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.
Birthdays, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Dick Halligan

Leave a comment

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

4 Comments

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
Beatles

Beatles Brian Epstein Dies

2 Comments

Beatles Brian Epstein Dies

August 27, 1967

As a teenage Beatle fan, the name Brian Epstein seemed to hover around the band’s news, but who he was, what he was, what he did was not nearly as important as waiting for their next song or album and hearing about them.

Beatles Brian Epstein Dies

The Beginning of Brian

Brian Samuel Epstein was born on September 19, 1934. The Epstein family owned a furniture store and next to it was The North End Road Music Store [NEMS]. The Epsteins later expanded and took over NEMS.

Brian started to work at the family furniture store when he was 16 and became a good salesman. He wanted to be an actor, though, and convinced his parents to let him join the Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts to learn acting.

His aspirations did not meet the skills necessary and he returned to the family business.

Beatles Brian Epstein Dies

Brian Meets the Beatles

Epstein’s father put Brian in charge of a new NEMS store. The store carried pianos, radios AND it had records. The store’s record department was so successful that another NEMS store opened again with Brian in charge.

Epstein’s store also sold Mersey Beat, a magazine that covered the local music scene. He himself became interested in that scene and began to contribute a column to it in August 1961.

Fortune smiled on this scene as Epstein’s latest store was just around the corner from a local venue called The Cavern. He heard that a band called the Beatles were very popular and played there regularly.

On November 9, 1961 he decided to see what all their fans’ and the band’s youthful ruckus was all about.

From Epstein’s autobiography: “I was immediately struck by their music, their beat, and their sense of humour on stage – and, even afterwards, when I met them, I was struck again by their personal charm. And it was there that, really, it all started.”

Beatles Brian Epstein Dies

Brian Beatles Come Together

Beatles and Epstein agreed in principle that he would manage them a month later and on January 24, 1962 the five of them signed a contract. Well, technically, all but Brian signed. He reportedly said later he did not sign because, “…if they ever want to tear it up, they can hold me but I can’t hold them.”

Beatles Brian Epstein Dies 1967

Beatles Brian Epstein Dies

Brian + Beatles = Beatlemania

During 1962, Epstein’s guidance, perseverance, and unwavering belief in their talent pushed the Beatles through the media’s gauntlet toward success.

  • They signed a record contract on June 4.
  • Ringo replaced Pete Best on August 18
  • The four recorded together for the first time on September 4.
  • They released their first single (“Love Me Do”) on October 5.
  • January 11, 1963 they released “Please Please Me”
  • “Please Please Me”#1 in the UK on February 22, 1963
  • In November the newspapers used the word Beatlemania.
Beatles Brian Epstein Dies

Brian Epstein Dies

From the Epstein site: During the time Brian managed the Beatles…their career trajectory was meteoric. There was not a single reversal of fortune in the entire 5 3/4 years. Once he died the Beatles became embroiled in a tangle of conflicts, money squabbles and personal jealousies. They had lost the one man who united them and who was capable of resolving their differences.

…Brian [had taken]…care of every aspect of the Beatles’ career. When he died the difference was immediately felt. While the Beatles continued to make magnificent music, their business affairs rapidly crumbled. Within two years of Brian’s death the end of the Beatles was clearly in sight. By 1970 it was all over.

Beatles Brian Epstein Dies