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While my first musical love was Deep Purple, followed by the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Man, close behind, as unfashionable as it was in the late 70’s was west coast music from everyone from Quicksilver to The Dead and Jefferson Airplane. Obviously it’s a huge genre to embrace and it preoccupied me for several years, especially as my interest in better living through chemistry developed as a student.
I loved the more experimental stuff, especially and felt it offered a doorway into another world. It seemed to obey different rules. I especially loved the Grateful Dead’s Anthem For The Sun and its wild approach and Live/Dead’s Dark Star/St Stephen. The more out there output of Airplane like on the Crown Of Creation album was and remains their finest for me while Quicksilver’s Silver And Gold from the debut album satisfied my guitar passion
But that was just the start. A leaping off point, which expanded to take in less well-known bands like Bodacious DF, Clear Light, Mad River, Moby Grape, Skip Spence, even the Strawberry Alarm Clock and the Chocolate Watchband. Then there were L.A. bands like Love, the Doors and the Mothers as well as the obscure West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Of course you soon run into influential, important bands like Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds and Sly And The Family Stone, Steve Miller, Creedence, CSNY and even The Association. And there are many more. This rather, to me in the north of England, exotic fascination really expanded my musical education. I didn’t realise that I was jumping into such a large ocean both in terms of big bands and smaller, less popular groups.
For a time it was all I listened to and there was nothing I liked more than a 20-minute psychedelic jam. It was at this time that I discovered the New Riders Of The Purple Sage and that sent me down another rabbit hole.
Then there were all the spin off big bands like Hot Tuna, Copperhead, Kingfish, all of Jerry Garcia’s work, and Old And In The Way. I’ve probably missed out someone important. By the time I was 21 it gave me this huge raft of music, a really expansive musical grounding. In fact, even now, despite my broader interests, when I’m asked which records to collect, I point to the west coast family trees. You can’t really go wrong, very few poor albums were made and it all takes you somewhere you can’t otherwise get to.
