lues ay, May I P 1 ItHE MlI-IAN DAiL Page Five Rock: The beginning of the end r AA FRANK ZAPPA and the MOTHERS OF INVENTION with LIV INGSTON TAYI OR and , ~BAMIBIT Saturday, 29 May 1971 8:30 P.M. Oakland University Outdoor Pavillion $5.00 General Admission TICKETS AT J.L. Hudson's Head West in Rochester & Birmingham Marshall Music in Lansing LITTLE THINGS IN ANN ARBOR TOWN HALL PRODUCTION NEW YORK (A') - Two years ago, 400,000 rock fans jammed an upstate New Y o r k alfalfa field in a massive demonstra- tion of love and peace as a way . of life. But now, disillusionment with the rock scene has spread far and wide. Rock performers have turned money mad. The deaths of some prominent rock stars and t h e ecology move- ment's call for purity have turned many young people off AV drugs, and the music itself is undergoing drastic alterations. The announcement by r o c k impresario Bill Graham recently that he would close his two em- poria of I i v e music, Fillmore East in New York and Fillmore West in San Francisco, was seen as heralding an end of an era in rock. The groups who once were willing to brave the rain and mud of Woodstock to play had turned, Graham said, into high- ly structured corporations de- manding higher and higher pay- ments for their services. Top bands, like the Jefferson Air- plane and Sly and the Family Stone, command fees as high as $50,000 for a single night's per- formance and, Graham charg- ed, income has taken a prece- dence over music. "Rock is joining America," be said. "It's becoming a General Motors, a Pacific Gas & Elec- tric, or any other big corpora- tion you can name. "When we started in 1965, 1 associated with a n d employed 'musicians.' Now more often than not, it's with 'officers and stockholders' in large corpora- tions - only they happen to have long hair and play gui- tars." Woodstock was in many ways the beginning of an era, an as- sertion by American youth that they had their own culture and . their own way of celebrating. Woodstock was the end also, for no matter what its success was, the myth it created could never be matched by the reality of any successor. The next major festival in Al- tamont, Calif., was a free con- cert offered by the Rolling Stones. Members of the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang were hired to keep the crowd under control and before the evening was over one youth was dead. While Altamont may h a v e been taken as a warning, the attractions of the outdoor con- cert especially when compared to the smaller incomes provided by indoor performances, were 1/5 OF CPA'S IN USA ARE FORMER STUDENTS OF Becker CPA Review Course DETROIT (313) 864-0128- too obvious to the big time ar- tist. "He'd rather p 1 a y the one concert with 20,000 people and spend the other three days rest- ing on his yacht," Graham com- plained. The year of the rock fest was 1970: Love Valley, Goose Lake, Strawberry Fields, Powder Ridge, Buffalo Party Convention and Roast, Beaufort Water Festi- val. However, only 18 of 48 major festivals scheduled came off, ac- cording to Jon Northland, as- sistant editor of the rock week- ly, Rolling Stone. "The major reason is politi- cal," he said. "The day after the festival is announced, the city council and the police come up with some emergency ordinance that makes it impossible to hold it.'. Don Friedman watched his Randall's Island Festival in New York City crumble under pres- sure from radicals until the doors were finally thrown open to the public. "The love, peace thing of Woodstock has gone out," Fried- man said. "It's been replaced by anarchy, complete total anar- chy." The only type of site left in which crowds can be controlled are the sports arenas, like Mad- ison Square Garden. Promoters can jam 21,000 youths into the Garden, a n d because of this, groups prefer to play there, de- spite the poor amplification. In the last year or so, major -Richard Lee, Inc. upheavals wracked the rock mu- sic scene. The Beatles, who dom- inated the music of the 1960s split and squabbled over their fortune. Within days of each other, singer Janis Joplin and guitar- ist Jimi Hendrix died, of appar- ent drug overdoses. In the meantime, a new mus- ical style emerged to challenge rock. The ear splitting roar of 10,000 watts of amplification have begun to give way to the soft strum of nylon guitar strings. "Country style" bands like The Band, soft-voiced singers like James Taylor, vocal groups like Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young have come on ithe scene. To Timothy Ferris, New York bureau chief of Rolling Stone magazine, that may have been part of the decline of the rock scene. "Music starts to die whei peo- ple can't d a n c e to it," Ferris said. "Country Is not goiig to have that magnetism, that great power over masses of people." At the Fillmore East, it was business as usual and most kids seemed unconcerned about Gra- ham's announced closing date, June 26. "I'll tell you the truth," said one young m a n, "the crowds have b e e n such bummers, it really doesn't upset anybody." "I think he should give it to the people," said one girl. "Make it free. Get the bands free. Put acid in the water and let every- body drink free, "EYE OPENING... TALK ABOUT A SWINGER" -.Bob Salmaggi, Group W Network "WOMEN AND MEN LOVE 'RELATIONS'." Show Magazine "BREATHLESS" -N.Y. Times liii lhaiet, ~ ~ - - I r.i persons under 18 7:15 and 9:00 not admitted a FIF ~PTH Forum DA 66-24 STATE & LIBERTY "STS. No Fudpucker UN IVERSITY A Campus Conglomerate Humorous BOOK MATCHES How to be POPULAR in one easy lesson: Be the hit among all your friends by showing these matches and joking about Your Alma Mater FUDPUCKER U. 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