner Brothers with a soft-pop cover of Paul Simon's "59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)." Del-Fi leader Ted Templeman, you'll recall, apparently had Santa Cruz County's first rock band, The Dukes (above), then the more mainstream Tikis, at least dabbled in the psychedelic with the Del-Fis, and then went mainstream with Harpers Bizarre. The versatility prepared him well for his successful career as a producer.
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| Santa Cruz Sentinel article on Monday Oct 17 '66: Owner Of SV Barn Arrested |
Owner Of SV Barn Arrested (by Wallace Wood, Sentinel Staff Writer) Santa Cruz Sentinel, Monday October 17, 1966
Leon Tabory, 41-year old Los Gatos clinical psychologist and owner of The Barn, was arrested Friday night on misdemeanor counts of operating a nightclub or place of amusement without a use permit.
Tabory, who was released on $115 bail, is to be arraigned this afternoon on the complaint from the City of Scotts Valley.
Shortly before noon today, a representative of Scotts Vally city attorney filed an action in superior court to abate The Barn as a zoning violation, and won a temporary restraining order from Judge Charles French.
The order forbids Tabory or others from operating The Barn as a dance hall, nightclub or roadhouse.
Hearing on a preliminary injunction is set for October 28. Depostions in the case will be taken October 25. The injunction would make the restraining order permanent until the case is brought to trial.
Tabory was first turned down in his request for a use permit to operate The Barn by the Scotts Valley city council on August 25. He appealed, and was turned down again Thursday night.
Tabory repeatedly has claimed he is not operating a nightclub of place of commercial entertainment at The Barn. He said hs is conducting "experimental therapy" and said his activities are legal in the C-2 commercial zone.
He said he will continue to operate The Barn until served with the court restraining order.
Scotts Valley city attorneys say the court actions are a "civil matter."The city's complaint charges that such euphemism's as "total environment," "mixed media," "rock flow" as applied to The Barn's operation are the same as a dance hall or nightclub, or a place where liquor is served or entertainment provided.
It charges The Barn is a nightclub "with loud, blaring and amplified musical instruments , flickering and flashing lights, dancing and singing to 3 and 4 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, while only 60 feet from a church and surrounded by homes.
This, the complaint says, is in violation of the county's zoning ordinance which Scotts Valley adopted when it became a city.
Holly Harman's book has a much more detailed account of the difficulties Tabory had with the town of Scotts Valley. Harman was good friends with Tabory until his death in 2009, so her primary source was likely Tabory himself. As one might expect, they reflect a Santa Cruz Mountains' version of preachers and police attempting to harass people who aren't like them.
Although the exact outcome of the restraining order hearing isn't clear, Leon Tabory did not shut down The Barn. Harman explains in some detail what happened, but it cost him a lot in legal fees. We have flyers for a number of subsequent shows, although it remains uncertain if all of them actually occurred.
The San Francisco Mime Troupe presented radical political theater, not rock and roll, but they were very definitely part of the San Francisco underground. Their most famous eminence was former business manager Bill Graham, who in the process of arranging for the Troupe to pay some legal bills, organized a benefit concert with some rock bands at the Fillmore Auditorium. Graham had moved on by Fall '66, but the SF Mime Troupe continued to tour locally and nationally, presenting original productions that were both entertaining and radical.
A flyer for The New Delhi River Band at The Barn on October 28-29, 1966
The New Delhi River Band were booked both weekend nights.
Our only trace of this show is the flyer that has the Sons Of Eternity scheduled for the Sunday after the New Delhi River Band (October 30), only to have a hand cross-out indicating that they will perform the following Sunday, November 6, from 3-6pm. Was there another booking the next weekend (November 4-5)? It seems likely, but since The Barn was not advertising in the Sentinel, nor anywhere, and no flyer has survived, we are left to wonder.
The Sons Of Eternity were a commune somewhere in the Santa Cruz Mountains that had a Don Buchla-designed "Thunder Machine," just like Kesey and the Pranksters. It's very possible, even likely, that it was the same Thunder Machine, just handed off. Buchla (1937-2016) was an early pioneer in electronic instruments and amplification, and was one of the inventors of the synthesizer. I'm not quite sure how the Thunder Machine worked, but it seemed to electronically process and amplify percussion sounds (if I'm wrong, please correct me in the Comments). Thus the performance by The Sons Of Eternity would have been more like an avant-garde music presentation than any sort of rock concert, although perhaps just as loud.
A then-new UCSC Professor, Ralph Abrahams, has described attending a Sons Of Eternity event at The Barn but it seems to have been in the Fall of 1967.
This performance was described in detail by Tom Wolfe in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Since Wolfe interviewed people after the fact, while there's no doubt that this event took place, I had to triangulate the date. There's some chance it was another night.
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| Big Brother's contract for playing November 18 &19, 1966 at The Barn. They were paid $600. Peter Albin signed the contract. |
November 19-20, 1966 The Barn, Scotts Valley, CA: Big Brother and The Holding Company/New Delhi River Band/Mercy Street Blues Machine (Friday-Saturday)
For sure in November of 66 because we borrowed a VW double-cab pick-up from our landlady of the Argentina House in Lagunitas (we lived there between July 66 & January 67). We had problems with the truck. It was a rainy weekend and all the truck had to protect our equipment in the back was a sort of covered-wagon sort of affair which allowed water to collect in the bed of the truck. On the way back, we either blew the engine or transmission (I can't remember which) that we had to get repaired. So we didn't make much money that weekend. One of the times we played the Barn was with the New Delhi River Band, and another time was with the Congress of Wonders.Since the other Big Brother date at The Barn was February 25, 1967, and the NDRB were playing elsewhere, this seems to be the weekend they played together. Nelson and Albin had played folk festivals around the South Bay in the previous two years; now they were both playing loud, electric blues.
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| A Berkeley Barb ad on December 3, 1966 for Country Joe & The Fish, showing that they will be playing Pauley Ballroom at UC Berkeley on December 2 (with the Grateful Dead) and The Barn on December 3. |
Country Joe & The Fish was Berkeley's first and best psychedelic band. Initially just the duo of folksingers Joe McDonald and Barry Melton, they made up the clever name after they recorded Joe's anti-war song in late 1965 called "Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag," and released it themselves. After seeing the Paul Butterfield Blues Band at the Fillmore in February 1966, they "went electic" at a little Berkeley joint called The Questing Beast. Once the band stabilized, Country Joe & The Fish recorded a three-song EP and sold it themselves at Moe's Books in Berkeley, and by mail. Ultimately it sold 15,000 copies. When Joe began "Bass Strings" by singing "Hey partner, won't you pass that reefer 'round," it was often the first psychedelic San Francisco rock many people got to hear on record.
By the Fall of '66, Country Joe & The Fish were playing the Fillmore and the Avalon. They were a five-piece band, with vocals from Joe and Barry, lead guitar from Barry, organ and guitar from David Cohen, bass and harmonies from Bruce Barthol and drums by John Francis Gunning. They had a bunch of original material, and a big local following, so Vanguard Records got interested. By December, Vanguard had signed the band. There were two conditions: they had to withdraw their own EP, and they had to get a different drummer. Vanguard producer Sam Charters didn't like the fact that Gunning refused to rehearse, or play the same part twice, but just jammed his way through the songs. The band assented to both demands, although in retrospect they regretted the way they pushed out Gunning.
Gunning's last gig with Country Joe & The Fish was December 2, 1966 at the Pauley Ballroom in UC Berkeley, sharing the bill with the Grateful Dead. On Saturday, December 3, Country Joe & The Fish played The Barn with Berkeley drummer Chicken Hirsch. They must have had a stealth rehearsal or two with Hirsch, and then they simply told Gunning he was out. While Gunning wasn't fully professional, band members are now sorry about how they handled it, even if the details are now obscure. Country Joe & The Fish were a big name by the standards of The Barn. People would have seen their name on posters, and some people would have heard them in San Francisco or Berkeley, and a few people would have even heard their EP.
Opening the show was a band called The New Age. They were a Berkeley band led by guitarist and singer Pat Kilroy, who had released a 1966 Elektra album called Light Of Day. The New Age was a trio, playing dreamy ethereal acoustic music, with Kilroy on acoustic guitar and vocals, Susan Graubard on flute and koto (a Japanese stringed instrument) and Jeffrey Lewis on congas. Lewis had replaced a tabla player. If you say "wait--isn't guitar/flute/koto/percussion kind of a typical 'New Age' sort of sound?" you wouldn't be wrong. The thing was, "New Age" music did not exist as a genre or concept, and The New Age pretty much invented it out of thin air, even if no one gives them credit for it. The New Age were popular at a Berkeley folk club called The Jabberwock, which was next door to Joe and Barry's old rooming house.
In fact, Vanguard rented The Barn for twelve days, so that the band could rehearse with Chicken Hirsch for their new album. It was an oddity that they played a gig on the first day, rather than the last.
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| A current view from the Nepenthe restaurant in Big Sur. Just to be clear, I don't even think this is the nicest view (I like it better just off to the right), but it's a whiff of how spectacular it is. |
December 7, 1966 Big Sur Art Gallery, Big Sur, CA: Country Joe & The Fish (Wednesday)
There really weren't hippies in 1966, but if there were, they lived in Big Sur. Big Sur is a spectacularly beautiful coastal town about 35 miles (an hour's drive) South of Monterey on Highway 1. When I say "spectacular," this is not an exaggeration. Big Sur is very isolated and very beautiful. In 1965, the movie The Sandpipers, with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, was filmed there. Many of the local hippie-types were part of the various crowd scenes. The long hair and ecstatic dancing seems like fairly typical stuff to us now, but this was in 1965.
Country Joe & The Fish were booked to play a Wendesday show at a place near Big Sur called Lime Kiln Creek, but it was moved to the Big Sur Art Gallery. This was probably weather-related. The same couple of dozen hippies would have attended in any case. Big Sur is just over two hours from Scotts Valley.
December 10, 1966 The Barn, Scotts Valley, CA: unknown (Saturday)
Country Joe & The Fish had a previously scheduled gig in Stockton this night, so I am assuming there was a regular show this night, as it was a Saturday.
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| A flyer for the Pat Britt Quartet at The Barn on December 14, 1966 (artist unknown) |
December 14, 1966 The Barn, Scotts Valley, CA: Pat Britt Quartet/experimental movies (Wednesday)
Pat Britt was a Bay Area jazz player. He would release the album Jazz From San Francisco on Crestview Records in 1968. Britt would move to Los Angeles soon after. His LA Times obituary gives a brief review of his career:
January 18, 1940 - February 5, 2022 An accomplished saxophonist, composer and record producer, Pat Britt was revered by all who knew him for his warmth, generosity, and wit. Britt died peacefully at the home of his daughter Tristan in Astoria, Ore. A Pittsburgh, Pa. native, he was raised in the Bay Area and moved to Los Angeles in 1970, where he performed regularly -- including a 25-year hit at the Cat & Fiddle Pub in Hollywood -- and produced albums for such notables as Sonny Stitt on Catalyst and Vee-Jay Records.
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| Joe Lysowski flyer for The Barn, December 16-17, 1966 |
December 17, 1966 The Barn, Scotts Valley, CA: Anonymous Artists of America (Saturday)
A Joe Lysowski flyer from the weekend's shows has survived. It's generally believed that there were flyers for every weekend of shows, but many have not have made it out to the 21st century. I got an anonymous email from a then-teenage Fremont resident who said that he drew flyers for Leon Tabory in return for free admission. None of his flyers have surfaced. It turned out that many Fremont-area teenagers went to The Barn during the '66-'67 window. The Barn was only about an hour (40 miles) from Fremont. At the time, Fremont was still a more working-class area, supported by the Ford factory (now a Tesla plant) and local agriculture. Fremont parents frowned on the idea of teenagers borrowing the family station wagon to go to big, bad San Francisco and the Fillmore. But a trip to Santa Cruz? Sure, no problem.
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| "Rancho Diablo" was the former Diamond Estate, at Skyline Blvd and Old La Honda Road, just above Menlo Park. A huge house surrounded by 75 acres of wilderness, built by a former railroad baron. A developer tried to turn it into a country club in 1961 (Sep 21 '61 Redwood City Tribune). Most of it is now a nature preserve, although the house itself may now be owned by Elon Musk. |
The Anonymous Artists of America lived in a commune in La Honda called Rancho Diablo. When the Merry Pranksters abandoned the Santa Cruz Mountains, they gave much of their equipment to the AAA. One of the members of the group was Sara Ruppenthal Garcia, Jerry Garcia’s soon-to-be ex-wife. The AAA was a very strange sounding group, and by their own admission not very good at the time, but they were definitely way out there. Their story, too, is a strange and complicated '60s story that defies reality, so I will refrain from telling it all. Nonetheless, the Anonymous Artists had also had a Palo Alto genesis. Somebody in the band (Lars Kampen) inherited a little money, and spent it on some instruments. Stanford students and University employees formed the band, who--in fact--did not really know how to play the instruments they had just acquired. Their odd name stemmed from their philosophical belief that everyone was an artist.
The AAA's "public" debut was at the Fillmore, after a Quicksilver Messenger Service show on July 24, 1966. Lee Quarnstrom, a newspaper reporter that had fallen in with the Merry Pranksters, got married at the Fillmore Auditorium that night. The "wedding party" was after the regular concert, and the AAA performed at the party. The next known performance of the AAA was at the infamous "Acid Test Graduation" held at the Calliope Warehouse on Halloween 1966. This story was told in great detail in Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, so I won't repeat it here. The band can be seen in some of the video footage. A San Francisco Chronicle reporter then discovered the group, and wrote about them and the Rancho in great detail--with particular attention paid to Sara--in January 1967.
Rancho Diablo, actually an imitation Spanish Hacienda at the former Diamond Estate, has its own complex counterculture history that is too hard to summarize. The estate (whose current owner may be Elon Musk), at Skyline Boulevard (CA-35) and Old La Honda Road, was less than an hour to The Barn, albeit over some twisty roads indeed. It was as close to a local gig as Anonymous Artists Of America were going to have. A long-ago eyewitness (Bill Jenkins) attended at least one
of these shows, and remembers communal drumming downstairs in what he
called the “Pot Belly Room.” He may be remembering the Mercy Street Blues Machine.
December 23, 1966 The Barn, Scotts Valley, CA: Country Joe & The Fish (Friday)
Country Joe & The Fish had completed their rehearsals, apparently, and would begin recording their debut album soon. Yet they returned to The Barn, probably much tighter than before. Presumably, there was no Saturday night show because it was Christmas Eve.
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| Jazz from San Francisco-Pat Britt Quintet: Crestview Records (1968) |
December 29, 1966 The Barn, Scotts Valley, CA Jazz/Congress of Wonders (Thursday)
December 30, 1966 The Barn, Scotts Valley, CA MannBevil/Congress of Wonders (Friday)
The Barn had a different schedule for the last week of 1966, as there were shows Wednesday and Thursday as well as on the weekend. For the weeknights, The Barn presented the comedy trio Congress Of Wonders and alto saxophonist Pat Britt (I'm assuming he was the "jazz" on Thursday as well). Given the shaky legal status of The Barn, presenting jazz and comedy on weeknights was less disruptive than loud rock music. On Friday night, Congress Of Wonders was booked with a Palo Alto blues band.
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| Revolting, by Congress Of Wonders, their 1970 debut on Fantasy Records. Comedy routines from this album were staples of KSAN-fm for years afterwards. |
Congress Of Wonders were a comedy trio from Berkeley, initially from the UC Berkeley drama department and later part of Berkeley’s Open Theater on College Avenue, a prime spot for what were called “Happenings” (now ‘Performance Art’). Congress Of Wonders had performed at the Avalon and other rock venues.
Ultimately a duo, Karl Truckload (Howard Kerr) and Winslow Thrill (Richard Rollins) created two Congress of Wonders albums on Fantasy, Revolting (1970) and Sophomoric ('72). Pieces like “Pigeon Park” and “Star Trip”, although charmingly dated now, were staples of San Francisco underground radio at the time. Earl Pillow (actually Wesley Hind) was the original third member.
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| Reader John Leopold contributed this 1966 flyer from The Barn |
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| Fri Dec 30 66 Sentinel |
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| Reader John Leopold contributed this flyer for the New Year's 1966 events at The Barn |
December 31, 1966 The Barn, Scotts Valley, CA New Delhi River Band/Anonymous Artists of America (Saturday)
For all the drama and uncertainty surrounding The Barn, New Year's Eve must have ended 1966 on a high note. Of course, not a soul remembers anything about this event, just as no one remembers New Year's Eve at the Fillmore or the Avalon in 1966, either. The two regular "headline" bands at The Barn, both hailing from Palo Alto, shared the bill. The Barn had managed to stay afloat in the Fall, and as rock music was only getting bigger and bigger, there must have been plenty of optimism for 1967.
Aftermath
The Barn continued to present weekend rock shows in the first months of 1967, and there were still so few gigs for Fillmore-type bands that some pretty good groups played there. Santa Cruz was growing, too, thanks to the University, so there were more events in town. Of course, the principal rock event of 1967 was the Monterey Pop Festival in June, and that had ramifications way beyond Monterey and Santa Cruz. The next post in the series will look at rock concerts in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties in 1967.