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Minnesota Flats

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I stand corrected. Thought maybe it was a typo on the part of the guy setting up the marquee or that he maybe had run out of "A"s.

I lived in the Bay Area back then and thought I saw some of the more obscure bands of the day: Purple Earthquake, Ace of Cups, Mad River, Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys and many others the names of which I can't remember (hey: I AM old and it WAS the 1960s!).

But I'm drawing a blank on the Allmen Joys.
 
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idealassets

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I recall that prior to the Warlocks most members of the Dead were in the band Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions. Then in about summer of 1967, amongst pictures of Elvis & Chad & Jeremy, the Grateful Dead & Mothers of Invention appeared in Tiger Beat, 17 Magazine, etc.

However you could not run down and buy their latest hit single in the local 45 RPM rack. Although you could buy the single of Somebody to Love and White Rabbit by the Airplane. But shortly afterwards there were monaural, and then stereo LP's available of them all: Grateful Dead, Mothers of Invention, and Country Joe & the Fish.
 
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adorshki

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But I'm drawing a blank on the Allmen Joys.
Me too,even though I was only a tender 11 years old in '67.
But another oft-forgotten band was Moby Grape who had their moment of fame for being the first SF band to be busted for pot.
Sadly they were also among the first casualties in the battle for freedom of the playground of the mind.
But they came to SF at the advice of Captain Trips and the Airplane's first drummer was a founding member as one of their guitarists.
A pretty good capsule bio here:
http://teamrock.com/feature/2016-09...e-chaos-and-courtrooms-acid-and-white-witches.

Everybody says "Omaha" 's the masterpiece but I got a soft spot for this one:



Then listen to "Murder in my Heart For the Judge" right after that one, and you'll understand why the Grape were actually more popular than the Dead for a while there.
 

adorshki

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I recall that prior to the Warlocks most members of the Dead were in the band Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions. Then in about summer of 1967, amongst pictures of Elvis & Chad & Jeremy, the Grateful Dead & Mothers of Invention appeared in Tiger Beat, 17 Magazine, etc.
As did a pic of Jimi Hendrix in a suit and tie looking for all the world like a cross between Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby's agent Scott in I Spy, next to a quickie review of his first show at the Bag O' Nails.
Obviously they hadn't quite caught on to how he was gonna be promoted yet.
:glee:
I actually have that Tiger Beat but have never found a copy of the pic uploaded.
One of these days...
 

walrus

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Moby Grape - I recently learned the Robert Plant version of "Skip's Song" - a great song!

walrus
 

sailingshoes72

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I lived in the Bay Area back then and thought I saw some of the more obscure bands of the day: Purple Earthquake, Ace of Cups, Mad River, Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys and many others the names of which I can't remember (hey: I AM old and it WAS the 1960s!).

But I'm drawing a blank on the Allmen Joys.

I have never heard of the Allmen Joy band either! But, I recently read Greg Allman's autobiography "My Cross To Bear", and so I am somewhat familiar with their history. The Allman Joys were a "cover band" that played the club circuit in Florida and the Southeast from 1965 to '67.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUoR3Ouzsuo

Bill McEuen, the manager of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, heard them in a club in St. Louis and brought them out to LA in the Spring of 1967. He was trying to promote them as the next "big thing" in Rock & Roll. I don't think that the Allman Joys ever toured in California under that name.

Bill
 

Minnesota Flats

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"But another oft-forgotten band was Moby Grape..."

Not by me. They were just about my favorite band of that era and their debut album still holds up today a lot better than much of the stuff that was recorded back then: a true classic, IMO. But yes, the wheels did come off that bus in short order. Skip Spence's drug problems and a terrible manager had a lot to do with it. Bassist Bob Mosley wound up homeless and suffering from mental issues. Peter Lewis and Jerry miller are still playing music as far as I know, but over the years, various efforts to revive the original band never really took off. Skip Spence died in 1999.
 

idealassets

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Moby Grape also had some legal expenses due to the band getting busted for harboring under aged girls. I consider that when the drinking age was lowered to 18, and girls with fake ID's were sneaking in that were only 15 - 16, we had quite a few coming to our gigs.

And yes Moby Grape was one of the best at the time. They had the credential of being one of the first bands with 3 guitar players that hammered out that unique overdriven sound of theirs.
 

Happy Face

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I stand corrected. Thought maybe it was a typo on the part of the guy setting up the marquee or that he maybe had run out of "A"s.

I lived in the Bay Area back then and thought I saw some of the more obscure bands of the day: Purple Earthquake, Ace of Cups, Mad River, Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys and many others the names of which I can't remember (hey: I AM old and it WAS the 1960s!).

But I'm drawing a blank on the Allmen Joys.

Cat Mother! Now there's a dusty memory. Did you happen to see & hear HP Lovecraft during their SF days?

A favorite of mine at the time thanks to the dual vocals.
 

adorshki

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Moby Grape also had some legal expenses due to the band getting busted for harboring under aged girls.
W-e-e-e-l-l, it comes out like this in that link I posted:
“It was bull****,” contends Miller. “The way it came out was that it was just the Grape involved, but it wasn’t. There was a whole bunch of people out there on the mountain looking at the stars. Then everybody scrambled when the police came. I had one of the roadie’s Mustangs at the time. The police ploughed through the ashtray until they found what they thought was an empty marijuana paper. But there was nothing there. And the stuff about the girls was bull**** too. So we spent the night in a holding facility and the papers are full of ‘Moby Grape busted on drug charges!’ They really made it look ugly.” All charges were dropped, but the mud stuck.
“Actually,” Lewis asserts, “it was good publicity. The Doors would have just jumped on that. But instead, Columbia got freaked out.”

That account has manager Katz and improper promotion costing 'em more than anything else.
 

fronobulax

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I have never heard of the Allmen Joy band either! But, I recently read Greg Allman's autobiography "My Cross To Bear", and so I am somewhat familiar with their history. The Allman Joys were a "cover band" that played the club circuit in Florida and the Southeast from 1965 to '67.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUoR3Ouzsuo

Bill McEuen, the manager of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, heard them in a club in St. Louis and brought them out to LA in the Spring of 1967. He was trying to promote them as the next "big thing" in Rock & Roll. I don't think that the Allman Joys ever toured in California under that name.

Bill

Just to be clear, because I don't always understand what I read, there are two distinct bands under discussion. One is "Allmen Joy" and one is "Allman Joys". They are not the same band, have no overlap in personnel and probably both liked candy bars with almonds, coconut and chocolate. The former was a San Francisco band. The latter was Gregg Allman's early band and the precursor to the Allman Brothers Band.

http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=1704 for info on the former.
 

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W1t4q2.jpg
 

idealassets

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Wow, that is a great pic. I'm wondering who the other people are there. I can only imagine what type of music he was playing that year. I find it amazing that the Dead managed to play some "roots" music through the years such as Wake Up Little Susie (Everly's), Big Iron (Marty Robbins), and Mama Tried (Merle Haggard).

When this LTG Dead post went off the radar a few days ago, it just seemed as though surely it ought to come back with something good.

Other than the movie "Festival Express" I for one hope to see pic's of that great Dead era when Jerry G. played the Martin D28 and Bob Weir played that 1968 Guild F50. For coolness factor of various eras of the Dead, how cool was that era? You know Uncle John's Band, Ripple, etc. Consider that there were 2 drummers + congas/ timbales/ fish/ wood maraca sticks; blended in with 2 acoustic guitars. Was there anyone else that did that around the same time?
 
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