Hidden Treasures - Road Trippin' (Stop #3)

Let’s travel up I-5 and stay in the Bay area for this week. Funny thing about the music scene here, the famous Summer of Love, Haight Ashbury, and the Hippies were great times with an incredible soundtrack. Today I love that music, but back then I was only 3 or 4 years old, so to make this relevant to my age group I looked at the Bay area music scene a few years later on ...

Funny thing about the music coming out of this area in the late 70's early 80's ... it was very mainstream! Technically you could make an argument for Metallica coming out of San Fran, but in reality they were an LA based band before breaking big ... So that doesn't leave a lot of heavier music to choose from, but it doesn't mean that all was bad, in fact these 4 tracks are awesome, so let’s get to it...

PLAYLIST --> http://snack.to/adnsgl0f

	Pablo Cruise Pablo Cruise 1975 1 - Island Woman This band holds a special place in my musical life, they were my very first concert, so they can’t do anything wrong in my eyes. Pablo Cruise began in San Francisco, in 1973, with former members of Stoneground (Cory Lerios on keyboards and vocals, David Jenkins as vocalist and on guitar, and Steve Price on drums) and It's a Beautiful Day (Bud Cockrell on bass and vocals). Initially, there were many fans who were left wondering who Pablo Cruise really was. When asked the question, the band, which is a quartet, would answer, "He's the guy in the middle." When asked what Pablo Cruise meant, the band would say that "Pablo represents an honest, real, down to earth individual; and Cruise depicts his fun loving and easy going attitude towards life."
	Santana Zebop! 1981 2 - Primera Invasion/Searchin' Carlos Santana was born at Autlán de Navarro, Jalisco, Mexico. He learned to play the violin at age five, and the guitar at age eight. His younger brother, Jorge Santana, would also become a professional guitarist. Young Carlos was heavily influenced by Ritchie Valens at a time when there were very few Latinos in American rock and pop music. The family moved from Autlán de Navarro to Tijuana, the city on Mexico's border with California, and then San Francisco. Carlos stayed in Tijuana but later joined his family in San Francisco, graduating from James Lick Middle School, and in 1965 from Mission High School. Carlos was accepted at California State University, Northridge, and Humboldt State University, but turned down these offers. He got the chance to see his idols (most notably B.B. King) perform live in San Francisco. He was also introduced to a variety of new musical influences, including jazz and folk music, and witnessed the growing hippie movement centered in San Francisco in the 1960s.
	Journey Departure 1980 3 - Where Were You The original members of Journey came together in San Francisco in 1973 under the auspices of former Santana manager Herbie Herbert. Originally called the Golden Gate Rhythm Section and intended to serve as a backup group for established Bay Area artists, the band included recent Santana alumni Neal Schon on lead guitar and Gregg Rolie on keyboards and lead vocals. Bassist Ross Valory and rhythm guitarist George Tickner, both of Frumious Bandersnatch, rounded out the group. Prairie Prince of The Tubes served as drummer. The band quickly abandoned the original "backup group" concept and developed a distinctive jazz fusion style. In late 1977, Journey hired Steve Perry as their new lead singer. Perry added a clean, tenor sound and the band became a true pop act.
	Greg Kihn Rockihnroll 1981 4 - Valerie Greg Kihn began his career in his hometown of Baltimore, MD, working in the singer/songwriter mold, but switched to straightforward rock & roll when he moved to San Francisco in 1972. He started writing songs and playing coffee houses while still in high school in the Baltimore area. When Kihn was 17, his mother submitted a tape of one of his original songs to the talent contest of the big local Top 40 radio station WCAO, in which he took first prize and won three things that would change his life: a typewriter, a stack of records, and a Vox electric guitar. He moved to California in 1972 and worked painting houses, singing in the streets, and working behind the counter at Berkeley record store Rather Ripped Records with future band mate and Earthquake guitarist Gary Phillips. The following year, he became one of the first artists signed to Matthew Kaufman's now-legendary Beserkley Records