My favorite Bay Area 1960’s psychedelic band was Mad River, who coincidentally hung out with my favorite 60’s poet/author, the iconic Richard Brautigan.
Mad River was formed at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH in 1966. They recorded demos in Dayton, OH early in ’67. Later in SEPT of that year they packed everything into a VW bus and moved out to the Bay Area landing in Berkeley. Once there they began gigging and ran into Lonnie Hewitt who recorded and released the bands first Ep on his new label, Wee Records, a LTD ED of 1,000 copies. While in Berkeley they also became friends with Richard Brautigan who helped them hand assemble it on the dining room table.
During 1967 & ’68, I saw Mad River in concert several times. I made trips to the Bay Area for anti-war activities. One time during the massive “People’s Park” demonstration, I saw them play in the Berkeley streets on the back of a flatbed truck while the National Guard was stationed, bayonets at the ready, on the street corners. I also saw them play back down in Central CA at the Roeding Park “Love In” and Rainbow Ballroom.
Years later, the band still vividly remembers one of their Fresno concerts, especially dropping acid on a moonlit night beforehand at the farm of a noted poet/professor who I had taken classes from while going to the local college.
Around this time, the band moved across the Bay to SF. Their first album came out and Capitol stupidly literally sped the tape up during mastering & Rolling Stone gave it a bad review. In reality, the bands complex arrangements and politics didn’t fit the mold of the stoned jamming vibe adored by the hippie masses.
Mad River recorded a second album, which marked a change, more acoustic, and country styled. They played what turned out to be perhaps their last gig at Pauley Ballroom on the UC Berkeley campus, and by late 1969, early 70’, had faded away. Ironically, the second album, released shortly after received a positive review in Rolling Stone.
Richard Brautigan was very close friends with the members of Mad River; often stocking their refrigerator with food during their leaner times while living in SF, and crashing at their pad. He also often paid their rent after “Trout Fishing in America” his first book was published.
The band had him read one of his poems on their second album. He also recorded his own spoken word album, “Listening to Richard Brautigan” released in 1970.
In my mind, his book “In Watermelon Sugar” is one of the classic artifacts of that era. Its beautiful watercolor imagery epitomized the dreams of youth at that time. Brautigan’s life also epitomized the tragedy. A short story told to me by a very close friend illustrates this…
Shortly before he shot himself with a 44 Magnum, Richard Brautigan was seen on the beach in Bolinas for much of the day trying to rescue fish washed ashore by the current and dying. Today many years later, that seems perhaps a metaphor of those times with a many-layered meaning.
This past week I did a Special Radio Program featuring music by Mad River, with a spoken word segment at the end by Richard Brautigan. Personally when I listened I felt a bit haunted by the past, but also amazed how unique and inspired the music and his voice felt all these years later.
Take a listen yourself I think it’s a quite interesting audio document.
Eurock on KUSF in Exile featuring Mad River & Richard Brautigan
5 Responses to Mad River + Richard Brautigan Flashback
Thanks for reminding me of the band Mad River, Archie — you’ve given me a latter-day vindication of sorts in the process. In my first meeting with Creem editor Lester Bangs (whom I’d soon be writing for), in the summer of 1974, we got onto the subject of Mad River somehow, possibly because he expressed some interest in their earlier Capitol albums. I mentioned that the band was named after the Mad River that flowed through the Central Ohio of my youth, but Lester said oh no they were a California band, named for the Mad River out there. Yeah, I responded, they ended up in California, which also had a Mad River, but they’d started out at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, which just happened to have a Mad River nearby. Lester wouldn’t accept that version, and we let it drop, as the band was defunct by then, and Creem probably wouldn’t be covering them anyway.
Now I see the Yellow Springs creation myth repeated in Archie’s memoir, and wikipedia adds that Mad River were in fact named for the Ohio waterway of that handle. Not that it matters much by now, of course, with Lester long gone too, but it’s always amused me that even though he and I agreed on a lot of things, we both became chauvinists for our native States when it came to the source of Mad-River-the-band’s name.
Great story! I saw that band so many times and they never gave a bad show. They were also VERY different, appealing to my musical sensibility as well as political side.
David’s article unearthed all these years later is a goldmine of info. It was included in a fab booklet of the “Jersey Sloo” 5-track 12″ vinyl Ep released by Shagrat Records in the UK. That featured an unreleased track from the “PB&G” sessions + the Antioch era original demos. I was thrilled to hear the previously unreleased material. It’s a wonderful package!
By a neat coincidence we just added a long David Biasotti piece on MR this very week! Clearly there’s something in the air… or the water.
I never expected to see anyone ever write about Mad River – a band that sticks in my mind because Capitol promoted that first album with weekly full page ads – which I saw in the LA Free Press – each ad devoted to one track of the album. They were beautiful black and white line drawings and I still vividly remember the one for “Amphetamine Gazelle”, which to my teenage brain was a great song title.
Even weirder, I too went to Fresno State College. Archie – who’s the noted teacher you write of?
John,
Weird indeed. I graduated in 1970 and we had a great English Dept. then. The poet they mention is Bob Mezey, controversial for his advocacy of smoking pot and a guest lecturer at the school at that time for perhaps only 1 year? can’t remember exactly.
I was head of SDS and the school was in ferment druing that era. I even sponsered a class in the experimental college “The History of Guerilla Warfare”
Those were the days… Ha! Mad River played on campus and in town several times – they were truly a great bad , imho.
Glad you liked the piece! Listen to the radio show if you haven’t already. It kind of gave me chills at the end as Brautigan’s segment made it all come back into focus for me. Music can truly do that I’m constantly amazed by the power it can weild over me, and many others…