Father of the Summer of Love dies Saturday, June 25, 2005
(06-25) 21:06 PDT San Francisco (AP) -- Chet Helms, the revered father of the Summer of Love who brought Janis Joplin to San Francisco, has died. The man who once stood at the center of the seminal Sixties Bay Area music scene died Saturday surrounded by friends and family from stroke complications at San Francisco's California Pacific Medical Center. He was 62. "It was a beautiful death," said his wife Judy Davis. "It was a goodbye party. We all sang to him and told stories. He died as he lived - surrounded by love." Helms - who proudly sported a grizzled beard and long hair topped by a hat throughout much of his adult life - was the founder and manager of Big Brother and the Holding Company with Joplin as its legendary lead singer. He was a rock-and-roll impresario who helped staged free concerts and "Human Be-ins" at Golden Gate Park that became the backdrop for San Francisco's Summer of Love in 1967. He was the first producer of psychedelic light-show concerts at the Fillmore the Avalon Ballroom and was instrumental in helping to develop bands delivering the San Francisco Sound. "Chet Helms was one of the founding fathers of the music scene here," said Mickey Hart, drummer for the Grateful Dead. "Without Chet, there would be no Grateful Dead, no Big Brother and the Holding Company, no Jefferson Airplane, no Country Joe & the Fish, no Quicksilver Messenger Service," said Barry Melton, the lead guitarist for Country Joe & the Fish. "He wasn't just a promoter; he was a supporter of music and art. He supported people emotionally, psychologically and psychically. He made the scene what it was." "We were part of an epoch," said Helms' assistant of 30 years, Jerilyn Brandelius. "He was a mover and a shaker but in the most gentle way. He was a producer not a promoter. He had the ability to set up an environment where people could feel free to create art. He took joy in that. "This is going to be a tough one," she added. "His effect on people on a daily basis was transformative." Chester Leo Helms was born in Santa Maria, Calif., in 1942 and spent most of his youth in Missouri and Texas, where he tested his organizing powers by helping to stage benefits for civil and human rights groups. He moved from Austin to San Francisco in 1962, returning once to convince his old college pal Joplin to hitchhike back with him. He hooked Joplin up with Big Brother for jam sessions in a Haight Ashbury basement. They debuted in June 1966 at the Avalon, officially launching the short career of the most famous bluesy, boozy rock-and-roll diva ever. Helms and the late Bill Graham teamed up to produce three shows at the Fillmore Auditorium that year before Graham went off on his own to build the Fillmore into one of the most important rock venues in history. Helms continued producing concerts under his Family Dog company at the Avalon, an old dance academy at Sutter Street and Van Ness Avenue. Helms eventually dropped out of the concert business for a time in 1970. "Chet was a hippie," Hart said. "We were all hippies. He hated to charge for the music." Helms ran the Atelier Dore art gallery on Bush Street in San Francisco since 1980 until he retired last year. Besides his wife, Helms is survived by his stepdaughter, Sarah Davis, of San Francisco, brothers John Helms of San Francisco and Jim Helms of Hawaii. Funeral arrangements are pending. -- King Daevid MacKenzie, WLSU-FM 88.9 La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA heard weekdays at http://whiterosesociety.org "There is Christian and there is Elvis-from-the-waist-up Christian." JAMES NEIBAUR Apply for Commercial Real Estate loans online and submit your deal to dozens of hungry lenders in just minutes. Loan programs for all types of business and commercial real estate. Apply anytime at http://realestatezoo.com b i s e x u a l =============== a bifem.net publication Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web Site: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Bisexual Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Bisexual/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
