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| The Family Dog Poster promoting The Youngbloods at the Avalon Ballroom on the weekend of January 5-7, 1968 (FD-100). Ace Of Cups opened the shows. |
The Youngbloods Performance List 1966-68
The Youngbloods went from Cambridge to Greenwich Village and then to Marin County. They were both East Coast folkies and a California hippie band. They had released some well-regarded albums in the '60s, and had a pretty solid following on the two Coasts. In Summer '69, there was a chance re-release of their 1967 single "Get Together." The song, by Dino Valente, had been recorded and performed by other artists, but in 1969 the country needed to sing "Come on people, now/Smile on your brother/Everybody get together/We've got to love one another right now." The song turned into a huge hit, everybody caught up to The Youngbloods and they signed a lucrative new record contract.
Prior to 1969, however, The Youngbloods had worked hard to grind out success. They were mellower and more thoughtful than many of their Avalon brethren, anticipating the singer/songwriter sound that would dominate in the 1970s. From 1966 to 1968 they toured pretty steadily, but mostly on the West Coast. This post represents an attempt to identify every single performance by The Youngbloods between 1966 and '68.
This project began as a collaboration between me and my friend and co-conspirator Ross Hannan, proprietor of the Chicken On A Unicycle site. Sadly, Ross died on 9 November 2024--date noted English style as Ross would prefer--yet the work continues in his memory. If you're at the Rifle Volunteer in Wokingham, or indeed anywhere, hoist one for Ross.
The Youngbloods were an active, successful group from 1966
to 1972, along with awell regarded reunions in a subsequent decade.
However, for practical reasons we limited this performance list to the
years 1966 through 1970 (the 1969-70 period will be covered in a
subsequent post). This is an ongoing project. Anyone with insights,
memories or corrections should include them in the Comments. Flashbacks
are entirely welcome, and indeed probably required.
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| Jesse Colin Young's first album on Capitol Records, Soul Of A City Boy, released in 1964. It was a solo folk album. Most of the original songs were credited to Perry Miller (Young's real name). |
Youngbloods Pre-History
The Youngbloods initially formed in New York City in late 1965. As folk music morphed into folk-rock, various musicians formed bands and rocked up many of the songs they had been playing by themselves. Record companies were busy signing up any band who looked or sounded like The Lovin’ Spoonful. When The Youngbloods were formed, Jesse Colin Young (born Perry Miller, from Queens, New York) had already released two folk albums. Soul Of A City Boy was a solo performance that had been released in March, 1964 (on Capitol). Young Blood had been released in March, 1965 (on Mercury), and had featured a small combo. However, both albums had gone nowhere. In late 1965, Young had formed a duo with guitarist Jerry Corbitt, and they played the Cambridge, MA folk clubs as well as New York dates. As Young’s folk career was stalled, the duo became interested in doing something in a bluesier style, and in a group setting.
Corbitt and Young recruited Lowell “Banana” Levinger, born in Santa Rosa, CA but by then based in Cambridge. Banana had gotten the bluegrass bug in high school and became adept at the banjo. He had gone to Boston University for a year and a half, but had dropped out to become a full-time musician by mid-1962. He had formed a group called Banana And The Bunch (‘Old Time Music With A-peel’), along with Michael Kane and Rick Turner (Turner would be in the rock group Autosalvage and would later help found Alembic Instruments, and Kane would join the Youngbloods in 1971). The group subsequently expanded into The Proper Bostonians, who played a wider variety of folk and bluegrass songs.
The Proper Bostonians did a fair amount of touring and traveling on the early '60s folk circuit, but ultimately got tired of roaming around. The Proper Bostonians disbanded and Michael Kane, Rick Turner and Banana moved to Martha’s Vineyard and opened an instrument shop, called the Island String Shop, where they hung out and played music, while intermittently repairing instruments.
By early 1966 Banana was ready to get back in the game. Banana and drummer Joe Bauer helped Young and Corbitt record some electric demos for Mercury (released much later on the compilation record Two Trips). Although Banana had been mainly a banjoist, he needed to wear a different hat as a folk-rocker, so he mainly played piano and slide guitar while Young switched to electric bass. Ultimately, the Youngbloods signed with RCA Records.
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| Jesse Colin Young's second album, Young Blood, released in 1965 on Mercury. Young was backed by session musicians, including John Sebastian. It was not a successful album, but in the '60s, if a singer could say "Mercury Recording Artist" it gave them more stature than just being some aspiring local. |
Youngbloods Performance List and Chronology 1966-68
The following is a list of known Youngbloods dates from 1966 to 1968. The list is skewed towards the East and West Coasts, where I have done considerably more research, so as a result the Youngbloods national tours are only broadly hinted at. The group played the circuit of folk clubs and college auditoriums, essentially the same circuit the members had played as folk musicians. Since neither collectible posters nor Underground newspapers were common outside the Bay Area, there is missing evidence of where the early Youngbloods actually played.
Fall 1965
Jesse Colin Young and Jerry Corbitt start playing as a duo, in New York and Cambridge clubs, and probably in between. Specific performance venues and dates are currently unknown.
January 1966 The Gaslight, New York, NY: The Youngbloods/Paul Arnoldi
A small display ad exists, listing the Youngbloods as apparently resident performers at The Gaslight. How long they played there is uncertain. It was around this period when Banana and Joe Bauer joined Young and Corbitt, but that too has not yet been pinned down.
The original Youngbloods were:
Jerry Corbitt-lead guitar, vocalsPaul Arnoldi was a fellow folkie from Cambridge who would have many connections to the Youngbloods over the years. The Youngbloods would record Arnoldi’s “One Note Man” on their first album.
Lowell "Banana" Levenger-piano, guitars (plus other instruments)
Jesse Colin Young-bass, lead vocals
Joe Bauer-drums
[We have found a number of dates throughout 1966 for a Western Pennsylvania band called The Youngbloods, sometimes billed as Lonnie Sanders and The Youngbloods, but we have no reason to believe it has any connection to the Cambridge/NYC Youngbloods. There also seems to be a similarly unrelated Minneapolis band (with girl singers) of the same name during this time.]
May 1-8, 1966 Café Au Go Go, New York, NY: Jim Kweskin Jug Band/The Youngbloods (Sunday>Sunday)
The Café Au Go Go was a relatively large (400 seat) club in Greenwich Village, at 152 Bleecker Street, but it did not have a liquor license. This made it easier for teenagers to attend, but tougher for owner Howard Solomon to turn a profit. The Au Go Go was one of the first venues to regularly book "Folk-Rock" bands, although it booked all kinds of rock, folk and blues acts.
The Youngbloods were booked at the Cafe Au Go from May 1 until August 14, effectively becoming the "house band." They were booked with all the East Coast touring acts, so they met everybody on the scene. Clubs like the Au Go Go ran late, and each band would usually play at least two sets. Groups that were playing prolonged
residencies at the Au Go Go regularly played other shows around the New York
City area, often college shows that began and ended before the Au Go Go
got rolling in the evening. With this in mind, we can assume that there
are a fair number of Youngbloods performances in the New York area in
the Summer of 1966 that have yet to be identified.
The Jim Kweskin Jug Band (featuring among others Geoff and Maria Muldaur) were longtime mainstays of the Cambridge, MA folk scene, and recorded for Vanguard.
May 27-29, 1966 Café Au Go Go, New York, NY: Bo Diddley/Blues Project/The Youngbloods (Friday-Sunday)
The Blues Project was Manhattan's first well-known white blues band, with Danny Kalb on lead guitar, joined by Steve Katz on guitar and Al Kooper on keyboards. Their first album Live At The Cafe Au Go Go, released on MGM/Verve in early 1966, was a hugely influential album. Along with the Butterfield Blues Band, the Blues Project made it seem possible for suburban white American kids to consider playing blues.
June 6-19, 1966 Café Au Go Go, New York, NY: Blues Project/Fred Neil/ The Youngbloods (Monday>Sunday)
Fred Neil was an important songwriter on the Greenwich Village folk scene. As early as 1964, he was not only writing his own material, but recording them with a swinging electric band. Some of his best known songs were "The Other Side Of This Life" and (in '68) "Everybody's Talking At Me."
June 20-29, 1966 Café Au Go Go, New York, NY: The Youngbloods (Monday>Wednesday)
Mercury Records may have released a single around this time – “Rider” – credited to Jesse Colin Young and The Youngbloods. But there appears to be a numbering issue (Mercury 72538) as the number was used by someone else (Terry Stafford: “Forbidden” b/w “Out Of The Picture”). Whilst reviews exist, it was perhaps withdrawn.
July 12-17, 1966 Café Au Go Go, New York, NY: Pozo Seco Singers/Jesse Colin Young and The Youngbloods (Tuesday-Sunday)
Some ads in the Village Voice listed the group as “Jesse Colin Young and The Youngbloods” and some as just the Youngbloods.
The Pozo Seco Singers were a folk trio from Texas, one of whom was Don Williams, later a Country Music Hall Of Fame songwriter. Their debut single "Time" had been released by Columbia Records and would reach #3 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart.
July 19-24, 1966 Café Au Go Go, New York, NY: Gordon Lightfoot/Jesse Colin Young and The Youngbloods (Tuesday-Sunday)
Gordon Lightfoot would become a legendary Canadian singer and songwriter, but at this time he was far better known for his songs than his singing. Ian & Sylvia had scored a big hit with his song "Early Morning Rain," also covered by many other performers. In 1965, Lightfoot had been signed by Albert Grossman, the manager of Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul & Mary and many others. Grossman was putting Lightfoot around in clubs, and had gotten him signed to United Artists. In January 1966, UA had released Lightfoot! which had been recorded back in December 1964, with support provided by Canadian guitarist David Rea and NYC session bassist Bill Lee (Spike's dad).
August 1-7, 1966 Café Au Go Go, New York, NY: Butterfield Blues Band/Pozo Seco Singers/ The Youngbloods (Monday-Sunday)
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band were unquestionably America's best electric rock band at this time. Coming out of Chicago, they had a white front line and a black rhythm section, which in itself made them ground-breaking. Elektra had released their first album in October 1965. By that time, they had already backed Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival. In an era when "folk-rock" meant folk musicians just learning how to play electric, with drummers converted from jazz or bongo playing, the Butterfield Blues Band were in complete command of their instruments, funky and swinging. Guitarist Mike Bloomfield had no peer in the States, and young Elvin Bishop was no slouch on his guitar either. Leader Paul Butterfield absolutely wailed on the harmonica, and was a soulful singer. Mark Naftalin on organ, Jerome Arnold on bass and Sam Lay on drums (by now replaced by Billy Davenport) were all rock solid.
When aspiring folk-rockers saw the Butterfield Blues Band in 1966, they discovered that the band had completely transcended their first album, ending each show with a long instrumental the band called "Raga," but would be released in August 1966 as the title track of the album East-West. The band had played the Fillmore in February and March 1966 and shaken San Francisco. The Grateful Dead, who had met them in Los Angeles, had their horizons expanded, as did Jefferson Airplane and the nascent Quicksilver Messenger Service. The Berkeley folk duo of Country Joe McDonald and Barry "The Fish" Melton decided to "go electric" the night after seeing Butterfield at Fillmore.
August 8-14, 1966 Café Au Go Go, New York, NY: Muddy Waters/The Youngbloods (Monday-Sunday)
Presumably the gap in Youngbloods dates between August 14 and October 1 indicates that they were touring in the Northeast and/or the Midwest, but we haven’t yet been able to confirm that for a fact.
October 1, 1966 [gym], SUNY, Stony Brook, NY: The Byrds/The Youngbloods (Saturday)
The show was reviewed in the student paper The Statesman (per Christopher Hjort’s Byrds book).
October 11-27, 1966 Café Au Go Go, New York, NY: Jesse Colin Young and The Youngbloods (Tuesday>Thursday)
The Youngbloods returned to the Au Go Go for six weeks. Folksinger Patrick Sky was also on the bill on October 20.
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| Vanguard Records had released Judy Roderick's terrific album Woman Blue in December 1965 |
October 28-29, 1966 Café Au Go Go, New York, NY: Judy Roderick/Jesse Colin Young and The Youngbloods (Friday-Saturday)
Judy Roderick was a folk and blues singer from the Midwest. Her best known album, Woman Blue, had been released on Vanguard in 1965. "Woman Blue" was better known under the title "I Know You Rider." It had been collected by the Lomaxes in the 1930s, but it would become famous when performed (and recorded) by Hot Tuna and the Grateful Dead in the 1960s and beyond.
October 30-November 6, 1966 Café Au Go Go, New York, NY: Jesse Colin Young and The Youngbloods (Sunday>Sunday)
>November, 1966 RCA releases The Youngbloods first single, Jerry Corbitt’s “Grizzly Bear.” [– pending information on whether the July 66 “Rider” single was released or withdrawn].
November 29-30, 1966 Café Au Go Go, New York, NY: The Youngbloods (Tuesday-Wednesday)
December 5-10, 1966 The Scene, New York, NY: Youngbloods (Monday-Saturday)
The Scene, a tiny club, was as much a hangout as a venue. The club was located at 46th Street and 8th Avenue. The proprietor was Steve Paul, later the manager of Johnny Winter and others.
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| The Family Dog poster promoting The Youngbloods, The Sparrow and Sons Of Champlin at the Avalon Ballroom on the weekend of December 16 and 17, 1966 |
December 16-17, 1966 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA: The Youngbloods/The Sparrow/Sons Of Champlin (Friday-Saturday)
Chet Helms’s Avalon in San Francisco was well-known for having hip bands from out of town. The Youngbloods were from Greenwich Village, and The Sparrow were from Toronto. The Sparrow had just moved to Marin County and would later adopt the name Steppenwolf. At the time, the Avalon and the Fillmore were true underground scenes. None of the bands on this bill had an album (The Youngbloods and the Sons Of Champlin had released singles, but they had not received any airplay).
>Late '66, Early '67
It is likely that The Youngbloods played a number of gigs in various parts of the country between December 1966 and February 1967, but we have been able to uncover very little evidence. When they played Chicago in 1969, the band alluded to being in Chicago in a blizzard in the Winter of '67, so they were certainly on tour.
'66-'67 Antioch College, Yellow Springs, OH: The Youngbloods/Mad River
Mad River, an Antioch College group who would soon move to Berkeley, remembers opening for the Youngbloods. Mad River, who moved to Berkeley in Spring 1967, had spent some time in Washington DC earlier in 1966 and knew the Youngbloods from the circuit.
'66-'67 [venue], unknown city, WI: The Youngbloods/Grapes Of Wrath
A memoir (Name Dropping, Xlibris Press 2001) by the late guitarist Chris Michie (ex-Mendelbaum, ex-Van Morrison and many other groups) recalled playing with the Youngbloods in Wisconsin during this period as well, with his group Grapes Of Wrath.
1967
>February, 1967. RCA releases the group’s debut album The Youngbloods in February. It was produced by Felix Pappalardi, who later not only produced Cream but was also the bassist in Mountain. The initial single was Jerry Corbitt's "Grizzly Bear" (the band lip-synched it for Dick Clark's American Bandstand in January 1967). But the hit on the album was a cover of Dino Valenti’s “Get Together” (which had already been done by the Jefferson Airplane and The We Five), which turned into a modest 1967 radio hit.
February 6-28, 1967 The Scene, New York, NY: Tim Hardin/The Youngbloods (Monday>Tuesday)
It’s not clear if The Youngbloods were sharing the booking or alternating with Tim Hardin.
Tim Hardin (1941-1980), originally from Oregon, had been a folk singer in Cambridge and Greenwich Village in the early 1960s. In July 1966 Verve Forecast Records (MGM) had released his debut album Tim Hardin 1. It featured mostly Hardin's own songs. He was a fine singer, but he was backed by subtle, jazzy music rather than just a solo guitar. Hardin was one of the first Greenwich Village performers to open the door to not only songwriting but more expansive musical styles. The Youngbloods would later record two of Hardin's songs ("Reason To Believe" and "Misty Roses").
February 25, 1967 Hunter College, New York, NY: Phil Ochs/The Youngbloods (Saturday)
The Youngbloods could have easily opened a show at Hunter College (at East 68th and Lex) and gone over to The Scene, which was relatively nearby (W 46th St and 8th Ave), for a later show.
Phil Ochs (1940-1976) had released his first album on Elektra Records in 1964. He wrote his own original material, on "topical" subjects, as he didn't want to be merely pigeonholed as a "Protest Singer." Still, songs like "I Ain't Marching Anymore" were explicitly political. In contrast to performers like The Youngbloods or Tim Hardin, however, Ochs accompanied himself (very well) on the acoustic guitar.
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| Magic People, by The Paupers, then Toronto's hottest psychedelic band, was released by Verve/Forecast (MGM) in July 1967 |
March 7-12, 1967 Café Au Go Go, New York, NY: The Youngbloods/The Paupers (Tuesday-Sunday)
The Paupers were the best, and hottest, band in Toronto at this time. The big Canadian cities all had booming rock scenes in 1966 and '67, and none bigger than Toronto. It was hard for Canadian bands to get a chance in the States, however. The Paupers, originally starting in 1964, had become Toronto's leading psychedelic rock band by 1966. Albert Grossman, Bob Dylan's manager, had taken over their management and had gotten them signed to MGM Records. MGM, through their subsidiary Verve/Forecast, had released a few singles, but their debut album, Magic People, would be released in July of '67.
Just before the Youngbloods were booked, Grossman had gotten The Paupers booked at the Cafe Au Go Go for two weeks with Jefferson Airplane, then (and perhaps eternally) San Francisco's hottest psychedelic band. The Paupers acquitted themself well against the Airplane, as the incandescent Airplane were notoriously inconsistent, establishing that great tradition of Fillmore bands. The Paupers, in contrast, were Toronto-tight and killed it night after night at the Au Go Go.
March 30, 1967 [unknown venue], Portland, OR Butterfield Blues Band/Country Joe and The Fish/The Youngbloods (Thursday)--may have been canceled, or Youngbloods may have canceled
A small scene was developing in Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, allowing groups to tour the entire West Coast along with California.
It has been difficult to track The Youngbloods live activity definitively. There are indications of them all over, but no direct evidence that they actually played the gigs they seemed to have been booked at. It isn't clear whether they were playing around the country in March and April of 1967, or just booked and later canceled. This date came up as part of the Country Joe & The Fish list, but it can't be confirmed.
In the case of this Portland show, The Youngbloods were indicated, but we have no evidence one way or the other as to whether they played. Also, at the time, almost all out-of-town bands who played Portland played corresponding dates in San Francisco or Seattle. Portland only made sense as a booking on an off night between those cities. So I'm inclined to disbelieve that the Youngbloods actually played. I'd love to be wrong--please note in the Comments if you've got evidence to counter this (this is where the flashbacks come in, yeah?).
April 1, 1967 New Dimensions Carousel Discothèque, Carbondale, IL The Youngbloods (Saturday)
This was described in the March 19, 1967 edition of The Southern Illinoisian newspaper in Carbondale. The disco was a “teen club” opened in the old Carousel Playhouse in the Ly-Mar Hotel. Carbondale was the site of Southern Illinois University, a pretty large school, so a dance club for those too young to drink made some kind of sense. Note that the date (April 1) is two days after the purported Portland date. Of course the band could have flown, but it seems unlikely for a new group.
Spring 67 [barn], Sterling, IL The Youngbloods
There was an online reference to a thinly attended Youngbloods gig in a barn in Sterling, IL in Spring, 1967. Sterling, IL is roughly between Chicago and Carbondale. Since we have a sighting, however vague, I'm inclined to believe that The Youngbloods played Illinois, but didn't play Oregon.
April 14, 1967 The Nines, Westport, CT: The Youngbloods/Soul Company/Left Banke (Friday)
This wire service story about a 15,000 square foot disco was carried in papers throughout the country. Westport was a sort of resort town (as far as I know) on Long Island Sound. In the wake of the Beatles, there were attempts all over the country to have these kind of "no-drinks" teen dance club, but most of them folded pretty fast. It was the Fillmore and the Avalon in San Francisco that created the lasting template for the modern rock concert. In San Francisco, rock music was an artistic presentation, if a fun one, instead of just teen dance music.
Openers the Left Banke had scored a big hit in July 1966 with "Walk Away Renee." By 1967, songwriter Michael Brown had quit, and different members toured in their place, a common '60s practice. One of the band members in early 1967 was Michael McKean (later AKA David St Hubbins of Spinal Tap).
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| Barnard Bulletin, Wednesday, May 10, 1967 |
May 12, 1967 Ferris Booth Hall, Barnard College, New York, NY: The Youngbloods (Friday) noon concert
Barnard College is the prestigious women's college adjacent to and associated with Columbia University since the 19th century. Ferris Booth Hall, built in 1960 and razed in 1996, was apparently a beautiful building with many features, including the Wollman Auditorium concert hall. It is likely that the Youngbloods played Wollman for this event. In the '60s, colleges had entertainment budgets, and college bookings not only brought in new fans, schools never went out of business and stiffed the band.
May 14, 1967 Mt. Vernon High School, Mt. Vernon, NY: The Youngbloods (Sunday) 2 pm concert
Whether this was a high school event or a commercial event using the Mount Vernon High School auditorium isn't clear. In either case, the same people probably would have attended. Mount Vernon is a Long Island suburb. Nothing is known of this gig, but about 19 years prior to the show, my Mom taught (little kids) in the Mount Vernon schools.
Since The Youngbloods were based in New York City, there were probably some other shows around the area during May and early June of 1967.
May 18, 1967 “Coliseum” Show, ABC-TV (broadcast) The Youngbloods/others (Thursday)
ABC-tv broadcast a variety show called "Coliseum," seemingly modeled on Ancient Rome, which included animal acts and magicians with other performers. The Youngbloods were listed as appearing, although I don't know what they performed. Their performance was previously recorded, but I don't know when. The host was Merv Griffin, the well-known syndicated talk show host and television game show producer.
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| The Family Dog poster promoting The Youngbloods and Siegal Schwall at the Avalon Ballroom on the weekend of June 15-18, 1967 |
June 15-18, 1967 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA: Youngbloods/Siegal-Schwall Band (Thursday-Sunday)
From early 1966 onward, San Francisco re-invented the rock concert into the modern form that we now take for granted. After some local events proved the concept, Bill Graham opened his Fillmore auditorium (on Feb 4 1966), followed by Chet Helms at the nearby Avalon Ballroom (on April 22). At both venues, rock concerts were transformed from teenage high school dances to an artistic presentation with music, proper sound and professional lighting. Performers were no longer interchangeable. The production values were comparable to legitimate (Broadway) theater, but with the participation of a standing, dancing audience. Rock music moved itself up the ladder of the arts. The entire rock concert industry in the United States and the UK was constructed on the Fillmore/Avalon model established in San Francisco, and it is still with us today.
By mid-1967, the Bay Area rock scene had expanded beyond just the Fillmore and the Avalon. There were gigs at similar places up and down the West Coast, from Los Angeles to Vancouver, and there were Bay Area night clubs booking rock bands several nights a week. The West Coast psychedelic hippie rock scene was self-contained and largely self-sustaining, and the rest of the country had not caught up. Another portentous development was KSFX-fm in San Francisco, the first "free-form" radio station. KSFX didn't play singles--djs played album tracks they liked, so bands without Top 40 hits could thrive. KSFX, too, was a year or more ahead of the transformation of FM rock radio nationwide.
The Youngbloods were booked to headline at the Avalon Ballroom for four nights (June 15-18), which meant that they must have been getting airplay on KMPX. They were also booked around the Bay Area and Southern California for the next six weeks. The Youngbloods found what they were looking for, and would move to the Bay Area permanently in September.
It is now largely forgotten that the Fillmore and the Avalon were in a bitter competition. Since Chet Helms, always hipper but less capitalized than Bill Graham, had booked the Youngbloods, they became an "Avalon band" and only played the Fillmore once (January 25, 1968, see below). Of course, business was business, and as the Youngbloods became more popular, ultimately Bill Graham would book them at both Fillmore East and Fillmore West.
June 20-25 and June 27-July 1, 1967 The Matrix, San Francisco, CA: The Youngbloods (Tuesday>Saturday)
The Matrix was a tiny club in San Francisco's Marina District (at 3138 Fillmore). Although dark and tiny, seating little more than 100, the one-time pizza joint loomed large in San Francisco rock history. The Matrix had been owned by Marty Balin, and his newly-formed band--Jefferson Airplane--had debuted there in 1965, and many of their early gigs were there. Since '65, the Airplane played less, but the Matrix was the first club to pretty much exclusively book new rock bands playing original music, at a time when hippies weren't welcome in bars, and most nightclubs wouldn't consider booking Fillmore-style music.
Although The Youngbloods wouldn't have made much money playing twelve nights at The Matrix, they could play their own music to a sympathetic audience every night. In mid-'67, this wasn't really possible elsewhere, even Cambridge or Greenwich Village. The band probably used the booking to work on new material and stretch out.
July 1, 1967 Mt. Tamalpais Outdoor Amphitheatre, Mill Valley, CA
Thunderheaven Presents “The Festival of Growing Things” (Saturday) day one of two
Quicksilver Messenger Service/Blue Cheer/The Youngbloods/Sandy Bull/Congress of Wonders/ The Charlatans/Wildflower/Freedom Highway/Melvin Q Watchpocket/Ace Of Cups/Lamp of Childhood
Near the end of their Matrix engagement, The Youngbloods were added to a festival event in Marin. Very likely they played in the late afternoon in Marin, and then played their regular show at The Matrix that night.
The Festival Of Growing Things was a two-day event promoted by Ambrose Hollingsworth, a young man with inherited money. Among other things, Hollingsworth had provided initial backing for Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Ace Of Cups. Around this time, Hollingsworth was in a terrible auto accident, where he became a quadriplegic. Shortly afterwards, he sold his interest in Quicksilver and Ace Of Cups to manager Ron Polte. Nonetheless, Hollingsworth continued with the Festival Of Growing Things. Among other things, everyone who purchased a ticket to this show was given a packet of seeds.
The venue was a beautiful stone amphitheater on top of Marin's Mt. Tamalpais, built in 1936 with a capacity of 3,750. In the mid-60s, there had been a few rock concerts there. On June 10 and 11, 1967, there had been a two-day rock festival, the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Festival, that was similar to Monterey Pop. Monterey Pop was in fact the next weekend, and Magic Mountain was like a preview. There were two dozen acts over two days, including some rising stars like The Doors and Jefferson Airplane. The plan was to visitors park at the foot of the mountain and shuttle them to the top in buses, but the huge crowds overwhelmed the little venue.
Marin County declared that there would be no more rock concerts on top of Mt. Tam, and there weren't. But the Festival Of Growing Things was already booked, so they had to let it happen. Fortunately or unfortunately, the event wasn't well attended. New acts were added for both days--the Youngbloods on Saturday, and Eric Burdon and The Animals on Sunday (there is brief footage of this event in the obscure 1968 potboiler hippie documentary Revolution--it appears Ace Of Cups are playing). The beautiful Mt. Tam amphitheater remained music-free until producer Michael Nash finally revived musical performances there in 2013.
July 3-4, 1967 Golden Bear, Huntington Beach, CA: The Youngbloods/James Cotton Blues Band/Outlaw Blues Band (Monday-Tuesday)
The Golden Bear was a rock club at 306 Pacific Coast Highway (CA SR-1). It had been a music club at that location since 1929. It had been folk club from 1963 to '66, but had re-opened as a more rock-oriented club by the end of 1966. The club was not a particularly lucrative gig, with a capacity of only a few hundred, but it was in a wonderful location and it was a great place to "showcase" new acts for djs, booking agents and record company executives.
Very likely RCA had booked the Youngbloods at the Golden Bear on a Monday and Tuesday because they wanted to invite djs or other record industry pros. Paradoxically, Monday night shows were great for pros, since they did not have the kind of conflicting obligations they would have later in the week. If this was an RCA shindig, they would have comped all the drinks at the bar for their guests.
James Cotton had been Muddy Waters' harmonica player for many years. He had just formed his own band and had signed to Vanguard Records at this time.
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| The Family Dog poster promoting The Youngbloods and The Charlatans at the Avalon Ballroom on the weekend of July 13-16. Like many posters from this era, printed weeks before, it did not actually precisely reflect who played (the Youngbloods did not play on Sunday July 16, for example). |
July 13-15, 1967 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA The Youngbloods/The Charlatans/Emerald Tablet (13)/The Other Half (14-15)(Thursday-Saturday)
I don't have any specific information about the Youngbloods shows at the Avalon Ballroom back on June 15-18 (above), but we know they did well, because the band was headlining a month later. Even if the Youngbloods had been penciled in for these shows in advance, which is very likely, the fact that Chet Helms didn't bring in another headliner tells us they had done well.
The Charlatans were the original San Francisco psychedelic band, but by 1967, they still did not have an album. While The Charlatans are accorded legendary status today (and rightly so), they had no drawing power in the Summer of Love. Suburban teenagers and newer fans had no idea who they were. The Other Half, from Los Angeles, were also a cool band, but they were even more obscure than The Charlatans. The Other Half's lead guitarist was Randy Holden, who would later end up in Blue Cheer. The Emerald Tablet, mysterious to this day, were booked for Thursday (July 13) in the opening slot.
The Youngbloods are advertised on the poster as playing Sunday, July 16, but they were playing in Canyon (see below) and were replaced by The Wildflower.
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| The handbill (drawn by Paul Arnoldi) for the benefit concert for the community of Canyon, featuring Country Joe & The Fish, The Youngbloods and other acts, on Sunday, July 16, 1967, complete with a map. Canyon is just over the hill from Berkeley, but even to this day most Berkeley residents are unaware that the community even exists (which the residents, apparently, largely prefer). The map would have been critical. |
July 16, 1967 Eucalyptus Grove, Canyon, CA: Country Joe and The Fish/The Youngbloods/Blackburn & Snow/Notes From The Underground/Paul Arnoldi (Sunday)
This was a benefit to rebuild the Community Center in tiny Canyon, CA, in the hills behind Berkeley. According to the handbill, the show was held outdoors in a Eucalyptus grove. The sole poster for the show, painted by Paul Arnoldi, says “maps available at” and names the usual ticket outlets (Moe’s, etc); a handbill actually has a map. Canyon (even now) is so out of the way that most Berkeley residents do not even realize it exists. The Youngbloods were replaced on July 16 at the Avalon Ballroom by The Wildflower whilst they played the Canyon show. Save for The Youngbloods, all the acts were based in Berkeley.
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| The immortal Whisky-A-Go-Go, 8901 Sunset Boulevard (at Clark). It's still there. |
July 17-19, 1967 Whisky A-Go-Go, West Hollywood, CA: The Paupers/The Youngbloods (Monday-Wednesday)
The Whisky would have been an ‘industry’ gig, probably arranged by the band’s record company. The club only paid union scale, but the entire record industry checked up on The Whisky, so it was a high profile booking.
The Paupers were still one of the top groups in Toronto, and by now their debut album had been released. Marc Skobac found an LA Times article that indicated the Paupers were playing from at least the 14th to the 19th (Friday through Wednesday), but its not clear whether there were more dates, nor exactly how many dates the Youngbloods appeared with them.
Grossman had made sure that The Paupers were in on all the action, playing the Fillmore, Monterey Pop Festival and The Whisky A-Go-Go, for example. In the spotlight, however, The Paupers didn't deliver with the power they had shown in clubs in Toronto and Greenwich Village. In contrast, for example the more erratic Airplane had always thrived on the big stage. After a promising start, The Paupers would fade away.
July 20, 1967 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA: Big Brother & The Holding Company/Mt. Rushmore/The Youngbloods (Thursday) Youngbloods Thursday only
Avalon stalwarts Big Brother & The Holding Company were headlining the weekend. From Friday through Sunday (July 21-23) they would be joined by the new LA band Canned Heat and San Francisco's Mother Earth. For Thursday (July 20), however, The Youngbloods played again. Already, after just a few weeks in town, they were establishing themselves as an "Avalon band."
July 21-22, 1967 California Hall, San Francisco, CA: The Youngbloods/Magic Fern/Wildflower (Friday-Saturday) Space Age Presents “Strange Happenings”
California Hall was at 625 California Street, near Fisherman's Wharf. It was basically just a hall for rent, a round auditorium not really great for rock concerts. I believe "Space Age" was associated with poet Lew Welch, but I am not certain. The Magic Fern were from Seattle. The Wildflower, based out of the California College Of Arts & Crafts in Oakland, had been an original hippie folk-rock band going back to late 1965, but they never really found any traction, despite being on many famous posters.
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| The Tom Glass (aka Ned Lamont) poster for the Blue Cheer/Beefheart/Youngbloods shows at the Avalon on the weekend of July 27-30, 1967 (FD073) |
July 27-30, 1967 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA: Blue Cheer/Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band/The Youngbloods (Thursday-Sunday)
The Youngbloods returned to the Avalon for the third weekend in six weeks. Clearly the band had found a new home in the Bay Area. It's no surprise that they would move across country just six weeks later.
Blue Cheer had only formed recently, but there was already a buzz about them. Incredible as it seems now, Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band had scored a sort of hit in 1966 ("Do Wah Diddy") and had a kind of following in San Francisco.
August 8-13, 1967 Café Au Go Go, New York, NY: The Youngbloods/Eric Andersen (Tuesday-Sunday)
The Youngbloods returned to the East Coast. I don't know how many gigs they played. I believe they were mostly recording their second album with producer Felix Pappalardi during this period.
Eric Andersen had been a Greenwich Village folksinger, but was now making the transition to singer/songwriter. His current album was Bout Changes 'N' Things Take 2 on Vanguard.
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| Jake Holmes album The Above Ground Sound of Jake Holmes, released on the Tower label in 1967, included the song "Dazed And Confused." Over time it evolved into "Dazed And Confused" by Led Zeppelin. For context, Holmes also wrote the jingles for the US Army's "Be All You Can Be" and "I'm A Pepper, Too" for Dr. Pepper. |
August 25, 1967 Village Theater, New York, NY: The Yardbirds/The Youngbloods/Jake Holmes (Friday)
The Village Theater (on 2nd Avenue and 6th Street) was an old movie theater that would become the Fillmore East in Spring 1968.
By this time, Jimmy Page was the lead guitarist and de facto leader of The Yardbirds. Page was particularly impressed with a song by opener Jake Holmes, "Dazed And Confused." The Yardbirds bought the album the next day (The Above Ground Sound of Jake Holmes, on the Tower Records label), and started playing the song in early '68. It would show up in Led Zeppelin's repertoire in 1969.
>September 1967: The Youngbloods moved to Marin County. Jesse Colin Young has described driving cross-country in his Plymouth Barracuda. While
many musicians and bands were moving to the Bay Area, the Youngbloods
may have been the first established hippie band (with an album and a
recording contract) to move to San Francisco without a pending pot trial
(like the Sir Douglas Quintet and the 13th Floor Elevators). Banana was from Santa Rose (in Sonoma County), but for the rest of the band it was a new world. The Youngbloods became a West Coast band from then on.
It's worth pointing out that Jesse Colin Young and his wife had a daughter in 1966, and a son some time in 1967. Whether Suzi Young was pregnant or had given birth by September is beside the point. For Young, moving from New York to San Francisco wasn't just some musician going where the gigs were better. He was moving his entire family across the country for a new life, a far more serious decision than some young musicians had to make when they went with their band to San Francisco in 1967.
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| The Victor Moscoso poster for The Youngbloods headlining the Avalon Ballroom on the weekend of September 15-17, 1967 (FD081) |
September 15-17, 1967 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA: The Youngbloods/The Other Half/Mad River (Friday-Sunday)
It was appropriate that the Youngbloods first booking in their new home was at the Avalon Ballroom.
Mad River were from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio and had moved to Berkeley. The members of Mad River knew The Youngbloods from the folk circuit already. One Mad River member recalled addressing Jesse Colin Young as "Perry" just to irk him.
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| A poster for The Youngbloods at Eagles Auditorium, Seattle on September 22-23, 1967 |
September 22, 1967 Eagles Auditorium, Seattle, WA: The Youngbloods/John Handy Quintet/International Brick (Friday)
The Fillmore ballroom scene had expanded well beyond San Francisco. By Fall 1967, there were Fillmore-style rooms in Oregon, Seattle, Salt Lake City and Denver. There was a loose network of underground papers, FM radio stations, familiar posters on dorm walls and enough hitchhikers to spread the word. Bands like The Youngbloods didn't really need a hit to thrive on the West Coast. Although it was a brief period, the West Coast ballroom scene was self-sustaining, and needed little from the larger record industry in Hollywood and Manhattan.
Seattle's primary outpost was Eagles Auditorium, a ballroom that had been built for the Fraternal Order Of Eagles in 1925. Eagles was at 1416 7th Avenue (at Union Street), right downtown. The hall, holding perhaps 2000, had been an important booking for R&B, blues and jazz music in the 1950s and early '60s (as had the Fillmore). Now, it was young white hippie kids who wanted a place to get loud and dance. Seattle was booming financially, with Boeing Aircraft leading the way, and there were plenty of long-haired teenagers centered around the University Of Washington. Seattle had its own underground paper, too, The Helix. There were a few rock shows at Eagles in early '67, but from the Summer onwards the hall was booked many weekends.
The biggest disc jockey in Seattle in the early '60s was Pat O'Day, who ruled the Top 40 market. The Seattle hippies considered him the height of uncool. By September '67, the Eagles' shows were produced by a hip production company led by one Boyd Grafmyre. Of course, years later it turned out that Grafmyre had just been the long-haired front for Pat O'Day, who was promoting the ballroom shows. O'Day was shrewd enough to know that there was money in it, and that there was more money in it if his name wasn't on the posters.
On this Friday night, the Youngbloods were booked with John Handy. Handy, a popular, forward looking San Francisco jazzman, was regularly booked with rock groups at the Fillmore and elsewhere. International Brick was a local Seattle group.
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| A poster for Jefferson Airplane and The Youngbloods at Seattle Center Arena, September 23, 1967 |
September 23, 1967 Seattle Center Arena, Seattle, WA: Jefferson Airplane/The Youngbloods/Magic Fern/International Brick (Saturday)
On Saturday night, Jefferson Airplane was in town, and the show was moved to the much larger Seattle Center Arena. The Arena had been built in 1927, and was a multi-purpose sports and entertainment venue, used for the biggest events in town. In concert configuration, it held between 5,000 and 8,000
The poster said "Saturday Night At The Fillmore," which shows the drawing power of the Fillmore itself. By this time, the Airplane had scored huge hits with "White Rabbit" and "Somebody To Love," and they had played Seattle before. Opener Magic Fern was a popular local Seattle band.
September 23, 1967 Eagles Auditorium, Seattle, WA: The Youngbloods (Saturday) midnight show
On Saturday night, after opening for Jefferson Airplane, The Youngbloods played a midnight show at Eagles. Eagles was just one-and-a-half miles Southeast of Seattle Center, so it would have been an easy load-out and load-in. In any case, the Youngbloods were a compact four-piece, not carrying their own sound system, so one station wagon would have taken care of it. There were no opening acts for the Saturday midnight show, but it's a sign of the band's local status that they could be booked for a second gig on the same night.
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| A very obscure 1967 flyer for The Trauma at 221 Arch St in Philadelphia, advertising Junior Wells (Sep 6-9), Lothat & The Hand People (Sep 15-17, 22-24) and The Youngbloods (Sep 29-Oct 1) |
September 29-October 1, 1967 The Trauma, Philadelphia, PA: The Youngbloods (Friday-Sunday)
The Trauma was Philadelphia's first psychedelic rock club, at 2121 Arch Street, near Logan Square. Owner Manny Rubin had run a popular folk club called The 2nd Fret, and no doubt the members of The Youngbloods (and possibly the band) had played that club. Rubin figured out that the rock business was going to outpace the folk business, and opened The Trauma around February 1967. It was not really a concert venue, apparently, and more like a club-sized room. It lasted throughout 1967, although its murky what groups played there. Apparently it made it to 1968. In early 1968, however, the Electric Factory opened just a block away, at 2201 Arch Street, in a former tire warehouse. The Electric Factory became the dominant venue in Philadelphia and was an essential component of the "Fillmore Circuit" of the late '60s.
Since The Youngbloods flew from Seattle to Philadelphia, I have to think they played New York City in early October, probably the next weekend. As they had a new album coming out, it only made sense. Still, I havent been able to find any evidence.
October 1967: RCA Records released Earth Music. The album was partially produced by Felix Pappalardi and partially by the Youngbloods themselves. It failed to chart. I believe it did get played on the newer FM stations, mainly KMPX in San Francisco, but that can only be inferred by the Youngbloods' popularity in various hippie strongholds.
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| The Friday (Oct 20 '67) Worcester Telegraph & Gazette had an ad for Chuck Berry on Friday night and The Youngbloods the next night (Sat Ocr 21) |
October 21, 1967 Atwood Hall, Clark University, Worcester, MA: The Youngbloods (Saturday)
Worcester was about an hour West of Boston. Atwood Hall was the main auditiorium at Clark University, but it only seated about 635. There's every reason to assume, however, that Clark subsidized the fees, since the Grateful Dead and others played Atwood Hall.
Once again, a Boston-area show suggests that there ought to be some New York-area shows, but I can't find any.
Big Brother and The Holding Company/The Youngbloods/Vince Guaraldi Trio/Sopwith Camel/Turk Murphy/The Cycle/Tom and Lee/Chris Ibanez Trio/George Duke Trio noon until dark
The McNear family had purchased land on San Pablo Bay (now in San Rafael) back in 1859. By the end of the 19th century that had built a resort and dance hall, among many other businesses. There seems to have been a country club there, too, by the 1960s. This two-day event was an attempt to have a hip Arts Fair, and draw 25,000 people over two days. Headline acts included Big Brother & The Holding Company, Sopwith Camel (who had scored a hit with "Hello Hello") and Vince Gauraldi, along with The Youngbloods. George Duke, though not well known at the time, was from Marin City and had graduated from Tamalpais High. He had just received his degree from the San Francisco Conservatory.
The event was a let-down. Only about 2000 attended, so it must have been a flop. The Youngbloods were scheduled for both days, but the review of the first day (October 28) does not mention them, so they may have only played on Sunday (29th).
In 1970, the McNears sold 55 acres to Marin County, and it created McNear's Beach State Park.
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| A poster for The Youngbloods at the Avalon Ballroom, November 10-12, 1967 (FD-91) |
November 10-12, 1967 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA: The Youngbloods/Mad River (Friday-Sunday)
The Youngbloods returned to the Avalon, where they were firmly established. The Earth Music album was probably being pushed by RCA, so the Youngbloods were trying to attract attention by performing a lot. This may seem like a self-evident strategy now, but it wasn't in 1967. Bands and record companies were just discovering that if groups toured around, it attracted the attention of underground papers, college journalists and FM radio djs, and album sales might follow even when there wasn't a hit single.
November 15-19, 1967 Whisky A-Go-Go, West Hollywood, CA: The Youngbloods/Things to Come (Wednesday-Sunday)
With a new album, The Youngbloods returned to the Whisky. This time, they weren't sharing the bill with another popular act. Opener Things To Come was reputedly pretty good, in fact, a local band from nearby Long Beach who would put out some singles on Warners. But they were just the "house band," to keep people dancing. RCA would have put all the djs and booking agents on the guest list, and comped all their drinks.
The Youngbloods were an excellent live band, but they may have been too understated for the Whisky, West Hollywood liked it either loud, or with harmonies that pierced the sky, or preferably both. The mellow Youngbloods would probably have done better at The Troubadour, but that club (not far away) had not really converted from folk music yet, and the Youngbloods were still coded as an SF hippie band.
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| Exhibition Hall, Earl Warren Showgrounds, Santa Barbara, CA (at Los Positas Rd & Calle Real) |
November 25, 1967 Exhibition Hall, Earl Warren Showgrounds, Santa Barbara, CA: The Youngbloods/Canned Heat/Merry Go Round/Clear Light (Saturday)
The Earl Warren Showgrounds was part of the Santa Barbara County Fairgrounds. It had a horse track and show arena, and other facilities. In the late 1960s, it was regularly used for rock concerts, mostly at the Exhibition Hall. For touring rock bands, Santa Barbara made a nice stop between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Canned Heat was just a local Los Angeles band at this time, as were Merry Go Round and Clear Light. The Youngbloods would have been the out-of-town attraction.
California, somewhat uniquely, did not have regulated airline prices--only Interstate Commerce was regulated--and airlines competed ferociously. A flight from Oakland to Santa Barbara probably cost just $10 or $20, not much even then. The Youngbloods likely did not even stay over night, just one reason that so many San Francisco bands played Santa Barbara.
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| The Youngbloods played a few weeknights at Berkeley's New Orleans House, over on the Northside (Telegraph Avenue and People's Park were Southside, on the opposite side of campus). Old buddy Paul Arnoldi played too. |
November 27-29, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Youngbloods/Paul Arnoldi (Monday-Wednesday)
When The Youngbloods had been in the Bay Area in the Summer, the only nightclub that regularly booked rock bands playing original music had been the tiny Matrix. By the end of '67, a few more had opened. The Poppycock was in Palo Alto (see January 11-12 '68 below), and the New Orleans House had opened up in Berkeley. In most cities, save for Los Angeles and Manhattan, original rock bands were confined to weekend gigging.
The New Orleans House was about a mile from the UC campus, on the much quieter Northside. They booked original music, mostly rock, every night of the week, and even had a light show. Bands like The Youngbloods could now work weeknights and make a few bucks, as well as work on material in a low-key manner. The Bay Area was one of the first regions to have clubs that booked original rock music instead of Top 40 or dance music, and it was one of the reason rock bands thrived there.
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| A poster for the briefly-open Western Front ballrom, at 859 O'Farrell in San Francisco. By this time (December 1967), the Western Front promoters were likely the two Mitchell brothers from Antioch, CA. Yes, those Mitchell brothers (don't google it at work). |
December 1-3, 1967 Western Front, San Francisco, CA: The Youngbloods/Wildflower/Initial Shock (Friday-Sunday)
The Fillmore model had been a success, so similar operations had opened in San Francisco as well as everywhere else. Most of them didn't last long. The Western Front was a lesser known Ballroom (and sometime Grateful Dead rehearsal hall) on Polk and O’Farrell in San Francisco. By year’s end, the promoters at The Western Front were two brothers from Antioch. Later, they would use the same venue for a different enterprise. The Mitchell Brothers Theater opened at Polk and O’Farrell on July 4, 1969, and remains open (you can Google it, but not at work).
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| The Concord Coliseum was a long-forgotten Fillmore in suburban Concord, CA, just over the hill from Berkeley. Promoter Bill Quarry converted an old Purity supermarket at 1825 Salvio St. It lasted just over a year., from mid-1967 to '68. |
December 22, 1967 Concord Coliseum, Concord, CA: The Youngbloods/Staton Brothers (Friday)
The Concord Coliseum, utterly forgotten save by me, was Contra Costa County's entry into the Fillmore sweepstakes. Contra Costa County was just over the hill from Berkeley and Oakland, and by the mid-'60s it was packed with teenagers who had figured out that something cool was going on just across the way, and they were ready to rock. Their parents, however, did not want their kids going through the Caldecott Tunnel (reputedly known by the local teens as "the Culture Tunnel") to Berkeley and San Francisco for psychedelic rock and roll depravity. This was doubly true if they had daughters.
Promoter Bill Quarry had been a player in Oakland and Alameda County from 1964 to '66, at venues like the Rollarena in San Leandro. But Bill Graham had pushed him aside, as Graham usually did. So Quarry took over an old Purity supermarket in Concord, in the heart of Contra Costa County at 1825 Salvio Street, about 22 miles from Berkeley, and opened the Concord Coliseum. The venue opened on August 4, 1967, mostly putting on shows every Friday and Saturday night. The shows usually featured local bands, but there were some regional and touring bands as well. The venue is remembered fondly by Contra Costa teenagers from 1967 and '68, but no one outside the county seems to have attended shows there.
As for the touring acts, since Quarry was an implicit competitor to Bill Graham, the high profile Fillmore bands mostly did not play the Concord Coliseum (Quicksilver played a gig, as did Big Brother and Eric Burdon). Since The Youngbloods were "an Avalon band," in the local parlance, irritating Bill Graham by playing a competitor wouldn't affect them much. Thus The Youngbloods played on this Friday night and then on a weekend the next June (June 14-15 '68, see below).
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| A handbill for a week of shows at Vancouver's Retinal Circus. The Wildflower (from Oakland) and The Youngbloods played a number of shows with Vancouver bands, and they all played New Year's Eve. |
December 27, 1967 Retinal Circus, Vancouver, BC: The Youngbloods (Wednesday)
The handbill says “From Frisco.” The Fillmore had weight on the West Coast.
Just like Hollywood, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle, Vancouver had young people who had ears and wanted to hear something new and cool. Vancouver also had a psychedelic ballroom scene. At an early "Trips Festival" in late July 1966, the visiting Grateful Dead had also booked a show the next weekend at a little club called The Afterthought. Since the Dead hanging out in Vancouver, and totally unknown at the time, they had the inspiration to play for free in Vancouver's biggest park. Thus the Dead's free show at Stanley Park on (likely) August 3, 1966 was their very first free show. It was a groundbreaking step that would lead to the Human Be-In, Woodstock and beyond.
The Ballroom scene had caught on in West Vancouver, mostly centered around the University of British Columbia. Local Vancouver bands thrived, but out of town bands were always welcome. Money and visas were always a problem, but some West Coast bands managed to make it happen. The Youngbloods ended 1967 by playing most of the week in Western Canada.
The Retinal Circus was Vancouver's principal entry into the West Coast Ballroom scene. The Retinal Circus was at 1024 Davie Street, and had already been recently known as the Embassy Ballroom and Dante's Inferno. In fact, the Ballroom had opened around 1908, and has had numerous incarnations (today it is currently known as Celebrities), but in 1967 it was the psychedelic Retinal Circus. Around this time, the basement had an after-hours club, the Elegant Parlour, run and emceed by guitarist Tommy Chong (yes, that Tommy Chong). Vancouver, like all major Canadian cities, had the added supercharger that local TV broadcast live-in-studio performances by local acts (on the show "Let's Go") so even artists without records weren't totally unfamiliar to audiences.
December 28, 1967 Kinsmen Fieldhouse, Edmonton, AL: The Youngbloods/Wildflower/Pretty Broos/Graeme and The Wafers (Thursday)
The Kinsmen Field House was opened as Edmonton's primary sports and entertainment venue. According to Wikipedia--which can't be wrong, yes?--it was opened January 3, 1968. So either this gig wasn't played or it was a "pre-opening event."
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| Retinal Circus (Vancouver) flyer for late December, 1967 |
December 29, 1967 Retinal Circus, Vancouver, BC: The Youngbloods/Papa Bear’s Medicine Show (Friday)
December 30, 1967 Retinal Circus, Vancouver, BC: The Youngbloods/My Indole Ring (Saturday)
December 31, 1967 Retinal Circus, Vancouver, BC: The Youngbloods/Collectors/Papa Bear's Medicine Show/United Empire Loyalists/My Indole Ring/Flowered Wig/Painted Ship (Sunday)
The other groups booked for this three-day weekend with The Youngbloods were all regulars on the Vancouver Ballroom scene, with the Youngbloods as the out-of-town headliners. Most of them have ultimately released albums--some decades after the fact--but none of them had any releases at the time. The Collectors re-organized itself into the band Chilliwack, and had some Canadian success.
The United Empire Loyalists were a bunch of teenagers who had agreed to open the Grateful Dead show at the Afterthought in August 1966. At the time, they styled themselves The Molesters, but the promoter of The Afterthought required they change their name. It was the UEL boys who suggested to the Dead that they promote the show by playing free in the park. They spent the afternoon on a flatbed truck with the Grateful Dead, playing pop-up shows around the park until the cops would chase them away. Before this day, they had been sensible middle-class boys; after that time, it was the rock and roll life for them. By late 1967, they had almost become Country Joe McDonald's backing band, but that too didn't reach fruition. In any case, the Loyalists were an excellent live band, as were Papa Bear's Medicine Show, My Indole Ring, The Collectors and Painted Ship, and a good time was surely had by all.
The Vancouver ballroom sound was somewhere in between folk-rock (Papa Bear's) and Blues Project-style blues (My Indole Ring). The Youngbloods must have fit in perfectly, but they did not get to return until 1969.
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| The Youngbloods' single of "Se Qualcano Mi Dira"/"Qui Con Noi, Tra Di Noi" was released in Italy in 1969, with vocals in Italian. Jesse Colin Young sang "Get Together," and Jerry Corbitt sang "Grizzly Bear" overdubbed over the original backing tracks. |
The record business in 1967 still had a lot of ghosts of the early '60s. The Youngbloods saw themselves as folk-rocking hippies, but RCA still saw them as "entertainers." The band's one modest hit had been their cover of Dino Valenti's "Get Together," back in the Spring. So RCA did what record companies did with pop singles back in those days, so the surprise success of "Get Together" did generate one real collector's item.
Sometime in early 1968, RCA Victor released the 45 "Qui Con Noi, Tra Di Noi"/"Se Qualcano Mi Dira." It was a version of "Grizzly Bear" with Italian lyrics. The lead vocals are by Jerry Corbitt, with Young helping out, singing over the original backing track ("Qui Con Noi, Tra Di Noi" can be heard here).
The B-side was "Get Together," also in Italian ("Se Qualcano Mi Dira"). The "Get Together" Italian vocals are unmistakably Jesse Colin Young.. The single seems to have only been released in Italy. It remained a mystery until both tracks were on a 2014 Japanese RCA re-released of the Youngbloods first album. ("Se Qualcuno Mi Dirà" can be heard here).
[I did put the titles through Google Translate, and they come out strangely: "Se Qualcuno Mi Dirà" resolves as "If Someone Tells Me," and "Qui Con Noi, Tra Di Noi" comes out as "Here With Us, Among Us." I realize Translate is just an approximation, but if any Italian scholars can shed light on the lyrics, please do so in the comments.]
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| The January 3 Chronicle Sunday Datebook had a photo of a sculpture by artist John Bauer. John Bauer was the brother of Youngbloods' drummer Joe Bauer, and the band would often set the sculpture up behind the stage at local gig. |
January 5-7, 1968 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA: The Youngbloods/Ace of Cups (Friday-Sunday)
The Youngbloods ended their weeks of touring in support of Earth Music with a weekend at the Avalon Ballroom. The Sunday Chronicle noted that the band would frame their stage with a sculpture by John Bauer, the drummer's brother. Opening act Ace Of Cups were a rarity, an all-women '60s band that performed their own music. They were booked by Quicksilver's management and booking agent, West-Pole. West-Pole seems to have had a hand in booking the Youngbloods, as they often shared bills with other West-Pole acts.
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| A display ad (in the Stanford U. Daily newspaper) for the Youngbloods at The Poppycock, at 135 University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto |
January 11-12, 1968 The Poppycock, Palo Alto, CA: The Youngbloods (Thursday-Friday)
Palo Alto was a college town, too, in its way, and by mid-1967 it had its own rock club. For the first few months, The Poppycock (135 University Avenue at High Street) had a house band that played almost every night (The Flowers, who would change their name to Solid State, who played mostly instrumental jazz-rock). By year's end, however, they had started booking many of the numerous original rock bands around the Bay Area. Thus The Poppycock joined with the Matrix (in San Francisco) and New Orleans House (in Berkeley) to create a kind of circuit. Groups like the Youngbloods could book shows and make a few bucks when they weren't playing the ballrooms.
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| A poster for Big Brother & The Holding Company, Electric Flag and The Youngbloods at Fillmore and Winterland, January 25-27, 1968. The first night was the only time The Youngbloods played the original Fillmore for Bill Graham. |
January 25, 1968 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA: Big Brother & The Holding Company/Electric Flag/The Youngbloods/Ultimate Spinach (Thursday)
January 26-27, 1968 Winterland, San Francisco, CA: Big Brother & The Holding Company/Electric Flag/Youngbloods/Ultimate Spinach (Friday-Saturday)
The Youngbloods had moved to Marin County in September 1967, and by year's end they were solidly established as a San Francisco band. More precisely, they were identified as an "Avalon band." Among other things, that meant they didn't play for Bill Graham. Although this was just business for Bill, the fact was that except for this weekend, the Youngbloods did not play for Graham until the Avalon closed. While a few bands played for both Graham and Chet Helms--the Dead, Quicksilver and Big Brother--all of them preceded the original split between Helms and Graham. Bands were expected to choose sides, and the Youngbloods had chosen Chet Helms and the Avalon.
As for this unique weekend, it seems to be tied to the West-Pole booking agency. West-Pole was run by Quicksilver manager Ron Polte and former Big Brother manager Julius Karpen. After the Monterey Pop Festival (June 16-16 '67), Big Brother had signed with manager Albert Grossman and Columbia Records. Karpen moved to West-Pole. West-Pole, besides booking Polte's bands (Quicksilver and Ace Of Cups among them), also booked Grossman's bands when they played the West Coast. This included Big Brother and Electric Flag (Polte was also old pals with Flag founder Nick Gravenites).
In early '68, Big Brother had not yet released their epic Cheap Thrills, but they were clearly rising stars. Electric Flag, meanwhile, were also a big deal, and also signed to Columbia. Led by guitarist Mike Bloomfield and singer Nick Gravenites, they were meant to be the Next Big Thing. In the end, they were not, but the Fillmore was about being ahead of the curve. There's every reason to assume that West-Pole insisted on having The Youngbloods open, and since it was all just negotiation to Graham, they did.
Winterland had a capacity of 5400, four times that of the Fillmore, and was used for the biggest shows, a sign of Big Brother's status. The Thursday night show, likely to be smaller, was still at the Fillmore, and the equipment would be rolled across the street for the weekend (Winterland was about two blocks away). Opener Ultimate Spinach, from Boston, was part of the highly-touted and much-maligned "Boss-Town Sound." They weren't bad, but the overhype from MGM Records guaranteed they would have no chance. Ultimate Spinach did include guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, later in Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers.
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| Berekley Barb ad (Feb 2 '68)with upcoming shows at Berkeley's, New Orleans House |
February 5-7, 1968 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Youngbloods/Paul Arnoldi (Monday-Wednesday)
Also listed on the poster were: “Sculpture – John Bauer, Paintings – Charles Heald.” John Bauer was the brother of Joe, Youngbloods drummer, and he constructed the ‘Rocking Cloud’ (featured on one of the earlier Avalon posters) which was a large wooden sculpture in the shape of a tree with lightning bolts. It was really heavy, but for a while the group took it to gigs and placed it on the stage. Charles Heald did art work for the group (for example on the cover of 1969's Elephant Mountain) and Banana still has several of his paintings, one of which was for the unreleased Country Home LP.
February 8-11, 1968 Whisky A-Go-Go, West Hollywood, CA: The Youngbloods/October Country (Thursday-Sunday)
A band interview with Young, Bauer and Banana is published in the February 16 edition of the Valley Times in Van Nuys. Jerry Corbitt is not present, home sick in Marin. Its not clear if he missed all or just some of the Whisky gigs. At some point in 1968, Corbitt stopped playing with the Youngbloods. Apparently he had a great fear of flying, and that made touring very difficult. He probably continued to play at least some gigs with the band in the Bay Area. By August, however, the group would become a trio (see August 14-16 '68 below). Jesse Colin Young would play guitar instead of bass on some songs, and the group became quieter and more jazzy, whether that had been the original intention or not.
October Country were a "Sunshine Pop" band on Epic, produced by Michael Lloyd.
The Youngbloods returned to the Avalon for another weekend. They were supported by two local bands, Mt. Rushmore and Phoenix. The connections between those two bands are hard to explain without a detailed Family Tree, but conveniently, Ross Hannan provided just that.
February 21, 1968 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA: Blues Project/Siegel-Schwall/The Youngbloods/ Sons of Champlin/Wildflower/Lee Michaels (Wednesday)
This Wednesday night show at the Avalon must have been a benefit, with so many bands booked. In the middle of the week, the Avalon and the Fillmore were often hired out by promoters for events, often benefits. The regular staff of the halls worked the shows, but they were outside the runs of Bill Graham and Chet Helms shows.
At this time, only the SF Chronicle and SF Examiner covered the ballroom shows in the city. Both papers were on strike, however. As a result, rock history in San Francisco from late January through early March of 1968 is largely a black hole.
The University of California at Davis, 15 miles West of Sacramento, had been established in 1959. But it had been the farm for the UC Berkeley Agriculture Department since 1909, and it had been the College Of Agriculture since 1938, so full UC status was a logical progression. Freeborn Hall, at 286 E. Quad, had been constructed in 1962. It was the campus' first, and at the time, only auditorium. It held about 3000, and was a good place for concerts, but it had so many other functions that there weren't many opportunities for concerts.
Back in '68, there wasn't much going on in Davis or Sacramento, so the show was probably pretty well attended. Crystal Syphon was a popular band in the Central Valley, based in Merced.
March ?, 1968 TV studio, New York, NY (?): taping for Petula Clark Show NBC-TV Special broadcast date April 8
The
Youngbloods apparently performed on Petula Clark's NBC-TV Special on
April 8. Petula Clark is best known in the States for a huge run of hits
starting with "Downtown" in 1964, but that isn't the half of it. She had been a star child actress in England starting in 1942, she was in
numerous movies and had many hit songs, and was equally popular in
France. And that was only in the '60s--she got more famous and popular
after that. In any case, NBC decided to have a musical variety show
starring Petula, because that is what networks did in those days.
Reading about the Special today, all the reports discuss how after a duet with Harry Belafonte, Petula grabbed Harry's arm. A representative of Chrysler, the primary sponsor, was scandalized and afraid that it would upset Southern audiences. Petula and Harry held their ground, and the producer shrewdly destroyed the alternate takes where she hadn't grabbed his arm. The show was broadcast 4 days after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, to great acclaim. It was a "Civil Rights Moment," to Petula Clark's credit, much remarked upon, but no one mentions the rest of the show. I don't know what the Youngbloods played, or if they performed live in the studio. The show seems to have been recorded prior to March 11, probably in New York.
In any case, assuming the Youngbloods actually played, the show got great ratings and it would have helped the band. The Youngbloods were hip and bluesy, without being loud and difficult, like many San Francisco bands, so they would have gone over well with a broader TV audience.
March 15-16, 1968 Grande Ballroom, Detroit, MI: The Youngbloods/The Rationals/The Up/James Gang (Friday-Saturday)
The Grande Ballroom was Detroit’s fabled stop on the Ballroom circuit. This weekend may have been part of a brief tour, but I can't find any other shows. A Facebook eyewitness recalls seeing The Youngbloods at Cleveland's famous La Cave nightclub, but doesn't give an exact date, so maybe it was around this time. It's also possible that the Youngbloods just flew in for the weekend. Bands that didn't have a lot of equipment (which in those days meant anyone other than the Grateful Dead) could fly in and out of cities fairly easily, making weekend gigs profitable.
The Youngbloods had a bluesy, mellow sound, so they were primed for the singer/songwriter vibe of the early '70s. Detroit wasn't like that, however. The Grande Ballroom was loud and rocking, and they liked their out-of-town bands to bring the noise. Groups like The Youngbloods or Country Joe & The Fish, rooted in acoustic folk music, didn't usually do it for Detroit. The James Gang, then an unknown band from Kent, OH, rocked hard behind lead guitarist Joe Walsh, and they probably did just fine.
April 3, 1968 Winterland, San Francisco, CA: Grateful Dead/Electric Flag/It’s A Beautiful Day/Moby Grape/Mother Earth/The Youngbloods (Tuesday) KMPX-fm Strike Benefit
KMPX-fm had been the first FM rock station in the country, and had been crucial in the success of The Youngbloods and so many other bands. In fact, radical as it was, playing album tracks and with laid back djs, the station was quite successful. Record companies and clothing stores wanted to buy ads, and KMPX was a direct line to an audience that didn't watch much TV. So the station started to make money, but none of it went to the dj's or the staff. So they went on strike.
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The KMPX strike is an interesting, complicated story, in that the countercultural revolution bumped up right against economic reality. It's too much to go into in a blog, but fortunately, I don't have to. Michael J. Kramer's The Republic Of Rock looks at the KMPX strike in context and in depth, and it's highly recommended (Oxford Press 2013).
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| SF Chronicle news headline on March 19, 1968 |
The strike began on the night of March 18, 1968, with the then-unknown Creedence Clearwater Revival playing on the back of a flatbed truck outside the studios. Since it was after midnight, the police shut it down, so the Grateful Dead, waiting nearby, never got to climb up on the truck. In any case, larger benefits were rapidly organized. There was one at the Avalon on March 20, and then a big one at Winterland on April 3. All of the bands on the bill were likely getting airplay on KMPX, thanks to the djs, and they were being played nowhere else (save for KMPX's sister station in Los Angeles, KPPC-fm), so the bands were down with the djs 100%.
April 5-7, 1968 The Kaleidoscope, Hollywood, CA: The Youngbloods/Spirit/Genesis (Friday-Sunday)
The Kaleidoscope, at 6230 Sunset (at Vine) and built in 1930, had most recently been The Hullabaloo, and prior to that it had been the studio where the TV game show “Queen For A Day” was filmed. Canned Heat's management turned it into an LA version of the Fillmore. It had a rotating stage and was another legendary venue, but it was too small to be financially viable.
Spirit, with guitarist Randy California, had just released their debut album on Ode Records. Genesis was a local group, featuring guitarist and singer Kent Henry (the more famous English Genesis group had just formed, but were not a touring band yet, much less in the States).
May 4, 1968 Masonic Temple, Portland, OR: The Youngbloods/Family Tree/Sound Vendor/Gentlemen Wild/Echoes/Grail/U S Cadenza (Saturday)
A psychedelic rock scene had started to develop in Portland and other places in Oregon. Portland wasn't very populated at that time, but with bands traveling back and forth between California and Seattle, stopping off in Portland made sense.
The Masonic Temple, built in 1925, was a regular venue for psychedelic rock concerts in Portland in the 1960s.The building is currently called The Mark Building, and it is part of the (adjacent) Portland Art Museum complex (1219 SW Park Avenue). It's hard to confirm if this show actually happened or not. Family Tree, with Bob Segarini, was a popular band from Central California, and regularly played in Oregon.
May 5, 1968 Straight Theater, San Francisco, CA: The Youngbloods/Country Weather/Frumious Bandersnatch/AB Skhy (Sunday) McCarthy For President Benefit
The Straight Theater was an old movie theater in the Haight-Ashbury district (formerly the Haight Theater, at 1702 Haight, at Cole). In 1966, with all the bands living in the Haight, but playing miles away at the Fillmore and Avalon, it made sense to have a neighborhood venue. By the time the venue had been renovated, however, and after a big struggle with permits was straightened out by early '68, the rock market had exploded. The Fillmore and Avalon were already too small, and the Straight, just half the size of either, could hardly compete. Nonetheless, there was some good music played there throughout 1968, but the larger bands had moved on.
All the hippies were for Eugene McCarthy for President, since he had promised to end the Vietnam War. The California Presidential primary was in early June, so many bands were playing at benefits for him. Part of the SF ethos was that bands played benefits, for which they probably received little more than expenses. Still, gigging at benefits and free concerts helped to build audiences, an early recognition that maintaining exclusivity was not always a good strategy for promoting music.
May 10-12, 1968 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco, CA: Steve Miller Band/Kaleidoscope/The Youngbloods (Friday-Sunday)
Back in January, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and Quicksilver had started their own Ballroom at the Carousel (on Market and Van Ness) to compete directly with Bill Graham’s Fillmore Auditorium and Chet Helm’s Avalon. It had struggle on throughout the Spring. Playing there would piss off Bill Graham, but that didn't matter much to The Youngbloods.
May 15, 1968 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco, CA: Big Brother and The Holding Company/Rejoice/The Youngbloods (Wednesday) Hell’s Angels Dance
Like most of the SF venues, the Carousel would rent out the room on weeknights. In this case, it was a Wednesday night dance sponsored by the Hells Angels. The bands were probably paid in cash. The public was welcome to attend, but that wasn't likely a good decision.
A month later, Bill Graham would take over the lease to the Carousel and rename it the Fillmore West.
May 17, 1968 Gym, Chabot College, Hayward, CA: The Youngbloods/Indian Head Band (Friday)
Chabot College is an Alameda County Junior College that had opened in 1961, in San Leandro. By Fall 1965, it had moved to its permanent campus on Hesperian Boulevard in Hayward. The show at the Gym was probably an end-of-term event.
Indian Head Band was an interesting group featuring guitarist Hal Wagenet, who would soon join It's A Beautiful Day. Indian Head Band also had a female singer (Mickey Mader), and they played Indian raga-styled instrumental rock, with long solos.
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| A program for the Northern California Folk Rock Festival, held on May 18 and 19, 1968 at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in San Jose |
May 18-19, 1968 Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, San Jose, CA 1st Annual Northern California Folk-Rock Festival
>May 18, 1968 Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, Santa Clara, CA
Jefferson Airplane/Big Brother and The Holding Company/Grateful Dead/Steve Miller Band/The Youngbloods/People!/Sons of Champlin/Crome Syrcus/Transatlantic Railroad/Indian Head Band/Mourning Reign (Saturday)
>May 19, 1968 Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, Santa Clara, CA
The Doors/Country Joe and The Fish/Electric Flag/The Youngbloods/Ashish Khan-Shamin Ahmed-Taranoth Rad/Loading Zone/People!/Taj Mahal/Mint Tattoo/Elgin Marble/Omar (Sunday)
Bands listed in reverse order of appearance
The Northern California Folk-Rock Festival was a huge Northern California event, and a huge moment in South Bay rock history. The show was outdoors at the County Fairgrounds, similar to Monterey Pop. Crowds were large but manageable (although the next year would be a different story). San Jose wasn't happy with the event, but it went well and was remembered fondly. There is (mostly silent) film footage of the concert, many photos, some audience tapes and plenty of fond memories on message boards and social media. The Youngbloods played both days.
There is an audience tape of The Youngbloods from the first day (Saturday May 18). The band is just a trio. Jesse makes a comment to the crowd that "Jerry decided he wanted to be a record producer." They play 10 songs in about 35 minutes. The tape has been cleaned up, but it's mainly an artefact, if an interesting one. Their set is fairly rocking, with an emphasis on blues and R&B songs, with Banana on energetic lead guitar. Not surprising, given that they were playing to a big crowd that was only vaguely famiiar with their music. A big outdoor show wasn't the place for introspection.
The KMPX strike was still going on. Almost all the advertisers had quit the station (except, oddly, the Carousel Ballroom), so the djs were clearly winning. Still, everybody had still been listening to KMPX because there was no other FM rock station. That changed on Tuesday, May 21, 1968, when KSAN (94.9-fm, or "The Jive 95") went on the air. KMPX Supremo Tom Donahaue and all of his djs went live on KSAN, and the station dominated San Francisco airwaves for the next decade. KSAN had a huge direct and indirect influence on FM rock radio, and thus on the history of rock itself. The Youngbloods, like most of the SF ballroom bands, had plenty of supporters amongst the DJs so their albums got regular airplay.
May 24-26, 1968 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA: The Youngbloods/Kaleidoscope/Hour Glass (Friday-Sunday)
The Youngbloods returned to headline the Avalon the next weekend. Kaleidoscope opened the show. Kaleidoscope were a fabulously inventive Southern California band led by David Lindley, who played “World Music” twenty years before the term was invented. They were too far ahead of their time to really become popular in the '60s, but they were very highly regarded by other musicians. One big fan was Jimmy Page. The Yardbirds were playing the Fillmore this weekend, near the end of their life as a band, and Jimmy Page would walk over to the Avaon each night (twelve blocks) to see Kaleidoscope’s set.
Kaleidoscope had played with the Youngbloods a number of times, so it's no surprise that leader David Lindley would play the haunting fiddle part on the Youngbloods "Darkness, Darkness" which was released in 1969.
The other opening act, Hour Glass also based in LA, featured Duane and Gregg Allman.
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| The poster for the Youngbloods appearance at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, OR, on June 14-15 1968. Note that there are only three Youngbloods pictured. Jerry Corbitt did not always appear live with the band, and would officially leave the group by August. |
June 14-15, 1968 Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR: The Youngbloods/Kaleidoscope (Friday-Saturday)
The Crystal Ballroom was Portland’s premier psychedelic ballroom, although less fabled than many other stops on the circuit. The Crystal, at 1332 W. Burnside (at NW 14th Ave), had been built in 1914 as the Cotillion Dance Hall. By the early 1960s, it was an important stop on the rhythm and blues circuit, promoted by Charles Sullivan, a San Francisco entrepreneur who also booked black music at the Fillmore and on the West Coast. So acts like James Brown and BB King had regularly played the Crystal Ballroom. Sullivan stopped promoting shows at the end of 1965. Bill Graham took over the lease on the Fillmore, but the Crystal remained dormant.
On January 1, 1967, the lease on the Crystal Ballroom was taken over by Michael Magaurn and Lockman "Whitey" Davis. Whitey Davis had been one of Chet Helm's lieutenants at the Avalon Ballroom. In 1967, the Crystal mostly booked local bands, but as the touring circuit got bigger, better known bands started to come through Portland. By 1968, the Crystal Ballroom was a regular stop on the ballroom circuit between San Francisco and Seattle.
The Crystal Ballroom was small but beautiful, fondly remembered by the bands that played there and anyone lucky enough to see a band there. As rock concerts became more popular in 1968, the city found excuses to shut down shows at the Crystal in July 1968. Incredibly, however, the building re-opened in 1997, and it remains open today.
Note that the flashy poster for The Youngbloods at the Crystal (above) only has three members, as Corbitt was starting to step aside by this time. He would officially leave the band a few months later (see August 14 below).
June 21-22, 1968 Concord Coliseum, Concord, CA: The Youngbloods (Friday-Saturday)
The Youngbloods returned for a weekend at the Concord Coliseum. Concord teenagers could hear KMPX and KSAN , too, so the Youngbloods would have had a following even in the suburbs. This basic fact--suburban teens grooving to FM rock radio in their bedrooms, and later their cars--would drive the explosion of the rock market in the United States for the next twenty-five years.
June 23, 1968 Y-Knot, Lucky Lanes, Albany, CA: The Youngbloods (Sunday)
Albany is a small town North of Berkeley, essentially a Berkeley neighborhood. The San Pablo News reported in its June 21 edition that the Lucky Lanes Bowling Alley in Albany was debuting a 6000 square foot "Teen Room" with rock bands (at the time, many Bowling Alleys served beer), called the Y-Knot. The Youngbloods were to debut the Y-Knot. I can find out nothing else about the venue. Efforts like this to "give the kids something to do" generally failed to attract teenagers, who preferred seeing larger concerts with more popular bands.
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| The tiny unassuming North Tahoe Events Center at 8318 North Lake Blvd in Kings Beach was once the Kings Beach Bowl, hosting the giants of psychedelic rock in the Summers of 1967 and '68 |
>Summer 68 Kings Beach Bowl, Kings Beach, CA: The Youngbloods
Lake Tahoe, CA, 200 miles North of San Francisco and 60 miles South of Reno, has been the city's resort area since Southern Pacific Railroad made it a destination in 1899. In the 1960s, floods of Sacramento and Bay Area teenagers spent weekends, weeks or entire Summers in Lake Tahoe. It's no surprise there was a live music scene. What's hardly known is that there were some psychedelic outposts there, too. The Summers of 1967 and '68 that were packed with psychedelic legends, before the scene simply got too large for the resort town.
Lake Tahoe straddles two states. Families would come to Tahoe, and the parents would drive over to the Nevada side to gamble, leaving the teenagers the free run of the California side. On the North shore of the Lake, the teenagers would drive up to the tiny community of Kings Beach to the Kings Beach Bowl, an old bowling alley at 8318 North Lake Blvd (CA-28). In the Summer, it was a sort of coffee shop during the day, and on weekends and some weeknights they had bands straight from the Fillmore. The Grateful Dead, Quicksilver, Moby Grape, Jimi Hendrix and Country Joe & The Fish all played there. Problems with the cops? Nah--one of the owners was the Sheriff.
An eyewitness recalls seeing the Youngbloods, probably in the Summer of '68 (although '67 is possible). The Kings Beach Bowl is now the North Tahoe Events Center. We won't pass this way again.
June 28 1968 Sound Factory, Sacramento, CA: Quicksilver Messenger Service/The Youngbloods/H.P. Lovecraft/Wake Forest (Friday)
June 29, 1968 Sound Factory, Sacramento, CA: The Youngbloods/H.P. Lovecraft/Wake Forest (Saturday)
Sacramento, California's capital city, is about 90 minutes North of Berkeley and San Francisco. Always somewhat sleepy, it was starting to wake up in the '60s. There were also expanding suburbs, a nearby University of California (at Davis) and lots of teenagers. So of course there was a growing rock market. It wasn't fully formed yet, as the local FM radio station (KZAP) did not go on air until November 8, 1968. The pieces were in place, however. The Sound Factory was at 1817 Alhambra, and was meant to be the Avalon for Sacramento. Running the ship was Whitey Davis, who had recently abandoned Portland's Crystal Ballroom.
Sacramento was the perfect location for bands touring the West Coast, as it was near the Bay Area while drawing on a separate audience (this is still true, by the way). Summer '68 was a bit early, however, and the Sound Factory was probably too small, in the 1300-capacity range like the Fillmore. Still, cool bands played there, including a lot of touring bands like Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull, so the Sound Factory is fondly remembered.
As near as I can tell, the Sound Factory opened on June 28 and 29. Quicksilver headlined on the first night (Friday), supported by the Youngbloods, but the Youngbloods were alone as headliners on Saturday night. HP Lovecraft was a Chicago band who would ultimately relocate to the Bay Area. Note again that the Youngbloods and Quicksilver are working together, a sign of the West-Pole booking connection.
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| The poster for June 28-30, 1968 at the Avalon promoted The Youngbloods, It's A Beautiful Day and Santana, but I think the Youngbloods only played Sunday June 30 (FD-125) |
June 30, 1968 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA The Youngbloods/It’s A Beautiful Day/Santana Blues Band (Sunday)
Although the Youngbloods are on this Avalon poster, it is more likely that they played Sacramento on Friday and Saturday (28 and 29). It is possible, though hardly certain, that the Youngbloods did play on Sunday (June 30). Still, the SF papers dutifully reported the Youngbloods playing the Avalon all weekend, but there were no actual reviews of the show.
A confusing narrative from Spencer Perskin’s website (now no longer accessible on the internet) suggests that Shiva’s Headband (Perskin’s band, temporarily relocated from Austin, TX) opened the show, and Perskin suggests that The Sir Douglas Quintet may have replaced the Youngbloods (if Perskin’s narrative refers to this show).
Neither It's A Beautiful Day nor Santana Blues Band were signed to record deals, nor would they release albums for another year. Both had modest local followings, but they weren't headline acts. If the Youngbloods had in fact taken the Sacramento gig, the Avalon would have had to book another headliner, so the Sir Douglas Quintet booking makes sense.
The rock market had outgrown the Fillmore and the Avalon by this point. Graham would deal with it by moving to the much larger Fillmore West (formerly the Carousel Ballroom) on the weekend of July 4. Chet Helms and the Avalon lacked the capital to expand, however, and were slowly squeezed out of the San Francisco market.
July 5, 1968 St. Elizabeth High School, Oakland, CA: The Youngbloods (Friday)
St. Elizabeth was a Catholic High School that had opened in 1921. It was located at 1530 34th Avenue (near E. 14th St), in Oakland's Fruitvale District. In the Bay Area, it was typical of smaller, private schools to hold dances that were open to students of other High Schools. So while not quite public dances, they weren't exclusively confined to their own student body. Local rock bands often played High School dances, in the Bay Area like anywhere else.
While Fillmore bands sometimes played High School dances, particularly when they were just starting out, it was an occasional thing for the most part. For a reason I have never been able to determine, St. Elizabeth had the coolest Fillmore bands at their dances in the late '60s. There is a history to be discovered there, but I have not been able to unravel it.
July 14, 1968 Marina Green, San Francisco, CA: Quicksilver Messenger Service/Electric Flag/The Youngbloods/Granny Goose and The Soul Chips/John Handy Quintet/Monty Waters Band/Free Spirits (Sunday) Jazz Action Movement (JAM) Benefit
Some musicians, journalists and academics wanted to find some common ground between jazz and rock. I'm not entirely certain what the goal was--I think the idea was to use rock music to make young people like jazz. In any case, the Jazz Action Movement was supposed to put on seminars or something, and they had a benefit show on the Marina Green in San Francisco. This was the only concert on the Marina Green, ever, so it must not have gone over well with the locals, most likely due to noise. The bill was a mixture of rock bands associated with West-Pole, some local jazz groups, and one of the first actual "jazz-rock" bands from Greenwich Village (The Free Spirits).
The show was reviewed in detail by teenage diarist Faren Miller. Faren Miller is too long a story to go into here, but she was a Berkeley teenager who went to a lot of rock concerts and wrote about them in her diary. She was very observant and quite a good writer (she was later an editor for the Science Fiction magazine Locus). Sometime in the 1990s, she transcribed all her rock band observations, and they were available on the internet. Although no longer accessible, they were a golden window into late '60s San Francisco rock shows, with sparkling detail. She reported that The Youngbloods were a trio (Banana, JC Young, Joe Bauer) for this show.
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| A poster for the "West Coast Watermelon Feed and Love-in" near Santa Cruz on August 11, 1968 |
August 11, 1968 “Private Beach,” Davenport, CA: Quicksilver Messenger Service/West/Phoenix/Charlie Musslewhite Blues Band/The Youngbloods/Creedence Clearwater Revival/Flamin’ Groovies (Sunday) “West Coast Watermelon Feed and Love-In”
This show is only known through a poster, that announces "West Coast Watermelon Feed and Love-In." This was around the period when promoters were searching for new venues for larger scale rock concerts. The actual promoter of this show is not named on the poster. Creedence Clearwater Revival had just released their first album on Fantasy Records. Their 8-minute version of Dale Hawkins' old hit "Suzie Q" was getting good play on KSAN and KMPX, so they were starting to have a following.
The poster invites patrons to a "private beach" 10 miles North of Santa Cruz. That puts it roughly at the little town of Davenport, although the exact location may have been what is currently known as Bonny Doon State Beach. California had very restrictive rules about private beaches, very different than on the East Coast, where beaches have been in private hands for many decades. After 1972, in fact, and the formation of the California Coastal Commission, no beaches in California were private (effectively by definition all beaches are state lands). This would partially explain why no similar event was tried again.
Ross Hannan asked Banana about this event, and he recalled fearing for his life, as apparently the Hells Angels handled security for the show and things got a little out of hand.
August 15-17, 1968 Whisky A-Go-Go, West Hollywood, CA Taj Mahal/ The Youngbloods (Thursday-Saturday)
The afternoon of the 15th, at SFO International Airport, Jerry Corbitt announced he wasn’t prepared to fly. This was probably a culmination of many other issues, but Corbitt left the group and did not perform with The Youngbloods for some decades. Already, the Youngbloods had played at least some shows as a trio. In any case, Corbitt did play on some Jesse Colin Young albums in the '70s, and appeared live with Young in 1972 and '73, so if there was a rift with the band it didn't seem irreparable. Since Corbitt was not replaced, Banana’s electric piano became more dominant, moving The Youngbloods away from the goodtime blues of before and more towards a jazzier sound.
The Youngbloods had now played the Whisky-A-Go-Go several times. They must have done alright at the club itself, since they kept getting booked. But bands only made union scale at the club, and the goal was to build an audience. The Youngbloods seem not to have played much in Southern California during this period, at least that I can discover, so their efforts at the Whisky weren't really paying off.
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| SF Chronicle listing August 29 19'68 |
August 29-30-31, 1968 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA: The Youngbloods/It’s A Beautiful Day/Initial Shock (Thursday-Saturday)
The Fillmore and the Avalon had invented the modern rock concert, but the business had exploded well beyond the confines of those tiny ballrooms. Bill Graham had moved the Fillmore to the Fillmore West, which was nearly twice the size, and he moved the biggest shows to Winterland, which in turn was twice the size of Fillmore West. Chet Helms, meanwhile, lacked the capital, and a bigger room and soldiered on with the Avalon. The Avalon was still cool, but it wasn't the center of the action the way it had been. The Youngbloods remained loyal, but the fact that they were headlining the Avalon meant they weren't top tier.
It's A Beautiful Day had released their debut album on Columbia in June, and it had been a hit. Featuring by the song "White Bird," the album would get heavy airplay on KSAN, and the band rapidly became very popular. It's A Beautiful Day had just played a weekend at the Fillmore West (Aug 16-18), second-billed to Creedence, so Graham had made sure he had gotten the first bite of the apple with a hot new group. The Avalon got to book the band two weeks later.
Prior to the Sky River Rock Festival, rock festivals had been on the Monterey Pop Festival model. They were held at a Fairgrounds of some type, similar to the Newport or Monterey Jazz or Folk Festivals, with the various comforts and limitations. Sky River was the first rock festival held in a rural area on private property, with 24/7 music, little interference from the cops, and general psychedelic madness. It was a seen as a success, and Sky River singlehandedly spawned all the hiipies-in-a-muddy-field events that followed in 1969 and '70. Just about every region had an entry. Some were pretty cool and fondly remembered, like Atlanta '69 and Woodstock, and some were very much not OK, like Altamont (much less the 1972 Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival). But they all grew from the success of Sky River.
The Sky River Rock Festival was held at Betty Nelson's Organic Rasperry Farm in tiny Sultan, WA. Sultan was about 45 minutes Northwest of Seattle. Back on April 28, the same bunch of hippies had held an event at Van Over's Farm in Duvall, WA, about 20 miles nearer to Seattle. The centerpiece of the event was dropping a piano from a helicopter (hippies--what can you do?). For entertainment, they had hired Country Joe & The Fish. Things had gone well, so they plotted a larger event. The principal event at Sky River was to be free balloon rides--hence "Lighter Than Air Fair"--but that was quickly subsumed by the rock festival.
The booking agent was one John Chambless, a newly employed Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Washington. Chambless had also been the principal booker for the UC Berkeley Folk Festivals for the previous few years, so he was well-connected with Bay Area bands. The event turned into a sort of road trip for all the Bay Area bands, and ultimately the event escalated to a three-day festival of mostly non-stop music. Chambless was also a key booker for Eagles Hall in Seatlle. Fender was enlisted to donate a truck fill of amplifiers so that visiting bands could choose which ones they wanted to use when they performed. Of course it rained, too.
Based on photos, vague but fond memories, and good karma, the Sky River Rock Festival and Lighter Than Air Fair was happily, if fuzzily remembered. The Youngbloods played, but whether on September 1 (Sunday) or September 2 (Monday) remains unknown.
For the record, the billed acts were:
All Men Joy, Buddha (MC), Congress of Wonders (comedy), Easy Chair, Freedom Highway, Gale Garnett, It’s A Beautiful Day, Muddy Waters, New Lost City Ramblers, Pink Floyd (did not show), Billy Roberts, San Francisco Mime Troupe Marching Band, Alice Stuart Thomas , The Youngbloods, Country Weather, John Fahey, Marvin Gardens, Dr. Humboldt’s New Tranquility String Band, Mother Tucker’s Yellow Duck, Mystic Knights of The Sea, Peanut Butter Conspiracy, Richard Pryor, Santana, Steppenwolf (likely did not show), Buffy St. Marie, Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, Black Snake, Sandy Bull, Country Joe and The Fish, Ramblin Jack Elliott, Frumious Bandersnatch, Mitch Greehnill, Kaleidoscope, My Indole Ring, Nina and Kotana, Phoenix, Salvation, Sons of Champlin, Blues Feedback, Cleveland Wrecking Company.
The Grateful Dead, not billed, showed up to perform anyway on Monday. When they saw the barn full of Fender amplifiers, and were asked which ones they wanted to use for their set, they cheerily said "all of them!"
September 22, 1968 Del Mar Fairgrounds, Del Mar, CA: Quicksilver Messenger Service/Grateful Dead/Buddy Miles Express/Taj Mahal/The Youngbloods/Sons Of Champlin/Mother Earth/Curly Cooke’s Hurdy-Gurdy Band/Ace of Cups/Phoenix (Sunday)
The one-day rock festival at the Del Mar Fairgounds was the last gasp of San Diego's Hippodrome Ballroom. The Hippodrome had been San Diego's entry into the Ballroom sweepstakes, a converted skating rink that booked mostly San Francisco bands. San Diego is peculiar, in that it is right next to LA, but all the cool, arty people have migrated to Hollywood, so San Diego typically is benignly unhip. The Hippodrome only lasted from June until August of 1968 and folded quietly.
The Hippodrome crew (who were also Tom Wolfe's "Pump House Gang") re-assembled one last time for the Del Mar festival. The Fairgrounds were a horse racing track, and it was a similar setup to Monterey Pop . The bands were mostly associated with West-Pole. Buddy Miles Express is billed as “Formerly: The Electric Flag.” The show was fondly remembered, but not particularly well attended
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| The poster for The Youngbloods at Stanford's Frost Amphitheater showed 4 band members, even though Jerry Corbitt had actually left the band by this time (likely the show was booked two months earlier, and the RCA promo photo was accurate then) |
September 24, 1968 Frost Amphitheater, Stanford U., Palo Alto, CA Youngbloods/Sundown Collection (Tuesday)
Stanford University had a complex relationship with rock and roll. In 1966, most of the bands who played the campus that year ended up in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. Eventually, the University figured out was going on. Most of the bands had played on roof of the Tressider Student Union. Finally, the Grateful Dead played Tresidder Deck (on Oct 14 '66), and Big Brother played a "Happening" at the Freshman dorm complex ("A Happening In The Wilburness", Dec 2 '66). Afterwards, there were no more concerts at Tressider Deck, the Grateful Dead were banned from campus and rock and roll was treated as an infectious disease by Stanford (which perhaps it was).
Frost Amphitheatre was by far the biggest venue on campus, too large for any band at the time. Stanford did not like using Frost for rock concerts. Nonetheless, they made an exception in September 1968, and allowed the Youngbloods to headline Frost on a Tuesday. Given the 8:00pm start time, and given that it was September, the show had to be under lights. Not only was this the first rock concert at Frost held at night, it was one of only two. There was only one other night time concert at Frost in the 20th century, with Sly and The Family Stone on October 9, 1970, itself a notorious (if funky) debacle.
The Youngbloods played a weekend at the New Orleans House. This was a good gig, but the Youngbloods were still not so big that they were sized out of clubs. The Dead or the Airplane didn't play clubs, at least not with advertisements, but the Youngbloods were still not that far up the ladder.
The Crabs were a Berkeley band, and they played in a sort of root-rock style.
October 1, 1968 “Love-U District Festival” on University Way NE, Seattle, WA: The Youngbloods/ Frumious Bandersnatch/Santana/Country Weather/Juggernaut/Mother Tucker’s Yellow Duck/Congress of Wonders/Alice Stuart/Cliff Wagner and The Second Coming/Floating Bridge/Calliope (Tuesday)
This outdoor event was sponsored by the Associated Students of the University of Washington and the University District Chamber of Commerce. It was organized by the New American Community. I'm pretty sure that John Chambless, organizer of Sky River, had something to do with it. The Youngbloods were the "Name" act. There were a few Bay Area bands on the bill, like Frumious Bandersnatch (from Lafayette), Santana (then unsigned), Country Weather (also from Contra Costa County), the Congress Of Wonders (a Berkeley comedy trio) and Alice Stuart (a Berkeley transplant originally from Seattle). There were also a few Seattle bands, including the great Floating Bridge and also Calliope (with songwriter Danny O'Keefe on bass), a Vancouver band (Mother Tucker) and a few others.
"I saw Jesse and the Youngbloods in Seattle, right next to the UW in 1968. It was a street show with the bands on a flatbed truck. At midnight the cops shut it all down and
Tom Gunn the UW Student Pres. took the whole show onto campus. It reopened in the UW HUB Ballroom for the next 4-5 hours. Santana closed the show. 2 years before Woodstock. A prime night to behold. Thanks Jesse, Santana and all the bands that night."
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| A September 29 1968 listing in the Sacramento Bee with Traffic as headliner |
October 5, 1968 Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, Sacramento, CA: Grateful Dead/The Turtles/The Youngbloods/Sanpaku/Initial Shock/Family Tree (Saturday)
Sacramento was booming, as mentioned, and full of teenagers. Rock was popular, too, but there wasn't yet an FM station to provide any means of dissemination. The Sacramento Memorial Auditorium was the region's biggest venue, seating 3600. Some big bands had played there, like Cream (back in March of '68). But the Sacramento Civic was really too big for most rock bands. This October concert was initially booked with Traffic as the headliner, supported by the Dead and The Youngbloods. Traffic canceled their tour, as Dave Mason had left the band, so the concert changed its face,
The story of the October '68 Sacramento concert is fairly complex, and I have dealt with it in great detail elsewhere (mainly from a Grateful Dead perspective). For one thing, the promoter was Whitey Davis, who had booked The Youngbloods in both Portland and at Sacramento's Sound Factory. The Turtles replaced Traffic as the headliners. While The Turtles had a reputation as a sort of teen-pop hit machine, that was really their record company's doing. Musically, and in concert, The Turtles played hip and danceable folk-rock, fronted by the inimitable duo of Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan (AKA Flo and Eddie). So the Turtles would have fit in great with all the bands on the bill.
Still, the concert wasn't really a success. Only 2000 tickets were sold for a 3600-seat venue. OK, ultimately, but not great. All of the bands played sets of less than an hour. Although there's no tape, I'm fairly certain that Pigpen did not appear with the Dead, as he did not for many October '68 shows. His partner Veronica ("Vee") Barnard had a brain aneurysm and nearly died, and Pigpen stayed off the road to take care of her. In any case, the Youngbloods were definitely part of the bigger mix, but this show wasn't about them.
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The city of Berkeley allowed free concerts in what was called "Provo Park," after the Irish Republican Army, but was officially called Constitution Park. The Park was downtown at Allston & Grove (now MLK Jr Blvd), behind the Berkeley Community Theater. Bands liked to play Provo Park in order to build an audience, and in any case it was fun. The city sponsored the shows in order to keep them manageable. This event was announced as the "last show of the season."
October 18, 1968 Rainbow Ballroom, Fresno, CA: Creedence Clearwater Revival/The Youngbloods (Friday) 8 and 11pm shows
The Rainbow Ballroom, at 1725 Broadway, had opened in 1918, and had been a music venue more or less continuously since 1925 (and still was at least as late as 2019). It held around 1000 people. Many sixties bands played there. At this time, Creedence's debut album was startint to get airplay, and "Suzie Q" was even getting some AM airplay, but they still weren't what they would become even the next year.
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| A flyer for The Youngbloods at Eagles Auditorium, Seattle, for Halloween Weekend in 1968 |
October 31-November 2, 1968 Eagles Auditorium, Seattle, WA The Youngbloods/Congress Of Wonders/movie (Thursday-Saturday)
The Youngbloods returned to Eagles Auditorium in Seattle for Halloween weekend. The band was booked with the Berkeley comedy trio Congress Of Wonders and also a Bela Lugosi/Boris Karloff movie, and possibly some sort of ceremonial "Black Mass."
The Youngbloods had moved to Marin County in September 1967. Since that time, they had only played outside of the West Coast only once that I am aware of (March 15-16 in Detroit). While I may have missed some shows, on the whole the Youngbloods had become a completely West Coast band. While they did play out of town, flying to Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver was easy, so they were barely "road trips," with only the occasional night away from Marin. With Jesse Colin Young's young family, it was clear that there was no desire to undertake the kind of grueling road trips favored by the Dead or the Airplane.
November 9, 1968 Grace Hall, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA: The 5th Dimension/The Youngbloods (Saturday)In the late '60s, colleges and universities still had significant entertainment budgets. At many private schools, particularly in the East, events like "Homecoming" (for Alumni) or "Prom" were still a big event. Many schools had funds to bring in popular bands, not just local cover groups. For a few years, these were good paying gigs for the Fillmore-type bands, until that world changed. For a well-funded event in the late '60s, it was common to have a mainstream "pop" group and a hipper, louder rock group for the aspiring hippies.
The Pop-plus-Rock formula led to the most infamous of these events, namely the Ohio University (in Athens, OH) Junior Prom on May 19, 1969, where popular singer Jose Feliciano headlined over an up-and-coming British rock band called Led Zeppelin (yes, this really happened). In other places, some hippies would take over the "Entertainment Committee," and force in their own choice. This was probably how the Grateful Dead came to play the Drexel (PA) Homecoming Dance on October 16, 1970 (the seats in every other row was reserved for Drexel students and their dates).
Lehigh University had been founded in 1865, and was largely focused on engineering. It was all-male until 1971. Today it has about 7,000 students, but I'm sure it had fewer in the 1960s. For their 1968 Homecoming, which was called "Houseparty Weekend," the bands booked were The 5th Dimension and The Youngbloods. To give the Lehigh Students some credit, the 5th Dimension were African-American, and while they were very Top 40, they sang the kind of high-quality pop music that doesn't get made any more. Their big hits had been "Up, Up & Away" (it had reached #7 on Billboard in 1967), and Laura Nyro's "Stoned Soul Picnic" (#3, May '68). The Youngbloods were far milder than some bands who played around, but at least they had played the Fillmore and the Avalon.
The event was reviewed in the local Allentown Morning Call (on Monday Nov 11). 1500 Lehigh students and their dates (i.e. 750 couples) went to the show. The show was scheduled for two hours but ended up being three, due to sound problems. Anecdotally, I know that "sound trouble" was a regular problem at '60s college shows, as the campuses had no experience with modern amplifiers. There were still no professional sound companies to hire, so blown circuits and fried speakers were common. The reviewer mentioned that the Youngbloods played "Too Much Monkey Business," "Ain't Tha Lovin' You Baby" and "Gettin' Together." Even though mispelled, the fact was that music fans were already generally aware of "Get Together," which would become so important to the Youngbloods when it was re-released in the Summer of '69.
With a profitable gig at Lehigh on a Saturday night (November 9), and a big weekend at Fillmore East two weeks later (November 22-23, see below), it seems logical that the Youngbloods had other gigs on the East Coast. I've not been able to find any, however. It certainly seems likely they would have at least played the weekend of November 15-16.November 22-23, 1968 Fillmore East, New York, NY: Iron Butterfly/Canned Heat/The Youngbloods (Friday-Saturday) early and late shows
The Youngbloods finally made it to Fillmore East, which had been open since March. While Bill Graham had mostly refused to book the Youngbloods at Fillmore because they were "an Avalon band," that was a San Francisco thing. The Dead, the Airplane, Big Brother and Quicksilver had organized the Carousel Ballroom to compete directly with him and were shut out of Fillmore in Spring '68. Graham cheerily booked them all atFillmore East, however, and the Carousel folded anyway. So booking The Youngbloods at Fillmore East was just business. Presumably since the Lehigh booking had brough them East, they could take the gig.
The Youngbloods didn't really have that much of a following on the East Coast, despite their Cambridge and Greenwich Village roots. Fittingly, they were third on the bill to bands from San Diego (Iron Butterfly) and LA (Canned Heat). Both of the bands had hits, "In-A-Gadda-D-Vida" for Butterfly and "On The Road Again" (and "Goin' Up The Country") for the Heat. The Youngbloods only had the minor success of "Get Together," and had not released an album since Earth Music in late 1967. A year without an album was a long time in the 1960s.
Unlike the Fillmore, Fillmore West and Avalon, the Fillmore East had seats. This gave the fans a better chance to listen to the less histrionic groups, and this would have favored the Youngbloods. Both nights would had an early and late show. As the openers, the Youngbloods would have probably played about 30 minutes each show.
December 31, 1968 Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA: Vanilla Fudge/Richie Havens/The Youngbloods/Cold Blood (Tuesday) 9pm to 9am
The Youngbloods returned home, and finally played Fillmore West. Although the big event on New Year's Eve was at Winterland, with Quicksilver, the Dead, It's A Beautiful Day and Santana, there was another event over at Fillmore West. Vanilla Fudge had been a very big deal in 1967, and had more or less initiated "Heavy Rock" with their loud, slowed-down version of the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hanging On." In so doing, the Fudge greatly influenced Deep Purple, the Jeff Beck Group, Led Zeppelin and many others. But by the end of '68 Vanilla Fudge didn't look so fresh. Still, they were popular, and an alternative to the more psychedelic excursions of the Quick and the Dead.
While it's true that the Avalon had closed on November 30, and the Youngbloods' loyalty to Chet Helms was now merely historical, it's notable that the first time they appeared on a Fillmore West bill they were booked with a West-Pole act. Richie Havens, a sort of progressive Greenwich Village folkie, was managed by Albert Grossman, and West-Pole likely handled his booking on the West Coast. So the Youngbloods had made it to Fillmore West, but not entirely on their own.
Status Report: The Youngbloods, New Year's Eve 1968Jesse Colin Young and Jerry Corbitt had electrified their folk duo in early 1966, moving from Cambridge to Greenwich Village. The new quartet, with Banana and Joe Bauer, had gotten signed to RCA and produced two albums. The Youngbloods' thoughtful, laid-back blues were more rocking than folk music, but not full-on blasting like the Butterfield Blues Band. After their debut album, the band realized that the Bay Area was a better place for their music. The band moved permanently to Marin County in September 1967, pretty much confining their performances to the West Coast circuit. Their second album, Earth Music, got some good airplay on the new San Francisco FM rock stations.
Meanwhile, guitarist Jerry Corbitt didn't like flying, and left the Youngbloods in mid-'68. The resulting trio was even jazzier and laid-back than the quartet version of the band. The Youngbloods were in fact somewhat ahead of their time, but of course they could not know that in 1968. By the end of the year, the group had at least played Fillmore East, the most high profile gig on the East Coast. 1969 would bring not only a new album, but huge success from an unexpected source.
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| Two Trips, released by Mercury in 1970, featured five demo tracks recored by The Youngbloods in early 1966, as well as six tracks from Jesse Colin Young's 1965 Mercury album (Young Blood). |
Appendix: The Youngbloods Album Discography
Soul Of A City Boy-Jesse Colin Young (Capitol) May 1964
Young Blood-Jesse Colin Young (Mercury) April 1965
The Youngbloods (RCA) February 1967
Earth Music-The Youngbloods (RCA) November 1967
Two Trips-Jesse Colin Young and The Youngbloods (Mercury) released July 1970
Non-lp 45s
Rider/Sometime (Mercury single, July 1966, may have been withdrawn)
Merry Go-Round (RCA single. 1967)
Se Qualcano Mi Dira/Qui Con Noi, Tra Di Noi (RCA Italian language single, early 1968) [Get Together/Grizzly Bear]
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