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This day-by-day diary of The Mockers and The Mocker Manor Blues Band's live, studio, broadcasting and private activities is the result of three decades of research and interview work by Bruno Ceriotti, but without the significant contributions by other kindred spirits this diary would not have been possible. So, I would like to thank all the people who, in one form or another, contributed to this timeline: Steve LaRosa (RIP), Rod Harper (RIP), Hermann Dungs (RIP), Carlos Santana, Rory Butcher (RIP), Sarah (Butcher) Hoaglin, Ross Hannan, Corry Arnold, Judy LaRosa, Etienne Houben, Barry Lewis, Karim Brichi, and Brad Kelly.
November or December 1964
Mostly known for the presence of a pre-fame Carlos Santana in their lineup, the Mocker Manor Blues Band was formed from the ashes of the Mockers, a San Francisco-based rock band named after Ringo Starr's infamous quote from A Hard Day's Night (female reporter: "Are you a mod or a rocker?", Ringo: "Um, no… I am a mocker"). The man who came up with the name, a guitar player named Robert Steven 'Bob' Bunn (b. Monday, July 8, 1940, San Francisco, California), founded the band together with two old friends, a German-born drummer named Hermann Dungs (b. Monday, August 16, 1943 - d. Thursday, January 4, 2018, for Dementia with Lewy bodies), and a second-generation Italian bass player named Stephen Anthony 'Steve' LaRosa (b. Wednesday, May 1, 1946, San Francisco - d. Monday, March 7, 2022, around 12 noon, San Francisco, for COVID). "Bob and I met around 1958," recalls Steve. "We were both interested in shooting guns and met in regional and state-wide 'fast draw' competitions. We became good friends and hung-out from time to time in the ensuing years because of our common interests in guns. Later, in 1964, Bob told me he had started playing guitar and he introduced me to a friend of his, Hermann Dungs, who played drums. So, I bought a bass guitar and began to learn it. We started jamming and the Mockers began." The trio started rehearsing at Bob's house located at 3326 (?) Folsom Street, in the Precita Park neighborhood of the mostly latin Mission District, in the east-central part of San Francisco (Hermann lived there too, along with Bob's wife and baby daughter). The group's repertoire consisted primarly of songs by the Beatles ('Please Please Me', 'I Saw Her Standing There', 'A Hard Day's Night', and others), the Rolling Stones ('Get Off of My Cloud', '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction', 'Off The Hook', 'As Tears Go By', and others), and James Brown ('Like A Baby', 'I Don't Mind', 'I Lost Someone', 'Try Me', and others), plus Them's 'Gloria' and 'Mystic Eyes', the Animals' 'House Of The Rising Sun', Love's 'My Little Red Book', Rufus Thomas' 'Walking the Dog', Robert Parker's 'Barefootin', and Jr. Walker's 'Shotgun'.
Mostly known for the presence of a pre-fame Carlos Santana in their lineup, the Mocker Manor Blues Band was formed from the ashes of the Mockers, a San Francisco-based rock band named after Ringo Starr's infamous quote from A Hard Day's Night (female reporter: "Are you a mod or a rocker?", Ringo: "Um, no… I am a mocker"). The man who came up with the name, a guitar player named Robert Steven 'Bob' Bunn (b. Monday, July 8, 1940, San Francisco, California), founded the band together with two old friends, a German-born drummer named Hermann Dungs (b. Monday, August 16, 1943 - d. Thursday, January 4, 2018, for Dementia with Lewy bodies), and a second-generation Italian bass player named Stephen Anthony 'Steve' LaRosa (b. Wednesday, May 1, 1946, San Francisco - d. Monday, March 7, 2022, around 12 noon, San Francisco, for COVID). "Bob and I met around 1958," recalls Steve. "We were both interested in shooting guns and met in regional and state-wide 'fast draw' competitions. We became good friends and hung-out from time to time in the ensuing years because of our common interests in guns. Later, in 1964, Bob told me he had started playing guitar and he introduced me to a friend of his, Hermann Dungs, who played drums. So, I bought a bass guitar and began to learn it. We started jamming and the Mockers began." The trio started rehearsing at Bob's house located at 3326 (?) Folsom Street, in the Precita Park neighborhood of the mostly latin Mission District, in the east-central part of San Francisco (Hermann lived there too, along with Bob's wife and baby daughter). The group's repertoire consisted primarly of songs by the Beatles ('Please Please Me', 'I Saw Her Standing There', 'A Hard Day's Night', and others), the Rolling Stones ('Get Off of My Cloud', '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction', 'Off The Hook', 'As Tears Go By', and others), and James Brown ('Like A Baby', 'I Don't Mind', 'I Lost Someone', 'Try Me', and others), plus Them's 'Gloria' and 'Mystic Eyes', the Animals' 'House Of The Rising Sun', Love's 'My Little Red Book', Rufus Thomas' 'Walking the Dog', Robert Parker's 'Barefootin', and Jr. Walker's 'Shotgun'.
THE MOCKERS #1 (NOVEMBER or DECEMBER 1964 - APRIL 1965)
1) Steve LaRosa bass, vocals
2) Bob Bunn guitar, vocals
3) Hermann Dungs drums, vocals
1) Steve LaRosa bass, vocals
2) Bob Bunn guitar, vocals
3) Hermann Dungs drums, vocals
Early 1965: 'Vox Bay Area Battle Of The Bands', unknown hall, Santa Clara County Fairgrounds (?), 344 Tully Road, San Jose, Santa Clara County, California
"We didn't win anything in that contest and rightly so," Steve LaRosa recalls. "Truthfully, we were not very good at all… really, and had only practiced in our house and played mostly instrumentals very poorly. That was the first and only time we'd played in public [as a three-piece]." "I don't remember the specific location," Steve adds, "but it was in a hall and I seem to recall it was within some fairgrounds area (?). I don't remember the name of the band who won, only that I thought they were very good and I remember them playing 'It's All Over Now', the Bobby Womack song that the Stones covered on one of their first albums."
"We didn't win anything in that contest and rightly so," Steve LaRosa recalls. "Truthfully, we were not very good at all… really, and had only practiced in our house and played mostly instrumentals very poorly. That was the first and only time we'd played in public [as a three-piece]." "I don't remember the specific location," Steve adds, "but it was in a hall and I seem to recall it was within some fairgrounds area (?). I don't remember the name of the band who won, only that I thought they were very good and I remember them playing 'It's All Over Now', the Bobby Womack song that the Stones covered on one of their first albums."
The Mockers #1 at the 'Vox Bay Area Battle Of The Bands', San Jose, early 1965 - from left: Hermann Dungs, Steve LaRosa, and Bob Bunn
The Mockers #1 at the 'Vox Bay Area Battle Of The Bands', San Jose, early 1965 - from left: Steve LaRosa, Hermann Dungs, and Bob Bunn
The Mockers #1 at the 'Vox Bay Area Battle Of The Bands', San Jose, early 1965 - from left: Steve LaRosa, Hermann Dungs, and Bob Bunn (almost cut off)
April 1965
The Mockers added a second-generation Italian singer and lead guitar player named Anthony Dominic 'Tony' Lenzini (b. Thursday, October 10, 1946, San Francisco - d. Monday, May 1, 2006, San Francisco, due to declining health issues). At that point Tony went to live at Bob Bunn's house too.
THE MOCKERS #2 (APRIL 1965 - JULY 1965)
1) Steve LaRosa
2) Bob Bunn now on rhythm guitar
3) Hermann Dungs
4) Tony Lenzini lead guitar, vocals
1) Steve LaRosa
2) Bob Bunn now on rhythm guitar
3) Hermann Dungs
4) Tony Lenzini lead guitar, vocals
Saturday, May 15, 1965: Fantasy Records Studio, 855 Treat Avenue, Mission District, San Francisco, California
Bob Bunn had heard that Fantasy Records, a local indie label, was looking for new talents and set up an audition for the band at the label's studio. "We were all very happy," recalls Steve LaRosa. "We were just starting-out, not even fully formed, and we had a chance to go into a recording studio and record two original songs! For Free! It was a wonderful experience." As Steve recalled, the new four-piece lineup lay down a couple of songs that day, both penned by him: 'It's Said And Done' and 'Don't Make Me Blue'. However, the audition didn't go well, Fantasy never signed them, and so the songs remained unrelased. "I have the reel-to-reel tape", adds Steve, "but it includes the instrumental tracks only, not the vocals tracks. I sang the vocal tracks separately that same day and I have no idea why weren't included in the tape I have." Anyway, at that session they all met Tony Lenzini's friend Kenny Olson, a very good soulful singer who subsequently bought a Farfisa organ and joined the band (he was actually a bass player but because they had already one, he learned organ so that he could be in the band exactly).
June or July 1965
Bob Bunn (with his wife and baby daughter), Hermann Dungs, and Tony Lenzini all moved together in a new house at 248 Miramar Avenue, in the Ingleside neighborhood located in the southwestern part of San Francisco. Although Steve LaRosa was there most of the time because the band rehearsed there too, he continued to live with his parents in the Glen Park neighborhood of San Francisco, because of his college and work schedules and because it was already a very crowded house, so it wasn't feasible for Steve to room with the others.
July 1965
The Mockers added the aforementioned Kenneth Allan 'Kenny' Olson (b. Thursday, December 27, 1945, San Francisco). At that point Kenny went to live with the others on Miramar Avenue too.
Bob Bunn had heard that Fantasy Records, a local indie label, was looking for new talents and set up an audition for the band at the label's studio. "We were all very happy," recalls Steve LaRosa. "We were just starting-out, not even fully formed, and we had a chance to go into a recording studio and record two original songs! For Free! It was a wonderful experience." As Steve recalled, the new four-piece lineup lay down a couple of songs that day, both penned by him: 'It's Said And Done' and 'Don't Make Me Blue'. However, the audition didn't go well, Fantasy never signed them, and so the songs remained unrelased. "I have the reel-to-reel tape", adds Steve, "but it includes the instrumental tracks only, not the vocals tracks. I sang the vocal tracks separately that same day and I have no idea why weren't included in the tape I have." Anyway, at that session they all met Tony Lenzini's friend Kenny Olson, a very good soulful singer who subsequently bought a Farfisa organ and joined the band (he was actually a bass player but because they had already one, he learned organ so that he could be in the band exactly).
June or July 1965
Bob Bunn (with his wife and baby daughter), Hermann Dungs, and Tony Lenzini all moved together in a new house at 248 Miramar Avenue, in the Ingleside neighborhood located in the southwestern part of San Francisco. Although Steve LaRosa was there most of the time because the band rehearsed there too, he continued to live with his parents in the Glen Park neighborhood of San Francisco, because of his college and work schedules and because it was already a very crowded house, so it wasn't feasible for Steve to room with the others.
July 1965
The Mockers added the aforementioned Kenneth Allan 'Kenny' Olson (b. Thursday, December 27, 1945, San Francisco). At that point Kenny went to live with the others on Miramar Avenue too.
THE MOCKERS #3 (JULY 1965 - OCTOBER or NOVEMBER 1965)
1) Steve La Rosa
2) Bob Bunn
3) Hermann Dungs
4) Tony Lenzini
5) Kenny Olson Farfisa organ, vocals
1) Steve La Rosa
2) Bob Bunn
3) Hermann Dungs
4) Tony Lenzini
5) Kenny Olson Farfisa organ, vocals
The Mockers #3 rehearsal at the Miramar Avenue's house, San Francisco, 1965 - Steve LaRosa
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The Mockers #3 rehearsal at the Miramar Avenue's house, San Francisco, 1965 - from left: Steve LaRosa and Hermann Dungs
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The Mockers #3 rehearsal at the Miramar Avenue's house, San Francisco, 1965 - Hermann Dungs
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The Mockers #3 rehearsal at the Miramar Avenue's house, San Francisco, 1965 - Kenny Olson
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August or September 1965: Brookdale Lodge, 11570 Highway 9, Brookdale, San Lorenzo Valley, Santa Cruz County, California
Round Robin, the Los Angeles-based Afro-American rhythm 'n' blues singer that covered the famous 'Land Of 1000 Dances' a year before the Wilson Pickett's best-known version of the song, was also on the bill and the Mockers backed him up too. "We opened the first set ourselves as the Mockers," Steve LaRosa recalls, "and then called-up Round Robin. We backed him for about three songs to end the set. We then played another set ourselves."
September 1965: unknown venue, unknown city, unknown county, California
The Mockers #3, unknown venue, September 1965 - from left: Steve LaRosa, Tony Lenzini, and Bob Bunn
The Mockers #3, unknown venue, September 1965 - from left: Hermann Dungs, Tony Lenzini, Bob Bunn, and Kenny Olson
The Mockers #3, unknown venue, September 1965 - from left: Steve LaRosa and Tony Lenzini
The Mockers #3, unknown venue, September 1965 - Tony Lenzini
October 1965 (?): Burlingame Recorders, Burlingame, San Mateo County, California
The Mockers recorded on tape a cover of James Brown's 'Like A Baby' and a cover of Jr. Walker's 'Shotgun'. "A local businessman, Sal Abate (who owned a car stereo store in San Bruno, California), heard us and thought he could be another Brian Epstein (lol)," Steve LaRosa recalls. "He paid for sessions at his friend's studio. It was technically a poor recording and mix and didn't go anywhere. The engineer wasn't very good and we were young and knew nothing." "Later, Sal took the tape to Capitol Records in San Francisco where they pressed an acetate with 'Like A Baby' on A side and 'Shotgun' on the flip side," Steve adds. "However, Capitol wasn't interested and the guy lost interest. It's just the way things happened."
October or November 1965
Hermann Dungs made a decision to quit the Mockers to pursue other, non-musical, interests and left on good terms. "We were just having fun playing music, but Hermann had a full-time job as an optician and he would soon leave the area for some months in order to fulfill his obligations in the U.S. Army Reserve," explains Steve LaRosa. The band replaced him with a new drummer named Roderick Donald 'Rod' Harper (b. Sunday, January 13, 1946, San Diego, California - d. Monday, March 11, 2019, Vallejo, Contra Costa County, California, from cancer).
THE MOCKERS #4 (OCTOBER or NOVEMBER 1965 - EARLY JUNE 1966 (?))
1) Steve LaRosa
2) Tony Lenzini
3) Bob Bunn
4) Kenny Olson
5) Rod Harper drums
1) Steve LaRosa
2) Tony Lenzini
3) Bob Bunn
4) Kenny Olson
5) Rod Harper drums
The Mockers #4, Miramar Avenue's house, San Francisco, 1966 - from left: Tony Lenzini, Kenny Olson, Rod Harper, Bob Bunn, and Steve LaRosa
The Mockers #4, early 1966 - from left: Bob Bunn, Steve LaRosa, Tony Lenzini, (seated) Kenny Olson and Rod Harper
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The Mockers #4, early 1966 - from left: Steve LaRosa, Tony Lenzini, Rod Harper, Kenny Olson, and Bob Bunn
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The Mockers #4, Miramar Avenue's house, San Francisco, 1966 - from left: Bob Bunn, Tony Lenzini, Kenny Olson, Rod Harper, and Steve LaRosa
The Mockers #4, 1966 - from left: Steve LaRosa and Tony Lenzini
The Mockers #4, 1966 - from left: Kenny Olson and Rod Harper
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The Mockers #4, Miramar Avenue's house, San Francisco, 1966 - from left: Tony Lenzini, Kenny Olson, Rod Harper, Bob Bunn, and Steve LaRosa
The Mockers #4, 1966 - Steve LaRosa
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Friday, December 31, 1965: unknown hall, San Rafael, Marin County or Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California
The Mockers were billed to play as backup band of the legendary Los Angeles-based vocal pop and blue-eyed soul duo the Righteous Brothers, but, as Steve LaRosa points out, "We did not back up them. We thought we were supposed to but were told they 'failed to show' and so we played our own set. Of course, it was all a farce and I'm sure they were never really even contracted to play there. But we played a good set and the audience enjoyed us. Also on the bill were Bobby Day of 'Rockin Robin' fame, and several other separate, well-known acts. (We didn't play with them or back them). But nothing was what it seemed. The promoters merely SAID those were the acts, sold tickets to an unsuspecting public and naive musicians, with each band thinking the other band/group was the real deal, when we were all no-name acts, getting a very small amount of money. Of course, the promoters probably made a bundle." "I don't remember the specific location", Steve adds, "but it was an open hall with no seating and it was small and old. I only remember that it was in that general geographical area around San Rafael or Santa Rosa."
Early - Spring 1966: Mission YMCA, 4080 Mission Street, Excelsior District, San Francisco, California
The Mockers played at many Friday night dances here during the early months of the year. They also played at private parties all over town and anywhere else they could at the same time.
Early/Spring 1966: Dominic's Harbor Restaurant, 507 Francisco Boulevard, San Rafael, Marin County, California
Wednesday, April 6 - Thursday, April 7, 1966: 'The Clash of the Giants - Battle Concert Dance', California Hall, 625 Polk Street, San Francisco, California
Also on the bill: The Hedds, Wanderers, Intruders, Vandals, Friendly Stranger. One show a day, from 8:00pm to 12 midnight, presented by The Young San Franciscans.
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The Mockers #4, California Hall, San Francisco, April 6 or 7, 1966 - from left: Tony Lenzini and Steve LaRosa
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Friday, May 27, 1966: Longshoremen's Hall, 400 North Point, Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, California
Also on the bill: The Hedds, The Vandals, Vip Berry and the Berets. One show, from 8:00pm to 12 midnight, presented by Associated Artists of Hollywood.
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Early June 1966 (?)
Steve LaRosa and Rod Harper quit the Mockers over some musical differences. At that point the band disbanded for good with Bob Bunn who retired from the music scene, Kenny Olson who left the music for awhile and then afterward just jammed with people from time to time, and Tony Lenzini who also left music for a month before teamed up again with Steve and Rod in their new band. Meanwhile, Steve and Rod started looking around to find musicians for their new band, and one day they ended up at Don Wehr's Music City, a local music store where the Mockers used to hung out and bought equipment. There, the owner, the late Don Wehr, suggested them to reach out a friend of his, a very talented guitar player named Carlos Santana (b. Carlos Umberto Santana, Sunday, July 20, 1947, at 2:00am, Autlan De Navarro, Jalisco, Mexico). Steve and Rod, whi had never heard of him before, have two different recollections about what exactly Don told them that day when Carlos' name popped up during their conversation. According to Steve, he told them that Carlos would be a good fit for the band they had in mind, but according to Rod, he actually told them that yes he was a pretty good guitar player but he was also very young and Mexican (whatever he meant). In any case, Don eventually gave them Carlos' number, they reached him out, and the guitarist told them that they could pick him up at the Tic Tock Drive In where he used to work as dishwater at the time after school. "We drove there in my car, a '61 beige Chevrolet Impala," recalls Steve. "Carlos had tomato sauce spread on his chest and when we asked him why he said his mother put it on him because he had a cold. He also had a white Gibson SG electric guitar and a little black Vox amp with him." Apparently, Carlos knew very well who they were, because on the way to Rod's house located on 587 Noe Street at 19th Street, in the mostly gay Castro District, the guitarist "kept telling us how much of a fan he was of the Mockers," also recalls Steve, "how he went to all our gigs, and how he dreamed of playing with us and how this was like a dream come true!" "We are pretty full of ourselves," he continues, "and Carlos had pretty much blew our head up, so we weren't expecting much. However, after we began practiced in Rod's living room, playing some blues tunes and a few songs written by me, we were blown out by his guitar skills." So, after that first rehearsal together, Steve and Rod knew immediately that Carlos was the perfect fit for them. "Great chemistry," confirms Steve. "He was so special, he had good musical knowledge, and was a nice fellow and easy to be around. We liked him." "Steve was really good and very attentive to what the drummer was doing, and Rod was good on certain kinds of songs but not on others," recalls Santana in his autobiography The Universal Tone (Orion Publishing Group; 2014). In the following weeks the trio continued to practiced in Rod's living room, but because Carlos did not have a car (he couldn't buy one, he was dead broke), it was always Steve who picked him up at the Tic Tock Drive In, and from there they'd go to where he lived with his family (a flat, two units: one upper and one lower, at 704 14th Street at Market Street, in the Upper Market neightborhood of San Francisco) to get his equipments, and then off to rehearse or play somewhere.
UNNAMED TRIO (EARLY JUNE 1966 (?) - LATE JUNE 1966 (?))
1) Steve LaRosa bass, vocals
2) Rod Harper drums
3) Carlos Santana lead guitar
1) Steve LaRosa bass, vocals
2) Rod Harper drums
3) Carlos Santana lead guitar
Sunday, June 19, 1966: 'Schools Out Band Battle', California Hall, 625 Polk Street, San Francisco, California
Within a couple of weeks since they got together, Steve LaRosa, Rod Harper and Carlos Santana played at a 'battle of the bands' presented by The Associated Artists of Hollywood and that lasted from 8:00pm to 1:00am. Also on the bill: The Blokes, Outcast, Riddlers, Just Us, Currents, Wanted, Stained Glass, Group, Axons, U-Mans, Benedict Arnold & The Traitors, Approaching Dawn, The Hedds. The unnamed trio still used the Mockers name for this gig (the one and only they did as a three-piece) just because the original band was originally booked for this one, although they'd broken-up in the meantime. According to Rod Harper, their friend Don Wehr was there that night, although Carlos didn't like Don at that time because he always thought Don was trying to show him up. In fact, during the break, Don went up and did a drum solo, and Carlos turned to Rod and said: "see, he's always trying to upstage me!". By the way, the former Mockers members Tony Lenzini, Kenny Olson, and Bob Bunn, were also in the audience that night and were duly impressed.
Late June 1966 (?)
After seeing them at the aforementioned 'battle of the bands', Tony Lenzini was blown away and quickly joined Steve, Rod, and Carlos, making them a four-piece band. However, although in their previous incarnation he was the lead guitarist, and although he was a much more well-rounded player than Carlos at that time, the latter's solos were so incredible that Tony agreed to use his rhythm guitar skills behind Carlos' lead guitar skills, to give the quartet a much bigger and better sound. "I have a tape of our first rehearsal together, the four of us in Rod's living room," recalls Steve LaRosa. "We just playing some blues tunes and chatting. In the tape you can heard Tony playing an old borrowed acoustic guitar with a pickup on it, and Carlos playing his white Gibson SG electric guitar through his little black 10-watt Vox amp." "Carlos solos are youthful, exuberant and exciting," he adds. "Easily identifiable as we've come to know his playing. And there was much talking between us, at times. At one point, Carlos can be heard asking wheter we had a joint or some weed, which we almost always did! The tape, of approximately 30 minutes duration, started with an uptempo blues instrumental, then talking and tuning, then a long and slow blues instrumental, then talking and tuning again, and finally another uptempo blues instrumental that abruptly ends because the tape ran out while we were playing. The rehearsal was recorded using an old reel-to-reel recorder and a single condenser mic (all four instruments are very clearly heard)."
UNNAMED REHEARSAL BAND (LATE JUNE 1966 (?) - LATE JULY 1966 (?)) / THE MOCKER MANOR BLUES BAND (LATE JULY 1966 (?) - DECEMBER ?, 1966)
1) Steve LaRosa
2) Rod Harper
3) Carlos Santana
4) Tony Lenzini rhythm guitar, vocals
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5) Sahib Malik vocals, harmonica (a week or so from late September to early October)
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5) Rory Butcher vocals, tamburine (two weeks from early to mid October)
1) Steve LaRosa
2) Rod Harper
3) Carlos Santana
4) Tony Lenzini rhythm guitar, vocals
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5) Sahib Malik vocals, harmonica (a week or so from late September to early October)
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5) Rory Butcher vocals, tamburine (two weeks from early to mid October)
Late July 1966 (?)
After a month or so, the as-yet unnamed band informally hired a (sort of) manager named Stan Marcum, a beatnik dude a bit older than they were and who worked as a barber. "Although you could say that he was our manager, we didn't 'hire' him to do that," points out Steve LaRosa. "Stan was just one of the people who would hang around the Mockers rehearsals and go to some of our gigs. Then, when we left the band to form a new one with Carlos, he would come over Rod's apartment sometimes when we jammed and he gave us good suggestions from a listeners point of view. But we had no arrangement with him and there was nothing formal. Remember, we were not a working band; just a few players trying to put something together." Also around that time, some neighbors of the band had been complaining about the volume of their rehearsals at Rod's apartment, so they soon found a new rehearsal space, a huge house that looked like a big stone castle located on Clarendon Avenue in the Twin Peaks neighborhood of San Francisco. They asked the owners if they could use one of their street-level garages for their rehearsals and they agreed. It was the garage, that had been converted to a recreation/storage room, that inspired them to called their band the Mocker Manor Blues Band. "Rod, Stan and me all came up with the name," points out Steve. "Mocker because me, Rod and Tony came from the Mockers, Manor because we were playing in a manor, and Blues Band because we wanted to be a blues band." "We had been exclusively a blues band at the beginning," confirms Santana in his autobiography. "[Then] we started doing [Nat Adderley's] 'Work Song' and [Paul Butterfield Blues Band's] 'East-West' in our shows, adding them to the older R&B numbers we did, such as Ray Charles's 'Mary Ann.' We were still jamming for ourselves and a few friends more than we were playing gigs. We’d get together in friends’ basements or play outside in the Presidio or in the Panhandle, near Golden Gate Park - anywhere we could make music without getting chased away by the cops or getting yelled at because of the noise." "We also did Bobby Bland's 'Turn On Your Love Light'," adds Steve, "few Stones songs we brought from the Mockers, original songs I had written and some instrumental jams. We were only together for six months and really never had a chance to settle in and define ourselves."
Saturday, October 1 - Sunday, October 2, 1966: '1st Artists Liberation Front Free Fair' (aka '!Happiness! ALF Free Fair'), Potrero Hill public housing project, Mission District, San Francisco, California
In October the Artists Liberation Front (ALF) produced a series of fairs on four weekends in four different ethnic, low-income neghborhoods in San Francisco. They were called 'Free Fairs'. For the first time artists had gotten together, not to sell their art but to invite people to participate in the creative process. The artists set up kiosks with large rolls of paper and painting supplies. Kids (of all ages) could make their own art, while rock bands came to play. The Mocker Manor Blues Band were among the bands who played at these events (probably the first outdoors concerts of rock music history). They played in three of them, the first held in one of the two public housing projects in Potrero Hill, a residential neighborhood in the Mission District. Around that time, an Afro-American guy named Sahib Malik, who sang and played blues harmonica, tried-out with the band for a short time but it just didn't work out, so this was his only gig with them. "Hardly knew him," Steve LaRosa recalls about Malik, "but he was a pretty good harmonica player and he had a great jazz record collection during ’66. And he had a black cat name Agamemnon." Also appeared civil rights activist, social critic, writer, entrepreneur, and comedian Dick Gregory, theatrical troupes El Teatro Campesino, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and the San Francisco Calliope Company, plus a children dance troupe directed by Carol Landes, puppets theaters, and a local actor named Bobby Parker.
Monday, October 3, 1966 (?): 'Open Auditions', The Matrix, 3138 Fillmore Street, Marina District, San Francisco, California
At 9:30pm, the Mocker Manor Blues Band did a non-billed audition set at the Matrix club. At that time Sahib Malik was still "with us", recalls Steve LaRosa, "but he didn't actually play during the Matrix gig because Stan Marcum wasn't really infatuated with him and decided we wouldn't even tell Sahib about the gig. So, we did it as a quartet and Sahib was fired soon after."
Thursday, October 6, 1966: 'Lunatic Protest Demostration - Love Pageant Rally', Panhandle Park, Oak Street at Masonic Avenue, near Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California
The Mocker Manor Blues Band played for free during an outside afternoon unauthorized protest demostration held in the park and organized by Allen Cohen (editor of the San Francisco Oracle) and fine artist Michael Bowen, with the help of local hippie communities (among them, the Diggers), after having learned from the news media that the US Government had just declared LSD illegal in California. Also on the bill: The Orkustra, Big Brother and The Holding Company, The Grateful Dead, The Wildflower, (possibly) Joe Henderson Quartet. By the way, the event was filmed but so far no video footage of the band surfaced.
Saturday, October 8 - Sunday, October 9, 1966: '2nd Artists Liberation Front Free Fair' (aka '!Happiness! ALF Free Fair'), Glide Foundation, Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, 330 Ellis Street, Tenderloin, San Francisco, California
The Mocker Manor Blues Band played during the 2nd ALF Free Fair two-day event held at the Glide Foundation, a charity organization located into the Glide Church, in the Tenderloin, a neighborhood in downtown San Francisco. Also appeared: Country Joe and the Fish, the Jerry Brexelli Band, and Mrs. Joseph P. Lacy III's Jug Band, plus thirty poets who read their own works (including Michael McClure, Laura Ulewicz, Greg Campbell, Adrian Ravarour, Janice Mirikitani, Joanna Katz, Jim Turner, Joan Robb, Larry Mamiya, Gina Cunningham, George Spuler, and Dee Barret), theatrical troupe the Committee, contortionist Bernie Orlando, and Arthur Lisch and his Instant Theatre.
After a month or so, the as-yet unnamed band informally hired a (sort of) manager named Stan Marcum, a beatnik dude a bit older than they were and who worked as a barber. "Although you could say that he was our manager, we didn't 'hire' him to do that," points out Steve LaRosa. "Stan was just one of the people who would hang around the Mockers rehearsals and go to some of our gigs. Then, when we left the band to form a new one with Carlos, he would come over Rod's apartment sometimes when we jammed and he gave us good suggestions from a listeners point of view. But we had no arrangement with him and there was nothing formal. Remember, we were not a working band; just a few players trying to put something together." Also around that time, some neighbors of the band had been complaining about the volume of their rehearsals at Rod's apartment, so they soon found a new rehearsal space, a huge house that looked like a big stone castle located on Clarendon Avenue in the Twin Peaks neighborhood of San Francisco. They asked the owners if they could use one of their street-level garages for their rehearsals and they agreed. It was the garage, that had been converted to a recreation/storage room, that inspired them to called their band the Mocker Manor Blues Band. "Rod, Stan and me all came up with the name," points out Steve. "Mocker because me, Rod and Tony came from the Mockers, Manor because we were playing in a manor, and Blues Band because we wanted to be a blues band." "We had been exclusively a blues band at the beginning," confirms Santana in his autobiography. "[Then] we started doing [Nat Adderley's] 'Work Song' and [Paul Butterfield Blues Band's] 'East-West' in our shows, adding them to the older R&B numbers we did, such as Ray Charles's 'Mary Ann.' We were still jamming for ourselves and a few friends more than we were playing gigs. We’d get together in friends’ basements or play outside in the Presidio or in the Panhandle, near Golden Gate Park - anywhere we could make music without getting chased away by the cops or getting yelled at because of the noise." "We also did Bobby Bland's 'Turn On Your Love Light'," adds Steve, "few Stones songs we brought from the Mockers, original songs I had written and some instrumental jams. We were only together for six months and really never had a chance to settle in and define ourselves."
Saturday, October 1 - Sunday, October 2, 1966: '1st Artists Liberation Front Free Fair' (aka '!Happiness! ALF Free Fair'), Potrero Hill public housing project, Mission District, San Francisco, California
In October the Artists Liberation Front (ALF) produced a series of fairs on four weekends in four different ethnic, low-income neghborhoods in San Francisco. They were called 'Free Fairs'. For the first time artists had gotten together, not to sell their art but to invite people to participate in the creative process. The artists set up kiosks with large rolls of paper and painting supplies. Kids (of all ages) could make their own art, while rock bands came to play. The Mocker Manor Blues Band were among the bands who played at these events (probably the first outdoors concerts of rock music history). They played in three of them, the first held in one of the two public housing projects in Potrero Hill, a residential neighborhood in the Mission District. Around that time, an Afro-American guy named Sahib Malik, who sang and played blues harmonica, tried-out with the band for a short time but it just didn't work out, so this was his only gig with them. "Hardly knew him," Steve LaRosa recalls about Malik, "but he was a pretty good harmonica player and he had a great jazz record collection during ’66. And he had a black cat name Agamemnon." Also appeared civil rights activist, social critic, writer, entrepreneur, and comedian Dick Gregory, theatrical troupes El Teatro Campesino, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and the San Francisco Calliope Company, plus a children dance troupe directed by Carol Landes, puppets theaters, and a local actor named Bobby Parker.
Monday, October 3, 1966 (?): 'Open Auditions', The Matrix, 3138 Fillmore Street, Marina District, San Francisco, California
At 9:30pm, the Mocker Manor Blues Band did a non-billed audition set at the Matrix club. At that time Sahib Malik was still "with us", recalls Steve LaRosa, "but he didn't actually play during the Matrix gig because Stan Marcum wasn't really infatuated with him and decided we wouldn't even tell Sahib about the gig. So, we did it as a quartet and Sahib was fired soon after."
Thursday, October 6, 1966: 'Lunatic Protest Demostration - Love Pageant Rally', Panhandle Park, Oak Street at Masonic Avenue, near Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California
The Mocker Manor Blues Band played for free during an outside afternoon unauthorized protest demostration held in the park and organized by Allen Cohen (editor of the San Francisco Oracle) and fine artist Michael Bowen, with the help of local hippie communities (among them, the Diggers), after having learned from the news media that the US Government had just declared LSD illegal in California. Also on the bill: The Orkustra, Big Brother and The Holding Company, The Grateful Dead, The Wildflower, (possibly) Joe Henderson Quartet. By the way, the event was filmed but so far no video footage of the band surfaced.
Saturday, October 8 - Sunday, October 9, 1966: '2nd Artists Liberation Front Free Fair' (aka '!Happiness! ALF Free Fair'), Glide Foundation, Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, 330 Ellis Street, Tenderloin, San Francisco, California
The Mocker Manor Blues Band played during the 2nd ALF Free Fair two-day event held at the Glide Foundation, a charity organization located into the Glide Church, in the Tenderloin, a neighborhood in downtown San Francisco. Also appeared: Country Joe and the Fish, the Jerry Brexelli Band, and Mrs. Joseph P. Lacy III's Jug Band, plus thirty poets who read their own works (including Michael McClure, Laura Ulewicz, Greg Campbell, Adrian Ravarour, Janice Mirikitani, Joanna Katz, Jim Turner, Joan Robb, Larry Mamiya, Gina Cunningham, George Spuler, and Dee Barret), theatrical troupe the Committee, contortionist Bernie Orlando, and Arthur Lisch and his Instant Theatre.
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Saturday, October 15 - Sunday, October 16, 1966: '3rd Artists Liberation Front Free Fair' (aka '!Happiness! ALF Free Fair'), Panhandle Park, Oak Street at Masonic Avenue, near Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California
The Mocker Manor Blues Band played during the 3rd ALF Free Fair two-day event held in the Panhandle park from 10:00am to 10:00pm. The band played in the morning and probably only on Saturday 15, with a lineup augmented by Rory Butcher (b. Rory Grant Butcher, Sunday, July 10, 1949, San Francisco - d. Friday, June 11, 2021, Wichita Falls, Texas, from a massive coronary) on vocals and tambourine, formerly of the Hedds. Rory tried-out with the band for a couple of weeks that month but, as with Sahib Malik, it really didn't work out so he left them right after this gig, the only one he played with the band (he later formed Womb). "By the summer of ’66 [sic] the band was getting better, and I was getting a reputation," recalls Santana in his autobiography. "At one of our outdoor jams in the Panhandle I was taking a solo. I opened my eyes and recognized Jerry Garcia and Michael Bloomfield in the audience - they were checking me out, nudging each other with their elbows, and smiling about something." "Stan Marcum, who got us the ALF gigs, told us - for whatever reason, to look 'straight' and comb our hair back that day, so we did our best," recalls Steve LaRosa. "As you can see by the photo, Carlos was still shy about playing on the stage and/or facing the audience. I recall Jerry Garcia standing in the crowd wide-eyed, hearing Carlos’ passionate solos for the first time. It was a trip." Also appeared: Mrs. Joseph P. Lacy III's Jug Band (15 or 16), Quicksilver Messenger Service (16), Country Joe and the Fish (16), the Grateful Dead (16), the Wildflower (15-16).
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The Mocker Manor Blues Band, Panhandle Park, San Francisco, October 15, 1966 - from left: Rory Butcher, Carlos Santana, Rod Harper, Steve LaRosa, and Tony Lenzini
The Mocker Manor Blues Band, Panhandle Park, San Francisco, October 15, 1966 - from left: Carlos Santana, Steve LaRosa, Tony Lenzini, Rod Harper, and Rory Butcher
Rory Butcher, Panhandle Park, San Francisco, October 15, 1966
The Mocker Manor Blues Band, Panhandle Park, San Francisco, October 15, 1966 - from left: Tony Lenzini, Rory Butcher, Steve LaRosa, and Rod Harper
October or November 1966: Avalon Ballroom, 1268 Sutter Street at Van Ness Street, Polk Gulch, San Francisco, California
"Then we ran into Chet Helms, who told us he had heard us playing in the Presidio," recalls Santana in his autobiography. "'Yeah, I used to hear you guys in the park - you’re good. Why don’t you try out for the guy who auditions bands in the afternoons at the Avalon?" So the band played their non-billed audition set there one afternoon, but as well as for The Matrix, apparently it didn't goes well because they were never called back.
Sunday, November 13, 1966: Fillmore Auditorium, 1805 Geary Boulevard at Fillmore Street, Fillmore District, San Francisco, California
The Mocker Manor Blues Band did a non-billed audition set, opening for Country Joe and the Fish, Buffalo Springfield, and the headliner Bola Sete. Another local band called Raik's Progress also did a non-billed audition set before or after the Mocker Manor. The show, which lasted from 2:00pm to 7:00pm, was presented by the great late promoter Bill Graham, and was kiddies free! "Stan Marcum got us the audition set at the Fillmore," Steve LaRosa recalls, "just as he had the other gigs during that time. It had nothing to do with Carlos Santana or anybody else. To my distinct knowledge, the first time Carlos climbed on the Fillmore stage was the time of the MMBB audition there, not before. And that's despite other individuals saying that the first time Carlos played there was with the Santana Blues Band. As history indicates, MMBB played there in Nov. '66. SBB didn't exist at that time."
December ?, 1966
The Mocker Manor Blues Band disbanded after Steve LaRosa was in some ways forced to quit them because "I had gotten a girl pregnant and so had to leave the band and get a full-time job," he recalls. At that point, as the story goes, Carlos went to form his own Santana Blues Band at the dawn of the new year. Stan Marcum become the manager of that band too, and Rod Harper was also involved because he played with them for awhile (before left to play with a "rival" band called Allmen Joy for the next couple of years). Actually Carlos invited Steve to be part of his new band too, but the latter declined, not because he didn't like them, but only due to his family responsibilities. A few years later, in 1970, while their former bandmate Carlos had meanwhile become one of the most famous rockstar in the world, Steve, Rod, and Tony reunited to form a new band together along with a singer and organ player named Billy Dunn. The four-piece, still without a name, backed-up the great late Chuck Berry at the Pepperland ballroom in San Rafael in December, and there they were greeted by none other than Santana himself. "Carlos came backstage and he, Rod, Tony and I had a chance to chat for awhile," confirms Steve. "After the concert, when all the audience had gone, Carlos jammed with us for a couple of hours." That night it was a very pleasant trip down memory lane for all of them, but it was also the last time they played together and saw Carlos. While the guitarist continued his rise to rock stardom which eventually led him straight into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Rod Harper retired from the music scene right after that show, while Steve LaRosa and Tony Lenzini continued to play with Billy Dunn and a new drummer named Steve Koskela under the name of Filet of Soul for several years.
