Woodstock songs

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: M.Ted
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 09:11 PM

According to the Dead Family Discography notes on the woodstock album(listed because Jerry's voice is on it) "The Grateful Dead played on the second day of the festival but no part of their set has appeared on the various film and audio releases associated with the festival." So you missed it--

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: PoppaGator
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 11:22 AM

I was there, but only for about 24 hours -- Saturday morning through sunrise Sunday, when Jimi Hendrix closed an 18-hour show with the Star Spangled Banner.

Fortunately, I had a friend whose family had always summered in the area and who knew the back roads. Three of us who were working 9-5 Mon-Fri drove up from New Jersey, circumvented the road closings on the New York Thruway and other main highways, and took all night to get to Bethel. We arrived just after the sun came up, parked, and started walking in the same direction as a large crowd. As it turned out, we had managed to park no more than a quarter-mile from the stage area. The stage was at the bottom of a natural amphitheater, with hillsides sloping down to it on three sides.

There were several hours before music started up. I remember skinny-dipping in a waterfall and being approached by a group of Japanese weilding film cameras. Music started about 2 pm -- Canned Heat opened, I remember, with "Goin' Up The Country."

(Aside: the festival site was many miles away from the well-known artist-colony town of Woodstock. Bob Dylan lived in Woodstock for quite a while years earlier, contributing to its fame, but did not take part in the festival. His buddies The Band, though, both lived in the town of Woodstock and later played the festival named for the town but produced elsewhere.)

My best memories of the music heard that day were Jimi's closing anthem (noted above), Santana's perfomance early in the day when the weather first began to clear -- it seemed as though he were personally causing the clouds to part with his wonderfully intense playing -- and Sly Stone getting everyone on their feet in the wee wee hours (3-4 am or so) to sing along with "I Wanna Take You Higher."

Actaully, the entire after-dark, all-night lineup was pretty good: in addition to Sly and the Family Stone, I remember with ceratinty the Airplane, the Who, and that almost-debut CSN performance. Beyond these few clear memories, it's hard for me to sort out my memories of the actual event from my memories of the film (!)

Let me assure everyone that the Grateful Dead did NOT play at Woodstock -- at least, not a whole set or even a whole song. (As a longtime Deadhead, I know this for sure.) They were scheduled, they showed up and walked on stage while it was raining, sustained an electric shock or two while tuning up or perhaps just starting their first number, and left. This may have occurred on Saturday, the day I was there, because I think I remember hoping to hear their show, and because I know that it did rain on and off during that afternoon (although Saturday, the one day I was there, was the *least* rainy of the three days). In any event, their walkoff is documented in the movie, and it was during daylight hours. And because I've seen in it the movie so many times, I am no longer sure whether it's also part of my "real" memories from being at the event.

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: M.Ted
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 10:26 AM

They've said that they had to considerable post-concert production work to get the film to sound like it did--

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: allanwill
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 03:50 AM

I've only seen the original film but, without a doubt, my choice would be Crosby, Stills and Nash doing Suite: Judy Blue Eyes. If that really was only the second time they had performed together (and I don't doubt it) it has to be the most flawless second performance ever!

Allan

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: GMT
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 03:42 AM

Film and record only for me too. But I'm with RolyH - Ten Years After, ohh and maybe CS&N.

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: fat B****rd
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 03:16 AM

I've only seen the film but Richie Havens, Joe Cocker and The Who are my highlights.

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: Blackcatter
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 11:26 PM

huh? What Joni Mitchell parody?

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: jaze
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 08:13 PM

Does anyone know the words to the Joni Mitchell parody? I've never heard of it.

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: RolyH
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 03:50 PM

Going Home - Ten Years After

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: Barry Finn
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 03:44 PM

Hi McGrath

I did have the good fortune of being there along with 5 friends. We all drove over from Boston. My one & only regret was not getting to hear any music.

Barry

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: GUEST,Laura in B.A.
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 03:00 PM

Nice though that one question can reawaken such wonderful memories from back when we were very youngish.

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 12:52 PM

"It is better to be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove ALL doubt"

That's gargoyle al the way.

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: Blackcatter
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 12:46 PM

No problem.

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: GUEST,Sheila
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 12:31 PM

Thank you, Blackcatter. I will consider it a rite of passage, like college hazing. I'm now "one of the boys/girls".

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 11:14 AM

Countess richard

Had a drink last week with Andrew Paige in Norwich. He'd be pleased you remember the song. I'll pass it on next time I see him.

Kevin

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: Blackcatter
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 11:04 AM

There was a second album and a second movie (I think?) with more performances but the audio quality sucked, from what I can remember.


And Sheila - sorry but you were Gargoyled. That's a lot of what Gargoyle does around here. It is an odd part of the Mudcat, but a small one.


One of the most interesting things that happened that weekend, but not at Woodstock, was that Joni Mitchell wrote the song Woodstock. Crosby, Stills & Nash decided that flying into the event on helicopter and performing would have been too dangerous for Mitchell and besides, she had a spot on the Dick Cavett show later on. They were afraid she might not get out of Woodstock in time and miss her first national TV appearance, so she didn't go. But reading and watching the news inspired her to write Woodstock and perform it for the first time on Cavett's show.

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 10:57 AM

Yes, the Incredible String Band didn't make the film as a result of the Melanie incident described above (though they did creep into the repackaged re-release).

But the funniest Woodstock-associated song I ever heard was a parody of the Joni Mitchell ditty about NOT getting there. Written and performed by Andrew Paige, it was entitled "By the time we got to Neasden'.

(For the benefit of you transatlantic catters, for 'Neasden' imagine a devastated swathe of post-industrial Queens without the charisma).

How we London folkies laughed!

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 10:52 AM

And here's a post I did about it some time back, with a song I wrote years later.

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 10:49 AM

A pretty good weekend, what I remember of it. And the music was only a part of it. Who else from round here was there?

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: M.Ted
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 10:36 AM

"I Wanna Take You Higher" by Sly and the Family Stone, and "Star Spangled Banner" by Jimi Hendrix--the first because it was so good and so new, and it changed the kind of music the "mainstream" listened to forever-SSB was the ultimate musical political act--it seemed to everyone(both pro and antiwar) that he was defacing the Star Spangled Banner(I was nearly expelled from college for playing it on my campus radio show, and tens of thousands of kids were forbidden to play the record)--

I didn't go, but had a number of friends who went(as well as some who didn't go, but claimed to have been there in later years!)--and the strangest thing about it is how people's memories of it changed after the movie came out--

It was the movie that made superstars out of folks like Ritchie Havens and Sly and the Family Stone and Joe Cocker, and to a great degree, secured its place as the defining event for a generation(though it really was the media event of a generation) The film performances, like SSB, were remembered--even though most of the people had actually left by the time Hendrix performed it(at the Woodstock site, they say that 320,000 of the 400,000 had packed it up and gone home) and most people were not aware of it til long afterwards--

it is really enlightening to look at the list of folks who actually played, but who are not associated with either the original film, or the album of the film-Grateful Dead, The Band, and Credence Clearwater Revival--You could have made an entirely different movie, and created entirely different memories for a generation if Martin Scorcese had like their footage more--

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: GUEST,Laura in B.A.
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 06:33 AM

Friends, Dylan's name was well associated with Woodstock long before the festival. In fact, being a clear pacifist and leading a simple lifestyle in a traditional region of artists could be what attracted the festival organizers to the area in the first place. I agree with Sheila, let's not use this forum to insult but to illuminate. Laura in B.A.

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: GUEST,Sheila
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 06:32 AM

And gargoyle, that IS a great site! Thanks.

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: GUEST,Sheila
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 06:24 AM

Once again I've learned something here. As to the aptly named gargoyle: ignorant, maybe; stupid, not; courteous always.

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: Blackcatter
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 01:03 AM

Comin' Into Los Angeles
Arlo Guthrie

"Lotta Freaks!"

Also loved the comments of Crosby, Stills & Nash - to the effect of: "This is our second gig, man. This is the second time we've played in front of people. We're scared shitless."

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: catspaw49
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 12:58 AM

Well, not that garg and I agree a lot, but he's right in this case....Additionally I'd add Jefferson Airplane doing "White Rabbit"...Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner"....Janis doing "To Love Somebody" and "Piece of My Heart".....Canned Heat goin' "Up the Country" and CCR watching a "Bad Moon Rising".......The Band with "Tears of Rage" and "The Weight"......Perhaps next only to Country Joe would be Richie Havens "Freedom" (from "Motherless Child').......Many more I suppose but these kinda' stand out to me and have the flavor of the thing.

And Sheila, the only things "Blowin' in the Wind" were the tantalizing aroma (read: fetid) mixtures of mud, B.O., manure, spilled beer, and burning hemp.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 12:02 AM

Sheila - in a paraphrase :

It is better to be though a fool than to open one's mouth and remove ALL doubt.

PLEASE go to: http://www.classicrockpage.com/newslet/newsgrap/sep02/whowasthere.htm

Listen, commune, become one, and YOU will be THERE!!! (Dylan was not)

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Laura - read some history...listen to some music...become your own TwentyFirstCentury - FoxNetwork .... predigested, easy to assimilate amalgum of post-modern pablum!

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 11:45 PM

I go with Country Joe and the Fish

Sheila - you are stupid!

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: GUEST,Laura in B.A.
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 10:34 PM

Thank you peoples for input. So many artists represented diverse visions. I find it hard to pick one representative song.

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: GUEST,Sheila
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 10:26 PM

I wasn't there, but wasn't "Blowing in the Wind" a representative song from Woodstock?

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: Amergin
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 10:16 PM

i dunno if there is a song about overindulged kids rebelling against their rich parents by refusing to bathe and growing body hair...all in the name of peace and love...oh and spending the money their parents send them on drugs and booze...

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 10:16 PM

Candles in the Rain by Melanie. Because the Incredible String Band were advised not to do their set in the pouring rain. Melanie went on instead to tremendous acclaim - and future success. Thus the Incredibles lost their chance of world domination.

Subject: RE: Woodstock songs
From: beadie
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 10:09 PM

Country Joe McDonald and the Fish singing "the Oh Lord, I'm Fixing to Die Rag."

And its one, two, three, what are we fighting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.

And its five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates
There ain't no use to wondering why,
Whoopee, we're all going to die.



I haven't looked, but it might even be on the DT

Subject: Woodstock songs
From: GUEST,Laura in B.A.
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 09:53 PM

Would you be kind enough to tell me what songs you most associate with 1969 Woodstock? Is there one song that stands out above all others?I appreciate your help. Thank you. Laura in B.A.