RIP Chet

July 8, 2005 11:43 PM

Chet Helms has been dead for a few days. He was not mentioned here and I somehow missed all this. He was a player in the music biz in his day and kinda looks like me if I stopped trimming my beard for a week or two. RIP.
posted by arse_hat (4 comments total)

I met Chet a couple of times. He was a very genuine guy. I wasn't around for the early years, but this guy helped create the scene that would launch some of the most important music in the history of America, bar none. Thanks for the creating a space for all of the music and love, Chet. I'll miss you.





Funny that it just turned to July 9th here on the West Coast. 10 years since the very last grateful dead show. I think that might merit an FPP.
posted by Gankmore at 12:09 AM on July 9, 2005

Chet Helms was the anti-Bill Grahm. Helms wanted to give the music away, and Grahm wanted to squeeze every nickel (while still giving folks a great show).
posted by fixedgear at 3:24 AM on July 9, 2005

Both Bill and Chet were important. Chet wasn't a good business man. Bill was able to make a business out of music. Maybe that's bad, unless you're a musician who wants to eat.
posted by Gankmore at 7:30 PM on July 9, 2005

The Sixties get farther and farther away; pretty soon Ringo Starr will be the only one left alive.

The most surprising thing on the main story linked was the mention that Chet was a friend of Janis Joplin's at the University of Texas. Never imagined that she had ever, if you'll pardon the expression, matriculated anywhere.
posted by LeLiLo at 10:48 AM on July 10, 2005