Archive Record
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Metadata
Title |
Oral History of Bill Champlin |
Collection |
Oral History |
Scope & Content |
In this oral history, musician and raconteur Bill Champlin vividly recounts a life devoted to music, one fundamentally shaped by his experience growing up in Mill Valley. Born across the bay in Oakland in 1947, Bill moved with his mother and two sisters to Mill Valley when he was 12 years old. Rock n' roll and R&B were sweeping through Marin in the 1960s, and Bill describes his total immersion in the local music scene, even while still a student at Tam High, and in the broader context of the Vietnam War and the racial tensions of the time. Bill recalls many of the great musicians he has known and played with over the years; the development of his major band, the Sons of Champlin, which he started in the late 1960s; and his life as a songwriter in Los Angeles in the 1970s, a period of great creativity during which he received two Grammys. Throughout the oral history Bill evokes the adventure and camaraderie of the artistic life and the nourishment it received from the cultural synergy he encountered as a teenager in Marin County. |
Audio and Transcript |
Click here to hear recording. Click here to read the transcript. |
Dates of Creation |
2015-06-15 |
Interviewee |
Champlin, Bill |
Interviewer |
Schwartz, Debra |
Extent and Medium |
Transcript: 29pp Recording: 01:18:08 |
Search Terms |
Allair, John Arnsmeyer, Ron Brymer, Bruce Cain, Tim Champlin, Will Oral history - Music MV history - Baby boom years (1950s and early 1960s) MV history - Music and counterculture (1960s and 1970s) Chicago Cippollina, John Deal, Charlie Ferguson, Dean Foster, David Fourman, Adam Greenwood, Bob High school students Kelly, Charlie Kustom Keys Moitoza, Rob Music Musicians Opposite Six Race relations Regalia, Steve Rock & roll bands Rock bands Royal Keys Sons of Champlin Tamalpais High School The Chord Lords The Ramrods |
Object ID |
2016.014.001 |
Object Name |
Recording |
Copyrights |
Transcript and recording copyright Mill Valley Public Library, 2015. Materials are made available for research purposes only; all rights are reserved to the Mill Valley Public Library. Requests for permission to quote for publication or for any other usage must be obtained from the Library. |