Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
I have been following this interesting topic, and today I just heard
"Mona" on KBAC Radio Free Santa Fe on their vinyl segment they always
have on at 5:00pm...still being played out in the world...great to hear
on the radio!
  

    
I understand that when John died there was a huge memorial jam in his honor.
Where was the jam held? David, did you participate in it?
  

    
The beginning of the video goes into John's early influences, with Link Wray
mentioned prominently.    And there's some nice footage of Wray and
Cipollina jamming near the end, closing the circle.
  

    
The jam at the Fillmore?   I remember Mr. Freiberg starting the 
set with "Pride of Man" just like old times.   Two drummers I believe,
Joey Covington and Elmore?

A colleague just walked past my office and saw the glossy photo of
Michael Bloomfield I've got on the wall,  and said "ya know I was 
talking to Joe Louis Walker a few years ago and he told me that he
and Bloomfield  roomed together when Michael moved out here cuz he
couldn't handle all the partying with Gravenites and Cipollina."

Must have been a real long time ago.  
  

    
Okay, let's see - the big jam at the Fillmore.  The Drummers were Greg
Elmore and Bill Gibson (and I know Mickey Hart was there, too)  Mario
had gone down to Capitol and remixed Pride 0f Man with John's Guitar
aon one channel and everything else on the other side.  John's amps
were set up on one side of the stage with his guitar on a stand in
front of them - his track was to be played through his amps.  Bill
Gibson would be wearing phones and he would hear the rest of the track.
 So it was all supposed to start with John's famous "Bwwwwaaaa....
Bwwwwaaaaa".  Somehow, the DAT was cued up in the middle of the song,
so we all had to stop and start over.    Duncan & I looked at each
other and thought "It's like John is actually here .. playing a joke on
us."  Everyone but Mario got the joke.  It WAS cool and also a little
creepy, hearing his solo come out of his amp.  It was a great night.
  

    
Yup ... just about everyone that John ever played music with
was there playing in various combinations.   And yes ... Mickey
was there, albeit very quietly.   The final song was Pride of 
Man with *everyone* on stage at once - there musta been 40
people playing the song.   From the audience I barely noticed
the glitch David mentions, as the scene was so overwhelming.

A very satisfactory sendoff, all in all.   John's amp stack and 
the famous horns were sent off to the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame,
though I don't know if they're still on display.
  

    
Since nobody else seemed to have much on Raven, I did some digging and
found this quote from John C. that describes the lineup:

"That was kind of... my concept of a big band. It was a seven piece band -
two keyboards, two drummers, a bass and two lead guitars. David Weber from
Copperhead and Andy Kirby were the drummers and Andy did some of the
singing. Nicky Hopkins and Hutch Hutchinson were on keyboards - Nicky on
piano and Hutch on synthesiser and stand up organ, Skip Olsen on bass who
was from Quicksilver, and Greg Douglasss and myself on guitars."

Evidently the band formed in January 1976 and played through September the
same year... Greg Douglass says elsewhere that they played only three
gigs, though somewhere in there they recorded the album that's still
available. (Kind of surprising, given the band's brief life span.)
  

    
So what band did John play in with Pam Tillis?  It was in the late '70's.
They played at the Shady Grove on Haight Street a few times.  Pam doesn't
mention it in her resume, only to say she was working in club bands at the
time.
  

    
Freelight (or is it Free Light?)
  

    
Pam did a lot of stuff she wouldn't cop to after going back to Nashville.
  

    
<img src="http://home.t-online.de/home/clover.infopage/page1240.jpg";>
  

    
Wow.  That's the first shot of John I've seen that shows evidence of a
haircut.
  

    

What a cutie he was!
  

    
OK Hal, what's your favorite Cipollina band?   One of the interesting things
about your video is that it clearly shows progression with time.  John seems
to grow funkier and more secure.   Is there a partivular line up that you
favor?   Besides Quicksilver, of course.
  

    
That's not an easy question, it's like asking what your favorite
meal is, but I'll take a shot at it.

I suppose that my favorite Cipollina band after QMS is the original
incarnation of Dinosaurs - Barry Melton, John, Peter Albin, Robert
Hunter, and Spencer Dryden.  Formed in the early 80's when John was 
still at the top of his game, they had a lot of material to work
with, drawing on both Melton and Hunter's songbooks as well as the
old standards.   The band was new and the members were having a 
good time exploring the possibilities and variations.   They had
a strong following and so had access to great venues like Wolfgangs
in San Francisco, as well a a lot of touring opportunities.  

Hunter was an important influence.   To me Hunter's songs were always
musically rich, but his performing was rather sparse for my taste.
Also - and again a purely personal prejudice - an entire evening of
RH's music is too much for me.   It's too rich, too cloying on the 
palate.  Hunter's songs as part of the mix, backed by two lead
guitars (Cipollina and Melton), was sublime.   With Hunter on rhythm
guitar, Melton and Cipollina could drive each other to greater 
heights.   With Albin and Dryden providing a solid bottom it was
perfect.  

Two other of John's bands are very, very close.  One - Terry and the
Pirates - is just marvelous rock and roll.   I never saw a bad gig
from this bunch, whose joy at playing is absolutely infectious.  The
other - Thunder and Lightning - John and Nick Gravenites - is one 
of the all time great blues bands.  I truly love the blues.   Most
of the T&L gigs I saw were in the Chi Chi Club, a wonderfully tacky
North Beach SF nightclub, with the perfect blues ambience.  

These choices are purely personal.  Dinosaurs after Hunter are 
incredibly good, as are Dino's after John died and Papa John 
Creech joined up.   Fish and Chips is really just Dino's without
Hunter or Merl, and are great fun since they played smaller venues.
Zero gave John a jazz-oriented context which stretched him in a
new direction.  To coin a phrase - it's all good.

You can make up your own mind about this:

Dinosaurs have one album out, with perhaps half the songs from the 
Hunter-era Dino's and the other half from the Saunders-era version.
Zero has at least one CD out, and Thunder and Lightning have a couple
of CD's extant.  A CD of Fish and Chip era stuff is available from 
the Saloon in North Beach where they played a lot.
  

    
Further .. the video does show John's progress over time.   We 
started with a video shoot of the Cipollina Memorial Concert,
thinking we'd use that as the basis of a more musically oriented
video.   Getting all the permissions lined up just proved to be
an impossible task, but we'd assembled enough stuff that we 
decided to make a biograhical video instead.   we filmed the 
interviews, interspersed our clips, and got Antonia to prepare
and deliver the narrative that holds it all together.  In the
end I'm happier with a biography, than I would have been with
a simple concert video.   John's music is out there on dozens
of albums and CD's, but he was such a private person that his
personal story is much more elusive.  

This was a maiden effort for all of us in putting a video 
together from scratch.   Not only did we have to assemble
and edit the material, plan the flow, and write the narrative,
but we also had to learn to deal with songwriters, performers,
and rights organizations all over the country.  Some were more
difficult than others.  We had to buy the rights to some songs
from music industry behemoths.   Some songs were simply not
affordable and parts of the video had to be redone to work 
around them.

The video never would have come to fruition without the unstinting
support of Bay Area artists and musicians.   They offered up their 
performances and their songs for a pittance in honor of John's memory.  
Kelly did the lettering.   We'll never make back in sales what we spent 
to create the video, but we never could have afforded to create
it without this incredible support.   I think it's the finest tribute 
that fellow artists could pay to John, and I'm eternally grateful 
to them all.
  

    

That reminds me of another cultural event,  a transition of sorts,
where Kelly and Mouse and Cipollina were all involved.  It was one 
of those "ART" benefits for the psychedelic poster artists,  at 
Club 9.   Cipollina played,  Kelly,  Mouse and Griffin signed posters
for the price of a cocktail,  and a great time was had by all.  

The owner of the club was heard to say "these hippies sure like 
to drink!",  and started to bill acts that catered to his new
discovery.  

I asked someone who knew whether the black circles under JC's eyes
were real or makeup,  a few days later,  and he gave a wry grin 
and said "dude.  real."
  

    
So Hal, would you post once more where people can order a copy of Electric
Guitarslinger?
  

    
I remember that gig, David!
  

    

This has been a terrific interview, and although the next scheduled event has
begun here in the inkwell, there is no reason on earth for this one not to
continue.

So I'll bring up another subject:  MAN.  Excellent Welsh band,f ronted by
Deke Leonard and Mickey Jones.  Heavily influenced by Quicksilver, and if I
recall correctly they played (and maybe even recorded) with John a few times.

Anyone have anything to say about Man?
  

    

they were great!

way to hit the 420 Friday post DG!  Right on target.
  

    

From Steve Keyser:



There is an excellent article about the band MAN at
http://www.jambands.com/feb01/features/man.html

For info about the LP John recorded with MAN entitled "Maximum Darkness"
check out
http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/~staffba3/manl2.html

To order the John Cipollina Video "John Cipollina: Electric Guitarslinger" go
to
http://www.johncipollina.com/guitarslinger.html

or send an email requesting ordering information to cipollinafan@hotmail.com
or send a postcard requesting ordering information to
Steve Keyser
Box 2224
San Rafael CA  94912
  

    
I wonder if Hal has any more plans as a videographer.   Was this a one-off
labor of love, or do you have future plans in the field?
  

    

From Steve Keyser:


The video documentary "John Cipollina: Electric Guitarslinger" can be found
in the San Francisco Bay Area at:

Tower Records - San Francisco, Greenbrae, Mt View
Amoeba Music - San Francisco, Berkeley
Village Records - Mill Valley
Maximum Music - San Rafael
Bedrock Music - San Rafael
  

    
MAN did cut at least one record with John, and I'm told that the
band was wonderful live.   That's part of the trouble with John's
music - most of his bands were relatively short-lived.  If you 
didn't happen to be in the right place at the right time, the 
moment was over and you missed it.   The blessing is that most
of these bands cranked out at least one album, and that with a 
little patience and eBay you can often find them.  

This video was a one-off labor of love for me.  I've never wanted
to be a videographer or producer.   While I value the experience
of having done so, I wouldn't want to tackle it again.