Marin Rocks! to open in fall

In the 1950s and '60s, there was a rock 'n' roll explosion in Marin County. Forty years later, we're still feeling the reverberations.

In fact, “Sound Explosion” and “Reverberations” are two of the featured displays within Marin Rocks!, a rock history exhibit opening this fall in downtown San Rafael. No other county in the country will have anything like it.

Marin Rocks! will be housed in a 7,000-square-foot space at 850 Fourth St., up the street from the long-shuttered New George's, once Marin's largest rock club.

Working with Novato's Academy Studios, the Marin History Museum, which signed a long-term lease last year, is deep into planning the exhibit and collecting artifacts that are being stored in a climate-controlled collections facility in Novato.

Once Marin Rocks! opens, visitors can trace the county's rock heritage back to its roots in the teen dance era of the 1950s, through the sound explosion of the '60s and '70s and into the reverberations that rock us to this day.

It has benefited from the highly publicized support of James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich of Metallica, Marin residents who raised $200,000 for the museum at a

benefit concert in September.

In addition to Metallica, the museum will pay tribute to Marin bands — the Grateful Dead, Santana, Huey Lewis and the News, Journey, the Jefferson Starship, Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin, as well as lesser-known groups such

as Eggs Over Easy, the Nuns and Butch Engle and the Styx.

There will be exhibits to learn about nightclubs from Sweetwater to the Lion's Share, recording studios such as the Plant and Studio D, plus poster artists, merchandisers and innovators in sound technology that made up Marin's rock industry.

“It's been wonderful to learn about the special places I've only heard about, and the musicians who have lived here over the years,” said Merry Alberigi, the history museum's executive director. “You see musicians playing in one band, then evolving into something else, then getting together in another configuration. People really want to know about that.”

One of the first things visitors will see is an exhibit on the Fantasy Fair & Magic Mountain Festival, the legendary two-day concert in the Mountain Theater on Mount Tamalpais, staged the week before Monterey Pop in June 1967.

“We have two of the four banners that were on the stage,” said chief curator Dawn Laurant. “You can imagine those banners beside a huge photo mural of the Doors playing on stage.”

Laurant ticked off the incredible list of rock stars that played in that legendary show, including Canned Heat, Every Mother's Son, the Merry-Go-Round, the Mojo Men, the 5th Dimension, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, the Seeds, the Blues Magoos, Country Joe and the Fish, the Byrds with Hugh Masekela on trumpet, Wilson Pickett, Moby Grape, Tim Hardin, Sparrow, the Grass Roots, the Loading Zone, Jefferson Airplane, Captain Beefheart, Dionne Warwick, the Sons of Champlin and Mystery.

Turn a corner and you'll see a representation of Argentina House, the old mansion in Lagunitas where Big Brother and Janis Joplin developed their raw, signature sound.

“The Dead were nearby at a Girl Scout camp. Quicksilver Messenger Service was in Olema,” Laurant noted. “You had a lot of these bands hanging out at the Argentina House, which was quite a scene.”

Alberigi pointed out that this is an example of one of several “immersive environments” the museum will use to set the scene, offering a “you-are-there” experience.

“They won't just be walking through a room full of display cases,” she explained. “The Argentina House will be one of the sets that evoke a feeling.”

There will be interactive exhibits such as one for visitors to create their own rock posters and print them out in the gift shop or mix their own songs and take them home on a CD.

A 100-seat theater and music center will be available for live performances, workshops, private events, school tours and summer camps.

In a sweeping gesture aimed at being inclusive, a tribute wall honors the hundreds of musicians and bands with connections to Marin.

Because history is a living thing, visitors will be able to log into a database and contribute their own experiences, stories and memories of the Marin music scene.

“Everyone who goes through this exhibit will have some comments,” Laurant said. “And we want to capture them.”

“We want to engage people in a personal way,” Alberigi added. “This is a way for them to leave a little something behind.”

The history museum staff is intent on getting its facts straight and has assembled an advisory council that includes record producer Narada Michael Walden, Village Music's John Goddard and Rita Gentry, a music business veteran.

“One of the reasons people have been receptive is that we are a museum. We have the credibility that goes with that,” Alberigi said. “We're not trying to tell the story any other way than how it happened.”

“Marin's music community is so tight in a lot of ways,” Laurant added. “The more we talk to people, the more we realize everyone is connected in some way.”

 

BE A PART OF HISTORY

The Marin History Museum is collecting posters, photographs, memorabilia, artifacts and other items related to Marin music history for Marin Rocks!, its permanent rock history exhibit opening this fall in San Rafael.

As they build Marin Rocks!, the staff has compiled a wish list of items that would add immeasurably to the exhibit. They are looking for the following:

General items

— Photographs of crowds at music events in Marin (indoor and outdoor venues and festivals)

— Rolling Stone magazine with Maria Muldaur on cover, August 1974 edition

— Images of beat poets and artists (i.e. Gary Snyder) in the Sausalito houseboat scene

— Image of Otis Redding during the time he was in Sausalito before recording “Dock of the Bay”

High school memorabilia

— Images of Vietnam War protesters among recognizable sites in Marin (i.e. Tamalpais High)

— Music awards and/or instruments from local high schools

— Tamalpais High yearbooks from 1963 and 1964

— Drake High yearbooks from 1964 and 1988

Music venues

— Nostalgia from Marin venues that are now closed (i.e. signs, napkins, coasters); not posters.

— Magic Mountain Festival: memorabilia, film footage and photos

— Sweetwater: the mandala tapestry

— Prune Music: Photographs of people hanging out, stickers, other memorabilia

— Rose Bowl: images of crowds and bands

— The Ark (Sausalito): photos and artifacts

— Heliport: exterior and interior photos

— The Trident: exterior and interior photos

Recordings

— 45s of Elvis Presley from the 1950s; Buddy Holly from the '50s; Little Richard or Bo Diddley '50s

— 45 of Gale Garnett's “We'll Sing in the Sunshine”

— 45 “Exodisco” 1979 single