I love all kinds of music, local and not. My favorites would follow Paul's line of thinking. The complete catalogue of this bay area band was always our fave in the '70's. Every tune they recorded is on my i-pod. Great stuff.
Hi Matt, I don't think you need to apologize , that is what was happening for you at the time. Yes I was in my 20's in the 80"s but I never noticed any metal being popular. Most people I know do not like what they call " the bad energy " of heavy metal. Led Zepplin is too strong for them , although I like them. We in Southern Marin have always been much more into soul , funk , jazz and high quality rock music like the Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver. We loved James Brown , Bootsy Collins ( Parlament - Funkadellic ) , Sly Stone Larry Grahm ( Grahm Central Station ) , Rubicon , Elvin Bishop , The Detroit Emeralds , Stoneground and I could go on and on. Basically it's " Whatever makes your boat float " With so many different choices of styles of music no one expects everybody to like everything. I liked the Grateful Dead a lot but I was never a " Deadhead " . I have seen them many times but not crazy about them, sometimes they sucked. I liked Moby Grape's album called " Grape Jam " with motorcycle Irene and the Grape Jam song. I always remember Country Joe singing , and it's one , two , three what are we fighting for , everybody I don't give a damn , next stop is Vietnam. Eat flowers and kiss babies - LSD - for you and me.
The whole 80's decade was metal. You're right that music is purely subjective. Perhaps I was a bit too harsh on my critique of Pablo Cruise, et al. For that, I apologize.
Famous? If you were in your late teens or 20's in the 80's and you hit the clubs then, yes, these bands were "famous".
Again, the 60's sound was never my thing, hence my knee jerk reaction. The Who, Stones, Yardbirds and the 60's punk sound were more my thing from that era. I just was never a "Deadhead" or Country Joe kind of guy.
I'm sorry but what some people think of the music that evolved in Marin is a matter of opinion , boring , over rated bar band sound never crossed my mind , as most of the classic bands played not in bars. I never liked heavy metal at all and have never even heard of Bacchus , Potential Threat or Postumus. They must not have been famous. What songs did they do that anyone knows about ? I've never heard of the new wave of San Francisco Thrash either. What year was that event ?
Enough of this hippie stuff! How about Bacchus, Potential Threat and Postumous among others, all from Marin. It was classified the "New Wave Of San Francisco Thrash" in the 80's. James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich of Metallica still live in Marin.
Pablo Cruise? C'mon. I saw them at a New years eve show at the Civic Center. A comedian, Gary Muledeer, opened for them. It was one of the worst shows I've ever seen.
It did (does) surprise me, though, that the Marin" sound went from being the boring, hippie, over rated bar band sound to some of the heaviest, fastest metal ever!
Back in 1968 - 69 , Steve Miller used to live out on Seadrift. I always loved listening to his music , some of my faves were , Little Girl , My Dark Hour , and Sha boo be da do wa. I never saw him around town much , he was very busy recording " over the hill ". I did get to meet his girlfriend Kim . She was an 18 year old Babe who looked and acted 21. She was very sweet , and how I met her was in those days before I began driving , I used to hitch hike over the hill to Mill Valley all the time to party when things got slow in Stinson. So one day Kim came driving by in her Karman Ghia and she gave me a ride to M.V. She whipped out a box of fat joints and sparked one , it was good stuff. So from then on whenever I saw her driving down the street I would instinctively stick out my thumb to hitch a ride , ( I developed a huge crush on her at first sight ) . I would do this even if I was not planning to go over the hill. One time she gave me a ride to M.V. and asked if I wanted to go to the City with her , she said she would roast another fatty. So I ended up in S.F. stoned and what a wild ride it was. I got out of her car and instantly turned around and hitch hiked back to M.V.
Soundhole rocked! I remember them playing at a Ross School dance in the early 70's and later at COM, and maybe even at Litchfield's. I have a couple of their tunes on tape stored away somewhere - "Back to the Summer of Love" & "Rainy Day" Some people might remember Rainy Day as "Every Day for the rest of my life". Ahh, the memories.
artlife , the album I am most interested in I think came out in 1971 or 1972. I remember it had a picture taken on Throckmorton at the Art and Garden Center across from the old Sequoia Theater. Speaking of the Sequoia , remember the old theater when it was just one big theater, totally art decco and the light fixtures were beautiful. That place was downright psychedellic. I remember they would have local high school bands play there , I remember seeing Sound Hole there , Mario Chippolina's first band.
A friend of mine used to do sound engineering for various Marin bands in the 70's, one band that I helped him roadie for was Kid Kahoutek & the Shooting Stars, which played sort of a '50's retro style and looked the part, greasy hair, black leather jackets, pack of Camels rolled into the sleeve of a white tee shirt, etc., I think some members were also in The Goodman Bros. too, it was a short lived outfit that used the comet Kahoutek name to latch on to a current fad, one gig i remember was at the Sonoma bowling Alley in the Cascade Room, Kid Curry was the leader of the group, and they played around Marin a lot also.
Hi artlife, thanks for the info about Stoneground. I would love to record a few songs off that record and would be willing to comp you well if is is at all possible . I still live in M.V. and always have been listed in the phone book , so if you could help me and are interested please look me up and leave a message at the tone. Thank you Much.
WOW, the muir beach tavern. Remembering the music and good timas we had back then. Going to muir beach to listen to music and watch naked women running around was pretty cool for a 15 year old. I remember the bands set up and played on that wood deck in front of the tavern as for the tavern I dont`t think that it was a real business then. I had the feeling some hippies used the kitchen to cook when they were living at the beach, it was gross.
The San Francisco sound surely was a monumental part of music history in the world. Actually a lot of those famous musicians migrated to Marin in the 60's , but Marin has it's own home grown famous bands too. Anyone that has a good memory please help with the story. Probably the most famous Marin band was the Sons of Champlain , with their first albulm Loosen up naturally and the hit " Get High " . I used to love the Clover dances at the Bolinas Community Center , Brown's Hall and the Muir Beach Tavern. Some of my favorite Clover songs were Lizard Rock and Roll Band , Sounds of Thunder ( which sounds a lot like Commander Cody's Watch My 38 ) , and later on when Hugh Craig joined the band in the early 70's with his soulful influence , the song Cook It On Up and when Huey would get up on stage and say What Time It Is ? and go into doing James Brown's " Hot Pants ". I remember an alblum put out by Stoneground , it had a picture taken on Throckmorton across from the old Sequioa Theater. Stoneground featured the deep voice of Sal Valentino and a sweet female vocalist I can't remember her name. They did some songs I still have in the back of my mind today , Come and See Me , Great Change and one I can't remember the name of but the words were , I swim through the ocean and fly through the sky to get to you. If anyone has that alblum let me know. When I was hitchhiking down from Washington Park one day Carlos Santana gave me a ride in his Excalibur , and Mike Bloomfield gave me a ride down in Tam Junction. When I lived in Larkspur I would see Gerry Garcia in his little Volvo/Jensen wagon , the original sport wagon. I could go on and on naming all the musicians that lived here and some still do , but how about if everyone puts their heads together and continues the memorys. Mahalo
