Re: James Gurley RIP « Result #4 on Dec 21, 2009, 11:20am »
This is really sad. James was a really cool guy. I am glad I got the chance to meet him at Chetfest (got a great shot of him & Dickie together). He was an awesome guitarist and I personally always felt that since Janis left Big Brother around the same time Leigh left BC, James would've been the perfect guitarist to fill the open slot for Cheer. Just listen to Ball & Chain if you disagree.
Here are some words from Sam Andrew about James:
Guitarist James Gurley, seen by his peers as one of the groundbreaking developers of what came to be called "psychedelic rock" died of a heart attack this afternoon in Palm Desert, two days shy of his 70th birthday.
Along with co-lead Sam Andrew, Gurley was responsible for laying down the musical foundation underlying Janis Joplin's unique vocal stylings in her original band. Though music critics and self appointed "opinion makers" long tended to discount the musicianship of Big Brother and the Holding Company, musical peers and others on the scene always placed them in the top tier of San Francisco bands, and retrospective looks at the development of the genre routinely acknowledge the importance and quality of Gurley's work.
Country Joe & The Fish lead guitarist Barry Melton today called Gurley "the Yuri Gagarin of rock & roll -- the first man in space." Melton added "there was only handful of us that created our mini-genre of psychedelic guitar, and James was the avatar who blazed the path for the rest of us."
Former bandmate Sam Andrew posted this remembrance of Gurley on line this afternoon:
James Gurley died of a heart attack today 20 December 2009 in a hospital in Palm Springs, California.
I wrote about him just this last week that at The Maritime Hall in San Francisco, sixteen years ago, he played such great solos at our benefit for Chet Helms. He was on fire that night, and we have that on video tape so... there will be no doubt about it. When conditions were right, the man could really play.
James was the most unusual person I ever met, a pioneer, a real original, a very funny man and truly alive with an energy that not many people have. When James was around, life seemed to be magnified. Everything was more interesting, had more meaning, was more vital. He kept that energy right up to now, really. He and I did a set of interviews together in San Diego at the beginning of last summer and he was as wry and spry as ever.
When Big Brother lived at our Lagunitas house a few miles from where I am sitting, we all had our first Christmas together, was it 1967? We both had birthdays right around this time and James handed me a small present and growled, “Let’s put the X back in X-mas.” It was a bah, humbug moment that I know he would truly appreciate now. James has gone to the great X two days shy of his birthday, and two days after mine.
For me and for many people, James was the real 1960s, the real exemplar of that counterculture, the forerunner. Peter Albin, Chet Helms, and I founded Big Brother and the Holding Company, but James was the spirit and the essence of the band in its early days. He showed us the way as a Zen master would show the way, without sermons, without lectures, with as little talk but with as much humor as possible.
When I met James in 1965, he was going to die in two weeks. Of pleurisy. It was always something. James was such a hypochondriac that I was sure he was going to outlive all of us. Now he is gone.
Joined: Mar 2006 Posts: 193 Location: Buffalo, Minnesota
Re: Blue Cheer Photos - Live in Copenhagen 1968 « Result #8 on Dec 18, 2009, 8:43pm »
Nice Otherhalf, That is White Lightning at The New City Operahouse 1969....Same timeframe/venue as BC but I cannot verify this photo as that gig. I will try to send another shot of the boys jammin' 69 to this BB. I have dial-up so someone else may have to post......BC 3 was released late winter (march) 69
Re: Blue Cheer Photos - Live in Copenhagen 1968 « Result #9 on Dec 18, 2009, 12:14pm »
Wow, by the looks of the on stage picture, that is the same place that EIO saw the Cheer. He did tell me that White Lightning opened for them that night. I wonder if this is the same gig?
Re: Blue Cheer Photos - Live in Copenhagen 1968 « Result #10 on Dec 18, 2009, 4:14am »
Eio...strange but just can’t remember him singing at all. There’s an outside chance that it’s because I saw them very soon after he joined....but then he appears to be singing on the Copenhagen photos less than a couple of weeks later. Better put it down to bad memory I guess! You’re right with the comparison with Pop II....RH had a really piercing and heavy guitar sound live. I can’t remember much of the set now ( I didn’t have Outsideinside at the time so quite a lot was new to me) but I do recall that The Hunter followed the blueprint of the Leigh Stephens version but with Randy playing in that stop/start staccato way that he uses on Guitar Song and Blue My Mind. The opener was a truly amazing version of Just A Little Bit with Whaley hitting out so hard that he kept swiping the cymbal stands over...there was a guy crouched in front of a bass drum, arms outstretched, trying to hold them up as Whaley played on. They played Summertime Blues and (I think) Babylon, and the set ended with a long solo from Randy....he finished by leaving the guitar onstage blasting out feedback. Easily one of best gigs I’ve ever been to. I’ve posted an article on Litter/White Lightning from UK magazine Shindig in case you’re interested. http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/diningwith....CMO_lamM5a3cFA# Seem to have got them the wrong way round somehow so page 2 is actually the first.
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