SAN FRANCISCO? OR BUST?

SAN FRANCISCO? OR BUST?

The moment of truth for the San Francisco scene was passed about the middle of last summer. Just about every group of note in the bay area that gained their reputations through live performances has been signed by a major record company and most of the emerging groups are making their ways through hard times on record advances instead, of through giging. Yet the GREAT RECORD which seemed only a short while ago to be only days away has failed to materialize. And the battle between the hip Lifestyle and the establishment record companies seerris to have ended in a draw.

Janis Joplin left Big Brother to become a star, Reprise records is running a Pig Pen look alike contest to promote the Grateful Dead Records, and the Filmore features only “name” acts with local groups as back ups but just about every record promoter and producer in the Rock field east of Boston has sideburns and longish hair, owns at least three buckskin jackets, and is always looking for a; place to score.

Now everybody in a position to do so from Dan Carlyle to Martha Kinsella thinks that Detroit,will be the next important music “scene” in, America. Already Bob Seeger, SRC, Amboy Dukes, and MC-5 have had records appear on the national charts. The Stooges are about to record and the Frost album will be out shortly (possibly by the time you read this). Mike Quatro and the SRC are staging a “Pop Festival” at Olympia in early; April and Dan Carlyle is pushing a letter writing; campaign to get A & R men from all the major record/labels down to watch it.

Three Detroit FM stations, program some sort of “progressive rock” format (ABX, KNR, and XYZ), and, since Bill Graham moved his West Coast Operation from the Filmore to the Larger Carosel and Family Dog lost its dance permit at -the Avalon, the Grande has become the longest lived ballroom operation in the U.S. for rock dances. From these facts it seems pretty easy to say that Detroit is on the verge of “happening”. But to think that a scene is necessary for the creation of good music or that the presence of a seemingly active scene •necessarily precedes. a lasting musical community is a delusion.

The scene (be it Liverpool, San Francisco, Boston or Qetroit) is Considerably , less than the sum of its part. In the long run “scenes” tend to become little more than a medium for hangers-on (promo men, disc jockeys,. booking agents,' business managers, and critics (myself included)' to take a cut of the sizeable financial pie that is the music industry.

The only positive aspect of an' active scene is that it provides places for the musicians to play and develop, but, when, as in Detroit, local groups have; the choice of playing as the second or third group at the Ballroom and doing a short set to a half full house or playing one of the local teen clubs to a crowd of raving, often ecstatic, 15 and 16 year olds and making more tnoney it seems almost inevitable that the groups will choose to make money, and almost as inevitably that their music will suffer from the audiences lack ofsophisticationBut the bands reputations will grow, and, when it comes time for recording contracts, the record companies will sign groups on the strength of their reputations. - The “scene” will continue to hy pe itself into oblivion ala Boston or Liverpool, and, while the good group might survive, the city will die as a music center.

The signs of what can happen are already beginning to surface. Groups that have been playing around Detroit for a long time like SRC, Rationals and MC-5 seem to have already peaked. When at one time every live performance by these groups was noticably better than the ones that preceded it now they are spotty sometime good often no better than fair but always, even 6n "their worst nights,, the cheers get louder. The MC 5’s stage act, once spontaneous and exciting, has lately, become stage and stiff often seeming to be a literal caricature of what it Used to be. Scot Richardspn gets cuter every week but the group playing fluctuates up and down with personnel changes. Good groups like the Thyme and the Jagged Edge have broken up because the money wasn’t there when they were readyf^but if the “Detroit Scene” hype Continues to grow the money will come once signing all the groups good, bad or otherwise and then fade away never to return.

So forget about how great a music center Detroit is* Support good bands, local and national, support tire smaller clubs {maybe forget that your 21; and go to the Hideout or Crow’s nest if you want to see the bands that are playing), create places where musicians can jam, convince promoters that they should open their clubs seven nights a week instead of 2 or 3 and make more money and still charge lower admissions, and, most important, be really critical of groups you like, if they play bad let them know, that way your cheers mean more when they come. And don’t tell anyone how great a scene exists in Detroit, make Detroit a scene thatssogood people don’t have to be told about it.