Friday, September 3, 2010

March 18, 1968: Pier 10, San Francisco-KMPX Strike Rally (also: March 20, 1968 Avalon)

(headline from the March 19, 1968 San Francisco Chronicle)

The Grateful Dead were together for 30 years, more or less continuously, and performed long after the bands that had been their peers were just a memory. Part of the Dead's enduring appeal was that they had played at so many important rock events in San Francisco and the United States that they became a living link to a remarkable time, like the Roman Coliseum or the coelacanth. This leads to a peculiar prosopographical problem, however: the Dead's legendary status causes them to be assigned to every important rock event in the 60s, and the evidence does not always point that way. Despite years of extensive Dead scholarship--far more advanced than any other band besides The Beatles and a few others--some 60s performance dates that have been in Deadbase or on Deadlists for years are far less settled than they appear.

KMPX-fm in San Francisco was the first "Underground" rock station, broadcasting album cuts and hip music and setting the stage for a radio revolution. It began broadcasting on February 12, 1967, with a midnight-to-six shift (the dj was Larry Miller) and by early April program director Tom (Big Daddy) Donahue was broadcasting rock 24/7. It revolutionized the San Francisco scene, rock music in America and the FM dial in general. By 1968, KMPX was one of the most successful stations in the Bay Area (along with its sister station, KPPC-fm in Pasadena), with hip advertisers and the 100% support of all the bands, who recognized that KMPX was playing their music when the AM stations would never do so. Bitter relations between the owners and the hippie workers, however, caused the staff to go out on a very high-profile strike on the morning of Monday, March 18, 1968.

According to Deadlists, Deadbase, Dead.net and various other sources, the Grateful Dead played in support of the strikers on three occasions:
  • March 18, 1968 outside the radio station
  • March 20, 1968 at the Avalon, and
  • April 3, 1968 at Winterland
With all these sources listing the concerts (admittedly, Dead.net does not list the March 18 event), the nature of scholarship is such that everyone takes for granted that these shows are "settled fact" when in fact quite the opposite is the case. This post is an attempt to look at what is known about any Dead performances on March 18 and 20, 1968, which turns out to be considerably different and far less than one might originally think.

March 18, 1968
What can be stated for a fact is that Traffic, who was playing Winterland for two weekends, played on Monday morning between 9am and noon, and Jerry Garcia played with them at least for one song. I have written about this at length, and we can be certain of the performance since art student Andrew Wong took some great photos (well worth a look). Since I wrote that post, I have discovered that the location of the temporary stage was Pier 10 in San Francisco, roughly at Washington and Embarcadero.

Garcia's morning guest appearance with Traffic seems to have been converted to a full on Grateful Dead appearance, when little evidence actually suggests that. Even the best placed sources seem to have gotten some of the details garbled, and subsequent references are even less accurate. I am not concerned with worrying about how some of the facts may have gotten misread than with trying to clarify what is known versus unknown.

Eyewitness Accounts
Dennis McNally, who had the best access to people who were actually present, writes (p.257)
At 3am on the Monday after the Carousel opened [the weekend of March 15-17], the staff of KMPX went out on strike, walking out of the warehouse at Green and Battery Streets that housed the station to gather around a flatbed truck parked in the street. There members of the of the Dead, whose gig had ended only a couple of hours before, Steve Winwood, and others began to play. The strike became a party.
Since we know from Wong's photos that Garcia and Traffic played in daylight, McNally's description seems accurate but his timeline seems off (remember the state of mind at the time of the people who probably told McNally the story).

John Fogerty, the driving force of Creedence Clearwater Revival, recalled a more plausible story in a 1998 interview, with some telling differences. At the time, Creedence had just changed their name and not yet released their first album. They played regularly at a bar called DenoCarlo's at 750 Vallejo, later well known as the Keystone Korner. Creedence's demo of "Suzie Q" got regular play on KMPX, so they were enthusiastic supporters of the station. Fogerty (quoted in Werner, Up Around The Bend, Avon Books, 1999 p.69):
We heard about it, we were playing at Deno and Carlo's, and we rushed right over to the station and set up all of our equipment. We were the band, in fact, we were the only band until the next morning about nine o'clock, more famous people got there like the Grateful Dead. But actually, Creedence Clearwater played there at one in the morning and people talked about the noise.
As we will see, Fogerty has a lot more accurate picture of the sequence of the events. However, in Fogerty's version it is the Grateful Dead who showed up some hours later, when in fact it appeared it was just Jerry Garcia (and possibly Mickey Hart). Yet the image of the Grateful Dead jamming on a flatbed truck on Green Street at 3am is so engaging that it has simply overtaken the otherwise very interesting real story. Keep in mind, however, that Fogerty was surely long gone by the time Garcia actually appeared, so he too only heard second hand about events later in the morning.

Reporter George Gilbert covered the story for the San Francisco Chronicle, and his story appeared on Tuesday, March 19. Although Gilbert has a reporter's perspective, he gives a clear idea of the timeline of events.
I will quote him here:
It was almost 3 a.m. at KMPX-FM and everybody, despite the crisis, was grooving to James Brown.
Rocking on the balls of his feet and staring at the groovy chicks dancing in the studio was Augustus Owsley Stanley III, the Henry Ford of LSD.
The Grateful Dead arrived and offered their help. Ten or 15 hippies wandered about with sad, lost faces. Five hundred more waited outside.
After a brief background on the station, Gilbert continues
Exactly. But back to the show. Voco [KMPX chief engineer Abe Kesh], his black beard brushing the microphone, told an astonished audience that the staff was striking and everybody left the station at 50 Green Street and at five minutes after three o'clock in the morning the amplifiers were plugged in and the Creedence Clearwater band came alive. So did  lot of people on Telegraph Hill, only a few decibels west.
Fogerty's basic story is confirmed by Gilbert. When the strike was declared at 3am, Creedence was rocking and rolling on the back of a flatbed truck on Green Street. But their celebration was shortlived. On a Monday morning, even Baghdad-by-the-Bay has its limits.
[The cops arrived and told] the throng, now well over 500, to tune it down. Creedence Clearwater frowned. So did everybody else. The two cops left quickly and everybody cheered. But the cops returned in a little while with two seargeants. And the dance on Green Street was over.
"Everybody come over to Pier 10," somebody shouted from the makeshift bandstand. "We'll resume there."
Everybody did but somebody forgot the amps and 500 disgruntled hippies went home for the night.
For the balance of the article, Gilbert returns much later in the morning, and talks to a KMPX picketer, who happens to be extremely pretty (San Francisco rock fans will be delighted to know it was former Charlatans singer Lynne Hughes), and there is some general discussion of the finances of KMPX.

Nonetheless, Gilbert's article sorts out the essential points. The Grateful Dead came over to KMPX after their Carousel show (on March 17), probably intending to play. Creedence kicked off the show, but the cops shut it down. A plan to move the event to Pier 10 was stalled, and not surprisingly it did not re-start until daylight. I have to presume that by morning some or most members of the Dead had gone home, but Jerry was still around. It remains unclear who else played besides Traffic (Harvey Mandel and Mickey Hart are visible back stage), but it was probably a great morning.

The actual events are a great rock and roll story: the staff of the first FM rock station goes on strike, and the first local band to play in support of them at 3am turns out to be one of the biggest selling bands of the era. The Grateful Dead were probably ready to go on next, but the cops intervened--even so, Jerry Garcia hung around to jam with Stevie Winwood and Traffic, in itself an amazing event. Yet myth and confusion have changed the story to make it conform to the theme that the Grateful Dead played "every" important event in San Francisco rock history.

KMPX Strike Fund Benefit, Avalon Ballroom March 20, 1968
Many Grateful Dead chronologies list Monday, March 18 as a Grateful Dead performance, when in fact it should be a Jerry Garcia guest appearance with Traffic. Still, it's historically important and interesting to Dead fans even if it strictly belongs on Garcia list per se. However, the tendency to assume that the Grateful Dead played all important San Francisco events extends to the KMPX Strike Fund Benefit held on Wednesday, March 20. I have yet to find any evidence the Dead played the Avalon that night.

For one thing, the circulating poster (above) only lists All Men Joy, Blue Cheer, Ace of Cups, Black Swan and Creedence Clearwater. Ralph Gleason mentions the show in Wednesday column, and offers a different lineup:
Gleason lists Blue Cheer, Kaleidoscope, Charlie Musselwhite, Jeremy & The Satyrs, Frumious Bandersnatch and Santana Blues Band. Either of the bills sound pretty cool to me, but neither of them included the Grateful Dead.

Now, I agree it's possible the Dead just "showed up" and played anyway, but that is always the explanation offered, and I need something a little more concrete to go on. At this time, the Dead were working on Anthem Of The Sun as well as opening the Carousel and then leaving for Michigan, so they had to be pretty busy. On the Dead.net page, several people list themselves as having attended the show, but the only comment seems to be a description of seeing Creedence at the Green Street event.

Given that Jerry Garcia played on Pier 10 on Monday and that the Grateful Dead played a KMPX strike benefit at Winterland two weeks later (April 3), I think fond and foggy memories have simply converted all three events to Grateful Dead concerts. I personally think any week that begins with Jerry Garcia and Traffic jamming downtown would be a great week, so the fact that the Dead apparently did not play the Avalon on that Wednesday doesn't minimize it. I'd love to find out that the Dead played the Avalon--frankly I'd love to know which bands played Wednesday, regardless of the Dead--but for now I'm settling for the Garcia/Winwood Monday morning wake up. The Grateful Dead probably played more great 60s events than any other band of the era, but even they didn't play all of them.

Update
Well, maybe they did play all of them.
The Berkeley Barb's Jef Jaisun reported (in the Friday March 22 Barb) that the Grateful Dead and Kaleidoscope played the Avalon to a packed house.

Update 2
Thanks to Commenter LIA, we now have some more information. The Grateful Dead may or may not have played at 3:00am on March 18 (and may have been stopped almost immediately). However, there was a Street Fair on 50 Green Street the next weekend, March 23-24, and it appears that Garcia would have played with Traffic on March 24, not March 18.

Read the linked Comment for the full story, but here's the key summary (from the Susan Krieger book Hip Capitalism)
"There were about 500 people assembled in the street outside... Creedence Clearwater Revival started playing at 3:05 am. Blue Cheer was there. The Grateful Dead set up their instruments and played. A group of people associated with the Dead wanted to take over the transmitter and free the airwaves... Residents up the hill complained about the noise and after about 20 minutes police arrived and ordered the crowd to disperse. They tried to relocate at Pier 10 on the Embarcadero but failed to. Someone forgot to carry over the amplifiers. By 4 am, the bulk of the crowd had gone." (p.80) 
The book conflicts with the Chronicle's report in saying that the Dead had started playing when the police stopped the show. The author used the same Chronicle article, along with several other articles and her own interviews with KMPX workers (see the notes at the end of the book), so I feel she must have had reason to add the Dead to the account. Presumably one or more people said they played and she thought the Chronicle article had just omitted them - which could be the case. Nonetheless, if the police arrived "after 20 minutes" and it was all over by 4, it wouldn't leave much time for the Dead! (None, really.) 
She fails to mention any continuing jams on Monday morning - I believe it was because there was no more music played that day.  
"On Saturday and Sunday, March 23 and 24, a street fair was held in a parking lot near 50 Green Street. The fair was originally planned for in front of 50 Green Street but the site was changed when the San Francisco police refused to grant the strikers a permit for closing off the street. Nine bands were scheduled to appear." (p.83) They aren't named, though. 
The street fair in the parking lot on March 23-24 is of especial interest, although she does not name the bands.  
The Rolling Stone article I quoted above says specifically that Garcia jammed with Traffic during this fair, NOT on March 18. And we now know that although the Dead were scheduled to play in Detroit with the Animals on March 23, the Dead actually canceled and went back to SF early. So they could easily have been in SF on March 24, which I believe is the most likely date for the Garcia/Traffic jam. 
In short:
  • The Dead were present at the strike by 3am on March 18, and might have started to play after Creedence's set, but if so it was only briefly.
  • The music was not continued at the Embarcadero later that day. 
  • Garcia appeared at the street fair the next weekend on March 24. (Whether the rest of the Dead aside from Hart came is still unknown.)

40 comments:

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  3. March 20 saw, according to out old friend Jef Jaisun, Grateful Dead, Kaleidoscope (who had already played two sets at the Straight Theater that night) and other play at the Avalon. I have the others listed as Charlie Musselwhite, Santana, Blue Cheer, Jeremy and The Satyrs and Frumious Bandersnatch. Another interesting snippet: "Further support from the bands came when Jerry Garcia of the Dead walked into the station and demanded the return of a tape of their new single and also asked that none of the Dead's other material be played on the air."

    The full article will no doubt be en route to you in a short while. If nothing else, a most reliable confirmation of the March 20 performance.

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  5. The April 3 show (Superball) saw invitations sent out to Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and The Holding Company, The Doors, Eric Burdon and The Animals, Quicksilver Messenger Service.

    My understanding is that the actual performers were: Grateful Dead, Moby Grape, It's A Beautiful Day, Electric Flag, Mother Earth, Youngbloods

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  6. Clover also probably played at the Avalon on March 20, 1968

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  7. Ross, what's the source of Jef's information about the Dead playing the Straight on March 20? Was that another KMPX Benefit?

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  8. A fascinating story....shows lost & found!

    The "tape of the new single" that Garcia requested from the station must have been the Dark Star single - wasn't released until April.
    It's interesting that he asked them not to play any other Dead material, as the Dead hadn't released anything in a full year! (I wonder if KMPX had been re-broadcasting the 2/14/68 show?)

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  9. I think only Kaleidoscope playing the Straight Theatre on March 20, 1968 not the Grateful Dead.

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  10. The Charlatans

    wasn't Dan Hicks in that group? Hell, if Dan had played like Me n My Uncle instead of gypsy jazz he might have been a superstar and living in a Marin mansion near Bobby Weir.

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  11. It was indeed only the Kaleidoscope who played the Straight (originally advertised to play 9:30 to 1:00 but they ended up playing two short sets and various "underground" films were shown - so there was no second act). You should by now have the article that was written by Jef - who continued to write about the KMPX strike each week.

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  12. Regarding The Charlatans, Hicks was indeed in the band as was Mike Wilhelm who covered Me & My Uncle on his self-titled album available only through Zigzag here in England.

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  13. Ok, I lost the pronoun reference to the Straight. Now I understand--Kaleidoscope played the Straight and went over to the Avalon, while the Dead turned up as well. At least some of the Dead (Jerry and Phil, presumably) would have been in the City mixing Anthem Of The Sun.

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  14. The point was really about the arbitrary nature of rock music popularity, really. The Dead are millionaires as is Steve Jobs (whose fortune depended on pimping Macs and rock mp3s) while many other musicians-- from that time--as talented, or more so--now might be found meandering down Mission st. Or...in the cold, cold ground. Many 'heads lack political awareness and are just into the nostalgia act.

    (that said...Jerry and Phil were somewhat talented, at times. I wouldn't say that of Weir.)

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  15. KMPX was well known for playing demo tapes, which was all many bands had in the 67-68 period. I know they played a Blue Cheer demo, which accounts for how that band became well known around the Bay Area.

    I wonder if KMPX had been playing a studio demo from the Anthem sessions? It would fit in with what they had done for other bands, and it would explain what Jerry was preventing them from playing. It would be very interesting if some rough mixes of Side 1 of Anthem had been played on the radio.

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  16. Hmm, that's an interesting thought...
    As it happens, we do have a couple circulating tapes of Anthem studio rehearsals (mostly instrumental, usually dated Nov '67) - although I find it hard to believe anyone would've given them to a radio station to play; in fact that seems quite unlikely. No 'rough mixes' of Anthem ever circulated that I know of.

    There's also the question of how far along with ANY mixes the Dead were in early March '68. As far as I know, there's no Dead sessionography, so I don't know how long they tinkered with the Anthem mix, or just when the main live/studio combination work was done. (Knowing the Dead, it would've taken quite some time.)
    I had presumed most of the mixing wasn't done til after the March Carousel runs were done - at least til after 3/17, the last show I know was used in the final mix. The Dead had quite a few shows in March '68, which might've cut down on studio time (although, they may have done some work with Tom Constanten that month, since he was with them at the March 11 show). Early April is a much emptier period for shows - and they still tried out a studio in Miami!

    This is an area for further investigation, unless there's a studio-sessions rundown already somewhere I haven't seen.

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  17. The demos that KMPX played were usually only a song or two. My speculation was that there was a rough mix of "Born Cross Eyed" or something like that, not the whole album, and particularly not the live stuff.

    Although I suppose its distinctly possible that they gave KMPX a song or two from the "Great Northwest Tour." Perhaps that might explain some of the surviving fragments--they were spliced out to give to KMPX, and Garcia got them back after the strike. It's a thought.

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    1. Per Michael Kramer, the Carousel Ballroom continued to run ads on KMPX during the strike, one of the only businesses that still did so - even though the Dead had asked that "none of the Dead's material be played on the air." (Rolling Stone also said the Dead "requested that KMPX and KPPC do not play their records as long as they are being operated by strikebreakers.")

      An odd detail. Perhaps the Carousel ads were placed by one of the managers (Rakow, say) who was not aligned with the strike. Kramer attributes it to an "'anything goes' policy [that] lent itself to a laissez-faire, libertarian position on labor disputes...[so] the Dead performed benefits for the KMPX strikers [while] the ballroom...continued to advertise on the station." (Kramer p.92)

      Actually a similar kind of split would also be seen later, during the 8/1/69 Family Dog lightshow strike, when some members of the Dead proceeded to play a show while Garcia stayed outside to talk with the strikers.

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  19. There is another account in the Rolling Stone article "FM Workers Strike For Rights" (April 27, 1968).

    "At 3:00 on the morning of Monday, March 18, the entire staff of the nation's best rock & roll station walked out on strike - and right into the midst of an impromptu block party."
    It's a fairly lengthy article that goes into a lot of detail about the issues between the workers & KMPX management, which I'll skip here, for these details:

    "The community turned out in force for a benefit at the Avalon Ballroom on March 20, where music was provided gratis by the Grateful Dead, Charley Musselwhite, Kaleidoscope, and three other bands. The Family Dog made the hall available without charge - even the light show was donated - and the strike fund netted $1800. Even more successful was the KPPC-strikers' benefit at the Kaleidoscope in Los Angeles with Jefferson Airplane, Tiny Tim, several local bands and Sioux Indian war dancers.
    "There was also a weekend fair (not to be confused with the first-night party of 500 people dancing in the street) outside the KMPX offices near North Beach, which was highlighted by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead jamming with Traffic. It was supposed to be a street fair, but the San Francisco city fathers refused the strikers a permit, ostensibly because an announcement read over the air before the strike had caused an unauthorized closing of Haight Street two weeks earlier, so the action took place in a nearby parking lot."

    The Grateful Dead are also listed among many bands who "requested that KMPX and KPPC do not play their records as long as they are being operated by strikebreakers."

    One remarkable aspect of this is that the closing of Haight Street on March 3 directly led to the authorities refusing the KMPX strikers a street permit (so they claimed).

    The details of the Garcia/Traffic jam seem slightly different than in other accounts - it's odd that a Monday event would be called "a weekend fair," but the writer specifies that it was a distinct event from the first-night party, and that it took place in a parking lot outside the KMPX offices.

    This doesn't seem to match an impromptu move to Pier 10 on Monday morning, since the "fair" sounds like a preplanned event involving a request for a permit. In fact, this article seems to imply that the Garcia/Traffic jam took place on the following weekend!

    The Dead, of course, were in Detroit the next weekend, so this leaves something of a mystery. It makes me wonder if Traffic's street concert was on another date than the 18th, and two different events have been conflated by later memories.

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  20. The April 3 event has a poster that lists it not as a strike benefit, but a celebration of KMPX's first year http://www.deadlists.com/posters/1960s/19680403a.html

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    1. Kewe, the April 3 show was organized by the Strikers. The idea of a celebration of the first year of KMPX was to remind the listening community of what KMPX radio meant to the local scene.

      A recent book by Michael J. Kramer, The Republic Of Rock (Oxford Press 2013), has the most detailed analysis of the KMPX strike that I have ever read. Among many other things, he discusses the April 3 Superball Benefit. I highly recommend the book (after all, where else would you find out about the Fillmore Far East, in Saigon during the Vietnam War?).

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  21. In case you're interested, here's a documentary about the 1968 San Francisco Student Strike. Enjoy! http://jonathancraig.org/1968-san-francisco-student-strike/

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  22. A 1979 book on the early years of KSAN, Hip Capitalism by Susan Krieger, is on googlebooks and goes into great detail about KMPX and the strike:
    https://books.google.com/books?id=5UofAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ViewAPI#v=onepage&q&f=false

    The scene at 50 Green Street early Monday morning, March 18: "Bands out front, a crowd of people, signs, pickets, a light show, the Dead were playing." (p.74)

    But were they? The book includes a transcript of the DJs' statements before starting the strike.
    Bear: We're going out on strike at 3:00. We're going to have, I don't know, did the Dead say they're definitely coming?
    Voco: Right.
    Bear: Anybody else?
    Voco: The Dead will be here, Allmen Joy will be here.
    Bear: Anyway, there's going to be a dance... There have been announcements in the Fillmore and the Carousel and the Avalon, for people if they want, if they care about the station...[to] hang out at about 3:00. There will be music. There will be us all picketing...
    [Later:]
    Voco: There's a light show going on downstairs. The groovy people from the Family Dog, the Avalon Ballroom, brought their light show. The Ace of Cups are here, missing one ace. Denise, if you're nearabouts and you'd like to fall on by, the girls are here and they'd dig to play. The Dead are going to be here and Blue Cheer is going to be here...
    [Later] We're going to split downstairs. The Grateful Dead are here. Ace of Cups are here...

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  23. The book continues:
    "There were about 500 people assembled in the street outside... Creedence Clearwater Revival started playing at 3:05 am. Blue Cheer was there. The Grateful Dead set up their instruments and played. A group of people associated with the Dead wanted to take over the transmitter and free the airwaves... Residents up the hill complained about the noise and after about 20 minutes police arrived and ordered the crowd to disperse. They tried to relocate at Pier 10 on the Embarcadero but failed to. Someone forgot to carry over the amplifiers. By 4 am, the bulk of the crowd had gone." (p.80)

    The book conflicts with the Chronicle's report in saying that the Dead had started playing when the police stopped the show. The author used the same Chronicle article, along with several other articles and her own interviews with KMPX workers (see the notes at the end of the book), so I feel she must have had reason to add the Dead to the account. Presumably one or more people said they played and she thought the Chronicle article had just omitted them - which could be the case. Nonetheless, if the police arrived "after 20 minutes" and it was all over by 4, it wouldn't leave much time for the Dead! (None, really.)

    She fails to mention any continuing jams on Monday morning - I believe it was because there was no more music played that day.
    She does list the bands at the March 20 Avalon show - not sure what her source was: "Eight local bands performed: the Grateful Dead, Blue Cheer, Jeremy Steig and the Satyrs, Kaleidoscope, Charlie Musselwhite Southside Sound System, Santana Blues Band, Frumious Bandersnatch, and the Clover. Reportedly, $2400 was raised for the strikers." (p.82)

    "On Saturday and Sunday, March 23 and 24, a street fair was held in a parking lot near 50 Green Street. The fair was originally planned for in front of 50 Green Street but the site was changed when the San Francisco police refused to grant the strikers a permit for closing off the street. Nine bands were scheduled to appear." (p.83) They aren't named, though.

    The April 3 Superball: "Bill Graham donated Winterland and a half dozen bands volunteered their performances: the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, Electric Flag, It's A Beautiful Day, Malachi, and Moby Grape." (p.83)

    The street fair in the parking lot on March 23-24 is of especial interest, although she does not name the bands.
    The Rolling Stone article I quoted above says specifically that Garcia jammed with Traffic during this fair, NOT on March 18.
    And we now know that although the Dead were scheduled to play in Detroit with the Animals on March 23, the Dead actually canceled and went back to SF early. So they could easily have been in SF on March 24, which I believe is the most likely date for the Garcia/Traffic jam.

    In short:
    The Dead were present at the strike by 3am on March 18, and might have started to play after Creedence's set, but if so it was only briefly.
    The music was not continued at the Embarcadero later that day.
    Garcia appeared at the street fair the next weekend on March 24. (Whether the rest of the Dead aside from Hart came is still unknown.)

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    1. Fascinating. The Dead had been scheduled for an outdoor concerts in Michigan on March 23 (Detroit) and 24 (Ann Arbor). However, a concert on March 22 had terrible attendance due to a blizzard, and the Dead flew home on the 23rd (confirmed by Vic Briggs of the Animals). So it would make sense that Garcia was home on March 24.

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  24. According to this webpage, there is no Pier 10.
    http://www.inside-guide-to-san-francisco-tourism.com/san-francisco-piers.html
    I'm trying to find out if the S.F. piers numbers have been re-figured since 1968. Anyone know?

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    1. No: odd-numbered piers have always been north of the Ferry Building (think Pier 39).
      Actually, this didn’t occur on a pier. The truck was parked alongside a building on the east side of Front Street between Green and Vallejo. This can be deduced from Andrew Wong’s photos looking northwest at Chris Wood (where 1001 Front Street is behind him) and Jeff Blankfort’s photos looking southwest (where the 847 Front Street garage is behind Chris, along with the Broadway offramp of the Embarcadero Freeway). The front of Pier 19 can also be seen in the background of some of Andrew’s photos, placing the event due south of that. The band is facing west, and seem to be in the sun - which implies it’s the afternoon, so perhaps this was the weekend street fair.

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    2. Thanks for the precise SF geography. The Dead may or may not have played at Pier 10 on March 18, but the Andrew Wong photos are surely from March 24. It was in a parking lot near 50 Green Street, apparently

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  25. Mickey Hart was present at the Street Fair 68-03-24 as pics show, but if he played we don't know – all pics show Capaldi on drums

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  26. The 3/29/68 Los Angeles Free Press reported:
    "Two weeks ago, at the Avalon Ballroom in SF, $4500 was raised with the help of headlining group The Grateful Dead, and another benefit is underway in Los Angeles... Last week's effort resulted in a smoothly-functioning, somewhat awe-inspiring gathering at the Kaleidoscope [in Los Angeles, March 24], which succeeded in raising $6000 as well as immeasurable good will for KPPC."
    ("KPPC Strike," LAFP 3/29/68, p.6 - KPMX's sister station in Los Angeles also went on strike)

    The Berkeley Barb noted, "A recent benefit in LA netted $6,000 [and] last week's Avalon blow-out brought in $2,400... Another massive benefit is planned for Wednesday night at Winterland [4/3/68]," and the Dead were one of many bands invited. "Consult your favorite poster for exact details early next week."
    (Berkeley Barb 3/29/68, p.9)

    There's a $2100 discrepancy between the two articles in how much the Avalon benefit raised - presumably a typo in one of the papers. At the time of the Barb article, invitations for the Winterland benefit had gone out but "there are no set confirmations," and it seems there wouldn't be, for no bands were listed on the "Super Ball KMPX 1st Birthday Benefit" posters, and I didn't spot any report on it in the Barb.
    A 4/5/68 Barb article on the strike just said that DJ Larry Miller joined the other strikers onstage and "was welcomed in grand style by 3000 jammed-in strike supporters at Winterland Wednesday night... The announcement of his return brought enthusiastic applause." (p.3)

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  27. The San Francisco Examiner reported on the 3/20/68 Avalon benefit:

    “The Fruminous Bandersnatchers blared many a harmonious musical bar last night in Avalon Ballroom, sounding what may have been the requiem of old style strikes and labor negotiations.
    The Bandersnatchers were but one of nine long-hair (not in a musical sense), bearded, and sandal-less instrumental groups playing from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. for the benefit of striking staff members of KMPX-FM...
    Also electronically pulsating for out-of-work KMPXers were Blue Cheer, Charley Musselwhite Southside Sound System, and the Grateful Dead.”
    (William O'Brien, “Far Out KMPX Benefit,” SF Examiner 3/21/68)

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  28. Wow, what a collective enterprise here! So, as of now we have Garcia sitting in with Traffic --and doing "Dear Mr. Fantasy", per Andrew Wong-- on 3/24/68 at the street fair in a parking lot near 50 Green Street. That right?

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    1. Yes, sitting in with Traffic, probably with Bill Champlin helping out on backing vocals (he sang on some song, there's a picture)

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  29. Last piece of the puzzle: an account from the CCSF Guardsman confirming the Garcia/Traffic jam was Sunday, March 24, 1968. Sons of Champlin opened.

    https://archive.org/details/guardsman19671968city/page/n37/mode/2up

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    1. Great find! College papers are often the best sources for coverage of rock music at the time.

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  30. I wonder if author Werner wasn’t familiar with S.F. and misquoted Fogerty. Could the bar he references have been Gino and Carlo at 548 Green Street, which is still going strong after 80 years?

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    1. In early '68, Creedence had a regular gig (I think Monday nights) at a bar called DinoCarlo's. DinoCarlo's was at 750 Vallejo, and later in 68 became the legendary Keystone Korner.

      The transcription error (by the reporter or his rewrite desk) was to call it "Deno and Carlo's," reflecting "Gino and Carlo." Fogerty knew where he was playing, but the Chron had never heard of it.

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