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Dinosaurs (band)
Dinosaurs, formed in 1982, was an American, Bay Area-based supergroup, that emerged from the psychedelic music era of San Francisco. The core group consisted of Peter Albin of Big Brother and the Holding Company, John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service, Spencer Dryden of Jefferson Airplane, Robert Hunter of the Grateful Dead, Barry Melton of Country Joe and the Fish and keyboardist Merl Saunders from the Saunders-Garcia Band. Over time Papa John Creach of Hot Tuna, Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane, Nicky Hopkins, Dave Getz, Country Joe McDonald and other prominent San Francisco musicians guest starred with the group. In the 1990s, David LaFlamme of It's a Beautiful Day and Jerry Miller of Moby Grape also toured with this group. The Dinosaurs became active in 1982, with Albin, Dryden, Cipollina, Melton, and Hunter at its center. Hunter left the group in 1985, before the end of its "classic" run, although he returned to record a track for their only album. ...
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San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Governments to include the nine counties that border the aforementioned estuaries: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma, and San Francisco. Other definitions may be either smaller or larger, and may include neighboring counties that do not border the bay such as Santa Cruz and San Benito (more often included in the Central Coast regions); or San Joaquin, Merced, and Stanislaus (more often included in the Central Valley). The core cities of the Bay Area are San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. Home to approximately 7.76 million people, Northern California's nine-county Bay Area contains many cities, towns, airports, and associated regional, state, and national parks, connected by a complex ...
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Barry Melton
Barry "The Fish" Melton (born June 14, 1947) is the co-founder and original lead guitarist of Country Joe and the Fish and Dinosaurs. He appears on all the Country Joe and the Fish recordings and he also wrote some of the songs that the band recorded. He appeared in the films made at Monterey Pop and Woodstock, and also appeared as an outlaw in the neo-Western film, '' Zachariah,'' and other films in which Country Joe and the Fish appear. An attorney and member of the State Bar of California, Melton has maintained a criminal defense practice since 1982. Life and career Melton was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States, the son of secretary Taube "Tillie" ( Kuchuck) and James Melton, an HVAC engineer who taught at Los Angeles City College. His mother was from an East Coast Jewish family (her parents were from Odessa) and his father was from a Texas pioneer family and shares ancestry in colonial Virginia with George Washington, as well as deep roots in Ireland. Raised in Bro ...
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Dinosaur Jr
Dinosaur Jr. is an American rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1984, originally simply called Dinosaur until legal issues forced a change in name. The band was founded by J Mascis (guitar, vocals, primary songwriter), Lou Barlow (bass, vocals), and Murph (drums). After three albums on independent labels, the band earned a reputation as one of the formative influences on American alternative rock. Creative tension led to Mascis firing Barlow, who later formed Sebadoh and Folk Implosion. His replacement, Mike Johnson, came aboard for three major-label albums. Murph eventually quit, with Mascis taking over drum duties on the band's albums before the group disbanded in 1997. The original lineup reformed in 2005, releasing five albums thereafter. Mascis's drawling vocals and distinct guitar sound, hearkening back to 1960s and 1970s classic rock and characterized by extensive use of feedback and distortion, were highly influential in the alternative rock movemen ...
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Moby Grape
Moby Grape is an American rock band founded in 1966, known for having all five members contribute to singing and songwriting, and who collectively merged elements of folk music, blues, country, and jazz with rock and psychedelic music. They were one of the few groups of which all members were lead vocalists. The group's first incarnation ended in 1969, but they have reformed many times afterwards and continue to perform occasionally. Moby Grape's success was accompanied by decades-long legal disputes with their former manager, Matthew Katz. Legal difficulties originated shortly after the group's formation, when Katz insisted that an additional provision be added to his management contract, giving him ownership of the group name. At the time, various group members were indebted to Katz, who had been paying for apartments and various living costs prior to the release of the group's first album. Despite objecting, group members signed without seeking outside legal advice, believi ...
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Jerry Miller
Jerry Miller (born July 10, 1943) is an American songwriter, guitarist and vocalist. He performs as a solo artist and as a member of the Jerry Miller Band. He is also a founding member of the 1960s San Francisco band Moby Grape, which continues to perform occasionally. ''Rolling Stone'' included Miller at number 68 on their list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time and Moby Grape's album ''Moby Grape'' at number 124 on their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Miller's longtime (since the early 1960s) guitar is a Gibson L-5 CES Florentine guitar which he calls "Beulah". Early life, family and education Miller was born in Tacoma, Washington, United States. He attended Lincoln High School in Tacoma through the mid-1960's. Career Early years: late 1950s–1966 His career began in the late 1950s, playing and recording with popular Northwest dance-rock bands including the Elegants and the Frantics. He contributed guitar work to an early version of the hit record " ...
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It's A Beautiful Day
It's a Beautiful Day is an American band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1967, featuring vocalist Pattie Santos along with violinist David LaFlamme and his wife, Linda LaFlamme, on keyboards. David LaFlamme, who as a youth had once performed as a soloist with the Utah Symphony Orchestra, had previously been in the group Orkustra playing five-string violin. The other members of It's a Beautiful Day in its early years were Val Fuentes (drums), Mitchell Holman (bass) and Hal Wagenet (guitar). Although they were one of the notable San Francisco bands to emerge from 1967's Summer of Love, the band never achieved the success of contemporaries such as the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Santana, with whom they had connections. The band created a unique blend of rock, jazz, folk, classical, and world-beat styles. Early history: 1967–1969 The band's original manager, Matthew Katz, had previously worked with the rock bands Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape. The memb ...
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David LaFlamme
David LaFlamme (born May 4, 1941 in New Britain, Connecticut) is an American singer and violinist best known for his longstanding association with the San Francisco band It's a Beautiful Day. LaFlamme's mother was from a Mormon family in Salt Lake City, and when he was eight years old, the family moved there to be near her family. LaFlamme had been studying violin since moving to Los Angeles at the age of five, and in Salt Lake City he won a competition to perform as soloist with the Utah Symphony Orchestra. After briefly serving in the U.S. Army, he returned to the music scene in San Francisco in 1962. During the 1960s he performed with a wide variety of notable San Francisco acts, such as Jerry Garcia and Janis Joplin. He first helped create the band Electric Chamber Orkustra, and later, an early version of Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. Then in summer 1967 he and his wife Linda formed It's a Beautiful Day. The group's eponymous LP was released by Columbia Records in 1969, ...
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Country Joe McDonald
Joseph Allen "Country Joe" McDonald (born January 1, 1942) is an American musician who was the lead singer of the 1960s psychedelic rock group Country Joe and the Fish.Richard Brenneman"Country Joe McDonald Revives Anti-War Anthem", '' Berkeley Daily Planet'', April 16, 2004, accessed July 18, 2007. Early life and early career McDonald was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in El Monte, California, where he was student conductor and president of his high school marching band. At the age of 17, he enlisted in the United States Navy for three years and was stationed in Japan. After his enlistment, he attended Los Angeles City College for a year. In the early 1960s, he began busking on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California. His father, Worden McDonald, from Oklahoma, was of Scottish Presbyterian heritage (the son of a minister) and worked for a telephone company. His mother, Florence Plotnick, was the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants and served for many years on ...
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Dave Getz
Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Jefferson Airplane. After some initial personnel changes, the band became well known with the lineup of vocalist Janis Joplin, guitarists Sam Andrew and James Gurley, bassist Peter Albin, and drummer Dave Getz. Their second album '' Cheap Thrills'', released in 1968, is considered one of the masterpieces of the psychedelic sound of San Francisco; it reached number one on the ''Billboard'' charts, and was ranked number 338 in ''Rolling Stone''s the 500 greatest albums of all time. The album is also included in the book ''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die''. Joplin left the band in 1968, following the recording of ''Cheap Thrills'', for a successful solo career. The band recruited new members Nick Gravenites, Kathi McDonald, and Dave Schallock to replace her and ...
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Nicky Hopkins
Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins (24 February 1944 – 6 September 1994) was an English pianist and organist. Hopkins performed on many popular and enduring British and American rock music recordings from the 1960s to the 1990s, most notably on songs recorded by the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Who, the Beatles, the Steve Miller Band, Jefferson Airplane, Rod Stewart, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, The Hollies, Cat Stevens, Carly Simon, Harry Nilsson, Joe Walsh, Peter Frampton, Jerry Garcia, Jeff Beck, Joe Cocker, Art Garfunkel, Badfinger, Graham Parker, Gary Moore, and Donovan. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest studio pianists in the history of popular rock music. Early life Nicholas Christian Hopkins was born in Perivale, Middlesex, England, on 24 February 1944. He began playing the piano at the age of three. He attended Sudbury Primary School in Perrin Road and Wembley County Grammar School, which now fo ...
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Jack Casady
John William "Jack" Casady (born April 13, 1944) is an American bass guitarist, best known as a member of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. Jefferson Airplane became the first successful exponent of the San Francisco Sound. Singles including " Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" charted in 1967 and 1968. Casady, along with the other members of Jefferson Airplane, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Early life Casady was born in Washington D.C., the son of Mary Virginia (''née'' Quimby) and William Robert Casady. His father was of half Irish Protestant and half Polish Jewish ancestry. His mother was a relative of aviator Harriet Quimby; some of her family had been in North America since the 1600s. First playing as a lead guitarist with the Washington, D.C.-area rhythm and blues band The Triumphs, he switched to bass during his high school years, and while still underage (and with a forged I.D.) played the Washington D.C. club scene, backing artists such as ...
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Papa John Creach
John Henry Creach (May 28, 1917 – February 22, 1994), better known as Papa John Creach, was an American blues violinist who also played classical, jazz, R&B, pop and acid rock music. Early in his career, he performed as a journeyman musician with Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Stuff Smith, Charlie Christian, Big Joe Turner, T-Bone Walker, Nat King Cole and Roy Milton. Following his rediscovery by drummer Joey Covington in 1967, he fronted a variety of bands (including Zulu and Midnight Sun) in addition to playing with Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, Jefferson Starship, the San Francisco All-Stars (1979–1984), Dinosaurs (1982–1989) and Steve Taylor. Creach recorded a number of solo albums and guested at several Grateful Dead and Charlie Daniels Band concerts. He was a regular guest at the early annual Volunteer Jams, hosted by Charlie Daniels, which exposed him to a new audience that was receptive to fiddle players. Early life, family and education Creach was born in Bea ...
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