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This one is a clip from a much longer conversation. (Stay tuned.)
I packed a lot of ideas into this 3-minute video along with some video and photo footage of Fillmore East, Bill Graham’s hallowed hall at 105 2nd Avenue in New York City’s East Village.
Be well.
Much more to come, including a BIG announcement.
Lagniappe
The Joe Cocker Mad Dogs & Englishmen 1971 film is one of the greatest rock & roll movies in history. It’s recently been rereleased. Dig it.
Video Transcript
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Fillmore East
The 1971 Mad Dogs & Englishmen film has some of the best footage of the outside of Fillmore East you’ll ever see. It’s got going underneath the marquee, all the lights. You can see the marquee. I study this as an Allman Brother fanatic and there’s very little great footage of the venue. And there’s only one show of them in there.
It is really great footage of the venue.
MORE ON GRAHAM/THE ABB/FILLMORE EAST: https://www.longlivetheabb.com/p/when-i-talk-about-at-fillmore-east
I’ve talked about this before, that there’s an intimacy to the Fillmore. When the Allman Brothers are quiet on At Fillmore East, like on “You Don’t Love Me,” when Duane is in those decrescendos waiting to bring it back up.
That crowd, a New York crowd, is whisper quiet. You hear the guy yell “Play All Night!,” but you’re not hearing a bunch of murmur, which you hear today no matter where you are. They are in the moment.
It feels like it’s an intimate experience because it is. When you see photos of that stage, they’re all crammed on that stage because it’s an old vaudeville theatre stage. It’s not deep and it’s not very wide. The Allman Brothers were six crammed there, which was still a lot.
But there were 30 in the Mad Dogs & Englishmen lineup. And so you see them just all crammed around onstage. You feel that. You feel that rock and roll participatory spirit.
That was what this whole era.
Bill Graham
And Bill Graham, I’m about to drop a video essay on him. You know, this guy was. I mean, he was a premier asshole, but he was also one of the greatest visionaries in terms of rock promotion ever.
And he knew how to put on a good show. And I think one of the best things about that venue is that sound system. And that’s why all those records get recorded there, because the fucking room sounds great.
Little video essay I just did. My daughter is producing it for me. She really homed in on that little part of how he put lineups together. The “ice cream” was the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service. But Graham made sure audiences ate their “vegetables”: Junior Wells, Lightning Hopkins, B.B. King.
Mad Dogs & Englishmen
For me, a cool moment in the movie is when they’re singing “(Groupie) Superstar,” Rita Coolidge’s lead vocal. Bobby Keys is singing a beautiful harmony part. And he goes, “That’s the part somebody should be singing. That’s the part somebody should be singing!” They’re literally working out harmonies on the airplane.
That little moment provides so much context to me.
Because all I think about with Bobby Keys is a phenomenal sax player and must be the greatest hang in rock & roll because of his time as Keith Richards’s running buddy in the early 70s.
And he seems like a great hang in this movie. He seems like a fun dude to be around.
And yet the guy is talented enough that he could get up there and sing if he’s not blowing sax.
