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Originally Posted by Lord Larehip
The Grande Ballroom closed in '72. That was owned by Russ Gibb who also owned Keener radio. The Grande was the MC5's home venue. They were considered the house band. I went to the Grande once but the 5 were not playing that night. I saw Pentangle and someone else. Gibb was very in tight with the MC5 and John Sinclair and all those folks.
W4 was not that progressive until about '72 and they were never as progressive as ABX was in the '69-'71 era. ABX went downhill and became a standard classic rock station by the mid 70s although some of the old DJs were still there like Jerry Lubin and Harvey O. I remember listening to ABX in late '69 or early '70. That was when I first heard King Crimson, John Coltrane, Taj Mahal, White Noise, Eddie Harris, Pharoah, Arthur Brown, Graham Bond, Amon Duul, Beefheart, Quicksilver. Totally changed my outlook on music and life. I was 11 then and when I turned 12, I used my paper route money to buy these records and I knew I had to smoke pot. I just asked around and a neighborhood guy who was a friend of my older brother (who was a folk-singing college antiwar radical) hooked me up with this really good dope and also gave me LSD and mescaline and I would listen to all that stuff f-ucked out of my mind on psychotropics and having religious visions and psychedelic experiences coming out my ass.
Meanwhile, CKLW slid more and more into "adult rock" which was kind of an AM version of WNIC--a station I hate with every fiber of my being. Eventually, it went over to talk radio. Today there is AM 580 CKWW broadcasting from the old Big 8 studio in Windsor. They are an oldies station with the identical format of CKLW but without the shlocky DJ Top 40 voices (although some of them are still same DJs that used to do the CKLW gig). They stream over the internet if you want to hear them. That was the Detroit-area rock radio of the 60s and early 70s until FM snatched the market away. Now, it all sounds like s-hit. I listen to satellite these days.
Detroit also had a counter-culture thing in the late 60s with the Plum Street scene. There was also a counter-culture store on Gratiot called the Plum Pit. I think they were connected to the Plum Street hippies but I've never known for sure. Actually, the Plum Pit is still there and still open. All these years and I've never been in the place. But, yeah, Death would have gotten noticed playing for the Plum Street folks. There wasn't much available to them from '74 on.
Well, there was the Trading Post. It was a headshop on Gratiot about 3 or 4 miles from the Plum Pit. I used buy my smoking accessories and Zap comix there. Back then, you could score just about any drug in the parking lot. They started up a little venue there and I caught the original New York Dolls there and Iggy--of course, he played everywhere in the Detroit area. I think BTO's very first show in Detroit was there but maybe I'm wrong. I thought I heard an ad on the radio for BTO playing at the Trading Post--most people had no idea who they were at that time. It didn't last long, though. Death could have had a shot playing there but it might have closed down by then.
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Thanks! According to my research notes via a list of Grande shows, the Pentangle concert you might have saw was with Savoy Brown and The Sun on 7/5/69 - There was one with the Greatful Dead the next night (To those who would like to know such trivia: This was the time when bands sometimes played a certain location three nights in a row).
Myself being from the Punk/New Wave era living in Small Dot MI does have a different perspective on history in comparison to what really happened in the classic days (watered down in my opinion), so I fully understand your opinion on the radio. I do have memories of W4 playing a little more variety and having a killer 60's show and playing "Master Blaster" in Late 1980 (it was a hit, but a bold move for Rock Radio in the area) plus missing said Sunday Morning 60's show when it turned to Country in '81. Plus ABX had a great Alternative show that at least had Dead Kennedys at times and a more edgy playlist - Radios in Motion, brought over from WDTE (Public Radio). A lot of my memories were based on what little classic little known 60's/70's, Alternative, or at least Power Pop they were allowed to play although they were pale shadows of their former selves (There was a New Wave station later on, but that's for another topic).
There was at least one song CK played in '81 that stood out, but it was mainly on their survey show through being #1 (for a few weeks!) in Detroit - Kraftwerk's "Pocket Calculator". They also had a Big Band era around '84-5 if I recall (recoil in horror!).
Getting back to Death and the good call on the "What If It Was All Earlier" thought connecting them to the Plum Street scene, you pretty much hit the target. I'm convinced that they would have wowed them. The thoughts that are going through my brain now are strong!
In a way, heading to '71-2, they also could have been a good connection to what was happening with Funkadelic during their first four albums on Westbound before moving into a smoother but just as classic and freaky style soon after - Psychedelic Funk that broke boundaries with strong messages on albums 2-4 - Free Your Mind...and Your Ass Will Follow, Maggot Brain, and America Eats It's Young, plus having their third and fourth albums containing writings by The Process of their more apocalyptic stuff which certainly fit the albums and the times (it was pretty much end-times of the original Detroit scene, so it wraps things up in a way!), although of course George Clinton was certainly no member as he was an artist onto his own and into his own trip (To those going "WTF", I don't make these things up!). I have not seen the Doc yet (I seriously should!), but did it mention Funkadelic as an influence?