Writes of renting office space on the second floor, just above theīandstand, for twenty five dollars a month from the “sweaty hatband The Poppycock (2003: University of Kentucky Press p.53). Was occupied by a fish ‘n’ chips ‘n’ rock-and-roll establishment called The latter 1960s, on a corner of downtown Palo Alto scarcely aīrickbat’s throw from the Stanford campus, there stood an aged,ĭerelict, three-story brick office building, the first floor of which In his autobiography Famous People I Have Known, he writes about the Poppycock in 1968 and '69:
ROCK AND ROLL GOURMET RANCH HIPPIE CHIPS FREE
Newspaper, The Free You, associated with MidPeninsula Free University (of which more later). McClanahan was hired in to publish an underground Of the Poppycock come from a book by writer Ed McClanahan, an associate It was openħ days a week for take-out from 11am, and there was a big room forĮntertainment and, if you were old enough, to buy beer. Poppycock was a Fish 'N' Chips shop at 135 University Avenue, on theĬorner of University and High Street (hard to make this up). Town had moved off the Stanford campus and over to the Poppycock. The Poppycock sold beer, and that was enough. There weren't any bars in Palo Alto yet-not until 1981-but Palo Alto's downtown, having been gutted by the Stanford ShoppingĬenter in the 1950s, started to add shops selling lava lamps andīlack light posters.
ROCK AND ROLL GOURMET RANCH HIPPIE CHIPS FULL
Wanted to see bands full of long-haired guitarists playing their own Although some memorable acts played the Poppycock (including the New Riders of The Purple Sage and very likely the Grateful Dead), the club was too small to thrive in the booming rock market, and Palo Alto wanted peace and quiet.ġ968, loud rock and roll had become more mainstream, at This post will look at shows for the balance of 1969. The last post looked at shows from January to June, 1969, the high water mark for downtown Palo Alto's rock history. and then 1968, when the action moved downtown. The next post continued the story, reviewing the psychedelic rock history of Palo Alto in 1967. I told the whole psychedelic rock history of 1966 PaloĪlto, too, which is pretty interesting, but still pales in the shadow ofġ965. The Cabana Hotel in Palo Alto, and December 18, 1965, the Palo AltoĪcid Test. Palo Alto rock history: August 31, 1965, the night the Beatles stayed at Story began with my prior post and the two most seminal events in Town, which is just how Palo Alto likes it. Peculiarity is perfectly Palo Alto-a story that applies to no other Very peculiar circumstances of Palo Alto and Stanford, which bothįavored and discouraged any kind of rock and roll underground. Some of this had to do with economics, some of it had to do with the Music, has a rather scattered history of rock and roll events. Palo Alto, as ground zero for the consciousness expansion of rock Warlocks-who debuted themselves in Menlo Park-became the Gratefulĭead, and the house band of The Merry Pranksters, and Palo Alto's place Certainly, J erry Garcia started playing live in Stanford and Palo Alto,Īnd he took acid for the first time in Palo Alto, and by the end ofġ965 Garcia was the lead guitarist in an electric blues band. Garcia and other bohemians were hanging out in downtown Palo Alto, even if they often lived in Menlo Park themselves. Kesey's cottage was really next door in Menlo Park, but that sort ofĭetail never interfered with a Palo Alto story. The history of the Fillmore and The Avalon always begins with Ken KeseyĪt Stanford, and the parties and acid tests that followed. Its own accounting, played a big part in 60s psychedelic rock and roll. It was with psychedelic rock and roll in the 1960s.
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Reconfigure the past in a way that justifies our own narrative. Self-important, which we probably are, but our next innovation will just Neighboring communities find Palo Altans self absorbed and Palo-centric ways that reaffirms the town's importance. All of these institutions re-write history in Palo Alto-Stanford University, Hewlett-Packard, The Stanford ShoppingĬenter, Acid Tests, The Grateful Dead, Mapquest and Google, for example, To invent or encourage institutions that redound to the importance of Principal difference between Palo Alto and other towns is its tendency Of most small towns, think the world revolves around itself. Of San Francisco, and yet it looms large in the world, far out of Almost no flyers advertising the Poppycock have endured.Īlto, California, is only a town of about 60,000, about 35 miles South
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A flyer for the Poppycock club in Palo Alto, at 135 University Avenue, featuring shows from November 8, 1969.