Listening

The motorcycle photo is from James Gang Rides Again..........
The band photo is Traffic........

I don't know where to start. The amount and quality of music that I was being exposed to in 1970 is awe inspiring. It fed my spirit. It kept me alive. It was so real and vibrant and permeating that I think I existed on it. There was an overlapping of Soul, British R&B, Psychedelia, Southern R&B, Southern Rock, Folk, Blues, Bluegrass and Jazz, with a big heaping of fabulous songwriters- ah, so tasty, so satisfying.

I am a big fan of Traffic. I loved Dave Mason's "Alone Together" and when Van Morrison put out "Moondance", I learned about poetry and romance and rhythm. I was still listening spellbound to Blind Faith and even though Sweetheart of the Rodeo came out a couple of years earlier, I just got turned on to it sometime in '70. It is a true classic and epitomizes the fusion of genres possible then that are not so possible now.

I miss Gram Parsons every day.

"Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon and Garfunkel was the #1 song that year according to Billboard, and it truly captured the feeling at the time. The Beatles said "Let It Be" and broke up. That fall I was riding around Southside listening to Free's album "Fire and Water" and the single "All Right Now".

There are just too many songs and artists to put in a narrative. I am going to list them on the gadget device on the blog.

Each time I look at the titles and the album cover art I get a rush of sounds, smells, emotions, and associations that surround me like long lost family. This was my world. I mean, come on, could there ever be another song like "Lola" by the Kinks? or "Fire and Rain" by James Taylor, or "He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother" by the Hollies?

There was so much freedom to mix, to sample, to play, to experiment!There was an open invitation every day coming from everywhere. It reached me on the radio- even if it was a more watered down version of the live music that was the real thing. It came through to me- Joni Mitchell, Doors, The Who, Plastic Ono Band, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, Santana, Crosby Stills and Nash, Neil Young, the Allman Brothers and on and on.

In the fall of 1969 I saw the Rolling Stones in Auburn. I almost didn't get to see them. I was living in Dorm K at Auburn and some nitwit set off the fire alarm the night before the concert. We were told that if the guilty party did not step forward then we would all be on lockdown.

It took only a few minutes before a horde of girls marched the perpetrator to the HouseMother like a sacrificial lamb. Ratting someone out vs. the Rolling Stones- hmm-let me see-Yeah, the Rolling Stones,

I went to see Alvin Lee and Ten Years After in Atlanta at the Atlanta Auditorium in December, 1970. It was like going through a door into an alternate universe. I am not sure I ever came back into this one after that. That was a heavy scene.

There was a concert in Birmingham sometime that year or the next that featured 6 bands (our only music festival) and one of them was Cactus I think. Someone told me that the Midnight's Voice was in operation then, but I don't recall it. I did see the Dixie Dregs there a few years later. I went to see the Allman Brothers free outdoors on the Quad in Tuscaloosa just on the spur of the moment one night. Wow.

Most good concerts were elsewhere and out of reach. I used to hang out at the Wooden Nickel (later called The Nick) but there was no live music then. We also went to the Upside Down Plaza and danced and carried on to juke box oldies.

Sometimes we just put on a stack of Moody Blues records and drifted away from Southside, Birmingham, Alabama, and the USA.

Wheels

I had a 1965 Navy Blue Chevy Nova that I inherited from my mother. I loved that car, and still to this day associate driving a car with a feeling of freedom that no other activity in daily life can match. I can still hear the songs on the radio, and feel the steering wheel. There was nothing fancy about it but it was classy and reliable and mine.

For sheer thrills, riding with my friend Shirley in her Red Mustang was the ultimate. In high school she sometimes drag raced the Vestavia cops behind the bowling alley. They showed me the trunk of their patrol car and how it was weighted somehow. The mustang did not have any safety net- it was sheer out there audacity.

Driving around town, going over the mountain by Vulcan with the view of the city- ah, it still is one of my favorite drives. Another was curving up Cliff Road, then going along Altamont and its beautiful view Birmingham. Another was driving from one end of Shades Crest all the way to 150. All you could see below was a sea of trees. Just driving along Highland Avenue was an adventure. There are different ways to drive it, and I could take side trips down mysterious streets that dovetailed and merged in most interesting ways. I love curves.

My car was taken away from me at some point, I think related to an unannounced trip to the beach at Christmas in 1970. I woke up one day and it was gone. I remained carless until I bought a brand new Opal Kadet when I was finishing nursing school via government grant. Thanks for the wheels Federal Government, but there was no comparison between the Chevy Nova and the Opal Kadet. It crumpled like aluminum foil the first time it came up against something immovable and never recovered. The Chevy was a solid piece of Americana for sure.

Byron (2nd Atlanta) Pop Festival

I left for the Byron Pop Festival Friday night July 3, 1970 from Southside. I had actually bought a ticket for $14 and talked a friend into going so I could catch a ride. All my friends had already left but I had to work Friday evening. We planned to meet at the festival, but I never saw them. There were about 500,000 people there- the site was a racetrack surrounded by peanut fields and it was totally the coolest thing ever.

We arrived early Saturday morning on the 4th of July and it was soon about 104 degrees. We slept in the shade of some pecan trees. It was like a gigantic living carnival, full of characters, sounds and vibes that seemed to come from another dimension. I set out on my own to procure some things needed for the evening, and then found the person I came with again- miraculously. We got situated near the stage and stayed put. I remember hearing the Chambers Brothers sing "Time". Mostly I remember Hendrix. Yeah, I was there. The whole thing. The Star Spangled Banner AND fireworks and the real Jimi. Something in my 18 year old soul told me to be there. I have trusted my instincts ever since.

Social Life

My first adventures on Southside involved going to visit my friends at the Misses Howard's School. They were crazy fun. They were also very "cultured and refined". We rode around Birmingham in a red Mustang or an MG Midget. We sang a lot of Temptations, Tams and Supremes songs. So when I got out of high school and went off to college at Auburn, I found every opportunity to get back to the scene on the Southside. One of my friends had a sister who lived at the Penthouse Apartments on Red Mountain overlooking the city. Those were memorable parties for sure.

This is a picture of the very stylish Parliament House where we had proms and fancy events when I was in high school. It has been torn down now.

At the end of Spring quarter 1970, I got a job in Birmigham at Parisian, and stayed with my cousin on 29th Street in a one bedroom apartment. I was so happy and free. I made enough money to do just about whatever I pleased, and at that time, did not want anything that involved much expense. I remember being introduced to honey on cereal as a natural alternative- my first initiation into alternative lifestyles. Other things followed.

Sometimes we would just need some sustenance, and would venture down to the Social Grill for a big meal.

Mammy's Pancake house was on Highland Avenue where we went late nights to see other night owls and assorted Southsiders..............I have a Mammy's glass ashtray to prove I was there.

Beginnings

So I begin this project with a lot of trepidation and anticipation. I have only some memories to start with and I am not particularly skilled at finding things at libraries, online,etc.. I do have a curiosity about a time in my life and the rich texture of that time. I was spurred on in this pursuit when my son found a video of Jimi Hendrix performing at the Byron Pop Festival in 1970 (also know as the Second Atlanta Pop Festival)that I wanted to see. The video brought back many feelings, and also validated what I hazily remembered about how fantastic that performance was when I saw it at age 18. Maybe there are many more images and memories to be discovered.

My daughter Liz helped me do some quick looks online yesterday before she left town. I found out there was a reunion of folks a couple of years ago that got together to reminisce about this very subject, and just the article helped me remember people that I had forgotten about.

Today I am reminded of a band called Clinton, The Cadillac Cafe, Morris Avenue, Mammy's Pancake House, volleyball games at the park on Highland, a commissioned work of art by Howard Cruse...

So if anybody reads this and can remember I would like to start with local bands, places where music, art and street theatre were happening. It's time to remember.

Today is my first post. I will be searching for stories, photos, personalities, books, and events from 1970 to 1975 to compile a history of Birmingham's Southside.