Archive for the ‘Bay Area Music History’ Category

William Penn Getting Crazy On Tour

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

On tour crazy things happen. One time William Penn and His Pals were at a motel after a gig in Fresno where we got into a little mischief.

After a gig, we were partying with this other band. They were fun guys to hang out with. We all noticed the guitar player from their band was fast asleep on his bed. So, we decided to quietly lift the mattress with him on it. We carried it out to the pool without waking him. It was cold outside and we saw steam rising from the water like some Scottish Loch. Gently we floated him away. Surprisingly, the mattress stayed afloat for a whole 30 seconds. But he shifted his weight and rolled into the water. He woke up struggling for his life. When he crawled out of the pool he stood there fuming. He was a sight in his boxers and dripping long fiery red hair. We were all laughing so hard. After the shock he started laughing too.

The next day when our manager was driving us out of town, the California Highway Patrol stopped us and made him pay for the damages to the motel room.

Mike Shapiro

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Jerry Cracks The Code

Sunday, December 6th, 2009

Jerry Garcia saw something in the Rolling Stones. He really related to them. You might say he modeled his early style after them. I remember one day I was hanging out at Dana Morgan Music in the back. I knew Dana Morgan and the instrument repair guy Fred. I knew the whole family, really.

Jerry Garcia had a teaching alcove underneath the stairs leading up to a storage room. He was intently studying the guitar solo of “Heart Of Stone” when suddenly he shouted “I got it!” to no one in particular. He came running out of the alcove with his Guild guitar in one hand over his head. He he had cracked the code of what Keith Richards was doing in his solo which was a series of run together triplets.

If you listen to Jerry’s early solos with the Grateful Dead you would hear that exact form where he runs together triplets forever!!

Mike Shapiro

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William Penn vs. The Warlocks

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

When I was playing guitar in William Penn & His Pals in 1965-66 a battle of the bands was a frequent thing. There was a club owned by an ex-cop called the Cinnamon Tree in San Carlos that sponsored these events. At one of these battles we went head to head with The Warlocks. You couldn’t have gotten a more odd combination of combatants. We were dressed like Paul Revere in our tri cornered hats and The Warlocks were the most wildest assortment of characters you could find.

The audience were aged 12 to 17 about 100 or so. They were all sucking down cokes and eating cookies. The Cinnamon Tree was in an industrial area with roll up doors and had a cement floor. And it had been converted to a teen club.

The Warlocks lineup was Jerry Garcia, Pig Pen, Dana Morgan Jr. on bass, Bill Kreutzman and Bob Weir.

The William Penn lineup was Mike Shapiro on lead guitar, Jack Shelton on rhythm guitar, Gregg Rolie on keyboards, Steve Leidenthal on bass, Ron Cox on drums.

The Warlocks played a set, William Penn played a set and the crowd judged in favor of the Warlocks. It made no sense to me at all. William Penn played radio hits and the Warlocks played blues jams and made other weird sounds. Jerry understood the English sound but didn’t copy it like we did and the audience responded.

Mike Shapiro

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Jerry Garcia At Dana Morgan Music

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

When I was about 15 or 16 I lived in Palo Alto. There was a great music store called Dana Morgan Music. I think it was around 1965.

There was a 20 year old guy working there named Jerry Garcia. He used to teach guitar and work at the counter. He had long unruly hair. He wanted a Beatle hairstyle but it was too frizzy. He was definitely a beatnik.We got to be friends.

Many days I would go in on a hot afternoon and spend time playing guitar with him and talking about music. We talked about his general idea about creating automatic pop music by having songs with a form but a place within them to have long extended jams. This was not done in popular music at the time so it was a new idea. It was done in jazz and blues but not pop.

He would also sit me down and make me play E-D-A over and over until I would get restless and take off. He loved to jam. He was developing his style right in front of me. About that time there was a guy who would just sit on the couch there and play E-D-A all the time. I always thought that they should play together in a group. His name was Bob Weir.

Mike Shapiro

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