So, back. This is gonna be a bit of a band bio with a touch of rant in it.
Some friends here and I have been delving a bit into '60s music, with one song in particular: a group called, interestingly, It's a Beautiful Day. This was a group formed in the San Francisco area circa "The Summer of Love", consisting of David LaFlamme as lead vocalist/violinist, the freshly-18YO Patti Santos on accompanying vocals, Linda "The First" LaFlamme on keyboards (she and David divorced later and he married to Linda "The Second" eventually), Hal Wagenet on guitar, Mitchell Holman on bass and Val Fuentes on drums.
Not much is known of the other bandmates, but David was a child violin prodigy, having won his way into first violin/soloist for the Utah Symphony Orchestra. Having achieved adulthood, he sought other avenues for his expression and eventually ended up in San Francisco, where he met up with other performers and formed It's a Beautiful Day.
Along the way, as they were settling in, they signed on with band manager Matthew Katz of Seattle, who was a twin brother of another Katz. He had been managing a few other acts, such as Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape. Katz was a flamboyant character, who had various connections and was, for a time, reputedly connected with up-and-coming star, Canadian Neil Young. The band, young themselves, naively signed on with Katz as he was struggling with both Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape at the time. Before long, Katz and the band were headed to Seattle, to 'polish the act', claiming they "weren't ready". Katz had a nightclub in Seattle named "San Francisco Sound", where he claimed he'd 'help' the band 'improve their sound'...but IABD found out, as did other acts, that the nightclub was a low-popularity dive. They performed, they practiced...with a minimal audience and no real billing. This continued for a long time.
Katz also had properties all around Seattle, one of them being a large home in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, between downtown and Lake Washington, across the street from Volunteer Park. They were allowed to occupy the attic space and nowhere else about the home while they 'improved'. Through the months, the hot days, the waning fall warmth and into winter, the band endured isolation, loneliness, hunger. They were getting very little stage time, they got a very meager allowance for food and had no transportation. They were destitute.
As the weather worsened, grew cold, dark and violent outside, the bandmembers fought their loneliness, isolation, hunger and poverty by practicing in-situ, composing, reworking their projects...one of which became their signature song, "White Bird". The lyrics spoke colorfully, vividly of their plight, whereas the weather was moving faster than they were. Their situation was desperate. And one day, they finally broke free and made it back to the San Francisco area they'd pined for in their song's lyrics, but first they played various outdoor venues, such as the "Sky River Rock Festival" and "Lighter-Than-Air Fair", both in Sultan, Washington. After that, it was San Francisco, performing for local venues behind Katz' back.
While there, their song "White Bird" got noticed and finally the band was getting somewhere. Katz, clearly with a stranglehold on the band, moved in with outlandish demands from the record company...not to profit but to dissuade a contract to maintain a tight fist on IABD's neck. Nonetheless, a deal was struck and an album cut. "White Bird" was getting exposure, freely as the band was now getting, far from their former Seattle 'cage'. This threatened Katz' ego and self-delusion so much that he sabotaged IABD when the band was offered a film-op: Katz stipulated that they would have to pay 'the band' $1 million for rights. Again, this was not intended for a profit but to scare away publicity and opportunity for IABD. With his so-called 'legal team' and high equity in venues and real estate, Katz was iron-fisted, insane; it was then that IABD began in-earnest to get out of his grip.
It's of note that in the early-to-mid '80s, the song "White Bird" was showcased on three episodes of Knight Rider, as the hallmark song of David Hasselhoff's character Michael Knight and a former-flame character. The song was performed by an anonymous 'house band' for Glen A. Larson Productions.
Eventually, the band wrested free but lost their initial rights and royalties. This had also been done by Katz to Moby Grape, but in a much-heavier fashion, by quietly framing various MG members for drugs, sex scandals and the like. The band was left in ruins...and Katz owned their entire portfolio. Nonetheless, as Jefferson Airplane did, IABD pressed on, toured, performed, made a fair living at it, even with line-up changes and a band-split. Sadly, Patti Santos, the female voice of "White Bird", was killed in a car crash in California in 1989. David LaFlamme, lead vocalist and violinist, died of complications from Parksinsons Disease on August 6, 2023, age 82.
Katz found himself, at the turn of the century/millennium, in the center of legal scrutiny regarding Moby Grape: the surviving bandmembers sued for their portfolio and rights back, with Katz fighting all the while, stalling with continuances and other maneuvers. Those maneuvers ran out and, in the end, Moby Grape emerged victorious and planned to release copies to make some money for their efforts; also included in the settlement was an order to return all of Moby Grape's royalties that Katz had received. But Katz was not done: once the new record label started their manufacturing process, Katz and his so-called 'legal team' threatened the label with litigation over album artwork. It is believed that all of Katz' rights to the portfolio had been stripped but this did not stop him and he successfully intimidated the label into cease-and-desist. The progress dragged on. And it was reported Katz never paid Moby Grape back one dime of royalties.
By the end, many accusations arose against Katz, identical to those levied by IABD, reeking of absolute, iron-fisted control over groups, their meager offerings and opportunities. All the while, Katz painted himself as a savior of '60s Psychedelia and Rock to a consensus which staunchly refuted him. Using the newsmedia, Katz and his allies railed against his accusers, talking of how they abused Katz' 'selfless generosity', ransacked his homes, offending his 'benevolence', while his opposition countered with rebuttals of substandard housing, lies, broken promises, throttled opportunities, starvation, threats. Katz was clearly out of touch with reality...and with the money to curry unto himself enough blind social favor despite it. The Devil may not have danced in empty pockets but he sure did on the backs of others. Love of money does indeed blind.
But Katz continued his blithe, blind life-narrative, right until his death on September 30, 2023. 55 days after David LaFlamme's passing. This was released belatedly to various pop-music newsmedia outlets by Katz' niece's Facebook page. He was 93.
On a final epilogue note: as part of Katz' death announcement, it was made known that Katz was preceded in death by his twin brother some years before. It was reported that on the day the brother was buried, within moments of family arriving home, Katz called his brother's family, short on condolences and long on talk about inheritance: did his brother leave anything for him? Katz' query was countered with a negative response; he further accused the family of not providing his twin an 'adequate' funeral & burial and soon a lawsuit emerged from Katz. It is unclear what he sought or the outcome but the embittered family fought back. All this dissolved when Katz died.
Personally, I hope Katz, in my opinion a worthless blob of a modern-day slavemonger and social virus, was cremated and flushed down a toilet. He rightly earned that much for his subhumanity. And for the surviving group members of It's a Beautiful Day, September 30, 2023 became A Most Beautiful Day. White Bird was free.
I had to put that in)
pay off my last credit card and phone handset loans by august latest then start saving money 