The Loading Zone - The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA, 2-8-1968

As I've mentioned many times on this blog before, I think the late 1960s were a special time for music. It's my opinion that often even little known bands from that time were better than most bands that came later. I've been making an effort to post music from such talented less bands. Here's one: the Loading Zone. Although they never found critical or commercial success, somehow there's this one bootleg recording that sounds professionally recorded.

One thing that makes music of that time special, in my opinion, is that a lot of what was happening was brand new. The concert is a case in point. At the time, the Loading Zone were pioneering what would later be called "jazz rock." That would soon be made popular by groups like Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears. But "jazz soul" might be a better name, because there's a large soul element here.

The Loading Zone were formed in Berkeley, California at the start of 1966. In my opinion, they stood out by their musical talent, which was on a different level than most Bay Area bands of the time. Their lead vocals by Linda Tillery were a particular highlight. (Note that she had only recently joined the band in late 1967, but that's definitely her on this recording.) However, their weakness was they didn't come up with much original material. Thus, their self-titled debut album mostly consisted of covers. It wasn't that well received, being especially criticized for excessive production. Tillery left the band for a solo career in 1969. After some personnel changes, the band put out one more album in 1970, "One for All," then broke up in 1971.

Here's their Wikipedia page: 

The Loading Zone - Wikipedia 

In my opinion, the band probably would have been wise to release this concert instead of their debut album. It shows their musical talent without the overproduction issue. It's actually quite different from that album as well, with only three songs being on both: "Love Feels like Fire," "I Can't Please You," and "Kali Yuga-Loo."

By the way, it's frustrating that the recording ends with the emcee announcing that Arlo Guthrie would be on stage next. Too bad that recording doesn't exist (or at least hasn't been made public). Also, note that this took place at the Fillmore a few months before it changed its name to the "Fillmore West" (due to a "Fillmore East" opening up on the East Coast).

This album is 38 minutes long. 

01 Watermelon Man [Instrumental] (Loading Zone)
02 talk (Loading Zone)
03 Get Ready (Loading Zone)
04 talk (Loading Zone)
05 Call It Stormy Monday (Loading Zone)
06 talk (Loading Zone)
07 Love Feels like Fire (Loading Zone)
08 I Can't Please You (Loading Zone)
09 talk (Loading Zone)
10 The Monkey Time (Loading Zone)
11 talk (Loading Zone)
12 Kali Yuga-Loo (Loading Zone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ExpkS8BJ 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/nnUwUUvbmvCOi2M/file

I tried finding a photo of this band in concert, but I came up snake eyes. This was the best photo I could find, by far. It was used on the back side of their 1968 album, though more cropped than this. The version I found was in black and white (as it was on the album), but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program. The only person I can identify is Linda Tillery, who is the Black woman in the leather jacket and cap second to the left.