Woodstock performer Bert Sommer - info?

Subject: RE: Woodstock performer Bert Sommers - info?
From: GUEST,^^ (Brasil)
Date: 27 Jun 10 - 03:25 PM

Hello, does anyone have the lyrics of the song Smile - think it's the album Inside Bert Sommer!
I love this song! I love Bert Sommer:)
this is the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAFmaWrP4oQ&a=3XOmVjNlao8&playnext_from=ML
post the lyrics here, please.
thanks

Subject: ADDPOP: Smile (Bert Sommer)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Jun 10 - 02:06 AM

SMILE
(written and recorded by Bert Sommer)

Why should you be angry?
Why should you be sad?
Don't be disappointed, just...
SMILE
Just smile.

Smile and the world smiles with you.
Smile, all the love is in your hands.
Smile, 'cause we all need one another,
And it only takes a song to understand.

I know...
That we've got to get together,
Just a-doin' all we can
And we'll start to make it better.
It only takes a song to understand.

Why should you be angry?
Why should you be sad?
Don't be disappointed, just...
SMILE
Just smile.

Smile and the world smiles with you.
Smile, all the love is in your hands.
Smile, 'cause we all need one another,
And it only takes a song to understand.

I know...
There's so many different people
Just a-doin' all they can,
And they all would love to reach you,
It only takes a song to understand.

Smile and the world smiles with you.
Smile, all the love is in your hands.
Smile, 'cause we all need one another,
And it only takes a song to understand.

Smile and the world smiles with you.
Smile, all the love is in your hands.
Smile, 'cause we all need one another,
And it only takes a song to understand.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAFmaWrP4oQ&a=3XOmVjNlao8&playnext_from=ML

Subject: RE: Woodstock performer Bert Sommer - info?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Jun 10 - 02:43 AM

Do You Remember Bert Sommer?

Sommer Epitomized the Look of the Hippie Generation

By BILL WEIR and PETER MARTINEZ
BETHEL, New York Aug. 15, 2009—

Do you remember Bert Sommer? Chances are you wouldn't unless you were at Woodstock. Forty years ago he had captive audience as a frizzy-haired 20-year-old singing his love ballad "Jennifer" before the teeming masses at Max Yasgur's Farm in upstate New York.

As a member of the Broadway cast of "Hair," Bert Sommer so embodied the hippie look that his picture was even used as the show's playbill. With a ten-song set at Woodstock, Sommer seemed like he had a golden ticket to instant fame.

It was 1969 when Sommer started that Friday evening set with "Jennifer."

The hauntingly sweet folk song is captured in a new documentary.

Ira Stone, who played the guitar that day while his wife Maxine was a backup vocalist for Sommer, still remembers the sheer size of the crowd.

"It looked like hundreds of thousands of colors and it was really the people," Stone said.

Even with the monument that stands, marking the site of the legendary music festival, you would never know Sommer played. His name is not among the Baez's, Hendrix's and others.

"Bert Sommer was the lost bard of Woodstock," Wall Street Journal pop and rock critic Jim Fusilli said. "For me, Sommer did a wonderful set on the first day ... then he completely disappeared from the mythology of Woodstock."

Everyone was sure Bert was going to be a star; he was devastated when his Woodstock appearance was ignored.

"You see bands like Santana and artists like Richie Havens and Meanie who were not particularly well known at the time, whose careers just exploded because of Woodstock," Fusilli said. "For Bert, nothing."

A picture of the backup band appeared in a special LIFE magazine at the time, but Sommer was cropped out.

He was also missing from Michael Wadleigh's legendary documentary and never appeared in any of the soundtrack albums. His friends think they know why.

"Bert was on Capital Records," Stone said. "His record company was not included because Warner had rights to the whole thing, so Bert never got into the original movie or the first album."

While other Woodstock bands rocketed to stardom, Sommer settled in upstate New York to play his music in relative obscurity. He died on July 23, 1990 of respiratory failure. He was 41.

Forty years after Woodstock, Sommers is getting the recognition he never knew during his life.

Victor Khan, a friend Sommer's has created a memorial website. Three of Bert's songs will also soon appear on a new Rhino Records box set.

And thanks to a clip on YouTube, new fans are discovering Burt Sommer. More than 122,000 have viewed the video to date.

"It's great to finally see that there has been a second chance here given for people to hear just how talented he really was," Stone said.

It's an encore long overdue.

ABC News' Erin Keohane and Felicia Biberica contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2010 ABC News Internet Ventures

http://abcnews.go.com/US/Woodstock/story?id=8337041&page=1

Subject: RE: Woodstock performer Bert Sommer - info?
From: GUEST,Florian
Date: 29 Jun 10 - 11:46 AM

My favorite song by Bert Sommer is You've got to be tought.
I bought the second album if I was still a teen-ager 13 1n 1973 as U.S. Import

http://www.bertsommer.com/

greetings from Germany ,
Florian

Subject: RE: ADDPOP: Smile (Bert Sommer)
From: GUEST,^^
Date: 29 Jun 10 - 01:11 PM

Joe Offer
Thanks for the lyrics!!!
to find a good place where I can get information about Bert Sommer...

Smile and the world smiles with you.
Smile, all the love is in your hands.
Smile, 'cause we all need one another,
And it only takes a song to understand.

I love this song ^^

Subject: RE: Woodstock performer Bert Sommer - info?
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 15 Jul 10 - 07:34 AM

Does anyone have the chords of Bert Sommer - "Smile" ???
I can`t find them anywhere !

Thanks and nice greetings from Germany
Love Peace and Freedom

Subject: RE: Woodstock performer Bert Sommer - info?
From: GUEST,A onetime friend of Bert's
Date: 13 Aug 10 - 01:04 AM

Had a brief fling with Bert in upstate NY. At first didn't know of his music or Woodstock history. He was my neighbor. Got turned on to his music in the time I knew him. Listened to his music nonstop after learning about him and actually hanging out with him. He left for LA to do the cartoon thing from there. Lost touch.

So sad about his passing. He was a sweet guy and very sexy! Also sad to hear how he never really got recognition for his incredible talent.

Love his music still. Wish I could find a copy of "We're all playing in the same band". Memories...

Subject: RE: Woodstock performer Bert Sommer - info?
From: GUEST,Theywereallmyfriendsandtheydied
Date: 16 May 11 - 01:17 PM

Don't know if it was AIDS that killed him. All I know is he was playing music to the Sunday brunch crowd. Late one night he turned a bunch of my friends on to heroin, smoking it, in Albany, NY. Within a year they were all shooting up and dead, including Bert. His music may have been great, but along with that legacy is a legacy of death. When 11 people under the age of 30 die from something to which they had never been exposed before, it's tragic. I left and never looked back. Bert changed my life and I can't say for the better.

Subject: RE: Woodstock performer Bert Sommer - info?
From: GUEST,A one time friend
Date: 23 Jun 11 - 09:57 PM

Why would you say AIDS if everyone else was dying of heroin? I agree there is a mystery around his death. And, people don't usually die of heroin. What do you think happened? All ODs? I am curious about his later years. Please respond.

Subject: RE: Woodstock performer Bert Sommer - info?
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Jun 13 - 01:54 AM

I knew him for many years in NYC beginning in 1966. He was married in the 60's and had a child but was also shooting heroin . Sadly He died of AIDS.

Subject: RE: Woodstock performer Bert Sommer - info?
From: GUEST,Me
Date: 07 Jun 21 - 01:25 AM

It is very interesting to read these last few posts. It is disheartening to hear about these things. As with anything posted anonymously on the internet, one has to wonder about the legitimacy of any statement. I had a friend die after being a heroin user. I know the person who turned them onto it, and I forgive them. After experiencing this kind of trauma, my opinion would be that blaming someone in particular for someone else's death is the wrong thing to do in this type of situation. Just my two cents. Thank you for sharing.