THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,487) Gold — “When I Saw You”
From a San Francisco Mission District band with “a great raw sound. . . . something like a cross between Santana and The Jefferson Airplane” (Klemen Breznikar, https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2012/08/gold-interview-with-ed-scott-guitar-and.html) but only a lone 45 to its name, here is a song with “the spacy languor of Quicksilvere Messenger Service at their most folk-rocking wistful . . . . [the] distinctively bittersweet sound of . . . gentler S.F. psychedelia”. (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/oregins-sf-1970-mw0001420799#review)
MyFirstBand tells of Gold:
In 1971 Gold was one of the hottest bands in San Francisco without an LP. Bill Graham was booking them to open for 10 years After, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Hot Tuna and more. . . . Country Joe McDonald took a great interest in the Band and worked with them on a number of projects. he even helped them release a 45…the classic “Summertime” b/w “No Parking”. The single went pretty much unnoticed, however they did receive some airplay on top 40 stations in California and Utah. Guitarist Ed Scott founded what was to become Gold in 1967. Known at the time as The Lost Cause, featuring Larry Walton on lead guitar, they went through several names including Golden Gate, and then finally Gold (as in Acapulco Gold). As the years progressed, new members came and went. The band finally broke up in September, 1973 due to frustration over lack of finding a good label and the usual ego tripping issues that cause most bands to fall.
https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2012/04/gold-gold-1969-us-amazing-west-coast.html
Ron Babral, manager and percussionist, recalls:
Gold is perhaps the most famous unknown band to come out of San Francisco. If they had a hot LP out while they were playing the San Francisco Bay Area they could have broken out, but it just didn’t happen. . . . I do want to point out that during some peak stages for Gold, Country Joe came in to the picture and became a kind of producer of the group both in the recording studio and in out of the studio. He became like a coach in performing techniques when the band played Winterland. . . . Joe tried his best to bring Gold up as high as they could go. Bill Graham gave them several booking in his big venues and still they fell off the edge and had broken up by 1973. . . . I met [Joe McDonald] while we both served in the US NAVY in Japan during the 1960-61 period. We served as Air Control Tower Operators and lived in the same barracks. . . . Since we were both from California we met up again a few later in San Francisco and then again at the Human Be-in held in Golden Gate Park in January 1967. I didn’t know at that time that Joe had started a band with Barry Melton called Country Joe and The Fish. . . . [I] joined my brother Dennis in managing Gold . . . . The band went on to play all the Bay Area venues including Fillmore, Fillmore-West and Winterland. Opening shows for the likes of Mike Bloomfield, Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company and Full Tilt Boogie, Hot Tuna, Malo, Cold Blood, Country Joe, Tower of Power and even British rockers Ten Years After.
https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2012/08/gold-interview-with-ed-scott-guitar-and.html
Oh, and, “Gold’s biggest gig may have the 1970 Hells Angels party in San Rafael. The bill was Loose Gravel with Mike Wilhelm, Gold, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Full Tilt Boogie and Janis Joplin.”
https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2012/08/gold-interview-with-ed-scott-guitar-and.html
Richie Unterberger is equivocal:
Gold were a promising if derivative late-’60s San Francisco psychedelic band that only managed to release one single, “No Parking”/”Summertime” (the B-side produced by Country Hoe McDonald) . . . . Drawing from blues, the minor-keyed folk-rock that numerous San Francisco bands blended into their repertoire, and Santana-like rock-Latin fusion, Gold played with likable raw energy, though their material wasn’t as distinctive as that of the major Bay Area psychedelic acts. . . . Gold were neither top-tier when judged against the many similar bands from the time and region, nor possessed of a fully formed musical identity.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/oregins-sf-1970-mw0001420799#review, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/gold-mn0002133886#biography
Live at the Fillmore West (’70):
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