tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post8989357790365015521..comments2024-03-28T02:11:12.904-07:00Comments on Hooterollin' Around: February 19, 1969, Fillmore West: Grateful Dead/Golden Toad (Bob Thomas)Corry342http://www.blogger.com/profile/08049035074121231425noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-77059866161393694702023-02-22T07:46:39.004-08:002023-02-22T07:46:39.004-08:00That is really fantastic. Can't say there are ...That is really fantastic. Can't say there are no known recordings anymore! I find this whole post a fascinating look into life in the area that isn't solely concentrated on the stars of the scene. It helps paint the whole pictureAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-54291428219696318692022-08-21T16:19:29.350-07:002022-08-21T16:19:29.350-07:00My little family (wife and daughter) was graced wi...My little family (wife and daughter) was graced with an overnight stay with Ernie and Deb Fischbach many years ago on our way to meet Deb’s nephew Sean in San Francisco. We slept in a room—in their unelectrified house that recently had gotten very cold running water—filled with many of Ernies’s stringed instruments from all over the world! It was only one day and night but I remember it like yesterday with fond memories. Paul Singletarynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-31067058440720703072021-04-06T20:35:19.616-07:002021-04-06T20:35:19.616-07:00You can hear a little bit of the Golden Toad at th...You can hear a little bit of the Golden Toad at the start of this 1968 Berkeley Folk Music Festival recording (and Bob Thomas verbally jousting with MC Sam Hinton?). https://media.northwestern.edu/media_objects/8336h377fMichael J. Kramerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08351210645143321688noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-39547464570203535062021-02-21T21:00:00.670-08:002021-02-21T21:00:00.670-08:00Hi scendan! Im so sorry brian didn’t get back to y...Hi scendan! Im so sorry brian didn’t get back to you! <br />He would love to talk to you about his cousin, your father anytime! Robert was Brian’s mother Katherine’s first cousin. He is in the bay area and on Facebook as well. Look forward to hearing from you!badamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10509245108287854879noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-35171995611842484772020-08-30T14:40:29.570-07:002020-08-30T14:40:29.570-07:00Deborah, thanks for checking in. Looking forward t...Deborah, thanks for checking in. Looking forward to your film about Bob Thomas.Corry342https://www.blogger.com/profile/08049035074121231425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-15746022455406245252020-08-30T14:39:10.199-07:002020-08-30T14:39:10.199-07:00http://institutefortraditionalstudies.org/rdt.html...http://institutefortraditionalstudies.org/rdt.html Bob Thomas web pageAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15023607104694670441noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-29665326072831216962020-08-30T14:37:49.066-07:002020-08-30T14:37:49.066-07:00You sure look like him. I am on FB as well friend ...You sure look like him. I am on FB as well friend of Will of course is correct as to who your mother is?Deborah Fischbachhttp://institutefortraditionalstudies.org/rdt.htmlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-87903029965997678422020-08-30T14:31:12.958-07:002020-08-30T14:31:12.958-07:00Deborah Fischbach here, thanks for the posts all. ...Deborah Fischbach here, thanks for the posts all. I am making a video, "Robert Donovan Thomas, Memories of a True Renaissance Man", should be done sometime in 2021. Lots of music, some of Robert's paintings and instruments he made. Deborah Fischbachhttp://www.instituefortraditionalstudies.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-44680103374092093262019-12-22T19:48:04.966-08:002019-12-22T19:48:04.966-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.midnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14582576902164271268noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-73988631203020691202019-11-15T18:33:27.203-08:002019-11-15T18:33:27.203-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.midnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14582576902164271268noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-92016279369368323902019-05-28T15:22:39.973-07:002019-05-28T15:22:39.973-07:00Oh my goodness. I am so sorry this took forever f...Oh my goodness. I am so sorry this took forever for me to write back to you. That does not speak well of me at all! I will try to contact you on Facebook to see if you'd be willing to still talk with me after all this time. Thank you for courteously writing back and I am sorry this got lost in the shuffle of life!Scendanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12711230829048210134noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-19487407858454564002018-02-20T15:39:46.045-08:002018-02-20T15:39:46.045-08:00Well, sure, but I was comparing Golden Toad to oth...Well, sure, but I was comparing Golden Toad to other California bands. I did leave out the Modern Folk Quartet, but they were more of a Hollywood thing.<br /><br />The ISB did open for the Dead at least once (at Stony Brook), and the Dead's former keyboard player did play a little bit on an ISB album (Tom Constanten on U), but there was no real intersection between those bands.Corry342https://www.blogger.com/profile/08049035074121231425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-20109274528043029582018-02-20T07:22:44.689-08:002018-02-20T07:22:44.689-08:00Musically & historically, shouldn't the In...Musically & historically, shouldn't the Incredible String Band be included in the same breath/discussion as The Golden Toad & Kaleidoscope?Eliot Ghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14042814347413059490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-35677693329950894372018-01-23T04:51:56.672-08:002018-01-23T04:51:56.672-08:00I got to know Bob when he lived in a cottage in ba...I got to know Bob when he lived in a cottage in back of Bear and Melissa's Fox Brothers house in Berkeley, took a long and eventful road trip with him across the Sierra and Rocky Mountains, and generally quite enjoyed his company back in the day. Like his band mate Will Spires and his old friend Bear, he was brilliant and articulate. As Will knows, I also took some photos of them playing. — Don DouglasAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-13784448786698798832017-12-23T11:43:24.858-08:002017-12-23T11:43:24.858-08:00Scendan, I am Will Spires, a very old friend of ...Scendan, I am Will Spires, a very old friend of your late birth father. I imagine your mother may have been Lisa Phillips. I am on Facebook and would be happy to correspond. Your father was a great man. I live in No Ca. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-7057075523130050622017-11-30T22:06:36.530-08:002017-11-30T22:06:36.530-08:00I am a little worried about writing this for fear ...I am a little worried about writing this for fear of stepping on any emotional toes by mistake, but I believe I am a birth daughter of Bob Thomas (I am adopted and thrilled with my adoptive family!) and am curious to learn more about him.Scendanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12711230829048210134noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-88140616937824042592017-11-30T22:06:06.567-08:002017-11-30T22:06:06.567-08:00I am a little worried about writing this for fear ...I am a little worried about writing this for fear of stepping on any emotional toes by mistake, but I believe I am a birth daughter of Bob Thomas (I am adopted and thrilled with my adoptive family!) and am curious to learn more about him.Scendanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12711230829048210134noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-51191923449017519022016-03-11T16:30:45.594-08:002016-03-11T16:30:45.594-08:00I am Brian House and Bob Thomas was part of my ext...I am Brian House and Bob Thomas was part of my extended family. I only met him a few times (most memorable was at the renaissance festival)since I grew up in SoCal. I gave one of my sons the family "Thomas". I now live in the Bay Area and am proud to know that Bob embraced the artistic spirit of humanity. I would love to learn more about this time.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09722009250778611511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-64048734855507405822016-01-04T13:43:44.984-08:002016-01-04T13:43:44.984-08:00Looks like October 1969, maybe?
http://www.chicke...Looks like October 1969, maybe?<br /><br /><a href="http://www.chickenonaunicycle.com/FD%20Shows.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.chickenonaunicycle.com/FD%20Shows.htm</a>Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-51085648647875502502016-01-03T12:43:44.262-08:002016-01-03T12:43:44.262-08:00I remember going to a performance of Golden Toad a...I remember going to a performance of Golden Toad at the Family Dog on the Great Highway. It must have been around 1970. I was quite perplexed and amused, and still remember the experience with great fondness today, which is why I googled Golden Toad and found this blog. BTW I am an aging jazz musician/composer who now lives in Steamboat Springs, CO. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09884337407098356664noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-9670738298810617412015-02-02T23:03:40.830-08:002015-02-02T23:03:40.830-08:00Rosie McGee's book mentions that when the Dead...Rosie McGee's book mentions that when the Dead rented the warehouse at Hamilton AFB in Novato, "Bob Thomas, an artist friend of Bear's, moved into the warehouse loft, acting as the night watchman for the otherwise empty building." <br />Bear also said on his site that Thomas, "an old friend of mine, had just moved from LA to the Bay area and needed a place to stay, and we needed someone to look after the warehouse, which had had a problem with break-ins."<br />This would have been circa late '68/early '69.<br />When Bear started up Alembic there, that's when Bob Thomas designed the original Alembic logo, along with the 'Skull & Lightning" logo for the Dead. (I haven't tried to look up exactly when its first appearance was, but apparently it started out as just a lightning logo & only later was the skull added...) Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-65424115447849318142014-06-26T21:29:12.119-07:002014-06-26T21:29:12.119-07:00Bob Thomas also played bagpipes in the studio with...Bob Thomas also played bagpipes in the studio with the Dead in late 1968... <br /><br />In Robert Hunter's April 1980 interview with the UK magazine Dark Star, he mentioned that in the circulating outtake of the Eleven from the Aoxomoxoa sessions, "That was Bob Thomas playing bagpipes. He was the one who turned me on to playing them.... I spent several years subsequently trying to learn how to do it."Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-6110401745983841812013-09-29T18:25:47.325-07:002013-09-29T18:25:47.325-07:00Here's a link: http://nyupress.org/books/book-...Here's a link: http://nyupress.org/books/book-details.aspx?bookId=11221#.UkjQ6Lyr_C0Corry342https://www.blogger.com/profile/08049035074121231425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-90795619549783544502013-09-29T18:21:32.931-07:002013-09-29T18:21:32.931-07:00For a detailed look at the history of The Golden T...For a detailed look at the history of The Golden Toad, and their critical importance to the culture of Renaissance Faires, the excellent book Well Met-Renaissance Faires and The American Counterculture, by Rachel Lee Rubin (NYU Press, 2012) is an excellent source. All of the members of The Golden Toad, including the late Bob Thomas, were interviewed and the book has a unique perspective.<br /><br />Professor Spires, quoted above, let me know about this book, and he confirms that it is an accurate source.Corry342https://www.blogger.com/profile/08049035074121231425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268955857828486331.post-16675183644788435352013-09-16T07:45:55.661-07:002013-09-16T07:45:55.661-07:00I am Will Spires, a founding member of the Golden...I am Will Spires, a founding member of the Golden Toad. Thanks for this post and these images. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com