[Dixielandjazz] One Never Knows, Do One Dick Oxtot

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

Hi Art:

  I was there in the beginning of Janis & Big Brother & The Holding 
Company, and booked and promoted shows with them and I never knew Dick 
Oxtot as having anything to do with her, and I too considered Dick & 
his Boys as Old foggies too in those days just like WE are today. :)) 
He may well have performed on a show or event that she was also booked 
on, or may have even booked her to play as an opening act or 
intermission act for his show. It was also not uncommon for the early 
rockers to contact ANYBODY in the phone book to try and book gigs. In 
those days many band leaders like Dick Oxtot and Sal Carson, Walt 
Tolleson, Ernie Heckshire, Nick Jordan and others around the Bay Area 
would book the rock acts from me for society gigs when the Rich folks 
wanted a rock band for their kids birthday party or bar mitzvahs etc, 
the money was always great and a lot more than Bill Graham would ever 
pay them, so they would take them to pay for their drug and alcohol 
habits, and sometimes even their rent for a small apartment so they 
could all get out of the Bus and get a shower or bath occasionally. :)) 
   I remember one such party in Hillsboro, for a sixteen year old's 
birthday,  The mother insisted the band stay in the POOL house in 
between sets to do their heroin and other drugs, because she did not 
want them in the house associating with the real guests.   Whooeee!  
the things we had to tolerate for $50,000.00 bookings in those days.  
:))


  While Janis became a legend, she was never the girl you would want 
your Son to bring home for dinner, especially a holiday dinner with 
Gramma and the rest of the family. She hung with mostly disfunctional 
hippies and street folks of the 60,s


  Although I worked with many of the early Rockers, I detested most of 
them personally as human beings, primarily because I was not into being 
drunk or Stoned all the time like they lived, often in filth and 
disgusting hovels and apartments that were sometimes not even suitable 
for the rats that infested them, not to mention the ones who lived in 
the park in hippie busses and tents. It was often a very ugly scenario 
trying to do business with these folks who considered the ART of 
Getting and Staying HIGH the priority in life, and the higher the 
better. Unlike me Bill Graham pandered to them and made a fortune off 
of them and their self induced misery in many cases. While when I knew 
him Bill was not into drugs personally, but he certainly tolerated any 
and all of them in and around his concerts and more than likely had an 
arrangement of some sort in the availability of them.

  The entire scene was glistened and beautified for media purposes but 
it really was quite ugly behind the scenes and the cameras, and a 
backstage pass was more like a trip to the zoo or a circus freak show.

  Unlike Dick Oxtot, I never heard anybody refer to Bill Graham as a 
NICE GUY, especially anybody who had to do business with him :)) He was 
without a doubt the most RUTHLESS person I ever encountered in the 
music industry, he made Donald Trump look like a Sunday School Teacher 
by comparison.




 -----Original Message-----
 From: Artwoo at aol.com
 To: barbonestreet at earthlink.net; dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
 Sent: Sun, 18 Dec 2005 12:36:33 EST
 Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] One Never Knows, Do One Dick Oxtot

  Hi: I have heard that bay area OKOM legend Dick Oxtot was instrumental 
in
 recognizing Janis Joplin's talent and getting her career started.

  Perhaps some other members who knew Dick might be able to explain this 
in
 more detail.

 Art
  PS I often kick myself for not accepting Dick's offer to rehearse with 
his
  group in the mid 60's. I thought he and his buddies were a bunch of 
old
  foggies, not realizing they were masters of this craft of OKOM. Guys 
like Bob
 Neighbor and Bob Meilke were part of Dick's group at that time.
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