Chet Helms

Chet Helms (August 2 1942 – June 25 2005), often called the father of San Francisco's "1967 Summer of Love", was a music promoter and a cultural figure in San Francisco during its hippie period in the late Sixties.

Helms was the founder and manager of Big Brother and the Holding Company and recruited Janis Joplin as its lead singer. He was a producer and organizer, helping to stage free concerts and other cultural events at Golden Gate Park, the backdrop of San Francisco's Summer of Love in 1967, as well as at other venues, including the Avalon Ballroom.

He was the first producer of psychedelic light-show concerts at the Fillmore and the Avalon Ballroom and was instrumental in helping to develop bands that had the distinctive San Francisco sound. Helms died June 25 2005 from complications of hepatitis C. He was 62.

Childhood

Chester Leo Helms was born in Santa Maria, California, the eldest of three sons. His parents were Chester and Novella Helms. Helms' father, a manager at a local sugarbeet mill, died when he was 9. His mother took the boys to Texas and then to Missouri.

Helms spent the rest of his youth in Missouri and Texas, where he learned to organize events by helping to stage benefits for civil rights groups. He enrolled at the University of Texas and became part of the music scene there, a scene that included a very young and inexperienced Janis Joplin. Soon he dropped out of school and, inspired by the beat generation writers, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg to travel across America in search of freedom and inspiration, he set off wearing shoulder-length hair, beard and rimless glasses hitchhiking across the country. He ended up in San Francisco in 1962.

Later he was to return to Austin with his best friend at the time, Peter Haigh, to visit his friend Janis Joplin. He thought she could make it as a singer in San Francisco. After a week of partying, they convinced Janis to drop out of school and hitchhike back to San Francisco with them. Later he would bring her to the attention of Big Brother and the Holding Company

Family Dog Productions

After arriving in San Francisco in 1962, he scrounged a living various ways including the sales of an imported Mexican herb and it was this occupation that first brought him to a boardinghouse at 1090 Page Street. The house was in Haight-Ashbury, then a rundown, low rent neighborhood. Having come in contact with many musicians in his trade, and seeing the vibrant music scene in San Francisco, he instinctively recognized the need for a forum for musicians to jam. When he saw the large basement at Page Street he seized the opportunity to begin organizing free-for-all jam sessions for the local bands and musicians. As he was a naturally good organizer, these jam sessions became popular and he started charging an admission fee of fifty cents. His days as a rock concert promoter had begun. It was here that that the band known as Big Brother and the Holding Company began to take shape and Helms functioned as their low-key manager. He hooked up Janis Joplin with Big Brother for jam sessions in this Haight-Ashbury basement.

In February of 1966 he formed a loose connection with the Family Dog a commune of hippies living at 2125 Pine street who threw open dances and wild events. Helms was the ideal person to help this group organize their presentations and he moved into the Family Dog house. Their first formal production was a concert at Longshoremen's Hall.

In February 1966, Helms formally founded Family Dog Productions to begin promoting concerts at The Fillmore Auditorium, alternating weekends with another young promoter, Bill Graham. As the concerts became more popular, inevitable conflicts arose between the two promoters. Within a few months Helms secured the permits necessary to host events at the Avalon Ballroom, an old dancehall located at the corner of Sutter and Van Ness. Big Brother and the Holding Company debuted there in June 1966 at the Avalon. Later Helms would get them the gig that made them famous, the Monterey Pop Festival where Albert Grossman spotted Joplin and offered her a contract.

Avalon Ballroom

The Avalon Ballroom, 1268 Sutter Street, San Francisco became the Family Dog's main venue. Here the Family Dog put on a series of great concerts between April 1966 and November 1968. Their shows were a mix of artists, from rock to blues, soul, Indian, to rock and roll. Helms was also involved in joint productions/promotions at the Fillmore, Longshoreman's Hall, and Haight Street's Straight Theater (not all formal Family Dog Dance-Concerts).

After an eight-year long hiatus, Helms resurged to produce anniversary-type functions like the First "Tribal Stomp" at Berkeley's Greek Theater (1978), a Tribal Stomp in the Monterey, California Fairgrounds (1979), which included the UK's "The Clash", the 30th Anniversary of the Summer of Love in Golden Gate Park (1997), a free event attended by 60,000 people.

Style as promoter

While Graham was an aggressive businessman and professional promoter, Helms presented a folksier image. He related easily to the San Francisco hippy subculture since in essence he was one of them. The San Francisco Chronicle called Helms "a towering figure in the 1960s Bay Area music scene", and indeed he was a huge contributor.

Helms embraced music for music's sake and the beat-hipster-generation-turned-hippy philosophy. While the war raged in Vietnam and the nation stuttered with race problems and assassinations, the anti-war, anti-establishment youth willingly found itself in the throes of a social revolution. Meanwhile Helms was right there cranking out bands and musicians that espoused the same lifestyle as this new audience, while giving the very distinct impression that he wasn't in it for the money.

This benign image could be deceptive. According to Jay Ferguson of Spirit, Graham would negotiate shrewdly and would a frequently offer a lower fee to a band than Helms would, but when the concert was over, he would pay the band in full; Helms might have trouble finding all the money after it was counted. Some of the more serious bands (the ones not subsidized up by trust fund]]s) came to prefer Graham's hard-nosed, businesslike approach.

The core San Francisco rock bands, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Quicksilver Messenger Service (including pre-Dino Valenti), would play for both Graham's concerts at the Fillmore Auditorium, once a Black Muslim temple, and the Family Dog at Helms' Avalon dances.

Helms' shows were always more relaxed and offered a pleasant alternative to Bill Graham Presents dances, at a more reasonable admission, and with more room for the stoned-out, freaky, arm-waving, type of solo dancing that personified the era. The nearby Mt. Zion Hospital kept a late-night clinic to accommodate the many drug overdose cases from the Fillmore's less experienced hallucinogen experimenters.

Family Dog Concerts

In the context of the Avalon's "anti-business model," and loose ambience, Helms' Family Dog would always carry great shows, with premier musical acts. The list is long, compiled from the memory of having been there and from poster art websites. It is presented here:

Helms presented top blues performers like Country Joe and The Fish; Howlin' Wolf; Bo Diddley; Muddy Waters; Little Walter; Buddy Guy; Junior Wells; the Paul Butterfield Blues Band; Buddy Miles; James Cotton Blues Band; John Mayall; Big Mama Thornton; Albert Collins; Steve Miller (musician); Mike Bloomfield; Elvin Bishop; Blues Project, with Al Kooper; John Hammond; Charlie Musselwhite; Siegal Schwall; rock bands like the Doors; Buffalo Springfield; the Byrds; Bill Haley & His Comets; the Kinks; the Animals' Eric Burdon & War; Mothers of Invention); Lovin' Spoonful; The Carlos Santana Blues Band; Sir Douglas Quintet; the Soul Survivors; the Fugs; Blood, Sweat & Tears; The Association; Shorty Featuring Georgie Fame; Iron Butterfly; the Youngbloods, with Jesse Colin Young; Vanilla Fudge; Steppenwolf (band); Poco; Love, with Arthur Lee (musician); sarode-player and Indian music teacher, Ali Akbar Khan; Sandy Bull; Blue Cheer; the Leaves; New Riders of the Purple Sage; Barry McGuire; the Flamin Groovies; the Loading Zone; It's a Beautiful Day; Joy of Cooking; the Grass Roots; the Sons of Adam; Sons of Champlin; Captain Beefheart; the Electric Flag; Son House; Velvet Underground; Pacific Gas and Electric; Moby Grape; the Sopwith Camel; 13th Floor Elevators; The Charlatans (U.S. band); Allmen Joy; Mother Earth; Southern Comfort; Ace of Cups; Tyrannosaurus Rex; Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band; Flying Burrito Brothers; Congress of Love; Notes From the Underground; Chrome Circus; Initial Shock; Oxford Circle; Daily Flash; Electric Train; Sparrow; the Orchestra; Hourglass; Kaleidoscope; Mt. Rushmore; Other Half; Phoenix; Lothar & the Hand People; Commander Cody; Cleveland Wrecking Company; Rhythm Dukes; AB Skhy Blues Band; Frumious Bandersnatch; Eighth Penny Matter; Jimmerfield Legend; South Side Sound; Super Ball; Solid Muldoon; Box Top; and jazz artists San Francisco's own John Handy; Charles Lloyd; the Jerry Hahn Brotherhood; and folksters Joan Baez; Dave Van Ronk; Jim Kweskin Jug Band; Taj Mahal; Tim Buckley and Flatt & Scruggs.

Janis Joplin

To concertgoers, the Helms' contributions to the music world, like introducing a singer he knew in Texas, Janis Joplin, to the San Francisco music scene, were not always well-publicized, but witnessing the final product of Joplin, with her powerful, performances was an awesome spectacle. First introduced as a new bandmember of Big Brother, she brought what the Dead, Quicksilver, and Big Brother, heretofore didn't seem to possess in their original lineups - a lead singer aspiring to the greatness of the golden pipes of the Airplane's singers Marty Balin and Grace Slick. Joplin left Big Brother to produce solo albums and make her indelible dent in rock history, starting with a stellar performance at the Monterey Pop Festival.

With Joplin as the lead singer, Helms became the group's manager and introduced them on stage when they made their crucial appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, a performance that marked Joplin's elevation to national prominence.

Creativity was the essence, borrowed from (while re-popularizing) a vast spectrum of musical idioms, including R&B, East Indian, pop, country, bluegrass, and, to an extent, jazz. Music that featured long solos suited the audiences, and was soon used by bands everywhere, in performance and recordings, later becoming a major vehicle for helping launch what would become a new FM radio station music format - the less-commercial "Album-Oriented Rock", in the form of "underground" stations that sprang up coast-to-coast. Exposure on these airwaves further helped the popularity of concert-oriented rock and bands that would play for hours without stopping, as the two-minute hit temporarily was no longer the objective. Songs with long, art-centric solos gained reaffirmation with the increasing commercial success of the radio stations that became part of the new "movement" genre.

Family Dog Speakers/Poets and Heroes of the Hour

Sometimes Helms cast the music promoter role aside and the Family Dog would feature speakers Alan Watts, Dr. Timothy Leary, Stephen Gaskin, poet Allen Ginsberg), and other counter-culter gurus. Helms is linked in San Francisco lore with Graham, the Diggers (theater), Emmett Grogan, Ken Kesey, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure, Neal Cassady, Kenneth Rexroth, Ralph J. Gleason, and others.

Evolution

Bill Graham Presents shows evolved more into high-power, professional lineups of better-known headline bands that made him known as the can-do guy that he was, while Helms, although managing to produce top-flight bands, still showcased bands that tended to be hipper and local. Helms didn't seem to have the need to hire zealous uniformed security guards, so teenagers found it easier to sneak into his dances. Helms ultimately allowed free admission after midnight. Winterland became the first "Fillmore West", before Graham reopened it at the old Carousel Ballroom on Market Street. The San Francisco Family Dog dances later re-emerged in a new location, the old skating rink and "Bull Pup Enchiladas" at Ocean Beach, at 660 The Great Highway in San Francisco's Richmond district.

In his career Helms used other locations like ventures in Denver, Portland, and joint productions/promotions at the Fillmore, Longshoreman's Hall, and Haight Street's Straight Theater (not all formal Family Dog Dance-Concerts), etc. After an eight-year long hiatus, Helms resurged to produced various anniversary-type functions like the First "Tribal Stomp" at Berkeley's Greek Theater (1978), a less successful Tribal Stomp in the Monterey, California Fairgrounds (which was reportedly unsuccessful, but included the UK's The Clash), the 30th Anniversary of the Summer of Love in Golden Gate Park (1997), a free event attended by 60,000 people.

Chet Helms Memorial

On October 30 2005, San Francisco celebrated Helms' life, with a free nine-hour Sunday rock concert in Golden Gate Park, named the "Tribal Stomp", attended by tens of thousands, and featuring a full lineup of bands, including the old core San Francisco rock bands, and others including: The Turtles, Canned Heat, Dan Hicks (singer), the Charlatans, Country Joe McDonald, Barry Melton, Blue Cheer, Jefferson Airplane's Paul Kantner, "It's a Beautiful Day'"s David LaFlamme, Quicksilver Gold (derived from Quicksilver Messenger Service, Lee Michaels, Lydia Pense (Cold Blood), Nick Gravenites (Electric Flag), Harvey Mandel, Jorge Santana, Narada Michael Walden, Merle Saunders, Moby Grape's Jerry Miller, and Wavy Gravy (from Ken Kesey's "Merry Pranksters" fame).

Chet Helms Memorial - Speedway Meadows, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, October 30 2005

Later years

Helms had run the Atelier Dore art gallery on Bush Street in San Francisco since 1980 until he retired because of illness.

External links

• "A Tribute to Chet Helms and SF Bands"