Monthly Archives: August 2016

Festivals, Today in history

Texas International Pop Festival

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Texas International Pop Festival

August 30 thru Sept 1, 1969
Dallas International Motor Speedway
Lewisville, TX
1969 Festival # 37

Texas International Pop Festival

Texas International Pop Festival

Festival #37

Texas International Pop Festival
Newspaper article

The Texas International Pop Festival is the 37th festival of 1969 that I’ve discovered. Most were single weekend events, but I’ve included others as well to show how the definition of a festival can be expanded to include summer-length events as well.

The Woodstock Music and Art Fair changed the festival landscape. The organizers of the Texas festival did not expect nearly as many people (Texas had approximately 120,000 attended), but towns and police were even warier fearing the potential of another Woodstock-sized event in another small town. Lewisville had about 8,000 people.

Angus Wynne III

Texas International Pop Festival
Crowd shot

Angus Wynne III was the primary organizer of the event. His father was a successful businessman who had begun the Six Flags Over Texas park (if you care to know, the six flags refers to the six countries that have governed Texas: France, Spain, Mexico, The Republic of Texas, The Confederate States of America, and the United States of America).

Huge Romney

Hugh Romney’s Hog Farm was also at the Texas International Pop Festival serving in the same capacity as it had at Woodstock: food and please-ant crowd control.

Romney was still Romney until, as the story goes, he had a conversation with BB  King, one of the festival’s performers. After that conversation, King reportedly turned to someone and said, “That guy is wavy gravy.”

Texas International Pop Festival
Texas International Pop Festival
Crowd shot

Line up

Saturday, August 30
  • Canned Heat
  • Chicago Transit Authority
  • James Cotton Blues Band
  • Janis Joplin
  • B.B. King
  • Herbie Mann
  • Rotary Connection
  • Sam & Dave
Sunday, August 31
  • B.B. King
  • Led Zeppelin
  • Herbie Mann
  • Sam & Dave
  • Santana
Monday, September 1
Texas International Pop Festival

More than once

Though not on the schedule, the newly formed Grand Funk Railroad opened each day, a clever move that helped spread the news about themselves.

You will also notice that some bands played more than one day: Chicago (2x), James Cotton (2x), BB King (3x), Herbie Mann (2x), Sam & Dave (2x), and Delaney & Bonnie & Friends (2x). The ubiquitous Johnny Winter played one day.

Unlike most other 1969 festivals, there is a bit more to read about and find and hear regarding this festival. Several bootleg albums exist from some performances.

And it has something that Bethel, NY’s Woodstock only recently received: historic recognition. The Texas Historical Commission recognized the  Festival as a significant part of Denton County history by awarding it an Official Texas Historical Marker.

Texas International Pop Festival

A Scott Powers, who commented on my WW Facebook page entry, pointed out that he lives nearby and that , “The site is now a Chase office building.” Thanks Scott.

David Weekly took the video below with a super-8 movie camera and added the music afterwards.

Some information from the City of Lewisville site

Texas International Pop Festival

Next 1969 festival: Sky River Rock Festival

Birthdays, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Dick Halligan

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Dick Halligan

August 29, 1943 – January 18, 2022

Richard Bernard Halligan

from Dick Halligan’s one man show: Man overboard
Richard Dick Bernard Halligan

Richard Bernard Halligan

Most fans might recognize Richard Bernard Halligan simply as Dick Halligan and Dick Halligan as an original member of the the original Blood Sweat and Tears. Their first album is the classic Child Is Father To the Man. On the cover, Halligan stands to the back left of the group with his arm around his young twin homunculus.

Richard Dick Bernard Halligan

Halligan remained with the group until 1972. Though mainly a trombonist, he also contributed keyboards, horns, flute, and backing vocals.

Dick Halligan

Woodstock

Halligan was part of the group that played the Woodstock Music and Art Fair on day three though unless your name was David-Clayton Thomas you were not likely to be seen in the movie clips that exist of that performance.

Dick Halligan

Post Blood few tears

Halligan is a lifer musician and has been a part of much music. Sometimes movies:

  • Go Tell the Spartan (1978)
  • Cheaper to Keep Her (1981)
  • Fear City (1984)
  • A Force of One (1979)
  • The Octagon (1980).

And often other things. From his site:

Richard Bernard Halligan

I am not sure how up to date the listings above are as they seem to end in the early part of this century which is already a long time ago.

According to Wikipedia, “As of 2006 he is active as a composer and performer for various types of music, including jazz and chamber music. In 2011 and 2012 he has been developing and performing an autobiographical one-man show entitled Musical Being. An early title for it was Man Overboard.

His daughter, Shana Halligan, is vocalist of trip hop duo Bitter:Sweet.”

Dick Halligan

Halligan died on January 18, 2022.  In a statement shared with PEOPLE, Halligan’s daughter Shana said her father passed away in Rome, Italy of natural causes. She posted the following on her Facebook page:

Dear Daddy,
My love for you goes beyond this earth, beyond this lifetime, and beyond the ordinary that you were so far above.
My respect for you was greater than for anyone human I’ve known. Your talent was unsurpassable. You’re unwavering devotion to staying true to your creative path was unlike anyone else and such an inspiration to me. Your gentle kindness , the way you could look at me without saying a word, and the love I could still feel from you despite how difficult it may have been to verbalize, or what obstacles were in the way , was and is forever wrapped around me.
I felt your pride. The world felt your music. Your power. Your heartbeat. Your music dad. How many knew they were in the presence of such greatness ? All of us.
And dad, just so you know, there is not a prouder daughter than I to have come from you.
As I write this with tears pouring down my cheeks, I thank you for all of the gifts you left me, and my family. Particularly your grandson , Otis. You know he has that thing. That beautiful , incredible thing, that he could have only gotten from you.
I will miss you forever and ever.
Love,

Shana 💔

Dick Halligan
Beatles, Bob Dylan, Music et al, Music of the 60s

1964 Bob Dylan Introduced Beatles

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1964 Bob Dylan Introduced Beatles

The narrator above refers to August 30, but it was…

August 28, 1964

1964 Bob Dylan Introduced Beatles

1964 Bob Dylan Introduced Beatles

She Loves You

The Beatles initial successes were great pop songs that many youth fell in love with at the same time they themselves were looking to fall in love. She Loves You, I Want to Hold Your Hand, Please Please Me, I Feel Fine, She’s a Woman, and We Can Work It Out are all loves songs. Some happier than others.

Someone once told me, if it’s a happy Beatle song, Paul wrote it; a sad one, John. While a generalization, it’s more often true than not.

1964 Bob Dylan Introduced Beatles

Maggie’s Farm

When I first heard Bob Dylan’s “I Ain’t Gonna’ Work on Maggie’s Farm No More” I was only a touch less confused about its lyrics than “Gates of Eden,” a song I had no idea what was happening other than Dylan was trying to harmonize with songs the lonesome sparrow sang.

Maggie’s Farm? Well there’s a guy obviously praying for rain, getting terribly underpaid, and whose boss is putting out his cigar on the guy’s face. I’d quit too.

Of course, that’s not what Dylan was saying. He was saying he wasn’t going to be the acoustic-folk-protest song-singer too many expected him to permanently be. Quitting. He was going  electric. And on July 25, 1965 he did just that at the Newport Folk Festival.

Many were displeased.

1964 Bob Dylan Introduced Beatles

August 28, 1964

The Beatles had begun their first full American tour on August 18 at the San Francisco Cow Palace. Ten days later they played for 16,000 fans at the Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, New York City. They would do the same the next night.

It was what happened in between that changed history.

1964 Bob Dylan Introduced Beatles

Al Aronowitz

Al Aronowitz was a writer who knew Bob Dylan and arranged for him to meet the Beatles at their hotel the night after that first concert.

Aronowitz later wrote: “The Beatles’ magic was in their sound,…Bob’s magic was in his words. After they met, the Beatles’ words got grittier, and Bob invented folk-rock.”

Cannabis may have been the source of all that musical cross pollination at that meeting. Beatles supposed unfamiliarity with the herb apparently surprised the already familiar Mr Dylan. [The four had tried it in Germany, but it did not impress them.]

Evidently, Ringo was unfamiliar with the not-Bogarting-that-joint protocol and kept things to himself. John, Paul, and George soon learned the etiquette.

1964 Bob Dylan Introduced Beatles

1965

  • March 27,  Dylan released Bringing It All Back Home on which “Maggie’s Farm” appears.
  • The Byrds’ covering of Dylan, particularly “Mr Tambourine Man” opened the door for folk-rock.
  • July 25, 1965 Dylan played Newport Folk Festival. Many in audience booed his performance for playing electric set with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band.
  • August 30, 1965,  Dylan released Highway 61 Revisited. More electric.
  • August 28, 1965 Dylan played at NYC’s Forest Hills Tennis Stadium. More boos during his electric set.
  • December 3, 1965 the Beatles released Rubber Soul. The course of pop music changed.
1964 Bob Dylan Introduced Beatles
1964 Bob Dylan Introduced Beatles