Doug Tracy 1969© Lloyd Johnson
Hi there from Doug Tracy !Eric turned me on to the Blue Cheer site and i have really gotten a kick out of it. I now live in Orlando, Florida and i no longer do music business. I am a Travel Agent at AAA. Been doing Travel since '78 or so. My wife also is in Travel. A brief (i hope) personal chronology follows :After the '68 Blue Cheer Europe Tour and "New ! Improved !" recording, Eric, Jerry and i combined forces into a short lived Management Co. based in Santa Monica, while Eric was in London with Leigh. We represented Blue Cheer, Leigh and Gary Yoder's KAK. We ran out of our invested money soon, and while Jerry went back to S.F., i stayed in L.A. at the Beachside Whale Rehearsel Studio, that a few of us had established with the backing of Charlie Osborne (1). From there i got involved with a band called Wolfgang (2) through a guitarist named Bryn Haworth, whom Charlie had brought from England along with Mick Waller, Pete Sears and Nicky Hopkins. Well, Wolfgang was scouted by Shady Mgmt., a Southern Calif. subsidary of Bill Graham, and Bill liked the band so well, he wanted to name them Wolfgang, his own real name (3). I took the band up to S.F. and they did a demo with David Rubinson, and Bill hired them to open for Led Zeppelin at Winterland and a couple of other gigs. The band had several strong personalities & the bass player Lee Sklar was torn between Metal Sculpture and Music... In any event none of us were happy with the Shady Mgmt. representative in L.A. and i finally had enough and returned to S.F. escorting a band called Grin with Nils Lofgrin to a show at the Fillmore and decided to remain in my home town. That was 1970.Through my contact with Bill and David, i was offered a job as Management Representative for Tower Of Power. With David as producer we recorded "East Bay Grease", Tower's first album and toured with Santana and Creedence. Bill also loved this band but friction developed after a series of gigs with Aretha, when dissatisfaction set in over the Graham Organization policies, since they had Management, Publishing, Record Label, Production Rights, Booking Agency, and of course Concert Promotion for the Tower. I fell out with Bill over this omniverous control. The band left the Management Company and most of the other arms of the octopus, but soon i left the band as well over narcotic abuse issues that were hindering the leaders' decision making.An acquaintance had started managing a band called Malo and wanted me in on it, so i hooked up as Road Manager for them, although they were involved with David Rubinson as well. Chris Wong and i worked out of David's Adam's Dad Management office, while David produced Malo's first record. I then took them on the road for a couple of years and finished 3 more records. This time Chris was the casualty of artist dissatisfaction and i had to wind up the last record and tours myself, then i threw in the towel for that phase of Malo.Eric and i worked on some demos for Malo's Lead Singer (4) and The Fabulous Four Skins a little later. I spend a year with ex Tower guitarist Willie Fulton with a band called Frisco Nickel, doing demos, shopping them around and promoting them as well as The Skins with no real success. Eventually, after ten years doing music, i decided to pack it in. I always enjoyed the logistics of putting together a tour, and at one point figured that i would have made enough money to own a Travel Agency and only travel when i wanted. Well that never happened, but i went into Travel Arrangement anyway and have been doing it for 2O years.I have been fortunate to have worked with a variety of musical styles and have learned to appreciate those as well as many more. I sometimes still feel like that kid who ran away to the Circus in 1967 called Blue Cheer. On the last record while with Malo, (i feel the best) called "Ascension" i listed myself in the credits as "Chaos Control" as a referral to the first Blue Cheer record "Vincibus Eruptum", the latin words for "We Control Chaos" . . . . Sort of a full circle for me.By way of background, Jerry & Ethan & i went to Grammar School together and Eric and i met at Boy Scout Camp.A few months ago i did a 3 way conference call interview between a guy in London, Malo's current representative in S.F. and me of course. The Englishman is doing a book on Malo and wanted my input, insight, and war stories. Reminded me what a fragile thing memory is.Please send along my best to the various & sundry characters in the Blue Cheer saga that you encounter.Thanks again for the Blue Cheer website. I will be watching it.Cheers, (Blue & otherwise) . . . . Doug(1) see Silver Metre (Leigh Stephens, Mick Waller, Pete Sears, Jack Reynolds)(2) see Jackie Lomax - Home Is In My Head Israel Zacuto: guitar Bryn Haworth: guitar, vocals Lee Sklar: bass Bugs Pemberton: drums(3) Wolfgang Grajonca(4) Arcelio Garcia
Blue Cheer
