The Great Speckled Bird
The Great Speckled Bird was a counterculture underground newspaper based in Atlanta, Georgia from 1968 to 1976. It was founded by New Left activists from Emory University and members of the Southern Student Organizing Committee, an offshoot of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society). The first issue appeared March 8, 1968, and within 6 months it was publishing weekly. By 1970 it was the third largest weekly newspaper in Georgia with a paid circulation of 22,000 copies. The paper subscribed to Liberation News Service, a leftist news collective. The office of The Great Speckled Bird at the north end of Piedmont Park was firebombed and destroyed on May 6, 1972 after the paper published an exposé of the mayor of Atlanta.
63 articles
List of articles in the library
Interview by uncredited writer, The Great Speckled Bird, 30 August 1968
THERE IS A concert — a rock concert with several serious new music groups, and advertising that promoted only the top 40 dribble that some ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis (NBC Television Special)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 13 December 1968
If you're lookin' for trouble, you came to the right place If you're lookin' for trouble, just look right in my face... ...
Film/DVD/TV Review by Miller Francis, The Great Speckled Bird, 13 January 1969
Yellow Submarine is rapidly on its way to canonization, so I felt that along with unrestrained praise for its animation designer Heinz Edelmann, should go ...
Fats Domino: Antoine Fats Domino: Fats Is Back (Reprise RS 6304)
Review by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 24 January 1969
ROCK ENTHUSIASTS sometimes like to quibble over just which rock and roll song started the whole thing: in the liner notes for this album producer ...
The Byrds: Glenn Memorial Church, Atlanta GA
Live Review by Miller Francis jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 7 February 1969
THE BYRDS are, always have been, and (as things look now) will continue to be the most consistently excellent, and under-rated, rock and roll group ...
The Rolling Stones: Beggars Banquet (London PS 539)
Review by Miller Francis jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 17 February 1969
THE ROLLING Stones are at the artistic peak of their career: Beggars Banquet is perhaps their finest work to date. It is not merely, as ...
Live Review by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 10 March 1969
THE LAST two weeks have been good ones for country music in Atlanta. George Jones and Tammy Wynette were at the Playroom; Merle Haggard's latest ...
Comment by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 17 March 1969
IT WAS COUNTRY Music Week in Nashville, Tennessee, during the fall of 1966. Several of us from the Southern Student Organizing Committee were in town ...
MC5: The MC5: Kick Out the Jams (Elektra)
Review by Miller Francis jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 17 March 1969
"Works of art which lack artistic quality have no force, however progressive they are politically. Therefore, we oppose both works of art with a wrong ...
Johnny Cash: Johnny Cash! The Man, His World, His Music (PBL; dir. Robert Elfstrom)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Miller Francis Jr., Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 24 March 1969
TO SAY THAT the 90-minute Johnny Cash PBL special was the best television show I've ever seen is to detract from the compliment; perhaps it ...
Allman Brothers Band: The Allman Brothers Band
Special Feature by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 19 May 1969
Upon first seeing the Allman Brothers Band, an interracial rock and roll band from the heart of segregated, reactionary Georgia not only calling themselves brothers, ...
Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Doug Kershaw, Joni Mitchell: The Johnny Cash Show (ABC TV/Screen Gems)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 12 June 1969
TV CASHES IN ...
Canned Heat, Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter: The Blues
Essay by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 16 June 1969
"All new technologies bring on the cultural blues, just as the old ones evoke phantom pain after they have disappeared." — Marshall McLuhan, War and ...
Report by Miller Francis jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 23 June 1969
AN ARTICLE ON the Memphis Country Blues Festival in a local Memphis newspaper was headlined: "BLUES ARE REBORN IN COTTON-FIELD HEAT." ...
Atlanta International Pop Festival
Comment by Miller Francis jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 30 June 1969
"If you want to come up with a singular, most important trend in this new music, I think it has to be something like: it ...
The Everly Brothers: Roots (Warner Brothers-Reprise 1752)
Review by Miller Francis Jr., Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 7 July 1969
"Roll along, along Jordan,Roll me on my way. Roll along, along Jordan,Roll me home today. " ...
Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground (MGM SE-4617)
Review by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 4 August 1969
TAKE IT OR leave it I've never known anyone who was neutral toward The Velvet Underground. They either turn you on, or it's the worst ...
Live Review by Miller Francis jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 18 August 1969
"I'd like for them to hear the real things. I don't think yet that most of the white people like my music because it's blues. I ...
Report by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 1 September 1969
"Man, what done got into them ofays?" one asked. "It ain't nothing. They just trying to get back, that's all" "Get back?" said the ...
Easy Rider (Columbia Pictures; Dir. Dennis Hopper)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 29 September 1969
"The basic unit for contemporary art is not the idea, but the analysis of and extension of sensations. (Or if it is an idea, it ...
Hampton Grease Band: The Hampton Grease Band: Suck Rock
Profile and Interview by Miller Francis jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 13 October 1969
"Give me a gun, and I'll blow your fucking head off!" — Bruce Hampton ...
Report and Interview by Miller Francis jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 20 October 1969
OURS IS AN age of reluctant ambivalence. The impact of the new is devastatingly real, but the clinging corpse of what has been and what ...
Interview by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 20 October 1969
The brother runs the camera, and the sister gives the cues/The uncle is the producer, and the old man writes the news/This family named JonesThat ...
The Doors: The Soft Parade (Elektra)
Review by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 20 October 1969
"Callin' on the gods" ...
Live Review by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 27 October 1969
FRIDAY AFTERNOON was almost frightening — all those big names, the abruptness of the pop festival's appearance, the overall speculative nature of this ambitious musical ...
Hampton Grease Band: Georgian Terrace Ballroom, Atlanta GA
Live Review by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 1 December 1969
THREE TURKEY TRIPS ...
Jefferson Airplane: Volunteers (RCA Victor)
Review by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 1 December 1969
Look what's happening out in the streets Got a revolution Got to revolutionHey, I'm dancing down the streetsGot a revolution Got to revolutionAin't it amazing, all ...
Review by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 8 December 1969
EACH OF the record albums discussed here could be termed a masterpiece worthy of a full-length "rave." But the Review format can often be nothing ...
Comment by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 16 March 1970
IF MERLE Haggard wasn't one of the two or three most creative persons in country music, it would be easy to dismiss him as just ...
Merle Haggard: Municipal Auditorium, Atlanta
Live Review by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 23 March 1970
Walk a Mile... ...
Report by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 30 March 1970
SANTANA AND the Allman Brothers Band flew right into a hornet's nest last week when they showed up to play at the Municipal Auditorium: there ...
Zabriskie Point (dir. Michelangelo Antonioni)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 2 April 1970
"I understand man, with his faults and his virtues; those of many men I know, and no doubt my own as well. But what I ...
Profile by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 2 April 1970
NO ONE IN the entire world of rock has created a body of music to compare with the work of John Mayall. If the process ...
Profile by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 13 April 1970
"I don't wanna wreck nobody's soul I just wanna rock & roll!" — Johnny Winter ...
Essay by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 4 May 1970
Part 1 WOODSTOCK IS AN amazing piece of technology, one of the most important films ever made. We have long been accustomed to experiencing films as ...
Woodstock producer Bob Maurice
Interview by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 4 May 1970
(The following dialogue with Bob Maurice, producer of the Woodstock film, is an edited version of a long interview taped last week at the Marriott.) ...
Live Review by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 16 May 1970
IF YOU WERE one of the few people who wasn't at the Sports Arena Sunday afternoon for the Grateful Dead concert, you've probably heard by ...
The Who: Woodstock: Talking About My Generation
Essay by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 15 June 1970
"I'm looking for me, You're looking for you We're looking at each other and we don't know what to do." — 'The Seeker' by the Who ...
Jefferson Airplane: The Jefferson Airplane: Municipal Auditorium, Atlanta
Live Review by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 31 August 1970
NO DOUBT about it, as somebody on stage at the Municipal Auditorium put it, the Jefferson Airplane concert Monday night was "the Atlanta rock event ...
Johnny Jenkins: Nothing But The Blues
Interview by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 28 September 1970
TON TON Macoute! was recorded in Macon, Georgia at Capricorn Records, at an 8 track studio built "in memory of Otis Redding" by Phil Walden, ...
Allman Brothers Band: The Allman Brothers Band: Idlewild South (Atco Capricorn SD 33-342)
Review by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 9 November 1970
WHAT A RELIEF to hear the new Allman Brothers album! When they played in the park a few weeks ago, everything was beginning to sound ...
Dolly Parton, Porter Wagoner: Porter & Dolly
Profile by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 30 November 1970
PORTER WAGONER and Dolly Parton were scheduled to appear in Atlanta this Saturday night to headline WPLO's Shower of Stars at the Municipal Auditorium. Last ...
Charles Manson: The Girls On The Corner
Readers' Letters by uncredited writer, The Great Speckled Bird, 8 February 1971
(This letter in defense of Charles Manson and the Family was sent to The Great Speckled Bird and other underground papers by Family member Sandra Good ...
Live Review by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 15 March 1971
FROM TOP TO bottom, the Shower of Stars last Saturday night was really fine. The sound system was much improved and the sound it carried ...
The Scruggs Brothers: The Scruggs Bros.
Interview by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 29 March 1971
GARY AND Randy Scruggs, Earl's boys, have fine album out on Vanguard — All The Way Home. ...
Interview by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 5 April 1971
"It's a funny thing. I'd probably sold two or three millions for RCA before I realized that you got paid for it. Fact is, I ...
Interview by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 3 May 1971
TOM T. HALL is one of Nashville's outstanding songwriters. He's turned out hit after hit like 'I Washed My Face in the Morning Dew', and ...
Interview by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 17 May 1971
PORTER WAGONER and Dolly Parton are country music superstars. Porter's been on the Grand Ole Opry for years and as much as anyone else has ...
Interview by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 24 May 1971
THE EXCITING thing about Porter and Dolly's music is that it continues to grow — as their new albums indicate. Porter's latest is Simple As ...
Interview by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 21 June 1971
IT WAS ONE of those memorable evenings like accidentally catching Charley Pride's first Nashville appearance at the Ernest Tubb Record Shop, or watching Mel Tillis ...
Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty: Loretta & Conway
Profile by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 28 June 1971
LORETTA LYNN and Conway Twitty headline the WPLO Shower of Stars this Saturday night at the Municipal Auditorium. Both are established country stars. Loretta was ...
Loretta Lynn: Everybody's Got a Soul and a Heart
Interview by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 12 July 1971
(RBP editor's note: the intro to this article was written by Paul Connah, the interview undertaken primarily by Gene Guerrero) ...
The Monkees, Michael Nesmith: Michael Nesmith
Interview by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 20 September 1971
MIKE NESMITH was a member of the Monkees, now he's doing his own thing, come see him at the press party at the Bistro. That's ...
Report by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 1 November 1971
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE — It was a combination pop festival and Lion's Club Convention — the 46th Anniversary Celebration of the Grand Ole Opry held October ...
Elvis Presley, The Sweet Inspirations: Elvis Presley: Memorial Coliseum, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Live Review by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 4 November 1971
I WAS IN the eighth or ninth grade when I first heard Elvis Presley. A neighbor buddy and I had gone to the Saturday morning ...
Interview by uncredited writer, The Great Speckled Bird, 22 November 1971
IT ALL started Wednesday at the royal coach inn with Viva. The inn is some architect's nightmare of Lancelot and Arthur's court, wooden chandeliers and ...
Live Review by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 14 February 1972
Oil Commercials & Falling Idols ...
Live Review by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 31 February 1972
GOOD COUNTRY ...
Interview by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 12 June 1972
LIKE MOST under 40/over 20 Americans, the Everly Brothers are very much a part of my life. 'Cathy's Clown' and 'Bye, Bye Love' are not ...
Willie Nelson: The Words Don't Fit The Picture (RCA LSP-4653)
Review by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 24 July 1972
Country Willie ...
Interview by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 1 February 1973
CHARLEY PRIDE has come a long way from Sledge, Mississippi, where he and ten brothers and sisters picked cotton alongside their parents. In 1971 the Country ...
George Jones, Tammy Wynette: Shower of Stars: George Jones & Tammy Wynette
Profile by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 5 March 1973
ONCE AGAIN it's Shower of Stars time. A good chance to see some of country music's finest in person at pretty reasonable prices. ...
Profile by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 21 May 1973
JERRY LEE Lewis is a self-made phenomenon. Remember a couple of years ago when he made it back on television after years of virtual obscurity? ...
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