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Home , Country Joe and the Fish, Paul Butterfield

ON A FRIGID FEBRUARY NIGHT IN 1969, A PAIR OF UNDERGRADS AND A ROCK LEGEND GAVE A SMALL NEW HAMPSHIRE TOWN AND A FLEDGLING COLLEGE ONE FOR THE HISTORY BOOKS.

BY DAVE ENDERS

24 PIERCE / FALL 2015 FALL 2015 \ PIERCE 25 veryone said it would never happen,” Henry Ellis ’69 recalls with the knowing laugh of history as hindsight. “People won’t come to Rindge. It will be an embarrassment.”

On February 8, 1969, following San Francisco’s “” and New York’s phenomenon, Henry Ellis ’69 and fellow Franklin Pierce classmate Rick Falconi ’69 pulled off their own music miracle. And they did so in the dead of winter, just as a Nor’easter rolled in. It was Winter Carnival, the annual mid-semester break when students packed up en masse and headed home, much to the chagrin of the administration. Until ’69, that is, when every Franklin Pierce student stayed, joined by thousands of other music lovers, who converged on tiny Franklin Pierce College on a frigid February evening to hear the headliner, , rock Rindge like never before. “I learned that night that you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it,” says Ellis with just a hint of pride in his voice.

Warming Up The Joplin story actually began the previous winter when Franklin Pierce’s founding president, Frank DiPietro, approached the 20-year-old Fal- coni, Ellis’ friend and colleague on the Student Social Committee. DiPietro was Henry Ellis ’69 expressing his annual lament

about the mass exodus of JOHN NORMAN. GARY THIS PAGE: (JOPLIN). IMAGES /GETTY ALTMAN SPREAD: ROBERT PREVIOUS

26 PIERCE / FALL 2015 Ellis and Falconi aggressively marketed the concert, which led to an overflow crowd of several thousand and a huge traffic jam students from campus during “Good. Let them stay there.” But in tiny Rindge. the winter break. “You need after explaining that a rather something ‘going on’ to make large crowd was ready to rock, students stay,” Falconi told the and might damage the new president. Fieldhouse if the show So it fell to Ellis (chairman of cancelled, the president the committee) and Falconi to directed Falconi to “discreetly get something “going on.” It get a campus van, drive to the would take some money to Keene Police Headquarters, attract talent to the Winter park in back, and go fetch that Carnival, which, in the past, was damn band.” DiPietro called highlighted by a rather stodgy Keene’s chief of police and a off-campus formal dance. Falconi deal was made. Falconi was to and Ellis worked with the deliver Country Joe and the administration to add a Student Fish back to jail immediately Activity fee to the ’68/’69 school after the concert. The show year. The new fee raised $35,000, started only five minutes late and, as luck would have it, that and, to forestall their return to summer the Franklin Pierce jail, Country Joe and the boys Fieldhouse was completed. They played an extremely long set. now had the money and a venue. “Then I drove them back to jail,” Seating capacity: 800. Falconi says with a rueful smile. “The administration didn’t encourage us to spend it all on Star Search one big event,” laughs Ellis, “but Having dodged disaster, Ellis and they never said we couldn’t Falconi began planning for an either. It was called the ‘Student even bigger Winter Carnival the Activity Fee’ so we assumed it following year—1969, their was ours to spend.” senior year. They polled the They had tested the concert student body, which returned big business in the fall of ’68 when names like The Doors, The were Temptations, Simon and Garfun- booked to play the first public kel. But as Ellis remembers, show at the Fieldhouse. But by “They answered our survey but 5 p.m. on the evening of the big students still thought we were event, there was no Country Joe, crazy. They didn’t believe that a and no Fish. A call from Keene big name would ever come to Police Headquarters confirmed Franklin Pierce.” And they were that had been arrested right. Weeks rolled by with no for smoking marijuana during big names tempted by an offer their flight to Keene. from Rindge, New Hampshire. “‘What are we going to do?” In February. Falconi remembers saying. “We Ellis and Falconi, along with had already sold a lot of fellow Social Committee tickets!’” Falconi informed Di members Tad Boyce ’69 and Pietro, who, he recalls, said Sharon Bornstein ’70, went to something to the effect of see a Boston booking agent, a

“That very brief moment I held her hand and led her on stage, I was in awe.”

FALL 2015 \ PIERCE 27 shot in the dark that paid off. The agent called a colleague in New York. “He was talking on the phone and then turns to us and says ‘How about Janis Joplin?’” recalls Falconi. “It was a matter of being in the right place at the right time.” Joplin had already taken the country by storm. Richard Goldstein, writing for Vogue magazine, said that Joplin was “the most staggering leading woman in rock . . . she slinks like tar, scowls like war . . . clutching the knees of a final stanza, begging it not to leave . . . Janis Joplin can sing the chic off any listener.” Ellis, who wasn’t a Joplin fan at the time, could tell by the way his classmates were wildly jumping around the promoter’s office that they had found their headliner. Joplin had just broken up with her backup band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and was about to begin a tour with her new Kosmic Band. Their first “preview concert” was scheduled for February 9 in Boston and the group needed a place to test sound equipment before the big premiere. Legendary rock manager , ’s manager, believed this preview concert was critical to Joplin’s future success going solo after her rocky breakup with Big Brother. He was later quoted as saying “We were looking for the most obscure venue we could find.” They didn’t want a large audience. Rindge, New Hampshire seemed a safe bet. The Blues Band was touring with Joplin and would open the show. Ellis Rick Falconi ’69 and Falconi also booked an up-and-comer named to perform the

28 PIERCE / FALL 2015 The opening act, the Paul Butterfield Blues the Social Committee’s “apologize later” tactics, the Band, rocked the house for all of 15 minutes administration wasn’t exactly before blowing every fuse in the building. unhappy with the outcome. “They didn’t come out and say it, but I think the administration was as thrilled following day and close out Joplin finally arrived just replaced. The show went on. as the students. That concert their dream weekend. Total price minutes before 8 p.m. and she When Butterfield finished, Ellis put Franklin Pierce on the for Joplin, Butterfield, and was livid. Not only was there took Joplin’s hand and led her map,” Ellis says. “Remember, Havens? $32,500. Tickets were no time for the sound test, but, on stage. Falconi had taken his Franklin Pierce was only 7 $10 for Joplin on Saturday, and $5 due to the freezing weather, seat in the front row. Clutching years old back then, so we for Havens on Sunday. (Havens’ students had opened the huge her bottle of Southern Comfort didn’t get mentioned much. performance was unfortunately fieldhouse doors. The in the other hand, she After Janis played here, we had cancelled due to a blizzard rolling floodgates had opened, and the approached the microphone, it ‘going on.’ We were the cool in the night of Joplin’s show.) masses crammed into the took two swigs, placed the bottle school. Everybody talked about Ellis and Falconi easily agreed 800-seat capacity fieldhouse. down by her feet and proceeded Franklin Pierce.” to Joplin’s two requests: she Students were literally to deliver an electrifying and Ellis went on to a career wanted to arrive early, around hanging from the rafters. soulful performance, unlike teaching English in Florida, 5 p.m., in order to test sound Ticket taking was impossible. anything Falconi had seen while Falconi put his business equipment. And no one was Fortunately, Joplin had before or since. “I really had degree to use by running the allowed in the building before calmed down by the time never seen a big-time performer family heating business in the 8 p.m. start time. Roadies Falconi delivered her like that up close before,” he Boston. They reconnected arrived early and were finished customary bottle of Southern says. “There was sheer joy in her decades later at Alumni setting up before 5 p.m. Two Comfort just before show time. face as she performed, but there Weekend and later both joined hours later, 7 p.m. rolled around “The concert turned out to be was anguish, too.” the Alumni Committee. “I still and no Janis. “Oh boy, here we her sound test,” Ellis says. Somehow the night all came think Franklin Pierce is one of go again!” thought Falconi. They The opening act, the Paul together. “Despite the huge the most beautiful campuses had not counted on the sheer Butterfield Blues Band, rocked crowd, we didn’t have any I’ve ever seen,” says Falconi attendance numbers (estimated the house for all of 15 minutes mishaps,” Ellis says, “and nobody proudly. “And Franklin Pierce to be between 3,000 and 4,000) before blowing every fuse in the had any complaints about the still knows how to make a real that would quickly clog the few building. “We hadn’t counted on sound, or especially the difference in a young person’s roads into Rindge. In addition the huge amount of power performance. She was amazing.” life, which is why I stay to radio promotions, a $950 needed for all the sound and The College had been kept in involved.” extra-large ad in the Boston lighting equipment.” A the dark about the price tag until Janis Joplin, by most Globe Sunday entertainment marathon drum solo covered contracts had been signed and it accounts a sensitive, shy and section may have had some the mishap while fuses were was too late to turn back. Despite lonely girl from Port Arthur, impact, Falconi confesses. Texas, who found a powerful “There were many things way to express herself by what about the show that fell under she called “getting under the the heading of ‘we had no idea music,” would end her arc of what we were doing,’” he recalls fame less than two years after with a hearty laugh. “That ad, Alumnus Henry Ellis ’69, a her Rindge performance from for instance. It brought in a lot principle organizer of the Janis an accidental overdose of of people from Boston. Way heroin. “That very brief more than we anticipated.” A concert who went on to teach moment I held her hand and led Woodstock-like traffic jam college English, has recently her on stage,” Ellis recalls, “I ensued. In spite of the freezing written a memoir of the event, was in awe. She had a very light weather, people were lining the and soft touch, not at all what streets or standing in front of which can be viewed on the you would expect.” their homes to watch the Franklin Pierce Web site at: In the end, the concert that massive procession. “They had www.franklinpierce.edu/joplin everyone said could never never seen so many cars filled happen was one for the history

FACING PAGE: SCOTT DORRANCE. SCOTT PAGE: FACING with hippies.” books.

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