What do the four original members of the Ramones (Johnny, Dee Dee, Tommy and Joey), Burt Bacharach, Dick Stockton, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Bob Keeshan, aka Captain Kangaroo, Jerry Springer and Peter “Spiderman” Parker all have in common with Leslie West?
Except Peter Parker, aka Spiderman, they all actually attended Forest Hills High School in Queens, NYC.
Mountain Leslie Weinstein West
Leslie Weinstein
Leslie Weinstein became Leslie West after his parents divorced, but talent and luck (always a bit of luck), made Leslie West a household name among rock fans in the late 60s.
While Greenwich Village was pumping out folk musician after folk musician into the 1960’s cultural revolution, West though nearby geographically was light years artistically on “distant” Long Island, NY.
Leslie West was in the Vagrants and the band had minor success. Felix Pappalardi produced some of their recordings. And a side note from Woodstock fan extraordinaire Sharon Watts: …” a teenaged Bert Sommer hung out with the Vagrants and wrote quite a few of their songs, including And When It’s Over, and one performed by Mountain at Woodstock: Beside the Sea. Bert also came up with the name Mountain. He called West “a mountain of a man”, and it stuck.”
Pappalardi produced and played on West’s first album, called Mountain (1969).It was from that album’s name that, in 1969, they formed the band Mountain.
Pappalardi had also produced Cream and some compared Mountain’s sound to theirs. Steve Knight (keyboards) and N.D. Smart (drums) were the other two original members.
Mountain Leslie Weinstein West
Woodstock Music and Art Fair
The band appeared at Woodstock on Saturday night. Their well-received set was neither on the movie soundtrack nor the first movie, but the strength of their sound made West and the band favorites especially among the FM crowd.
Following Woodstock, the band released its first album, Climbing! (February 1970). Nantucket Sleighride followed in January 1971, and Flowers of Evil in November 1971.
In 1972 Pappalardi left the band to do more productions and West, Jack Bruce and Corky Laing (had replaced Smart on drums) formed West, Bruce, and Lang.
Over the decades, versions of Mountain have formed and re-formed, always with West at the center.
Mountain Leslie Weinstein West
Leslie West
Substance abuse and diabetes plagued West, but did not him away from music very long. He lost the bottom half of his right leg to diabetes in 2011.
He told Billboard afterwards, ““I cried a couple fuckin’ times. I look down — ‘Where is it?!’ You still feel the nerves and stuff like that. I had to make a decision — lose my leg or lose my life. What are you gonna do? But I’ll tell you, it’s a good thing it wasn’t one of my arms. Then I’d be really fucked.” [insert gallows humor comment here]
On August 15, 2009 he married Jenni Maurer on stage after Mountain’s performance at the Woodstock 40th anniversary concert at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, located on the site of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Levon Helm was one of the ushers.
In 2015, Rolling Stone magazine rated West as 65/100 among the greatest guitar players. The blurb said in part that, “ On songs like the 1970 hit “Mississippi Queen,” West played roughened blues lines with deceiving facility and an R&B flair, through a black forest of stressed-amp distortion. “
October 21, 1835: William Lloyd Garrison was a prominent white abolitionist and newspaper editor in the 19th century. Born in 1805 in Newburyport, Massachusetts, to English immigrants, Garrison co-founded his first newspaper at age 22 and began to focus on the issue of slavery. In 1829, Garrison became the co-editor of the Baltimore-based Genius of Universal Emancipation, through which he and his colleagues criticized proponents of slavery.
Unlike most American abolitionists at the time, Garrison demanded immediate emancipation of enslaved black people rather than gradual emancipation. In 1830, he founded The Liberator, which continued to publish criticisms of slavery. By that time, Garrison had become a vocal opponent of the American Colonization Society, which sought to reduce the number of free blacks by relocating them to Africa. In 1832, Garrison helped to organize the American Anti-Slavery Society and sought to keep the organization unaffiliated with any political party. He also advocated for women to be allowed equal participation in the organization, a radical stance nearly 90 years before women in America obtained the right to vote.
On October 21, 1835, Garrison attended a meeting held by the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society to hear remarks from George Thompson, a British abolitionist and personal friend. Thompson had been warned that a pro-slavery mob planned to tar-and-feather him and declined to attend the meeting. The mob seized Garrison instead, dragged him through the streets by a rope around his waist, and threatened to lynch him until he was rescued by police. Garrison spent the night in a city jail and left Boston the next morning. He remained a staunch opponent of slavery and lived to see the institution’s demise 30 years later. [History Digression article] (see May 1836)
Montgomery Bus Boycott
October 21, 1955: in Montgomery, AL, Mary Louise Smith (age 18) was arrested for violating segregation laws in Montgomery, Ala. She, along with three other African-American women (Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald and Claudette Colvin) refused to surrender their bus seats to whites (months before Rosa Parks does the same).
They brought the famous Browder v. Gayle lawsuit that successfully resulted in the Alabama law being ruled unconstitutional. (BH, see Oct 22; Feminism & MBB, see Dec 1: Browder v Gayle, see June 5, 1956)
Emmett Till Statue
(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
October 21, 2022: hundreds of people applauded — and some wiped away tears — as a Mississippi community unveiled a larger-than-life statue of Emmett Till, not far from where he was kidnapped and killed.
“Change has come, and it will continue to happen,” Madison Harper, a senior at Leflore County High School, told a racially diverse audience at the statue’s dedication. “Decades ago, our parents and grandparents could not envision that a moment like today would transpire.” [AP article] (next BH, see Nov 30; next ET. see February 7, 2023, or see ET chronology for expanded story)
October 21 Peace Love Art Activism
October 21 Music et al
The Beatles’ Christmas Show
October 21, 1963: 100,000 tickets go on sale for The Beatles’ Christmas Show. Manager Brian Epstein, who himself had had theatrical aspirations, conceived a variety stage production featuring the group. (see Oct 31)
“To Sir With Love”
October 21 – November 24, 1967: “To Sir With Love” by Lulu #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Jack Kerouac
October 21, 1969: On the Road (1957) author, Jack Kerouac, died. Created term “Beat” to describe the so-called Beat Generation as well as providing titles to two of the most famous writings of that era: Howl (1955), by Allen Ginsberg and Naked Lunch (1959), by William Burroughs. (NYT obit) (see April 5, 1997)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTapoA5RQyo
October 21 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
October 21 – 22, 1967: in Washington, D.C. nearly 100,000 people gathered to protest the Vietnam War. More than 50,000 of the protesters marched to the Pentagon to ask for an end to the conflict. [Nation article] (Nov 7)
Peace negotiations
October 21, 1972: Henry Kissinger again conferred with President Thieu, then flew to Pnompenh to brief Cambodia’s President, Lon Nol. (see Oct 22)
October 21 Peace Love Art Activism
FREE SPEECH
October 21, 1977: Judge Bernard Decker of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issues a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Village of Skokie from enforcing three ordinances aimed at preventing Frank Collin and his Nationalist Socialist party sympathizers from marching in Skokie. [Skokie article] (see January 27, 1978)
October 21 Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
NJ/Same-sex marriage
October 21, 2013: Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey announced that he would drop his legal challenge to same-sex marriage, hours after gay couples started exchanging vows in midnight ceremonies across the state.
His decision effectively removed the last hurdle to making same-sex marriage legal in New Jersey. At 12:01 a.m., New Jersey joined 13 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing gay couples to marry. (NYT article) (see Nov 5)
Trump/transgender
October 21, 2018: the Trump administration is considering narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth, the most drastic move yet in a government-wide effort to roll back recognition and protections of transgender people under federal civil rights law.
According to a memo obtained by The New York Times, the Department of Health and Human Services was spearheading an effort to establish a legal definition of sex under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bans gender discrimination in education programs that receive government financial assistance. (see Nov 6)
Pope Francis
October 21, 2020: Pope Francis appeared to break with the position of the Roman Catholic Church by supporting civil unions for same-sex couples, according to remarks Francis made in a new documentary that debuted in Rome on Wednesday.
Speaking about pastoral outreach and care for people who identified as L.G.B.T., Francis directly addressed the issue of civil unions in the film.
“What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered,” Francis said amid remarks in which he otherwise reiterated his support for gay people as children of God. “I stood up for that.” [NYT story] (next LGBTQ, see January 12, 2021)
October 21 Peace Love Art Activism
TERRORISM
October 21, 2017: 29-year-old Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov deliberately drove a rented truck onto a busy bicycle path near the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, killing eight people and injuring at least 12 others.
The vehicle entered the pedestrian/bike path at Houston St., a few blocks north of Chambers Street on Manhattan’s west side. The truck drove down the bike path for about four blocks, striking cyclists and pedestrians before veering back into traffic lanes and striking a school bus and another vehicle.
Saipov emerged from the vehicle screaming and brandishing imitation firearms before being shot by police. NYC Officer Ryan Nash shot 9 times and hit Saipov once in the abdomen. Police took Saipov into custody. [CBS News article] (T, see Nov 7; Saipov, see Nov 28)
October 21 Peace Love Art Activism
Women’s Health
October 21, 2022: maternal mortality review committees look for clues as to what contributed to the new mothers’ deaths — unfilled prescriptions, missed postnatal appointments, signs of trouble that doctors overlooked — to figure out how many of them could have been prevented and how.
The committees work in almost 40 states in the U.S. and in the latest and largest compilation of such data, released in September by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a staggering 84% of pregnancy-related deaths were deemed preventable.
Even more striking was that 53% of the deaths occurred well after women left the hospital, between seven days and a year after delivery. [NPR article] (next WH, see January 5, 2023)
The oft’ told tale of the Dead’s Woodstock performance was that it was plagued with various difficulties and was generally lackluster. That it wasn’t a typical ’69 performance.
Their Woodstock was only about 70 minutes of music with a more than 15 minute technical break after only two songs (St Stephen and Mama Tried) which had only totaled about five minutes.
Plus, there was the mic/walkie-talkie/PA interference during some parts.
Dead at Woodstock…Jerry and Bob
Grateful Dead Woodstock Woes
Dead at Woodstock
Dead at Woodstock
Well, let’s take a look at the set list:
1. Saint Stephen (2:04)
2. Mama Tried (2:42)
3. a High Time tease (30 seconds)
the 15 minute technical issues break
4. Dark Star (19:10)
5. High Time (6:20),
6. Turn On Your Lovelight (which included some Ken Babbs ravings) (38:42)
Typical?
So how atypical were the Dead at Woodstock? The concert immediately before at the Family Dog at the Great Highway in San Francisco on August 3 was about 90 minutes. Their first concert afterward was on August 20 at the Aqua Theater in Seattle (no recording available). How long was it? About 90 minutes.
If not for the technical issues, faced by most of the Woodstock performers, the Dead set at Woodstock was not too different.
Perhaps it’d be best to give the Dead at Woodstock an actual listen and decide for yourself. As for me, I enjoy it. Of course the spice of it being at Woodstock is an enticing enhancement, but even without that, it’s still good. After all, there’s only one Barton Hall and that was eight years in the future.
Double-dare
I dare you to click and open ↓ .
It’s really a nice listen for any day and a slice of history. You’ll hear the actual radio feedback that Phil Lesh talks about during a quieter part of their set.
For another much more thorough and thoughtful article on the Dead’s Woodstock set, see this articlethat Scott Parker, author of Woodstock Documented. wrote.
The whole article is well worth the read, but in his closing comments he concluded: Some have described this show as the worst Grateful Dead show ever, but this is a serious exaggeration. It is an uneven set, without a doubt. There are some real low points. But there are also some great moments, and it is worth remembering that on their worst night in 1969, the Grateful Dead were still better than most bands at their peak.
Finally!
On August 23, 2021, Dead and Company played at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. At the beginning of their second set, Bob Weir said this: “…50 something years ago [applause] we…right here…we tried this next sequence [Weir laughs] …it didn’t go so well for us. So, we’re gonna’ try it again.”
And so Woodstock finally heard the set so many had hoped for 52 years earlier. And it was very nice!
I occasionally give site tours to band members, guests of the bands, and, of course, the all-important roadies.
In 2023, Dead & Company was playing at Bethel Woods and Bob Weir needed a ride to a booth promoting voter registration that he was helping to support. He sat next to me (thrill!) and I had the following very brief “conversation” with him:
Me: “Thank you for your music.”
Bob: “You’re welcome.”
Me: “By the way, I didn’t think your Woodstock set was that bad.”
Rob: “It was.”
Grateful Dead Woodstock Woes
What's so funny about peace, love, art, and activism?
