All posts by Woodstock Whisperer

Attended the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in 1969, became an educator for 35 years after graduation from college, and am retired now and often volunteer at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts which is on the site of that 1969 festival.
Beatles

John George David

1 Comment

John George David

September 29, 1967

John George David

George Harrison Sitar

The path that led the Beatles to transcendental meditation was mainly through George Harrison’s use of the sitar, the Indian instrument he used on Rubber Soul’s “Norwegian Wood.” Harrison used the sitar simply because he liked its sound, but he wanted to learn more.

Harrison first met master sitarist Ravi Shankar in June 1966 in the UK and Shankar gave a couple of lessons to Harrison.

On September 14, 1966, a Mr and Mrs Sam Wells, aka George and Pattie Harrison, flew to Mumbai.  The main reason was to take sitar lessons from Shankar. Because the sitting position was so difficult for Harrison, Shankar had a yoga instructor help him.

The following year Pattie attended a lecture on Transcendental Meditation at Caxton Hall, London, where she received her mantra.

John George David

see Beatles meet Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for more

Encouraged by Pattie Harrison’s interest and enthusiasm, on August 24, 1967  the Beatles met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at a lecture in London. All except Ringo and his wife Maureen (she had just given birth to to their son) attended. While there, they found out that he was giving a series of classes. They all decided to attend.

Of course if the Beatles found something interesting, fans followed suit. Ravi Shankar became part of the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and famously played in the rain at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair.

John George David

The Frost Programme

On September 29, 1967 John Lennon and George Harrison were guests on David Frost’s The Frost Programme.

Among the comments were:

Lennon: “Buddha was a groove, Jesus was all right.”

Harrison: “I believe in reincarnation. Life and death are still only relative to thought. I believe in rebirth. You keep coming back until you have got it straight. The ultimate thing is to manifest divinity, and become one with The Creator.”

Because viewers found that  program so interesting, John and George returned for another interview a week later.

Again, the subject of the 45-minute show was Transcendental Meditation. Lennon and Harrison answered questions that Frost and studio guests asked as well as from letters sent in. There was also a pro- and con- discussion about meditation.

John George David

No Mas Maharishi

The interest continued and on February 16, 1968 John and Cynthia Lennon, and George and Pattie Harrison flew to India for further study with the Maharishi. Paul McCartney, Jane Asher, Ringo and Maureen Starr followed on the 20th. The plan was to stay at least six weeks.

Ringo found the food there too difficult and he and Maureen returned to England less than two weeks after their arrival. Paul and Jane returned on March 20.

The stay for the others came to an abrupt end when one of the members of the Beatle party told John and George that the Maharishi was sexually inappropriate with one of the female guests.

John and George confronted the Yogi, but he didn’t take the accusation seriously which convinced John, George, and the others that he was guilty.

John left, but George, rather than return straightaway to England, went to visit Ravi Shankar and didn’t return until April 28.

The accusations were likely untrue.

John George David
Music et al, Music of the 60s, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Today in history

Time Peace Rascals Greatest Hits

1 Comment

Time Peace Rascals Greatest Hits

Billboard #1 album
September 28 – October 4, 1968

Time Peace Rascals Greatest HitsWhat is your favorite Rascals song? Do you still call them the Young Rascals? Do you think of someplace in particular when you hear some of their songs?

Time Peace Rascals Greatest Hits
I Ain’t Gonna Eat My Heart Out Anymore

I don’t think I knew that the Rascals were a Jersey band, but I heard about that along the way. I didn’t know what blue-eyed soul meant. I do know I immediately liked their music. Rock and Roll.

The Rascals were: Felix Cavaliere (vocals, Hammond B3/keyboards), Eddie Brigati (vocals and percussion), Gene Cornish (guitar and vocals), and  Dino Danelli (drummer).

Eddie’s brother David Brigati was an original member of Joey Dee & The Starliters. The Starliters were another Jersey band (out of Lodi, NJ) who are most famous for their hit “Peppermint Twist.”

The Young Rascals began in Brigati and Danelli’s hometown of Garfield, NJ.

I knew neither the Starlighter nor Garfield connections. I did know I loved “I Ain’t Gonna Eat My Heart Out Anymore.”

Time Peace Rascals Greatest Hits

Hit single after hit single

I also knew that I loved each single that followed. These were compact hits. All under 3 minutes as were the typical timings then , but like all great pop hits, they packed it all in.

Good Lovin’ February 1966
You Better Run May 1966
Come On Up September 1966
I’ve Been Lonely Too Long January 1967
A Girl Like You July 1967
How Can I Be Sure August 1967
It’s Wonderful November 1967
A Beautiful Morning April 1968
Time Peace Rascals Greatest Hits

Especially, A Beautiful Morning

I had fallen in love again in 1966 and this time it lasted. It became a life-long romance that is still strong. Of course we went to our Senior Prom in 1968 and stayed up all night. We had a very early eyes-drooping breakfast at a classmate’s house.

The sun rose. I drove my love to her house.

I started my sister’s VW bug to finally head home after reluctantly ending our longest date ever. Of course I turned on the radio–AM only. And as I passed Cliffside Park High School and turned the corner off of Riverview Avenue onto Palisade Avenue what song came on?  A Beautiful Morning of course.

Time Peace Rascals Greatest Hits

Time Peace

Although I’d been purchasing albums for a few years already, I still counted my newspaper route’s pennies before I invested in another record whether it was a single or an album.

When I saw the Rascals had released a greatest hits album, it went on the list and after collecting the week’s payment from my route’s customers, I headed to the record section of my town’s Woolworth Store and purchased it.

It was a beautiful evening and the album still holds up well today.

Here is a video of the band. I was very impressed with Dino Danelli drumstick twirling and thought their clothes were pretty cool. I wonder what they thought. I wonder what their agent was thinking?

Time Peace Rascals Greatest Hits

Side One

  1. “I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore” (Pam Sawyer, Laurie Burton) – The Rascals’ first single (1965); also included on the 1966 album The Young Rascals
  2. “Good Lovin'” (Rudy Clark, Arthur Resnick)
    • The Rascals’ second single (1966), and first #1 hit; also included on The Young Rascals
  3. “You Better Run” (Felix Cavaliere, Eddie Brigati)
    • The A-side of the Rascals’ third single (1966); later included on the 1967 album Groovin’
  4. “Come On Up” (Cavaliere)
    • The Rascals’ fourth single (1966), also included on the 1967 album Collections
  5. “Mustang Sally” (Bonny Rice) Uncut version from The Young Rascals
  6. “Love is a Beautiful Thing” (Cavaliere, Brigati)
    • Originally released as the B-side of “You Better Run”; later included on Collections
  7. “In the Midnight Hour” (Wilson Pickett, Steve Cropper)
    • From The Young Rascals
Time Peace Rascals Greatest Hits

Side Two

  1. “(I’ve Been) Lonely Too Long” (Cavaliere)
    • Uncut version from Collections
  2. “Groovin'” (Cavaliere, Brigati)
    • The Rascals’ second #1 single (1967); also included on Groovin’
  3. “A Girl Like You” (Cavaliere, Brigati)
    • The follow-up Top 10 single to “Groovin'” (1967); also included on Groovin’
  4. “How Can I Be Sure” (Cavaliere, Brigati)
    • The Rascals’ third Top 10 single of 1967; also included on Groovin’
  5. “It’s Wonderful” (Cavaliere, Brigati)
    • LP version (without the “Mardi Gras” special effects coda) from the 1968 album Once Upon a Dream
  6. “Easy Rollin'” (Cavaliere, Brigati)
    • From Once Upon a Dream
  7. “A Beautiful Morning” (Cavaliere, Brigati)
    • Non-LP single from 1968
Time Peace Rascals Greatest Hits

Hall of Fame

The (Young) Rascals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

Time Peace Rascals Greatest Hits
Environmental Issues, Today in history

Rachel Carson Silent Spring 1962

Leave a comment

Rachel Carson Silent Spring 1962

Published September 27, 1962

Rachel Carson Silent Spring 1962

Love of Nature

Rachel Carson grew up in rural Springdale, Pennsylvania.  She graduated from Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham University) in 1929, studied at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, and received her MA in zoology from Johns Hopkins University in 1932.

During the Depression, the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries hired her to write radio scripts. In 1936 she began a fifteen-year career in the federal service as a scientist and editor. She eventually became the Editor-in-Chief of all publications for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Rachel Carson Silent Spring 1962

Writer

Carson also wrote articles for outside publication: “Undersea” (1937, for the Atlantic Monthly), Under the Sea Wind (1941). In 1952 she published a prize-winning study of the ocean, The Sea Around Us and in 1955 The Edge of the Sea.

After leaving government service, she wrote articles designed to teach people about the wonder and beauty of the living world, including “Help Your Child to Wonder,” (1956) and “Our Ever-Changing Shore” (1957). The theme that ran through her writings was that humans are a part of not apart from Nature.

Rachel Carson Silent Spring 1962

Post WW  II

After World War II, the use of chemicals to solve problems became increasingly commonplace. The pharmaceutical sector of the economy grew as well as other chemical-related industries.

Because the immediate benefits of such widespread chemical use were so obviously beneficial, society and science ignored or at least did not consider its long-term impact.

On September 27, 1962 Houghton Mifflin published Silent Spring. In it Carson argued that the long-term impact of DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) was disastrous to the environment, particularly the egg production of birds in the wild.

Luckily for Carson, the bald eagle is the national bird of the United States and America’s sense of patriotism outweighed even the chemical industries outcries.

Rachel Carson Silent Spring 1962

Gradual ban

In 1967 Environmental Defense Fund [EDF] formed from a grass roots effort to ban DDT from Suffolk County, NY. The organization brought lawsuits against the government to “establish a citizen’s right to a clean environment.” By 1972, the EDF and other activist groups succeeded in securing a phase-out of DDT use in the United States.

Carson died on April 14, 1964 before she saw the initial successes of her environmental urgings. (NYT obit)

Rachel Carson Silent Spring 1962

Rachel Carson Silent Spring 1962