Monthly Archives: August 2016

Festivals, Music et al, Music of the 60s

1968 Newport Pop Festival

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1968 Newport Pop Festival

August 3 & 4, 1968
Orange County Fairgrounds,  Costa Mesa, California

1968 Newport Pop Festival

While…

..we wait for the Woodstock Music and Art Fair’s anniversary to roll around, I figured we could visit a non-1969 festival.

1968 Newport Pop Festival

Pre-Woodstock

The Newport Pop Festival can cause some confusion because of its name.  Newport, in this case, refers to California’s Newport, not Rhode Island’s. And the event was not held in Newport, California anyway.

Then, neither was Woodstock held in Woodstock!

So this is the 1968 Newport Pop Festival held at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, California

1968 Newport Pop Festival

First site

The promoters, Wesco Productions (West Coast Productions), first selected an outdoor pavilion at the Orange County Fairgrounds. Advanced tickets sales were so successful that Wesco decided to move the site to nearby parking lots.

Woodstock Ventures had three weeks to move their festival 40 miles from Wallkill to Bethel. Wesco had three days to move several hundred yards. Neither completely succeeded.

As with any large event facing such challenges, Newport’s problems included having to bring water to the new site using hoses and then attendees had to bring their own containers to fill up.

Food concessions ran out before the first day ended. Lack of shade in southern California’s August sun made the site unbearable for some.

1968 Newport Pop Festival

Line up

The line up was a good one with no folk as such, but plenty of blues and rock. Sonny & Cher, though popular for many, did not fit into the mix, though and fans reportedly did not accept them well.

Saturday 3 August

  • Alice Cooper
  • Canned Heat
  • Chambers Brothers
  • Charles Lloyd Quartet

Sunday 4 August
  • Illinois Speed Press
  • Iron Butterfly
  • Jefferson Airplane
  • Quicksilver Messenger Service
  • The Byrds
  • Things to Come

There are no good recordings of any performances. Surprisingly, as ubiquitous as Grateful Dead tapes are, neither they nor any known audience recordings apparently exist, but YouTube does have some silent footage of the Dead with a different date playing over it:

1968 Newport Pop Festival

Future Woodstockers

Woodstock Ventures scheduled six of the Newport bands to their little party in Bethel a year later. Five of them got there.

  • Canned Heat
  • Country Joe & the Fish
  • Paul Butterfield Blues Band
  • Grateful Dead
  • Jefferson Airplane
  • Iron Butterfly (scheduled but didn’t perform; perhaps still waiting for the promised helicopter flight from LaGuardia Airport?)
1968 Newport Pop Festival

Primary Criticism

It is always interesting to read an article about an event written at the time of the event. Decades can deglaze  the bit and pieces that others saw firsthand.

Here are a few observations that Digby Diehl of the Los Angeles Times made.

  1. “the Newport Pop Festival was an outpouring of post-Beatles rock. And as the Blue Cheer pushed heavy amplifier-speaker equipment offstage into the crowd, Eric Burdon thrashed around, falling off the stage, as Country Joe and the Fish led the crowd in an obscenity cheer and the Jefferson Airplane fostered a spirit of riot.”
  2. “Arthur Brown set(s) his headdress on fire, the Asylum Choir takes nude advertisements, and some rock performers have become sideshow freaks…”
  3. “…when a young singer like John Kay of Steppenwolf wears tight leather pants and ruffled shirts, rocks back on his heels and gestures exaggeratedly while singing, he is indulging in the sensational.”
  4. Regarding Country Joe’s “Fish Cheer” : “It was as cheap a way for Country Joe to win the Festival audience as for Wayne Newton singing “Danny Boy” is to win a Vegas audience.”
  5. “Rock has to follow the trail blazed by Lennon-McCartney or Bog Dylan by speaking to the point, not shocking. “
1968 Newport Pop Festival
1968 Newport Pop Festival
Birthdays, Music et al, Music of the 60s, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Band Multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson

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Band Multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson

Band Multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson
Hudson and Levon Helm in 1983

The Band

Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Born August 2, 1937

Band Multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson

The beginning

Garth Hudson was born in Windsor, Ontario to Fred James Hudson and Olive Louella Pentland. Both played instruments. His mother played piano, accordion and sang; his father played drums, saxophone, clarinet and flute.

Garth would eventually follow suit.

When he was three, Garth’s family moved to London, Ontario and he grew up there.

He attended the Broughdale Public School, Medway High School, and the University of Western Ontario. Garth studied piano, theory, harmony, and counterpoint.

Band Multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson

Bands before The Band

Hudson played with Paul London & The Capers from 1958 through 1961 before joining Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks. When the Hawks left Hawkins, Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, and Hudson formed Levon and the Hawks.

Band Multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson

Bob Dylan

In 1966, Bob Dylan recruited them to accompany him on his newly-electric 1966 tour. Dylan lived in Woodstock, NY and the band rented nearby 56 Parnassus Lane in West Saugerties, NY. The house was mostly pink and Dylan regularly visited the band in their basement studio area.

The six of them recorded dozens of songs that accumulated and became the legendary Basement Tapes. [Rolling Stone magazine article]

Band Multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson

The Band

Band Multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson

In 1968, the band, now The Band, released an album appropriately named after their place and just as appropriately with a cover painted by Dylan. Music From Big Pink was a success and led to nearly a decade of successes.

The Band released eight albums and performing for full houses around the world. Garth Hudson’s “Genetic Method” and introductions to “Chest Fever” were a concert highlight.

The original members’ last concert was in 1976. Martin Scorsese’s film, The Last Waltz, documented the show. [Rolling Stone magazine article]

Band Multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson

Garth Hudson

Band Multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson

In 2005, Hudson formed his own 12-piece band, the Best!, with his wife, Maud (who died on February 28, 2022), on vocals. That same year, Garth and Maud Hudson released Live at the Wolf, a piano and vocal album recorded live at the Wolf Performance Hall in London, Ontario.

On November 20, 2005, Hudson received the Hamilton Music Award for Best Instrumentalist

According to Hudson’s site, “He has recorded and performed with many artists, including Neko Case, Los Lobos, The Gipsy Kings, Leonard Cohen, Thumbs Carllile, Van Morrison, Muddy Waters, Marianne Faithfull, Roger Waters, Norah Jones, Jennifer Warnes, Cyndi Lauper, Tango Man, the Northern Pikes, Kevin Hearn & Thin Buckle, BarenakedLadies, John Sebastian, Jessie Winchester, Geoff Muldaur, Tom Rush, Livingston Taylor, Bill Conte, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic Orchestra, Moto “The Lion” Sano, Jimmy Sturr, Wild Bill Davis, Clifford Scott, Louisiana Red, Jo-El Sonnier, Emmylou Harris, Champion Jack Dupree, John Anderson, Tommy Spurlock, Sneaky Pete Kleinow and the Flying Burrito Brothers, David Bromberg, the Indigo Girls, Richard Belzer, Sinead O’Connor, Don McLean, Keith Richards, Hirth Martinez, Levon Helm and the Barn Burners, Eric Andersen, Jonas Fjeld, Halvard Bjørgum, The Call, Todd Rundgren, Karla Bonoff, Linda Thompson, The Secret Machines, Jonah Smith, The Sadies, the Big Blue Big Band, Jimmy Vivino of the Conan O’Brien Show, Paul Shaffer of the David Letterman Show, Evan Dando & The Lemonheads, Donovan, Wilco, Doug Paisley, The Dixie Hummingbirds, and The Bauls of Bengal. “

Band Multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson

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

Remembering Loving Jerry Garcia

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Remembering Loving Jerry Garcia

Happy birthday
August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995

Remembering Loving Jerry Garcia

Jerry Garcia

Jerome John Garcia was born in San Francisco, CA. His father was Jose “Joe” Garcia, his mother, “Bobbie” Garcia. Brother “Tiff.”

Joe Garcia loved music, especially jazz, and played woodwinds and clarinet.

In the spring of 1947 when Jerry was four, his brother Tiff accidentally chopped off a large part of Jerry’s middle right finger. Later that year, Joe Garcia drowned  while on a fishing trip.

Jerry and brother Tiff moved in with Bobbie’s parents, Tillie and William Clifford. While living with them the boys enjoyed great autonomy. It was also during this time that Jerry’s third grade teacher encouraged the artistic side of Jerry. Jerry started to play the banjo.

Remembering Loving Jerry Garcia

Bobbie remarries…

In the early 50s, like so many other young Americans, Jerry discoverd early rock ‘n’ roll: Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, BB King,  and others.

In 1957 for his fifteenth birthday, his mother and step-father gave Jerry an accordion. He complained that that was not what he wanted until they exchanged the accordion for an electric guitar.

Remembering Loving Jerry Garcia

Brief military career and 1961

He joined the Army  in April, 1960, but the Army and he realized they were incompatible. He left that December.

In 1961, Jerry met a couple of people who would have a big impact on his future: Robert Hunter and David Nelson.

Remembering Loving Jerry Garcia

More people & Mother McCree’s

In early 1962 Jerry met Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, and, in December, Bob Weir.

Jerry continued to play and by 1964 Jerry, Pigpen, and Weir formed Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions (with Dave Parker, Tom Stone, and Dave Garbett).

Remembering Loving Jerry Garcia

Warlocks > Dead

In 1965, Phil Lesh and Bill Kreutzmann joined Jerry, Pigpen, and Bob to form The Warlocks. Their first show is at Magoo’s Pizza in Menlo Park, CA.

In December, The Warlocks changed their name to Grateful Dead and performed their first of many shows as the house band at a Ken Kesey Acid Test in San Jose, CA. . Garcia was 23; Lesh, 25; Pigpen, 20; Weir, 18; and Kreutzmann, 19.

Remembering Loving Jerry Garcia

Long strange trip

The Grateful Dead would play over 2300 shows, their last on July 9, 1995, at Chicago’s Soldier Field. A month later, on August 9, 1995 Jerry Garcia died.

Over his life, Jerry Garcia was addicted to several things. Luckily for us, one of those addictions was music. In addition to the 2300 Dead shows, Jerry seemingly played continuously with his own band (Legion of Mary, Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, Jerry Garcia and Friends, Jerry Garcia Band, and many more) or sat in with other bands (Mickey and the Heartbeats, New Riders of the Purple Sage, and many more).

Happy birthday Jerry. We thank you for your eternal music.

And of course there are places to listen: