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..M^LEDMONDS
The Golden Freak, Pete Obranovich, on horseback at the Sound Storm grounds
^^ Pete Obranovich worried he might be the only guy to ever stage a rock festival lo which nobody came. It was the morning of Friday, .April 24, 1970, and for five months he'd been straining fiienclshi])s and making enemies to create Sound Storm, Wisconsin's first outdoor rock festival. Opening day had finally arrixed, but as he peered down the An advertising poster with a stylized map pointed the way to the festival site near Poynette, cmjily road outside Poyncllc, \\'isconsin, all Pete could hear was gentle spring breezes. He didn't need to worry. For the next three days, pulsating The Golden Freak electric guitars, ubic|uitous LSI), ]3er(i:ct weather, and clouds of Pete arrived in Madison in ihc fall of 1969 at age twenty- marijuana smoke would help thirty thousand young people seven with his Harley, shoulder-length hair, and impeccable invent a se|oarate reality outside Poynette. Nearby, disgusted counter-culture credentials. He was neither a re\olutionary nor residents feared ibr their children and vowed never to let it ha])- a flower child. "I was always a one-jier-center, all the way," he pcn again. To this day, participants debate what actually hap explained, using a bikers' term for the one percent of society that pened there forty years ago. They generally agree, though, that doesn't fit in anywhere at all. ".My biker life was my politics,"" Sound Storm marked the height of hippicdom in Wisconsin. hi 1967, he trekked fiom Buffalo, .\cw York, lo Los .Ange les and then wandered up the coast to Seattle. Along the way, he spent lime in Haighl-Ashbiu-y with ])sychedclic alchemist Photos on previous page: Owsley Stanley and stayed at Ken Kesey's commune in Ore An appreciative crowd seen from stage.The camping area can be gon ("hell, even the cows on that place were laying on their seen in the background (left), WHII).IA6EID67I29 backs, wa\ing their feet in the air"). He helped handle the (irateful Dead's eciuipment when they played in the Xorthwest Tickets were printed and sold, but most Sound Storm attendees bypassed the ticket booth and found other ways onto the grounds. and became friends with Jerry Garcia and keyboard player
COURTESY OF MICHAEL EDMONDS Pigpen McKcrnan. When he landed in .Madison in Se]5lcmber 1969, Pete was James Ramey, better known as Baby Huey, performed with his band using the name Bobo, one of several identities he could pull The Babysitters, WHI IMAGE loesM? from his wallet. "Wc didn't know his real name until long after-
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Despite local opposition, landowner Irene York allowed the show to Workers set up the stage and scaffolding for speakers one go on by renting her land as the festival site. day before the festival began.
wards," says his attorney John Hanson. When a Madison years. Golden Freak knew there would be strong opposition to i^ reporter asked Pete where he came from, he replied, "The a festival. In March 1970, Pete announced to the press that world. I'm from the planet Earth.""' Sound Storm would be held at Aquarian Ex])rcss Farm, a com This was just after Woodstock, and many people wondered mune in western Dane County. "It wasn't big enough," he later if a similar event could ha|)])en in the Midwest. Pete had recalled. "Hell, it wasn't big enough to be the parking lot." But worked that summer on a festi\al outside .Seattle and was the it was a perfect way to call out the opposition, and the media only ])crs()n in .Madison with firsthand experience, Injanuary (liiickk- rcNcaled the official strategy foi'sup|)ressing the festi\al. 1970, he formed a company called Golden Freak Enterprises It also cast Sound Storm as a David-and-Goliath battle lo organize Sound Storm for the following s])ring.'' between middle-aged bastions of law and order and a handful "For Pete," said his fiicnd Bob Pulling, "every clay really is of hil^pies with nothing but their dreams." a new day , , , The whole world starts all over again when he Among those who followed the controversy was a seventy- gets out of bed every morning," Pete's charisma was ])alpable, nine-year-old grandmother in rural Cokmibia County. "I read and he was unrelentingly energetic. Part lovable kid brother in the |5a]5er that they were trying to have it at Cross Plains," and part con man, one friend said Pete missed his true calling: Irene York said. "So I wTote and told them about this spot and he could ha\e made millions as a tele\angelist,'' the\- came uji and looked at it and said it was i^erfect." .Accord Golden Freak consisted of Pete and several allies. Sandy ing to neighbors, the York famil)' members "were very much Nelson's curly blond hair and cherubic features made him look individual free-thinkers." Irene's son Mayam admitted that, like the CowardK' Lion fVom 77)c Wizard olOz. and he pro\cd "Mother didn't caie what Poynette people thought and said as loyal to Pete as the lion was to Doroth)-. When Pete first so, in so many words."'' landed in Madison, Bob Pulling repaired his Harley and Their farm was an ideal site for a festival. It was near Inter shared his orange barrel acid. They became lifelong friends, state 94, just half an hour north of Madison and an easy drive and Pulling agreed to take photographs during the festival. fiom Chicago, Milwaukee, and the Twin Cities, It could shel Recent law school gradsjack Van Metre, John Hanson, and ter tens of thousands of people in a natural amphitheater, its Roger Schniizler, intrigued by the idea and in need of clients, sandy soil would drain quickly in the rain, and Rowan Creek look on Golden Freak's legal work.' ran through the bottom to provide cool water and shade, Their services were essential because local authorities and Pete agreed to pay $5,000 to rent the farm for Sound Storm, the counterculture had been battling in the streets for two The April 1.3, 1970, contract also promised a security force of
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WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY
In the weeks before Sound Dekorra, Poynette counsels Storm, municipalities attempted to block the aiven rock fesffval quesfion festival on legal grounds.
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and traffic now. Cota said he «s c«M«« FnrU»r, V» Metre said, UePoj^e rdq>.rtmenl could handle the traltlc W area property ns more or !•«J^ J^. UcteTmaniwwer and equipment lor tt. ^se ol controlled access, "l*''". J?f"' actual policing ol the festival Itself. SS. soil conditions that lnsnr«l "P "^ iSioSg c^nty officials also prese^-W age in event o( rata, and general topogra- declining comment - were Zoning A* Uls month reraataa) unsettled. mSStor Robert Irwln, CMl De «nse Dh Closeted ifter the opening n>f«*^'™° "'i.-U, my o.n opinion, the York property Is redSr B. J. Amend, Patrol Caplata ArmU „S>^rs 0. the Poynette ^^m^^"^.^ the best suited (or such purpose than either Otaesorge. Detective Captain RJertHame^. selwtmen referred the matter to PorUgc "'X's'l^i^^g'^'^edandnea.ly.x.rt^red S^rvUo* Elmer FUk and Resource Di IttMnev Arno MUler, town counsel, tor a rector Palmer McCoy. Local authorities prepared ^l Jl a 1^ aspects ol the case, and Cl^on said that 1" drawing up he 1«« But II the county """Ws ">P»taed sU County ready It riot occurred KELLT Columbia CoontT Sh.riff v. ^^ sua Writer hTcTmS'""'""'»•-"«"«-*» «»> rock lZ'rS^JLT„''J ''"f^' ^re were man, pKp,t In Ihe conoh ». lale access to a J^" '"! •»" '""ed. WMPOQS " '° ' ""^ cache of poUce saw wtK) apparently believed ii —T/'T i^ ThorZd' Z 2fn^- ," '«'.^I 00 the oreraU^jL^ °' «**"<«>rs thlscoMty." '"""^ '» be held 111 «.'???ont°rorSly';".,'err?-^ to Ws case Ihe ^y ^rS^fJi the county board." • "" ""y bf COLUMBIA COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE •"K geographical features of Ihe sita •»• Sheriff Golz (kneeling, right) and his deputies kept the peace in sJiolmns ?.«k' VrT* ''^ '"lo aimbers Columbia County when thousands of young people flocked to the area for Sound Storm. c^Sai^s^'^h^'eXS^l'^'^ "•'- ««ld be used lo^XT^ ^"^ *• '«" mem, Colt eqJSneT "^ "^ "^ *^- "•"« """ "w" was no( only ideal for th, --~ pirsoonel from surrogadtatcoiMy •" tar enough, perhan but ii u^Z "^-ed Ideally for obse^lu,^.'. ^ S? not less than one hundred security guards (striking UVV- "The rHKkt.^ ._ Madison leaching assistants) as well as ambulances, medical staff, and two helicopters. Golden Freak also jiromised not to ])ermit "use of, presence, consumption of or sale of alcoholic '» Commajxl Post perSoi! "^""^ '"'° <" and/or intoxicating beverages, liquors or drugs on the ]5remises." Everyone expected there to be drug and alcohol use, contract a or no contract, but Irene York's counsel insisted that liability for !*< infractions should rest squarely on Golden Freak.'" oJ's as J. ,sf"°* """• « ""T »artS *1 With a venue in place and construction ready to begin, SHERIFTOfflLZ at Pnesaaou takes Sound Storm needed more tangible assets than hippie dreams. Bob Pulling later recalled that they had no money at all, - "0«r plan, irom the start _. .. though attorney Roger Schnitzlcr thought that Pete jjossessed a few hundred dollars. To raise money, Pete decided to license continued '"^r "nproiected,' (Mt xending rights lo merchants who wanted lo sell food to the site ««!/ w^.i7^ "*^^ wlttila the •£4;x£rrcl!f/.ir^-2 crowd. When restaurateur Jeff Wehrman paid for the right to «l'5°L°"'° "^oocem'was lo protect lheo»r sell burgers and hoi dogs, Pete apjiroached anyone who might £, VUlage of Poynene.- he reportedic. put down cash for a similar monopoly. Local businesses shelled Sri'm\r?^r!--™-^«^ £rs.;^'i{^"rm"s=p"S-n^ 32 ^^^edTr?o'r:^r' ^^ '"^ i»'/'^°°^ communication played a k« r,j. in (Sur operatloo.'' Golz said ' ^ "*' «»Jl.r^tod_brok_en_bu.„st«^,.;^:^':^ •#• WMoHspIO 2/9/10 11:35AM Page33 -^ WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY COURTESY OF MICHAEL EDMONDS WHI IMAGE ID67020 WHI IMAGE ID676S9 9 Grale fill l)ml. ,,^ Hllinois Speed Press, Rotary ^omu'ctioiJ. Mason Pfoffit,'Fuse, Baby Huey, Soup, The Sori-y Muthas, Spocti'c Inc., CaptiXin Billy's VVIiiz Btind 'Bj(mffa,^Bmirery Hogs, ^•.S. IniTe, The Smil Asylum, Bliss, Brimn Siijiur, Ox, Ntirlhem C/mfori, Tayles, Sargasso, Wheezer Lockinger Manitoba Hugger, Wingfietd, Tongue, Orove, Woodbine, Strophe. Ice, Oinaha, Staph. Hope, Fly-By-Night Blues Band, Mother Blues, Don Gibson, Wildcfncss Road. Incredible Soui More than thirty bands appeared over the three days Jeff Amundsen, lead singer of Madison, David "Colonel" Leis (guitar), Steve Ungs ofthe festival. Although he received second billing. Wisconsin, band The Bowery Boys (bass), and Roger Wylie (drums), ofthe ^^ Ken Kesey did not actually attend. Rockford, Illinois, band Wheezer Lockinger i^ out for the rights to sell lemonade, soft drinks, ice cream, and ground if it rained, or if a number of other uncontrollable vari tee shins. Within a few days, Pete had S45,000 in hand." ables came to ]>ass. Pete's attorneys knew they'd gone out on a He contactedjeirerson Air|5lane, but their fee was too high limb, swept along initially by his charisma and the sheer pre- for his budget. Jerry Garcia, however, committed the Grateful ])oslerousne.ss of it all. But when the political establishment tried Dead to ]>lay for just S9,.'i00 (a third of their usual rate) out of to dri\e a stake through the heart of their vision, they got mad. friendshi]) for Pete. .Mthough the contract called only for a 50- minule set, the Dead had such a good time they ]Dlaycd for sev "Guns, Not Clubs" eral hours. Pete lined up about another thirty local bands for Local radio reporter Jim Packard says that most rural resi $250 to S500 each. In all, the music cost Golden Freak between dents panicked at the thought of being outnumbered twenty- $30,000 and 535,000, most of it paid in cash when performers fi\e-to-one by beatniks, bikers, rebels, and freaks: "[IJt was like took the stage.'" science fiction, monsters from outer space descending on Pete hired lighting and sound c.\]5cris from Chicago's for them." Poynette's county board representative, Elmer Fisk, mer Electric Theater, who were building custom audio systems recalled "lots of nervous, tense people, who didn't know i)ut for bands around the country under the name Tomorrow Inc. they would bust all the windows and burn ihe tov\'n down."''* Crew members Mike Dzielinski and Sparky Raizene arrixed Rural Columbia County had just emerged fiom a genera in Poynette on Wednesday, April 22, helped build the stage, tion of intense suffering. y\fier the Depression ])araly/.ed its and then began erecting speaker and mixing towers. The next economy, most young men were called away to fight in a hor morning they unloaded iruckloads of s])eakers and am])lifiers rific war from v\'hich many never returned. Those who did and, using a rented crane, hoisted massive ba.ss units into place. come home started new lives under the ominous shadow ofthe They spent the rest of Thursday and Friday scaling the towers Cold War and mushroom clouds. In 1970, more than forty per to install high-frequency horns and testing connections in lime cent ofthe county's adults had noi finished high school; two- for the first act on Friday e\ ening. thirds of the men worked at blue-collar jobs in factories, As opening day approached, Sound Storm was a fragile construction, trucking, or farming. Only one teenager in five house of cards. The whole fantastic edifice would crash to the went away to college. ' .SPRING 2010 33 -^ WMoHspIO 2/12/10 1:34PM Page34 Concert goers share a large bucket of water. Drinking water was a It was rumored that acid blotters were dropped by helicopter, but it concern at Sound Storm. was security flyers that fell from the sky. The village of Poynette was a hard-working. God-fearing grew up in a circus family and S)'mpathized with anyone trying town of 1,100 where tidy streets ran at righl angles and to pull off a good show. He also had dee]) knowledge of and churches outnumbered taverns. Residents prided themselves respect for the law. So he ultimately ruled that, "if these people on their well-equipped volunteer fire department, new high comply with the law, they have a right to have a rock festival. And school, and patriotic boys in uniform. It was obvious to them .Mrs. York, as a |)ropcrty owner, has a righl to lease her property that the .Xmerican way of life was successful. When hordes of ... the ai)])lication for a tcm|3orary injunction is denied."''' ^^ young people who rejected that lifestyle threatened to invade Po)'nette was stunned. A whirlwind of fear swept through the i^ their town, they were understandably alarmed, ' more im])ressionable residents. Some |)arcnts worried their On April 14 and 16, 1970, local officials called public meet teenagers would sneak onto the York farm and come home ings about the looming catastrophe. Golden Freak's attorney addicted to drugs, or run ofTto California and never come home Jack Van Metre tried to calm residents by telling them his staff at all. Some thought Hell's Angels might roar in on their Harleys had researched rock festivals around the country and most had to rape their daughters and terrorize the community. A few in been "orderly, agreeable, and interesting." Irene York's attorney the all-white village even feared the Black Panthers would explained that the contract prohibited drinking, drug use, and invade. The night before the festival began, one speaker at a local disorderly conduct. When asked how that would be accom meeting urged residents to keep their firearms dose at hand."" plished. Van Metre described the security force of striking Most residents were more realistic. Local officials, in par UVV-Madison graduate students. A Poynette village selectman ticular, simply resigned themselves to making the best of a bad promptly burst out, "Those are the very kind of ])c<)])le we situation. This burden fell .squarely on the shoulders of forty-one- want to keej) out of our community." .\o one v\ent home reas year-old Columbia Countv' Sheriff Warn (Jolz who, as a profes sured. The second meeting ended with officials demanding sional law ofTicer, knew that the v\c)rst rumors were unfounded. that county government hall ihe festival." But he also knew that moving thousands of ]5eo]5le safely around The county board immedialely sought an injunction in cir rural roads was a major challenge. With conccrtgoers certain to cuit court. They argued that "public health, morals and safety exponentially outnumber police, he decided to ignore minor are in danger," that fans might go "on a rampage," and that the infiactions inside the festival grounds and focus his resources plan V iolaied sanitation and zoning ordinances. Golden Freak's on keei)ing the hi])])iesas far awa)^ fiom the village as ]:)ossible."' attorneys responded that the contract met local codes and the Golz set up a command post next to the main parking lot in land v\as alreadv' zoned for commercial use, which explicitly a tv\'enty-six-foot trailer. Hundreds of uniformed ofhcers were included theatrical performance such as rock festivals. " called uj) fiom as far as one hundred miles away, many strate The case was heard on April 22,1970, by Circuit Court Judge gically |)ositioned to radio advance notice of approaching Robert Gollmar, who was indebted to his neighboi-s for re-election motorcycle gangs. Others were trained to work undercover and shared their values. He declared opening in court that, "1 inside the crowd and keep their fingers on its pulse."" v\ ouldn't go to a rock festival if they carried me out there on a /\s o|)ening day api^roached, Golz took every opportunity to sedan-chair and purchased me a portable toilet." But Gollmar defuse tension, |)ublicly praising the "excellent cooperation 34 wisconsinhistory.org -^ WMoHspIO 2/9/10 11:35AM Page35 Kink Middlemist (left) works his hair and the keyboards and Denny Craswell (right) lashes at his drum kit as the Minneapolis band Crow keeps the party going into the night. from the ])romoters ofthe affair" and giving the impression By mid-afternoon on Friday, 1,500 people were lounging on that he anticipated no problems. But he secretiy brought in a the hillside in the sun while engineers went ihrough sound truckload of shotguns, automatic rifics, and tear gas canisters, checks and vendors opened their stalls. Madison's Mifflin Street and he privately assured Poynette ofTicials that if trouble broke Co-op offered a free food booth stocked with one thousand out it would be met "with guns, not clubs.""'' ]iounds of brown rice, three hundred ]XHinds of oatmeal, one By the evening of Tluirsday, .\])ril 23, nerves were frayed. hundred ])ounds of onions, and fifieen bushels of a])])les. A group ^^ Sheriff Golz had scheduled hundreds of officers in twelve-hour calling itself the Milwaukee Tribe set up a mimcogra]5h machine i^ shifts and assembled his cache of wcajDons. Pete remains mys beneath a Vietcong flag and began |)rinting a newsletter. By sun tified by the town's reaction. "I don't know what the [expletive set, groups often to twenty ])eople were |)ouring in steadily, and deleted I they were so afraid of," he later commented. "It was the opening night crowd eventually swelled to twelve thousand."' just a bunch of kids listening to music.""* Nick Berigan hitchhiked up from Madison and crept in through the woods after dark. As he crested the final ridge, "A Vision Worthy of Dante" the brightly lit stage burst into view below him. Music rever The next morning, SherifTGolz activated his mobile head berated off the opposite hillside and thousands of people quarters, hoping for the best but prepared for the worst. danced around camp fires. He called the scene "other Nearby, Pete waited outside the ticket booth, wondering if anv - worldly a V ision worthy of Dante." After taking it in for a few one would actually show up. In the woods a mile away, Mike seconds, he said to himself, "'Fhis is cool," and descended into Dziclinski and Sparkv Raizene scrambled across four-story-tall the maelstrom.-" speaker towers with electrical ta])e and screwdrivers. As Ihe first night climaxed when Pete walked onstage between reporterjim Packard watched long-haired workers finish erect sets with Irene York. He introduced her as "the person who made ing the stage, he wondered silently, "Was this really hajjpening, all this jiossible" and asked fans to "hold u]) a light for Granny out in a field in Poynette?""'' York." John Hanson, watching fiom the peri])hery, remcmbei"s Thousands of cars were soon parking in farmers' fields all that "the entire hillside lit up like a Christmas tree." Pete said around the York farm. Seeing them a]5proach, Jack Van Metre York "balled like a baby, the tears streaming down her face." thought there might actually be monev' in Pete's wild idea. But For the rest ofthe night, music pulsated ofTthe stage, bare neighbors had posted signs and handed out maps to guide con foot dancers spun in the shadows, and the valley filled with the ccrtgoers through the woods v\ithout ])aying, and fev\'er than fragrance of ]5ot smoke. "Campfires flickered as far as the eye twenty-five ])ercent actually bought tickets. Pete enlisted biker could see," rejiorted the Milwaukee Journal, "and long-haired friends to cruise the perimeter on their Harleys, one of whom youths dressed in everything from raccoon skin pants to bib brought in one hundred nervous fans like captured prisoners of overalls gvrated ha])])ilv- in a dusty tangle in front ofthe stage."'"' war. But the site was "a leaky sieve," in Schindler's words, and John Hanson trekked over to the farmhouse with the final a number of fans always thought Sound Storm had been a free installment of Irene York's $5,000 in cash. Exce|)t for two juve festival.''^'* niles who tore down No Parking signs, the police made no .SPRING 2010 3 5 -^ WMoHspIO 2/9/10 11:35AM Page36 arrests. Sheriff Golz told the press, "Both the promoters and the fans have been very cooperative."'" Thirty Thousand Freaking Freely The sun rose on a glorious Saturday morning. "It was like God loved rock festivals," Roger Schnitzlcr recalled, "in the 70s and 80s, just fabulous weather." Sheriff Golz awoke in his trailer and sent undercover ofhcei"s Robert Hamele and Gary Cross into the crowd to gather intelligence. There was a lot for them to see.'*" Fans had arrived from all over the nation. There were ded icated hippie moms in long dresses cuddling babies. Brawny bikers with greasy hair drinking beer for breakfast. .'\ v\'oman wearing nothing but sunglasses, nonchalantly catching the rays. College students from every campus within 200 miles. A naked man flailing ecstatically atop a U-Haul truck. Great cir cles of dancers holding hands and s|)inning entranced in front ofthe stage. Solitary wanderers exploring the woods with pecu liarly rapt attention.''' On Saturday, members of The Hog Farm arrived in a painted school bus. This New Mexico-based commune traveled the countrv' helping peojile use [psychedelic drugs for personal liberation. Wavy (iravy, their best-known member, often i dressed as a clown, "cause it's joy that makes me move in this Michael McCormick of Madison was named the Mud King and jail, this earth that's a jail, and what v\'e're plottin' is one incred crowned with a wood violet. ible jailbreak." The Hog Farm had organized the free food and ^^ medical care at Woodstock and came to help at Sound Storm."** i^ Drug dealers v\'andered o])enly through the crov\cl all week end, like hot dog vendors at a ballgame. Marijuana, hashish, Remember, you are the leaders and there is no way to LSD, mescaline, MDA (an Ecstasy-like psychedelic), hallu peace. Peace is the way. cinogenic mushrooms, and a buffet of uppers and downers were always within easy reach. Announcers issued warnings Hamele and Cross escaped unharmed. from the stage: "Don't buy the white tabs or the orange SherifTGolz was astonished by the crowd's peacefulness. wedges, it's bad shit." The mimcogra]5hed newsletter assured "It's just amazing," he told the Milwaukeejournal. "If you had readers that the "grass, hash, ]5urple microdots closest to pure this many middle-age people, drinking the way these kids arc, acid" were all fine, and that the orange sunshine LSD was you'd have no end of fights and trouble." Perhaps he didn't "outasite." Alcohol flowed freely, and newspaper accounts sug a]5]oreciate the pacifying effects of ego-melting psychedelics. gest that the most wides]>read mind-altering chemical at Sound Pete estimated that at any given moment, more than half Storm may have been Bali Hai, a cheap screv\'-to|) wine. ' ofthe audience was trip])ing' on LSD or similar hallucinogens, Before long, Golz's undercover officers were spotted, and drugs which often dissolved the ego and spawned mystical the festival's mimeogra]>h machine had alerted the crowd ex]5eriences. "One youth, with downy sideburns and a mus under the headline, ".\ Pig Is a Pig Is a Pig." Pete, fearing tache," reported ihcMilwaiikeeJournal, "whittled 'G. Z. Loves arrests of fans or harm lo officers Hamele and Cross, com Life' into the trunk of a maple, then carved a heart around the mandeered a helicopter and flew into Madison, where he inscri])tion." A j^erson discovering heaven in a wild flower or printed 10,000 flyers. Adorned with Golden Freak's buzzard giggling at (he thought there could ever have been a "me" and bomb logo, he dropped these onto the audience from the would be unlikely to start a fight. sky and urged readers to "Keep the Faith:" In fact, only one significant confi-ontation was reported dur ing the entire weekend, and it was settled not by the police but FREAKS: by Pete. There arc ])eople who aren't turned on and are trying When the Vietcong flag was hoisted onto a sound tower, to turn ofl"what's happening here. It depends on you, [patriotic Chicago bikers demanded its removal. Pete oflcred to each and every one of you, to make it! So please don't have the stars and stripes raised on the opposite tower, but this break it. Let the vibes be your guide. Just let it be. didn't satisfy them. When the ringleader started to climb 36 wisconsinhistory.org -^ WMoHspIO 2/9/10 11:35AM Page37 get in, more than $ 100,000 in cash should have changed hands during the weekend. Golden Freak's attorneys rotated shifts v\atching the money and discretely carried wads of bills dov\'n- hill to hide them backstage in a suitcase in the sound crew's trailer. Roger Schnitzlcr estimates that by Sunday afternoon, $75,000 $100,000 was hidden ihere.*" As temperatures rose into the eighties, sweaty festival-goers christened a stretch of shoreline "T^arth People's Beach" and transformed a huge mound of soil nearby into a slide, flying clown it into Rowan Creek like otters. After frolicking in vari ous states of undress, they crowned twenty-one-year-old Michael McCormick of Madison "The Mud King" by encas ing him in slime and balancing a marsh jjlant on his head.*' A high |5oint ofthe weekend was the wedding on Sunday of Robert Leslie and Barbara Sv\enson. The bride wore flov\ers in her hair and an ankle-lengih while cotton dress. Ex])laining why she chose to be married at a rock festival, she told re]3oricrs, ".Ml of these |)eople are our friends, and where could we find a church big enough for them?" Poynette residents could hear the music two miles away and v\al('hed the news coverage every night, but most obeyed Sher iff (Jolz's advice to stay away. Poynette's only jjolicc officer, John Racsch, took several calls from anxious parents whose Barbara Swenson ofthe band Northern Comfort before her onstage wedding to bandmate Robert Leslie teenagers had snuck out and were worried they might run off to California. He later claimed with mock pride, '"[\\ |c didn't ^^ lose even one to the hippies." High school basketball coach i^ Richard Hanick and his v\'ife drove down to the York farm v\ith onstage and tear down the flag himself, Pete leajjed micro windows rolled up and doors locked; they never got out of their phone in hand, knocked him to the ground, and pummeled car. Village board member Mel Egger briefly surveyed the him into the dirt. .'\s comrades swarmed in to retaliate, Pete scene and concluded that "animals treat their own kind better held the microphone u|5 in one hand, pulled a knife out with than what I observed."*'' the other, and announced, "y\ny of you other [expletive Village merchants were more positive. Three bar owners deleted] want some?" He then helped his adversary up and the had ordered truckloads of beer and wine, and one reported two of them went for a beer. " selling fifty cases of Bali Hai. So many long-haired fans found Three dozen bands jjlayed at Sound Storm. "We would set their way into town lo buy su]0|5lies that shelves in many stores u|o a band on one side of the stage," audio manager Mike were swept entirely clean. Merchants joked afterward that "the Dziclinski recalled, "and while they jjlayed their set, we'd set up only guy that didn't make money was the barber."*'' the next band on the other side so that there would be very lit- By Sunday afternoon, thousands of their friends had been tie down time between bands." Apart from the Grateful Dead, partying non-stop for forty-eight hours, and still the crowd con only a few^ can be easily traced today.'"' tinued lo swell. New arrivals could be immediat(-ly s]iotted by The Chicago group Rotary Connection blended rock, soul, their relative cleanliness. Those who had arrived on Friday and psychedelia featuring multi-octave solos by vocalist Min night were generally covered in dust from the grounds, mud nie Ri]Derton. Illinois Speed Press mixed rock, soul, and coun fiom the creek, soot from their cam]Dfires, or all three. As the try. Baby Hue\' was a three-hundred-ijound jjiotege of Curtis sun reached its zenith on Sunday, tripped-out veterans and Mayfield whose trippy renditions of R&B tunes spawned a pvv- bright-eyed newcomers were all eagerly awaiting the top-billed manent follov\ing, Rockford-bascd Fuse ])layed hard rock and band, San Francisco's Grateful Dead.*' blues, and two years later evolved into the power-pop sensa tion. Cheap Trick,*' "World Comes Undone" While the bands played, thousands of dollars in small bills Twenty-five miles away, the Dead were piling into John were being counted, tallied, banded, and paid out at the ticket Hanson's nine-|3assenger station wagon, which cjuickly filled booth. Tickets cost $15 for the whole weekend, $12 for Satur with dense blue smoke. Jack Van Metre, who hated highway day alone, and $7 for Sunday, If even one fan in four paid to driving under the best of conditions, struggled to avoid a debil- .SPRING 2010 37 -^ WMoHspIO 2/9/10 11:35AM Page38 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY itating contact high as he sped north to Poynette. A half-hour later, the band tumbled out behind the stage laughing hysterically. The Grateful Dead were not yet famous. When performing, they almost always took LSD, played without any |)redetermined song list, and im])rovised instrumental jiassages lasting thirty minutes or more. Their mission was to deconstruct the listener's inher ited mental conditioning and enable mystical e|Di]Dha- nies to break through. As lead guitarist Jerry Garcia put it, "Magic is what we do. Music is how we do it." Anthropologist Joseph Campbell likened them to shamans and their concerts to ecstatic ceremonies.*" While their equijiment was being set up at Sound Storm, the Dead prepared the usual sacraments. .•\ case of soda was brought onstage and each can popped open. A Visine bottle with an cycdroppcr appeared, and each can was dosed with liquid LSD. The cans then circulated lo everyone onstage and into the audience.^" Although the weather was unseasonably warm, temperatures dipped into the forties Between 2:30 and 7:30, the Dead ]ierfoi'med three at night. Here, festival-goers warm themselves around a fire in the camping area. long sets. Xo one can verify what they played, since Pete's reels were lost and no tapes survive in the band's vault. They must have performed all the ]:)sychedclic Kesey himself was at the controls. WHien asked about this, John standards from their album Live/Dead as v\'cll as their new Hanson replied, "I hope it turns out to be true; it ought to be ^^ country-rock songs from Workingman's Dead, which they had true." But Bob Pulling pointed out that it would have been i^ just recorded. .Mike Dziclinski often helped set up their sound unnecessary: "There was enough acid there v\ithoul having to systems when ihey |)la\'ed the Midwest. He says, "As the band dro]) it from a helicopter" Pete sus|3ected later that hallucinations has admitted, because of their improvisational style sometimes at the time and the passing years transformed security fiyers that they were on and sometimes they weren't. At Sound Storm, he clrop]X'd on Saturday into the myth of an LSD airlift.'" they were definitely on." John Hanson recalls that they were Pulling recalled that at the end ofthe third set most ofthe relaxed and engaging on stage, nurturing a generous, support band left the stage exhausted and happy, but rhythm guitarist ive atmos]ohere across the hillside.'' Bob Weir remained at his microphone trembling and Recollections posted at fan Web sites include some evocative entranced, almost catatonic. The Dead's crew came forward, details about the Dead's five-hour performance: ])icked him u]) under the arm])its, and carried him backstage. Hanson bundled the band into his station wagon and, as the After second GD number, band asks audience if any car filled with pot smoke again, he imagine he "could sec the one has an I Ching. .\ book is passed forward but Bob headlines already 'Promising Young .Attorney .Arrested on says, "No, the grey book." 'That is produced, band Highway 51 with Notorious Rock Band.'" On the ride back, kneels down together in ccnier of stage, lo.sses coins, Jerry Garcia told him that "for its scale, this was the best festi reads results, all rise laughing and hollering, launch into val they had ever ])erformcd at, the most mellow."'' Other One . . . Phil in middle, Jerry to audience's far left, Bob on far right. During jam, jilaying lickety split, Wake ofthe Flood suddenly Jerry and Bob stride ciuickly lo center, band By then, Wisconsin and Chicago finis were flowing cjuietly starts playing double-time, world comes undone ... It toward their cars. About three thousand people who'd jour- was dark when v\e lefi and I had to drive home lo Mil ne\ ed from Calif<)rnia or the East Coast lingered around their waukee, since 1 was the only one able to . . . Driving campfires v\hile the stars came out, losing themsehes in what home, I announce that, "Now I can die." Pal Jim con the Dead called "the transitive nightfall of diamonds." curs, though third passenger was a little uneasy ... Golden Freak Enterprises, meanv\'hile, got a rude surprise: the suitcase with $100,000 had vanished during the Dead's An urban myth persists that LSD was dropped from aircraft performance. "Looking back," Roger Schnitzlcr says, "wc got during the Dead's performance, with one j^erson claiming Ken caught u|) in the general excitement and failed to act very 38 wisconsinhlstoryorg -^ WMoHspIO 2/9/10 11:35AM Page39 WNIIMAGCI0eSW3 Jerry Garcia, lead guitarist and vocalist for the Grateful The legendary Grateful Dead performed Sunday afternoon as the headline act of Sound Dead, on stage at Sound Storm Storm. business-like." They saw no point in reporting the theft since majority when he called Sound Storm "one ofthe most repul thousands of suspects had already disap])eared down the high sive situations impo.sed on a friendly, tranquil, beautiful rural ^^ way. Sound Storm had been an ecstatic musical and social community . . . We were shocked by what we saw, what we i^ success, but a financial disaster.' heard and by the reports we have read."'" Pete grabbed the last few thousand dollars lying around, Many of those reports came from law enforcement, whose put half in his pocket and left half for his attorneys, and then opinion was epitomized in the title of an article in their pro headed into Madison. By noon on Monday the York farm was fessional journal: "Rock Festivals, Cancer in Our Society." empty, though wide-eyed stragglers re]5orteclly wandered out of .\fter complaining about being ordered to ignore violations of the woods for several more days." the law, Lt. Lyle Sewell claimed it would have taken "very lit Estimates of total attendance varied widely, since fans arrived tle to agitate these people and possibly cause a riot... It would and departed non-stop throughout the weekend. The press and be very ca.sy for a young person to attend a festival like this and police re]Oortcd between six and twelve thousand on Friday night to smoke j)oi' for kicks, or even try some of the do])e that is and between fifteen and twenty-five thousand on both Saturday passed around, and perhaps become addicted .. ." and Sunday. .Allowing for overla]^, |)robably thirty thousand dif The festival's harshest criticism came from Madison's left- ferent individuals attended at least pan ofthe fi'stival. leaning counterculture, which denounced Golden Freak for From a crowd of thirty thousand, the police made only being "outside hippy capitalist promoters." "The general atti three arrests—two f()r littering and one for drunk driving, 'The tude," rc|)ortcd the Madison Kaleidoscope, "was 'Let's rip off medical stafTtreated about sixty ])eoplc, most for minor burns the pig promoters ... I hope they go bankrupt. All they're suffered at cam|)fircs. About twenty-five were treated for bad interested in is money.'" Editor Mark Kno])s objected to this LSD tri]5s. "It's incredible, really," one ofthe nurses said. "This attack. Besides being "one ofthe best little rockfests ever pulled many people and nothing more to report than that.'"'' off," he wrote, Sound Storm had strengthened the counter Comparisons with Woodstock were inevitable. One fan who culture: "Freeks [sic] from towns all across the state came out had been at both festivals called Sound Storm "better than of winter hibernation, shook off their ])aranoia, grooved Woodstock. Not as many people, but a more groovy event." A together, rapped together, reinforced the idea of alternative cul Chicago reporter called it "a lesson in glittering possibilities" ture, and went back home to East Jesus, Wisconsin, with and Madison's Capital Times characterized it as "])eaceftil renewed self-confidence and enthusiasm."'" and—quite often—ecstatic."'" Kno])s also detailed the festival's finances. Pete had Local residents, on the other hand, were outraged. Elmer informed him that total costs amounted to about $102,000 but Fisk, chairman ofthe Columbia County Board, spoke for the revenue came only to $81,000, leaving an outstanding debt of .SPRING 2010 39 -^ WMoHspIO 2/9/10 11:35AM Page40 -^ WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY 521,000. Knops laid the blame for this on freeloaders. Only Notes i. liiu rvicw with IVir Obranovich :nic) Bob Puiling. April 15, 2009. seven ihousand liekeis had been sold and ewryone else snuck 2. Pliom- intcmcws with Oljratioxich.Jiimiury 29 and February 10, 2009. in v\ ithout paying, including more than four hundred posing as :J. Phone inicrxinv with Obranovich, l-cbniary 10, 2009. !. Interview with John 1). Hanson and Jack V'an Metre, February I, 2009. Capital Times. reporters for his newspaper, which actually had a staff of ten. .\|)ril l(). 1970. Seciion 6, pa^o 3. j. Phone iiueiview with Obranoxich February 10, 2009; intcmcw with Bob Pulling, March No mention was made ofthe stolen suitcase full of cash.*'*' 13. 2009; nurses had nicknanu- 40 wisconsinhistory.org -^ WMoHspIO 2/9/10 11:35AM Page41 -^ Concert organizer Peter"Bobo"Obranovich and photographer Bob Pulling, still friends forty years after bringing Sound Stornn to Wisconsin 37. Milwaukee Sentinel. .April 25, 1970,6; Jay Stevens, Storming Heaven: LSD and the .Amer son." K;i/c/f/(wro/j<-iMilwaukee. Wis.). May I 14, 1970, lO-U. ican Dtvam (New York: .Atlantic Monthly Press. 1987), xiv xv. 58. Portage Daily Register. .April 30. 1970. and .May 7. 1970; "Springtime with the Rmkies," 38. Phone interview with Obranovich, F'ebruary 10. 2009. Wiscotisin Star. }imc 1970; "Rock F'estivals: Cancer in Our Sotiety." Wisconsin Star. Sep ^^ 39. F'ive fi-agmenlary. irreconcilable vei-sions of this event sunive. I follow that ofjohn Han tember, 1970, 4. i^ son, the only eyewitness not un SPRING 2010 41 -^