Monthly Archives: January 2016

Birthdays, Music et al, Peace Love Art and Activism, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Singer Activist Joan Baez

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Singer Activist Joan Baez

Many Happy Returns!

Joan Baez

Joan Chandos Báez was born in Staten Island, NY  on January 9, 1941. Although often associated with Bob Dylan, it should be that he is associated with her as Bob was Joan’s guest at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival. It was she featured on the November 23, 1962 cover of Time magazine.

Singer Activist Joan Baez

…but associated they are.

Singer Activist Joan Baez

Many areas

To quickly explain Joan’s career would do a disservice to her.  Some associate Joan with the early 1960s civil rights movement. True. Some associate her with the 1964 Berkeley Free Speech movement. True. Some may even know of her participation in the 2011 Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. True again

In other words, Joan has had a lifetime of peace, love, art, and activism.

Singer Activist Joan Chandos Baez
Joan at Woodstock with Jeffrey Shurtleff
Singer Activist Joan Baez

David Harris

During the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, she was pregnant and married to David Harris. Authorities had jailed Harris for refusing to be drafted. That night, Baez played her hour set with Richard Festinger and Jeffrey Shurtleff.

Their set was:

  • Oh Happy Day
  • The Last Thing On My Mind
  • I Shall Be Released
  • Story about how the Federal Marshalls came to take David Harris into custody  
  • No Expectations
  • Joe Hill
  • Sweet Sir Galahad
  • Hickory Wind
  • Drug Store Truck Driving Man
  • I Live One Day at a Time
  • Take Me Back to the Sweet Sunny South
  • Let Me Wrap You in My Warm and Tender Love
  • Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
  • We Shall Overcome

Here is her rendition of International Workers of the World hero Joe Hill from that misty night. The lyrics are based on a 1925 poem by Alfred Hayes that Earl Robinson had put to music in 1936.

The compensation that each of the Woodstock performers received has long been of interest, but documents clearly showing the amount are hard to come by.

Joan Baez received $10,000 (approximately $71,000 in 2019 dollars) and here is the actual documentation:

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Letter to Joan

Dear Joan Baez,

We don’t love you because of all the albums you have released. And you have! We don’t love you because of that voice. And it is amazing! We don’t love you because are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And you are.

We love you for all you have contributed. We love for all you continue to contribute. We love you because you have been a role model to anyone willing to listen and watch.

From all of us to you.

We Shall Overcome.

Singer Activist Joan Baez

For more about Joan and her music, visit >>> Hubpages

#1 album, Beatles, Music et al, Music of the 60s

Beatles 1965 Rubber Soul

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Beatles 1965 Rubber Soul

Beatles 1965 Rubber Soul
George Harrison, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and Paul McCartney

The Beatles released their Rubber Soul album in time for Christmas on December 6, 1965. It became the Billboard #1 album on January 8, 1966 and remained there until February 18.

Beatles 1965 Rubber Soul

1965 Turning Point

1965 was a turning point for 1960s music. Although Beatlemania had hit America in 1964 and the band had six #1 singles that year alone, the music was still not what would eventually lead to the Woodstock Music and Art Fair and other such festivals.

After their touring ended in 1966, the Beatles went into the studio and went in another direction. Why?

The simplest answer is that Dylan had gone in a different direction and the Beatles realized that they could, too. And where Dylan and the Beatles headed, many followed.

Beatles 1965 Rubber Soul

Meeting Bob

In August 1964 the Beatles played a concert in New York City and afterwards famously met Bob Dylan who didn’t realize at first he was introducing the Beatles to marijuana. He was and they reportedly enjoyed the experience. (see Bob Dylan Introduces the Beatles for more).

In 1965, Dylan had gone  “gone electric” to both the delight and dismay of his fans. His song “Maggie’s Farm” was his declaration of independence. No longer would he be pigeon-holed as a protest folk singer.

Beatles 1965 Rubber Soul

Back in the Studio

When happened in the studio when the Beatles returned there in October 1965 was “Rubber Soul.”  While  the pop sound they were known was still a part of their music,  now there was more depth, too. Boomers had lyrics to figure out.

Beatles 1965 Rubber Soul

For example, John Lennon sang on “Girl”

Was she told when she was young that pain
Would lead to pleasure?
Did she understand it when they said
That a man must break his back to earn
His day of leisure?
Will she still believe it when he’s dead?
Ah girl
Girl
Girl
Beatles 1965 Rubber Soul

More than holding hands

To the typical American Baby Boomer teenager, this was no longer simply wanting to “…hold your hand.“

Beatles 1965 Rubber Soul

1966 Fork in the Road

In 1966 American pop music came upon a fork in the road and some fans remained on the well-traveled road, the road of 45s, and top ten.

Others took what was for them a path less traveled. That same year, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys produced the definitely-not-surf-music Pet Sounds. The Beatles closed 1966 with what some call Rubber Soul part two, Revolver, a continuation of their musical and lyrical experimentation.

The Mothers of Invention released Freak Out! Ken Kesey’s Acid Tests got into full swing. Light shows at concerts began. Crawdaddy, the first rock and roll magazine to write full and serious articles, appeared. Concerts at San Francisco’s Fillmore began. John Lennon got into trouble after pointing out that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. FM rock stations began.

Beatles 1965 Rubber Soul

More 1965

Jefferson Airplane released their first album. The Beatles performed their final live concert. Jimi Hendrix hit England. The Beatles began to record Sgt. Pepper’s.

That less traveled path would lead to Woodstock after a few other festival stops along the way.

For more about the album, click through >>> The Beatles site

Beatles 1965 Rubber Soul
Music et al, Music of the 60s, Today in history

Beatlemania Arrives Hullabaloo Arrives

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Beatlemania Arrives Hullabaloo Arrives

After the Beatles and Beatlemania arrived in the US in 1964, American TV producers realized that prime time musical variety shows aimed at the Boomer youth market would be a good investment.

Shindig!

Beatlemania Arrives Hullabaloo Arrives
photo from: http://ctva.biz/Music/US/Shindig.htm

Of course, Dick Clark already had his afternoon American Bandstand. The folk craze was fading and in September 1964, ABC TV entered with it’s Shindig! It succeeded. At least for awhile.

Beatlemania Arrives Hullabaloo Arrives

Hullabaloo

Beatlemania Arrives Hullabaloo Arrives
photo from: http://www.klru.org/program/60s-pop-flashback-hullabaloo-my-music/

On January 8, 1965,  in response to Shindig!, NBC TV premiered Hullabaloo. The first show included performances by The New Christy Minstrels, comedian Woody Allen, actress Joey Heatherton and a segment from London in which Brian Epstein introduced The Zombies and Gerry & the Pacemakers.

Here’s a retrospective on Shindig!

Beatlemania Arrives Hullabaloo Arrives

Mamas and Papas

Here’s a recording of the Mamas and Papas appearance on Hullabaloo. Is the scenery of  those several bath tubs trying to tell us something?

Beatlemania Arrives Hullabaloo Arrives

Joey Heatherton

And on August 29, 1966, Hullabaloo ended. While the hunk Robert Goulet may have been OK for viewers,  the far too sexy for prime time Joey Heatherton might be sending the wrong message–for some. For others, they couldn’t get enough of her message for some!

Beatlemania Arrives Hullabaloo Arrives

Where the Action Is

Linda Scott and Steve Alaimo

Shindig! and Hullabaloo were both evening shows, but kids coming home from school also had a show: Where the Action Is.

Dick Clark created the show which premiered on June 28, 1965 (close on the heels of Shindig! and Hullabaloo).

Linda Scott and Steve Alaimo, hosted the show and sang numbers between guest performances. A typical show featured two or three performers lip-synching their recent hits with the teenage audience clapping along.  There was usually a segment that featured the Action dancers, too.

 

Ratings and opinions

But prime time TV is a difficult place for rock and roll.  Even in the mid-60s, rock’s unwashed rough image was still seen as vulgar. Ironically, exactly a year later on January 8, 1966, ABC aired Shindig!’s last show.

Afternoons aren’t any easier. Lasting a bit longer than Shindig! and Hullabaloo, ABC cancelled Where the Action Is on March 31, 1967.

Beatlemania Arrives Hullabaloo Arrives

Hullabaloo Departs Monkees Arrive

What replaced Hullabaloo? On September 12, 1966, enter the Monkees.

Why such short-lived runs for a shows that seemed to have such guaranteed success? It is part of TV culture to keep shows only as long as they are very successful. Mediocre ratings are rarely tolerated, particularly if someone thinks they have a better idea.

Also those pesky Beatles were changing the rules.

  1. On the same day that Shindig! ended, the Beatles latest album, Rubber Soul, became the Billboard #1 album.
  2. Also on the same day, those same Beatles had another #1 single with We Can Work It Out.
  3. And on the day that Where the Action Is ended, The Jimi Hendrix Experience played at the London Astoria.  At the end his set, Hendrix, for the first time, lit his Fender Stratocaster on fire.

Link with a bit more info about Hullabaloo >>> KLRU article

Beatlemania Arrives Hullabaloo Arrives