Description

In this oral history, musician and songwriter Marty Balin shares stories from his life at the center of the rock music scene and hippie culture of the 1960s and 1970s. Born in 1942, Marty grew up in both San Francisco and Richmond. He describes himself as having been a very musical child, born with "a song in [his] heart." Marty began his musical career in the San Francisco folk scene. When the clubs he was playing at in the early 1960s did not support his transition to amplified rock music, he opened his own nightclub called The Matrix, where all the new bands began performing. Marty recounts his formation of the legendary band Jefferson Airplane in 1965, sharing the genesis of some of Jefferson Airplane's - and later Jefferson Starship's - most memorable songs. Throughout this oral history he discusses his friendships and working relationships with many of the period's biggest names in music. In 1968, Marty moved over to Mill Valley, where he began taking daily hikes on Mt. Tam with his dog. He was living in Mill Valley when he received the news of Janis Joplin's untimely death, an event he describes movingly here. At the time this oral history was recorded, Marty was living in Florida with his family, recording a new album and still performing. As he reflects on the course his life has taken and the wisdom he has gleaned from it, he expresses his continuing love for Mill Valley and Mt. Tam, and his...

Record Contributed By

Mill Valley Public Library

Record Harvested From

California Digital Library