Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I'd like to introduce you to Mike Wilhelm, one of the pioneers of the psychedelic sound in San Francisco, finishing with a rare video of the original (not UK) Charlatans live at an unknown (to me) venue in gotta be 1965. It was a thrill to find this and helps me to complete the introduction nicely. The Charlatans were famous as a Bill Graham act before the Dead or the Airplane, helping to establish the Family Dog, Avalon Ballroom and some other Graham venues pre-1966.
Mike played six and twelve string guitars, a huge Gretsch hollowbody and a Rickenbacker 6-something series solidbody 12. It looked like a 620/12 to me, mapleglo with black plastic IIRC. He is a master of the Echoplex, too, utilizing the loops as a virtual playing partner. Dan Hicks was another alumnus of the Charlatans.
Here's a way early poster from the Red Dog, arguably the first Psychedelic rock poster in the world.:

Here's the Mike and Dan portion of the famous Avalon Ballroom triptych.

Other members of the band were George Hunter, Richard Olsen And Mike Ferguson.
The Charlatans made only one album which was released in 1969, making them appear dated in the 1965 recording sessions. It sold not terribly well.
Let me put forward Mike's claim that The Charlatans were the first San Francisco band to perform on LSD, circa early 1965
More information on the Charlatans can be found at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Charlatans_(U.S._band)
But enough history talk. Let's see Mike and the Charlatans rocking out in 1965:
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I've got more Charlatans and Mike's solo band, "Loose Gravel", coming up next time

Looks like a Höfner bass!

That'd be my guess.

Say, how'd you do that umlaut?

kiramdear wrote:Say, how'd you do that umlaut?

When you want an umlaut, say for Höfner, after typing the H hold down the option key while pressing the 'u' key, then type 'o'.

Do you have the Keyboard Viewer (KV) showing in the upper right part of your toolbar at the top of your screen? It looks like a small American flag near the time. If not, to show it, open System Preferences and click on International. Once there click on Input Menu; check the Keyboard Viewer box and it will show up in the toolbar. While you are at it you should check the Character Palette (CP) box, also. You will find a whole world of cool things such as:

⠣⠜⠎⠽⡄⠲⡿⡵⡺⡸ !

To use the KV, open the KV and to see the item you want hold down the option key and the little keyboard in the box will change it's characters. Find the one you want and follow the above directions. For the CP open it and find the content you desire with the left hand menu, then double click on the character to apply it to the text you are writing. Macs are just SO cool!

Hmmm, OK

I was so excited to find that video today that it made me want to put together a whole topic for Mike, starting at the beginning. Tons of new stuff on him and his friends on youtube since the last few months. I'll post the best of it.

kiramdear wrote:Hmmm, OK

It's one of those things that are a lot easier to do than to describe.

To continue:

I was mistaken about the Charlatans' album recording dates. The group recorded the album in '66 and it was released in 1969. I chose this next video to show the group's image and sound in the '66-'69 era. The music is from the album, "The Charlatans", and the slideshow gives a look at most of their PR shots:
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The band went through some personnel changes in '66 to '68, including Dan's departure to form the Hot Licks. The album didn't really reflect them as they had become. Why didn't they catch on in a bigger way? After all, they were selling out psychedelic shows when the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead were still playing folk music. Could be that the music didn't keep up fast enough with the idea of being psychedelic as it had caught on. But many of the Charlatans' songs turned up on the setlists of the other SF bands for years, especially the Dead, songs like "Codine Blues", "Alabama Bound", "32-20". "Codine Blues", by the way proved to be an unlucky choice as it was rejected by the publisher after recording for having the C word in its title. Not the first unlucky choice for Mike's career, sadly.

1970-71 see Mike develop as a solo artist and as a band leader. He records his first solo album, "Wilhelm" and by 1971, his new band, "Loose Gravel" is active around the Bay.

Here are some samples of Mike's solo album:
http://web.me.com/kiramdear/Galerie_Kir ... Uncle.html
http://web.me.com/kiramdear/Galerie_Kir ... ofoam.html
Old timers like me will remember the FM sensation that "Styrofoam" caused when it was in heavy rotation by the college and community stations here.

Fast forward to the days before the closing festivities at the old Fillmore West. Mike is talking to Bill Graham in his office
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Another unlucky choice for Mike. Sadly, that scene from "The Last Days Of The Fillmore" is what Mike will be most widely remembered for, I'm afraid.

The personnel lineup of Loose Gravel was transient with members contributing material or detracting in other ways as they would. My predecessor was prone to violent public displays, one story involves his dousing a vagrant with gasoline and brandishing his Zippo at the poor unfortunate.
Oh, maybe it's time for me to enter the story. At the tender age of 19, I found myself auditioning for Loose Gravel after the Zippo guy got mad about something one day and disappeared. I had known Mike for a few years after meeting and jamming with him frequently in the coffee houses of North Beach, so he called me in to replace his bassist. Imagine me, a mere sapling, in the shadow of two mighty oaks, Mike and his drummer, the amazing Rol Gjano. This was in the fall of '76. Here's a sample of Loose Gravel, recorded live in North Beach shortly before I joined the group:

http://web.me.com/kiramdear/Galerie_Kir ... Broom.html
http://web.me.com/kiramdear/Galerie_Kir ... Do_It.html

I played with Loose Gravel for about a year, working many of the well-known clubs around the Bay, before Mike disbanded the group in 1977. Seems he'd got a better offer.

Next time: Mike and The Flamin' Groovies

I'd like to open this next segment with a bit of good news: I finally found a site with contact information for Mike and we're exchanging notes currently. I had planned to meet up with him - his band, "Bottle Rock Blues & Rhythm Band" was sharing the bill with other San Francisco headliners at the city's official Halloween celebration, typically attended by crowds in the five-digit numbers. The city's downtown ball park became the backdrop for this year's festivities and the stage was set up in the mammoth A parking lot there. Sadly, due to health issues, I was unable to attend and reunite with Mike, we were both disappointed but we've properly commiserated about the maladies of old age and promised to catch up soon.

A contemporary portrait:

Here's his current website: Mike Wilhelm

On with the show. When we left Mike he was headed off to help the Flamin' Groovies conquer Europe. And they did exactly that. Sell-out shows, riots, return shows again and again during one of the Groovies' active and successful periods. Mike played on two albums during the six years he was a member of the band.

Here's a very cool slide-show vid set to a live bootleg song from 1980:
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This is one of the Flamin' Groovies best known records, "Shake Some Action".
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Next time we'll check out Mike's solo work after 1980 and look at his tour of Japan.

Great informative post Kira!

Thanks for posting all this, Kira. Folsom Prison Blues and Wabash Cannonball sound like more of that sort of music that eventually led me toward bands like the Flying Burrito Bros., The Desert Rose Band. etc. Sounds more folk-rock, or country-rock than the psycadelic sounds of the Airplane.

JimK

It's a very fine line between folk-rock and psychedelia in San Francisco, with many artists criss-crossing freely, even on the same album. The Airplane has always done a lot of what we call folk-rock too, and even the Byrds (not an SF group, but ...) got pretty far out sometimes.

Folk-rock and Psychedelia were neighbors on the same steep, gingerbread-housed street in 1965, and spied on each other with drinking glasses to the walls.

It occurs to me that maybe I should start apologizing and issuing retractions in advance of Mike's imminent visit to these pages. He will correct me about the recording dates of the Charlatans' album, I'm sure, and issue his counter to some of the half-baked assertions I've been making

I knew that would draw him out!

Cool, Mark. I haven't seen that one. Must look for it.

Say, I like your avatar. Are you from The City?

Very cool, Kira.
Are the Charlatans featured on the Nuggets series?
I seem to be familiar with their name (not the UK Charlatans).
I also was a big Dan Hicks fan.

shamustwin wrote:Very cool, Kira.
Are the Charlatans featured on the Nuggets series?
I seem to be familiar with their name (not the UK Charlatans).
I also was a big Dan Hicks fan.

No Charlatans in the nuggets series. Looks like an interesting compilation though.

On Mike's fan site you can see a great pic of Him and Dan at the 40th anniversary Summer of Love festival. The Charlatans re-united at last.

Always loved "Where's The Money?", what a great album. I've run into occasionally Dan through the years. He's a really funny and nice guy. Mike's usually not real chatty, has a very dry wit, and he's a modest man despite his flashy garb, but he lights up when he gets when he gets to talking about music and guitars and motorcycles.