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Title
Oral History of Marty Balin
Contributing Institution
Mill Valley Public Library
Collection
Mill Valley History Online
Rights Information
Please contact the contributing institution for more information regarding the copyright status of this object.
Description
In this oral history, musician and songwriter Marty Balin shares stories from his life at the center of the rock music scene and hippie culture of the 1960s and 1970s. Born in 1942, Marty grew up in both San Francisco and Richmond. He describes himself as having been a very musical child, born with "a song in [his] heart." Marty began his musical career in the San Francisco folk scene. When the clubs he was playing at in the early 1960s did not support his transition to amplified rock music, he opened his own nightclub called The Matrix, where all the new bands began performing. Marty recounts his formation of the legendary band Jefferson Airplane in 1965, sharing the genesis of some of Jefferson Airplane's - and later Jefferson Starship's - most memorable songs. Throughout this oral history he discusses his friendships and working relationships with many of the period's biggest names in music. In 1968, Marty moved over to Mill Valley, where he began taking daily hikes on Mt. Tam with his dog. He was living in Mill Valley when he received the news of Janis Joplin's untimely death, an event he describes movingly here. At the time this oral history was recorded, Marty was living in Florida with his family, recording a new album and still performing. As he reflects on the course his life has taken and the wisdom he has gleaned from it, he expresses his continuing love for Mill Valley and Mt. Tam, and his heartfelt intention to keep coming back to visit - and to keep on rockin'.
Identifier
B9D729F0-9776-47E4-B712-460425340549
2017.110.001
Subject
1970s
Balin, Susan "Sue" (wife)
Bands
Bennett, Tony
Blues music
Blues singers
Casady, Jack
Champlin, Bill
Childhood & youth
Counterculture
Daughter
Drugs
Garcia, Jerry
Graham, Bill
Hiking
House - Mill Valley
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Starship
Joplin, Janis
Kantner, Paul
Kaukonen, Jorma
Mathis, Johnny
Mathis, Ralph
Mt. Tamalpais
Music
Musicians
Oral history - Music
Parenting
Rock & roll bands
Rowan, Lorin
Sathya Sai Baba
Slick, Grace
Songs
Songwriters
Sound recordings
Sweetwater Music Hall
Throckmorton Theatre

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