This week’s playlist is The Battle of Bill Graham’s Babies. Fillmore East vs. Fillmore West. Song for song. Coast to coast.
1971 was a monumental year for super-promoter Bill Graham’s iconic music venues so now we’re approaching major Fillmore East and Fillmore West 50 year milestones.
By July 1971 the venues on both coast closed their doors forever, after just four years of being open. Luckily some of the shows leading up to the closings provided the perfect memorial for these legendary venues.
But before we get started, Bill would want you to know the closings didn’t have anything to do with the money…at least not the extraordinary weekly costs to run both venues – $18,000 for Fillmore East and $12,000 for Fillmore West.
Ironically the world’s biggest rock promoter saw rock and roll becoming big business and wanted out.
“The point is not that we weren’t able to cut it, it’s what we had to go through to run every week.
The price that had to be paid during the day to make the shit go down at night.
Do I want to go through it again?
Do I have to cater to the whims of some agent or manager?
No.”
“Words with Bill Graham”
East Coast vs. West Coast
Whether he knew it or not, Bill Graham sparked music’s first East coasts vs. West coast rivalry: which venue was better, Fillmore East or Fillmore West?
We think the records speak for themselves, but let’s take a look…
Of course the most famous Fillmore album was recorded on the East coast on March 12-13, 1971. Released in July of ‘71, The Allman Brothers Live at Fillmore East is arguably the pinnacle of live music caught on tape. (Fillmore West ’71 is also now available showing they clearly conquered both coasts.)
On the West Coast around the same time, the Queen was taking her throne and about to share with the world. Aretha Live at Fillmore West was recorded March 5-7, 1971 and released mid-May. The album ends with Ray Charles joining Aretha on “Spirt in The Dark” riding the wave from one generation of rock to another. (King Curtis also recorded a powerful album from his opening sets during these shows and now complete recordings of these sets are available in Don’t Fight The Feeling.)
Otherwise when it comes to records, Fillmore West can’t hang with Fillmore East.
Fillmore East saw classic live albums from Neil Young & Crazy Horse, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Derek & The Dominos and Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen.
June 5, 1971 alone produced several eternal Fillmore East moments. Frank Zappa released Fillmore East – June 1971 featuring the kid-friendly “The Mud Shark,” the musical retelling of Led Zeppelin’s infamous “groupie + fish” incident. That night John Lennon and Yoko Ono joined Zappa and The Mothers during the encore eventually releasing a few several songs on Sometime In New York, (Another road toward Lennon’s Lost Weekend.) Apparently Zappa didn’t like Lennon’s mixes of the Fillmore East show and released his version of songs from that fateful night in 1971.
And Fillmore East gave us Band of Gypsys.
When it came to closing the Fillmore East, Bill included several acts but The Allman Brothers – “the best of them all” -played the last set.
Fillmore West had a weeklong run to say goodbye, documented in Fillmore The Last Days.
So this week’s bloated playlist is much like the direction of rock in 1971, decedent and overindulgent. Both major reasons Bill Graham decided to shut the venues down. When asked if he would do another Fillmore again, Bill Graham responded bluntly.
“No. No, because the negative aspects of this business not only will continue to prevail but will continue to accelerate in madness.
And why do that if it’s only going to get worse?
Conditions aren’t going to get better because the economics of rock & roll are getting closer and closer and closer to the economics of big biz America.”
Luckily big biz didn’t stand in Bill’s way as he promoted other mega ’70s events like Zeppelin stadium shows and the super jam of Fillmore alums Grateful Dead, Allman Bros. and The Band at Watkins Glenn, NY in 1973. At the time, the 600,000 was the largest attendance of any event in US history.
Bill Graham also hosted the 1975 S.N.A.C.K. Benefit Concert which brought Bob Dylan and Neil Young on the stage together with The Band. And stayed busy in the ’80s with little events like Rolling Stones stadium shows and Live A.I.D.
Bill’s untimely death in 1991 was fittingly celebrated with “Laughter, Love & Music,” a memorial concert in Golden Gate Park. An event that reunited Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and saw Neil Young and the Grateful Dead covering Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young” to honor the mighty promoter and major Deadhead.
We bid you goodnight, Bill Graham! Thank you for the Fillmores!
Grateful Dead played
Fillmore Auditorium 51 times,
Fillmore West 64 times,
Fillmore East a mere 43 times.
So, what do you think is better, Fillmore East or Fillmore West? Do you have any recommended Fillmore albums or shows we need to check out?
Recommended listening: The track “Words with Bill Graham” is an incredible interview allowing you to marinate in Bill’s no-bullshit New York talk about the music industry in 1971. It’s like the prequel to anything Larry David would do.
Rock 'n' Roll Storytime #RnRST 
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