John Byrne Cooke
PHOTOGRAPHY
Image No. 68-5A-12
Bill Graham and Ralph J. Gleason
Winterland arena, San Francisco, December 31, 1967
Bill Graham had reason to be grateful to the San Francisco Chronicle's respected critic Ralph J. Gleason. Gleason was that rarity among critics, a music lover who dared to applaud new music that he deemed worthy, even if the newcomers were displacing the favored music of his own generation. Gleason was a jazz fan, but he was among the first music writers to recognize and champion the counterculture's music in the Sixties, first folk, and later the unique sound of the San Francisco rock bands.
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