1969 – Woodstock and Other Legends

Woodstock and other rock’n’roll landmark events which made 1969 an epic year in rock’n’roll history – 1969: Woodstock and Other Legends.

2019 marks the 50th Anniversary of Woodstock, the most famous festival of them all. 1969 was a time of change and this blog takes a look at Woodstock and some of the other landmark events of 1969. It’s interesting to see how so many have links to Woodstock.

To see which of the bands talked about in the show are ON TOUR NOW

PART 1 – WOODSTOCK MUSIC & ART FAIR

15, 16 and 17 August 1969: Woodstock Music & Art Fair
Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in upstate New York hosted the event, billed as “3 days of peace & music”. History recalls the event as “Woodstock” but Yasgur’s farm was nearly 50 miles away in Bethel, Sullivan County. The original venue raised concerns with locals because of the anticipated number of people expected to attend. The local authorities responded by declining to issue the appropriate licences. The event relocated and, despite the rain, an estimated 400 – 500,000 witnessed a piece of history in the making.

Woodstock featured a host of bands and artists, rock’n’roll royalty of the time.
American West Coast bands:
Jefferson Airplane + Grateful Dead + Country Joe and the Fish
British bands:
Ten Years After + Jeff Beck Group + Joe Cocker + Incredible String Band with their psychedelic folk music
Legends:
…..Jimi Hendrix + Janis Joplin

Others to appear
RAVI SHANKAR
Indian music was a great influence on the music of the late 1960s, both the Beatles’ George Harrison and the Stones’ Brian Jones introduced the sitar to their respective bands’ recordings. Ravi Shankar was by far the world’s best-known sitar player when he took to the stage at Woodstock. Famously, after tuning his sitar for a few minutes he received enthusiastic applause from the audience. Somewhat surprised to be applauded simply for tuning his instrument, he responded to the audience with, “Thank you. If you appreciate the tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy the playing more. Thank you.”

THE WHO
Abbie Hoffman invaded the stage during the Who’s set, protesting about John Sinclair’s prison term. Pete Townshend took a very dim view of this and gave him very short shrift, with his retort to Hoffman, “Fuck off, fuck off my fuckin’ stage”.
John Sinclair was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for the possession of two joints. He was sentenced in July 1967 and released on 13 December 1971. Previously, he was the manager of Detroit rock’n’roll band MC5.

OTHER LEGENDARY 1969 FESTIVALS

13 September 1969: Toronto Rock and Roll Revival
Held at the Varsity Stadium, it was a rare opportunity to see performances from 1950s and ‘60s rock’n’roll royalty. The Doors headlined the bill, which included: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley and Gene Vincent from the 1950s, plus Alice Cooper, Chicago Transit Authority and another British legend, Screaming Lord Sutch.
John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band made their debut, with a lineup of John and Yoko, guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist Klaus Voormann and future Yes drummer Alan White. The band was put together at the last moment and famously had their main rehearsal on the plane journey on the way over to the gig. The performance was captured on the album Live Peace in Toronto 1969.

6 December 1969: Altamont
The Rolling Stones added this free concert as the final show on their 1969 US tour. It was another relocated festival, which was originally planned to be staged in San Francisco, at the Golden Gate Park. Local problems caused the gig to be relocated to the Altamont Raceway in Livermore, northern California.
Following the use of Hells Angels as security at the free Rolling Stones concert in London’s Hyde Park on July 5, they were employed once again but this time with disastrous results. Violence escalated throughout the day. Jefferson Airplane’s Marty Balin was knocked out by one of the Angels. During the Rolling Stones’ performance Meredith Hunter, who was standing near the front of the stage, pulled out a gun. One of the Hells Angels, Alan Passaro tackled him and stabbed him to death. The incident was caught on film documentary Gimme Shelter. Passaro was charged with murder but acquitted.
The bill comprised Santana, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Jefferson Airplane and Crosby Stills & Nash, the latter two bands also appeared at Woodstock.
Grateful Dead were also due to play but pulled out because of the escalating violence.
Altamont is often cited as the spiritual end of the ‘60s. The end of the 1960’s dream of a brave new world…

Although Joni Mitchell was not at Woodstock, she wrote the classic account of the festival, Woodstock, released on the album Ladies of the Canyon and as the B-side of Big Yellow Taxi.
The song provided Crosby Stills Nash & Young with their third American hit #11 and Matthews’ Southern Comfort with a UK #1.

PART 2 – NEW BANDS & ARTISTS

There were some great new bands and artists who found fame in 1969, some of which had been slogging away throughout much of the 1960s.

NEW GENERATION OF SINGER SONGWRITERS
Singer songwriters had been a part of the music scene for a long time. In the 1960s there was a plethora of singer songwriters, many of which were part of the folk circuit in New York. In the early 1960s Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs could be found in the Greenwich Village coffee bars and folk clubs on their way to becoming leading lights in the protest movement. Other great names at the time included Tim Rose, Tim Hardin and Fred Neil.

JAMES TAYLOR
17 February 1969: James Taylor released his first album, James Taylor.
This next generation of singer-songwriters emerged at the end of the 1960s. James Taylor was the first non-Beatle to release an album on Beatles’ Apple label. His was the third release on the label, after George Harrison’s Wonderwall Music and John Lennon’s Two Virgins.

This new generation of singer songwriters included at least two people who tried for success with their first albums, released in the late 1960s. Harry Chapin released Chapin Music as the Chapin Brothers and Warren Zevon released his first album, Wanted Dead or Alive. Neither of these debut releases hit the mark but both artists found sustained success in the 1970s

CROSBY STILLS & NASH
By the time they reached Woodstock, they had already released their first American album, Cosby Stills & Nash. The album spawned two American hit singles, Marrakesh Express and Suite: Judy Blue Eyes. Graham Nash wrote Marrakesh Express, scoring their first American hit, #28 and their first UK hit, #17.
When the band came together Stephen Stills’ manager, David Geffen, approached Jerry Wexler to release Stills from his Atlantic Records contract. He wanted to take the new group to Columbia Records. Atlantic Records’ founder Ahmet Ertegun stepped in and persuaded David Geffen to bring CSN to Atlantic.

25 July 1969: First Crosby Stills & Nash gig
At the end of this Fillmore East gig in New York, the band was joined onstage by Neil Young.
The band came about after: David Crosby – was sacked from The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield imploded and left Stephen Stills at a loose end (he’d been in the band with Neil Young), and Graham Nash parted company with Manchester beat group The Hollies.

ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND
30 March 1969: First Allman Brothers Band gig.

4 July 1965: The Allman Joys’ first gig, just outside Daytona Beach, Florida.
Allman Joys merged with other bands and played under various names, before morphing into Hour Glass in early 1967. They changed their name to Hour Glass after relocating to LA; founding members included Duane and Gregg Allman. Hour Glass split-up in the autumn of 1968.

30 March 1969: The Allman Brothers Band’s first gig.
They gave this debut performance just four days after forming at the legendary Jacksonville Jam, at Jacksonville Armory, Jacksonville, Florida.
All of the Allman Brothers Band performed at the Jam. The lineup: the dual lead guitars of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts, Gregg Allman keyboards, bassist Berry Oakley, and drummers Jaimoe Johanson and Butch Trucks. For this first gig Gregg Allman unavailable and was replaced on keyboards by Reese Wynans.
Rolling Stone magazine voted Duane Allman as the #9 greatest guitarist of all time.

ALICE COOPER
19 May 1969: Released their first single, Reflected.
The band started out as the Earwigs, formed early 1964, before morphing into the Spiders, then Nazz and finally, Alice Cooper.
Alice Cooper was originally the name of the band. Two members played in all their previous incarnations, guitarist Glen Buxton and singer Vincent Furnier. It was Furnier who later took the band’s name, “Alice Cooper”, as his own.

16 March 1968: First gig as the band called – Alice Cooper.
19 May 1969: Released their first single Reflected. This was the first-ever single on Frank Zappa’s new Straight label. (“Alice Cooper” was still name of the band).

GENESIS
7 March 1969: Genesis released their first album, From Genesis to Revelation.
The band formed whilst they were all at Charterhouse public school in Surry, Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford.
Old-boy Jonathan King visited the school and the lads managed to give him a tape of some of the songs they had recorded. King like what he heard, renamed them to “Genesis” and signed them to Decca. He produced their album and three singles. Sadly, none of these proved commercially successful and they were dropped by Decca. Success eluded them until the early 1970s.

LED ZEPPELIN
28 March 1969: Led Zeppelin released their first UK album, Led Zeppelin.
The album was released in the UK ten 10 weeks after its American release. Jimmy Page and manager Peter Grant formed the band after the Yardbirds parted company in mid-1968. Singer Robert Plant came from Hobbstweedle. He was not the first choice for frontman, Terry Reid was approached but turned it down. Plant had played with drummer John Bonham and recommended him. Bonham was playing with Tim Rose’s touring band at the time. Bassist John Paul Jones was a prolific session musician and knew Jimmy Page. He had also previously been a part of Jet Harris and Tony Meehan’s touring band.

THE BAND
17 April 1969: First gig as “The Band” – Winterland, San Francisco.
The Band appeared at Woodstock.
They formed in the early 1960s as The Hawks, to back Ronnie Hawkins. The band members were Canadian, with the exception of Levon Helm, an American born in Arkansas. Fame came backing Bob Dylan, initially as the Hawks and then as the Band. The Hawks backed Dylan on his infamous 1966 electric tour.
Their first UK hit The Weight reached #21 in 1968. It was taken from their debut album, Music from Big Pink, but failed to make any impact in America.

PART 3 – END OF AN ERA

There were a lot of artist emerging in 1969 but at the other end of the scale, it was also the end of the road for some big names.

SAM PHILLIPS – SUN RECORDS
1 July 1969: Sam Phillips sold Sun Records to Shelby Singleton.
Sam Phillips opened his Memphis Recording Service in 1950.
5 Mar 1951: He recorded Rocket 88 with Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats. This is generally considered to be the first rock’n’roll record. It was released on Chess because Sun Records was still a year away.
1 March 1952: The first Sun Records release, Johnny London with Drivin’ Slow.

One of the most influential independent record labels of the 1950s, Sam Phillips had a mixed bag of success and failure.
Discovered Elvis Presley
They met on 18 July 1953, when Elvis made his first visit to Sam Phillips’ Memphis Recording Service to make a private recording. Elvis made five singles at Sun but only found regional success.
His international fame and stature as the King of Rock’n’Roll after he moved to RCA.
Success with Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins
Carl Perkins gave Sun Records its first million-seller with Blue Suede Shoes.
Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash
In a similar vain to Elvis, both only found fame after leaving Sun for other record labels.
Conway Twitty
The one that got away has to be Harold Jenkins, who found fame later as Conway Twitty. Jenkins auditioned for Sam Phillips but failed to convince him of the potential. Conway Twitty’s website suggests that he has sold in excess of 50 million albums and scored 55 #1 singles.
His stage name was taken from two American towns, Conway in Arkansas and Twitty in Texas.

CREAM
1 March 1969: Cream released their final album, Goodbye.

This was the end of the line for Cream, having performed their farewell concerts previous October. Cream formed in 1966 as the first supergroup, Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. They were very much a part of the new rock bands which were a natural progression from the beat groups of the first half of the 1960s.

FRANK ZAPPA
20 August 1969: Frank Zappa disbanded Mothers of Invention.
He considered that it was too expensive to keep a full band on retainer when they weren’t on the road.

20 February 1963: The Penguins released Memories of El Monte (US).
Frank Zappa and Ray Collins wrote the song and it was produced by Frank Zappa. The recording was made at Pal Studios in Cucamonga, California.

1 August 1964: Zappa bought the Pal studio at Cucamonga and renamed it “Studio Z”.

2 December 1964: KNXT, a branch of (CBS), rejected Zappa’s rock opera outline for I Was A Teen-age Malt Shop. Sadly, the project never came to fruition. If the outline had been accepted, it would have given Zappa the accolade of having written the first rock opera, five years before the UK release of Tommy on 23 May 1969.

mid-1965: Frank Zappa joined Soul Giants and they changed their name to “Mothers of Invention”.
In the UK, Mothers of Invention released five classic albums on the Verve label.

JIMI HENDRIX
29 June 1969: Last gig of the original lineup of the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Truly, the end of an era. Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding came together in the autumn of 1966 and formed one of the new wave of rock bands.
Their swansong came at the Denver Pop Festival, at the Mile High Stadium, Denver, Colorado.

Relationships became strained between Hendrix and manager Chas Chandler and bassist Noel Redding during the recording o their third UK album Electric Ladyland, released the previous October.
Noel Redding formed Fat Mattress. Before joining the Experience Redding played guitar, in Fat Mattress he returned to his favourite instrument. When Hendrix toured America, Redding played in the support band, Fat Mattress, and the Experience – wow, some gig…
Chas Chandler stayed in management and took Slade to great success in the 1970s.
4 October 1969: The Slade released their first single, Wild Winds Are Blowing.

Jimi Hendrix and Mitch Mitchell went on to play Woodstock, as the extended Gypsy Sun and Rainbows.

VIETNAM WAR
The Vietnam War had a great influence on music of late 1960s. Protest singers Joan Baez and Arlo Guthrie both performed at Woodstock.

1954: America entered the War after the defeat of the colonial French forces at Dien Bien Phu.
The War escalated throughout the 1960s, with the number of troops reaching its peak of 543,482 on 30 April 1969. Ironically, by mid-1969 it was the beginning of the end of the War.

8 June 1969: President Nixon announced the first troop withdrawals from Vietnam.

COUNTRY JOE AND THE FISH
Played at Woodstock.

autumn 1965: Singer Country Joe McDonald and guitarist Barry “The Fish” Melton formed Country Joe and the Fish formed. Country Joe’s name was a doff of the cap to Russian communist leader Joe Stalin, whose nickname was “Country Joe”.

April 1967: Released 1st album – Electric Music for Mind and Body (US)
November 1967: Released 2nd album – I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die (US)
At Woodstock Country Joe gave an acoustic version of the title song from their second album, I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag.

PART 4 – NEW GENRES

Rock music was really evolving in the late 1960s, with at least 5 new genres emerging around the time of Woodstock.

BLACK SABBATH – pioneers of HEAVY METAL
27 September 1969: First gig as “Black Sabbath”.
This gig at the Drill Hall in Dumfries, Scotland seems an unlikely setting for the beginnings of heavy metal.

mid-1968: Terry “Geezer” Butler, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne formed the Polka Tulk Blues Band. Osbourne and Geezer Butler had previously been together in Rare Breed.

1 September 1968: The Polka Tulk Band changed its name to Earth.
A further name change to Black Sabbath followed, to avoid confusion with another band called Earth. The Black Sabbath name was taken from a 1963 Boris Karloff movie.

11 December 1968: The Rolling Stones recorded their TV special, Rock and Roll Circus.
This was destined to be Brian Jones’s last live performance.
The acts included:
John Lennon’s Dirty Mac
Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix’s drummer Mitch Mitchell and Keith Richard on bass. John Lennon made his first appearance outside the Beatles.
Jethro Tull
Guitarist Tony Iommi had recently left Earth to join Jethro Tull. His stay with Tull was short-lived and he returned to Earth soon afterwards. Earth then changed its name to Black Sabbath
The Who
The Who performed A Quick One While He’s Away. Urban myth has it that Mick Jagger didn’t sanction release of the recording at the time because he felt that the Stones had been upstaged by the Who.
The recording did not see the light of day until a DVD release in 1996.

20 January 1982: Ozzy Osbourne, lead singer with Black Sabbath, famously bit the head of a live bat.
The gig was in Des Moines, Iowa in 1982. During the concert a fan threw a bat onstage. Thinking that it was made of rubber, Osbourne picked it up and bit off its head. The bat took a dim view of this and bit him back.

MILES DAVIES – JAZZ ROCK FUSION
19 August 1969: Miles Davies started recording for theBitches Brew album.
Miles Davis is a jazz trumpeter, very respected in rock circles. In the late 1940s he recorded Birth of the Cool.

The musicians on Bitches Brew later set up their own jazz rock fusion bands.
As well as Miles Davis – trumpet…
Guitarist John McLaughlin and drummer Billy Cobham put Mahavishnu Orchestra together.
Pianist Joe Zawinul and saxophonist Wayne Shorter created Weather Report.
Pianist Chick Corea formed Return to Forever.
Harvey Brooks was the bassist on the album, he’d previously been with Electric Flag.

HAWKWIND – SPACE ROCK
29 August 1969: First Hawkwind gig – as Group X.
The band played a 20-minute jam at All Saints Hall, Notting Hill. The lineup included Dave Brock and they changed name to Hawkwind shortly afterwards.

POMP ROCK

Prog rock started out in the late 1960s and soon included 20-minute live guitar and drum solos. The bands also had a liking for having a single track occupy a whole side on an LP. The excesses of prog rock were growing and by 1969 bands were recording and performing with full orchestras.

PROCOL HARUM
6 July 1969: Procol Harum at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada.
For this performance Procol Harum was accompanied by a full orchestra, the Stratford Festival Orchestra and Festival Rock Chorus conducted by Lawrence Smith.
Following 2 pieces by J.S. Bach, the programme listed the items as, premiered by Procol Harum and Orchestra: A Salty Dog, In Held ‘Twas in I, Repent Walpurgis, A Whiter Shade of Pale, Stoke Poges and Skip Softly My Moonbeams.

DEEP PURPLE
24 September 1969: Live recording of Concerto for Group and Orchestra.
Deep Purple performed and recorded the piece at London’s Royal Albert Hall, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Arnold.
Deep Purple’s keyboard player Jon Lord composed the Concerto, in three movements, with lyrics by singer Ian Gillan.
This is a landmark album marking the beginning of the classic Deep Purple lineup. It was the first album to feature Ian Gillan who had recently replaced Rod Evans, and bass player Roger Glover who had taken over from Nick Simper. Gillan and Glover had previously been with Episode Six.
This Deep Purple lineup: John Lord – keyboards, Ian Pace – drums, Ritchie Blackmore – guitar, + Roger Glover – bass and Ian Gillan – vocals.

FAIRPORT CONVENTION – BRITISH FOLK ROCK
24 September 1969: Fairport Convention premiered their fourth album, Liege and Lief.
In a twist of fate, the same day that Deep Purple were recording their Concerto for Group and Orchestra, Fairport Convention were at the Royal Festival Hall introducing their audience to British folk rock. At this time the album had not yet been released.

May 1967: Fairport Convention’s first gig – in a Church Hall.
Martin Lamble was in the audience and after the set, went up to band and told them that he could play better than their existing drummer, Shaun Frater. The band agreed and he joined them.

May 1968: Sandy Denny joined
Sandy Denny replaced original singer Judy Dyble. This was to be Sandy Denny’s last album with the band. She
left shortly afterwards to form Fotheringay.

Liege and Lief was advertised at the time as the first British folk rock album. The album was a mixture of traditional songs and songs written by various members of the band in a traditional style. One of the tracks, Farewell Farewell, was written by Richard Thompson.

Fairport Convention were not at Woodstock but there is a strong link for the band. Iain Matthews, an early member, left in 1969 to form Matthews Southern Comfort. They had a UK #1 with their cover of Joni Mitchell’s Woodstock.