The chance meeting between Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann is a foundational story of Grateful Dead cosmology . According to Dennis McNally (and everyone else), Mickey Hart was at the Fillmore on August 20 or 21, 1967 to hang out with his friend Sonny Payne, the drummer for Count Basie (co-billed that night with Charles Lloyd). A stranger introduced Hart and Kreutzmann, and then disappeared. Billy and Mickey hit it off, went over to the Matrix to see Big Brother and The Holding Company, and started hanging out together.
Hart was invited to Grateful Dead rehearsals, but could never find the warehouse (actually the Potrero Theater on 308 Connecticut). The first time Hart heard the Dead was when he saw them at the Straight Theatre on September 29, 1967. He was invited to sit in for the second set, and by the end of the night was a member of the band. It’s a great story, and one of the many magical moments of Grateful Dead history. Nonetheless, sitting in with the Grateful Dead on no notice takes a hell of a musician, which Mickey Hart surely was (and remains)—it seems logical to think he played music with other bands after leaving the Air Force in 1965 and before joining the Grateful Dead in September 1967. For all the many interviews that Hart has done, I am not aware of any information from him about who he played with.
McNally outlines the basic story (p.222-224): Hart grew up in Brooklyn and Long Island, estranged from his drummer father, Lenny Hart. Hart played a lot of music in the Air Force from 1961-65, and managed to get in touch with his father, who invited him to help run a drum-centered music store in San Carlos, California. Mickey helped manage the store (called Drum City, on 894 Laurel Street in San Carlos) and practiced drumming, but I find it difficult to believe that he didn’t play with other musicians. Let’s face it: mediocre drummers who are absolutely stone crazy usually have more offers of gigs than they can manage, so sensible, friendly guys who are fantastic, versatile drummers have to be in great demand.
I’ve only found one reference to Mickey’s pre-Dead Bay Area career, and Hart himself has never mentioned it. Around late 1965/early 1966, Hart joined a San Mateo group called William Penn And His Pals. Even more remarkably, he was the second drummer, presaging his future. Hart seems to have left the band in short order, however, before organist Gregg Rolie joined (pre-Santana Blues Band) and they recorded their garage classic “Swami.” The fact that William Penn And His Pals, a pretty successful local band, wore Tri-Corner hats and pseudo-Revolutionary War garb, like Paul Revere and The Raiders, has to have been an unappealing memory to someone with Grateful Dead sensibilities.
Since Hart was introduced to the Dead by a stranger, no one in or around the band had any idea who he might have played with prior to joining them. His only pre-Dead association was his father Lenny, the band’s manager from 1969-71, which ended very badly, so no one around him knew his background. This meant that Hart was in a position to control his own story, and while he seems to have enjoyed describing his childhood, his grandmother, his struggles in High School and his time in the Air Force, hart has left a blank in his musical career from 1965 to 1967. I grant that as store manager he may not have had time to tour with bands, but I remain certain that he played with a variety of Bay Area groups, probably in the South Bay, and I remain very curious as to who they might have been.
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the august '67 thing with kreutzmann is interesting background re:hart joining the dead, but when did he first meet the dead? was it in april while filming the stretcher scene of Petulia? a little hard to believe he wasn't interested in hearing their music after hanging out with them on that set.
ReplyDeletesfexpress, this is very interesting. Do you have a source on Hart meeting the Dead on the set of Petulia? Very interesting indeed.
ReplyDeleteWhile I don't have the movie on-hand, a little searching reveals that, as IMDB states,
ReplyDelete"the hippies who observe Petulia taken out of Archie's apartment on a stretcher are members of the Grateful Dead and their communal entourage."
Ihor Slabicky also writes that 'Members of
the band and the office staff appear during the scenes where Julie Christie is
carried on a stretcher into an ambulance... Appearing, but uncredited,
in the film are: Mickey Hart as "Hippie 2", Phil Lesh as "Hippie
4", Ron McKernan as "Hippie 5", Danny Rifkin as "Hippie 6", and Bob Weir as
"Hippie 7".'
If Hart was indeed hanging out with the Dead's crowd in April '67, and this wasn't a coincidence, perhaps the standard chronology needs rewriting!
I looked into this, and while the Dead's lip-synch to "Viola Lee" seems to have been done in April or May '67, the movie itself was not released until June 1968. The scene with the Grateful Dead as onlookers (they watch a patient, I think Julie Christie, get loaded into an ambulance) could have been filmed by the second unit well after May. Thus its plausible that Hart was in the band by the time the second unit shot the band as onlookers, even if the "performance" was filmed earlier.
ReplyDeleteTo see the scenes we are discussing, the Yellow Shark points us here
ReplyDeletehttp://reelsf.com/petulia-brutal-beating
I have a feeling that the people doing IMDB database, while absolutely nails on, say, actors who had bit parts in soap operas who later turn up in the movies, are not as knowledgeable about 60s rock bands. Until I see a picture of Hart, or get a confirmation from someone I trust, I'm not persuaded he's in the shot.
I'm not so certain this scene would have been filmed 5-6 months later (that's a long time to tie up a star like Julie Christie in location shooting - she was in England filming Far From the Madding Crowd in late summer/fall 1967, hence presumably not too available for San Francisco reshoots).
ReplyDeleteAnd while it seems a long time between the April '67 filming & June '68 release, that was paralleled by Lester's previous film How I Won the War - filmed in fall 1966, interrupted to start Petulia, and edited for an October 1967 release.
I would further point out that by mid-summer 1967, Jerry had sideburns - the way he looks in the film is his early '67 look, making a later filming date for that scene most unlikely.
Until someone rechecks the scene on film, I suspect it's more likely Hart was absent & misidentified.
It doesn't inspire much confidence, for example, that the IMDB list fails to note Jerry Garcia among the hippie crowd, even though he's front & center! It's also telling that the ReelSF site mistakes Weir for Lesh...
From another site: 'Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead also appear, in separate party scenes. Janis looks and sounds great, but the Dead sound awful. Later, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir join a crowd scene on the Filbert Steps; when Christie’s body is pulled by on a stretcher, Weir gets this dumb look on his face and says, “Bye-bye, mama.”'
I have Petulia on VHS, and put it on this afternoon. There are a bunch of people in the scene in question. I definitely saw Jerry, Bob, Pigpen, Phil and Danny. I think Rock is there, too. I didn't see Mickey though.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.deadhookforums.com/showthread.php?t=16151
On this forum some people say Mickey is in it. Although in a different shot the guy they're referring to looks a little more Mickey-like, I don't think the clean-shaven guy in the brown fez and sunglasses is him.
http://reelsf.com/petulia-brutal-beating
Chico, this confirms what I thought. I respect all the great stuff on IMDB, but I can hardly tell the difference between Julie Christie and Jean Shrimpton, so some film freak's knowledge of Mickey Hart circa 1967 can't be so certain either.
ReplyDeleteThis has still been an interesting discussion, however. Thanks to SFexpress for reminding me that the GD even appeared in Petulia.