In 1968, rock promoter Bill Graham launched the Fillmore East in New
York City and the Fillmore West in San Francisco, changing music
forever. For three years, every major rock band played the Fillmores,
performing legendary shows: Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, Santana,
Jefferson Airplane, Led Zeppelin, Cream, the Allman Brothers, and many
more. Author John Glatt tells the story of the Fillmores through the
lives of Bill Graham, Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, Carlos Santana, and an
all-star supporting cast. Joplin opened the Fillmore East and delivered
some of her greatest performances there and at its San Francisco twin.
Carlos Santana grew up as a performer at the Fillmore West after being
discovered by Graham on audition night. Always unpredicatable, Grace
Slick's electrifying Jefferson Airplane was the de facto resident band
at both Fillmores. Chronicling the East and West Coast cultures of the
late '60s and early '70s New York City with its speed, heroin, and the
Velvet Underground versus San Francisco with the LSD-drenched Summer of
Love Glatt reveals how Graham the made it all possible . . . that is,
until August 1969 when Woodstock changed everything and musicians
suddenly realized their power. But why did Bill Graham shutter both
Fillmores within weeks of each other in 1971, during the height of their
popularity? Live at the Fillmore East and West reveals how Graham's
claim that "The flowers wilted and the scene changed," was not quite the
whole story."
