What about the 19th century? Before there were busses, there were street cars.
Elizabeth Jennings Refused
Third Avenue Railroad Company
In July 1853, the Third Avenue Railroad Company began a streetcar service consisting of carriages pulled along these rails by horses. Passengers could board or leave the carriages at various points along the route. Some carriages carried a placard “Colored Persons Allowed,” but these carriages ran infrequently and African-Americans were often permitted to board the general streetcars at the discretion of the driver and conductor, provided none of the other passengers objected.
Elizabeth Jennings Refused
Elizabeth Jennings
Elizabeth Jennings lived in New York City and on July 16, 1854 the 24-year-old Black schoolteacher was on her way with friend Sarah Adams to the First Colored American Congregational Church on Sixth Street near the Bowery, where she was an organist. She boarded a Third Avenue Railroad Company horsecar at Pearl and Chatham Streets in lower Manhattan. Soon after boarding, the conductor ordered them to get off and wait for a car that served African American passengers.
Jennings refused, but with the assistance of police, the conductor succeeded in forcefully removing Adams and Jennings.
“I told him . . . I was a respectable person, born and raised in New York . . . and that he was a good for nothing impudent fellow for insulting decent persons while on their way to church,” she later said, according to a 2005 New York Times article.
“The conductor undertook to get her off, first alleging the car was full, when that was shown to be false. He pretended the other passengers were displeased at her presence. But [when] she insisted on her rights, he took hold of her by force to expel her. She resisted. The conductor got her down on the platform, jammed her bonnet, soiled her dress and injured her person. Quite a crowd gathered. But she effectually resisted. Finally, after the car had gone on further, with the aid of a policeman they succeeded in removing her.” — New York Tribune, February 1855
Elizabeth Jennings Refused
Church/Newspapers
That same NYT article stated, Her father, Thomas L. Jennings, was a prominent tailor who helped found both a society that provided benefits for black people and the Abyssinian Baptist Church, which later moved to Harlem.
The daughter had worked in black schools co-founded by a “conductor” of the Underground Railroad. Her own church — First Colored American — was a place of learning and political rebellion, where, one evening in 1854, addresses on God and the Bible alternated with talks on “The Duty of Colored People Towards the Overthrow of American Slavery” and “Elevation of the African Race.”
She wrote a letter that was read in church the next day. Parishioners forwarded the letter to The New York Daily Tribune, whose editor was famous abolitionist Horace Greeley, and to Frederick Douglass’s Paper. Both reprinted it in full.
Chester Arthur
Mr Jennings hired a young lawyer. Chester Arthur, who would become President of the United States in 1881 upon the assassination of James Garfield.
Arthur won. Judge William Rockwell of the Brooklyn Circuit Court ruled: “Colored persons if sober, well behaved and free from disease, had the same rights as others and could neither be excluded by the rules of the company, nor by force or violence.”
The all-male, all-white jury found for the plaintiff and awarded her damages of $225. She was also awarded $22.50 in costs. More importantly, the Third Avenue Railroad Company agreed to the immediate desegregation of its streetcar service.
Elizabeth Jennings Refused
Legacy
Other streetcar companies, however, retained segregated services and Thomas Jennings founded the Legal Rights Association to challenge racial segregation in public transportation. By 1861, all New York public transit was desegregated.
The importance of Elizabeth Jennings’s case is two-fold: The strategy of the Legal Rights Association became a model for later civil rights organizations through its use of public-opinion campaigns, lobbying, civil disobedience and litigation to effect change. [NY Courts site]
Elizabeth Jennings Refused
Honored
Elizabeth Jennings married and had a son; she ran a school for black children and died in 1901. She’s buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, but her name lives on with this City Hall street sign.
In New York City,only five female historical figures were depicted in statues in outdoor public spaces, according to She Built NYC, a city effort to expand representation of women in public art and monuments. All of those statues were in Manhattan, like the sculpture of Eleanor Roosevelt in Riverside Park and the bronze of Harriet Tubman in Harlem.
On March 6, 2019, the City announced that four more female historical figures would be honored with statues in New York. The announcement followed a monthslong process seeking to fix what New York’s first lady, Chirlane McCray, called a “glaring” gender imbalance in the city’s streets and parks.
In it’s December 7, 1968 issue, Rolling Stone magazine’s Larry Sepulvado and John Burks wrote in an article titled “Tribute to the Lone Star State: Dispossessed Men and Mothers of Texas” :
The hottest item outside of Janis Joplin, though, still remains in Texas. If you can imagine a hundred and thirty pound cross-eyed albino with long fleecy hair playing some of the gutsiest fluid blues guitar you have ever heard, then enter Johnny Winter. At 16, Bloomfield called him the best white blues guitarist he had ever heard.
Winter reportedly received $600,000 for signing with Columbia Records in 1969. That was a huge sum of money for that time.
The band started at midnight; played a little over an hour.
You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now > Mean Mistreater
I Can’t Stand It*
Tobacco Road*
Tell the Truth*
Johnny B. Goode*
* with Edgar Winter
Johnny Winter Woodstock
Mama, Talk to Your Daughter
The band starts minus brother Edgar Winter. JB Lenoir wrote the song. The song would appear on Winter’s third album and the third Columbia Records release for Winter in 1969!
Mama, mama please talk to your daughter ’bout me Mama, mama please talk to your daughter ’bout me She made me love her and I ain’t gonna leave her be
You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk) You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk) You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk) You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk) She made me love her and I ain’t gonna leave her be
I ain’t gonna stand no quitting and she won’t have me aroun I ain’t gonna stand no quitting and she won’t have me around If she got me a ride, she’d be six feet in the ground
You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk) You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk) You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk) You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk) She made me love her and I ain’t gonna leave her be
You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk) You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk) You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk) You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk) She made me love her and I ain’t gonna leave her be
Johnny Winter Woodstock
Leland Mississippi Blues
Written by Johnny Winter, the song appeared on The Progressive Blues Experiment, his first album. Austin’s Sonobeat Records label originally issued the album in 1968, but when Winter signed to Columbia Records, the rights were sold to Imperial Records who reissued the album in 1969.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, uh huh, oh yeah I’ve been in Texas, I’ve been on the run I’ve been in Texas, I’ve been on the run I’m going to Leland, Mississippi, mama You all know that’s where I come from Right down on the Delta, man
Well, I’m alone, baby, I’m free free from my home Well, I’m alone, I’m free from my home You know I was sittin’ right down people On my daddy’s cotton farm
Come hear, baby, let your long hair down Ah, come here, woman, let your hair down I want you to love me with a feeling ‘Cause I’m Mississippi bound
The best woman, the best waist in town The best woman, the best waist in town Oh yeah
You’ll never keep me woman ‘Cause I have a travellin’ mind
Johnny Winter Woodstock
Mean Town Blues
Johnny Winter wrote it and it also appeared on his first Columbia Records album.
Lord my mother she done told me and my Father done told me Grandfather told me too My mother she done told me And my father done told me Grandfather told me too It’s a mean old town to live in by yourself
Yeah, I worked for a dollar could not Save a lousy Could not save a dime You know I worked for a dollar could not Save a lousy Could not save a dime Ain’t nobody worried, man, ain’t nobody crying
Everybody’s got a hand out trying to Get a hold on Trying to get some of my cash Everybody’s got a hand out trying to Get a hold on Trying to get some of my cash Smiling great big smiles, man, keep on talking trash
You know I packed up my suitcase and I Moved on down the Hit that lonesome road You know I packed up my suitcase and I Moved on down the Hit that lonesome road I’m still trying to make it, man, when the day is done
Johnny Winter Woodstock
You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now > Mean Mistreater
BB King and Joe Josea wrote You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now and had been on his 1960 album. Written by Jimmie Gordon, “Mean Mistreater” appeared on Winter’s second album. My Kind of Blues.
Oh, baby you done lost your good thing now Oh, baby you done lost your good thing now Well the way I used to love you baby Baby that’s the way I hate you now You used to say that you loved me But baby I believe you’ve changed your mind You used to say that you loved me But baby I believe you’ve changed your mind Well I don’t blame you baby Because you ain’t what you used to be Let me love you just one more time Yes let me love you just one more time anyway Oh, let me love you, let me love you, let me love you One more time baby Let me love you just one more time anyway Oh you can’t quit me now baby Because you didn’t mean me no good anyway Well you know where I’m from baby So please don’t try to mistreat me Yes you know where I’m from baby So please don’t try to mistreat me Yes because I’ll make your mother a present Baby of you and your casket too Oh you once said you loved me And you would do anything I said Oh you once said you loved me baby And you would do anything I said Oh but the way you treat me now baby I just soon rather be dead Oh, baby you done lost your good thing now Oh, baby you done lost your good thing now The way I used to love you Baby that’s the way I hate you now
She’s a mean mistreater And she don’t mean me no good She’s a mean mistreater,
And the woman she don’t mean me no good Well you know I don’t blame you baby, I’d be the same way if I could
She’s a mean mistreater, And the girl mistreats me all the time She’s a mean mistreater,
And the little girl mistreats me all the time Well you know you just wants to quit me darlin’, Because you got that on your mind
Well you remember that Monday mornin’ that I knocked up, up on your door You had the nerve to tell me that you didn’t love, me no more Can’t you remember baby, When I knocked up on your door
Well you know you had the nerve to tell me that you, Didn’t love me no more Well you know it’s lonesome you know it’s lonesome, When you sleepin’, all by yourself
The little girl that you lovin’, She lovin’ someone else And it’s lonesome, Sleepin’ by yourself
Well you know the little woman that you involved with now, She is loving someone else
Johnny Winter Woodstock
I Can’t Stand It
Brother Edgar Winter now joined Johnny, who explained that they’d just finished cutting their next album in Nashville and that I Can’t Stand It was one of the tracks from it. That album would be Second Winter, but the song does not appear on it and will not appear on any album until Columbia Legacy released Winter’s complete Woodstock set as part of the The Woodstock Experiencealbum in 2009.
Johnny Winter Woodstock
Tobacco Road
By John Loudermilk the song has become especially associated with Edgar more than Johnny. In fact, Edgar is the vocalist on this song.
I was born in a trunk Mama died and my daddy got drunk Let me hear two dying crows In the middle of tobacco road
Grew up in a rusty shack All I owned was hanging on my back Only lord knows how I loved tobacco road
But it’s hard, hard the only life I’ve ever known But the lord knows how I loved Tobacco road
Gonna leave, get a job With the help of the treesome god Save my money, get rich enough Bring it back to tobacco road
Bring dynamite and a crane Blow it up and start all over again Build a town be proud to show Give the name tobacco road
‘Cause it’s hard, hard the only life I’ve ever known I despise you cause you’re filthy But I love you cause you’re home
Bring dynamite and a crane Blow it up start all over again Build a town be proud to know This place called tobacco road
‘Cause it’s hard, hard the only life I’ve ever known But the lord knows how I love Tobacco road
Johnny Winter Woodstock
Tell the Truth
By Lowman Pauling wrote it and it was supposed to be included on Winter’s next album, but wasn’t released until a 2004 re-release.
Tell the truth Tell the truth You know you can make me do what you want me to
Tell the truth Tell the truth You know you can make me do what you want me to
Loving you, feelings started But, I’m goin’ to stop it
If I could, I surely would I would roll up around you If I thought it would do any good
Tell the truth Tell the truth Well you know you can make me do what you want me to
Loving you, feelings started But, I’m goin’ to stop it
If I could, I surely would I would roll up around you If I thought it would do any good
Why don’t you tell the truth Tell the truth Well you know you can make me do what you want me to
Whooah, come on, tell the truth, now (Tell the truth) And I know, I know, baby (Tell the truth) Every day, every night (Tell the truth) Whooah, hold me tight (Tell the truth) And I know, and I know (Tell the truth) You ‘oughta, you ‘oughta (Tell the truth) Stop Lying (Tell the truth) Stop Lying, whooh (Tell the truth) Whoooh (Tell the truth) Whoooh (Tell the truth) Oh baby (Tell the truth) Now tell the truth (Tell the truth) Every day of your life, tell the truth little girl (Tell the truth) What about that man you were with last night (Tell the truth) I want to know (Tell the truth) Come on baby (Tell the truth) Hey hey (Tell the truth) Every day of your life, you ‘oughta (Tell the truth)
Johnny Winter Woodstock
Johnny B. Goode
The crowd called for more and Johnny Winter gives Chuck Berry’s classic composition a great treatment. It did appear on Second Winter.
Deep down Louisiana close to New Orleans, Way back up in the woods among the evergreens… There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood, Where lived a country boy name of Johnny B. Goode… He never ever learned to read or write so well, But he could play the guitar like ringing a bell.
Go Go Go Johnny Go Go Go Johnny B. Goode
He use to carry his guitar in a gunny sack And sit beneath the trees by the railroad track. Oh, the engineers used to see him sitting in the shade, Playing to the rhythm that the drivers made. People passing by would stop and say Oh my that little country boy could play
His mama told him someday he would be a man, And he would be the leader of a big old band. Many people coming from miles around To hear him play his music when the sun go down Maybe someday his name would be in lights Saying Johnny B. Goode tonight.
It was still Sunday and The Band came on around 10 PM. The weekend’s most persistent rumor had been that Bob Dylan would show up. He didn’t, of course, but having having The Band was a close and satisfactory second.
They would play for about 55 minutes.
Personnel:
Robbie Robertson: guitar, vocals
Garth Hudson: organ, keyboard, saxophone
Richard Manuel: piano
Rick Danko: bass, vocals
Levon Helm: drums, mandolin
Setlist:
Chest Fever
Don’t Do It
Tears of Rage
We Can Talk
Long Black Veil
Don’t You Tell Henry
Ain’t No More Cane on the Brazos
This Wheel’s on Fire
I Shall Be Released
The Weight
Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever
The Band Woodstock
Chest Fever
Written by Robbie Robertson and featuring Garth Brooks on organ at the start, the song was one of several in the set that had been on their only album to that point, Music From Big Pink which Capital Records had released on July 1, 1968. Bob Dylan had done the cover artwork.
I know she’s a tracker Any style that would back her They say she’s a chooser But I just can’t refuse her She was just there, but then she can’t be here no more
And as my mind unweaves I feel the freeze down in my knees But just before she leaves, she receives
She’s been down in the dunes And she’s dealt with the goons Now she drinks from a bitter cup I’m trying to get her to give it up She was just here, I fear she can’t be there no more
And as my mind unweaves I feel the freeze down in my knees But just before she leaves, she receives
It’s long, long when she’s gone I get weary holding on Now I’m coldly fading fast I don’t think I’m gonna last very much longer
“She’s stoned, ” said the Swede And the moon calf agreed But I’m like a viper in shock With my eyes in the clock She was just there somewhere and here I am again
And as my mind unweaves I feel the freeze down in my knees But just before she leaves, she receives
The Band Woodstock
Don’t Do It
A Band cover. Motown composers Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland, and Edward Holland originally wrote and intended the for the Supremes, but eventually reassigned to Marvin Gaye to record and he had a hit with it.
From Wikipedia: “The Band recorded the song numerous times under the title “Don’t Do It”. Different versions, both studio and live, appear on several of their albums and box sets, including the 1972 live release Rock of Ages.
” “Don’t Do It” was the encore performed by The Band in Martin Scorsese‘s 1976 concert film The Last Waltz, though it was featured first in the film. Although it was not included on the 1978 soundtrack album, the track was included in the 2002 box set edition of The Last Waltz soundtrack.
“The version of “Don’t Do It” from Rock of Ages was issued as a single, reaching #34 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the autumn of 1972; the track was the second – following “Up on Cripple Creek” – and final Top 40 single for the Band. Billboard called this version a “dynamite dance treatment.”
Baby, don’t you do it, don’t do it Don’t you break my heart, please don’t do it Don’t you break my heart
I sacrifice to make you happy Get nothin’ for myself Now you wanna leave me For the love of someone else My pride is all gone, whether right or wrong I need you, baby, girl, just keep on keepin’ on And you know I tried to do my best Well, I try to do my best Don’t do it Don’t you break my heart Please don’t do it Don’t you break my heart
My biggest mistake was lovin’ you too much And lettin’ you know Now you’ve got me where you want me You won’t let me go, no, no My heart was made of glass Well, then you’ll surely see Heartaches and misery Girl, you’ve been causin’ me Well, I’ve been tryin’ to do my best Well, I try to do my best
Don’t do it Don’t you break my heart Please don’t do it Don’t you break my heart
Go down to the river and there I’ll be I’m gonna jump in, girl ‘Cause you don’t care about me Open up your eyes, can’t you see I love you? Open up your heart, girl Can’t you see I need you? Oh baby, don’t do it, do it, do it Don’t you break my heart Please don’t do it Don’t you break my heart
My biggest mistake was loving you too much
And letting you know How you got me where you want me You won’t let me go, no, no If my heart was made of glass Well, then you’ll surely see How much heartaches and misery You’ve been causin’ me Well, I’ve been tryin’ to do my best Well, I try to do my best
Don’t do it Don’t you break my heart Please, don’t do it Don’t you break my heart
The Band Woodstock
Tears of Rage
Also from Big Pink, Bob Dylan and Richard Manual co-wrote the tune.
We carried you in our arms On Independence Day And now you’d put us all aside And put us on our way Oh, what dear daughter ‘neath the sun Could treat a father so To wait upon him hand and foot Yet always tell him, “No?”
Tears of rage, tears of grief Why must I always be the thief? Come to me now, you know We’re so alone And life is brief,
It was all very, very painless When you ran out to receive All that false instruction Which we never could believe And now the heart is filled with gold As if it was a purse But oh, what kind of love is this Which goes from bad to worse?
Tears of rage, tears of grief Why must I always be the thief? Come to me now, you know We’re so alone And life is brief,
We pointed you, the way to go And scratched your name in sand Though you just thought that it was nothing more Than a place for you to stand Now I want you to know that while you watched Discovered that there was no one true That I myself was among the ones
Who thought It was just a childish thing to do
Tears of rage, tears of grief Why am I always the one who must be the thief? Come to me now, you know We’re so alone And life is brief
The Band Woodstock
A trickle…
Chip Monch pauses the performance for a few moments because there is an PA issue. A bit of “Testing one two” and Chip again asks those on the light tower to get down and to stay away from the tower’s guy wires as “there is [an electrical] trickle in that area.”
The interruption lasted a few minutes.
We Can Talk
The third song from Big Pink. From Wikipedia:“We Can Talk” shows unrelated snippets of conversation between members of The Band. Levon Helm wrote in his autobiography“It’s a funny song that really captures the way we spoke to one another; lots of outrageous rhymes and corny puns.”
We can talk about it now It’s that same old riddle, only starts from the middle I’d fix it but I don’t know how Well, we could try to reason, but you might think it’s treason One voice for all Echoing (echoing) echoing along the hall Don’t give up on father’s clock We can talk about it now
Come, let me show you how To keep the wheels turnin’ you got to keep the engine churnin’ Well, did ya ever milk a cow? (Milk a cow?) Well, I had the chance one day but I was all dressed up for Sunday! Everybody, everywhere: Do you really care? Well, then pick up your heads and walk We can talk about it now
It seems to me we’ve been holding something Underneath our tongues I’m afraid if you ever got a pat on the back It would likely burst your lungs Whoa, stop me, if I should sound kinda Down in the mouth But I’d rather be burned in Canada Than to freeze here in the South!
Pulling that eternal plough We got to find a sharper blade, or have a new one made Rest awhile and cool your brow Don’t ya see, there’s no need to slave, the whip is in the grave No salt, no trance It’s safe now (you know it’s safe) to take a backward glance Because the grains have turned to chow! We can talk about it now, We can talk about it now
Ten years ago, on a cool dark night There was someone killed ‘neath the town hall light There were few at the scene and they all did agree That the man who ran looked a lot like me
The judge said, “son, what is your alibi?” “If you were somewhere else, then you won’t have to die” I spoke not a word, though it meant my life I had been in the arms of my best friend’s wife
She walks these hills in a long black veil She visits my grave where the night winds wail Nobody knows, no, and nobody sees Nobody knows but me
The scaffold was high and eternity neared She stood in the crowd and shed not a tear But sometimes at night when the cold wind moans In a long black veil, she cries over my bones
She walks these hills in a long black veil She visits my grave where the night winds wail Nobody knows, no, and nobody sees Nobody knows but me
The Band Woodstock
Don’t You Tell Henry
Someone calls out “Where’s Dylan!” Another says, “We want Dylan.” He’s not there of course, but some of his songs were. Like this one. A Dylan UK site has a lot to say about the song.
Yes, I went down to the river on a Saturday morn I was lookin’ around just to see who’s born I spied a little chicken down on his knees I went up and yelled to him “Please, please, please!”
He said, “Don’t ya tell Henry Don’t ya tell Henry Don’t ya tell Henry Apple’s got your fly”
Yes, I went down to the beanery at half past twelve I was lookin’ around just to see myself I looked high and low, I looked above Well who did I see but the one I love
She said, “Don’t ya tell Henry Don’t ya tell Henry Don’t ya tell Henry Apple’s got your fly”
Yeah, I went down to the whorehouse the other night I was lookin’ around, I was outta sight I looked at a horse and I saw a mule I looked for a cow and I saw me a few They said, “Don’t ya tell Henry Don’t ya tell Henry Don’t ya tell Henry Apple’s got your fly”
Yeah, I went down to the river on a Saturday morn A-lookin’ around just to see who was born I saw a little chicken down on his knees I went up and yelled to him “Please, please, please!” He said, “Don’t ya tell Henry Don’t ya tell Henry Don’t ya tell Henry Apple’s got your fly”
The Band Woodstock
Ain’t No More Cane on the Brazos
Ain’t No More… is a cover of a traditional work song and sometimes attributed to Huddie Ledbetter (Lead Belly), but no references can be found for that idea, nor can ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax find that connection.
Ain’t no more cane on the Brazos Oh, oh, oh-oh It’s all been ground down to molasses Oh, oh, oh-oh
You shoulda been on the river in ninteen-and-ten Oh, oh, oh-oh They were driving the women just like they drove the men Oh, oh, oh-oh
Go down old Hannah, don’cha rise no more Oh, oh, oh-oh Don’t you rise up til Judgment Day is for sure Oh, oh, oh-oh
Ain’t no more cane on the Brazos Oh, oh, oh-oh It’s all been ground down to molasses Oh, oh, oh-oh
Captain, don’t you do me like you done poor old Shine Oh, oh, oh-oh Well ya drove that bully ’till he went stone blind Oh, oh, oh-oh
Wake up on a lifetime, hold up your own head Oh, oh, oh-oh Well you may get a pardon and then you might drop dead Oh, oh, oh-oh
Ain’t no more cane on the Brazos Oh, oh, oh-oh It’s all been ground down to molasses Oh, oh, oh-oh
The Band Woodstock
This Wheel’s on Fire
Fifth song from Big Pink and another Dylan collaboration, this with Rick Danko.
If your memory serves you well We’re going to meet again and wait So I’m going to unpack all my things And sit before it gets too late No man alive will come to you With another tale to tell And you know that we shall meet again If your memory serves you well
This wheel’s on fire, rolling down the road Best notify my next of kin This wheel shall explode
If your memory serves you well, I was going to confiscate your lace And wrap it up in a sailor’s knot and hide it in your case If I knew for sure that it was yours, and it was oh so hard to tell And you know that we shall meet again if your memory serves you well
This wheel’s on fire, rolling down the road Best notify my next of kin This wheel shall explode
If your memory serves you well, you’ll remember that you’re the one Who called on them to call on me to get you your favours done And after every plan had failed and there was nothing more to tell And you know that we shall meet again if your memory serves you well
This wheel’s on fire, rolling down the road Best notify my next of kin This wheel shall explode
The Band Woodstock
I Shall Be Released
Sixth song from Big Pink and another Dylan song.
They say everything can be replaced They say every distance is not near So I remember every face Of every man who put me here
I see my light come shining From the west down to the east Any day now, any day now I shall be released
They say every man needs protection They say that every man must fall Yet I swear I see my reflection Somewhere so high above this wall
I see my light come shining From the west down to the east Any day now, any day now I shall be released
Now, yonder stands a man in this lonely crowd A man who swears he’s not to blame All day long I hear him shouting so loud Just crying out that he was framed
I see my light come shining From the west down to the east Any day now, any day now I shall be released
The Band Woodstock
The Weight
The seventh from Big Pink and arguably the best and best known song by the Band, a Robbie Robertson composition.
I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin’ about half past dead I just need some place where I can lay my head “Hey, mister, can you tell me where a man might find a bed?” He just grinned and shook my hand, “no” was all he said
Take a load off Fanny Take a load for free Take a load off Fanny And (and) (and) you put the load right on me (You put the load right on me)
I picked up my bag, I went lookin’ for a place to hide When I saw Carmen and the Devil walkin’ side by side I said, “Hey, Carmen, come on let’s go downtown” She said, “I gotta go but my friend can stick around”
Take a load off Fanny Take a load for free Take a load off Fanny And (and) (and) you put the load right on me (You put the load right on me)
Go down, Miss Moses, there’s nothin’ you can say It’s just ol’ Luke and Luke’s waitin’ on the Judgment Day “Well, Luke, my friend, what about young Anna Lee?” He said, “Do me a favor, son, won’tcha stay and keep Anna Lee company?”
Take a load off Fanny Take a load for free Take a load off Fanny And (and) (and) you put the load right on me (You put the load right on me)
Crazy Chester followed me and he caught me in the fog He said, “I will fix your rack if you’ll take Jack, my dog” I said, “Wait a minute, Chester, you know I’m a peaceful man” He said, “That’s okay, boy, won’t you feed him when you can”
Yeah, take a load off Fanny Take a load for free Take a load off Fanny And (and) (and) you put the load right on me (You put the load right on me)
Catch a cannon ball now to take me down the line My bag is sinkin’ low and I do believe it’s time To get back to Miss Fanny, you know she’s the only one Who sent me here with her regards for everyone
Take a load off Fanny Take a load for free Take a load off Fanny And (and) (and) you put the load right on me (You put the load right on me)
The Band Woodstock
Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever
After Chip Monck says that he thinks the crowd will have to convince them and the crowd responding enthusiastically, The Band’s encore was another Motown-based song, “Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever.” a 1966 song written by Ivy Jo Hunter and Stevie Wonder and performed by the Four Tops
I remember yet before we met That every night and day I had to live the life of a lonely woman
I remember meeting you Discovering love can be so true When it’s shared by two instead of one
When you said you love me (when you said you love me) We could not be parted (we could not be parted) And I built my world around you (I built my world around you) I’m so thankful that I found you
And loving you is sweeter than ever (I ain’t never felt like this before) Loving you has made my life sweeter than ever, sweeter than ever
Each night I pray we’d never part For the love within my heart grows stronger From day to day
As best I can, and how I try To reassure and satisfy ‘Cause I’d be lost if you went away
‘Cause I really need you (really really need you) And I need for you to need me too (If you don’t go breaking my heart) I have built my world around you (I have built my world around you) Baby I’m so thankful that I’ve found you
And loving you has made my life sweeter than ever before (I ain’t never felt like this before) And loving you has made my life sweeter than ever So much sweeter
That’s what loving you (loving you)
‘Cause I really love (really really love you) And I’m thankful that you love me too (Thankful that you love me too) I have built my world around you (I have built my world around you) I am truly glad, I am truly glad That loving you has made my life sweeter than ever (You don’t know how much this means to me) When I’m loving you Me, you, us
Sweeter than ever (tell me about it) Loving you has made my life sweeter than ever (You don’t know how much this means to me) I’m loving you, you made my life sweeter than ever (You’re sweeter than ever baby) Sweeter than ever (sweeter than ever) So much sweeter (sweeter than ever)
