Stonehenge, Mose Jones & Al Kooper

I kept crossing paths with Jimmy O'Neill over a twenty year period. The last time I saw him he was handling sound for a small independent film we were both working on in Atlanta. That was around 1994-95. Before then, while I still worked for Turner, we'd run into each other in the TBS studio. (I believe he was freelancing, probably sound engineering.) He worked on a CNN project I was art directing, a VHS series on Desert Storm, the first Gulf War (1991.) It was always a treat to see Jimmy. He was talented, funny, and unfailingly had something good to say. He excelled at many things, but first and foremost, he was a superb musician.

(L-R) Bryan Cole, Jimmy O'Neill, Randy Lewis, Clay Watkins

During 1972, I met Jimmy when he was guitarist for Stonehenge, a popular rock band originally from Florida that had moved to Atlanta in 1970. [Stonehenge lineup: Bryan Cole/drums/vocals, Jimmy O'Neill/guitar/vocals, Randy Lewis/bass/vocals, Clay Watkins/keyboards.] I first heard them play live at Funochio's. They maintained a faithful following in the city, were well-respected by their peers, and clubs were always packed when they played. Funochio's was also where producer/musician Al Kooper met the band. As covered in earlier posts, Kooper descended upon Atlanta in summer 1972, scouting bands to launch his Sounds of the South label. (He had secured a distribution deal with MCA Records.) In late July, he extended a contract offer to Lynyrd Skynyrd after his Funochio's encounter with them. During his lengthy wait for a response from Skynyrd's manager, Kooper latched on to Stonehenge during their week at the same club in August. The band changed their name to Mose Jones (in honor of Mose Allison and a family dog) and signed with Kooper, making their group the first on his new label. They were also the first into the studio (i.e., Studio One in Doraville), and theirs was the first album released on Sounds of the South. While Mose Jones was working on Get Right, that first album, keyboardist Clay Watkins left and was replaced by the band's longtime friend Steve McRay, who had just completed a tour-of-duty with the US Army in Vietnam.

Mose Jones with Al Kooper and friends, 1973
(Jimmy O'Neill, far left; Bryan Cole, center, in jacket, kneeling; 
Al Kooper fourth from right, in white jacket;
 Steve McRay, second from right; Randy Lewis, far right)

The "firsts" continued. Atlanta rock club Richards opened its doors February 1, 1973, and Mose Jones was the first band to anoint the room with live music. They opened for Elephant's Memory, John Lennon's backup band at the time. Get Right dropped in May, while Skynryd's first LP was in the pipeline for an August release. Kooper hosted his Sounds of the South launch party at Richards July 29, 1973, showcasing the two bands to radio and music industry honchos, along with the press.
Sheer luck and timing landed Lynyrd Skynyrd the opening slot on The Who's 1973 American tour. Mose Jones traveled extensively, playing gigs such as Max's Kansas City in NYC. Their second album Mose Knows was released in 1974. Large-scale success was elusive. The band's career fell into the shadow of Lynyrd Skynyrd's trajectory, and by 1975 Mose Jones splintered, then disbanded.
I had left Atlanta by the time a second incarnation of Mose Jones was formed in 1977. Randy and Steve reunited and brought in two new players. Meanwhile, Jimmy and Bryan had moved to Nashville to work as songwriters for a music publisher. They subsequently joined the Vassar Clements Band, recording and touring. Google reveals much more about the various paths of the original Mose Jones members. My own research discovered the sad passings of Randy, Jimmy, and Bryan since the turn of the century, all way too young.

IMHO:
It's sometimes hard to pinpoint why one talent soars while another falters. There are a multitude of factors. With Mose Jones, online recollections of their Sounds of the South studio sessions reflect some dissatisfaction with the experience. Al Kooper had a "product" in mind which perhaps did not reflect the true musical goals of the band. Like most stories there are two or more sides to consider. With Kooper, too, it may have been a matter of focus. He traveled on The Who tour (1973) to mix sound for Skynyrd, perhaps micromanaging while other label members fell off his personal radar. Sounds of the South signed only two other groups: Elijah, a horn band from (technically Southern) California, and Kooper's early band The Blues Project, from nowhere near the South. In 1974, Kooper moved from Atlanta and relocated to Los Angeles. After Skynyrd's second album (recorded at the Record Plant in LA) was released, Kooper's relationship with MCA began disintegrating. MCA Records ultimately absorbed Sounds of the South. It ended badly and is a story well told in Kooper's aptly titled autobiography Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards. Supremely talented, visionary, and productive, Al Kooper might these days be diagnosed with ADD. Just a guess. He left an extraordinary trail of projects in midstream (e.g., The Blues Project; Blood, Sweat & Tears; Sounds of the South) some which continued to thrive, some not so much. Nevertheless, he remained a savvy businessman, always on the prowl for the next new thing, and resolute about doing things his way. No disrespect.

Sources:
Remembering Mose Jones, www.java-monkey.com
In Memoriam: Bryan Cole, by Scott Freeman, www.artsatl.com, January 11, 2013
Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards, by Al Kooper, published by Billboard Books, 1998, and Backbeat Books, 2008
Mose Jones Interview with Bryan Cole, by Luc Brunot, Sweet Home Music, www.sweethomemusic.fr

The Film Forum

• 1544 Piedmont Avenue NE, Atlanta GA
• Managers: George Ellis, Michael Ellis
• Capacity: One screen, 174 seats

Take a right from Seal Place onto Monroe Drive, and it's a short ride to Ansley Mall at the intersection of Monroe and Piedmont. These days the shopping center is homogenized with the likes of Publix, Starbucks, Panera, etc. In the 1970s, it was full of unique shops, and a small, narrow theater was tucked near the middle.
The Film Forum, opened in 1971,* was loved by locals not only for its dedication to independent, obscure, and foreign films, but also for the father/son team that ran it: George and Michael Ellis. The Ellises were devoted to fans, like themselves, who appreciated movies outside the mainstream. The smell of freshly popped corn welcomed you, along with a hello from George and/or Michael. You almost always ran into other folks you knew. It was a friendly, cozy, comfortable place, like an extension of your living room.

Poster for the Film Forum,
photo of George and Michael Ellis by Joe DeCasseres,
silkscreen print by Grace Zabriskie

Manager George Ellis was known and beloved by many. As evidenced in my 1/15 post about Grace Zabriskie, he acted in Atlanta theater productions. He also worked in film and television, and was probably most recognized as "Bestoink Dooley," a character he created to host various programs, mostly movie presentations, for the Atlanta CBS affiliate.

Favorite films often played the Film Forum for weeks on end. George initiated a $1 midnight show seven nights a week. I must have seen Harold and Maude a dozen times or more. The midnight showings were profitable, perhaps even more so than their regular features.
By 1974, the Film Forum was "solidly–if not spectacularly–solvent." On November 18 that year, property owner Louis Osteen entered the theater with a locksmith, evicted the Ellises, and changed the locks on them, upending their 50/50 business arrangement which had been sealed with only a handshake (admittedly "naive" per Michael Ellis.) Osteen wanted 100% of the profits. He did not foresee the fierce backlash. The Great Speckled Bird took an immediate stand:

"This paper will carry no Film Forum ads and run no Film Forum reviews until George and Mike are back at the theatre, or safely installed somewhere else. Creative Loafing, one of our competitors, has also pulled their ad this week. Other papers, despite hard times and low ads, may join. There is talk of phone campaigns, pickets, and legal action. By this time next week, some or all of these should be underway. If you are interested in helping George and Mike, call us here at 875-8301; we'll plug you into whatever is happening... The Ellis's have given to the Atlanta community for years. Now let's help them back."

The news spread like wildfire. Loyal fans picketed and boycotted the theater. Osteen threatened to take both The Bird and the Ellises to court. Movie attendance dropped nearly 90%. Osteen closed the theater. He negotiated with the Ellises and achieved a signed contract January 7, 1975, with terms honoring their previous 50/50 verbal arrangement.
George and Michael returned to the helm of the Film Forum and the fans rejoiced. Power to the people, right on.

*The space had previously operated as the Ansley Mall Mini Cinema, which opened in 1968.

Sources:
CinemaTreasures.org
"Shutout at the Film Forum," by Jon Jacobs, The Great Speckled Bird, Vol. 7 No. 48, November 28, 1974
"Film Forum Manager Ellis Fired," by Farnum Gray, The Atlanta Constitution, November 29, 1974
"BOYCOTT!... until George & Mike are back," by J.D. Cale, The Great Speckled Bird, Vol. 7 No. 49, December 5, 1974
 "Film Forum / They're Back," by Jon Jacobs, The Great Speckled Bird, Vol. 8 No. 2, January 9, 1975

The Marshall Tucker Band

Living on Seal Place, I spent a large amount of time at Richards around the corner on Monroe Drive. I didn't work there, but was sort of a family member, friends with many of the club's team. In retrospect, I might have driven them a bit crazy. The club was closed during the day. They kept a grand piano at the far left side of the stage, and sometimes I'd carry my stack of sheet music from the house over to practice my mediocre musical skills during the afternoon. A bit of Mozart, Bach, Debussy, mixed with lame attempts at Procol Harum. My apologies to anyone who had to listen, and thanks to those who indulged me. I digress.
Richards launched on February 1, 1973. February 12-16, Spartanburg SC's Marshall Tucker Band opened for Bo Diddley. When Marshall Tucker returned to the club for another week in mid-April, they were the headliners.

The Marshall Tucker Band in 1972;
(L-R) Toy Caldwell, George McCorkle, Jerry Eubanks, 
Doug Gray, Paul Riddle, Tommy Caldwell

My disjointed spiel about piano practice leads here: sometimes I was asked by day manager Diane to handle the phones as they attended to other business. The one call that has stuck in my head for these past decades is when I picked up the receiver and Doug Gray* was on the other end of the line. The Marshall Tucker Band's eponymous debut album had been released by Phil Walden's Capricorn Records only a couple of weeks prior. It was getting massive radio-play, particularly their first single "Can't You See," as well as "Take the Highway." Doug was positively giddy. He kept saying "I can't believe it!," "We worked so hard!," talking a mile a minute, and was simply blown away by their accelerating success. It remains one of the most insanely unbounded enthusiastic celebratory phone conversations I've ever experienced. We were all thrilled for them, and the band received a hero's welcome when they returned to Richards the next week. Beginning in June that same year, the band went on tour with the Allman Brothers. In 1974, MTB continued to tour, the album went platinum, and they earned top billing.
Fast-forward forty years, and Doug Gray is still humbly amazed at Marshall Tucker's success. In 2014, contestant Patrick Thomson performed "Can't You See" on NBC's The Voice. A contestant on American Idol also covered the song. Doug spoke with Billboard:

"When Toy Caldwell wrote that song, none of us knew that it was going to be as popular forty years later. We had no idea that any of us would make it past the weekend. So, to watch those guys do it, and all the emails and calls, was amazing."

In 1973, it was the wonderful circumstance of truly great things happening to truly good people (who realized their talents and knew the value of hard work.) In the many years since, Doug Gray has held the band together throughout its losses and changes. The Marshall Tucker Band continues to tour and retains a devoted fanbase while bringing their music to new generations. Good on them. As their friend Gregg sings, "the road goes on forever." Check out MarshallTucker.com for details on their history, evolution, discography, tour dates, and other information.

*Doug Gray was, and still is, founding member and lead singer of The Marshall Tucker Band.

Sources:
Billboard.com, Artists, The Marshall Tucker Band
Billboard.com, "Marshall Tucker Feels the Love on Both 'The Voice' and 'American Idol,'" by Chuck Dauphin, April 21, 2014

Ma Hull's Boarding House

In the early 1970s, all walks of life found their way to the covered porch at 122 Hurt Street, ready to take a seat at Ma Hull's table. Politicians, students, policemen, retirees, rock stars. They all got hungry for some Southern homecooking, and Ma Hull could cook like no one else.

Ma Hull's Boarding House
122 Hurt Street, Atlanta GA

In the early 1900s, this house, pictured above, in Atlanta's Inman Park neighborhood was known as the Candler Cottage. It had been home to Asa Candler's sister Florence Harris. (Candler was Atlanta mayor 1916-1919 and a Coca-Cola tycoon.) Mrs Vernon Daisy Grizzle Hull, aka "Ma Hull," and her husband Ross moved into the historic home around 1968 and took in boarders. Word-of-mouth about her delicious meals spread from the boarders to friends and went viral from there. People started showing up on the porch at mealtimes with mighty appetites. Food was served family-style, "pass the yams, please," and Ma Hull did not approve of leftovers. Ma [everyone called her "Ma"] would not let anyone leave the table until all the food had been consumed. I remember her threatening to spoon the rest of the banana pudding into someone's pants unless they went for seconds, even thirds. It wasn't difficult to comply, no matter how full we became. The spread included ham, ribs, roast beef, chicken, dressing, beans (string and butter), yams, greens, casseroles, cornbread, biscuits, and desserts. Oh god, the desserts: most famously her banana pudding, also various cakes and pies. We all felt like we might die by dinner's end, but it was nevertheless bliss. A recovery period relaxing on the porch or in the yard was required after every meal.

Ma Hull's dining table, 1974,
photo by Roger Allen Grigg, 
The Great Speckled Bird, Vol. 7 No. 13, April 1, 1974

Ma Hull's Boarding House became a pilgrimage destination as her reputation grew. Management at midtown rock club Richards often made sure their out-of-town acts experienced meals at the boarding house. I recall tagging along with Flo and Eddie, also Sopwith Camel, with a friend from the club. Ma's stalwart fanbase grew to include touring musicians such as Little Feat (pictured below), even Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Little Feat, friends, and family gathered around Ma Hull (seated, holding baby.)
Lowell George, in center, stands behind her.

Ma Hull, by 1974, had cut back to serving only one meal daily at suppertime. Her health was deteriorating. She suffered from diabetes and heart disease. Born in 1909, she died in May 1979 at the age of 69. Decades later, I have yet to encounter any dining experience that comes close to the boisterous family feast Ma Hull served up for so many of us. Incomparable.

Sources:
Inman Park, by Christine V. Marr and Sharon Foster, Arcadia Publishing, 2008
The Great Speckled Bird, Vol. 7 No. 13, April 1, 1974, "A Conversation with Ma Hull," by David Dyar Massey

Discovery, Inc.

Booking agencies have always navigated the often tricky waters of coordinating artists with promoters and venues. In Atlanta's late 1960s and early 70s, there were several operations handling such business. Discovery, Inc., founded by Steve Cole in 1968, within a few years became the busiest and largest of the local agencies, at least in the rock-and-roll marketplace. Cole was part of the Atlanta music scene from which emerged the Southern Rock genre. He played a key role in mobilizing the legendary Piedmont Park free concerts (which propelled the Allman Brothers Band), and supplied clubs, colleges, and other settings throughout the Southeast with talent as required. Big name national tours, when in the region, often turned to the local talent pool for opening acts. Discovery provided.

Steve Cole (left) and promoter Alex Cooley at Piedmont Park, Atlanta GA,
photo by Carter Tomassi

From the outset, Discovery marketed the agency's presence, profile, and mission. They also promoted their bands' appearances, bolstering any advertising that club and concert promoters might provide. By 1974, Discovery handled about 20 acts. The Hampton Grease Band was with them from the beginning and, in 1970, landed a recording contract with CBS/Columbia. Discovery represented Lynyrd Skynyrd early in the band's career, also Mose Jones (formerly Stonehenge). In 1972, those two bands became label-mates for Al Kooper's Sound of the South, the first acts Kooper signed. Hydra likely logged the most road miles of any band in Atlanta back in the day, and signed with Phil Walden's Capricorn Records by early 1973. A point could be reached when range and volume of requests for a band outgrew the size of the agency. As happened with those mentioned, the time came when an agency with larger reach and capability was required. It was a good problem to have, and reflected success for both artists and agency.

Discovery, Inc., 1973 roster sample,
(click to enlarge)

In 1974, Discovery, Inc., merged with Holliday Group, another agency in the city. They retained the Discovery name and secured their standing as largest agency in Atlanta. Search results past the merger return very little information. A posting at thestripproject.com indicates that Steve Cole has since passed. Longtime Atlanta musician Darryl Rhoades wrote that Cole "understood the possibilities of the music scene way before other promoters actually acted on it. He predicted that one day bands would be playing huge venues to packed audiences." Atlanta's musical past owes much to Steve Cole.

Steve Cole, Discovery, Inc.,
photo from Billboard, May 24, 1974

Acts represented by Discovery between 1968 and 1974 include: Albatross, The American Cheese, Applejack, Armon, Atlanta Vibrations [later, Vibration], Avenue of Happiness, Axis, The Bag, Booger Band [later, just Booger], Brick Wall, Brother Bait, Buster Brown, Caliban, The Celestial Voluptuous Banana, Choice, Clear, The Coconut Confetti, The Daze After, Dear John, Dogwood, East Side Blues Band, The Electric Collage Light Show, Fifth Order, Flint, Foxes, Gingerbread, Glass Menagerie, Hampton Grease Band, Heat, Hydra, Interprize, Kudzu, Leviathan, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Micropolis, Milkweed, The Mud Child, The New Explanation, The Night Shadows featuring Little Phil, Orpheum Circuit, Pale Paradox, Papa Doc, The Peppermint Confederacy, Perpetual Motion [later, The Motion], Protrudamus, Radar, Resurrection, Rude-Frye, Russian Butt Broil, St George and the Dragonlite Show, Scald Cats, Smokestack Lightnin', The Soul-Jers, Soul Support, The Spontaneous Generation, Stillbrooke, Stonehenge [later, Mose Jones], Stump Brothers, Sweet Fire, Sweet Younguns [later, just Younguns], Traktor, Warm, and West End.

I promise I did not make up any of these names.

Sources:

"Bookers See Southern Bands Still to Be Recorded, Allman Brothers Success a Continuing Momentum," Billboard, May 24, 1974
"Inside Track," Billboard, October 26, 1974
The Great Speckled Bird, advertisements, 1968-1974

(Amazing) Grace

I met Grace when I moved to Seal Place. Her ex-husband, our landlord, lived in the other half of our duplex. Behind the duplex was a garage (or maybe just a very large shed) that had been converted into a printmaking studio. Grace lived with her daughters a few houses up the street. She used the studio for her artwork, mostly creating silkscreen/serigraphs at the time. I knew her first as a respected Atlanta artist. She generously encouraged me with my own work, even convincing me to exhibit in the Atlanta Arts Festival. (That's another story.) I later learned that Grace was also an accomplished actress and performed in many Atlanta theater productions. At that time she still used her married name, MacEachron.

Cast photo for Stereopticon, by playwright Jim Peck, which premiered August 1976
at the Studio Theater of Atlanta's Memorial Arts Center, renamed the Woodruff Arts Center in 1982.
(I'll write of George Ellis in another post, a beloved character unto himself.)

Grace moved from Atlanta to Los Angeles in 1979. She secured an agent there following her first significant role in a major film—Martin Ritts' Norma Rae—released earlier that year. (It won two Oscars: Best Actress for Sally Field and Best Original Song.) Grace also dropped her ex-husband's name and began going by Zabriskie, her mother's maiden surname.

Grace Zabriskie with David Lynch on the set of Twin Peaks;
personal Polaroid via twinpeaksarchive.blogspot.com.
She kept the robe, pictured, as a keepsake from the final episode. 

Many know Grace from her hilarious portrayal of George Costanza's potential mother-in-law on Seinfeld. David Lynch fans know her best as a member of his longtime troupe of actors, most indelibly in his groundbreaking 1990-91 television series Twin Peaks. She portrayed mentally-precarious Sarah Palmer, wife of Leland, mother of Laura. In a November 2014 interview, Grace confirmed being aboard for Lynch's 2017 reboot of the series for Showtime. In the meantime, she continues accumulating credits in different projects. I admire that throughout Grace's acting career she has continued to create her own artwork in various media. A portfolio that was mostly printmaking in the days of Seal Place has expanded to include photography, collage, sculpture, and extensive woodworking, even furniture. (Some of her creations are viewable at www.gracezabriskie.com.) 

Amazing. 

Sources:
"'Stereopticon' Offers Penetrating Insights," by Helen C. Smith, The Atlanta Constitution, August 20, 1976
"Stereopticon," by Stuart Culpepper, Atlanta Gazette, August 18, 1976
"SLIFF 2014 Interview: Actress Grace Zabriskie," by Tom Stockman, WeAreMovieGeeks.com, November 6, 2014
twinpeaksarchive.blogspot.com

Lynyrd Skynyrd & Sounds of the South

"Along come Mister Yankee Slicker, sayin', 'Maybe you're what I want.'"
-- Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Workin' for MCA," Second Helping

(follow-up to 12/31/14 post)
In Summer 1972, Al Kooper was working with his back-up band Frankie & Johnny at Studio One in Doraville, just outside Atlanta. Session-work during the day, downtown club scene at Funochio's into the night. (A fellow childhood summercamper ran the place.) First week of his visit, Boot was playing. Kooper sat in. The second week, July 17-22, a band from Jacksonville FL was booked. They were a familiar presence at Funochio's, having already played week-long gigs there in March and May that year.

Lynyrd Skynyrd at Funochio's, 1972, Atlanta GA,
view from the upstairs bar;
photo by Carter Tomassi

Kooper's initial encounter with the no-nonsense music of Lynyrd Skynyrd in the edgy, volatile* environment of Funochio's was a pivotal moment. He'd been on the prowl for "three-chord" bands to fill what he perceived as a void in the prog-rock-laden music environment of the early 70s. At the same time, he was well aware that Phil Walden was onto something, and that Walden, at the time, pretty much had a monopoly on the emerging genre of Southern Rock. In his autobiography, Kooper recalls:

"My business plan was thus: No record company but Phil Walden's Capricorn Records based in Macon, Georgia, understood that something was going on in the South. If Capricorn turned a band down, they were pretty much doomed, because no other label understood this phenomenon. I decided I would start my own label as an alternative to Capricorn and base it out of Atlanta." 

By the end of that week, Al Kooper was sitting in with Lynyrd Skynryd at the club. On Saturday night he offered them a recording deal which included him as producer. Without any commitments in place, he then managed to convince MCA Records in LA to distribute his yet-to-be-launched "Sounds of the South" label. Kooper settled into his new home in Sandy Springs, another suburb of Atlanta's sprawl. At last, Lynyrd Skynyrd's manager contacted him. Small world, their manager was none other than Alan Walden, Phil's younger brother. Capricorn had already passed on signing the band. It took a couple of months, but a deal was eventually hammered out. In the meantime, Al Kooper signed his first band for Sounds of the South: Mose Jones, a popular, well-respected, extremely talented Atlanta group. (They changed their name from Stonehenge in 1972.) Kooper had a plan:

"In my mind, stylistically speaking, Mose Jones were my Beatles, and Skynyrd were my Stones." 

Mose Jones was first in the studio, and first released. (Another post will discuss their story.) On July 29, 1973, Al Kooper hosted his Sounds of the South launch party at Richards, Atlanta's famed club-of-the-moment. The label's first two signings were showcased to radio, press, and industry honchos. Lynyrd Skynyrd's first album (Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd), produced at Studio One in Doraville, was released two weeks later on August 13, 1973. "Free Bird" was the closing track.

For Skynyrd, timing and luck intervened when Kooper ran into Pete Townshend and The Who's manager Peter Rudge at MCA. Kooper sold them on Lynyrd Skynyrd as opening act for their upcoming North American tour promoting Quadrophenia. It was a huge leap of faith for all involved, being Lynyrd Skynyrd's first experience in such enormous venues. Kooper stepped in to mix their sound in the quirky context of The Who's unusual set-up. The band and crew were fine with that, and everyone rose to the occasion. According to Kooper:

"Somehow it all fell into place, and Skynyrd began to do what no opening band for The Who had ever done–they got encores!"

Previous bookings for small venues were cancelled as the band's popularity and record sales surged. The Atlanta club scene became a receding image in Lynyrd Skynyrd's rearview mirror. The rest, as they say, is history. Enormous success was commingled with enormous tragedy, a story well-documented elsewhere. 

*Business as usual included a couple of stabbings, a couple of shootings, open drug use, rivalrous drug dealers, and drunken bad behavior of all sorts. I once witnessed a drag queen at the downstairs bar beating up a guy with a shoe.

Sources:
The Morton Report, "New Music for Old People: Rarities From the Sounds of the South Label," by Al Kooper, September 14, 2012
Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards, by Al Kooper, published by Billboard Books, 1998, and Backbeat Books, 2008
Rolling Stone, 100 Greatest Artists, 95/Lynyrd Skynyrd, by Al Kooper

Moe Slotin, 1950-2001

Moe Slotin was living on Seal Place when we met. He became a good friend: supportive, generous, funny, and kind. He wrote concert reviews for The Great Speckled Bird at the time, and often took me and other friends along as sidekicks, sharing his backstage passes. Sometimes he'd quote us in his write-ups. He even had me cover a show for him once or twice. I always appreciated his trust and confidence. 
During the altered-state haze of the early 70s, Moe remained grounded, our designated driver long before the title was invented. He didn't drink or smoke, much less partake of controlled substances, and he was the first vegetarian I ever knew. I'd never even heard of brown rice until Moe introduced me to his favorite vegetarian restaurant, the Morningstar Inn, near Emory.

Moe Slotin in Underground Atlanta
sharing The Bird with the Atlanta PD,
1970 photo by Carter Tomassi

On top of Moe's writing commitments, he was part of the road crew for Hydra, one of the South's top bands of the time. Moe and Hydra's bassist Orville Davis shared the duplex on Seal Place. (I joined the household, too, and minded the fort while they were on the road.) The band toured extensively and often opened for major headliners such as Mountain, Procol Harum, and Trapeze. 

Hydra opened for Blue Oyster Cult on a leg of their 1974 tour. Moe accepted a subsequent job offer from BOC, and that was the last I saw him. A life-long mutual friend kept me updated as Moe traversed two decades in music. In addition to BOC, he went on to work with The B-52s, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Aerosmith, and many others. An accomplished sound engineer, he settled in NYC and designed for the likes of Max's Kansas City and Madison Square Garden. 
After 20 years on the road, Moe left rock-and-roll to work as a licensed journeyman Porsche mechanic. In another abrupt career turn, he returned to school to become a physical therapist, and, no surprise, graduated top of his class. He fell in love, married, and had a child. After several years of professional practice in Manhattan, the family moved to Moe's hometown of Savannah GA, where he continued his work in physical therapy and also became an instructor for Armstrong Atlantic State University in that field. 
It was a shock to learn he was taken by cancer at age 51, especially since Moe had lived such a consciously healthy life. He positively impacted so many people in such varied arenas throughout his life. He was well-loved and is well-remembered. His parents created the Morris Slotin Memorial Scholarship for Armstrong State University. It is awarded annually to an outstanding student of physical therapy who has chosen the profession as a second career. Appropriate, especially because Moe was as outstanding as they come. 

Sources:
"The Two Worlds of Moe Slotin," by Barry J. Ostrow
Armstrong University Donor's Report, Fall 2014

The Hampton Grease Band

While compiling information for these early 70s Atlanta venues and events, a common link recurred throughout: The Hampton Grease Band. Formed in 1967, they were on the Atlanta scene before the Allman Brothers, before Lynyrd Skynyrd, before the pop festivals, before record companies came sniffing around for "Southern Rock." Various incarnations of the Hampton Grease Band [HGB] morphed over time, but its central figure remained the "Colonel," Bruce Hampton.

The Hampton Grease Band
Bruce Hampton, Glenn Phillips, Jerry Fields, Mike Holbrook, Harold Kelling

Founding member, guitarist/composer Glenn Phillips documented the eclectic history of HGB online. It's a great read. You can't make this stuff up. The band's stage performances were unpredictable, at times chaotic, always artistic (albeit Dada and surreal), ultimately entertaining, and they cultivated a dedicated following in Atlanta and beyond. Live performances were the keystone of their fanbase.

According to Phillips:

The stage was frequently filled with friends doing anything from watching TV, doing a duet with the guitar on a chain saw, or sitting at a table eating cereal. Hampton, who at one point sported a crew cut with an H shaved in the back of his head, would tape himself to the microphone stand while talking to the audience about the supposed Portuguese invasion of the U.S. through Canada. At an outdoor show, Bruce slept through our set under a truck, while at another show, he turned around in the middle of a song, jumped in the air, and kicked Mike [Holbrook, bassist] in the chest. Mike flew back into his amp, which he knocked over and short-circuited. Holbrook recalls another time when "we got the idea that we wanted to put mayonnaise all over our friend Eric Hubbler. We got a gallon of mayonnaise and Hubbler came out and sat down in a chair while the band was playing. I stuck my hand down in it and glopped it all over his head."

The Hampton Grease Band adapted to any venue, from the tiny room of the 12th Gate to fields full of hundreds of thousands at the Atlanta International Pop Festivals. They were already playing free concerts in Piedmont Park on Sundays before the Allman Brothers Band started doing the same in May 1969. Columbia Records got wind of HGB's unique act and contacted Capricorn Records chief Phil Walden to try to track them down. Long story short, Walden brokered a record deal for HGB with Columbia (CBS). Music To Eat, a double LP, was released in 1971. It notably became Columbia's 2nd worst-selling record ever. (The very worst was a yoga instructional record. Unsurprisingly, Music To Eat is now a collectors item.)

Decades later, Julian Cope's headheritage.com declares:

[W]hile the temptation is there to view the Hampton Grease Band as a possible answer to the trivia question "what is the silliest hippy-shit record ever released on a major record label?" in truth it's actually damn near a masterpiece that almost exists outside of history.

Despite their calamitous vinyl debut, HGB maintained a fiercely loyal fanbase, one of whom, Duane Allman, recommended to his friend Bill Graham that he book HGB for the Fillmore in NYC. Graham did exactly that. He perfectly paired the band with Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention the weekend of June 5-6, 1971. HGB performed brilliantly, and Fillmore East manager Kip Cohen sang the band's praises to then-CBS head Clive Davis:

Dear Clive:
As you know, this is the first time I've ever written a letter like this one to you--but even though John Lennon and Yoko Ono guested on our stage last night, my memories of the past weekend will reside exclusively with the Hampton Grease Band.
Aside from their totally delightful, unique brand of humor, and the obvious fact of their being good people, there is a musical intelligence within that band that truly excites me.
I can only hope that they enjoy the total success they deserve. They were one of the most pleasant surprises we have had on our stage in many, many months.

That was likely the high point for the Hampton Grease Band. Unfortunately, the label relationship did not survive, nor did the band. For whatever reason, CBS/Columbia dropped them. Frank Zappa's Bizarre/Straight label stepped in and signed them, but the band crumbled before a record could be completed. It all fell apart in 1973 when Bruce Hampton left for California to audition for a spot in Zappa's band. The audition was unsuccessful, and the rest of the band had gone their separate ways by his return. Years following, various configurations would resurface. Glenn Phillips tells this story best, and I'll refer you back to his site for the rest of the story.

The Grateful Dead at the Sports Arena

Follow-up to December 23, 2014 post:
Here are two promo ads for the Grateful Dead's May 10, 1970 concert at Atlanta's Sports Arena. The Hampton Grease Band opened. As mentioned previously, the Allman Brothers were not on the bill, but lent their equipment to The Dead and joined in for an epic jam that still echoes.

The Great Speckled Bird
Volume 3, Number 18
May 4, 1970

The Great Speckled Bird
Volume 3, Number 19
May 11, 1970

Procol Harum & Eagles at Atlanta's Sports Arena

As follow-up to previous post, here is Howard Stein's promo ad for the Sports Arena concert with Eagles and Procol Harum in Atlanta. Radar, a local band, was added to the line-up to kick things off.

The Great Speckled Bird
Volume 5, Number 28
July 17, 1972

The Sports Arena

• 310 Chester Avenue SE, Atlanta GA
  "Only 8,020 Feet East of State Capitol on Memorial Drive"
• Owners: L.C. "Pop" Warren created the venue in the 1930s; sold to Clyde Darby during WWII; in 1965 bought by wrestling promoter Paul Jones
• Capacity: 3600 

The Sports Arena was designed to host wrestling and boxing matches. It was also home to AAU "semipro" women's basketball team The Atlanta Blues. Musical events were interspersed, wherein the wrestling ring was adapted for performances. Early on, square dances were held several times a week, the main moneymaker of the time. Musical prodigy Brenda Lee performed there when she was just 9 years old. Elvis Presley played the Arena at age 20 on December 2, 1955, as his popularity was beginning to surge. Sports events at the venue were phasing out by the mid-1970s. In the mid-1980s the building was demolished. 

Photo by Steve Deal, staff photographer,
Atlanta Journal, October 28, 1983

"The Arena is a ramshackle building [without air-conditioning] long used for local wrestling, boxing, country music, and square dances. Inside, the atmosphere is one of wood and honest corruption, not steel, concrete, and hydraulic hype. Outside, the feeling is, well, like the industrial part of town, you know, warehouses, steel mesh fences, truck loading docks, cotton mill buildings, and even some plain red dirt road dear to the heart of a country boy."
--The Great Speckled Bird, Vol. 3, No. 5, February 2, 1970, article by Cliff Endres

1970

• Fleetwood Mac, Hampton Grease Band, Radar, River People - January 25
• The Kinks, Osmosis, Booger Band, Brick Wall (Kinks cancelled day before; replaced with Pacific Gas & Electric) - February 22
• Kenny Rogers & The First Edition, The Glass Menagerie - March 8
• Spirit, River People, Ruffin - March 22 (Spirit cancelled less than 24 hrs before show; Hampton Grease Band and What Brothers added)
• John Mayall, Hampton Grease Band, Chakra - April 5
• Johnny Winter, Radar, Georgia Power Kompany - April 12
• Canned Heat, The House - April 19 
• "Rock and Roll Marathon" - Hampton Grease Band, Radar, Stump Brothers, Axis, Perpetual Motion, Brick Wall, Georgia Power Kompany, What Brothers, Ruffin - April 26 (9 hour benefit for The Midtown Alliance and Community Center)
• Grateful Dead, Hampton Grease Band - May 10 (members of the Allman Brothers Band joined Grateful Dead for an extensive jam; The Dead had borrowed the ABB's equipment as theirs was stuck in Boston)

1971

• Captain Beefheart, Ry Cooder, Booger Band - February 4
• Quicksilver Messenger Service, Brewer & Shipley - March 21
• Spirit, Trapeze, Radar - April 18
• John Mayall, Stonehenge, Randals Island - May 9
• Goose Creek Symphony, Chakra - May 23
• Steve Miller Band - June 10
• Buddy Miles and the Buddy Miles Express, Sugarloaf, Florida's Fabulous Tropics - June 20
• BB King, East Side Blues Band - June 27
• Chuck Berry, Ted Nugent & The Amboy Dukes, Sunday Funnies - October 17
• Fanny, Hydra, Orpheum Circuit, Phat Max - November 14
• The Guess Who, Peace Corps - December 2

1972

• John McLaughlin & The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Hampton Grease Band - May 7
• Edgar Winter, Groundhogs, Eric Quincy Tate - June 11
• Procol Harum, Eagles, Radar - July 13*
• Uriah Heep, John Baldry, White Trash - July 19
• The Byrds, Eric Anderson, New Riders of the Purple Sage - August 2
• T. Rex - August 21
• J. Geils Band - September 1
• Cheech & Chong, Hampton Grease Band - September 28
• John Mayall, Delbert & Glen - November 5

1973

• Mom's Apple Pie, Silverman, Joy - January 28
• Trapeze, Hydra - May 24
• Marshall Tucker Band, Wet Willie, Mose Jones, Eric Quincy Tate, Greg Scott & Eddie Terrill Band - July 1 (benefit for C.A.R.E.)
• Joe Walsh - August 19
• Fleetwood Mac, Jambalaya, Dixie Grease - November 4

*Conflicting tour databases put Procol Harum and Eagles at both Atlanta's Sports Arena and The Warehouse in New Orleans July 14, 1972. Eagles opened several times for Procol Harum on their 1972 tour, promoting the May 1972 release of their debut single "Take it Easy." A couple of online accounts of Sports Arena attendees place both bands in Atlanta on July 14. Promoter Howard Stein advertised only the July 13 concert in The Great Speckled Bird's July 10 and 17, 1972 issues. I will stick with the 13th as evidenced in the display ads. Joe Roman's definitive concert review in the July 24, 1972 issue of The Bird also nails the event to Thursday the 13th.

Sources:

"Arena of Memories," by Sam Heys, staff writer, Atlanta Journal, October 28, 1983

www.thestripproject.com/the-sports-arena

Just for Fun: the Story of AAU Women's Basketball, by Robert W. Ikard, published by The University of Arkansas Press, 2005