The Charlatans
George Hunter, Dan Hicks, Mike Wilhelm, Mike Ferguson, Richie Olsen
The Charlatans, 1964,
Golden Gate Park Conservatory
The Charlatans
(U.S. band)
The Charlatans were an influential psychedelic rock band that played a pivotal role in the development of the San Francisco music scene in the 1960s. More akin to earlier jug band and blues influences than the later heavy psychedelia from the same scene, the Charlatans set the stage with their rebellious attitude and appearance. Their recorded output was small, and their first nationally distributed album (The Charlatans) was not released until 1969 (see 1969 in music), long after the band's heyday. This band was the first commercial appearance of Dan Hicks, later of Hot Licks fame.
Early Years: 1964--1965
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, San Francisco, New York City, and Boston were dominated by the so-called "Folk Revival" which was kickstarted by the Bay Area's Kingston Trio in 1958, then dominated in the early 1960s by Greenwich Village--based folkies such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. On February 9, 1964, the Beatles made a legendary appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. In the following months of 1964, American radio was dominated by British rock bands previously ignored in the United States, a period which became known as the British Invasion. This turn of events encouraged many former folk artists in America to exchange their acoustic guitars for electric ones. Among the first to do so was San Franciscan George Hunter, who formed a rock band called the Charlatans in the summer of 1964. He was joined by Richard Olsen (bass), Mike Wilhelm (lead guitar), Mike Ferguson (piano/keyboards), and Sam Linde (drums). Linde was soon replaced by Dan Hicks.
Rehearsing incessantly, the Charlatans are often cited as being the first group to play in the "San Francisco Sound" style, since most of their eventual peers (such as the Grateful Dead and Country Joe and the Fish) were still playing folk music in 1964 and early 1965. At first, this was somewhat of a disadvantage for the group as area venues were small, scarce, and apt to book folk acts rather than rock bands. As rock concerts became the norm in San Francisco during late 1965, the group's fortunes changed dramatically.
Red Dog Saloon
On June 1, 1965, the Charlatans began an extended residency at the Red Dog Saloon in Virginia City, Nevada, just across the border from Northern California. This two-month-long stint was important for at least two reasons. First, Charlatans guitarist Mike Ferguson produced a rock concert poster in advance of the residency to promote these performances. This poster -- identified by poster art enthusiasts as "The Seed" -- is almost certainly the first psychedelic concert poster. Later in the year, San Francisco's Family Dog organization copied the idea to promote their concert productions. In 1966, when the Fillmore Auditorium began booking rock acts nightly, they, too, used the idea. Through to the end of the decade, rock concert poster artwork became a mainstay of San Francisco's music scene, led by poster artists Wes Wilson, Rick Griffin, Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley, and Victor Moscoso.
Charlatans at the Red Dog Saloon, Virginia City, Nevada
(NOTE: there were actually two "Seed" posters, which look almost identical. They are differentiated by the date. The first lists the band as playing "June 1--15", while the second states, "Opening June 21". The second "Seed" poster can be seen here.)
The second reason that the Charlatans' extended stay at the Red Dog Saloon was important was that, immediately before their first performance at the club, the band members took LSD. Purportedly, this was on accident, as they didn't know they would be performing that night. This is the first time a musical group performed under the influence of LSD. As a result, the Charlatans are sometimes called the first acid rock band, although their sound is not indicative of what later acid rock bands would sound like.
Red Dog Saloon
The group was also famous for their style of dress during concerts. They clothed themselves in late 19th Century fashions, as if they were Wild West gunslingers during San Francisco's Gold Rush. This eye-catching choice made them hard to ignore, and as the 1960s wore on, many young San Franciscans dressed just as outlandishly -- whether they were in a rock band or not.
The Charlatans returned to San Francisco at the end of the summer of 1965 and, in September, were given the chance to audition for Autumn Records, a label headed by local deejay Tom "Big Daddy" Donahue. Autumn didn't sign the band, partly due to lack of money: the label was on the verge of bankruptcy and sold to Warner Brothers early the following year. (Incidentally, the Grateful Dead, under the temporary name "The Emergency Crew", auditioned for Autumn Records in November 1965, and they, too, were turned down.)
A Tribute to
Dr. Strange
In October 1965, a small commune called the Family Dog threw an unusual dance at Longshoreman's Hall, starring a rock band called the Charlatans that had played the previous summer at the Red Dog Saloon, a restored silver rush dance hall in Virginia City, Nev. The second-billed group, which had an even weirder name, Jefferson Airplane, was making its first appearance outside the Marina District nightclub it had opened the month before. The third act on the bill, the Great Society, featured a former model from Palo Alto named Grace Slick.
More than a thousand people turned up for the dance. Hair flowing over their collars, the revelers were dressed cheerfully in colorful discards plucked from thrift stores. Many were on LSD, as were many of the musicians. Virtually everyone who attended "A Tribute to Dr. Strange," as the dance was called, seemed to have the same thought about the gathering: "I didn't know there were this many of us."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/05/20/MNG2NPUD1C1.DTL&type=printable
The other development that helped form the Haight's early temperament took place at a Western-style dance hall, the Red Dog Saloon, in the ghost town of Virginia City, Nevada. In June 1965, a San Francisco band, the Charlatans, took up residency at the saloon. Their easygoing attitude and meandering performances--as they played sometimes under LSD's influence for an audience also sometimes under LSD's influence--set another model for psychedelic gatherings, one less tense and sardonic than Kesey's.
In San Francisco in October 1965, some Red Dog veterans, now calling themselves the Family Dog, staged an evening of bands and dancing at the Longshoremen's Hall; billed as 'A Tribute to Dr. Strange,' it featured the Charlatans, Jefferson Airplane and the Great Society. The event spontaneously fused the lenient spirit of the Acid Tests with the Red Dog's focus on dancing and proved a pivotal occasion in the psychedelic scene's history. Over the next two years, San Francisco dance ballrooms--primarily the Avalon and the Fillmore--became not merely a central metaphor for Haight-Ashbury's reinvention of community but also a fundamental enactment of it.
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/15255158/san_francisco_the_start_of_the_revolution
Event: First Rock Dance Concert. Saturday, October 16, 1965.
Short Note: Produced by the Family Dog at the Longshoreman's Hall.
Long Note: The first rock dance concert ever held took place under the sponsorship of the Family Dog at the octagonal meeting hall of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union near Fishermen's Wharf. It was billed as "A Tribute to Dr. Strange," and featured the Jefferson Airplane, the Charlatans, the Great Society, and ?the Marbles [who later metamorphized into the Loading Zone]. A light show was operated by Bill Ham.
http://rockpilgrimage.blogspot.com/2005/07/hey-yall-you-know-i-hate-to-call-this.html
Family Dog collective dance and concert, a tribute to Dr. Strange, at Longshoremen's Hall with The Jefferson Airplane and the Charlatans, and the Great Society. Russ "The Moose" Syracuse of KYA was master of ceremonies.
http://www.diggers.org/chrono_notes.htm
Mike Wilhelm, April
4, 1966, San Francisco Cow Palace
Later Years: 1966--1969
The failed Autumn audition proved to be only a minor setback as the Charlatans signed with Kama Sutra Records in early 1966. As home to the Lovin' Spoonful, one of the earliest folk-rock bands to find success, the group thought the label would be the ideal home for their music. This, however, turned out to be completely wrong. The Charlatans recorded nine songs for their debut album, but when they insisted on releasing the song "Codine" as their first single, the record company balked and refused to release it. Ironically, the tune penned by folk artist Buffy Sainte-Marie spoke of the dangers of drugs, rather than promoting their use, but Kama Sutra was adamant in its refusal. In its place, the record company released "The Shadow Knows" as the band's first single (with the b-side "32-20 Blues"), but did nothing to promote it, and it flopped. The label dismissed the band from their contract, and left the other seven songs intended for the debut unreleased. These recordings were finally issued by the Sundazed Records label in 1996, thirty years after being recorded.
The Charlatans
Mike Ferguson left the Charlatans in 1967, and Dan Hicks moved from drums to rhythm guitar before he, too, left the group in 1968 to form his own band. The Charlatans' founder, George Hunter, soon left as well, leaving Richard Olsen and Mike Wilhelm to carry on the band with new personnel.
Dan Hicks, April 4,
1966, San Francisco Cow Palace
Despite a promising audition in 1967 and another in 1968, the Charlatans failed to gain a new recording contract until 1969. The resulting album, titled simply The Charlatans, was released in 1969 on the Philips Records label. Unfortunately, by this time, their sound was outdated, and the new lineup only tangentially shared the charm of the original band. Further, so many of their peers from San Francisco had gained fame and fortune during 1967 and 1968 that there began a backlash against the "San Francisco Sound" and all things hippie-related. Their chance had come too late to gain the fame their historical importance could have afforded them. By 1970, the Charlatans had broken up for good.
Mike Wilhelm, April
4, 1966, San Francisco Cow Palace
Despite their lackluster recording career, the Charlatans earned a unique place in the history of rock and roll. Being the first of the underground San Francisco bands of the mid-1960s, their importance is felt by the dozens of successful Bay Area bands that emerged later in the decade, and to all the bands that those groups influenced.
Mike Wilhelm, 1967,
Avalon Ballroom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [Additional links and information located at below Source link.]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Charlatans_%28U.S._band%29
The Family Dog, Mike
Wilhelm on right with rifle on shoulder
The Charlatans played
at the 40th Summer of Love event. Chronicle photo by Brant
Ward
Dan Hicks (left) and
Mike Wilhelm, 40th Summer of Love
USA Today May 11,
2007
San Francisco Chronicle
May 21, 2007
From the Mike Wilhelm Collection:
the Charlatans at the Crystal Ballroom
the Charlatans at The Matrix
the Charlatans Fillmore Ticket
the Charlatans Codine Poster
the Charlatans Red Dog Reunion
the Charlatans poster at The Red Dog Saloon
Charlatans business card, Mike's first Union Card,
Ticket for Charlatans at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
Charlatans 1997,
before screening of Life & Times of the Red Dog Saloon, Mill Valley Film Festival.
Charlatans, 1966
in front of former Barbary Coast hot spot: Hippodrome, Pacific St., San Francisco.
Mike Wilhelm Onstage with the Charlatans, GG Park, Chet Helms Memorial Tribal Stomp, 2005.
Drummer is Greg Elmore, formerly with Quicksilver Messenger Service.
Photo credit: Copyright Edward Woods, 2005.
