Chet Powers
Encyclopedia
Chester William Powers, Jr. (October 7, 1937 – November 16, 1994) was an American
singer-songwriter
, and a member of the rock group Quicksilver Messenger Service
. He was also known by the stage name
"Dino Valenti" and, as a songwriter, as Jesse Oris Farrow. He wrote the famous 60s song "Get Together".
s of Boston and Provincetown, Massachusetts
, Powers had already performed as "Dino Valenti" with small rock bands in New England lounges.
In the early 1960s he performed in Greenwich Village
coffee-houses such as the Cock 'n' Bull and the Cafe Wha?
, often with fellow singer-songwriter Fred Neil
, and occasionally with Karen Dalton
, Bob Dylan
, Lou Gossett, Josh White
, Len Chandler
, Paul Stookey and others. He influenced other performers including Richie Havens
, who continues to perform some of Powers' early "train songs". Powers was prevented from acquiring a cabaret license due to an earlier arrest, a requirement that was beginning to be imposed on Village entertainers at the time.
By 1963 Valenti/Powers was in Los Angeles
where folk-rock had already begun to coalesce. During this period he wrote his best-known song "Let's Get Together". "Get Together", a quintessential 1960s love-and-peace anthem, was later recorded by The Kingston Trio
, We Five
, The Dave Clark Five
, H.P.Lovecraft
, Jefferson Airplane
and The Youngbloods
, among others. He also falsely claimed the copyright of Billy Roberts
' hit song "Hey Joe
".
Valenti/Powers moved north to the San Francisco Bay
area where he recorded for Autumn Records, though no album was ever issued. He had been friendly with Roger McGuinn
in Los Angeles and it is said that The Byrds
' Michael Clarke
played in a band with Valenti/Powers in Big Sur
. He is said to have played in an early line-up of the San Francisco psychedelic rock
group Quicksilver Messenger Service
when John Cipollina
, David Freiberg
, and Jim Murray
all joined his group in 1964. He later rejoined the group as its lead singer and main songwriter.
Powers' career was blighted by several drug busts. After arrest for possession of marijuana, while awaiting trial he was searched again by police who found more marijuana, then amphetamines in his apartment. He received a one-to-ten-year sentence at Folsom State Prison
. To raise money for his defense he sold the publishing rights
for "Get Together" to the manager of the Kingston Trio (the Trio had recorded the song in 1964).
In the late 1960s he signed as a solo artist with CBS Records' Epic label, releasing the solo LP Dino Valente. He traveled with Quicksilver's Gary Duncan
to New York in January 1969 to form a new band to be called "The Outlaws", while Quicksilver's noted album Happy Trails
album appeared in March. While Valenti and Duncan were in New York, British keyboardist Nicky Hopkins
joined Quicksilver for their third album, Shady Grove (December 1969).
The Outlaws came to naught and the two musicians joined Quicksilver at a New Year's Eve concert by the band. Eight of the nine songs on the group's next album, Just for Love (August, 1970) were written by Valenti/Powers, six of them under the pseudonym
of "Jesse Oris Farrow". He remained the primary songwriter on their next album, in December, What About Me?. Despite occasional personnel changes, the band released Quicksilver (1971) and Comin' Thru (1972) before calling it quits. The 2-LP Anthology was issued in 1973 and a tour and album, Solid Silver, appeared in 1975.
Powers underwent brain surgery for an AVM
(arterovenous malformation) in the late 1980s. In spite of suffering from short-term memory loss and the effects of anti-convulsive medications, he continued to write songs and play with fellow Marin County musicians.
His last major performance was a benefit at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall
. He died suddenly at his home in Santa Rosa, California
on November 16, 1994, leaving behind a younger sister, Katherine (Kay), and two sons, Joli and Sterling.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
, and a member of the rock group Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service is an American psychedelic rock band, formed in 1965 in San Francisco.-Introduction:Quicksilver Messenger Service gained wide popularity in the Bay Area and, through their recordings, with psychedelic rock enthusiasts around the globe and several of their albums ranked...
. He was also known by the stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
"Dino Valenti" and, as a songwriter, as Jesse Oris Farrow. He wrote the famous 60s song "Get Together".
History
Before serving in the US Air Force and playing in the coffeehouseCoffeehouse
A coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on...
s of Boston and Provincetown, Massachusetts
Provincetown, Massachusetts
Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,431 at the 2000 census, with an estimated 2007 population of 3,174...
, Powers had already performed as "Dino Valenti" with small rock bands in New England lounges.
In the early 1960s he performed in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
coffee-houses such as the Cock 'n' Bull and the Cafe Wha?
Cafe Wha?
Cafe Wha? is a club in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, New York City that has been home to various musicians and comedians. Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, The Velvet Underground, Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys, Kool and the Gang, Peter, Paul & Mary, Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Joan...
, often with fellow singer-songwriter Fred Neil
Fred Neil
Fred Neil was an American folk singer-songwriter in the 1960s and early 1970s. He did not achieve commercial success as a performer, and is mainly known through other people's recordings of his material – particularly "Everybody's Talkin'", which became a hit for Harry Nilsson after being...
, and occasionally with Karen Dalton
Karen Dalton
Karen J. Dalton was an American folk blues singer and banjo player associated with the early 1960s Greenwich Village folk music scene, particularly with Fred Neil and the Holy Modal Rounders as well as Bob Dylan.-Biography:Dalton, whose heritage was Cherokee, was born Karen J. Cariker in Enid,...
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Lou Gossett, Josh White
Josh White
Joshua Daniel White , better known as Josh White, was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor, and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names "Pinewood Tom" and "Tippy Barton" in the 1930s....
, Len Chandler
Len Chandler
Len Hunt Chandler, Jr. , better known as Len Chandler, is a folk musician from Akron, Ohio.-Biography:He showed an early interest in music and began playing piano at age 8. Studying classical music in his early teens, he learned to play the oboe so he could join the high school band, and during...
, Paul Stookey and others. He influenced other performers including Richie Havens
Richie Havens
Richard P. "Richie" Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...
, who continues to perform some of Powers' early "train songs". Powers was prevented from acquiring a cabaret license due to an earlier arrest, a requirement that was beginning to be imposed on Village entertainers at the time.
By 1963 Valenti/Powers was in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
where folk-rock had already begun to coalesce. During this period he wrote his best-known song "Let's Get Together". "Get Together", a quintessential 1960s love-and-peace anthem, was later recorded by The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds...
, We Five
We Five
We Five was a 1960s folk rock musical group based in San Francisco, California. Their best-known hit was their 1965 remake of Ian and Sylvia's "You Were on My Mind", which reached #1 on the Cashbox chart, #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart...
, The Dave Clark Five
The Dave Clark Five
The Dave Clark Five were an English pop rock group. Their single "Glad All Over" knocked The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" off the top of the UK singles charts in January 1964: it eventually peaked at No.6 in the United States in April 1964.They were the second group of the British Invasion,...
, H.P.Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft (band)
H. P. Lovecraft was an American psychedelic rock band, formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1967 and named after horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Much of the band's music was possessed of a haunting, eerie ambience, and consisted of material that was inspired by the macabre writings of the author whose...
, Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
and The Youngbloods
The Youngbloods
The Youngbloods was an American folk rock band consisting of Jesse Colin Young , Jerry Corbitt , Lowell Levinger, nicknamed "Banana," , and Joe Bauer . Despite receiving critical acclaim, they never achieved widespread popularity. Their only U.S. Top 40 entry was "Get Together".-Background and...
, among others. He also falsely claimed the copyright of Billy Roberts
Billy Roberts
Billy Roberts is an American songwriter and musician credited with composing the 1960s rock music standard "Hey Joe"...
' hit song "Hey Joe
Hey Joe
"Hey Joe" is an American popular song from the 1960s that has become a rock standard and as such, has been performed in a multitude of musical styles by hundreds of different artists since it was first written. "Hey Joe" tells the story of a man who is on the run and planning to head to Mexico...
".
Valenti/Powers moved north to the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
area where he recorded for Autumn Records, though no album was ever issued. He had been friendly with Roger McGuinn
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
in Los Angeles and it is said that The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
' Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke (musician)
Michael Clarke , was an American musician, best known as the drummer for the 1960s rock group The Byrds from 1964 to 1967. He died in 1993, at age 47, from liver failure, a direct result of more than three decades of heavy alcohol consumption.-Biography:Clarke was born Michael James Dick in...
played in a band with Valenti/Powers in Big Sur
Big Sur
Big Sur is a sparsely populated region of the Central Coast of California where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. The name "Big Sur" is derived from the original Spanish-language "el sur grande", meaning "the big south", or from "el país grande del sur", "the big...
. He is said to have played in an early line-up of the San Francisco psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
group Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service is an American psychedelic rock band, formed in 1965 in San Francisco.-Introduction:Quicksilver Messenger Service gained wide popularity in the Bay Area and, through their recordings, with psychedelic rock enthusiasts around the globe and several of their albums ranked...
when John Cipollina
John Cipollina
John Cipollina was a guitarist best known for his role as a founder and the lead guitarist of the prominent San Francisco rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service...
, David Freiberg
David Freiberg
David Freiberg is an American musician. He was vocalist and/or bass guitar player with Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship.-Career:...
, and Jim Murray
Jim Murray (musician)
Jim Murray was a guitarist and harmonica player for the psychedelic blues rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service. He left the band in late 1967 shortly before they recorded their first album....
all joined his group in 1964. He later rejoined the group as its lead singer and main songwriter.
Powers' career was blighted by several drug busts. After arrest for possession of marijuana, while awaiting trial he was searched again by police who found more marijuana, then amphetamines in his apartment. He received a one-to-ten-year sentence at Folsom State Prison
Folsom State Prison
Folsom State Prison is a California State Prison located in the city of Folsom, California, northeast from the state capital of Sacramento. Opened in 1880, Folsom is the second-oldest prison in the state of California after San Quentin and was the first in the country to have electricity...
. To raise money for his defense he sold the publishing rights
Publishing rights
Literally, the right to publish a work.In the music industry, "publishing" is used as a catch-all shorthand for the administration of matters relating to the songwriter's and composer's share of income from a musical composition or recorded work....
for "Get Together" to the manager of the Kingston Trio (the Trio had recorded the song in 1964).
In the late 1960s he signed as a solo artist with CBS Records' Epic label, releasing the solo LP Dino Valente. He traveled with Quicksilver's Gary Duncan
Gary Duncan
Gary Duncan is an American musician, once guitarist with The Brogues, then most notably with Quicksilver Messenger Service, where the complex interplay between himself and fellow-guitarist John Cipollina did much to define the unique sound of that San Francisco based band.-Early life and musical...
to New York in January 1969 to form a new band to be called "The Outlaws", while Quicksilver's noted album Happy Trails
Happy Trails (album)
Happy Trails is the second album of the American band Quicksilver Messenger Service.Happy Trails consists mainly of a performance cover of Bo Diddley's - aka Ellas McDaniel - "Who Do You Love?" spread out over 25 minutes...
album appeared in March. While Valenti and Duncan were in New York, British keyboardist Nicky Hopkins
Nicky Hopkins
Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins was an English pianist and organist.He recorded and performed on noted British and American popular music recordings of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s as a session musician....
joined Quicksilver for their third album, Shady Grove (December 1969).
The Outlaws came to naught and the two musicians joined Quicksilver at a New Year's Eve concert by the band. Eight of the nine songs on the group's next album, Just for Love (August, 1970) were written by Valenti/Powers, six of them under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
of "Jesse Oris Farrow". He remained the primary songwriter on their next album, in December, What About Me?. Despite occasional personnel changes, the band released Quicksilver (1971) and Comin' Thru (1972) before calling it quits. The 2-LP Anthology was issued in 1973 and a tour and album, Solid Silver, appeared in 1975.
Powers underwent brain surgery for an AVM
Arteriovenous malformation
Arteriovenous malformation or AVM is an abnormal connection between veins and arteries, usually congenital. This pathology is widely known because of its occurrence in the central nervous system, but can appear in any location. An arteriovenous malformation is a vascular anomaly. It is a...
(arterovenous malformation) in the late 1980s. In spite of suffering from short-term memory loss and the effects of anti-convulsive medications, he continued to write songs and play with fellow Marin County musicians.
His last major performance was a benefit at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall
Great American Music Hall
The Great American Music Hall is a concert hall in San Francisco, California. It is located on O'Farrell Street in the Tenderloin neighborhood on the same block as the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theater...
. He died suddenly at his home in Santa Rosa, California
Santa Rosa, California
Santa Rosa is the county seat of Sonoma County, California, United States. The 2010 census reported a population of 167,815. Santa Rosa is the largest city in California's Wine Country and fifth largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area, after San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, and Fremont and 26th...
on November 16, 1994, leaving behind a younger sister, Katherine (Kay), and two sons, Joli and Sterling.
Pseudonyms
- Jackie Powers
- Dino Valenti
- Dino Valente
- Jesse Oris Farrow
- Jesse Orris Farrow
Solo
- "Don't Let It Down" / "Birdses" (Elektra 45012) 1964?
- Dino Valente (album)
External links
- http://www.dinovalenti.com/ Dino Valenti
- Dino Valente
- More information