Allman Brothers Band
Wet Willie
Charlotte Coliseum
Charlotte, NC
Little Feat
12th Gate
Atlanta, GA
Stephen Stills
Crazy Horse
Boston Garden
Boston, MA
SET LIST
Rock & Roll Woman
Questions
Helplessly Holding
Fishes and Scorpions
Go Back Home
Love The One
Black Queen
Know You Got TO RUn
Word Game
Change Partners
Do For The Others
Jesus Gave Love Away For Free
I'd Have To Be Crazy
Attitude
You Don't Have To Cry
49 Bye-Byes
For What It's Worth
Ecology Song
Open Secret
Lean On Me Baby
Bluebird Revisited
Cherokee
B.B. King
Ballin' Jack, Christian Rapid
Fillmore West
San Francisco, CA
Steve Miller Band
Grits
Cowtown Ballroom
Kansas City, MO
Cowtown Ballroom was a legendary concert venue in Kansas City, Missouri, that opened in the summer of 1971, and over the next 38 months it established itself as one of the finest venues along the concert trail. A little over 10 years ago there happened to bee a documentary about the venue titled Cowtown Ballroom … Sweet Jesus! that was filmed as an oral history from many of the musicians that played there, along with the people who helped run it and the fans it attracted. If you were lucky enough to see it, you’ll probably agree it’s a tale of both geography and that small, special period of time in 20th-century music history.
Cactus, Flamin' Groovies
Redeye
Fillmore West
San Francisco, CA
Miles Davis
Elvin Bishop Group
Mandrill
Fillmore West
San Francisco, CA
It's A Beautiful Day
James Cotton Blues Band
Jubilee Auditorium
Calgary, Canada
This beautiful handbill, designed by Bob Masse, advertises a show for It’s a Beautiful Day and James Cotton Blues Band at Jubilee Auditorium in Calgary, Alberta on Sunday November 14, 1971.
Sly & The Family Stone
Rare Earth, Ruth Copeland
Madison Square Garden
NYC
"There was a time when the music might have justified it. In his first appearances with the Family Stone, Sly Stewart—former disk jockey, superb guitarist, organist and drummer, brilliant songwriter and arranger—established what was virtually a new pop music style, Mixing up the long, tension‐building vamps of rhythm and blues with the electric energy and ear‐slitting acoustical wattage of rock, he became the first major black performer since Jimi Hendrix to conquer the white market.
But the edges of Sly's Olympian dream have begun to blur a bit. Instead of ranging through the wide variety of material he has written and recorded, Sly now focuses on the crowdrousing, everybody‐on‐your‐feet, boom‐sha‐ka‐la‐ka‐la‐ka numbers that are his commercial hits. And after a while, “Dance to the Music” and “You Can, Make It If You Try” and “Stand” and “I Want to Take You Higher” all begin to sound like parts of one incessantly repeated chord, one unending rhythm pattern." (NY TIMES)
Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention
Head Over Heels
Cowtown Ballroom
Kansas City, MO
Steve Miller Band
Sand
Salem Armory
Salem, MA
Poco
Siegel-Schwall
Wishbone Ash
Fillmore West
San Francisco, CA
Rod Stewart & The Faces
Southern Comfort
Grateful Dead, New Riders of the Purple Sage
Stephen Stills, Frank Zappa & The Mothers
Procol Harum, Led Zeppelin
Berkeley Community Theatre
Berkeley, CA
Van Morrison
Paramount Theatre
Seattle, WA
End The War Rally
Grateful Dead
Yale University
New Haven, CT
This interesting show has hidden in plain sight for years since being used as a part of Road Trips Vol. 1, No. 3 in 2008. It has a little bit of everything – two premiere performances, an amazing journey of a first set and a second set larded with rockers, all played by the mean, lean version of the Dead with no Mickey and no Keith either. What’s not to love?
Albert King
Mott The Hoople
Freddie King
Fillmore West
San Francisco, CA
Rolling Stones
UK Tour
Elton John with Dee Murray & Nigel Olsson
England Dan & John Ford Coley
City Hall
Newcastle, UK
Black Sabbath
Edgar Winter's White Trash
Portland Coliseum
Portland, OR
December Tour '71
Alice Cooper
Steppenwolf
Zembo Mosque
Harrisburg, PA
Taj Mahal
Stoneground, Trapeze
Ten Years After
Cactus, Pot Liquor
Fillmore West / Winterland
San Francisco, CA
Poco
Emerson Lake & Palmer
John Mayall
Public Hall
Cleveland, OH
Traffic
Mountain
Mott The Hoople
Hofheinz Pavillion
University of Houston
Houston, TX
New Year's Eve
Grateful Dead
Winterland Arena
San Francisco, CA
Procol Harum
Paramount Northwest
Seattle, WA
The Byrds
Bill Withers
Fleetwood Mac
Colosseum
Pacific Northwest
Seattle, WA
Ray Charles
The Raelets
The Big Ray Charles Orchestra
Muhammad Ali
R.K.O. Albee
Brooklyn, NY
Setlists during this tour include: Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker, Since I've Been Loving You, Black Dog, Dazed and Confused, Stairway to Heaven, Going to California, That's the Way, What Is and What Should Never Be, Whole Lotta Love (medley), Communication Breakdown.
Led Zeppelin
Mayfair, UK
James Brown
The Dramatics
Bobby Byrd, The Stylistics
Clay Tyson, Lynn Collins
Cobo Arena
Detroit, MI
Hot Tuna
Emerson Symnasium
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH
Small Faces with Rod Stewart
Savoy Brown
The Grease Band
Boston Music Hall
Boston, MA
Alice Cooper
Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come
Rainbow Theatre
London, UK
The Byrds
Blue Oyster Cult
Mahavishnu Orchestra featuring John McLaughlin
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY
Led Zeppelin
Hollywood Speedway Park Sportatorium
Hollywood, FL
Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention
Rueben & The Jets
Paramount Northwest
Seattle, WA
John Lee Hooker
Jerry Garcia & Merle Saunders
Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen
Jeffery Cain
Berkeley Little Theatre
Berkeley, CA
Faces
Deep Purple
Matthews Southern Comfort
Cleveland Public Hall
Cleveland, OH
Traffic
Fairport Convention
Anaheim Convention Center
Anaheim, CA
Traffic
1971 Tour Germany
Isaac Hayes
The Temptations
Apollo Theatre
NYC
The Byrds
Factory
Viking Hall Upsala College
East Orange, NJ
The Byrds
Tim Hardin
Meehan Auditorium
Brown University
Providence, RI
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Frankfurt, Germany
Badfinger
Revelation
Kent, OH
Van Morrison
Copperhead
David Blue
Berkeley Community Theatre
Berkeley, CA
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band
Ry Cooder
Comerford Theatre
Wilkes-Barre, PA
Here's a recent Facebook post by John Drumbo French that captures some of the madness of this Capt. Beefheart tour in 1971: “Winged Eel Fingerling and Grant Gibbs both left the touring party about this time. To be honest, I was happy to see them both leave. Grant had not the strength to be a tour manager. Don got away with far too much, and Grant was constantly frustrated and became almost useless. I kept asking Gibbs if we could get some per diem, and kept saying, 'When we get to New York, you'll have money.' In New York, he gave us each an envelope stuffed with twenty one-dollar bills. I looked at the money in disbelief, but most of my stint in the band had been penniless, so I reminded myself of Don's history of not paying the band.
Elliot was getting drugs from Jeff Kaplan -- the bassist for Ry Cooder. I often got stuck sharing a room with Elliot, and, truthfully, didn't enjoy his habit of walking around naked. Add to that the fact that the laws on drugs ( cocaine, I think ) were VERY strict in 1971, I had it out verbally with Elliot. He left the group the next day as I recall. The truth of the matter is, I figured that they'd bust me along with Elliot if anyone reported drugs. Maybe I was paranoid, but I was totally anti-drug at that point. Gibbs was replaced by Carl Scott, a large, rather imposing figure who was, I say without a doubt, morbidly obese. Krasnow had introduced him shortly after the failed Mt. Tamalpais show. We met at his house, an A-Frame structure just where Crescent Heights turned into Laurel Canyon. As I recall, he was the manager of the group Harper's Bizarre." This was the first time I'd seen him since -- some four years' later. When we played Comerford Theater, it was the first night without Elliot, and we didn't have a sound check. We had a short time in the dressing room to prepare, and then took longer than usual to get to the stage -- it was almost a Spinal Tap moment -- with us walking backstage in betwixt props and lighting gear in the freaking dark.
Finally, we found it, and standing backstage was Carl Scott, wearing a headset and giving lighting and sound commands I guess. It seems like it was about 3/4 full when we emerged onstage to lukewarm response. Don always started the show with "Big Joan" -- and stuck his horn right over the mic, blasting the ears of the audience. 90% of the audience was gone after that. It's too bad, because there was some great music in the set, and I always thought Big Joan was about the most hostile piece -- because of the repetition and the loudness of the horn -- that we could play. I remember people RUNNING for the exits. Carl Scott must have brought Don's old King soprano from Los Angeles -- as I know his Selmer had been stolen in NY. We had quite an entourage -- 2 roadies, 9 band people, Jan, and a tour manager. Plus all our equipment was excess baggage. We were paid nothing for the tour as all the money was used up in tour expenses. The one thing I'll say is that the band was tighter without Elliot. Bill took over the solo in Blunderland, and it was great to see him being given a chance to solo for once. After the last show, we went back to LA and wound up staying with a LA Times journalist (Charles T. Powers) who gave Artie and I a ride back to our house in Laurel Canyon, which had been rented to someone else -- with all our furniture (mostly Artie's) and clothes still in the house. The whole time we had been on the road, the accountants hadn't paid any of our bills. I should have had the sense to leave then, however, I was still under contract for about 6 months -- long enough to move twice ( Santa Cruz and then Trinidad ) and record "The Spotlight Kid" -- and then be fired from the band for the second time."
The Who
UK Tour 1971