Category Archives: Music et al

Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Music of the 60s, Today in history, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Bumpier Day Wallkill Woodstock

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Bumpier Day Wallkill Woodstock

July 8, 1969

Woodstock Ventures

Those of you who have followed this blog (thank you!) already know that despite the notion that Woodstock was the only rock festival in 1969, that year was a very busy for festivals. By July 8, 21 festivals had happened with 25 more  to go before the end of the year.

Woodstock Ventures was simply another one on that long list. Four more guys who decided to put on festival.

Bumpier Day Wallkill Woodstock

The Bumpy Road to Wallkill

In April, Howard Mills had agreed to rent a piece of property to Woodstock Ventures and the Town of Wallkill granted the necessary permits.

There are many accounts of the Woodstock Festival. Each has its unique perspective. Nevertheless, it is important to keep in mind that thoroughly organizing such an event is far more important than someone taking notes on everyday’s every conversation and keeping a written record of the moment to moment happenings.

Bumpier Day Wallkill Woodstock

Bob Spitz, Barefoot in Babylon

Many consider Bob Spitz‘s Barefoot in Babylon (originally published in 1979; re-released in 1989) one of the better accounts of the days leading up to the famous Fair. Having said that, Spitz relates conversations the organizers had as if he or someone had recorded them. They were not. Based on his research, though, July 8, 1969 was a big day on the road to Bethel and the Woodstock festival.

Bumpier Day Wallkill Woodstock

8 July 1969

Providing food for attendees an obvious priority. Woodstock Ventures had problems finding people or a group to do that job. At a point, the Ventures had arranged for Nathan’s hot dogs to provide their food, but on this date the Middletown Fire Department unanimously turned down a proposal to supply personnel to run Nathan’s food concessions.

The fire companies’ membership objected to the long hours Nathan’s had required. Middletown is next to Wallkill, the planned site of the event.  Peter Goodrich, assigned the task,  continued to try to find companies for the festival’s food concession stands.

July 8 Wallkill Woodstock festival bumpy
“Scotchtown” was the intended location of the event. Middletown is just south of that Wallkill area. Click on the picture to enlarge.

Bumpier Day Wallkill Woodstock

Fire protection

On the same day, Wes Pomeroy (security) and Don Ganoung (general assistant) met with the Wallkill fire advisory board to discuss the festival’s fire protection needs. Instead of evaluating the festival’s requirements and coming to an informal arrangement, the advisory board decided not to act on the proposed plans until the town board asked it do so.

Bumpier Day Wallkill Woodstock

Another Wallkill!

On the same day, Joel Rosenman,  one of the four Woodstock Venture organizers, received a letter from Margaret Y Tremper, the deputy town clerk from the Town of Shawangunk, NY. The letter informed the festival organizers that the festival address used on advertising was misleading as Wallkill, NY (about 30 minutes away in Ulster County) was not the same as the Town of Wallkill (Orange county), where the festival actually was. She requested that they correct their advertising to avoid having thousands of attendees mistakenly arriving at her location and not theirs.

Bumpier Day Wallkill Woodstock

Outside worries

On that day, a Smoky Robinson and the Miracles concert in Boston resulted in scattered incidents of stone throwing and window breaking after the sound system has problems. The last thing the organizers needed was additional reasons for Wallkill to kill their event.

Bumpier Day Wallkill Woodstock

Legal changes

Miles Lourie resigned as counsel for Woodstock Ventures because of the recent appointment of Peter Marshall as an additional counsel.

Bumpier Day Wallkill WoodstockAll these things made July 8, 1969 a busy day for those on the bumpy road to a Bethel, NY. Unbeknownst to its residents, in 5 weeks a festival called Woodstock would make history there.

And little did anyone know that this apparent mountain of a day was simply a molehill!

Bumpier Day Wallkill Woodstock

Birthdays, Music et al, Music of the 60s, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Young Drummer Michael Shrieve

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Young Drummer Michael Shrieve

Born July 6, 1949
Santana
Woodstock Music and Art Fair
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Happy birthday!
Young Drummer Michael Shrieve
photo from http://www.michaelshrieve.com/gallery.html#
Young Drummer Michael Shrieve

OPEN-HEARTEDNESS

Michael Shrieve’s internet page opens to this statement:

MUSIC PROMPTS US TO RESPOND WITH OPEN-HEARTEDNESS INSTEAD OF JUDGMENT. IT USHERS US TO A HIGHER PLACE FROM WHERE WE CAN SEE BEYOND DISTRACTIONS TO WHAT IS TRUE AND GOOD AND LASTING. IF MUSICIANS ACCEPT THIS RESPONSIBILITY, THEY CAN CHANGE THE WORLD.

Such a view is not surprising from someone who has spent a lifetime with open-hearted music.

Young Drummer Michael Shrieve

Young, not youngest Shrieve

When guests enter first part of the Main Gallery in the museum at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts they are surrounded by some of the 400,000 people who sat on the field at that historic event.

Above guests is a movie showing with commentary pieces of the festival. While Michael Shrieve does his iconic drum solo with Santana, Country Joe McDonald exclaims, “17!” referring to Shrieve’s age. On Saturday 16 August 1969, Michael Shrieve was young, but not that young.

Shrieve was born on July 6, 1949. He had just turned 20. We can forgive McDonald. By early Saturday, it was already a long weekend.

Interestingly, even Shrieve’s internet site gets it wrong. It states, “ As the original drummer for Santana, Michael – at  age nineteen – was the youngest performer at Woodstock.” 

Wrong twice as Sha Na Na’s Henry Gross, born on April 1, 1951 and 18 that August was likely the youngest performer.

And CSN & Y’s bassist Greg Reeves may actually have been younger, but there’s a mystery there.

Ah well. Such is Woodstock Haze.

Young Drummer Michael Shrieve

Santana

During a performance at the Fillmore Auditorium, Shrieve came to the attention of Santana’s manager. A short time later Shrieve joined the band and became a mainstay. His jazz background helped develop a sound already influenced by the band Latin percussion component.

The aforementioned drum solo at Woodstock, it’s inclusion on the album as well as the movie put Michael Shrieve forever into the 1960s’ musical picture.

Young Drummer Michael Shrieve
photo from http://www.michaelshrieve.com/gallery.html#
Young Drummer Michael Shrieve

Michael Shrieve

Young Drummer Michael Shrieve
Shrive at the Monument at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts (photo from Shrieve’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/michaelshrieve

Shrieve remained with the Santana band until 1974 and has continued to be active since. He has released several of his own albums and collaborated with or sat in with dozens of other albums.

He occasionally rejoined the Santana band which continued to undergo various personnel changes throughout the years.

In 1998, the he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the rest of Santana.

Young Drummer Michael Shrieve

Bob Dylan, Music et al, Music of the 60s

Only a Pawn In Their Game

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Only a Pawn In Their Game

1963 status quo

The American summer of 1963 was typical in many ways. For some, that was fine. Schools closed. Summer vacation. Ice cream. Iced tea. Pools. Beaches. Tanning. Bikinis. Bulging muscles.

For others, typical was not fine. The status quo meant field work. Starvation. Mistreatment. Jim Crow terrorism. The denial of an education and the right to vote.

The struggle for civil rights continued and folk singer Bob Dylan often wrote songs about the downtrodden. His Times They Are a’Changin’ album had a plethora of such songs: “The Times They Are a’Changin’,” “Ballad of Hollis Brown,” “With God on Our Side,” and “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll.”

Only a Pawn In Their Game

Dirty work

It would be difficult to pick the most powerful one among them, but it was in July 1963 that Dylan first sang “Only a Pawn in Their Game.” Writing about the June 12, 1963 assassination of Medgar Evers might be an obvious contemporary theme, but pointing out that the assassin was doing the work of the White Establishment, that the White Establishment also kept poor whites  poor, and that the White Establishment used the poor whites to do its dirty work? Such a realization is why the song remains so powerful.

As Princeton University historian Sean Wilentz said in a 2013 NPR interview:  “The whole point is, the killer is guilty, yes, but he’s not the person to blame, There’s rather a much larger system that’s out there, and that’s what the song is really about.”

To write any more about Dylan’s lyrics is superfluous. His own lyrics  say more than any essay:

Only a Pawn In Their Game

A bullet…

A bullet from the back of a bush took Medgar Evers’ blood
A finger fired the trigger to his name
A handle hid out in the dark
A hand set the spark
Two eyes took the aim
Behind a man’s brain
But he can’t be blamed
He’s only a pawn in their game
A South politician preaches to the poor white man
“You got more than the blacks, don’t complain.
You’re better than them, you been born with white skin,” they explain.
And the Negro’s name
Is used it is plain
For the politician’s gain
As he rises to fame
And the poor white remains
On the caboose of the train
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game
The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid
And the marshals and cops get the same
But the poor white man’s used in the hands of them all like a tool
He’s taught in his school
From the start by the rule
That the laws are with him
To protect his white skin
To keep up his hate
So he never thinks straight
’Bout the shape that he’s in
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game
From the poverty shacks, he looks from the cracks to the tracks
And the hoofbeats pound in his brain
And he’s taught how to walk in a pack
Shoot in the back
With his fist in a clinch
To hang and to lynch
To hide ’neath the hood
To kill with no pain
Like a dog on a chain
He ain’t got no name
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game.
Today, Medgar Evers was buried from the bullet he caught
They lowered him down as a king
But when the shadowy sun sets on the one
That fired the gun
He’ll see by his grave
On the stone that remains
Carved next to his name
His epitaph plain:
Only a pawn in their game		 
Copyright © 1963, 1964 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991, 1996 by Special Rider Music
Only a Pawn In Their Game