Guitarist Paul Deano Williams

Guitarist Paul Deano Williams

Happy birthday
July 12, 1946
Guitarist Paul Deano Williams
Richie and Paul Deano Williams on The Mike Douglas Show, March 5, 1969 (with Rodney Dangerfield and Edie Adams). Richie was invited back again 11 days after Woodstock
Guitarist Paul Deano Williams

Richie Havens

The Facebook page, Live Music Head wrote in a July 12, 2013 entry, “For better or worse, some musical careers are defined by a single searing moment in time and for Richie Havens, who died on April 22 [2013], his career will forever be linked to his appearance as the opener for the Woodstock Festival in 1969. Because the band Sweetwater, who were supposed to open, was caught in traffic, it was Havens, percussionist Daniel Ben Zebulon and guitarist Paul ‘Deano’ Williams who went on at Max Yasgur’s farm near Bethel, New York, at 5 pm on Friday, August 15th 1969. It was Haven’s improvised number, ‘Freedom,’ which he interspersed with bits from the tune ‘Motherless Child,’ with sweat staining his tunic and his feet keeping rhythm, all of it captured on the film of the festival, which will forever be his shining moment in music history.” Watch out for Paul ‘Deano’ Williams flashing the peace sign in this video [at approx 34 seconds]…

Guitarist Paul Deano Williams

Woodstock

Guitarist Paul Deano Williams
Daniel Ben Zebulon and Deano on Woodstock field

Paul Williams is one of those many Woodstock Music and Art Fair musicians whose life story the internet has seemingly and surprisingly not included.  A google search reiterates what we already know: Williams was an integral part of Richie Havens’s early music.

And I suppose that is enough.

The West Virginia Surf Report site had a what-ever-happened-to type of piece in which  a “Tilt” replied in 2013 to another reply: About 8 years ago, I was transporting a tractor on my ramp truck to Vermont from Maryland. On my way home, I stopped at a rest stop in upstate New York. An old black guy decked out in a country/cowboy getup, had the hood of his van up. His van was packed with musical equipment. I loaded up his van on my truck and hauled him to eastern New York, somewhere above New Your City. (I may be able to find it – He gave me an address and phone number, which I can’t find at the moment..) Along the trip, he explained that he was Paul Williams, and that he now plays bass in a two piece band, playing country music in bars. He was rather old (60’s or 70’s) and I don’t know if he is still kicking or not. He told me to look him up if ever in the area again, but I haven’t been back that way since then.

Guitarist Paul Deano Williams

1969 Spectrum Summer Music Festival

1969 Spectrum Summer Music Festival

July 5 and July 11 -12
Spectrum, Philadelphia
1969 festival #23

1969 Spectrum Summer Music Festival

The Spectrum was an indoor arena that opened in the fall of 1967. Like any modern indoor arena, the venue hosted many things. For Philadelphia it was used for  basketball, ice hockey, arena football, indoor soccer, indoor lacrosse, and, of course, concert events.

1969 Spectrum Summer Music Festival

Festival-filled summer

On July 5 and on July 11 and 12, during that festival-filled summer of 1969, there was a three day event there. It was divided into four shows: one evening show on Saturday 5 July; one evening show on Friday 11 July and two on Saturday 12 July–an afternoon and an evening show.

Saturday 5 July

As you can see from the above advertisement,  the first show featured black artists, with the James Brown Show headlining. Chicago’s Young Holt-Unlimited, with their hit Soulful-Strut.

Tyrone Davis, with his hit…

and the comedian Nipsy Russell.

1969 Spectrum Summer Music Festival

Friday 11 July

Friday’s line-up was an impressive one with future Woodstock performers Sly and the Family Stone and Ten Years After along with Jeff Beck, the Mothers of Invention, and Savoy Brown. I would have like to have been there that night!

Saturday afternoon 12 July

The Saturday afternoon show only had two bands: Blood, Sweat and Tears and the Hawkins Singers.

1969 Spectrum Summer Music Festival
from a Led Zeppelin fan site
1969 Spectrum Summer Music Festival

Saturday evening 12 July

Saturday evening was the stronger line-up: Led Zeppelin, Johnny Winter, Al Kooper, Jethro Tull, and the Buddy Guy Blues Band.

As you may notice, there was a heavy emphasis on soul music and the electric blues whether played by blacks or whites.  Though there were some blues-influenced bands at Woodstock such as Johnny Winter and Ten Years After the following month, the absence of such artists as Buddy Guy and James Brown leave some scratching their heads. Young whites’ interest in the original blues artists had already returned and such artists were regularly featured in many other festivals that summer.

1969 Spectrum Summer Music Festival

So Long Spectrum

A little more than a year after the arena’s final event (a Pearl Jam concert) took place on October 31, 2009.  the Spectrum was demolished (between November 2010 and May 2011) .

1969 Spectrum Summer Music Festival

Next 1969 festival: Laurel Pop Festival

Bullfrog Lake Music Festival

Bullfrog Lake Music Festival

Oregon City, Oregon
July 4, 5, and 6, 1969

Bullfrog Lake Music Festival

1969 festival #22

Yet another!

The more I look, the more I run into when it comes to 1969 festivals and here is another one, albeit, a small one even by small standards.

Jefferson Airplane headline

Bullfrog Lake Music Festival

This festival’s site was on private land at Bullfrog Lake Trailer Park about 20 miles south of Portland. Jefferson Airplane was the main band. They play on July 6.

Another band was the Sons of Champlin/Winterland, 1975:

Ace of Cups

…the Ace of Cups

The Ace of Cups  were one of the first all-female rock bands. The members were Mary Gannon (bass), Marla Hunt (organ, piano), Denise Kaufman (guitar, harmonica), Mary Ellen Simpson (lead guitar), and Diane Vitalich (drums).  All but Vitalich sang lead and  all five sang backup. Songwriting, too, was shared.

Bullfrog Lake Music Festival

Many more

Family Tree may have been a Caribbean band and if so this may be    an example of them. It’s nice stuff…similar to Santana.

Plus the Portland Electric Zoo Band,  Mixed Blood, and other local bands.

Silent film

It wasn’t recorded nor filmed professionally, but below is a silent super-8 film from the event.

While not big by festival standards, it was apparently successful enough to inspire organizers to hold a second Bull Frog festival that same summer. It ran into a few issues and locals cancelled it, but from its ashes that same weekend Bull Frog 3 rose.

Bullfrog Lake Music Festival

Next 1969 festival: Spectrum Summer Music Festival