Woodstock

When I saw the clip of them at Monterrey, was reminded that Beefheart and the Magic Band didn't make it, but then the realization that Canned Heat were actually better.

XP I really like the early Ten Years After stuff which seems to have a bebop influence pretty prevalent. First lpm, Undead the live lp are both good and i think the next couple are ok. NOt sure to what extent they went downhill after the Alvin lee at hyperspeed solo thing from the Woodstock film became popular.

THere did seem to be a misguided attempt at authenticity atthe time. people getting off on doing tuneups mid set to show howserioulsy they were taking things, apparently doing that in front of black audiences in places like the Apollo and not realising how badly they were going down for doing it.
I al;ways liked the slight dislocation of attempting to put influences in different contexts. Like post-punk picking up on funk influences though not having the full environment to osmose everything from and therebby coming up with something else as it is played in whatever teh new context is. BUt without the ability to organically grow things into a new whatever you wind up with something approaching parody.

Canned Heat’s song in the Woodstock director’s cut is an infuriating slog. I don’t mind when drummers speed up, but when they slow down, it’s deeply irritating. I don’t mind “Goin’ Up The Country” or “On The Road Again,” though.

Ten Years After’s Woodstock bit sounds like proto-hardcore to me (apart from the pointless vocal scatting, that is). Lee was a one-trick pony, though: it was a fun trick, but you didn’t wanna hear it for more than five minutes. (But I always loved that someone tossed a watermelon on stage, and Lee was casually all, “oh cool, a watermelon,” and took it with him.)

I think TYA started off a bit more multidimensional. I do like those first couple of records at least. I think Cricklewood Green from 1970 is still OK too.
Did think there was more to them than that Woodstock display but could see them getting ossified in that mold and that being the main thing they're picked up on as. Like the shortcut image of them being that when there's more to them like.
Probably triggered a number of heavy metal ideas much like Cream not being able to amplify themselves quite how they would have wanted to would.

Cream = also landfill fodder

if alvin lee is a one-trick pony than any blues guitarist is a one-trick pony. but that trick is so powerful that it doesn't matter. take stevie ray vaughan or jack white, they were exremely good in performing that trick. but blues is repetition, that is the way it is. amen.

The “trick” of Lee’s I was referring to was his sweep-picking/speed/technical facility.

I think he's a lot more nuanced a player on at least the early lps. As I said I could see this one performance as being the one thing certain younger players had seen of him and think it was the main focus and therefore be the thing they picked up on from him.
when there was more to his playing if you heard more of it.

Mr Veg brought the 10 disc boxset home from the library this afternoon :D :D … figure i can maybe blast it from the stereo through the front window & sit on the lawn under the sprinkler to try & get a sensory effect lol

avoid the brown antacid

i really loved Bert Summers & Tim Hardin - had never heard their stuff before, will def look up more by them

tim hardin is a joy.

I worked on teh O'connell bridge in Dublin 25 years ago next to a vendor who talked about how he had had to deal with hardin in the late 60s when he was seriously strung out. Shame cos the music seems to be so good.
I have the 2cd set with his first 2 lps and I think a live set on which is possibly 3.

There's a live recording around with him singing for Can in about 75 I think. Think I may have it on a hard drive somewhere

I was in a record store the other day and got to talking with someone about the Jefferson Airplane. He mentioned he’d seen them at Tanglewood in 1969, and I blurted out, “YOU SAW THE WHO!” because they, along with B.B. King, were the openers. This was a few days before the Who and the Airplane played Woodstock, and the guy seemed regretful that he missed Woodstock, but I dunno, experiencing those bands in a decent venue, where you could actually see and hear them, was likely preferable to the conditions at Woodstock.

Yes

otm!

Even the acid was bad at Woodstock (it's in the movie!)

Looking back a bit:

And there are articles scattered throughout 1969-70 issues of Rolling Stone about failed festivals — either because permits didn’t clear, or because hippie scam artists announced an amazing lineup that never showed (and probably wasn’t supposed to show).

Related to which, I happily kicked down for this (successfully funded) effort:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gormanbechard/powder-ridge-music-festival-sex-drugs-no-rock-and-roll/description

I've read about this legendary botch before:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powder_Ridge_Rock_Festival

And look forward to a film on same -- the guy behind this did the really wonderful Grant Hart documentary among other things so I'm looking forward to see what he and his team create.

Seems like there may have been some early revisionism---for inst, in Buried Alive, her Joplin bio, Myra Friedman said that a lot of people coming back to NYC, like one of her neighbors, reported that conditions were dire, and the Times ran a piece titled "Nightmare in the Catskills"---but then, somehow, there was a turn-around: Times had much nicer follow-ups, maybe with some exclusive interviews? And son enough, Friedman's neighbor was "dancing all over the building," talking about what a groovy historical event it was.

🚨🚨exciting update:

I have acquired the full 38 disc set (or mr veg acquired it for me because he lives to serve)

i am go for launch :D

sweetwater here you come...

i’m going to go find a hot dog, can u watch my blanket? i should be back in (muffled sounds)

sweetwater but no fever dog :/ (jk)

Not waitin 4 Wstock:

Hey kids - that’s the Byrds playing at Jane Fonda’s Fourth of July party 1965 - photo by Dennis Hopper. pic.twitter.com/M5l4E26YTl

— Pat Thomas (@PatThomas1964) July 4, 2022

Glad you got the set there, VG, through whatever means. :-D (My big ol' actual box sets right near my desk.)

liveblog plz

i am almost through to end of sweetwater, “come down from the tower” plea from nanci & the band

real talk:
i think it might be something to do with 15 years or so going to Bridge School, and a life of attending looser sundry outdoor festivals of all kinds -listening to the full show really hits me in a much different way than i expected. sense of history for the vibe, the stage announcements & all the attendant ephemera that goes with this … and the acts that don’t really exist anymore except in the context of Woodstock

i’m just really locked into this groove man ✌🏻

(apparently there was a VH1 biopic about Sweetwater featuring Michelle Williams !)

Bert Sommer now - he sounds like a dream from the first bar, really just entranced by this dude, what a voice my god. Kind of a Donovan vibe if its ok to say (voice quality i mean)

fun fact: he was in West Coast production of Hair & it is his irl hair on the original show poster so how about that

BILL MCGEE PLEASE BRING THE MEDICINE TO THE INFORMATION BOOTH

already annnouncer’s tone is IF YOU FREAKS DONT GET OFF THAT GODDAMN TOWER RIGHT NOW SO HELP ME I WILL TURN THIS CONCERT AROUND I AM NOT KIDDING

[few hours delay for dinner & life stuff]

back to the show & Tim Hardin up next
love his voice so much, seems incredibly talented
reading backstory about him & between the addiction/talent he sounds a bit reminiscent of Gram Parsons, he didn’t exactly endear himself to the ppl around him

i will def seek out his albums though, just gorgeous stuff here

again with “get off the #^%*! scaffolding”

update: everyone is now off the scaffolding

FLAT BLUE ACID IS POISON
BE COOL

and now Ravi Shankar <3
looking forward to hearing this full set!

goddamn ravi’s tutorial is cool as hell & so charming. a great way to ensure a captive audience

Melanie is a nice surprise for me
I only previously knew a couple of her songs from her later heyday around “Brand New Key”

but she really has a very strong natural singing voice, and as far as i have heard she could absolutely hold her own w the folkies of the day.

v enjoyable set imo

i feel bad saying this but I do not dig Arlo Guthrie a whole lot

he is Not For Me™️

tells the worlds longest story about Moses which is about as much fun as listening to an acid-head talk, ymmv with that but ugh no thanks . dude could talk the leg off a table just sitting around drawing breath

and here i pause to sleep