Palisades-News-July-8-2015

Palisades NewsPage 22 July 8, 2015Janis Joplin’s tambourine, mic, velvet top,bell-bottoms, feather boa and leather bag.Photo: Robert WedemeyerOnly Bill Graham would have the chutzpah to shoo Mick Jagger and Tina Turner offthe stage. He’s holding up one finger to indicate the duo has one minute left at Live Aid,Philadelphia, 1985.Photo: ©Lynn Goldsmith1980s Yamaha SG200 played and signed byCarlos Santana. Photo: Robert Wedemeyer‘Graham’ Offers Fascinating Rock HistoryBy LAURIE ROSENTHALStaff WriterAll photos courtesy Skirball Cultural CenterWalking into “Bill Graham and theRock & Roll Revolution” at theSkirball is akin to walking intoone of Graham’s renowned music venues—you may not know exactly what lies ahead,but you know you are in for a good time.Any concertgoer of a certain age wholived in New York or San Francisco—andbeyond—attended an event at the legendaryimpresario’s famed music palaces: FillmoreAuditorium (commonly referred to as FillmoreEast), Fillmore West or Winterland.Those fans a bit younger heard tall tales ofthose amazing halls and the iconic performerswho filled them with the sounds of a new eraas well as those from an almost forgotten one.The Skirball exhibit was four years in themaking, with the help of many individuals,including Graham’s sons, David and Alex,and former Bill Graham Presents staff, alongwith Skirball Director Robert Kirschnerand Curator Erin Clancey. It is an enthrallingtravelogue through Graham’s lifeand a lesson in American musical history.The trip begins in Germany, where hewas born Wulf Wolodia Grajonca in 1931and forced to flee with other Jewish childrenduring the Holocaust, taking an arduousjourney to America via France. In NewYork, at age 10 1 ⁄2, he was placed in an orphanage,where he was the last child chosen,eventually living with the Ehrenreichs,his Jewish foster family, in the Bronx.After a stint in the U.S. Army during theKorean War, Graham headed out west,landing in San Francisco at the dawn ofthe 1960s counterculture.“Bill Graham” runs somewhat chronologically,moving past Graham’s early years,through the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s, closingwith images of the free concert held inGolden Gate Park in his honor, after he andtwo others perished in a helicopter crashin 1991. Over 300,000 people came to paytribute, and some estimate the crowd wascloser to 500,000. (Ironically, Kirschner, aformer rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in SanFrancisco, officiated at Graham’s funeral.)A multimedia feast awaits visitors, witheye-popping psychedelic posters and handbills;guitars (both fragments and whole) ofsome of rock’s most revered players, suchas Jerry Garcia, Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrixand Pete Townshend; video from TheLast Waltz and the Allman Brothers Bandat Fillmore East; and music continuallyplaying in the background.Graham was a master of mixing up thebill, offering young hippie kids the chance tonot only see their contemporaries, such as theGrateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and MobyGrape, but an older generation of blues,jazz, soul and gospel musicians who had ahuge influence on rock & roll, including B.B.King, Muddy Waters and Otis Redding.When Aretha Franklin finally performedat Fillmore East, Graham derived greatpleasure from having an audience equallymixed between blacks and whites. “It wasone of the great nights of his life,” says Grahambiographer Robert Greenfield (Bill GrahamPresents: My Life Inside Rock and Out).He was also the first to integrate acts,which helped provide the eclectic eveningshis venues were known for. One show mightbe a mixture of Big Brother and the HoldingCompany and the Staples Singers, whileanother would feature Neil Young andMiles Davis. The creative blends were seeminglyendless.Graham put money back into his venues,(Continued on Page 23)In the midst of the counterculture, Graham was the one who had to keep order in chaoticsurroundings. He’s shown here onstage at Fillmore East, 1970.Photo: John Olson, The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesBob Dylan and Jerry Garcia at Day on the Green in Oakland, July 1987. Photo: Ken Friedman