Category Archives: Music et al

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

Reprise Signs Jimi Hendrix

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Reprise Signs Jimi Hendrix

May 21, 1967
Reprise Signs Jimi Hendrix

Jimmy Who?

I doubt any of us know that on May 21, 1967 Reprise Records signed a guy named Jimi Hendrix. Would we have even known the name Jimi Hendrix in May 1967?

An American kid from Seattle who’d joined the Army not so much out of a sense of patriotism, but an alternative to jail. That hadn’t gone well, but he made a friend with Billy Cox.

Reprise Signs Jimi Hendrix

Apollo Theater amateur

That in 1964 he’d won first prize in an Apollo Theatre amateur contest or that he’d worked with the Isley Brothers, Rosa Lee Brooks, Little Richard, or Curtis Knight?

Maybe you saw him (accidentally?) as Jimmy James and the Blue Flames in Greenwich Village when Jimi decided he needed to be himself, not a back up guitarist.

Reprise Signs Jimi Hendrix

NYC Unknown

You may know now, but didn’t know then, that Keith Richard’s girlfriend Linda saw him playing in New York and recommended Hendrix to Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stones’ manager. Oldham declined.

One did accept. Some of you do know that it was the Animals’ bassist Chas Chandler who was leaving the Animals and looking to produce did think Hendrix was a good choice, particularly for the song “Hey Joe.”

Reprise Signs Jimi Hendrix

Chas Chandler

Chandler brought Hendrix to the UK and from that point the road to fame was relatively short. In no time Hendrix was impressing people. We might find that an understatement. How could he not have impressed. Keep in mind, “we” here State-side weren’t that impressed and an English woman had to convince a second English man the Hendrix had great talent.

Chandler helped Hendrix form the Experience and in the fall of 1966 they began dates and recording singles. “Hey Joe” and “Purple Haze” did OK in the UK. In March 1967, Hendrix, in a way to “enhance” his stage performance, upped the guitar-smashing of  Pete Townshend to guitar-burning.

Reprise Signs Jimi Hendrix

UK Are You Experienced?

Reprise Signs Jimi Hendrix

On May 12, 1967 the Are You Experienced album was released in the UK. It did very well and missed being the #1 album only because another album did better. Some album called Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

And that’s what we were all listening to this side of the pond.

Reprise Signs Jimi Hendrix

Hey Joe?

As referenced above, Reprise Records signed Hendrix on May 21, 1967. The single “Hey Joe” failed to chart here!

Luckily one of the band members, a Paul McCartney, from that Beatles group strongly recommended Hendrix to the Mamas and the Papas who were helping to organize The Monterey International Jazz and Pop Festival. His legendary performance there that June 18 left mouths literally agape and in mesmerized wonder.

Reprise Signs Jimi Hendrix

US Are You Experienced?

Reprise Signs Jimi Hendrix

Reprise released the US version of Are You Experienced  on August 23 and Hendrix finally made his Billboard splash.

Richie Unterberger’s All Music review begins with, “One of the most stunning debuts in rock history, and one of the definitive albums of the psychedelic era. On Are You Experienced?, Jimi Hendrix synthesized various elements of the cutting edge of 1967 rock into music that sounded both futuristic and rooted in the best traditions of rock, blues, pop, and soul. It was his mind-boggling guitar work, of course, that got most of the ink, building upon the experiments of British innovators like Jeff Beck and Pete Townshend to chart new sonic territories in feedback, distortion, and sheer volume. “

He became the biggest rock and roll star of his time playing gig after gig, festival after festival.

But there would be a new member of the “27 Club.”

Three years and 26 days later after the release of his US album, Hendrix would be gone.

Reprise Signs Jimi Hendrix
Greenwood Cemetery in Renton, Washington
Reprise Signs Jimi Hendrix
Birthdays, Music et al, Music of the 60s, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Joe Cocker OBE

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Joe Cocker OBE

May 20, 1944 — December 22, 2014

John Robert Joe Cocker OBE

Joe Cocker OBE

Not a singer-songwriter

At a time when the singer-songwriter was prominent, especially among the performers preferred by music fana of so-called underground music Joe Cocker was not a singer-songwriter.

Joe Cocker was an interpreter of that music like no other.

Joe Cocker OBE

Beatles at Woodstock

Everyone knows (and many have a theory) why the Beatles were not at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Most of those theories seem to forget that the Beatles as a group hadn’t played live for years and were all but disbanded by August 1969.

Be that as it may, the Beatles were present nonetheless. Their creative spirit help lead to large outdoor rock festivals and their music was there more than any other group that also wasn’t there.

Crosby, Stills, and Nash had sung “Blackbird.” Richie Havens had done “Strawberry Fields Forever” and had also sung “With a Little Help from My Friends,” but it was Joe Cocker’s “Friends” that topped all the covers.

Joe Cocker OBE

Golden touch

As I’ve written before in other blog entries, some performers didn’t need Woodstock to be propelled forward (e.g., The Who). Some performers got shot into stardom (e.g., Santana). Some got no push and continued in anonymity (e.g..  Quill).

Joe would likely have made it (as would have Santana), but being in the film and on the triple album was a career catalyst.

Why Joe at Woodstock?

Joyce Mitchell was an assistant to Michael Lang. In a message exchange with her, she mentioned this story.

The only performer I brought to Michael’s attention was Joe Cocker and John signed him up. He was performing in a club on the upper west side and someone I had worked with at my previous job had brought my attention to his great blues performance. I went to the club hoping Michael would join me but he never showed. It was a club on Columbus or Amsterdam Ave. They did not serve liquor, but Joe shook the club up.  

It always amazes me how such a little thing can lead to such a huge difference in someone’s career path.

Joe Cocker OBE

Mad Dogs > Solo

He left the Grease Band that had backed him at Woodstock and the famous Mad Dogs and Englishmen band–an amazing conglomerate of musicians that sometimes included George Harrison–whose concerts were always special.

His career included gold albums and hit singles. Sometimes solo sometimes with someone.

Life in the rock music lane has its many potholes and sometimes hitting a few at full speed provides an artistic jolt. At first, but eventually for most the toll outweighs the inspiration.

Joe Cocker made many comebacks and was still performing (having released 23 albums) when he died in 2014.

Thank you for all your music and those star-spangled shoes, too.

Wikipedia accolades link

Joe Cocker OBE

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

Who Pete Townshend

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Who Pete Townshend

Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend
Happy birthday
May 19, 1945

Happy birthday, Pete

This is, of course, the Woodstock Whisperer blog and its inspiration was that 1969 festival. Many names pulled me to Max Yasgur‘s field that august weekend, but The Who was a prime attraction.

Some artists became famous because of the Fair (e.g., Santana). Some artists remained unknown despite the Fair(e.g., Quill).

The Who did not need Woodstock to become famous. The Who did not need Woodstock to remain famous, but the festival is one of the many jewels in their sparkling crown’s history.

And arguably, Pete Townshend is the brightest among this fab four.

Who Pete Townshend

Pete Townshend

Peter Dennis Blandford “Pete” Townshend parent’s were both musicians: dad Cliff a saxophonist and mom Betty a singer. Like many relationships with a travelling partner, Cliff (often on tour) and Betty’s marriage had rough stretches. At one point they separated and Pete lived with his maternal grandmother, an experience he described in unsettling terms.

Who Pete Townshend

To the Who

Pete’s path to the famed Who parallels the path other artists have trod. Bullied because of his looks, a loner, a reader, he found music. He and school friend John Entwistle formed a band. And like some other upcoming groups at the time, Lonnie Donegan’s skiffle style was one of their choices.

Another component that guided Pete Townshend’s path was his entrance into Ealing Art College. One of the artists there was  Gustav Metzger who developed a style of art in which the piece destructed itself. It was this influence that eventually led to Townshend’s destroying his guitar after a performance.

Who Pete Townshend

The four Who

Like the formation of a solar system,  Pete, John Entwistle, and Roger Daltrey found themselves in Roger’s band, The Detours.  A drummer left and Keith Moon joined. The Detours began to have some success, but when they discovered that there already was a band with that name, The Who was born (though they briefly became The High Numbers before being reborn as The Who).

With the beginning of Pete writing more and more of The Who’s material, the band gained more and more fame. It was their live show with Keith Moon’s crazed drumming, Roger’s twirling mic, Pete’s signature windmills,along with Entwistle’s statue-like presence that caught fans’ eyes and ears.

Who Pete Townshend

Just a taste

Who Pete Townshend
(photo www.citizenthought.ne)

This blog entry is by no means be even close to thorough. In the mid-60s I slowly became aware of this band with the funny name. In 1969 I heard a lot about their rock opera and being a loyal Rolling Stone magazine subscriber, I re-subscribed and received a promotional copy of the album for free.

Who Pete Townshend

Ah, Tommy

At Woodstock, I had hoped they would play some of the cuts. They basically played all of the amazing album. The sun rose both figuratively and literally on the gathered that Sunday morning. I may not have been able to stick around for much of Sunday’ event (I was a thoroughly conscientious white suburban college kid with rock and roll nerd tendencies), but I snapped a picture with Frank Capone’s 35mm camera.

Thank you Frank and many happy returns Pete.

Who Pete Townshend
Sunday sunrise following The Who’s performance at Woodstock
Who Pete Townshend