What is "Heavy Metal Thunder Tuesday?"

DJ Sue and one of her Harley Davidsons

For a couple of months now, my Tuesday sets at AWT have become “Heavy Metal Thunder Tuesday.”  I find myself explaining that title quite often and it seems that most people think it’s a Heavy Metal set.  This is quite understandable, not only because of the name, but I do play quite a bit of music from that genre.  Both the music genre and my set take their name from the same origin, the song Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf.

The song became a biker anthem early on and was even featured in the 1969 biker movie, Easy Rider.  The lyrics fully grasp the feeling of hopping on a Harley Davidson motorcycle and riding free.  Here is an excerpt of the lyrics with the “heavy metal” reference in bold.

Get your motor running;
Head out on the highway
Lookin' for adventure,
And whatever comes our way.
Yeah darlin' gonna make it happen;
Take the world in a love embrace.
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space.

I like smoke and lightning,
Heavy metal thunder,
Racin' with the wind,
And the feeling that I'm under…

“Heavy metal thunder” refers to the sound of a Harley Davidson.  If you have ever heard one, you understand what the lyrics mean.  That is exactly what my set is about each Tuesday, music to ride your Harley to.  I had noticed earlier this year that when I played a hard driving set, with few slow songs, that I got positive comments from those present, so I began doing it from time to time.  It was preparing for the Queen B’s MC 4th Anniversary that I got the idea to formalize it into a weekly set and call it Heavy Metal Thunder.”

So, what can you expect to hear at a Heavy Metal Thunder Tuesday set?

Let’s start out with a good dose of 1970s hard rock, like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Grand Funk Railroad.  Add to this some 60s bands like Iron Butterfly and Steppenwolf.  These bands are all considered early Heavy Metal bands or precursors to Heavy Metal.  So let’s round it out with a good dose of Heavy Metal like Iron Maiden, Van Halen and Mötley Crüe.

It’s no wonder that people assume that it is a Heavy Metal set, since it does embrace Heavy Metal from its roots on forward.  It really throws people when I play a slower, mellower tune.  Remember, this set is about motorcycles, so add to the above any songs about bikes or riding on the highway, whether they are fast and hard-driving, or slow and mellow.  A great slow and mellow bike tune is Unknown Legend by Neil Young, and you might just hear it.  I also include songs that are featured in biker films or in any way associated with biker culture.  Many of these are hard driving, but some are not like the Ballad of Easy Rider by the Byrds.

I suppose I should warn you that I might include Country tunes, provided they are on topic. I have in the past included tunes by Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson.  There are also the Fryed Brothers, who are bikers themselves and sing about it a lot, yet they are a Country band.

It comes down to this.  What would you find if you went into a real biker bar and looked at the selection in the jukebox?  You would probably find Marshall Tucker, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the like.  But you can be damn sure you won’t find any Boy George or Enya.  You won’t hear either during Heavy Metal Thunder Tuesday.

So come join me at AWT every Tuesday from 2-4 PM SL time for Heavy Metal Thunder Tuesday.  Bring your bike if you want and feel free to dress the part.  Finally, remember that most motorcycle problems are caused by the nut that attaches the handlebars to the seat.

Sue has ridden since she first came to SL. Here she is with her first bike in July 2010 at Fearless Nation.

The Seattle Sound... Grunge

Nirvana

For the past few weeks, we have been looking at places and the “sounds” that have become associated with them.  We looked at the San Francisco Sound and the Mersey Sound.  Both of them sprung up naturally around those areas and became quite famous and successful.  We also looked at the Boston Sound, where a record company came in and wrestled control of a fledgling sound to capitalize on it, and we saw how disastrous that was.  This week we are going to look at sort of the opposite of what happened in Boston in 1968.  Instead of big name record label coming in and taking over a sound, we will see what happens when an evolving sound gives birth to a new record label.  The time is the late 1980s and the early 1990s and the city is Seattle, Washington, USA.  Today we will look at the Seattle Sound, or as it is more commonly referred to, Grunge.

In the mid-1980s, Seattle had an active underground music scene that was developing both its own sound and style.  Some might even describe it as a subculture.  The Grunge sound formed alongside of an underground music magazine called Subterranean Pop, published by Bruce Pavitt.  The magazine reported on independent record labels and the bands signed to them.  Eventually, the magazine’s name was shortened to “Sub Pop.”  Soon, Sub Pop began including cassette tapes of underground bands for their readers. 

In 1987, Green River, a Seattle band, recorded their first album, Dry as a Bone, with Sub Pop and they were officially a record label.  Sub Pop described this piece at the time as, “ultra-loose grunge that destroyed the morals of a generation.”  Jonathan Poneman provided operating capital for the new label and became partners with Bruce Pavitt.  Other Seattle artist soon followed, like Soundgarden and Mudhoney.

So, what exactly is the Seattle or Grunge sound?  A couple of things smack you in the face right up front, like the guitars.  They are heavily distorted and “dirty,” or the opposite of what musicians call clean.  They have their roots in Punk Rock and Heavy Metal.  The vocals are equally noticeable, being rather guttural, or even nonhuman, and often screamed.  To round things out, the lyrical content is usually dark and angst-ridden with themes of hopelessness and suicide not being uncommon.

The attitude defining the subculture was not only found in the music.  The Grunge bands didn’t look like traditional Rock music acts of the day.  Instead of fancy costumes, they dressed in rip jeans with sneakers.  On top was a tee shirt, often covered with an oversized flannel shirt.  The appearance was very unkempt and often dirty.  (See the picture of Nirvana up top.)  The stage shows were rather minimalist.

Some bands moved on to eventually sign with bigger labels, such as Nirvana with Geffen Records.  However, no one or thing influenced the Grunge Sound more than Sub Pop.  Others, outside the Seattle area would become inspired and soon bands in other places were picking up the Grunge torch, like the Stone Temple Pilots out of San Diego, California.

Unfortunately, not every band that was picked up by a major label was successful.  Maybe some record companies just were ready for Grunge.  A good example is the band, TAD.  They were picked up by Giant Records and released their first album with them, Inhaler, in 1993.  Unfortunately, the band distributed a poster to promote the album depicting Bill Clinton, President of the United States, smoking a joint.  (See the picture at the bottom.) They were quickly dropped by Giant and never saw any commercial success.

To finish up, I think it’s interesting to look at the Boston Sound in 1968 and the emergence of the Seattle Sound in the late 1980s, and how we got from one to the other.  In the late 1960s, the young generation was all about the greater good.  “Love your brother,” “make love, not war,” and “peace,” were among the mantras of the day.  A corporate, money making entity, like MGM, just couldn’t  position themselves to capitalize on the Boston Sound in that atmosphere, like we saw a couple of weeks ago.  The 1960s gave way to the 1970s, which was pretty much the “Me Decade.”  This led into the 1980s, which became the decade of consumerism, money and spending.  (Think of Madonna’s Material Girl.)  It was in this age of money that the Seattle Sound was born.  While the artists of the late 60s would never sell out to the Man, everyone in the late 80s wanted to be the Man!  Out of all of this came Generation X and their Nihilistic outlook that so shaped the lyrics of the Grunge Sound.  Sub Pop itself was rather well known for promoting this angst driven culture.  When a band would submit an audition tape, most record companies had a sugar-coated rejection letter they would use, using such phrases as, “you are not quite what we are looking for,” and “good luck.”  Sub Pop was well known among Seattle bands for their rejection letters that began, “DEAR LOSER.” There was no “love your brother” in the early 90s.

So, what ever happened to Sub Pop Records?  They eventually began a relationship with Warner Bros. Records, which also owned Geffen, Nirvana’s new label.  (Nirvana records have both the Geffen and Sub Pop logos on their labels.)  Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman disagreed on which direction Sub Pop should go.  Pavit wanted to stay close to their underground roots which he embraced in its early days.  Poneman, who saw it as a financial venture, wanted to take the label in a more money-making direction.  After a bitter fight, Pavitt left and Poneman used the Warner Bros. connection to secure a financially bright future for Sub Pop.  Today they’re a subsidiary of Warner Music Group and remain in Seattle.  They have numerous, financially successful, artist signed to the label and they promote themselves as an environmentally friendly, green company.

Tomorrow Night (Sunday, December 14) I will do a two hour special of the Seattle Sound from 7-9 PM at AWT.  All of the bands mentioned above will be featured.

TAD poster for their album, Inhaler.

The Mersey Sound

The City of Liverpool, UK, as seen across the River Mersey

This week, I’m going to write about the third of my “sounds related to places" in the Rock universe.  While the Mersey Sound may not have been the very first, it was the first place to have a sound named for it that became widely recognized by music fans.  The Mersey is a river in England that starts near Manchester and empties into the Irish Sea, north of Wales.  Near its end, is the city of Liverpool, which is really where we will concentrate our discussion.

It probably should have been called the “Liverpool Sound” but the name of the river was used when the term was coined.  We talk about this music subgenre, that started in Liverpool, as the “Mersey Sound,” or more commonly, “Merseybeat.”  Even though it is often shortened further to just “beat music,” we need to understand that this had nothing to do with the “Beat Generation” or the beatniks of the time.  The term was already in use in 1961 when a magazine, Mersey Beat, debuted.  Its owner claimed that the title should be seen as an area, much like a policeman’s beat, not having anything to do with the rhythm.  Mersey Beat magazine would cover the musical scene going on in Liverpool.

Liverpool is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the “World Capital City of Pop.”  Native Liverpudlians have recorded no fewer than 56 number one singles, more than any other city in the world.  Of course its most famous sons were none other than the Fab Four, the Beatles, whose name is a play on words using their “beat” music genre and maybe paying homage to Buddy Holly’s Crickets, who was a big influence on the beat music of Liverpool.

So, what exactly is the Mersey Sound or Beat that was coming from Liverpool?  As already mentioned, Buddy Holly and the Crickets from Texas were a big influence.  So was Chuck Berry.  The theory is that the origin of the “beat” term had its beginning before Mersey Beat Magazine and referred to the beat of the music.  Chuck Berry, singing about Rock ‘n’ Roll music says in one song. “It’s got a back beat; you can’t lose it.”  The back beat of American Rock ‘n’ Roll, like Berry and Holly were using is a 4/4 measure with accents on the second and fourth beats, which became very common among Liverpool groups.  This back beat, or off beat, would be emphasized on the snare drum. The Beatles would later cover this Chuck Berry song.

To round out or description of the Mersey Sound, we must take the American Rock ‘n’ Roll and blend it with R&B and some Doo-wop that were common in Liverpool at the time.  Out of this sound came much of the band composition, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass and drums, which became common to most rock groups worldwide.  It is ironic that something that was inspired by American Rock ‘n’ Roll, would fuel the British Invasion a few years later with not only the Beatles, but bands like The Hollies, The Dave Clark Five and Gerry and the Pacemakers.  (And what does a pacemaker do?  It keeps the beat!)

Tonight I will present two hours of British Beat Music or the Merseybeat.  My previous two posts ended with song quotes, so why not once again?  Tonight I will end my set with Gerry and the Pacemakers’ song, Ferry Cross the Mersey.  It says it all…

So ferry 'cross the Mersey
'cause this land's the place I love
and here I'll stay.

Liverpool group, Rory Storm & the Hurricanes.  Ringo Starr on the far left before becoming the drummer for the Beatles

The Boston Sound

January 1968 Billboard Magazine ad

Last week I wrote about the San Francisco Sound and we identified the qualities in the music, along with other things, that defined it.  Today I want to cross the continent and talk about the Boston Sound, or the “Bosstown Sound” as it was more commonly referred.  If I were to mention some of the better known artists of the San Francisco Sound, like the Grateful Dead, Santana or Janis Joplin, there is no problem with people recognizing them today.  However, if I mention what are probably the three most famous Bosstown Sound artists, Orpheus, the Beacon Street Union and Ultimate Spinach, how many people have even heard of one of these, even among classic rock buffs?

The San Francisco Sound developed spontaneously in the incubator of the Bay Area around San Francisco.  It came about gradually and you can’t point to a single event or date and say, “it started here.”   The Bosstown Sound started in January 1968 when the ad shown above appeared.  The sound was really a marketing campaign by MGM records.  They created hype about Boston Area artists, much like the hype around San Francisco the previous year.  Let’s face it; there was a lot of money being made by those Bay Area groups and MGM wanted to cash in.  Even the name “Bosstown” was chosen to emulate “Motown.”

Before I get into it further, I want to say that the Bosstown Sound has its supporters. There are many that would contend that after you dig through the hype and marketing that there really was something legitimate there.  However, many more would tell you it was a hoax, a scam to sell records and there never really was a defining Boston Sound.

The Counter Culture of the late 60s, the market that MGM was targeting, was pretty much against the corporate machine and the “Man.”  Anything capitalized was anathema to the hippie culture of the time.  The push back was almost immediate and the bands of the Bosstown Sound were at best marginalized and viewed as “manufactured” much like the Monkees and many of the “studio only” acts of Buddah Records.  To say that there was outward hostility to their “selling out,” is probably fair.  After all, it began with an advertisement in Billboard Magazine, complete with the MGM logo emblazoned in the center of the top banner. (see above)

This air of capitalization would continue in the Boston area, outside of the MGM corporate machine.  Waleeco Candy, a local area company, employed a local Boston Area band, the Flat Earth Society, to produce a jingle for their candy bars.  In turn, Waleeco sponsored their first album, which just so happen to be titled, “Waleeco.”  Talk about marketing gone amok!  To add insult to injury, packed with every Waleeco Bar was a coupon to send in $1.50 and six Waleeco wrappers to get a copy of the album.  The Boston music scene had just received another corporate black eye.

Is this reputation really deserved?  I don’t think so.  There was some great talent creating some amazing music in the Boston area, just as there was in L.A., Chicago, Atlanta and every other city.  The term, “Boston Sound,” was already coined a few months earlier by local radio DJs, before MGM capitalized it.  There were area venues, like the Boston Tea Party, where many bands attracted the hippies and college students of the area, much like their counter parts in San Francisco.  Much like the City on the Bay, Boston had its own outdoor concerts in Boston Common and other places.  In the spring of 1968, Dick Summer, a DJ on WBZ radio, was supporting the artists of the “Boston Sound” by promoting the “Spring Sing.”  He urged concert goers to bend open a paperclip into a letter “S” and wear it prominently in support of the event.

(I used to love listening to WBZ when I was a kid living in Massachusetts.)

Despite the legitimate talent and music, the MGM campaign deserved the disdain it received when one considers the culture of the day.  Unfortunately, there was guilt by association and the listening public and fan base couldn’t separate the music from the record label. Soon it was not just MGM but any Boston Area band that became part of the artificially created corporate “Bosstown Sound.”  Eventually, MGM would abandon the failed campaign and the bands they had pulled into the fiasco.  Those artists knew that no record label would sign them up after such negative press.  Most disbanded or died in anonymity in the local clubs or doing high school dances in gyms.  That is why no one ever heard of Ford Theater or Ill Wind.  There was plenty of great bands and great music but unfortunately they were all collateral damage of the MGM corporate machine as it came crashing down on Eastern Massachusetts.

So, was there actually a Boston sound?  The debate continues to this day.  If there is, it would probably be a more folksy sound.  The beatniks in Boston left a similar legacy to the one they left in San Francisco.  The Folk influence remained very strong until January of 1968.  The Boston Sound was muddied from the beginning, when the ad above grouped together three different sounding bands, the Beacon Street Union, Orpheus and the uber psychedelic Ultimate Spinach. (The three record jackets in the upper right of the ad)

During my set tomorrow (7-9 pm SL time at AWT) I will play two hours of the Bosstown Sound.  I’ll let you decide if it is real or strictly a contrived hoax.  You can post your opinion or vote in the comments below and I invite you to participate in the discussion and debate.

As Bosstown was in its most final death throes, the Beacon Street Union released one more album in the summer of 1968, the Clown Died in Marvin Gardens.  Afterwards, they would change their name to Eagle in an attempt to distance themselves, but in the end it was not enough and they too folded.  Maybe the lyrics of the title cut of that album were telling…

Through the dust on the panes of my window
I watch a street show in the rain.
The rusted spokes and the charcoal cloaks,
A funeral below.
Over puddled streets of asphalt
The cortege treads slowly by.
The design that once graced the black pall
The rainfall dissolved; dissolved all and died…

…And then the ground dried and hardened
After the clown died in Marvin Gardens.

The San Francisco Sound

Poster for the Avalon Ballroom

If I asked people today, “Are you familiar with the San Francisco Sound of the late 60s,” most would probably say they are not or have not heard of it.  However, if I started mentioning some of the artists that were a part of the San Francisco sound, like Janis Joplin, the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, there would be no shortage of familiarity.  So what makes them part of the San Francisco Sound?  Is it just because they come from the same city, or is there something in the music that can be isolated as defining it?

Things were changing rapidly in the 60s, both culturally and musically.  The main beatnik meccas like Greenwich Village in New York City, Provincetown on Cape Cod and especially San Francisco, were morphing into something new.  Beatniks were being replaced by flower children, folk music was evolving into folk rock and a new word was making the scene, “psychedelic.”  Ground zero for this change was a neighborhood in San Francisco, Haight-Ashbury, or the “Haight” as it was known then and now by locals.  The open microphoness of the Beat coffee houses were becoming the open jam sessions and free concerts of many of the local bands like the Grateful Dead, and spontaneous gatherings in Golden Gate Park.

While many things like free love, LSD and flower power were helping to shape the music, so was the spontaneity of the performances.  While most Rock ‘n’ Roll concerts consisted of a band doing relatively faithful renditions of their vinyl pressings, San Francisco bands were gather in places like the Avalon Ballroom, the Fillmore West and other places, and serving up 30-40 minute improvisations of their songs to the acid soaked hippies in attendance.  In my post of June 3, 2013, on the Sidewalk Skipper Band, I talked about how their success was hampered by how they were marketed.  The music industry standard up to this point was the typical 2:30 single, pressed on a 45 RPM record.  The San Francisco Sound was a prime mover in the shift to the record album or LP, capable of conveying longer tracks of psychedelia. Songs like Santana’s Soul Sacrifice (6:42), the Dead’s St. Stephen (4:30) and Jefferson Airplane’s We Can Be Together (5:49) were becoming the well-known staples by the artists.  The Sidewalk Skipper band was marketed and released as singles instead of as an album, which was the opposite of what the fans were demanding of its psychedelic bands.

This same shift in recordings found its way onto the airwaves.  Most Rock ‘n’ Roll and Pop stations were on AM radio.  Those that existed on FM almost always just simulcast their counterpart’s content from the AM airwaves.  The FCC was cracking down on this with regulations and FM radio soon became more “free form,” allowing DJs to play longer sets of whatever they wanted.  Soon these longer tracks were finding a home on FM radio, leaving AM to play the more mainstream acts like Simon & Garfunkel and the Beatles.  Hence, Album Oriented Rock (AOR) as an FCC station format was born on FM radio.

So, the psychedelic flower power coming out of Haigh-Ashbury and the Summer of Love (1967) was shaping the San Francisco Sound, as were the concerts in the city at places like the Fillmore West, the Carousel and the Avalon.  There were also the larger servings of music with the longer songs and albums dominating FM radio.  But is this enough to categorize these bands as a “sound?”  Is there anything in the music that pulls this together and defines the sound?  There are.

The folk music embraced by the predecessor beatniks was still to be found in much of the music.  Bassists like Phil Lesh of the Dead and Jack Cassidy of the Airplane were breaking their traditional bonds and taking a more prominent place in the music for the bass.  Also, one thing that is almost completely absent are the brasses like you often hear in bands like the Beatles and Chicago.  Finally, the lyrics are deeper and more poetic than their more “Pop” counterparts.  These more complex lyrics can inevitably be listed as an additional beatnik influence.

From 1966 to about 1972, many bands in San Francisco “made the scene.”  Many more bands heard what was going down and traveled to that city.  Many more hippies put flowers in their hair and also came to the city by the bay to be part of the groovy scene going down.  At the height of the Summer of Love, Eric Burdon and the Animals released a song that said it all in its intro…

This following program is dedicated to the city and people of San Francisco, who may not know it but they are beautiful, and so is their city.  This is a very personal song so if the viewer cannot understand it, particularly those of you who are European residents, save up all your bread and fly Trans-Love Airways to San Francisco, U.S.A.  Then maybe you'll understand the song.  It will be worth it, if not for the sake of this song, but for the sake of your own peace of mind.

The Grateful Dead play a free concert on Haight Street, 1968

Woodstock's 45th Anniversary at AWT

This weekend marks the 45th Anniversary of the original Woodstock Music & Art Fair in Bethel, NY.  Last year we began a tradition at AWT and we live the Woodstock experience for the weekend.  Sure there are microbuses and porta potties.  There is garbage and brown acid.  There is mud and then there is…  THE MUSIC!  The music is what it is all about.  DJ Sue has collected recording of this concert for decades.  This weekend, she will present 21 hours of the concert (about 84% of the known material) in its proper historical order.

If you missed the original in 1969, this might just be your best chance to experience the original Woodstock in cyberspace with us at AWT.  A number of people who attended last year said that in a way they now felt like they were there.  Below, you will not only find the times, but I have printed the entire sit list for this weekend.  Furthermore, if you scroll past the massive set list, you will find interesting moments you will hear this weekend, like when the Dead blow their amplifiers or Pete Townsend of the Who hits Abbie Hoffman over the head with his guitar.  Each even is explain and an approximate to the minute time that you will hear it this weekend.

So pack up your car or micro-bus.  Drive as far as you can down the SL Thruway, then abandon your car and hike the rest of the way to a Woman’s Touch.  When you get here, the chain link fence is down on the west side of the concert field.  It’s a free concert.  Roll out your sleeping bag and enjoy the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair, an Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music.

Concert Times (all times in SL time)

Friday

12:00-2:00 PM

4:00-7:00 PM

Saturday

2:00-9:00 PM

Sunday

8:00 AM – 12:00 PM (Noon)

4:00-9:20 PM

Here are the set lists for this weekend.  Bands and artists with an asterisk (*) in front of their name, denote that we have their complete set.  No song is missing.  Anything in RED has been added since last year.  Last year we did about 17 1/2 hours of the concert.  This year we are doing about 21 hours.  Anything that is red is part of the new 3 1/2 hours of material.

Friday, August 15, 12:00-2:00 PM

Richie Havens

High Flying Bird
I Can't Make It Anymore

With a Little Help From My Friends
Handsome Johnny

Strawberry Fields/Hey Jude
Freedom (Motherless Child)

Sweetwater
Motherless Child

Look Out

What’s Wrong
Two Worlds

Why Oh Why

*Bert Sommer
Jennifer

The Road to Travel

I Wonder Where You Be

She’s Gone

Things Are Going My Way
And When It's Over

Jeanette

America

A Note That Read
Smile

Tim Hardin
How Can We Hang On to a Dream?
If I Were a Carpenter
Simple Song of Freedom

Friday, August 15, 4:00-7:00 PM

*Ravi Shankar
Raga Puriya-Dhanashri/Gat In Sawarital

Tabla Solo in Jhaptal

Raga Majh Khamaj

Melanie
Momma Momma
Beautiful People
Birthday of the Sun

Arlo Guthrie
Coming into Los Angeles
Wheel of Fortune
Walkin' Down the Line
Every Hand in the Land

Joan Baez
Joe Hill
Sweet Sir Galahad
Hickory Wind
Drug Store Truck Driving Man (duet with Jeffrey Shurtleff )
I Live One Day at a Time (duet with Jeffrey Shurtleff )

Swing Low Sweet Chariot
We Shall Overcome

Quill
They Live the Life
That's How I Eat

Driftin’

Country Joe McDonald
Donovan's Reef

Flying High
The "Fish" Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag

*Santana
Waiting
Evil Ways
You Just Don't Care
Savor
Jingo
Persuasion
Soul Sacrifice

 Fried Neckbones and Some Home Fries

Saturday, August 16, 2:00-9:00 PM

*John B. Sebastian
How Have You Been
Rainbows All Over Your Blues
I Had a Dream
Darlin' Be Home Soon

Younger Generation

The Keef Harley Band

Spanish Fly

The Incredible String Band
The Letter

This Moment
When You Find Out Who You Are

Canned Heat
I’m Her Man

Going Up the Country
Leaving This Town
Woodstock Boogie

On the Road Again

Mountain
Blood of the Sun
Theme for an Imaginary Western
For Yasgur's Farm

Beside the Sea
Southbound Train

The Grateful Dead
Mama Tried
Dark Star
Turn on Your Love Light

*Creedence Clearwater Revival
Born on the Bayou
Green River
Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do)
Commotion
Bootleg
Bad Moon Rising
Proud Mary
I Put a Spell on You
Night Time Is the Right Time
Keep on Chooglin’
Susie Q

*Janis Joplin
Raise Your Hand
As Good As You've Been to This World
To Love Somebody
Summertime
Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)
Kozmic Blues
Can't Turn You Loose
Work Me, Lord
Piece of My Heart
Ball 'n' Chain

*Sly & the Family Stone
M'Lady
Sing a Simple Song
You Can Make It If You Try
Everyday People

Dance to The Music
Music Lover
I Want to Take You Higher
Love City
Stand!

*The Who
Heaven and Hell
I Can't Explain
It's a Boy
1921
Amazing Journey
Sparks
Eyesight to the Blind
Christmas
Acid Queen
Pinball Wizard w/ Abbie Hoffman incident
Do You Think It's Alright?
Fiddle About
There's a Doctor
Go to the Mirror
Smash the Mirror
I'm Free
Tommy's Holiday Camp
We're Not Gonna Take It
See Me, Feel Me
Summertime Blues
Shakin' All Over
My Generation

Sunday, August 17, 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM (Noon)

*Jefferson Airplane
The Other Side of This Life
Somebody to Love
3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds
Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon
Eskimo Blue Day
Plastic Fantastic Lover
Wooden Ships
Uncle Sam Blues
Volunteers
The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil
Come Back Baby
White Rabbit
The House at Pooneil Corners

*Joe Cocker
Dear Landlord
Something Comin' On
Do I Still Figure in Your Life
Feelin' Alright
Just Like a Woman
Let's Go Get Stoned
I Don't Need a Doctor
I Shall Be Released"
Hitchcock Railway
Something to Say
With a Little Help from My Friends

Country Joe and the Fish
Rock & Soul Music
(Thing Called) Love
Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine
Summer Dresses
Silver and Gold

Love Machine
Rock & Soul Music (Reprise)

Ten Years After
I’m Going Home

Sunday, August 17, 4:00-9:20 PM

*The Band
Chest Fever

Don’t Do It

Tears of Rage

We Can Talk

Long Black Veil

Don’t Ya Tell Henry

Ain’t No More Cane

This Wheel’s on Fire

I Shall Be Released
The Weight
Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever

*Johnny Winter
Mama, Talk to Your Daughter
Leland Mississippi Blues
Mean Town Blues
You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now / Mean Mistreater
Can't Stand It (with Edgar Winter)
Tobacco Road (with Edgar Winter)
Tell the Truth (with Edgar Winter)
Johnny B. Goode

Blood, Sweat & Tears
More and More

Something Comin On

Spinning Wheel

You've Made Me So Very Happy

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
Blackbird
Guinnevere
Marrakesh Express
4 + 20
Sea of Madness
Wooden Ships
Find the Cost of Freedom

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
No Amount of Loving
Driftin'
Love March
Everything's Gonna Be Alright

Sha-Na-Na
Get a Job

Teen Angel

Wipe Out

(Who Wrote) The Book of Love

Duke of Earl
At the Hop
Get a Job (reprise)

*Jimi Hendrix
Message to Love
Hear My Train A Comin'
Spanish Castle Magic
Red House
Mastermind
Lover Man
Foxy Lady
Jam Back at the House
Izabella
Gypsy Woman/Aware of Love
Fire
Voodoo Child (Slight Return)/Stepping Stone
The Star-Spangled Banner
Purple Haze
Woodstock Improvisation/Villanova Junction
Hey Joe

Notable Incidents You Will Hear This Weekend (All times are in SL time this weekend.)

Arlo Guthrie’s Microphone (Friday, 4:58 PM)
Arlo Guthrie starts off his set with Coming Into Los Angeles but there is just one problem.  You can’t hear the vocals.  There was trouble with his microphone and it wasn’t until about a minute into his first song that the engineers fixed the problem.  You can barely hear him singing, probably through the microphone set up to pick up his guitar.  Despite the problem, this song did make the movie and the first soundtrack album released in 1970.  The song was begun in the middle, after the solo, going into the refrain.  Thus, the flawed part was edited out and only the second half of the song is used.  We will hear it in its entirety, failure and all.

Country Joe McDonald Stalls for Time (Friday, 5:53 PM)
Joe McDonald was the front man for the band, Country Joe and the Fish.  After Quill finished their set, Santana was not ready to take the stage for theirs.  McDonald was reluctantly recruited to go on stage and do a few songs solo to placate the crowd.  He was not prepared to go on alone so he used the excuse that he had no guitar.  One was located backstage, so he then used the excuse that he had no guitar strap.  A piece of rope was tied to the guitar and he had run out of excuses.  Joe McDonald improvised a solo set and it included one of the most memorable moments of the weekend.  (5:59 PM) He got the crowd worked up.  “Give me an F…  Give me a U…  Give me a C… Give me a K…  What’s that spell? [FUCK] What’s that spell? [FUCK]…

Yeah, c’mon on all you big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
He’s got himself in a terrible jam
way down yonder in Vietnam,
so put down your books and pick up a gun.
We’re gonna have a whole lot of fun.
And it’s 1, 2, 3, what’re we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn;
next stop is Vietnam.

Part way through the song he addresses the crowd. “Listen people, I don't know how you expect to ever stop the war if you can't sing any better than that. There's about 300,000 of you fuckers out there…”

Joe McDonald, borrowed guitar and rope

Bob Hite of Canned Heat has to Pee (Saturday, 2:46 PM)
Canned Heat took the stage and lead singer, Bob Hite, announced to the crowd, “…There is only one thing I wish, I sure gotta pee!”  It was a direct reference to the lack of adequate sanitary facilities at the concert.  It should also be noted that just before introducing them, Chip Monck, the emcee, remarked about how well they were holding up with the help of the US Army.

The Grateful Dead are Delayed (Saturday, 4:01 PM)
The Grateful Dead were supposed to take the stage after Mountain.  Well, several things kept that from happening. First, the switching between bands was supposed to be facilitated by a turntable type stage.  While one band was on stage (in front), they could be setting up the next one backstage.  The mechanism failed and they had to manual set up the Grateful Dead’s stage.  Furthermore, the stage had flooded due to rain and this was causing all sorts of grounding issues and there were safety concerns.  While there was time to kill on stage, Jerry Garcia, along with Joe McDonald, addressed the crowd and gave their advice about the bad acid that was going around.

The Grateful Dead at Woodstock

The Grateful Dead End Early (Saturday, 5:01 PM)
The fear about the water and electrical systems may have been well founded. As they ended a monster rendition (over 37 minutes long) of Turn on Your Love Light, a loud bang can be heard as they blew their stage amplifiers and had to end their set early.

Abbie Hoffman Crashes the Stage on the Who (Saturday, 8:05 PM)
Abbie Hoffman was a notable 60’s activist and radical who was always controversial and often in trouble with the law.  Between Sly and the Family Stone and the Who, Hoffman had addressed the “politics of the situation” with an angry rant (7:38 PM) about the plight of John Sinclair, manager of Detroit rock band, the MC5.  Sinclair was serving a ten year prison term in Michigan for possessing two joints of marijuana.  After the Who was part of the way through their set and tuning their instruments, Hoffman crashed the stage, taking the microphone from Roger Daltry.  He began another stoned rant about Sinclair saying, “I think this is a pile of shit while John Sinclair rots in prison.”  Pete Townsend then attacked Hoffman, hitting him over the head with his guitar.  Townsend can plainly be heard saying, “Fuck! Off my fucking stage!” The Who then went on to Pinball Wizard.

Breakfast in Bed for 400,000 (Sunday, 9:41 AM)
Sunday morning, after Jefferson Airplane had finished their set, Hog Farm leader, Wavy Gravy (Hugh Romney), took to the stage and addressed the crowd.  “What we have in mind is breakfast in bed for 400,000.”

Max Yasgur Addresses the Crowd (Sunday, 9:43 AM)
When the original location for the festival fell through, weeks before the concert, Max Yasgur, a local dairy farmer, made his 600 acre farm available.  It was only fitting that he got his few minutes of fame and got to address the crowd.  An older looking man, who looked very out of place, wearing black plastic rimmed glasses, took the stage.  There was no less hip person in the place, yet he sang the praises of the concert attendees.  It was another wonderful Woodstock moment.  Joe Cocker took the stage after him and dedicated his first song to him. “And we’re going to do this um this little number to start off with, the title suggests that farming guy who just came out, did you see that nice little bloke…"

Max Yasgur

Yasgur would later be immortalized in Joni Mitchell’s classic song, made famous by CSNY, Woodstock.

I came upon a child of God,
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, "Where are you going?"
And this he told me...

I'm going on down to Yasgur's Farm,
I'm gonna join in a rock and roll band.
I'm gonna camp out on the land.
I'm gonna get my soul free.

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young are Scared Shitless (Sunday, 10:23 AM)
Although all four were seasoned concert performers with other bands, this was only the second time that CSNY had played in front of people and the crowd happened to be 400,000.  After finishing their opening number, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, Stephen Stills admits, “Thank you, we needed that.  This is the second time we've ever played in front of people, man. We're scared shitless."

Emcee, Chip Monck, Closes the Festival (Sunday, 9:12 PM)
Chip Monck was the voice of Woodstock.  His voice filled the void between sets with announcements, messages, directions and warnings about the brown acid.  He worked relentlessly all three days.  The thing is that he was hired to build and operate the stage lighting for the event.  After he designed and built it, the location of the concert changed and the stage was built to different specifications to accommodate the new space.  The new roof over the stage was not compatible with the lighting design Monck had worked ten weeks building.  There was actually no stage lighting at Woodstock.  Only follow spots, operated from those towers that ironically Monck kept warning people about all weekend long.

Michael Lang realized at the last minute that he never hired an emcee, but there was Chip Monck, a man he had already paid $7000 and who no longer had a function.  Thus, Woodstock became the only concert in history to have the lighting director supplying some of the most famous quotes.