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A Cid Symphony - 1967 - A Cid Symphony (Acid Folk, Folk)
4:21 Pm
Released: 1967 Name: A Cid Symphony Attributes: Colored Vinyl, Gatefold Country: United States Medium: Vinyl(-Rip) Label: n/a - Self-Released
Tracklist: 1 Loudusphone, Pt. 1 ... 1:17 2 Loudusphone, Pt. 2 0:35 3 Loudusphone, Pt. 3 14:01 4 Pierced Hand, Pt. 1 6:30 5 Pierced Hand, Pt. 2 4:11 6 Pierced Hand, Pt. 3 8:50 7 Golden Gate, Pt. 1 7:34 8 Golden Gate, Pt. 2 3:21 9 Golden Gate, Pt. 3 1:33 10 Golden Gate, Pt. 4 3:57
Unquestionably
a harbinger of the times, A Cid Symphony -- a folk-and-ethnic music
collective that incorporated instruments as wide-ranging as dulcimer,
hand-held brass, and Hindustani ankle bells into their extended Middle
Eastern-cum-country and folk music drones -- was instigated and helmed
by Dustin Mark Miller. Miller, was a part of the mid-'60s Free Speech
Movement at UC Berkeley, spending his time selling protest records to
raise money for the movement. The musical passion stuck, so in 1966 he
enlisted old pal and neighbor Charles Ewing, whom he had known since
kindergarten, and Ernie Fischbach to start a folk/ethnic flower-child
band aligned with the San Francisco Diggers. Ewing was an avid flamenco
guitar aficionado, and he had met Fischbach while the two were in
graduate school together at Cal State Long Beach. The two shared a
passion for music, and Ewing soon discovered Fischbach could play any
instrument with strings, as well as drums and harmonica. The trio
converged in Los Angeles and A Cid (originally Acid) Symphony was born.
Early
in the band's genesis, Fischbach married teenage model Deborah Cleall,
who promptly became a part of the group, which, more like a collective,
soon grew into a loose group of nomadic friends, a family, a tribe.
John Goeckermann and Tom Harris often added their percussive skills, and David Goines contributed as well. A Cid Symphony began
playing mostly at colleges, often with like-minded peers the Firesign
Theatre and sponsored by friends, Students for a Democratic Society, or
whoever would support the music. They also crashed the Monterey Pop
Festival, playing on the grounds of the festival and meeting Ravi
Shankar. According to Digger principles, the band would hold free
concerts at which they fed everyone that showed up.
When the
band earned its first write-up in the Sunday Los Angeles Times, they
all quit their jobs on the spot and migrated to the San Francisco Bay
Area, where Ewing and Fischbach studied Hindustani music at the Ali
Akbar (Khan) College of Music. San Francisco music columnist Ralph J.
Gleason introduced Miller to Max Weiss of Fantasy Records. Weiss
allowed the band to use Fantasy's studios, and they recorded and
released their first and only record, a self-titled triple LP, in 1967,
published by the Thermal Flash Music label of Denise Kaufman, an
original Merry Prankster. Fischbach and crew went on to play with the
Golden Toad, one of California's premier folk/ethnic music bands led by
Bob Thomas and a sister band of sorts to the Grateful Dead. They would
often join A Cid Symphony at functions such as the Renaissance Pleasure
Faire. By the late '60s, after three years together, A Cid Symphony
dissolved for the most part as a collective musical entity. Miller and
Ewing's families, however, went on to live communally for the next two
decades. ~ Stanton Swihart, All Music Guide
