Holy Moses. Johnny Craviotto Says NO MALL IN THE CHELSEA

As a Drummer and Drum Builder to the stars, Johnny Craviotto has been involved in the music business for nearly half a century.  He began his professional playing career in the early 1960s and quickly progressed to touring and performing with such rock-and-roll legends as Ry Cooter, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Moby Grape, and Neil Young.

Legends: How’d you get interested in drums?
Johnny: My mother was a pianist, so there was always music in our house.  By the time I was 12 I knew I wanted to be a drummer. 

Legends: How did you hear about the Chelsea Hotel?
Johnny: I was jamming with some hippy guys and one of the guitar players knew Buffy Sainte-Marie.  They had run into her on the beach in Hawaii.  Buffy wanted to go from being a solo performer to having a trio, so during the first week of November 1968 I flew to New York for an audition with her.  I auditioned for Buffy at the Chelsea on a stack of New York City phonebooks with sticks and brushes.  She said, “It sounds great. You’re hired.” 

Legends: How’d you score your room at the Chelsea?
Johnny: Before we moved to New York we had gone to the Fillmore in San Francisco to see Rod Stewart and while we were at the concert our car was broken into and all of our bags and stuff were stolen. We then got on a 2 a.m. flight to New York. When we arrived, Stanley Bard was in the lobby.  I told him, “we’ve got no money and no clothes.”  He looked at us kind of funny, as if to say, “You mean to tell me you came to New York with no money and no clothes?”  But he gave us a room.  I went straight out of the mountains of Santa Cruz to 23rd Street and the famous Chelsea Hotel.

Legends: Can you describe the Vibe of the Hotel at the time?
Johnny: We moved into the Chelsea in Jan 1, 1969. Holy Moses! I can’t even begin to describe the vibe in the lobby.  It was really rock & roll.  There would be a surprise every time you got off of the elevator.  You’d find Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin hanging out, or the Grateful Dead just sitting around in the lobby. I think the owners of the Fillmore East had a deal with the Chelsea whereby they put up the musicians at the hotel when they came to New York to perform.  Anyway, I hope these new people don’t try to modernize the lobby. Can’t you guys say “NO MALL in this joint!”  (Photo: Janis Joplin at the Fillmore East in 1968)

Legends: We’ve heard that Leonard Cohen drove everybody crazy with all his incense. Do you know anything about this?
Johnny: Buffy Sainte-Marie set us up in a room with a kitchenette & a fireplace right next door to Leonard.  And yes, now that you mention it, he did burn a lot of incense.  I didn’t know who Leonard Cohen was from Adam when Marie introduced me to him. After I got to know him, one time he took me to a Turkish coffee shop. You had to climb three flights up the fire escape and go through the window to get inside. There were all of these little old Turkish guys sitting around smoking and drinking some really strong espresso.

Legends: Did you get to Hobnob with any other celebrities?
Johnny: I was 21 or 22 years old and everything was like a whirlwind.  Honey, I saw Joe Crocker & The Grease Band the very first time he ever performed in the U.S. That was at Stephen Paul’s The Scene. I went to a lot of jazz clubs. Slugs in the East Village and the Village Vanguard were great.  Vanguard Studios was next door to El Quixote and that was where everybody went to record.  (Maynard Solomon was the owner) So that accounted for a lot of the musicians hanging out at the Chelsea.  We used to go down to El Quixote and get drunk.  How’s the Sangria these days?  Is it still as good as it used to be?  [Editor’s note: yeah, it’s holding up pretty well]   (Photo: Jimi Hendrix at the Fillmore East in 1968)

Legends: How has the Chelsea changed since you lived here?
Johnny: We moved out of the Chelsea when Buffy went to LA to record a semi-rock album with Jack Nitzsche, the guy the Rolling Stones’ song “Jumping Jack Flash” is about.  We moved back to the Chelsea in 1971, and though it was still great, I didn’t see Leonard around anymore.  We did a lot of concerts upstate and in Europe, but the Chelsea was always our homebase.  But once the Fillmore East closed, the vibe at the Chelsea changed.  It wasn’t as vibrant a place for musicians to hang out.  After the Fillmore closed you stopped seeing people like the Allman brothers in the lobby.  Soon, Buffy wanted to go in a different direction, so I moved back to the Sunset Marquee in LA [Editor’s Note: another famous rock & roll hotel] and that was the end of the Chelsea for me.  I’ve never been back since.  I went on to work with Ry Cooter on his first solo album. He was demanding, but a great artist.

Buffy Sainte Marie performs her hit "Universal Soldier" in 1970.