Mad For It?

Banana Republic and the Mad Men TV series just announced a line of clothing inspired by the show that'll be available this August at BR stores. Some of the details are here and you'll find photos of the various items all over the net.

Now, I like Mad Men. And I used to like Banana Republic years ago, when stuff was marked up only 2-3 times over wholesale versus 30-35 times now.

Nowhere in ANY of the stories is there a mention of how much this MM line will retail for. Oh, they know all right. Men's suits will probably go for anywhere from $600 to a grand or better. And what's with the hats? In 2011? There's a big difference in a TV show set in the early sixties and your own life that's kind of now. Besides, as PJ O'Rourke wrote in Modern Manners: "A hat should be taken off when you greet a lady and left off for the rest of your life. Nothing looks more stupid than a hat...A hat should only be worn if you are employed as a baseball player or hunting ducks in the rain."

So, with legions of Mad Men junkies set to fork over entirely too much dough for clothes they could find at the Salvation Army or Goodwill not long ago--and were the real deals--I say the time has come for a true retro renaissance.

Bring back Robert Hall!

So THIS is what The Allmans at The Fillmore looked like

June 2011 marks four decades since Bill Graham's Fillmore East closed its doors on 2nd Avenue at 6th Street in New York City. While Graham would continue his concert business until his death in 1991, there would never again be a venue--or a time--for live music quite like The Fillmore from 1968-71.

Think that's an exaggeration? On a given night you would've seen Sly & The Family Stone OPEN for Jimi Hendrix. Or Miles Davis OPEN for the Grateful Dead. Or Led Zeppelin OPEN for Iron Butterfly. (Obviously that arrangement didn't last long) Or The Dead play second fiddle to Janis Joplin.

It hardly stops there.

J. Geils on the same bill with Black Sabbath. Frank Zappa and The Mothers with some new opening act called Chicago. The Who with Chuck Berry. The Jeff Beck Group and Jethro Tull. Derek & The Dominoes with Humble Pie. And my vote for sickest lineup of all: Miles Davis (opening!) with The Steve Miller Band and Neil Young with Crazy Horse.

Then there were the times The Allman Brothers set up shop. Their first appearance at The Fillmore was December 26-28, 1969, third on the bill behind Appaloosa (good luck finding their stuff on iTunes) and Blood, Sweat & Tears. By the time the Brothers had returned to finally headline in March, 1971, they'd already played the Fillmore four times. And they'd play four shows on March 12th & 13th, having agreed like many artists to two performances each night--one at 8:oo p.m. and the next at 11:30. The Allman Brothers at Fillmore East double live album was taken from those shows and released four months later in July.

On June 27th, 1971, The Allman Brothers played the final show at The Fillmore, with guests J. Geils, Elvin Bishop and Albert King jamming until six the next morning. This isn't footage of that night--it's from nine months earlier--but it only recently surfaced via the folks at Wolfgang's Vault--Bill Graham's concert archives. You can see what the Allman Brothers at Fillmore East looked and sounded like here.

(Note: The other two videos have problems with Gregg's microphone audio, but not the instrumentation coming through the soundboard)