Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Title |
Oral History of Larry Cragg |
Collection |
Oral History |
Scope & Content |
In this oral history, guitar repairman and multi-instrumentalist Larry Cragg recounts a life engaged in two of the most important cultural scenes that took shape in Mill Valley during the 1970s: music and mountain biking. Born in Chicago in 1948, Larry first came out to California in 1967 for the Monterey Pop Festival. He recalls experiencing a powerful sense of belonging on that visit, prompting him to make the permanent move west later that same year. Initially landing in Oakland, Larry soon moved across the bay to Mill Valley, where he unexpectedly discovered his vocation when he started working at the newly opened Prune Music, a landmark in the musical history of Marin County. Larry recounts his earliest paid work as a guitar repairmen assembling Charlie Deal’s signature toilet-seat guitars; and he vividly evokes the ambience of Prune Music throughout the 1970s with its "infamous back room" and impromptu jam sessions — a space of encounter and creative ferment. Larry tells stories from his 37-year tenure as Neil Young’s guitar tech and provides an insider’s perspective on the origin and early development of mountain biking, or "klunking," as he and his friends originally referred to it. Throughout this oral history, Larry effectively conveys what it was like to participate in the counterculture of Mill Valley and Marin County from the 1970s on. |
Audio and Transcript |
Click here to hear recording. Click here to read the transcript. |
Dates of Creation |
2015-09-25 |
Interviewee |
Cragg, Larry |
Interviewer |
Schwartz, Debra |
Extent and Medium |
Transcript: 15pp Recording: 00:44:42 |
Search Terms |
Bicycling Breeze, Joe Cragg, Wende Deal, Charlie Kelly, Charlie Music Musicians Photographers Rock & roll bands Rock bands Santana, Carlos Steele, Bill Young, Neil |
Object ID |
2016.032.001 |
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. |