In April 1962: Ray Charles successfully combined country music with soul and crosses into the pop realm with the album “Modern Sounds In Country & Western Music” – the #1 album of 1962.
April Music et al
LSD
In April, 1966: Sandoz Pharmaceutical recalled the LSD it had previously distributed and withdrew its sponsorship for work with LSD. (see September 1966)
April Music et al
Future Woodstock Performers
In April 1967: Country Joe (age 25 ) and the Fish released first album, Electric Music for the Mind and Body. (see May 12)
April Music et al
Ken Kesey
In April 1967: Ken Kesey re-tried. Hung jury. Pled guilty to a lesser charge. Given 6 months on work farm. (2015 San Francisco Chronical article) (see June 1967)
The Road to Bethel
In April 1969: Allan Mann met with Elliot Tiber who offered a barn for a theater from free if Mann would rent a nearby 6-room Victorian for the summer for $800. Paul Johnson, a friend of Mann, agreed to put the down payment of $200 for the house in exchange for a room there for the summer. [keep in mind, this agreement was made before Wallkill evicted the festival.
From theWoodstock Preservation site: By this time it was April and I was broke and was looking through the Village Voice for a job when I saw Elliot Tiber’s ad for a summer barn theater for free. If I was going to develop a world class theater company on the level of The Open Theater, The Living Theater and The Polish Mime Theater it certainly would be beneficial to get the performers out of the city to a place where we could work intensively together with minimum distractions and form a communal theater company that eventually would be the basis for an entire tribal arts complex. So I called Elliot to make an appointment to go up to White Lake and got my friend Paul Johnson to drive me and Jane up there.
The agreement would result in the Earthlight Theatre Troupe who would be in the right place at the right time when Wallkill evicted Woodstock Ventures and Ventures relocated to Bethel. (see Apr 1)
I wonder how often diners enjoying some plant based Mexican cuisine al fresco at NYC’s Bar Verde look across the street and notice the curtain cartouche atop 66 Second Avenue? And if they notice it, do they think it’s simply an architectural flourish or that it signifies something more?
For those of us who love live rock and roll, it’s more.
When it comes to the “best” of something, we are often age-myopic, that is, we narrow potential candidates to own personal or generational memories.
Ask a Boomer, “What was the best NYC rock venue?” and the Fillmore East will be at or near the top selection. While there are many other venues that had great music, Bill Graham’s venue had a cachet that set it apart.
Ironically, for all its historic weight, the Fillmore Eastprovided its musical paradise only over only 3 years, 3 months, and 20 nights.
Unknown Anderson Theater
Neil Louison and Sandy Pearlman
Neil Louison and Sandy Pearlman attended Stony Brook University on Long Island about an hour and a half away from New York City. Louison and Pearlman organized some concerts at Stony Brook. Pearlman also managed Soft White Underbelly, a Stony Brook-based band that he’d eventually re-name Blue Öyster Cult
Unknown Anderson Theater
Crawdaddy magazine
After he graduated from Stony Brooke in 1966, Pearlman wrote for Paul William’s Crawdaddy magazine [a journal that John Rockwell said in a NY Times article was ” “the first magazine to take rock and roll seriously.”] Pearlman and the magazine decided that a concert venue would be a great idea.
The first location they looked at was the Village Theater at 105 Second Avenue. The venue was originally built as a Yiddish theater in 1925-26 .
The deal quickly fell through, but they soon found another old theater just two blocks away. It had opened in 1926 as the Public Theatre and “had focused on Jewish acts including Yiddish Vaudeville as well as the showing of Yiddish films.” (from Cinema Treasures)
The theater had been renamed the Anderson Theater by 1968 and though smaller than the 105 Second Avenue location, 66 Second Avenue looked fine.
Unknown Anderson Theater
February 2, 1968
And so on February 2, 1968 the Anderson Theater opened for rock shows with Country Joe and the Fish, Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band and–no surprise here–Pearlman’s Soft White Underbelly.
Some of the names associated with the Anderson are very familiar to Boomer rock enthusiasts. A light show by Joshua White (Joshua Light Show site) . John Morris helped organize and the following year was a big part of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Chip Monck was also associated–another Woodstock MC.
Unknown Anderson Theater
Hells Angels Little Rascals
On one hand the inexperience of the managers gave the enterprise an Our Gang feel, but given the financial stakes it also could turn ugly at times. John Morris remembers “catching a Yale lock that had been thrown across the hall just before it hit my wife… It was a zoo.”
Yet the acts that were part of the Anderson’s short lifespan are well-known. Big Brother and the Holding Company’s first NYC appearance was at the Anderson on February 17 with BB King.
On March 6, the theater hosted a benefit concert for war resisters.
The Yardbirds played on March 30.
Unknown Anderson Theater
Enter Bill Graham
Bill Graham was already successfully presenting rock concerts in San Francisco. He attended the Big Brother concert at the Anderson and thought that New York could be a good spot, too. And what specific spot was Graham looking at?
The Village Theater, 105 Second Avenue.
Unknown Anderson Theater
March 8, 1968
And so on March 8, 1968 Graham’s Fillmore East opened and its amazing historic run began.
And Graham invited many of those people working at the Anderson to become part of it. They did.
The Anderson Theater slowly faded away given the Fillmore competition, Graham’s expertise and determined style, as well as the inexperienced Anderson crew.
Some of the other shows were:
March 6, 1968, the theater hosted a benefit concert for war resisters featuring Country Joe and the Fish and the Fugs.
Eric Burdon and the Animals, March 1968
November 23, 1970: Traffic, New Riders of the Purple Sage, and the Grateful Dead
The Cockettes in November 1971
Captain Beefheart, January 15, 1972
Unknown Anderson Theater
CBGB Theater
By the late 1970s, the Anderson Theater was empty.
Hilly Kristan had opened his famed CGBG venue at 315 Bowery on December 10, 1973. Four ears later, he decided to open a second venue nearby. Nearby by ( 3/10ths of a mile) was, what else, the Anderson Theater.
And so the Anderson Theater, renamed the CGBG Theater, opened on December 27, 1977 “with Talking Heads headlining, supported by the Shirts and the Tuff Darts. The next night it was the Dictators, the Dead Boys, and the Luna Band (formerly Orchestra Luna). Then Patti Smithheadlined December 29, 30, and New Year’s Eve. (20thcpunkarchives article)
The attempt was a short-lived one. According to Roman Kozak’s This Ain’t No Disco: The Story of CBGB: “After the Patti Smith dates the Theater closed. The place was briefly used as a rock and roll flea market and there was a show with the Jam the following March” [March 31, 1978]
Punk had arrived at the Anderson, but not for long.
Today only the aforementioned curtain cartouche indicates that the building was ever something other than apartments with a first floor commercial space.
Unknown Anderson Theater
Sandy Pearlman
Sandy Pearlman’s life with music did not end with the Anderson Theater. He continued to be a part of Blue Oyster Cult and its success as well as being the Black Sabbath’s manager from 1979-1983.
December 6, 1961: The Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Pete Best) meet with Brian Epstein for further discussions about his proposal to manage them. He wants 25 percent of their gross fees each week, in return for which he will be responsible for arranging their bookings. He promises that their bookings will be better organized, more prestigious, and will expand beyond the Liverpool area. He also promises that they will never again play for less than 15 pounds, except for Cavern lunchtime sessions, for which he will get their fee doubled to ten pounds. Most important of all, he promises to get them out of their recording contract with Bert Kaempfert in Germany, then use his influence to garner them a contract with a major British label. John Lennon, as leader of The Beatles, accepts on their behalf. There is no contract signing at this point, because the standard contracts are so exploitive that Epstein is disgusted by them; he promises The Beatles that he will prepare a fairer document. (see Dec 9)
December 6 Music et al
1st Beatles Christmas record
December 6, 1963, The Beatles released their first Christmas recording: The Beatles Christmas Record. (see Dec 7)
December 6 Music et al
Rubber Soul
December 6, 1965, US release of RubberSoul. The American version differed markedly from the UK release. Capitol removed the tracks “Drive My Car,” “Nowhere Man,” “What Goes On,” and “If I Needed Someone,” and replaced them with two from the UK Help! album, “I’ve Just Seen a Face” and “It’s Only Love.” The song sequence, placing the Help! tracks at the beginning of each side, Rubber Soul appeared as a “folk rock” album to angle The Beatles into that emergent American genre during 1965. The changes angered the Beatles. (next Beatles, see Dec 17; see Rubber Soulfor more)
December 6 Music et al
Beggars Banquet
December 6, 1968: The Rolling Stones released Beggars Banquet album.
December 6 Music et al
Altamont Free Concert
December 6, 1969: (at the Altamont Speedway in northern California, between Tracy and Livermore) headlined and organized by The Rolling Stones, it also featured, in order of appearance: Santana, The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Jefferson Airplane, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, with the Rolling Stones taking the stage as the final act. The Grateful Dead were also scheduled to perform, but declined to play shortly before their scheduled appearance due to the increasing violence at the venue (see Rolling Stones Altamont Banquet andNYT article)
December 6 Music et al
Steam
December 6 – 19, 1969: “Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)” by Steam #1 on the Billboard Hot 1.
December 6 Music et al
What's so funny about peace, love, art, and activism?
