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| Jerry Garcia and Chesley Millikin, date and location unknown. I don't know the source of the photograph, nor even if Jerry was photoshopped into it. In any case, it could have been taken, or ought to have been. |
The roots of 20th century rock music often gets described like ancient mythology, when gods and heroes roamed the earth, slaying dragons, freeing princesses and building castles. Figures like Jerry Garcia, Keith Richards or Bill Graham do seem almost mythical now, even if Keef is still actually with us. When industries are just starting, there are fewer participants, and they are more likely to cross paths. Yet mythological or not, even myths and legends do not cross each other's path by accident. Someone knew them both, and introduced them. Identifying the social and professional connections between historical figures is the study of prosopography. Rock Prosopography, as it applies to the Grateful Dead, and is practiced by me, focuses on how the paths of different musicians cross. It's rarely random.
The name Chesley Millikin is only barely recognized in rock music history, half-remembered by people who have a lot of albums and read too many memoirs. Yet he was a very important guy, in Grateful Dead history, and in the histories of the Rolling Stones, Jackson Browne, Stevie Ray Vaughan and several other artists. He never wrote a memoir. Too bad--he was apparently quite a teller of tales, and what a tale he had to tell. Since Mr. Millikin (1934-2001) has traveled on, it's left to me to cobble together the pieces. I don't have anywhere near the whole Chesley Millikin story, so I'm just going to focus just on the Grateful Dead part.
Chesley Millikin had a remarkable rock and roll career, and that isn't even the whole story. Despite only working for the Grateful Dead for a few years in the early 1970s, he made a number of important introductions for them before and during that time, and appeared to have remained in good standing with the band from 1966 through the 1990s, itself a remarkable achievement. A few, brief highlights:
- Fall 1966: Millikin, from Dublin, IRL, was a Berkeley businessman when he saw the Grateful Dead and became friends with Danny Rifkin, Rock Scully and Pigpen
- Summer 1969: Relocated to London, Millikin was the head of Epic Records’ European subsidiary. When Rock Scully arrived in London to meet the Rolling Stones, Chesley introduced him to Sam Cutler, who in turn introduced Rock to Keith Richards. Rock suggested a free Rolling Stones/Grateful Dead concert in San Francisco.
- 1971: Millikin had done some promotion work for the Grateful Dead after American Beauty. The Dead needed a laywer, and Millikin recommended his friend Hal Kant. Kant would remain the Dead's lawyer until the very end.
- 1972: Millikin was instrumental in working with Sam Cutler in putting together the Europe '72 tour. Afterwards, Millikin was Cutler's chief lieutenant in Out of Town Tours, booking the Grateful Dead and the New Riders of The Purple Sage and keeping the Riders on the road.
- 1973: Millikin gets the credit for turning Jerry Garcia on to the Chieftains, also from Dublin. The Chieftains opened for Old And In The Way, got taped by Owsley, and interviewed by Jerry, all in the space of a week or so.
- Summer 1974: After Sam Cutler was pushed out in a January, 1974 purge, and then the managers who replaced them (Jon McIntire, Richard Loren and Rock Scully) were then pushed out in France, Chesley Millikin and Hal Kant were left to manage the Grateful Dead, albeit only for two more months.
- 1979: Millikin was brought in to help manage the Manor Downs race track and concert venue, replacing old pal Sam Cutler. Millikin moved to Austin and booked the Grateful Dead there four times through the 1980s. While he was in Austin, he just happened to discover Stevie Ray Vaughan in some down and out Austin bar, and took on his management.
So this post will review the history of Chesley Millikin and his history with the Grateful Dead, showing the prosopographical context for many seemingly random events in the band's history. I will provide some context for Millikin's history in general, though sadly not all of it. Suffice to say, there's a lot, and even I can only go so far down the rabbit hole. Anyone who has Millikin sightings, corrections, insights or fascinating speculation, please put them in the Comments.
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| Chesley Millikin co-managed the group Kaleidoscope. Their Epic Records debut in 1967, Side Trips, helped invent "World Music." David Lindley (RIP) upper left. |
Back Story: How Did I Get Here?
The only substantial interview with Chesley Millikin that I am aware of was by no less than Dennis McNally, for his epic What A Long Strange Trip history. Although there is no transcript to my knowledge, McNally's book has more references to Millikin than any other source. Millikin's critical role can at least be discerned from McNally, and I will be referring to it often. I will proceed roughly in chronological order, but mostly I will go by topic, since otherwise the story will get diverted. The diversions are great, by the way--if only there'd been a book--but I will do my best to stay on the Grateful Dead track.
Millikin (1934-2001) was from Dublin, and he was on the Irish Olympic show jumping team. I do not know if he participated in either the 1956 (Melbourne) or 1960 (Rome) Olympics. The legend goes, however, that Millikin "jumped ship" in Vancouver, and somehow wound up in California. Millikin's older brother Cameron Millikin (1933-2013) had emigrated to New York and then Canada in 1956, making his way to Alberta by the sixties. Cameron had a long career in Alberta and Canadian politics, so I have to assume that his presence paved the way somehow for his younger brother.
I don't know anything about Chesley Millikin's horse career, or if it is even true. I will note that Cameron Millikin escorted thoroughbred racehorses around the globe, so the Millikin family knew their horses. Googling around turns up various Millikins in the horse racing world. A Kerry Millikin, for example, won the bronze medal for the US in the 1996 Olympics. Make of it what you can, but I doubt it's a coincidence.
When industries are just being born, there aren't many practitioners and they usually are pretty closely connected. From a distance, we marvel how teenage Steve Jobs and Bill Gates knew each other, but that's just how it worked at the beginning of the Personal Computer era. 60s Rock and Roll wasn't much different. We think of a band like the Grateful Dead as separate from London and Los Angeles rock stars, but they were often only one step removed. Often enough, that single degree of separation was Chesley Millikin.
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| Country Joe and The Fish and the Grateful Dead played Pauley Ballroom on the UC Berkeley campus on Friday, December 2, 1966. The show was produced by Bill "Jolly Blue" Ehlert, proprietor of Berkeley's Jabberwock coffee shop. This show was probably the one where Chesley Millikin met Rock Scully. |
Berkeley '66
Our first firm sight of Chesley Millikin comes in 1966 Berkeley. McNally summarizes the first leg of Millikin's musical career:
Chesley was an interesting character on the Dead's scene. A little older than the band members, he'd fled his native Ireland to become a martini-guzzling businessman in Berkeley before going to a 1966 Dead concert on campus, where he fell in with Danny, Rock and Pigpen. After taking LSD for his alcoholism, he dropped out, eventually becoming the manager of a band called Kaleidoscope (which featured David Lindley), then the in-house hippie at CBS in 1968, and then Epic Records' European manager in 1969 (p437).
The source for this information was Millikin's interview with McNally. The likely date for the "campus" show was the December 2, 1966 show at Pauley Ballroom, but that's just a prudent guess. What business was Millikin in? How did he have a green card or work permit? Unknown as well. Nevertheless, the significant detail here was Chesley's early and lasting friendship with Rock Scully. Scully, of course had been the Dead's sort-of-manager since early '66, and was as close to Jerry Garcia as anybody until about '84, when he was pushed out of the Dead organization for being a "bad influence."
Some key events in Grateful Dead history seem to have happened as if by magic: the Altamont debacle, the abrupt arrival of Sam Cutler, the steadying presence of Hal Kant and so on. All of these events were not magic at all, however, but had depended on the initial friendship of Rock Scully and Chesley Millikin. Chesley introduced Rock and Sam Cutler, so while it triggered the ill-advised Altamont mess, it also brought Cutler into the fold so quickly. Hal Kant's legal advice was another steadying influence. If Rock hadn't gone back to 1966 with Chesley, none of these things would have happened.
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| Kaleidoscope's second album on Epic Records, A Beacon From Mars, was released in 1968 |
Los Angeles 1967-68
By 1967, Millikin was in Los Angeles, working in the music industry. Millikin was the co-manager of a truly legendary rock band from Claremont called Kaleidoscope. Kaleidoscope released 4 amazing albums on Epic from 1967 to 1970, and helped pioneer "World Music." No one was ready for it, unfortunately, except other musicians. Jimmy Page, for one, was a huge fan of Kaleidoscope. Once, in May 1968, the Yardbirds were playing the Fillmore, and Page later explained how between sets he walked the twelve blocks over to the Avalon just to catch Kaleidoscope. How Millikin came to be the co-manager of Kaleidoscope is lost to the mists of time.
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| Frazier Mohawk (l), born Barry Friedman, was Buffalo Springfield's first manager |
Millikin's co-manager was another legendary character called Frazier Mohawk. Mohawk (1941-2012)--born Barry Friedman --had worked for KRLA dj Bob Eubanks (yes, of the Newlywed Game), and had done the promotion work for the Beatles 1964 appearance in Los Angeles, since the concert was promoted by Eubanks. By osmosis, Friedman then became the "house hippie" for Elektra Records, producing some early Butterfield Blues Band sides. He also helped his roommate, Stephen Stills, put together the Buffalo Springfield and he was the first manager of that band as well. Friedman had changed his name either to avoid bill collectors or because it sounded cooler. All the folkies-turned-rockers in LA knew Frazier Mohawk. He had suggested that Stills and Peter Tork audition for The Monkees, for example, and Tork got the gig (Stills had bad teeth). Jackson Browne slept on Mohawk's couch. Mohawk married singer Sandy Hurvitz, who changed her name to Essra Mohawk (she would turn up in the Jerry Garcia Band a dozen years later).
By the end of the decade, Mohawk had produced The Moray Eels Eat The Holy Modal Rounders and Nico's Marble Index, and in 1968 even got Elektra to finance an insane project in far Northern California called Paxton Ranch. The Paxton Ranch story is too nutty to believe (read Bob Segarini's summary for a taste), but the idea was that it was a remote communal studio to record Jackson Browne songs 24/7. Demos survived, but no album came of it. It was the 60s.
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| The Poor, managed by Chesley Millikin, performing at Universal Studios in 1968. Future Eagle Randy Meisner is on bass, and future New Rider Pat Shanahan is on drums |
Millikin, meanwhile, shared Kaleidoscope with Mohawk--and Jackson Browne slept some on his couch, too, which turned out to be important--but he also had his own gigs. Millikin was also the manager of a band of mostly Colorado transplants called The Poor. The Poor included bassist Randy Meisner, later in Poco and then the Eagles, and guitarist Allan Kemp and drummer Pat Shanahan. Shanahan, Kemp and Meisner were in Rick Nelson's Stone Canyon Band ("Garden Party"), and Shanahan and Kemp were both in the New Riders of The Purple Sage for several years in the late 1970s. Shanahan has described some of the adventures of The Poor with Millikin in an interview.
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| LA Free Press ad for The Magic Mushroom (111345 Ventura Boulevard), advertising Kaleidoscope performing on the weekend of January 18-21, 1968 |
As the Los Angeles Free Press ad above shows, Kaleidoscope, Millikin and Mohawk's band, played The Magic Mushroom on the weekend of January 18-21, 1968. Broadcasting on Sunday was "Radio Free Oz," a live comedy show on Eubanks' old station, KRLA. Radio Free Oz would evolve into the equally legendary Firesign Theater. All of these threads were in play at the same time, and Millikin was in the midst of band management with The Poor and Kaleidoscope, while running a nightclub at the same time. David Lindley said (in 2008) "Chesley was a prime mover in the whole California music thing."
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| Bang, Bang You're Terry Reid was Reid's 68 debut on Epic Records |
1968-Epic Records London
By the end of 1968, Millikin and Frazier Mohawk were no longer managing Kaleidoscope, although the band soldiered on with an even better album (Incredible! Kaleidoscope) to even less acclaim. But Kaleidoscope had been on Epic Records, which had been conceived as a sort of specialty artistic imprint for giant Columbia Records. Columbia had decided to focus on the growing rock scene in London, so they hired Chesley Millikin to be in charge of Epic Records in London. Millikin relocated to London, leaving Kaleidoscope, The Poor and the Magic Mushroom behind.
Epic Records was a subsidiary of Columbia Records, founded in 1953 as a sort of prestige jazz and pop label. By the mid-60s, however, Epic had become the home for some more adventurous rock acts that didn't fit in with the staid entertainment professionalism of Columbia. Epic's biggest act in the US was Donovan, who was huge. We don't think of Donovan as "edgy," today, but back in 1966 he had been a long way from the Columbia mainstream. Epic was also the home of a number of "British Invasion" bands like the Dave Clark Five and The Hollies, as well as the Yardbirds. Millikin was hired to be the head of Epic in London, apparently to make them a hipper label.
[Just to clarify some nomenclature: in the States, Columbia Records was a subsidiary of CBS, the parent company of the Columbia Broadcasting System TV and radio network. In the UK, however, the "Columbia Records" trademark was owned by EMI, so albums released on Columbia in the US were released on CBS Records in the UK. CBS Records UK was also a subsidiary of the US CBS parent. But—make a note—UK EMI-Columbia, not a CBS company, released their albums on Epic in the US.]
Sam Cutler, meanwhile, gotten into the rock and roll business, and was helping produce free concerts in Hyde Park in London. It's no surprise that Chesley and Sam would meet in the close-knit world of London rock and rollers, but we don't know how precisely that occurred. In the Summer of '68, Cutler had started working for the firm of Blackhill Enterprises, who managed Pink Floyd and promoted concerts. In the Summers of '68 and '69, Cutler had the principal duty of putting together free concerts in Hyde Park. Major acts headlined the Hyde Park shows, including the debut of Blind Faith (June 7 ‘69) and the debut of Mick Taylor with the Rolling Stones (July 5 ‘69). As a result of working with the Rolling Stones at Hyde Park, Cutler ended up as tour manager for the band’s 1969 US Tour.
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| Ralph Gleason's column in the SF Chronicle August 27, 1969 |
Grateful Dead co-manager Rock Scully's momentous visit to London in Summer '69 was described in detail in both Rock's and Sam's books. Sam Cutler had called Rock, probably bearing the imprimatur of Millikin, to propose that the Dead and the Airplane should come over to play a free concert in Hyde Park. Cutler said (as recalled by Rock, though not by anyone else):
"Wot abowt you bleedin' wankers commin' over 'ere and doin' a bit of jumpin' around wif guitars and other folly, eh darlin'?" Sam Cutler is on the line and wants to know what I think of the Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane doing some free concerts in Hyde Park. They'll pick up the hotel costs and airfare and take care of the technical stuff...I am being sent as the front man, representing the Dead and the Airplane to "suss out" (in the phrase of the day) how the money would work, if it could really be done and whether it is worth doing." (p176).
Scully flies over to London in late June 1969, and gets busted by Customs for smuggling LSD. He is in the airport jail over the weekend, but fellow traveler Frankie Hart (later known as Frankie Weir) calls Cutler. Per Rock, "Sam calls Chesley Millikin" who's currently vice president of Epic Records in Britain, and on Monday Chesley gets me out." Cutler, in his book, tells the story slightly differently:
I got a call from my close friend Chesley Millikin, the former European head of Epic Records. He invited me to accompany him to Heathrow, where we were to collect an American friend he wanted me to meet. Though I was madly busy, Chesley wouldn't take no for an answer and he duly arrived in his wonderful old Bentley and we drove to the airport in magnificent style, smoking a large joint...
At the police station, we collected Chesley's friend, who turned out to be Rock Scully, one of the managers of the San Franciscan band the Grateful Dead....Rock was to swan around London and I saw very little of him, but he met up with Keith Richards, having been introduced by Chesley Millikin. It was at that meeting, at Keith's house in Cheyne Walk, that the idea of the Stones doing a free concert in California was first broached. No one seemed too enthusiastic as far as I could tell, but the idea would eventually come back to haunt the Stones [p.52]
Dennis McNally tells the story, too (p339), and his version in turn is slightly different than either Cutler's or Scully's versions. Even in my brief excerpts, you'll note that everyone's memory is fuzzy on the exact sequence of phone calls and meetings, but the essential fact was that Chesley was the link between Sam and Rock.
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| SF Good Times ad from September 5, 1969, where the Family Dog announces "a jam with members of 3 groups we're not allowed to name." Grateful Dead, New Riders and Jefferson Airplane played Friday, September 6, and the Dead played on the 7th as well. The 7th also featured jams with Jack Casady, Jorma Kaukonen, Jerry Garcia, Joey Covington and others. |
On August 27, Ralph Gleason's column in the San Francisco Chronicle announced that the Dead and the Airplane (along with Crosby, Stills and Nash and Joni Mitchell) were going to play a free concert in Hyde Park on September 7. Needless to say, they did not, but Gleason's source was clearly an optimistic Rock Scully. In fact, the Dead and the Airplane played two stealthy weekend shows at the Family Dog on The Great Highway. Owsley had the foresight to tape the music.
The history of the Altamont concert needs no recounting here, but its one of the most infamous and influential events in 60s rock history. Without Chesley Millikin, there wasn't a link between Rock Scully and Sam Cutler, and no access to Keith Richards. That alone makes Millikin an important rock figure, and we aren't even out of the 1960s yet.
In his excellent book (You Can't Always Get What You Want [2008: ECW Press]), Cutler describes in horrifying detail how Altamont goes bad, how he takes the blame, and how he ends up staying in San Francisco to become the tour manager of the Grateful Dead. It was Cutler who organized the Dead's chaotic finances and finds a way to tour profitably. Without Cutler, the Dead would not have recovered from the financial debacle wrought by manager Lenny Hart. Without Millikin, Cutler never meets the Dead, and the future of the band after 1969 would have been in question.
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| Terry Reid's second album, on EMI-Columbia in the UK released 1969. A different version of this album was released on Epic in the States as Superlungs My Supergirl |
Terry Reid
Somewhere around the middle of 1969, Millikin had the responsibility of managing the career of the English guitarist and singer Terry Reid. Reid was signed to EMI-Columbia, but they were distributed by Epic Records in the States. It remains unclear whether Millikin was handling Reid on behalf of Epic, or was actually Reid's manager (you'll note that Scully and Cutler's quotes above state different things), and if so when his actual role switched. For our purposes here, it only matters that Millikin was close to Reid and actively assisted in promoting his career, whether as Record exec or manager. Cutler:
A couple of days later I was at dinner with Chesley and Jo Bergman, who managed the Stones' office. Chesley was the personal manager of Terry Reid, who although he was still very young, was in many people's opinion one of the greatest vocalists England had produced. Chesley was talking to Jo about the possibility of Terry getting a support slot on a Stones tour of America. The Stones were getting a lot of pressure from their record company to cross the pond [p52]
Terry Reid (b 1949) was from greater Cambridge, and first became known as the guitarist for Peter Jay and The Jaywalkers, when they opened for a Rolling Stones UK Tour in 1966. He met Graham Nash, then of the Hollies, who helped get him a contract with EMI (Columbia in the UK). Reid was an exceptional guitarist, a powerful singer and handsome as well. He had some chart success, and he came under the management of the famous hitmaking producer Mickie Most. Most (born Michael Hayes) had been a pop star in South Africa in the early 60s, which is how he acquired the stage name. By the mid-60s, he was a hugely successful pop producer, scoring big hits with Herman's Hermits, The Animals, Donovan and many others.
Most's principal lieutenant was ex-wrestler Peter Grant, who acted as road manager for Most's bands. Most had signed the Yardbirds, and had taken Jeff Beck solo, but the Yardbirds were falling apart. Lead guitarist Jimmy Page, who played on many of Most's hits, was forming a band with bassist John Paul Jones, another veteran Most session man. Most was tired of rock groups, so Peter Grant was going to take Page's new band and manage them.
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| A Baltimore Sun ad for The Rolling Stones, BB King and Terry Reid at the Baltimore Civic Center, November 26, 1969 |
Terry Reid's eternal fame, for all his talent, stems from a Fall 1968 lunch he had with Jimmy Page, when Page offered him the job of lead singer in his new band. Reid was counting on money from touring with the Rolling Stones upcoming American tour, however, and didn't want to take a flyer on Page's new band. So--Terry Reid turned down Led Zeppelin. As a courtesy, however, Reid told Jimmy about a singer he had seen in the Midlands who kind of sounded like him. Page went to see the singer, signed up Robert Plant and his drummer John Bonham, and the rest was history. Reid was the opening on the Stones' US Tour, though.
By 1970, Reid had toured America with both Cream (in 1968) and the Rolling Stones (in 1969) and played a bunch of rock festivals, and put out two really good albums that hadn't sold. Reid could see how rock was going, and he was ready to move towards sounding like Jeff Beck or Led Zeppelin, but his producer Mickie Most wouldn't have it. Most wanted Reid to make three-minute pop singles, and Reid refused, so Most wouldn't record him. The only way Reid could make any money was by touring, but his old band (organist Pete Solley and drummer Keith Webb) had left him. So Reid needed a new band, and only had a bass player. Lee Miles had played with Ike & Tina Turner when they, too, had opened for the 1969 Stones tour, and he had signed up with Reid.
Meanwhile, in March, 1970, David Lindley had left Kaleidoscope, who promptly disintegrated anyway. Although Millikin was no longer Kaleidoscope's manager, he arranged to have Lindley write a letter to Reid offering his services. Lindley, along with about two dozen instruments, came over to England to tour with Terry Reid. Reid, Lindley, Lee Miles and various drummers (Bruce Rowland, Tim Davis and Alan White) toured the US and UK in 1970 and '71.
Millikin had also facilitated the connection between Lindley and his former couch-surfer Jackson Browne. According to Lindley, back in 1968, when Millikin was still working with Kaleidoscope, Lindley was at the CBS Record Convention in Century City with Chesley, and Lindley gave Jackson a ride home. Later, Millikin told Lindley "[Jackson]'s really good. [He] writes incredible songs." Subsequently (the exact timing is uncertain), Lindley played fiddle supporting Browne at the Troubadour, spontaneously, and later played with him in Cambridge as well. Jackson was in England recording, and Lindley was working with Terry Reid. They agreed to get together in LA if they had the chance. In 1972, they did. Chalk another one up for Chesley Millikin.
1971: Return To The States
Whether Millikin was still working for Epic in London, Terry Reid's manager, or something else, we finally sight him again at the end of 1970. By the end of that year, the Grateful Dead were rather unexpectedly dealing with some success on FM radio, having released Workingman's Dead in June and American Beauty in November. "Truckin'" even has some hope as an AM hit single, and Rock Scully described the band's next step:
"Truckin'" is the first song we think could be a hit so we hire the best "hit men" in the business. First we hire Chesley Millikin away from Epic Records to help us make "Truckin'" a hit...and through Chesley I meet a guy who is one of the most successful record pushers and AM radio fixers in the business" (p193).
In the parlance of the time, Millikin would likely have been an "independent promoter," paid for by the Dead but neither their employee nor Warner Brothers’. In any case, this seems to have facilitated Millikin's return to the US.
In 1971, Millikin's seemingly magical ability to know everybody you might need to know pays another huge dividend for the Grateful Dead. By 1971, the band were actually making money, with two hit albums and Sam Cutler leading a profitable touring operation. The Dead's unique approach to business and troubled managerial history made a good lawyer imperative. They hired Hal Kant, and he remained their attorney until the very end. And how did the band find out about Kant? McNally:
[Hal Kant] joined a small Beverly Hills law firm that happened to be next door to the William Morris Agency, and eventually began to add entertainment clients to his list. One day late in the 1960s, a "charming psychopath" friend of his from graduate school had brought to Hal's home another charming rogue, Chesley Millikin. Chesley was quite taken by Hal, and was a close friend of Rock Scully, so when the band sought an attorney in 1971, Hal's name came up. (p422)
Europe '72
It's not quite clear what Chesley Millikin was doing for the balance of 1971, or even what continent he lived on. Maybe he was still doing independent promotion for the Grateful Dead, or maybe something else. Yet he turns up again in Grateful Dead circles by early 1972. Sam Cutler had been working on the Dead's mammoth "Europe '72" tour starting in late 1971. As Jesse Jarnow's Deadcast series so aptly explains, Cutler had to effectively invent a network of promoters in different European countries to execute the tour. Millikin turns up in the tale by the time Europe '72 is in its final planning stages, so he may have been there all along. In any case, Millikin was Cutler's henchman in making sure that the Dead concerts in multiple countries came off on a timely basis.
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| A late 1973 flyer for Out of Town Tours. While it's a stretch to argue that The Band were OOT clients, The Band only played three live shows in 1973, and Cutler had booked all of them. Note that Merl Saunders' name has an incorrect spelling. The New Riders are not listed, as they had moved over to another booking agent by the end of 1973 (Ron Rainey of Magma). |
1973: Out of Town Tours
Sam Cutler had always been a very active Tour Manager for the Grateful Dead. He had a hand in booking and arranging tours from the time of his arrival (February 1970), rather than merely just wrangling the crew from town to town. After the Europe '72 tour, the Grateful Dead decided to break free of ties to any record company, letting their Warner Brothers contract expire and starting their own labels. At the same time, they took their booking and travel in-house as well, starting a Travel Agency (Fly-By-Night Travel) and a booking agency. Thus the fees that would have gone outside the band's circle stayed inside, as friends, wives and girlfriends were the employees of the Travel and Booking agencies.
Sam Cutler was the head of Out of Town Tours, but also remained the Grateful Dead's road manager. Chesley Millikin was Cutler's chief deputy, managing the office when Cutler was absorbed in Grateful Dead duties. Millikin also had principal responsibility for booking the New Riders Of The Purple Sage. Garcia had left the New Riders after Fall 1971, but Jon McIntire was still co-manager of the Riders. The New Riders were on Columbia rather than Warners, so there was an entirely different set of relationships. The New Riders followed the Cutler playbook, touring colleges and different regions in order to build an audience, and did so quite successfully. They scored a big hit with their Adventures of Panama Red album, released in October 1973. Millikin's presence allowed the New Riders to get the attention they deserved (I have discussed the New Riders 1972 and '73 touring schedule in great detail elsewhere).
Out Of Town Tours had grand ambitions that were never met. It appears that some finance for the agency was provided by Cutler's girlfriend, Frances Carr. Frances Carr, inevitably described as a "leggy heiress," apparently came from a family made wealthy by oil, but I don't know how much access she had to the fortune. Carr had been part of what was known as "The Pleasure Crew," a loose bunch of wealthy dilettantes who could afford to simply follow the Grateful Dead around and stay high. One of the most infamous of The Pleasure Crew, "Loose Bruce" Baxter, was supposedly Carr's half-brother.
Chesley Millikin played a central role at Out of Town Tours from the very beginning. An early 1973 press release describes the original set-up (emphasis mine):
Press Release February 1973
Out of Town Tours was born during the European Tour of the Grateful Dead in 1972. The album "Europe 72" was recorded on that tour and bears our company logo on its cover.
After the tour, Sam Cutler, the Road Manager of the Dead formed Out of Town Tours to handle bookings for the band and to co-ordinate all personal appearance activities. The New Riders joined us in December, 1972 and the Sons in January of this year. Since then, the family has been re-united with Ramblin Jack, an old friend, and Terry Reid, who warbled way back in '69 on The Rolling Stones American tour.
Fine artists, with whom we enjoy a groovy relationship, are the backbone of our trip. All of the staff at Out of Town tours are folks who left the regular music business to create a more humane and meaningful trip.
A call to either myself or Chesley Millikin for the New Riders of The Purple Sage, Terry Reid & Jack Elliott will produce amazing results, and at the same time please rap to me regarding the Dead and the Sons Of Champion.
We keep our office open from 10 in the morning until 6 at night for five days a week. On the weekends we play!
Millikin had brought his old charge Terry Reid into the fold. Reid was
based in Los Angeles, where he would mostly live from 1972 onwards.
Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records had purchased Reid's contract, freeing
him from Mickie Most. Reid would release the album River in 1973, which
included tracks recorded with David Lindley, even though Lindley had
already begun his historic association with Jackson Browne in 1972. I'm
not actually aware of any Terry Reid tour dates in 1973 (please advise
in the Comments if you know of any), however. By year's end, based on
the flyer above (with The Band), Terry Reid was no longer on the Out of Town
Tours roster. Reid had a series of health problems that made his touring
and recording intermittent, despite his undeniable talent. Millikin's
loyalty to Reid, however, was a clear mark of how Chesley kept his
friendships seemingly forever.
October 1973: The Chieftains
The Chieftains had been formed in Dublin in 1962, and were the premier worldwide exponents of traditional Irish music. While The Chieftains would release their 4th album in 1973 (Chieftains 4), like all their records up to that time they were released on the Irish label Claddagh. Chieftains albums were only available as imported records in the United States. Although Millikin had not lived in Dublin for many years, thanks to his experience with Kaleidoscope and David Lindley, he would not have failed to be aware of traditional music from his homeland.
According to numerous accounts, Millikin introduced Jerry Garcia to the music of The Chieftains. The musically omnivorous Garcia loved them, of course, but in 1973 The Chieftains' albums were only available as imports, and they had never toured the States. It's a mark of Millikin's status that Garcia would listen to what Chesley suggested--you have to figure that half of Marin County was always ready to tell Jerry what album he should listen to.
Garcia was so enthusiastic about The Chieftains, however, that he underwrote their initial US tour (which I take to mean that he guaranteed against any losses). He also arranged to have them open for Old And In The Way at The Boarding House, and interviewed some members of The Chieftains on KSAN. Garcia was a genuine San Francisco rock star, by any calculation, and for a band on their first tour his endorsement must have made a huge difference. The Chieftains music was so good, however, that once the word had spread, they went on to worldwide fame. In 2022, the Owsley Stanley Foundation released a cd set of The Chieftains's Boarding House show.
1974-76: Grateful Dead Records
In January 1974, Sam Cutler and Out of Town Tours were pushed out of the Grateful Dead orbit. It's not really clear what happened, but there was some kind of internal power struggle involving money. Some parties seemed to feel that OOT was charging too much. Cutler was very angry at Jerry Garcia for not taking his side, and never spoke to him again. Decades later, with all surviving parties reminiscing on The Deadcast, everyone respects Cutler's professionalism, and his importance in the survival of the Grateful Dead. Cutler, for his part, doesn't overtly criticize his rivals, and only has kind words for Garcia.
With Out of Town tours removed, Rock Scully and Richard Loren took over the booking. Since the New Riders had left OOT some months earlier, thanks to new management (Joe Kerr, a college roommate of Commander Cody), that would seem to have left Chesley Millikin out in the cold. Yet the very opposite seems to have been the case, although I am hard pressed to say exactly what role Millikin played in the Dead’s operations.
From what little evidence I can find, Millikin played an important role in Grateful Dead Records, and probably its sister, Round Records. As one of the few people in the Grateful Dead organization with actual record company experience--possibly the only one--he would have been important. Since Millikin was seemingly friends with everyone and knew the players on multiple continents, it's obvious why he would have been important. But it's hard to find out what anyone did at or for Grateful Dead Records, not just Chesley.
After Sam Cutler was pushed out in January 1974, the Dead were managed by Jon McIntire. I believe Rock Scully had the dominant role in booking, but I'm not even certain of that. The members of the Dead were not happy with the situation, however. When the Dead toured Europe in 1974, albeit rather briefly, things really fell apart. In Munich in September, a temptestuous meeting led to Bill Kreutzmann forcing out McIntire, who simply quit. The rest of the band went along with Kreutzmann. McNally describes the scene, based on Millikin's recollection:
One night in Munich there was a confrontation between Lesh and Kreutzmann on the one hand and the management--McIntire, Loren and Scully--on the other, "a knock-down-drag-out," as Millikin put it. Kreutzmann was at this time part of what John Barlow called the "neo-cocaine cowboy aesthetic" that characterized one chunk of the crew, and the aesthetic had no affinity for an intellectual like McIntire. After plenty of abuse, McIntire had had enough and quit.
The next morning Chesley met Hal Kant in the hotel lobby and asked him "What are you looking so forlorn for?"
"Don't you known, didn't you hear?""No, what?" said Chesley.
"The band fired their management last night."
"No kidding. Who's management now?" Asked Chesley.
"You are," said Hal. [p476]
Chesley and Hal Kant shepherded the Dead through the three remaining European shows, and the "Last Five Nights" at Winterland.
After October 1974, the Grateful Dead saw themselves as a recording entity with a record company, not a performing band. The individual members performed, at least some of them, but the Dead weren't a touring entity. Millikin played an important part, whatever it might have been.
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| The Paxton Brothers 1975 album on Anchor Records. This is Chesley Millikin's only credit on Discogs (as "Coordinator") save for an archival Stevie Ray Vaughan album |
We get another sighting of Chesley Millikin in an unexpected place. A lengthy post by singer James Paxton, of the Paxton Brothers, fondly recalls Chesley and his career. The Paxton Brothers were a sort of country-rock duo, and they released a self-titled 1975 album on Anchor Records. Chesley Millikin gets a credit on the back of the album, as "Coordinator" (old buddy David Lindley also appears on the record). For the record, this is Millikin's only appearance on Discogs.com save for an archival Stevie Ray Vaughan album.
James Paxton says that Chesley Millikin booked the Paxton Brothers during the 1974-76 period, although he assigns him to Out of Town Tours, which no longer existed. This means that Millikin's booking was kind of a "side hustle," a relatively common thing in the record industry. Grateful Dead Records wouldn't have paid much, so working on something else makes sense. Millikin may have had a role in helping to book some of the other Round Records act, too, like Keith & Donna or Robert Hunter, but that's just an assumption on my part.
In any case, Grateful Dead Records collapsed in mid-1976, with Ron Rakow taking off with most of the money (around $225,000). McNally said "the most disappointed person in the whole mess was possibly Chesley Millikin, who had actual record company experience and who was a true believer in the Dead" (p492). So Millikin was part of Grateful Dead/Round right up until the end, having survived the peaks and valleys until the money finally ran out. From 1976 to '79, I can't find any indicator of what Chesley Millikin might have been doing or even where he lived.
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| The Manor Downs team, ca 1977. Sam Cutler with cowboy hat, and Frances Carr is on the far right (Watt Casey photo via Michael Corcoran) |
Sam Cutler had been pushed out of the Grateful Dead orbit in January 1974. Out of Town Tours, needless to say, was closed for business. A year later, however, Cutler turned up outside of Austin, TX. Cutler and Frances Carr's new venture was restoring a quarter-horse track called Manor Downs, east of Austin and just outside the small town of Manor. This was a very peculiar project, in many ways decades ahead of its time and of course, fated to be fondly remembered and financially dubious. Naturally, a good time was had by everyone.
Out of Town partner Frances Carr, an oil heiress from Corpus Christi, came back to Texas and bought a dormant 1960’s horse track 12 miles east of Austin called Manor Downs. She was “through with show biz,” she told the Statesman in March 1975, which is what the regulatory boards and conservative Manor neighbors wanted to hear.
Managed by her boyfriend and O.T.T. partner Sam Cutler (of Altamont notoriety) the Downs would be an equine-training facility, with quarter horse racing on weekends. It was also pitched as the new home for the Travis County Fair and Livestock Show, which Austin’s City Coliseum proved woefully inadequate to handle. The renovated Manor Downs debuted in May 1977, and just five months later, the Dead played the infield of the racetrack for the first of five shows there in the next eight years. The track’s new slogan was “Horse Racing and Rock and Roll.” ...
The setup at Manor Downs was unconventional, but Cutler as usual saw the future before others did. Manor Downs was a "quarter horse" track, where the horses raced in a quarter mile sprint, rather than the oval typical of the Kentucky Derby-like "thoroughbred" races. Thoroughbred races, what most people are referring to when they think of "horse racing," typically range from 5/8 of a mile to 1 1/2 miles. The Kentucky Derby, for example, covers 1 1/4 mile.
Quarter Horse racing, however, uses a much shorter track, and the races are generally 440 yards (a quarter of a mile, hence the name of the sport). The straight, 400-meter Quarter Horse track thus provides a form of Equine drag racing. Quarter Horses race much faster than Thoroughbreds, though obviously for shorter distances. Manor Downs was a quarter horse track. Cutler's idea was to re-establish the horse racing, and use the races as entertainment while presenting rock and roll concerts. Cutler had effectively hit on the Indian Casino model, several years before it became conventional around the country. The expanding rock market needed venues, but at the same time rock fans wanted something more to do at a concert site than just enter, listen and leave. The original concept, apparently, was that Manor Downs would be a horse training (and boarding) facility as well as a kind of fairgrounds, and the concerts and horse racing fit into the fairgrounds model.
One peculiar barrier for Manor Downs was that it did not have a gambling license. So patrons could watch the horses race, but couldn't gamble on them. This defies any economic logic. I can't help but think there were kindly locals willing to take a wager on any of the horses, and that perhaps these kind locals had some agreement with Manor Downs management. I have no evidence, of course, but all I can say is that if I can figure it out, the perpetually shrewd Mr Cutler was no doubt way ahead of me. Because of Texas racing rules, Manor Downs could only have horse races 44 calendar days a year.
The first major concert at Manor Downs featured no less than the Grateful Dead, on October 12, 1977. In some ways this was historic, the Grateful Dead presented by Sam Cutler, the re-introduction of one of the most critical figures in the Dead's touring history. All was clearly not golden, however. Cutler does not mention the event at all in his book. He also pointedly says, after he was fired, that his anger was such that he never spoke to Garcia again. It's striking to think that he ran the venue the Dead played at, and somehow never actually spoke with Jerry, which tells me it was a conscious choice.
The first Manor Downs show must have gone alright, because the band returned, but not for four more years, when Cutler had departed for Australia. Draw your own conclusions. The real connection between the Grateful Dead and Manor Downs seems to have been Frances Carr. Apparently there was a large house (or group of houses) attached to the Manor Downs site, and Carr lived there. When the Grateful Dead played the venue, they stayed there rather than a hotel, a fairly unique arrangement.
For the purposes of this story, however, the key event seems to be that around 1979 Cutler left Manor Downs, moving to Australia. Presumably he and Carr were no longer a couple. To replace him, Carr brought in Chesley Millikin. Millikin, you will recall, not only had a great rock and roll pedigree, he was a veteran horseman as well. His experience on the Irish Jumping team must have served him well in managing a racetrack. The timing is a little uncertain--Millikin may have come on board in 1978, and Cutler may not have left until 1980, but in any case Chesley became an Austin resident.
Millikin and Carr promoted the Grateful Dead at Manor Downs (in association with John Scher, of course) four times: July 4 '81, July 31 '82, September 13 '83 and August 31 '85. The shows are fondly remembered on the Archive, Dead.net and elsewhere. After 1985, the Grateful Dead were not only too large for Manor Downs, but basically gave up on Texas. They did not play Texas after 1988.
Manor Downs’ last really big concert was Farm Aid II, on July 4, 1986, which was also Willie Nelson's annual picnic. It was shown live on VH1, and it featured Willie, Stevie Ray Vaughan and many others. Afterwards, Frances Carr converted Manor Downs to a horse racing track with parimutuel betting, and it was a full thoroughbred track, not just quarter horses. Rock and roll was no more at Manor Downs.
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| Stevie Ray Vaughan opened for Bobby & The Midnites at Manor Downs on May 31, 1982. Stevie Ray was unsigned at the time, but Chesley Millikin had made him known to Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones |
1980-93: Chesley Millikin in Austin
Millikin had moved to Austin, TX, in 1979 or '80 in order to help manage Manor Downs. Yet he had a huge impact, far beyond just the concert site. Even a casual search of Austin music during that period turns up Millikin's name in numerous places. His impeccable taste, legendary connections and universal charm made him an important man to know. The Austin music scene is worthy of a book in itself (Michael Corcoran may be writing it, I hope), so I will limit myself just to a few Millikin notes.
The most important story about Millikin in Austin was that Chesley and Frances were interested in management. Carr had capital, and Chesley had Chesley. Millikin's most famous discovery was Stevie Ray Vaughan, playing blazing blues guitar every night in crummy Austin bars. Millikin heard Vaughan at some dumps (The Steamboat and The Rome Inn) and signed him to Classic Management, his firm with Carr. Around April 1982, Mick Jagger and his wife Jerry Hall came to Manor Downs to watch the horses, and Millikin showed Mick a VHS of Vaughan playing in some club. We'd all like to show Mick a video of our favorite artist, but Millikin actually got to do it. An intrigued Jagger wanted to see Vaughan live.
Millikin flew Stevie Ray and his band to New York to play a private showcase for the Stones, with an eye to getting them signed to Rolling Stones' Records. The tiny show was written up in New York papers, and even though Jagger passed on signing him ("blues doesn't sell"), Vaughan became a name of sorts. Millikin managed to get him on the bill at the Montreaux Jazz Festival in Summer '82. Recording contracts and success followed. Plenty of musicians and managers had already heard and recorded Stevie Ray Vaughan prior to 1982, but it took Millikin to get him in front of the Rolling Stones and on to the Montreaux Jazz Festival bill.
By 1986, Stevie Ray Vaughan was a huge success, but he was struggling with drug and alcohol addictions. Millikin regretfully stepped away from managing Vaughan, because he did not want to get the phone call that Vaughan had destroyed himself. As it happened, Vaughan died in a helicopter crash in 1990 on the way to a performance, a sad ending way too soon.
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| All The Rage, Ian McLagan's tale of Small Faces, Faces and all his friends. A must read. |
1990 Coda: Ian McLagan
After 1986, Chesley Millikin was no longer running Manor Downs, nor was he managing Stevie Ray Vaughan's career. Still, he was an important man in rock and roll Austin. His most prominent client was English legend Ronnie Lane, who had moved from England to Houston in '84. in the hopes of managing his multiple sclerosis. Lane, much beloved by Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton and others, had been hugely successful in the Small Faces, The Faces and as a solo artist until his MS had slowed him down. When Houston didn't pan out, Millikin persuaded him to move to Austin for the mild climate, and also managed Lane's musical career. Lane's final performance was in 1992. He moved to Colorado (funded by Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood and Jimmy Page), and died in 1997.
Chesley Millikin wasn't managing major acts after '86, but he still knew everybody. Unlike many people in the entertainment business, all friends of Chesley Millikin always remained thus, and he could always get his phone calls returned. Ian McLagan was the keyboard player for both the Small Faces and Faces, and he had also toured with the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt and too many others to count. In his must-read autobiography All The Rage (2000), McLagan mentioned that in 1990 Millikin called him with the opportunity to audition with the Grateful Dead for the chance to replace Brent Mydland. Despite Millinkin's promise of a minimum o f$250K a year, McLagan turned it down (I wrote about the auditions elsewhere), but the point for this saga was that 15 years after working with the Dead, living 2000 miles away, Millikin was still in the band's loop.
In 1993, Millikin was diagnosed with cancer and retired to Indian Wells, CA. He made it to 2001. His departure was much mourned, but not as widely as it should have been. Millikin was a crucial link for the Grateful Dead, Jackson Browne, Stevie Ray Vaughan and many others, all of which must make up for Altamont somehow.
