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.

What the Hell is the Hog Farm? (And Other Useful Tidbits of Info to You Help Enjoy Woodstock)

This weekend, we will relive much of the Woodstock concert from 1969 at a Woman’s Touch, in Second Life.  We will be listening to almost 18 hours of the concert and there are many interesting references and events in these recordings.  I’d like to explain some of these things, starting with the Hog Farm, and then continue by giving you a bunch of interesting things to listen for; including the approximate time and day in SL you can expect to hear them this weekend.

There are numerous references to the Hog Farm, such as when a small child was lost and stage manager, John Morris, instructs the child, wherever he may be, to go up the hill and find a hog farmer.  The “farmer” would reunite him with his mother, interestingly named “Sunshine.” (You can hear this incident Friday night during our set at about 5:27-5:28 PM SL time.)  So, who are these hog farmers?

The Hog Farm was a west coast hippie commune that was recruited to help with running the festival.  It would obviously take a lot of people to work the event and that was where the Hog Farm came in.  They set up a lot of the grounds that were not part of the stage and also ran a “free kitchen” to feed festival goers.  They were also charged with the task of providing security, which hit them completely by surprise.  They decided on a friendly approach and dubbed themselves the “Please Force.”  Their approach to security was to ask people nicely, “Please don’t do that.”

The picture at the top shows some of the hog farmers arriving in their psychedelic school bus.  Looking at the front grill, it seems to be late a 1930s or early 1940s model.  Today it might be considered a valuable antique, but in 1969 it was just a 25-30 year old clunker.  In many ways, the Hog Farm bus has become a Woodstock icon in its own right.

Their leader was a man named “Hugh Romney,” who is better known as “Wavy Gravy.”  His part in the concert, and his subsequent appearance in the Woodstock film, made him something of a hippie celebrity, so much so that Ben & Jerry even named an Ice Cream flavor after him.  He actually did not get his famous nickname until shortly after the Woodstock concert.  The moniker was given to him by the one and only B.B. King at a concert later that year.

It Happened 44 Years Ago This Week...

It happened forty-four years ago this week.  It was the magical summer of 1969 and three men had just completed a historic journey and became the first people to set foot on the moon.  A couple of days before they left, a US senator changed the course of history at a small bridge on an island off of Cape Cod.  The following month there would be the concert to end all concerts, the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair would take place just outside of Bethel, NY.  It was an event that helped define a generation, probably even more than the moon landing the month before.

The concert was the brain child of promoter, Michael Lang, and was named for the town that was originally planned as the site.  Tickets were priced at $18 ($6 a day) and made available only by mail and in record stores in the Northeast.  The venue had to be changed only weeks before the concert due to the town refusing to grant a permit for the concert.  When dairy farmer, Max Yasgur, made his 600 acre property available, the upcoming concert was not popular among locals.  The thought of 50,000 hippies descending on the community upset the local people.  Yes, the original planned number was that small, one tenth the size of what was to become reality.

The last minute change in location assured that they would not be ready for even the expected number, let alone the 500,000 that would show up.  There would not be enough food, water, toilets or anything to handle the crowds.  It was Friday night that Arlo Guthrie, a musician, declared:

“Well, the New York Thruway's closed.  Isn't that far out?”

People were driving as far as they could and then just abandoning their cars to hike the rest of the way in to be part of the scene.  It became apparent that there was no way to collect tickets and keep people out, so it was declared a “free concert.”  Those three days in the summer of 1969 (August 15-17) were seminal ones in the history of rock music and defined a generation.  The acts included some of the greatest names among Rock & Roll royalty.  So great was the event that 500,000 people attended, but it is estimated that close to ten million people claim they were there, a testament to how defining the event was.

It can’t be denied that the festival goers and performers were protesting the war in Vietnam as one of their issues.  It is interesting to learn that it was the US Army who came in to save Woodstock.  Richie Havens was the first performer to take the stage because he was the only performer available.  Joan Baez, the scheduled opener, along with other acts, was unable to get to the concert from nearby accommodations due to the jams.  Havens was told that he would have to stall until other performers could get there.  His song, Freedom (Motherless Child), was really an impromptu performance as he was continuing to be told to stall for time.  Finally, it was a US Army helicopter, according to Havens, that landed with additional acts.  The Army and the helicopters continued to assist through the weekend by bringing in supplies, airlifting medical cases and other needed services.  The Army and the hippies worked hand in hand all weekend without incident.

At Woodstock, 500,000 people came together under some of the most taxing conditions.  There was not a single reported act of violence the entire weekend.  There were three deaths at the concert, a ruptured appendix, a heroin overdose and a tractor accident.  On the upside, two babies were born at the Festival.

Twenty-five years later, there was the first of several reprisals, Woodstock 94.  I was at this event for all three days and got a taste of what it must have been like at the original concert.  There was one moment that weekend that I swear we were back at the original in 1969.  Joe Cocker had been announced, “Would you please welcome, for a return engagement, live on stage, the one, the only, Mr. Joe Cocker!”  He was back for a “return engagement” because he had played the original concert twenty-five years earlier.  That magic moment where time slipped back came during his set.  I was seated in the field, maybe eighty yards/meters from the stage in the sunlight.  The opening notes for With a Little help from My Friends filled the air and the crowd went wild.  We all stood and swayed back and forth singing along with Joe Cocker.  No one was sure if it was 1994 or 1969.

During my set at AWT today I will play two hours of highlights from the 1994 concert and maybe share some of my memories.

So, were you at Woodstock in August of 1969?  Wish you were?  While we can’t turn back time, maybe in the virtual world of Second Life we can do the next best thing. Through the decades, I have collected much of the concert in recordings.  This weekend, on the 44th anniversary of the concert, my daughter, Destiny, and I are going to host 17 hours’ worth of the original Woodstock.  While it is not the entire concert, it is a lot of it, as much as you will probably ever hear and it will be presented in its historically correct order.

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.

The Sidewalk Skipper Band

It was almost two years ago that I posted here about the music that I most like to listen to.  At that time I admitted to being a psych-head and that late 60s psychedelic acid rock is my greatest musical love.  (See What Does Sue Listen to: Pt. 1 Farfisa and Fuzz, July 31, 2011)  At the end of that post I announced a mini set that I planned to play at an upcoming show, to spotlight some examples of the type of music I love.  The first song listed was a gem called “Strawberry Tuesday” by the Sidewalk Skipper Band.  It is a great tune and a personal favorite of mine from that genre.

The Sidewalk Skipper band was from Milwaukee and they began their career doing college gigs at Marquette University.  The band consisted of David McDowell on lead guitar and vocals, Rick Novak on guitar, Brian Ballestrieri on keyboards, Joe Ballestrieri on bass and Tom Jukem on drums.

By February 1968, they were signed with Capitol Records and in the studio recording in Chicago.  Soon they had released their first single, Strawberry Tuesday/Cynthia at the Garden.  This was followed by a second single in May 1968, It's Raining Flowers in My House/Seventeenth Summer.

So why did they never catch on?  It might have had something to do with the way Capitol marketed them.  It could be easily argued that the Psychedelic Movement originated in the United States, but it was British bands like the Beatles, the Bee Gees, the Stones and Cream who were taking it to a whole new level.  It was all part of a larger movement called the “British Invasion,” and America was always looking for its next “response” to the invasion.  It was quite overt with some bands, like Paul Revere and the Raiders.  During this time, various psych bands in the UK were able to thrive by releasing 45 RPM singles, but this wasn’t the case in America.  The American psych-head wanted to smoke a joint, or drop acid, and listen to an entire LP album side, without having to change the record after each song.

Maybe if they had released a full album, they might have become a psychedelic household name like the Strawberry Alarm Clock or the Electric Prunes.  A while back, a 12” acetate surfaced with more material, so obviously they did record more songs.  By 1969, they had left Capitol and recorded one more single with a label called “Teen Town,” Jeanne at the Circus/Sidewalk Skipper.  They disbanded shortly after that and the Ballestrieri brothers went on to open a club called the “Stone Toad.”  Brian Ballestrieri would also go on and record as a solo artist, with limited success, in the 1970s.

Tomorrow (Tuesday, June 4) I will do a mini set of the Sidewalk Skipper Band and play the following songs:

Strawberry Tuesday
Flowers in my House
Seventeenth Summer
Cynthia at the Garden

Those make up the both sides of the two Capitol singles recorded and released in 1968.  I have never seen a copy of the Teen Town single released in 1969.  As their 1968 promotional material put it, “America is ready for the SSB!”

Ray Manzarek (1939-2013)

I know that I haven’t written in this blog in a long time, but like Jim Morrison wrote in his 1969 book of poetry, the Lords and the New Creatures…

It takes large murder to turn the rocks in the shade and expose the strange worms beneath.  The lives of our discontented madmen are revealed.*

Okay, maybe there was no murder, but we had a large tragedy last week and it has turned the stones and I find myself writing once again in this blog.  Whenever anyone asks me for my favorite band, I list several, but when pressed for one name, it is the Doors.  Last week Ray Mazarek passed away at the age of 74 and the world lost a magnificent and versatile musician.  Ray lost his battle with cancer and died in Rosenheim, Germany, with his family at his side.

Ray was born on February 12, 1939, in Chicago Illinois.  He learned to play piano at an early age and it became his passion, along with basketball.  The two passions competed for his attention and, gratefully for my generation, music eventually won.  He went to college to study law but soon learned that he was not cut out for it.  He enlisted in the army in 1961 and served as a concert pianist stationed in Okinawa.  When he finished his enlistment, he returned to the states and college, attending UCLA in 1965.  It was there, studying film, that he met another film student, Jim Morrison.

Morrison saw himself as a poet and had written quite a bit of poetry.  Ray had played in a band, Rick and the Ravens, with his two brothers, but he mostly played classical, jazz and blues.  It seems unlikely that a rock band would evolve from these two artists, but L.A. in the late 60s was a magic time and psychedelia was all the rave.  Morrison suggested they start a rock band on what seemed to be almost a lark.  Morrison had been writing song lyrics alongside his poetry and with the addition of John Densmore and Robby Krieger, the Doors were born.

1967 was an amazing time.  The hippie movement had come of age and the “Summer of Love” brought it all into full swing.  There were four albums that were released in 1967 and most baby boomers had them in their collection. They were Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles, Surrealistic Pillow by the Jefferson Airplane, Are You Experienced by the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the Doors self-titled debut album.  These four albums became the soundtrack for the Summer of Love.

Ray Manzarek was in many ways the architect for that captivating Doors sound.  He was both their keyboardist and their bass player.  Ray had a Fender Rhodes keyboard bass that he placed on top of his main keyboard, a Vox Continental organ.  It was small, only two octaves, and he placed it on the left side so he could play bass with his left hand.  (See picture below.)  He would play the organ with his right and that is why most Doors’ keyboard parts can be played with just one hand.  I used to relish the response I’d get in symphonic band in high school when I was playing the chimes/tubular bells.  With just a single hammer in one hand, I used to bang out the opening to "Light My Fire" when there was down time.

The Doors went on to release seven albums before Morrison died on July 3, 1971.  Ray and the other surviving members held together and released two more albums without Jim.  These were Other Voices in 1971 and Full Circle in 1972.  In 1973 they broke up and went their separate ways.

Ray played in a number of bands after the Doors including Nite City, Manzarek-Krieger and the Manzarek-Rogers Band.  He collaborated, or provided keyboards for Iggy Pop, Michael C. Ford, Echo and the Bunnymen, Michael McClure, X, Darryl Read, Bal and "Weird Al" Yankovic.  Ray released his last album, Translucent Blues, in 2011.  It was a blues record he recorded with guitarist Roy Rogers (not the cowboy star).

In my opinion, his greatest post-Doors work was his version of the Carmina Burana in 1983.  The Carmina Burana was written by Carl Orff in 1935.  He took verses written by medieval monks in Latin and put them to music.  The music has since been a favorite of TV and movie soundtracks of the medieval and fantasy genres.  Ray took this work and redid it with a Rock and Roll feel, including electric guitars, but retained the Latin versus.

Ray wrote two books.  The first was his memoir, Light My Fire: My Life with the Doors.  He also wrote a Civil War ghost story, Snake Moon, in 2006.

This death has hit me harder than most.  Tonight, I’m dedicating my entire set to Ray Manzarek.  I will dig deep in the vault and put together a two hour retrospect on Ray and the Doors.  I will include snippets of interviews with Ray, extreme rarities and I even completed a tribute remix of Peace Frog/Blue Sunday this morning that I will debut.  Join me tonight at 7 PM SL time at a Woman’s Touch.

"There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception."

Aldous Huxley, 1954

*James Douglas Morrison, The Lords and the New Creatures (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1969), page 16.

Chuck Ruff (1951-2011)

I was saddened to learn this morning of the death of Chuck Ruff, drummer for the Edgar Winter Group.  Chuck hailed from Reno, Nevada and joined the band, Sawbuck at age 17.  It was in 1972 that he became a founding member of the Edgar Winter Group, where he gained fame.

In 1973, they came out with an album that is considered one of hard rock’s greatest, They Only Come Out at Night (shown below).  This album reached #3 in the Billboard charts and produced two great singles, Frankenstein (reached #1) and Free Ride (reached #14).  It was Ruff who named their #1 hit, Frankenstein.  The song by its nature induced jam sessions during the recording sessions.  The only way to produce it into a song fit for release was to make massive cuts and edit the pieces together, hence the name “Frankenstein.”

Chuck Ruff went on to record four more albums with the Edgar Winter Group, including one with rocker Rick Derringer and another with Edgar’s brother, Johnny Winter.  In 1977, he became the drummer for Sammy Hagar.  He played with other bands and eventually formed his own band, the Chuck Ruff Group, based out of Reno.

Tonight I’ll play the following three songs as a mini set tribute to Chuck Ruff:

Frankenstein, Edgar Winter Group, 1973

Bad Reputation, Sammy Hagar, 1978

Free Ride, Edgar Winter Group, 1973

Motown Great, Marv Tarplin (1941-2011)

We learn this weekend of the death of Marv Tarplin in Las Vegas this past week.  His name is not a household word, but his music is among some of the best known during the past half century.  I suppose a broad, but accurate, description of him would be that he was the guitarist behind Smokey Robinson.  He played with him on the first album by the Miracles, left the Miracles with Smokey in 1973 and continued to play guitar for him on many solo recordings and, until his retirement in 2008, toured with him.  That is a 50 year (1958-2008) corroboration of writing, recording and performing for Smokey Robinson and Marv Tarplin.

Tarplin was from Atlanta, GA and began his musical career as the guitarist for the Primettes, who would later go on to become the Supremes.  In 1958, he joined the Miracles and thus began a long relationship with Smokey Robinson.  The two co-wrote many of the Miracles’ hits including Tracks of My Tears, Going to a Go-Go and I Like It Like That.  He and his guitar were actually known in the industry as the “Miracles’ Secret Weapon.”  And who can forget those opening guitar chords to Tracks of My Tears?  They are so soulful and so moving.  With those chords he grips your heart and sets the tone for the highly emotional experience Smokey Robinson is about to lyrically place upon you.  One would not be complete without the other.

In 1973, Smokey Robinson left the Miracles on friendly terms after 15 years.  Shortly thereafter, Marv Tarplin also left the Miracles and, before long was collaborating with his old friend once again.  There were more hits like Cruisin’ and Being With You, and he toured with Smokey Robinson until his retirement in 2008.

Marv did work with other recording artists throughout his life.  He co-wrote and performed on a number of hits for Marvin Gaye such as I’ll be Doggone and Ain’t That Peculiar. He also played guitar on the Four Tops’ top 20 hit, Still Water (Love).

During my set tonight, I’ll include the following songs as a tribute to this Motown great.  All of them are co-written by Tarplin and his guitar is featured on each recording.

Going to a Go-Go, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, 1965

Ain’t That Peculiar, Marvin Gaye, 1965

Being With You, Smokey Robinson, 1981

I’ll Be Doggone, Marvin Gaye, 1965

Tracks of My Tears, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, 1965

 

The Miracles… Marv (with his guitar) and Smokey seated