The Yardbirds were fabulous, just fabulous! I really loved jazz as well and improvisation was something I liked most about music. I think what impressed me most about them was their ability to improvise. It’s a genuine talent to be able to do that and they all had it. Page and Beck were especially fantastic. They complemented each other with an almost sort of musical telepathy. They jammed during many of the songs.
What impressed me the very most about The Yardbirds coming to Ruidoso and playing a concert? The fact that they didn’t slack off at all. You could tell they were very serious about what they were doing and very, very professional about it. The Yardbirds had so much fun while they were performing. You could feel it very strongly. I noticed the same thing with Janis Joplin and Big Brother and The Holding Company and Led Zeppelin when I saw them. All these bands had a great time on stage and it came shining through. Enjoying themselves and the audience they were playing for - that’s what it was all about for them. They felt the music and then you did, too.
The Yardbirds were all so focused, every one of them, catching the groove of one another at the same time they were all seemingly in their own respective, little worlds. The Hut was a very small place and not even where they were originally supposed to play in Ruidoso, like I said earlier. It didn’t matter to them at all that they weren’t in a huge venue. They gave it their very best, no matter what had happened, or was happening around their stop in Ruidoso.
The Hut went nuts for them, too. It was craziness from the first notes! Everyone loved their performance and it was truly memorable for us in so many ways. The fact we pulled together and pulled off the concert was a separate type of reward for those of us involved. What a special time!
REDDON:
That’s a remarkable recollection. How about after the concert? Did you get to party with The Yardbirds or did they go as quickly as they came?
MALONE: No, we spent some time with them. After the concert, I think they stopped and signed autographs for awhile and then we took them out to have a drink. We went back to The Bossmen’s house and had a party. I remember Jimmy Page was hanging around with a girlfriend of mine and I mainly talked with Chris Dreja at length about music. I was extremely impressed at how much knowledge Dreja had about all kinds of music. In particular, he said he wanted to turn me on to an album by this one artist which was incredible. He told me to swing by the hotel the next morning bright and early and he’d play the album for me, before I had to take the whole group back to the airport. As well, my friend, Karyn Turner, went out with a guy named Robert Fercus, who worked in management for The Yardbirds.
Anyway, the next day after The Yardbirds’ concert in Ruidoso, I could have picked a better time to go to the hotel, if you know what I mean…but it probably wouldn’t have mattered if I had gone later, either. There was no good time to stop by! And, I just want to say for the record, I was never a groupie. I never slept with any bands or artists. Once you did that, they stopped talking about the music!
REDDON: I think I know what you mean. Understood!
MALONE: Anyway, the artist Chris Dreja had spoken of so highly was Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention. I had seen The Fuggs. Zappa was brilliant and avantgarde. Chris Dreja and I got along really well and it was fascinating conversation to speak with someone so well-versed in so many kinds of music. Eventually that day, I took them back to the airport. We said our good-byes and off they went. It’s an experience I’ll always regard as one of my best memories. It was all so incredible.
REDDON:
I’m completely captivated by your account and experiences with The Yardbirds in Ruidoso, New Mexico. Thanks very much, Loui, for telling me all about it and all the great information you provided in the process. When you originally contacted me a few months ago, you also mentioned you saw Led Zeppelin on the First U.S. and Canadian Tour at the Fillmore West in San Francisco between January 9 and 12, 1969. I’ve been researching that tour for the past decade plus, so I’d be very keen to hear any recollections you may have of experiencing Jimmy Page’s new band, Led Zeppelin, in 1969.
MALONE: As I’ve already said, I was never a groupie of any description, for any artist or band. I just wasn’t into anything like that and it was the music that really mattered to me. Because I spent a great deal of time at the Fillmore West, I got to know quite a few of the musicians who were also there a lot, to at least be able to say hi to. Some of them included Janis Joplin, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Grateful Dead, Country Joe and The Fish.
REDDON:
Before we get into what you thought about Led Zeppelin at the Fillmore West, when did you come to San Francisco and what was the big attraction?
MALONE: I went to San Francisco in 1966. When I got there, the first thing I did was find a little flat in the Haight-Ashbury district. The whole “hippie thing” started there. The idea of the entire hippie credo was to form a utopian type of society. The idea was to barter, trade, give, share whatever you were able to do to create a better existence for the next person and society at large. You took people for what they were; there was a great sense of tolerance and understanding, acceptance.
And you know what, really? Contrary to popular belief, there weren’t that many freaks around, as is so commonly associated with that era. The whole hippie scene centered on music. Actually, Chet Helms started the whole San Francisco hippie music scene with the Avalon Ballroom and The Family Dog. He was interested only in the music and didn’t care about the business aspects of it. We had a place at Haight and Cole, across from The Straight Theatre, on the second floor of an apartment. We used to shine lights on The Straight Theatre and its sign from our apartment. In return, we were able to get into The Straight anytime for free. It was an excellent place to see all manner of blues performers, especially, which I was very interested in.
REDDON: That would be a trip! What blues acts did you see there?
MALONE: There were all kinds of blues artists…both “Kings” - B.B. King and Albert King, who were magnificent and a host of others. It was in the setting of a small theatre and a great place to see them. I used to hang out at The Family Dog and the Avalon of course, which were opened by Chet Helms.
REDDON:
Yes, I wasn’t aware that Chet Helms got the whole San Francisco music scene going in the 1960s with the Avalon Ballroom. If it hadn’t been for Chet Helms and a free-spirited lady who was a close friend of his in the 1960s, whom I met by fate in the Boston Public Library in October 1997, I wouldn’t be talking to you today! Strange how these things work out. On the topic of who was in at, or very near, the ground level of the music scene in San Francisco in the 1960s…enter Bill Graham. What can you tell me about him, since you hung around the Fillmore West quite a bit?
MALONE: Bill Graham, you could say, was the first “businessman” when it came to the new music sweeping San Francisco in the 1960s. Most importantly, Bill Graham was a great humanitarian. He saved lots of lives at this time.
REDDON:
Oh yeah? I’d like to find out more about his humanitarian activities in a moment or two. But first, could you provide me with your perspective of how Bill Graham impacted the San Francisco scene, with reference to his promotional activities?
MALONE: Although Bill Graham fiercely loved the music and had a vision of what was and wasn’t good, he was very interested in making the great music that came to San Francisco a business, too. So he opened the Fillmore Auditorium, after the Avalon Ballroom which was started by Chet Helms, as I said a moment ago. Eventually, the business Bill Graham created outgrew the Fillmore Auditorium.
