Aargh--CCR! S.F. just opened up a clear lead for me.
Love the first Moby Grape LP, also a few songs from '69:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnr_JvIc4So
― clemenza, Saturday, 1 June 2013 17:44 (ten years ago) link
Let's Get Together vs. For What It's Worth
― wk, Saturday, 1 June 2013 17:50 (ten years ago) link
i voted San Francisco because of Sly and the Family Stone. I'm not an expert on 60s San Fran psychedelia but I like Jefferson Airplane well enough and I get the sense that that city was an exciting place to be at that time in a way that LA just wasn't.
― the strange and important sound of the synthesizer (Treeship), Saturday, June 1, 2013 3:12 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Didn't George Harrison once describe San Francisco in the '60s as being "full of spotty dropout kids on drugs"? I remember reading or at least hearing that he wasn't incredibly impressed when he went there to visit and that he was kinda expecting some kinda 'happening' place and was sorely disappointed.
Anyways, this is LA for me... by miles!
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Saturday, 1 June 2013 18:32 (ten years ago) link
LA was probably incredibly exciting to be in at the time, and that's not even counting the fact that a bunch of creepy friends of a lot of those musicians were going around murdering people
― christmas candy bar (al leong), Saturday, 1 June 2013 19:11 (ten years ago) link
I wonder what the SF scene would have been like if John Phillips hadn't organized Monterey Pop and written San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair). The SF music scene was basically invented by LA!
― wk, Saturday, 1 June 2013 19:16 (ten years ago) link
Also are we talking where musicians were born (can't count people like Neil Young for LA then), what the club scene was like (who cares unless you have a time machine), or which place made more great records? If it's the latter we get to count the first four Jefferson Airplane albums and the first couple Grateful Dead albums as LA albums.
― wk, Saturday, 1 June 2013 19:21 (ten years ago) link
The Mamas and Papas basically make it no contest for me. on the other hand, I'll bet it would have been tons more fun to actually be in SF during the 60s!
― campreverb, Saturday, 1 June 2013 19:26 (ten years ago) link
no reason to go to sf until '67 or so though. would have been pretty damn great to be a teenager in LA in the early to mid '60s and do stuff like go to the TAMI show or see Beefheart and the Magic Band win the battle of the bands at the Teenage Fair!
― wk, Saturday, 1 June 2013 19:31 (ten years ago) link
I guess it would be worth going up to SF around the time of the Trips festival in 66
― wk, Saturday, 1 June 2013 19:32 (ten years ago) link
Not mentioned yet for L.A. - Standells and Music Machine.
― timellison, Saturday, 1 June 2013 19:38 (ten years ago) link
lol, no.
― Oral Sex in Sharp’s Ridge Park (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Saturday, 1 June 2013 19:41 (ten years ago) link
voted for Sly Stone
― floored character (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 1 June 2013 19:44 (ten years ago) link
Oh yeah, if were counting CCR, then the Bay Area easily. Otherwise, LA easily.
― Your Favorite Album in the Cutout Bin, Saturday, 1 June 2013 19:46 (ten years ago) link
thousands of teenagers didn't flock to SF because of bill graham.
― wk, Saturday, 1 June 2013 19:51 (ten years ago) link
I hate the SF psych stuff but the two shining paragons of the scene - Sly and CCR - tower so far above anybody else (except the Beach Boys), I'm inclined to vote SF here. but it's close.
― Mr. Scarf Ace is Back (Shakey Mo Collier), Saturday, 1 June 2013 20:08 (ten years ago) link
kills me to vote against sly for any reason but i hate pretty much every band on the SF list. the airplane in particular are easily one of the worst bands of the '60s.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Saturday, 1 June 2013 20:12 (ten years ago) link
not to mention how much better the Dead and the Airplane were than the Byrds
ugh puke argh
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Saturday, 1 June 2013 20:13 (ten years ago) link
ccr are not really sf
― iatee, Saturday, 1 June 2013 20:15 (ten years ago) link
Where were they living?
― timellison, Saturday, 1 June 2013 20:35 (ten years ago) link
"There was no San Francisco sound when we started playing. There weren't any bands in the high school district we were in. We were the only rock and roll band practically on the East Bay," Clifford said. "We played what we liked, and that was blues. The real blues. The raw blues ... and country, the real country, Hank Williams and the like."
http://www.wiscnews.com/news/local/article_59ccc37e-46b5-11e0-8025-001cc4c03286.html
― iatee, Saturday, 1 June 2013 20:57 (ten years ago) link
That isn't the same as saying they weren't from San Francisco, just that they predated a particular sound that supposedly emerged from there. From the same article: "Living in the Bay area in the early 1960s there were a lot of diverse cultural styles in the music world and no real sound."
the airplane in particular are easily one of the worst bands of the '60s.
Ouch--I must present counter-evidence and flee.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCVMWx08Nmk
― clemenza, Saturday, 1 June 2013 21:06 (ten years ago) link
San Francisco and El Cerrito are very, very different places
― iatee, Saturday, 1 June 2013 21:18 (ten years ago) link
actually in part they did. Bill Graham as a promoter was so far ahead of everybody else's game it can't even be calculated. He understood what people wanted in terms of shows: what they wanted, how the shows had to feel, how what was going on was different from what had gone on in the fifties. Bill Graham was the guy who packaged it, and thousands of teenagers flocked to SF because the sense they were getting from the media was that that was a package they wanted to buy into it. Thousands of teenagers didn't flock to SF because of a miraculous grassroots groundswell. There was a shit-ton of marketing involved and a lot of money to be made, and Bill Graham knew how to play the angles on that without too too many people getting cynical or suspicious.
― Oral Sex in Sharp’s Ridge Park (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Saturday, 1 June 2013 23:14 (ten years ago) link
I mean I guess you can argue "the Fillmore wasn't that big a part of the whole SF music scene from '65 onward" if you want but you will be talking utter nonsense
― Oral Sex in Sharp’s Ridge Park (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Saturday, 1 June 2013 23:16 (ten years ago) link
bill graham should write a letter to morrissey, maybe help him out
― a very generous Cordoban (Sufjan Grafton), Saturday, 1 June 2013 23:20 (ten years ago) link
Aren't you splitting hairs, iatee? From the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bio:
The origins of the group date back to 1959, when guitarist Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug “Cosmo” Clifford formed the Blue Velvets, an instrumental cover band, while attending junior high in the San Francisco suburb of El Cerrito.
If three-quarters of the band, including Fogerty, first met as junior high students in a San Francisco suburb, that seems more San Francisco to me than some of these bands where the personnel came from other parts of the country altogether.
― clemenza, Sunday, 2 June 2013 02:16 (ten years ago) link
it's not really a san francisco suburb. it's a small town in the east bay that's, if anything, a suburb of oakland. someone growing up in el cerrito at that time is fairly isolated from the city of san francisco.
― iatee, Sunday, 2 June 2013 02:46 (ten years ago) link
oh sweet the thread is about suburbs now
― wk, Sunday, 2 June 2013 02:46 (ten years ago) link
and thousands of teenagers flocked to SF because the sense they were getting from the media was that that was a package they wanted to buy into it. Thousands of teenagers didn't flock to SF because of a miraculous grassroots groundswell. There was a shit-ton of marketing involved and a lot of money to be made, and Bill Graham knew how to play the angles on that without too too many people getting cynical or suspicious.
yeah, I was being tongue in cheek obv about giving LA credit for inventing the SF scene. But you are leaving out some important factors like the Red Dog Saloon, the Human Be-In, Family Dog, and outside factors like the teenage scene on the sunset strip getting shut down in late '66 that all set the stage for Graham to become a multimillionaire. and certainly thousands of kids across the country specifically went to SF because of the stupid song, or because people heard about Monterey.
― wk, Sunday, 2 June 2013 02:52 (ten years ago) link
btw, I highly recommend the Domenic Priore book Riot on Sunset Strip to anyone interested in the subject
― wk, Sunday, 2 June 2013 02:55 (ten years ago) link
I live in the Bay Area but gotta vote with the Byrds, Beach Boys and Buffalo Springfield.
― that's not my post, Sunday, 2 June 2013 04:12 (ten years ago) link
could not in good conscience vote for any list which contains the Dead
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Sunday, 2 June 2013 05:06 (ten years ago) link
i'm including the Bay Area, voting for the San Francisco. it was just more impactful, objectively.
― Bee OK, Sunday, 2 June 2013 05:46 (ten years ago) link
the San Francisco scene.
born and bread in Los Angeles ect...
― Bee OK, Sunday, 2 June 2013 05:47 (ten years ago) link
i grew up on KROQ
― Bee OK, Sunday, 2 June 2013 05:48 (ten years ago) link
wait, how many californians here are voting the opposite of where they're from? I'm a bay area kid voting LA.
― wk, Sunday, 2 June 2013 06:10 (ten years ago) link
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3116/3486805440_c741bdf2cf.jpg
Worlds colliding.
(Bee OK and wk: should I count CCR as San Francisco or not? That probably decides my vote one way or the other.)
― clemenza, Sunday, 2 June 2013 13:42 (ten years ago) link
If so, you should not count any band that lived outside of LA proper then (Zappa, Beefheart, and I'm sure many others).
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Sunday, 2 June 2013 17:14 (ten years ago) link
Is Topanga part of L.A.?
― how's life, Sunday, 2 June 2013 17:38 (ten years ago) link
Sly is from Vallejo fwiw
― Mr. Scarf Ace is Back (Shakey Mo Collier), Sunday, 2 June 2013 17:38 (ten years ago) link
I love that this poll coming down to whether or not we give LA County more credit for absorbing all these shitty suburbs.
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Sunday, 2 June 2013 17:48 (ten years ago) link
If so, you should not count any band that lived outside of LA proper then
That's really my point: L.A. and San Francisco should be interpreted in a general sense here. Anything to do with Vallejo should be adjudicated by this guy:
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/mulanax_zps0e6effa9.jpg
― clemenza, Sunday, 2 June 2013 18:01 (ten years ago) link
Other soul people? Brenton Wood was from L.A.
― timellison, Sunday, 2 June 2013 18:24 (ten years ago) link
Bee OK and wk should I count CCR as San Francisco or not?
i did because without them my vote would have went down south.
― Bee OK, Sunday, 2 June 2013 19:01 (ten years ago) link
come on guys, no need to get picky about stupid municipal boundaries. this is just bay area vs. southern california. the dividing line should be Delano, same as the nortenos and surenos use.
zappa lived in laurel canyon though and the trout mask replica house is in woodland hills, both within LA city limits. didn't the grateful dead form in palo alto or something? take a look at where all of the first acid tests were http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_Tests Santa Cruz, San Jose, Muir Beach, Palo Alto.
― wk, Sunday, 2 June 2013 19:59 (ten years ago) link
right this isn't about city limits its about scenes and ccr weren't a part of the scene
― iatee, Monday, 3 June 2013 01:31 (ten years ago) link
were sly and the family stone a part of the scene?
― timellison, Monday, 3 June 2013 01:33 (ten years ago) link
produced beau brummels, grace slick's first band. so, yes.
― balls, Monday, 3 June 2013 01:37 (ten years ago) link
from wikipedia article on Santana:
"The group's first audition with this line up was at the Avalon Ballroom in the late summer of 1967. After the audition, Chet Helms the promoter, in concert with The Family Dogg, told the band that they would never make it in the San Francisco Music Scene playing Latin fusion and suggested Carlos keep his day job washing dishes at Tick Tock's Drive-In on 3rd St."
― timellison, Monday, 3 June 2013 01:39 (ten years ago) link
there's also just more sf-in-1969 in sly's music whereas like ccr's whole thing is that there really isn't and people to this day think it's a southern band
― iatee, Monday, 3 June 2013 01:42 (ten years ago) link
nah, you're thinking of that other bubblegum act
― wk, Tuesday, 4 June 2013 23:36 (ten years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Friday, 7 June 2013 00:01 (ten years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Saturday, 8 June 2013 00:01 (ten years ago) link
sonned francisco
― w⚓f♠ (wins), Saturday, 8 June 2013 00:03 (ten years ago) link
appalling result.
― Treeship, Saturday, 8 June 2013 00:07 (ten years ago) link
actually, it's not. it's just different from how i voted. the beach boys were a pretty good band i guess.
― Treeship, Saturday, 8 June 2013 00:08 (ten years ago) link
From the tenor of the posts, that's about what I expected. Thank goodness for El Cerrito.
― clemenza, Saturday, 8 June 2013 00:15 (ten years ago) link
why not?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkwvz2JD2PQ
― Treeship, Saturday, 8 June 2013 00:20 (ten years ago) link
That's a good one--familiar, think I have it on a compilation. "Free Advice" is my favourite by them.
― clemenza, Saturday, 8 June 2013 00:29 (ten years ago) link
yeah grace slick's vocal part in that is awesome. bay area acid rock was good stuff.
― Treeship, Saturday, 8 June 2013 00:35 (ten years ago) link
Voted LA, but I expect this to be a lot closer
― Brad C., Saturday, 8 June 2013 00:47 (ten years ago) link
i think people here might hate the grateful dead more than the doors because they are insane
― Treeship, Saturday, 8 June 2013 00:48 (ten years ago) link
I'M NOT CRAZY
― balls, Saturday, 8 June 2013 00:57 (ten years ago) link
dead has considerable support on ilx, they did pretty well in a series of polls putting them head to head against their peers last year. someone should probably redo all of those, see if the numbers have changed.
― balls, Saturday, 8 June 2013 00:58 (ten years ago) link
interesting. i know that "jam bands" as a rule aren't popular here, but i have always liked the dead's studio recordings better than their live stuff. touch of grey is my favorite dead song by light years... which probably marks me as someone who doesn't like them very much, but i think they are more palatable than the doors who are tedious and self-important in my view. i voted san fran because of the psychedelic rock scene and sly stone.
― Treeship, Saturday, 8 June 2013 01:00 (ten years ago) link
you are both too old and too young for the doors, the lizard waits for you but you do not yet know it.
― balls, Saturday, 8 June 2013 01:20 (ten years ago) link
L.A. just comes at this from too many directions imo. Apart from the mega-huge rock groups, it was EASILY the biggest garage rock scene in the whole country (Standells, Love, Music Machine, Seeds, Leaves, etc.) and a major pop hub.
― timellison, Saturday, 8 June 2013 01:23 (ten years ago) link
I don't expect much agreement, but I think the Nuggets bands as a whole are overrated. Not their most famous songs--those are great. (You can get a lot of them in one place: Nuggets.) I've collected a fair amount of music from the Standells, Music Machine, Seeds, etc. over the years, and once you get past the "Moulty"s and "Pushin' Too Hard"s, there's not a lot. There's not a garage album I've ever heard that's nearly as good as the first Moby Grape LP.
― clemenza, Saturday, 8 June 2013 01:37 (ten years ago) link
I know, I know--the ghost of Lester Bangs just gave me the finger.
― clemenza, Saturday, 8 June 2013 01:38 (ten years ago) link
There are certainly garage band greatest hits albums that are as good or better than the first Moby Grape LP. The Music Machine had an incredible run of singles, the first three of which were big-time double A-sides:
"Talk Talk" / "Come On In" (1966)"The People in Me" / "Masculine Intuition" (1967)"Double Yellow Line" / "Absolutely Positively" (1967)
― timellison, Saturday, 8 June 2013 02:03 (ten years ago) link
I've got this one:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41GMBEJY7KL.jpg
They do a great "Cherry, Cherry," I'll give you that.
― clemenza, Saturday, 8 June 2013 02:08 (ten years ago) link
are albums the point?
― w⚓f♠ (wins), Saturday, 8 June 2013 02:09 (ten years ago) link
Who knows? Whoever came up with this poll didn't set the parameters very clearly.
― clemenza, Saturday, 8 June 2013 03:01 (ten years ago) link
knew LA would take this but damn
― sons of plutarchy (will), Saturday, 8 June 2013 04:14 (ten years ago) link
don't think I even voted :-/
this is relevant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq19haZ0w7s
― Treeship, Tuesday, 11 June 2013 00:03 (ten years ago) link
haha wow, I missed these results! groovy.
― wk, Tuesday, 11 June 2013 00:19 (ten years ago) link