I Want to Take You Higher: The Life and Times of Sly and the Family Stone by Jeff Kaliss Page A

grown up among fellow Italian Americans in San Francisco's North Beach and Marina
neighborhoods, and then stepped up to his father's bar business. Music was vital to Rich's club vision. For the jukebox at his dad's
Morocco Room in San Mateo, south of the San Francisco airport,
the younger Romanello insisted on selecting the discs himself. "The jukebox company would not buy a record until it was
a hit," he points out, "but I'd put in songs that I thought would
become hits, so I had the hottest jukebox in the area." Long
before "Runaround Sue" scored for Italian American rocker
Dion DiMucci in 1961, "The only place you could hear it was at
the Morocco Room, or you'd have to wait for it to play on the
radio."

    Visits to Tom Donahue and Bob Mitchell's shows at the Cow
Palace convinced Rich of the commercial power of live rock. On a
mission to convert the Morocco Room "from a neighborhood
cocktail lounge into a young hot spot," he began to feature live
entertainment, leaning toward the R & B end of the rock spectrum. Emile O'Connor (called "Little E") and Wally Cox, two of
his featured performers, talked Rich into managing them. "It was
black entertainment, and a white Peninsula crowd," he says. "But
if there were any blacks that came in, they were welcomed. We
weren't segregated." Later, Rich was advised to audition a white act
from San Francisco, the Beau Brummels. He remembers their tryout at the Morocco Room in 1964. "There were maybe four people in the place, and they set up and started playing, and that old
hair on my arm goes up. And when the hair on your arm goes up,
you got something. It was a big change, to go from saxophones and
black singers to a white guitar sound. But I hired 'em."
    Soon enough, "They said, `Be our Brian Epstein,' and that got
my attention, because [Beatles manager] Brian Epstein was my
hero." Rich's second management venture prompted a visit to the
Morocco Room by Tom Donahue and Sly Stone, who had already
worked with the Brummels at Autumn Records. Rich subsequently got to observe Sly in action at the Cow Palace and in the studio.
"He was a very cool, low-key individual," Rich remembers about
Sly. He supposes that "maybe at that time, because of his growing,
there might have been a little bit of insecurity," which maintained
Sly's low-key presence. This belied the young producer's manifest
talent: "He'd get up and play in the studio, and I knew he could
play just about any instrument. You knew he knew what he was
doing."

    Parallel club-owning and management functions continued
for Rich, as did the connection with Autumn Records. He booked
the Warlocks, later to morph into the Grateful Dead, and the Tikis,
later more famous (albeit briefly) as Harpers Bizarre. On a single
Labor Day weekend in 1966, Rich's earnings for booking the Jefferson Airplane in resorts north of San Francisco exceeded his take
on the Brummels' two hit records. He decided to invest that money
in converting another club on the Peninsula, in Redwood City, formerly a venue for big-band acts such as Stan Kenton and Count
Basie. "When I walked into the place, for some reason they were
just playing `Winchester Cathedral' [a quirky retro hit by the New
Vaudeville Band]," Rich recalls. "And I said, `This place has the feeling of a church. I'm gonna call it Winchester Cathedral: "
    Rich needed an energizing act to christen the Cathedral. Walking down Broadway, the neon-lit strip in San Francisco's North
Beach neighborhood, he encountered Jerry Martini, who had
accompanied George & Teddy on a Morocco Room booking. "I've
opened a new club in Redwood City," Rich told Jerry.
    "Well, I'm with Sly," said the saxophonist, who was still psyched from the recent Urbano Drive conclave. "Sly put a new band
together."
    "You're kidding!"
    "No, you've gotta hear us."

    Rich was summoned to the Stewart family basement for the
next rehearsal of the Family Stone. "I'm walking down the stairs,
and I hear