Hide Article Text (OCR)
It all started in the summer of 1964. Bob Cohen was asked to come to Virginia City to construct a light machine and when he arrived hefound the old West.“Heavy drinking guys would tie their horsesto hitching posts, wear guns, boots, long hair and listen to the Charlatans. This place was so real that the tourists wouldn’t even come to town. Even the lettering used on the first posters was different; it was the image of old grand superfunk.“Once I saw this place I got a job and spent the summer there. I felt that this style of life wasn’t going to change. I really believed that the whole world would turn on and become hip,”Cohen explained.After Cohen left Virginia City he heard of thethings that were happening in San Francisco. So he came here in the Summer of 1965 and worked with Bill Graham on his first show, The TribleStomp.“Chet Helms and Bill Graham would trade weekends at the Fillmore, then Chet found the Avalon Ballroom,” he said. Since that time Cohen has been doing all the sound work at the Avalon Ballroom and the Great Highway.“I recorded the shows as often as I could. I had no idea that they would have any value,” he explained. Cohen’s first album “Vintage Grateful Dead” was 144 on the album charts in itsfourth week out.“The Columbia people are coming to listen to some Janis Joplin tapes I have. They were her last performance with Big Brother about three or four months ago. I had tapes of some of the first shows she did, but they are too far in the past and they are nothing really great. 1 also have tapes of Moby Grape, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Taj Mahal and Steve Miller,” he said.When asked how he came to work with Chet Helms he said, “I was resigned to living in Big Sur, but there were rumors trickling down from San Francisco about trips festivals, and acid tests. I then got a letter from a friend of mine saying that Chet needed somebody to do sound work, so I just went to his house and introduced myself.”“At that time there were about 4-500 people involved in the scene. All the ingredients for the scene were within a few blocks on one another. There were sound people, light show people and musicians. But things have changed since then. Now it’s a music business. Then we were doing what came naturally and making money for what we would have been happy to do for free.
Newspaper Details
San Francisco Synapse
San Francisco, California, US
Fri, Dec 04, 1970
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
David P.
USA 19 Jun 2022
Other Publications Near San Francisco, California
Daily Alta California
Alta California
San Francisco Litalia
San Francisco call
San Francisco Synapse
