Monthly Archives: July 2016

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

Percussionist Jose Chepito Areas

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Percussionist Jose Chepito Areas

Happy birthday
born July 25, 1946

Percussionist Jose Chepito Areas

Have you ever hear of…?Percussionist Jose Chepito Areas

After organizers had drafted Country Joe McDonald to do a solo performance at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair that fair Saturday afternoon, August 16, 1969, the young couple pictured above turned around and offered friend Tony and me a toke. Straight as an arrow at the time, we politely refused. They were from San Francisco and asked us, “Have you ever heard of …” and gave the name of the next act. We said we hadn’t. Neither had most of the others sitting in that big grassy bowl.

Soul Sacrifice

White kids getting sunburned

After that next band finished “Soul Sacrifice” and 400,000 people stood, applauded, stamped, hooted, shouted, yelled, and generally ululated, we all knew Santana and would never forget that moment. I grabbed my borrowed 35 mm camera and shot a picture of that scene. Looking at it today, the echos cannot be heard, the vibrations felt. I know though.

Jose Areas

My guess is that most of those many white kids getting sunburned have not forgotten that moment either. The mixture of Carlos Santana’s electric guitar, Gregg Rolie‘s searing organ, David Brown‘s thumping bass, and ALL that percussion chugging along.

Jose “Chepito” Areas’s timbales were amongst all that chugging percussion. He was an original member of Santana and played with them while Carlos was with the band and without and reunited.

Jose “Chepito” Areas

Areas released a solo album, “Jose Chepito Areas” in 1974. Listen and I dare you not to start moving in sync. Here’s “Gurafeo” from that album.

Percussionist Jose Chepito Areas

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Areas along with his other band mates from the original line up were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. He was not present.

If you’d like to keep up with Jose, he has a Facebook page.

Percussionist Jose Chepito Areas
Festivals, Music et al, Music of the 60s

1969 Seattle Pop Festival

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1969 Seattle Pop Festival

Seattle Pop Festival

July 25 – 28, 1969
Gold Creek Park, Woodinville, WASeattle Pop Festival
1969 Seattle Pop Festival

1969 Festival #27

Another 1969 summer weekend. Another 1969 festival. The Seattle Pop Festival was the 27th festival of that year (at least as I keep finding new ones to add to the list). And like the event named Woodstock that was not in Woodstock, this Seattle event was not in Seattle.

The lineup was a good one and if 400,000 people had shown up, if it had been in New York, and if Boyd Grafmyre, its organizer, had filmed and recorded it, we’d know even more about it today. Alas those “ifs” are mainly “nots.”

1969 Seattle Pop Festival

Boyd Grafmyre1969 Seattle Pop Festival

Boyd had attended the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. It inspired him to do the same in Seattle two summers later. According to Grafmyre, there were 30,000 attendees on first day, 60,000 the second day, and 90.000 on day three.

Friday 25 July

  • Crome Syrcus
  • Bo Diddley
  • Flying Burrito Brothers
  • Ten Years After
  • Guess Who
  • Murray Roman
  • Albert Collins
  • Santana
  • Youngbloods
  • Tim Buckley
  • It’s a Beautiful Day
  • Byrds

Saturday 26 July

  • Floating Bridge
  • Charles Lloyd
  • Santana
  • Albert Collins
  • The Flock
  • It’s a Beautiful Day
  • Ike and Tina Turner Revue
  • Guess Who
  • Bo Diddley
  • Lonnie Mack
  • Chicago Transit Authority
  • Chuck Berry
  • Tim Buckley

Sunday 27 July

  • Blacksnake
  • Youngbloods
  • Guess Who
  • Spirit
  • Bo Diddley
  • Vanilla Fudge
  • The Flock
  • Albert Collins
  • Flying Burrito Brothers
  • Ike and Tina Turner Revue
  • Charles Lloyd
  • Led Zeppelin
  • Lee Michaels
  • Doors
  • Chuck Berry
1969 Seattle Pop Festival

Woodstock West (sort of)1969 Seattle Pop Festival

1969 Seattle Pop Festival

Multiple performances

Unlike most festivals, you will notice that many of the better known bands played more than one day, such as Bo Diddley (3 days), the Flying Burrito Brothers (2 days), Guess Who (3 days), Albert Collins (3 days), Santana (2 days), Tim Buckley (2 days), Charles Lloyd (2 days), The Flock (2 days), It’s a Beautiful Day (2 days), Ike and Tina Turner Revue (2 days), and Chuck Berry (2 days).

It must have been nice to see your favorite bands more than once at the same venue the same weekend.

According to the Invisible Theme Park site, the following were notable characteristics about the Seattle Pop  Festival:

  • Led Zeppelin and The Doors played together on the same ticket–the only time they did so.
  • The “Forgotten Woodstock” preceded the real Woodstock by one month.
  • Chicago Transit Authority eventually became Chicago.  Their first album had been released only 3 months before Seattle Pop Festival.
  • This is Led Zeppelin on the cusp of fame.  1969 was the year they first came to America.
  • Crome Syrcus?  They were a psychedelic Pacific Northwest band that broke up in 1973, best known for “Love Cycle” and “Take It Like a Man.”
  • Murray Roman?  He was a stand-up comedian, a bit of a poor man’s Lenny Bruce, who had an album called You Can’t Beat People Up and Have Them Say I Love You.  He died in 1973 in a car crash on PCH.
  • The Flying Burrito Brothers was formed a year before Seattle Pop from former Byrds members Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman.
  • Forgotten Woodstock:  25 acts, 50,000 fans.  The East Coast Woodstock:  32 acts, 500,000 fans.

WMMR Article

On July 25, 2023, WMMR had an article about the event. It pointed out that tickets for the event cost $6 for a day or $15 for the whole weekend.

1969 Seattle Pop Festival

Next 1969 festival: Midwest Rock Festival

Festivals, Music et al, Music of the 60s

1969 Midwest Rock Festival

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1969 Midwest Rock Festival

July 25,  26, &  27, 1969

State Fair Park, Milwaukee, WI

1969 Midwest Rock Festival

1969 Midwest Rock Festival

1969 Festival #29

The same weekend as the Seattle Pop Festival and coming in at number 29 on my list of 1969 rock festivals, we have the 1969 Midwest Rock Festival. And there will still be three more before getting to the “one” rock festival of that year.The same weekend as the Seattle Pop Festival and coming in at number 26 on my list of 1969 rock festivals, we have the 1969 Midwest Rock Festival. And there will still be three more before getting to the “one” rock festival of that year.

Once again, a stellar line up of bands and performers languishes in history because of its location (not New York, San Francisco, or Los Angeles), smaller number of attendees (not a half-million), not recorded, and not filmed.

There are some recordings, but like so many others outside those of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, the quality is poor.

1969 Midwest Rock Festival

The scheduled line-up

Friday 25 July

  • Led Zeppelin
  • Buffy Sainte Marie
  • First Edition

Saturday 26 July

  • Blind Faith
  • John Mayall
  • Delany and Bonnie and Friends
  • Shag
  • Taste
  • MC5
  • SRC

Sunday 27 July
  • Jim Schwall Blues Period
  • MC5
  • Zephyr
  • Shag
  • LItter
  • SRC

You will notice that some bands played on multiple days. Some were local bands given exposure in a large setting.

1969 Midwest Rock Festival

Notes

  • Led Zeppelin would leave after their Midwest Pop Festival performance to fly to Seattle for the Seattle Pop Festival and play that Sunday.
  • Johnny Winter played on Sunday. He was everywhere that summer.
  • Joe Cocker, Sweetwater, and Winter would all be in Bethel, NY the next month for the Woodstock Music and Art Fair.
  • Like most festivals, the Midwest Pop Festival  was held in an enclosed area–a racetrack in this case. And the stage was simply a flatbed trailer. 
  • there was a total attendance of about 45,000 and it cost $15 for the 3 days.
  • rain cancelled the Sunday performances of Jethro Tull, Jeff Beck and the Bob Seger System.

The djtees site had this description: The coverage of the festival in newspapers mentioned widespread pot-smoking in the stands(well, duh!), and afterward a state legislator from West Allis, Robert Huber, took strong exception to that, saying the weekend “would make Haight-Ashbury blush.” Dude, you need to loosen up and get with the programme. For 3 days in the summer of 69 what made Milwaukee famous was not beer but kick ass rock ‘n’ roll.

There is also a site dedicated to this event with more information. Check it out: Midwest Rock Festival

1969 Midwest Rock Festival

Next 1969 festival: Atlantic City Pop Festival