Sonic Boom: The Impact of Led Zeppelin. Volume 1 - Break & Enter. Frank Reddon
there. The idea of the entire hippie credo was to form a utopian type of society. The idea was to barter, trade, give, share whatever you were able to do to create a better existence for the next person and society at large. You took people for what they were; there was a great sense of tolerance and understanding, acceptance.
And you know what, really? Contrary to popular belief, there weren’t that many freaks around, as is so commonly associated with that era. The whole hippie scene centered on music. Actually, Chet Helms started the whole San Francisco hippie music scene with the Avalon Ballroom and The Family Dog. He was interested only in the music and didn’t care about the business aspects of it. We had a place at Haight and Cole, across from The Straight Theatre, on the second floor of an apartment. We used to shine lights on The Straight Theatre and its sign from our apartment. In return, we were able to get into The Straight anytime for free. It was an excellent place to see all manner of blues performers, especially, which I was very interested in.
REDDON: That would be a trip! What blues acts did you see there?
MALONE: There were all kinds of blues artists…both “Kings” - B.B. King and Albert King, who were magnificent and a host of others. It was in the setting of a small theatre and a great place to see them. I used to hang out at The Family Dog and the Avalon of course, which were opened by Chet Helms.
REDDON:
Yes, I wasn’t aware that Chet Helms got the whole San Francisco music scene going in the 1960s with the Avalon Ballroom. If it hadn’t been for Chet Helms and a free-spirited lady who was a close friend of his in the 1960s, whom I met by fate in the Boston Public Library in October 1997, I wouldn’t be talking to you today! Strange how these things work out. On the topic of who was in at, or very near, the ground level of the music scene in San Francisco in the 1960s…enter Bill Graham. What can you tell me about him, since you hung around the Fillmore West quite a bit?
MALONE: Bill Graham, you could say, was the first “businessman” when it came to the new music sweeping San Francisco in the 1960s. Most importantly, Bill Graham was a great humanitarian. He saved lots of lives at this time.
REDDON:
Oh yeah? I’d like to find out more about his humanitarian activities in a moment or two. But first, could you provide me with your perspective of how Bill Graham impacted the San Francisco scene, with reference to his promotional activities?
MALONE: Although Bill Graham fiercely loved the music and had a vision of what was and wasn’t good, he was very interested in making the great music that came to San Francisco a business, too. So he opened the Fillmore Auditorium, after the Avalon Ballroom which was started by Chet Helms, as I said a moment ago. Eventually, the business Bill Graham created outgrew the Fillmore Auditorium. So he opened the Fillmore East in New York City and moved to a new venue in San Francisco that he called the Fillmore West. That reminds me…I got dosed at the Avalon Ballroom one time. There was lots of acid at concerts which really brought out the sounds and the colours.
REDDON: So I’ve heard!
MALONE: Winterland was another venue that Bill Graham used. It was an ice skating rink used for the bigger events in San Francisco and the surrounding areas. Blue Cheer was also around at the time and they were fantastic. Hendrix played free in Golden Gate Park and a friend of mine grabbed me and said, “You gotta go hear this guy!” Another time I saw Hendrix, we dropped acid and he was playing a song that incorporated an extended jam. It was brilliant and I was at the side of the stage for that. I just love that Woodstock riff he played. I’ve been lucky to have been in the right place at the right time on many occasions in the 1960s. I’ve seen and heard so many talented musicians and I’m truly grateful to have been a part of it.
REDDON:
How interesting! Now, please tell me about Bill Graham’s humanitarian work in the 1960s.
MALONE: There were lots and lots of drugs around, as you can well imagine in San Francisco, throughout the 1960s. Some people seemed to handle them and get away with it. Others couldn’t and it either consumed them, killed them or both, eventually. Lots of these people on the San Francisco scene in the 1960s had bad luck…or a bad break or experience or all of that. Bill Graham would see a problem with someone and step in when he saw someone in trouble. He was aggressive and a man of action who always tried to help someone in need.
In many cases, Bill would provide them with a job in one of his businesses, to get them on the right path and help them out. He did a great deal of that. I’ve always admired and respected him for that. One way he would help all the time, is that he’d keep a big barrel of apples at the top of the stairs when you went into the Fillmore West for a concert or to pick up your tickets. Lots of times, an “apple a day” sort of thing would be enough to help someone out who might not have eaten for awhile because they were strung-out on something. Who knows? There are a million reasons why having those apples available as a healthy snack was such a great thing to do.
REDDON:
All right! What can you tell me about seeing Led Zeppelin perform at the Fillmore West on the group’s First U.S. and Canadian Tour, when the band played from January 9 through 12, 1969?
MALONE: I was very impressed with Led Zeppelin, for the same reasons I liked The Yardbirds so much. At no time did I think of Zeppelin as a blues band. You hear many people slot The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin and other groups, as either “this” or “that”. You couldn’t do that with The Yardbirds and it was the same with Led Zeppelin.
Led Zeppelin was definitely cutting edge all the way. I knew it instantly when I saw them perform in San Francisco. They had lots of different types of music mixed into whatever they were playing. You would think they were getting into one musical genre - they would give you just enough to make you think they were going in a particular music direction – and the next thing you knew, they were heading elsewhere. You were suddenly going along for a musical exploration into another totally new musical area, in a matter of seconds. They were wonderful at doing that.
It gets back to improvisation, mainly. I’ve always loved it and that’s what Zeppelin was delivering, just as The Yardbirds had. But Zeppelin was cutting edge rock’n’roll, coloured by all kinds of different musical influences along the way. It’s actually hard to describe, they were into so many things in any song they were doing live. They definitely weren’t playing bubble gum music!
As far as music coming out of San Francisco in the mid-late 1960s goes, the music and the Bay Area musicians were much less “produced”. There were local garage bands all over that were obviously greatly influenced by the English bands. Groups like The Yardbirds, Cream, Ten Years After, The Who were either listened to on record, or were coming over to the States and playing San Francisco as a tour stop. Led Zeppelin has always been a big influence in so many ways everywhere. At the start, it was here in San Francisco and they impacted the music scene in a big way when they played here. Always did.
The music that the local musicians on the San Francisco music scene were playing was completely different from the music being created and performed in Los Angeles during the mid-late 1960s. Were you aware of that?
REDDON: No, I had no idea! Can you tell me what the differences were?
MALONE: Oh yeah, it was like day and night the differences between the San Francisco music scene and the one going on in LA. The San Francisco bands were much more into raw improvisation, very extended at times. Think of The Grateful Dead and their often elaborate and lengthy improvisations. I love the long, improvised solos, as I’ve already told you once or twice! The long solos parallel the improvisational philosophies of jazz and the classics, which I love so much.
Improvisation was a mainstay for the San Francisco bands. Their records were also much less produced. They had a “take it or leave it” feel to them. What was on the records was precisely what was played, a kind of genuine effort put on the vinyl that wasn’t pretentious. You got the music the musicians offered, not a creation that was highly produced and then produced again. Groups