Bob Harvey: The
Beginning of His Musical Career
In 1965 Bob
Harvey became the 3rd member and original bass player of Jefferson
Airplane. His upright bass was part of the band's original acoustic
and electric sound. But when the Airplane went all-electric in order
to procure a recording contract, Bob's days were
numbered.
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In 1963
Bob was living in Burlingame, CA, where he co-founded a
bluegrass outfit called the Slippery Rock String Band with Lee
Cheney (flat picker) and Chuck McCabe (five-string banjo). As
the group needed a bass player, Bob took up the upright bass.
SRSB made
the rounds at other music clubs, including the Drinking Gourd
in San Francisco, where Bob became friendly with Marty Balin,
who was then singing with the Town Criers. As Bob recalls, on
a Friday night in March 1965, he overheard Marty and his new
acquaintance, Paul Kantner, discussing a new band they wanted
to form. Upon hearing Marty say, "I want it to be a folk rock
group," |
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Bob turned and
instantly volunteered his services. Attracted to the rock 'n' roll
excitement generated by the Beatles, Bob wanted in on the action.
The next day, he auditioned for what would soon become Jefferson
Airplane.
"According to my
journal, June 1965 was when the original lineup was finalized. Jerry
Kaukonen had finally made the move from Santa Clara to an apartment
in San Francisco and had informed us that he was now Jorma. Towards
the end of June we met at Jorma's apartment on a weekend, got stoned
and sat around making lists of names that seemed appropriate for the
group. Jorma had listed his favorite Blues Musicians, among them was
Blind Lemon Jefferson which everyone agreed was an absolute killer
of a name. Jorma came up with a list of four or five Blind Jefferson
names, among which was Blind Jefferson Airplane which blew us all
away, but Paul said that while it was a very cool name, the public
wouldn't accept it and we should have another name as our public
name and keep Blind Jefferson Airplane as our "secret" name, but
after a few days of everyone freaking on the name, we forgot the
secret vs public, dropped the Blind and it was "Jefferson
Airplane".
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I firmly
believe that the name played as important a part in making the
group an almost instant success, as any of the music. There
was no original music for a long time and I have a reel to
reel tape recorded in the Matrix about August of 1965 that
proves that it was a very rough sound indeed. The name was
right, the timing was right. When Herb Cain wrote about the
band in his column the stampede was on. We were good because
everyone expected it. It was magic and the most exciting
experience that I've ever had in my life."
At 30, Bob
was significantly older than the rest of the band.
Nevertheless, he described his tenure with the Airplane as the
most exciting experience of his life. "The excitement was the
newness of the whole scene in [San Francisco]," he
said. |
"We had
identity. We were accepted, and we had status. Even the flower
children in the park had it, but up on stage it was magnified 100
times and it was sweet." Below there are 2 pictures of Bob with the
band: top pic - he is seated second from the left with the entire
band, bottom pic - he is in a picture with Grace Slick in the
background.
| Jefferson Airplane Set
Lists |
Aug
13 1965 (Fri) - Matrix, San Francisco CA
(first gig,
opening night of the Matrix) |
Sept 8 1965 (Wed) - Matrix, San Francisco
CA
(opened for JC Burris, cousin to Sonny
Terry) |
Sept 10, 1965 (Fri) Circle Star Theater, Redwood
City, CA
(opened for Eric Burton &
Animals) |
Sep
21 1965 (Tue) - Matrix, San Francisco CA
(opened for
Lightning Hopkins) |
Sep
22 1965 (Wed) - Matrix, San Francisco CA
(opened for
Lightning Hopkins) |
Sep
22 1965 (Wed) - Coffee Gallery, North Beach CA
(guest
set after the show at the Matrix) |
Sep
23 1965 (Thu) - Matrix, San Francisco CA
(opened for
Lightning Hopkins) |
Sep
24 1965 (Fri) - Matrix, San Francisco CA
(opened for
Lightning Hopkins) |
Sep
25 1965 (Sat) - Matrix, San Francisco CA
(opened for
Lightning Hopkins) |
Sep
26 1965 (Sun) - Matrix, San Francisco CA
(opened for
Lightning Hopkins) |
| Oct
16 1965 (Sat) - Longshoreman's Hall, San Francisco
CA |
| Oct 30 1965 (Sat) - Harmon Gymnasium, University
of California, Berkeley CA (Jack Casady's first show,
replacing Bob Harvey) | |
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He met
other musicians during / after he was part of Jefferson
Airplane and used to hang out with many of them. He has a song
called "Wild Flowers" (lyrics & music by Bob
Harvey) and a monologue called "Prinderella" on Paul
Williams "Holy Mackerel" album. "The album cover shown does
not have my picture. The album cover with my picture was
changed when I left the group. The reason I left was Paul's
refusal to let me sing my own song "Wild Flowers" on the
album."
Below are
some comments by Producer/Director Jack Genero after he saw
the San Francisco Blue album Idiot's Vision on Carnium
Music - January 2001 Album of the
Month: |
Name: Jack
Genero
From: Los Angeles, USA
Sent: Friday, 26 January
2001 16:46
Comments: Looks like a lot of head energy went
into bringing this web site together.
I just
spotted your January’s 2001 choice album, "San Francisco Blue"
Their goes Bob Harvey. CD/Album producer, songwriter, singer,
musician. He’s got it all goin’ on.
Well, I
knew Bob Harvey when he was working as an actor in Hollywood.
I know because he starred in two feature films for me.
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In the
first film he played the featured roll by starring as Charles
Manson (the well known Sharon Tate murderer). The second film
was called HARD RIDE TO THE MOVIES, it was the story of a
motorcycle gang that crashes a Hollywood movie studio only to
make themselves the stars of the of their movie.
It must be
his point of convergence coming together. Good Luck on your
music Bob.
Jack
Genero
Producer/Director
Charles Manson Story
Hard
Ride To The Movies |
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