An old friend from Stony Brook, Brian Baxter, is working on an art project and a couple of days ago he asked me if I could remember all the bands I booked while we were students there. I can’t. I remember the very first band I booked was when I was president of the freshman class and this was for the class dance: The Fugs. It was a controversial choice and the captain of the basketball team came up and screamed in my face because the room was too crowded and his girlfriend was trapped, unable to escape the filth. His face was inches from my face and all I remember is the vein on the side of his neck pulsing angrily. It made me want to get into the music business. Later I wound up in a jail cell with a couple of Fugs-- Tuli Kupferberg and Ed Sanders-- and Allen Ginsberg and Dr. Spock (the original one)... not later that night, a year later when we were protesting the war against Vietnam.
I think the next two artists I booked were The Doors and Jimi Hendrix, although they weren't the next two that played there. I had struck up pre-famous friendships with Jimi and Jim and they both did the shows as favors. The more conservative students didn’t appreciate the shows and tried impeaching me. They failed.Â
I recall Hendrix brought a British band called the Soft Machine with him. I had never heard of them. He told me it was a favor to Chas Chandler from The Animals who he had introduced me to the year before at the Cafe Au Go Go when he promised me he would come play my school when he got back from England. I picked the opening act for The Doors— Tim Buckley.
Randomly, others bands started popping into my head, which is amazing since my short term memory is all shot to hell. Most of the bands I just met when they were playing around the Village-- you could do that back then-- or through friends like Howard Solomon at the Cafe Au Go Go, Brad Pierce at the Salvation or Bill Graham.
Jefferson Airplane + Daily Flash
Muddy Waters
The Byrds
Ravi Shankar
Joni Mitchell
John Hammond
Dave Van Ronk
Rev. Gary Davis
Country Joe & the Fish
Janis Joplin
Sandy Bull
Tom Rush
The Young Bloods
Miles Davis
Ten Years After
Tom Paxton
Ian & Sylvia
Herbie Mann
Big Joe Williams
Holy Modal Rounders
Kai Winding
David Blue
Olatunji
Steve Noonan
Spencer Davis Group
Judy Collins
Pink Floyd
Charlie Byrd
Moby Grape
Thelonius Monk
Four Tops
Doc Watson
Astrud Gilbero
Love
Temptations
James Cotton Blues Band
Ali Akbar Klan
Odetta
Sam & Dave
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Martha & the Vandellas
Blood Sweat and Tears
Phil Ochs
Nina Simone
Chuck Berry
Jackson Browne
Mongo Santamaria Orchestra
Dave Brubeck
Big Brother & the Holding Company
Richie Havens
Blue Oyster Cult (Soft White Underbelly)
Janis Ian
Charles Lloyd
Simon & Garfunkel
Procol Harum
Herbie Mann
Beau Brummels
Incredible String Band
Buffy Sainte-Marie
There are others on the tip of my tongue driving me crazy. I always regretted I was never able to book The Stones, Beatles, Dylan or the Ali Brothers. Eventually Stony Brook did book Dylan and he played a concert there— just when I was wandering around the mountains of Pakistan looking for the Ali Brothers. I didn’t find them but one day they showed up at the Kosmos, the meditation center I worked at in Amsterdam and I wandered into the room they were performing in by chance. What a moment that was! So many acid trips listening to them.Â
Because of them, my favorite place to visit in India isn’t the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, Benares, The Golden Temple, the Amber Fort, Qutb Minar or Hawa Mahal like a normal person— although I did visit most of them again last month. No, my favorite place in India is Nizamuddin Dargah, a mausoleum where the Sufi saint Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya is interred. I even picked a hotel we stayed in this time nearby and couldn’t wait to go. Some asshole tried picking my pocket while I was praying. He looked like a Taliban and I caught the bastard with his hand in my back-pocket grasping my wallet. I go there because it’s where the qawwali singers perform. The ones last week weren’t exactly the Ali Brothers (long dead) or even their grandchildren. In fact, they were fakers doing it for the money that idiots gave them who wouldn't know qawwali from Bollywood. Better luck next time. That record above... I turned the Jefferson Airplane on to it when they were hanging out at my house before the show. Paul Kanter and I totally bonded over the music and became lifelong friends.
