Nils Lofgren is best known for his solo work as a singer-songwriter and as a guitarist in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and Neil Young’s band, Crazy Horse. But in 1968, Lofgren was 17, a struggling musician who’d left Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, MD, and headed for New York City.

The Anderson Theater at 66 Second Avenue was named after theatrical agent Phyllis Anderson. The hall opened in 1957 and presented Yiddish plays through the 1960s. In 1968 Crawdaddy magazine sponsored a series of rock shows that featured the Yardbirds, Traffic, Procol Harum, Moby Grape, and Big Brother & the Holding Company with Janis Joplin.

As a budding musician, Richard Lloyd, the former guitarist, singer, and songwriter of the band Television attended many Fillmore East shows without buying a ticket. In this excerpt from the book Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever, Lloyd recalls his ploys to get the best seat in the house: backstage at Fillmore East.

Genya Ravan fronted Ten Wheel Drive, the dynamic horn band formed in 1969. On Feb 6–7, 1971, Ten Wheel Drive performed at Fillmore East on a bill that featured bluesman Luther Allison, who opened the show, and headliner Steppenwolf.

“The God of Hellfire,” Arthur Brown, is noted for his dynamic performances in a flaming metal helmet. Brown is one of the acknowledged pioneers of theatrical rock. The frontman of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown performed his incendiary hit “Fire” at promoter Bill Graham’s Fillmore East over two nights in 1968.

Bill Graham, founder of the rock palaces Fillmore East and West among many accomplishments, was born January 8, 1931. In this excerpt from New York Groove: An Inside Look at the Stars, Shows & Songs That Make NYC Rock, we look back on Graham’s life.

In this excerpt from Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever, drummer Corky Laing of Mountain — the thunderous band with guitarist Leslie West and bassist Felix Pappalardi — recalls meeting Jimi Hendrix at Fillmore East’s 1970 New Year’s Eve show.

New Year’s Eve was always an important night for promoter and impresario Bill Graham. It was celebrated in grand style at San Francisco’s Fillmore West and New York’s Fillmore East. In this excerpt from the book Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever, we look back at Dec. 31, 1968, when the Chambers Brothers headlined the show at the East Village hall.

Bill Graham left an indelible mark on the rock music industry with his Fillmore East and West concert halls, eclectic show lineups, and mega-sized concerts he staged until his death in 1991 in a helicopter crash. Country Joe McDonald was a mainstay of Graham’s San Francisco and New York City venues as the leader of Country Joe & the Fish and as a solo performer. McDonald was one of the musicians chosen by Graham for the star-studded closing of Fillmore East on June 27, 1971.

Kip Cohen: Paul would come with Linda, who wasn’t well known, and they bought tickets to sit in the back of the orchestra. We would take a couple of the ushers who were on to it and we would bring them food and drinks and they would visit three or four times. They were very sweet about it.