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This broadcast returns us to the Psychedelic Sixties….

Blind Faith – 1969-08-06 – Earl Warren Showgrounds, Santa Barbara, CA  Soundboard

Blind Faith was an English blues rock band comprised of Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood and Ric Grech.   Blind Faith was originally formed by Eric, Ginger and Steve in mid 1968 after the breakup of Cream.  Initially, they were just jamming in Clapton’s basement.  Ric was added in May 1969.  Their debut performance was a month later on 7 Jun 1969.  (Maybe, I’ll play that concert at a later date.)  Their debut album was released in Jul 1969, and was pretty controversial, since it featured a topless pubescent girl on the cover holding a silver, winged object.  The US record company released it with an alternative cover.  Rock fans often debate whether it was Blind Faith, or Crosby, Stills Nash and Young were the first band to be labeled as a supergroup.  In any event, as CSNY was playing their second ever performance in upstate NY at Woodstock, Blind Faith was on tour on the other side of the country playing in Santa Barbara on 16 Aug 1969.  It was to be their only tour, as the group came apart almost as quickly as it had formed.  Check out this recording to hear one of only about 30 concerts this band ever performed, and only nine bootlegs are known to exist.  (And, I have four of them….)

The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, CA by these founding members:  Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir (guitar and vocals), Ron “Pigpen” McKernan (keyboards, harmonica, vocals), Phil Lesh (bass, vocals), and Bill Kreutzmann (drums).  They originally started out as The Warlocks, but changed their name when they realized that a band with that name was signed to a record contract.   Their first performance was at Magoo’s Pizza in Menlo Park, CA on 5 May 1965, and they released their debut album, The Grateful Dead, in 1967.  This concert also includes Tom Constanten (keyboards), and a second drummer, Mickey Hart.  As the decade of the 60’s came to an end, the Grateful Dead were beginning to take their improvisational style to new heights.  With Pigpen at the helm on vocals, they would produce powerful down and dirty blues numbers such as Alligator and Turn On Your Lovelight.   The band was also exploring the depths of space on tunes such as Dark Star and St. Stephen.  This soundboard recording captures the band during that historic year, on 1 Sep 1969, in Louisiana,  near the start of their long strange trip.

Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California.  They were the first band from San Francisco to achieve mainstream success.  They performed at the three most famous American rock festivals of the 1960s:  Monterey (1967), Woodstock (1969), and Altamont (1969).  Their 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow is regarded as one of the key recordings of the “Summer of Love”.  The band made its first public appearance as Jefferson Airplane at the opening night of The Matrix on 13 Aug 65.  The origin of their name is often disputed.  “Jefferson Airplane” is slang for a used paper match splint to hold a marijuana joint.  Basically, an improvised roach clip.  In late 1966, the Jefferson Airplane recruited Grace Slick, and the rest was history.  Of the course of the next 6 months, the Airplane took center stage as one of the leading bands of the new psychedelic rock movement emerging from San Fran.  The soundboard recording, from 4 Mar 1967, captures them just as they begin their rise to national prominence.  They were to stay together until 1972, with reunions in 1989 and 1996.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience was an English-American rock band that formed in Westminster, London, England in Sep 66.  Composed of Jimi Hendrix (guitar, vocals), Noel Redding (bass, backing vocals), and Mitch Mitchell (drums).  After Redding left the band in mid 1969, Hendrix and Mitchell continued to work together.  The Experience reunited in 1970 with Billy Cox on bass until Hendrix’s death in Sep 1970.  Redding passed away in 2003, and Mitchell passed in 2008.  In 1992, The Jimi Hendrix Experience was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Hendrix has been called one of the best guitarists of all time, by various music publication writers.  Jimi’s performances at Monterey Pop and Woodstock were legendary.  Jimi had returned to North America in 1968 after his summer ’67 tour leading in for the Monkees.  He was touring in support of his album, Axis Bold as Love, which had been released in Dec 67/Jan 68 in the UK and US, respectively.  The album climbed to #3 on the Billboard.  This soundboard recording, was at the Capitol Theatre, Ottawa, Canada 19 March 1968.