Gary Grimshaw Poster
The Rock n' Roll Revival at the State Fair Grounds was the big event in spring of '69....One thing I know for sure is a lot of strange shit happens when everybody's stoned... this show I actually watched all the bands, weather was great... huge area in front of the stage full of people sittin' on blankets... everybody else walked around the outside, socializin'...doin' their thing... a typical Detroit Scene... met some guys from High School in Detroit, one of 'em said" yeah, we always hated you... look cool now"....just like I said before... SRC's Gary Quackenbush played an insane set with his head bandaged from a bike crash, Fred Sonic Smith in his SS silver spacesuit, swingin' from the rafters... a typical Detroit scene...
Eastown Theater
The Eastown was another Planet from the Grande, on the other side of town... we went there all the time... the music was great... we had a lot of fun... but the beatnik/hippie vibe was gone... things had changed... weird chemicals galore... every kid was a dealer... shag haircuts and all... I know.
King Crimson, Joe Cocker, Eric Burdon, Black Sabbath.... and the Stooges... I left my Corvair one night... wouldn't start... got home some other way. There was a dangerous practice in those days... pass around a bottle of wine and everyone put something in it... then you drank it... unregulated alchemy I'd say... Gorilla Juice the bikers call it... dangerous as hell.
Note... I don't want to glorify this kind of life, dope and all...but it's most relevant to the story at hand.
Some Chicks from Warren had a house on Packard, in Ann Arbor..I was there one night in the summer time... Iggy Pop dropped by... he was showing the ladies his mosquito bites... then he split... no lie... ya' gotta love 'em. Then FUN HOUSE came out... record store on Woodward blastin' "Down on the Street" ... stacks of Stooges albums by the door... drove us wilder... hasn't been topped to this day... in my opinion.
BIG RICH
It's like this, to me...the MC5 was our Religious, Spiritual side... so to speak, the Stooges was the other.
Goose Lake, oh yeah....1970... we trained for weeks at the Unitarian Church on Cass with the Sunshine Bad Trip Company, we got there thursday night, before the show, to set up stuff, had a big circus tent with hay spread all over, like a first aid station for the chemically wounded... it's a blur at best.
THE STOOGES Photo: Mick Rock
I remember seeing the Stooges and taking a shower on the Ladies side... no one seemed to mind... actually that was the high, or low point of the hippie thing, the Governor banned any more such monkey shines and to tell the truth I was one of the first casualties that weekend... it IS possible to have too much fun. after that we changed our tune a bit, started eating brown rice and stopped taking so damn many drugs.
The Selective Service called me down for a chat... went to Fort Wayne Induction Center, downtown, with a couple buddies, Rockin' Rob and Fast Car Carl... I was goin' thru the stations... jockey shorts, black cowboy boots, big head a' hair and Alice Cooper Eyes. Someone told me ...." Man, you look FUNKY"...fairly standard procedure 'till a guy walked up and said.."I know you! I met you at GOOSE LAKE! wanna' roll some joint's?"... so I did... right there sittin' on a bench...he gave me the bag, I rolled 'em up..he passed 'em out and every one got lit... no one ever said a word... times were changin', for sure... I told a Doctor some of my adventures, he sent me to the shrink... long story short...1H Classification.. they would call me in case of National Emergency... they never did.
I knew a lady in the neighborhood... hippie ghetto by Wayne State... she had a little girl... let me move in with her... and except my years out on the road... we been together ever since... she saved me, I'm sure. This was spring of '71... life was good... whole wheat bread and co-op peanut butter... I was impressed.
I saw an ad in the Ann Arbor Sun Newspaper, Artist Wanted, volunteers to work on the Sun... so I went... hitchhiked west out 1-94 with my wife Dollye's overnight case full of drawings... Leni Sinclair was sitting at the front door desk, 1520 Hill Street, the White Panthers, now Rainbow Peoples house... I showed her my stuff... she got on a phone and said "Gary, can you come up here..." and up he came, we went downstairs... and he put my ass to work... That's the first time I met Gary Grimshaw.....
BIG
3 comments:
RETRO KIMMER...I think I LOVE you!
You brought up, as an aside anecdote, how you got out of the draft. Do you have any more stories of how fabled Detroit musicians got out as well?
Back in the late 60's - early 70's, I lived with Gary in the TransLove Energies Commune and he became my mentor, starting up my Graphic Art carrier. We worked on a lot of things together and Gary always had the time and patience with me, learning and teaching me new technique's that I still use today. I still believe that I am the luckiest Artist ... See Morearound to have had that experience in my life. This news is very sad for me to just find out and I will pray for both Gary and Laura for strength to get thru this horrible tragedy. My heart, thoughts and prayers are with you both!
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