Electric Flag 1968-04-??
Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco, CA
Set 1
Uptight Outta Sight >
Day Tripper >
Drivin' Wheel
The Theme
Goin' Down Slow
Big Boss Man
Dr. Feelgood
I Heard It Through The Grapevine >
Mercy >
Tell Mama >
Chain of Fools
Piece of my Heart
Hold On I'm Coming
Everyday I Have The Blues
Killing Floor
Day Tripper >
Drivin' Wheel
The Theme
Goin' Down Slow
Big Boss Man
Dr. Feelgood
I Heard It Through The Grapevine >
Mercy >
Tell Mama >
Chain of Fools
Piece of my Heart
Hold On I'm Coming
Everyday I Have The Blues
Killing Floor
Set 2
Set 3
Comment
Some crucial info on this great set from a member of the westcoastacidandpsychedelia Yahoo group
Here is my current hypothesis: Erma Franklin was playing the weekend with her own band,
but used the Electric Flag horn section. One of the three nights (4.19-20-21.68), the entire band
showed up to play a guest set, and that is what is immortalized here. There are no stage
announcements or other identifiers, so I have to go on what I can hear.
CD1 and CD2 are quite different although the sound quality is identical,
leading me to assume they are different sets from the same show.
CD1
1-UPTIGHT OUTA SIGHT >
2-DAY TRIPPER >
3-DRIVIN' WHEEL
4-DRIVIN' WHEEL Cont.
5-INSTRUMENTAL (For the record:
Track #5 (on the EF set) is The Theme,
a Miles Davis tune that he often ended his sets with.)
6-GOING DOWN SLOW
7-BIG BOSS MAN
This is definitely the Electric Flag. Not only is Mike Bloomfield's guitar recognizable,
he can be heard talking off mike at the end of track 4.
I believe the lineup is
Mike Bloomfield-lead guitar
Terry Clements-tenor sax
Virgil Gonsalves-baritone sax, flute
Stemsy Hunter-alto sax
Marcus Doubleday-trumpet
Herbie Rich-organ (possibly some baritone sax on 5)
Harvey Brooks-bass
Buddy Miles-drums, lead vocals (tracks 1,2,3)
Nick Gravenites-lead vocals (tracks 6,7).
Although this is all over the map, like every Electric Flag recording or performance,
the sound is better than any other Flag live tape that I have heard, and its a great
sampler of the broad range of sounds that the band could cover, from blues to jazz to soul.
Track 5 is a long jazzy instrumental with a familiar refrain. There is no organ for some of it,
so I have assumed that Herbie Rich has switched to baritone. I am assuming that the above
was the Flag horn lineup, but the horn section has always been hard to nail down for certain.
CD2
1-DR. FEELGOOD (Erma Franklin)
2-I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE > MERCY > TELL MAMA > CHAIN OF FOOLS (Erma Franklin)
3-PIECE OF MY HEART(Erma Franklin)
4-HOLD ON I'M COMING (Erma Franklin)
These four tracks feature Erma, a small backing group and a horn section. The guitar player is
definitely not Bloomfield, and the rhythm section does not sound like Miles and Brooks.
There is a little bit of organ, so perhaps Herbie Rich is sitting in. The musicians know the tunes
but seem underrehearsed. The horns are playing pretty conventional charts.
In the introduction to track 1, Erma says "this song is for Mike and Kathy, who helped us while
we got it together on the houseboat." The Marin/WestPole/Ron Polte crowd (Quicksilver, The Flag, etc)
often used houseboats as cheap housing, so it makes sense that Erma and her band may have been
based there prior to the shows.
I have no way of saying that the Flag horns were part of her group. Maybe they weren't, and the Flag
just played anyway. Still, Erma was only playing periodic gigs at the time, so while I can see her bringing
out a band, or hiring players she had worked with before, it seems plausible that you would hire local horn players.
Right before Piece of My Heart, Erma says "this is for the woman who's making it all happen with this song"
or words to that effect, which I take to be a reference to Janis Joplin. Of course, Big Brother had not released
Cheap Thrills at this time, but they were already playing it in concert, so the buzz was probably around.
5-EVERYDAY I HAVE THE BLUES>
6-KILLING FLOOR//
These last two tracks are neither Erma nor the Flag. This sounds like a Carousel post-show jam session.
The lineup for track 5 is guitar/organ/bass/drums. It may be the same band that backed Erma,
but the guitarist sounds bluesier. More likely (based on the sound) the same rhythm section and a different
guitarist. The vocalist is quite familiar, but not particularly exceptional. He definitely sounds a like an SF
White Boy, although a fairly adequate one (I don't think its Steve Miller). Perhaps members of Frumious
Bandersnatch or Santana (the other acts on the bill) were part of this.
Other musicians join in for track 6. There is a second vocalist, mostly going "oh yeah oh yeah" etc,
and I believe I detect Buddy Miles inimitable stylings, but it could be just someone who sounds like him.
The track cuts off in mid-jam.
The week before at the Carousel (4.14.68), there had been an unscheduled Sunday show and jam session
featuring Quicksilver and numerous other musicians. The tape circulates, and since Gary Duncan jokes
about Easter Sunday, it makes it easy to reliably date the show. All this points to another Sunday jam
session, so if I had to guess I would pick Sunday, 4.21.68 for the date of this show.
Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Here is my current hypothesis: Erma Franklin was playing the weekend with her own band,
but used the Electric Flag horn section. One of the three nights (4.19-20-21.68), the entire band
showed up to play a guest set, and that is what is immortalized here. There are no stage
announcements or other identifiers, so I have to go on what I can hear.
CD1 and CD2 are quite different although the sound quality is identical,
leading me to assume they are different sets from the same show.
CD1
1-UPTIGHT OUTA SIGHT >
2-DAY TRIPPER >
3-DRIVIN' WHEEL
4-DRIVIN' WHEEL Cont.
5-INSTRUMENTAL (For the record:
Track #5 (on the EF set) is The Theme,
a Miles Davis tune that he often ended his sets with.)
6-GOING DOWN SLOW
7-BIG BOSS MAN
This is definitely the Electric Flag. Not only is Mike Bloomfield's guitar recognizable,
he can be heard talking off mike at the end of track 4.
I believe the lineup is
Mike Bloomfield-lead guitar
Terry Clements-tenor sax
Virgil Gonsalves-baritone sax, flute
Stemsy Hunter-alto sax
Marcus Doubleday-trumpet
Herbie Rich-organ (possibly some baritone sax on 5)
Harvey Brooks-bass
Buddy Miles-drums, lead vocals (tracks 1,2,3)
Nick Gravenites-lead vocals (tracks 6,7).
Although this is all over the map, like every Electric Flag recording or performance,
the sound is better than any other Flag live tape that I have heard, and its a great
sampler of the broad range of sounds that the band could cover, from blues to jazz to soul.
Track 5 is a long jazzy instrumental with a familiar refrain. There is no organ for some of it,
so I have assumed that Herbie Rich has switched to baritone. I am assuming that the above
was the Flag horn lineup, but the horn section has always been hard to nail down for certain.
CD2
1-DR. FEELGOOD (Erma Franklin)
2-I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE > MERCY > TELL MAMA > CHAIN OF FOOLS (Erma Franklin)
3-PIECE OF MY HEART(Erma Franklin)
4-HOLD ON I'M COMING (Erma Franklin)
These four tracks feature Erma, a small backing group and a horn section. The guitar player is
definitely not Bloomfield, and the rhythm section does not sound like Miles and Brooks.
There is a little bit of organ, so perhaps Herbie Rich is sitting in. The musicians know the tunes
but seem underrehearsed. The horns are playing pretty conventional charts.
In the introduction to track 1, Erma says "this song is for Mike and Kathy, who helped us while
we got it together on the houseboat." The Marin/WestPole/Ron Polte crowd (Quicksilver, The Flag, etc)
often used houseboats as cheap housing, so it makes sense that Erma and her band may have been
based there prior to the shows.
I have no way of saying that the Flag horns were part of her group. Maybe they weren't, and the Flag
just played anyway. Still, Erma was only playing periodic gigs at the time, so while I can see her bringing
out a band, or hiring players she had worked with before, it seems plausible that you would hire local horn players.
Right before Piece of My Heart, Erma says "this is for the woman who's making it all happen with this song"
or words to that effect, which I take to be a reference to Janis Joplin. Of course, Big Brother had not released
Cheap Thrills at this time, but they were already playing it in concert, so the buzz was probably around.
5-EVERYDAY I HAVE THE BLUES>
6-KILLING FLOOR//
These last two tracks are neither Erma nor the Flag. This sounds like a Carousel post-show jam session.
The lineup for track 5 is guitar/organ/bass/drums. It may be the same band that backed Erma,
but the guitarist sounds bluesier. More likely (based on the sound) the same rhythm section and a different
guitarist. The vocalist is quite familiar, but not particularly exceptional. He definitely sounds a like an SF
White Boy, although a fairly adequate one (I don't think its Steve Miller). Perhaps members of Frumious
Bandersnatch or Santana (the other acts on the bill) were part of this.
Other musicians join in for track 6. There is a second vocalist, mostly going "oh yeah oh yeah" etc,
and I believe I detect Buddy Miles inimitable stylings, but it could be just someone who sounds like him.
The track cuts off in mid-jam.
The week before at the Carousel (4.14.68), there had been an unscheduled Sunday show and jam session
featuring Quicksilver and numerous other musicians. The tape circulates, and since Gary Duncan jokes
about Easter Sunday, it makes it easy to reliably date the show. All this points to another Sunday jam
session, so if I had to guess I would pick Sunday, 4.21.68 for the date of this show.
Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Sources
| SHNID | Date | Venue | City | State | Archive Identifier |
|---|
Created At
Fri Feb 10 2006 23:15:19 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Updated At
Thu Feb 09 2006 16:37:46 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
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