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.
Music et al, Music of the 60s

Los Angeles Acid Test

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Los Angeles Acid Test

February 25, 1966
Los Angeles Acid Test
newspaper advertisement for the LA Acid Test

Today marks the anniversary of the Los Angeles Acid Test held at the Cinema Theatre. This event was not the first one.  That had happened on November 27, 1965 at Merry Prankster Ken Babbs’ place. There had been others between and  several more would follow until the “acid test graduation” in October.

Of course, the Prankster’s 1964 cross-country bus trip could be described as an acid test on wheels and some evidence exists that the graduation in October was not actually the last.

According to (the now defunct) lysergic.com “At least one final act of Pranksterism remained however, as material recently come to light details the proceedings of an Acid Test at Rice University in Houston, Texas as late as March 1967. This event took place during a hiatus in Kesey’s legal affairs, and allowed him and the full band of Pranksters to load up their “Further” bus for a journey along the same route as the one famously undertaken in 1964. The Rice University Acid Test may well have been the last one ever staged, and it has to my knowledge never been described before. To understand the significance of this final Prank, a bit of background may be necessary”

Los Angeles Acid Test

Back to LA

While the idea of recording events part of the Pranksters’ style (filming for example), the notion of an historically accurate portrait was not. The music, the sounds, the lighting, the people were all part of whatever happened. The present counted.

It is understandable, then, that little is known about this particular acid test.

We do know that the Grateful Dead played. These tests were where the Dead learned to spread their wings both as performers and musicians. You can click on the link below to hear this one, but as thorough as the Dead and Deadheads are about the particulars of each show, such information about this one is lacking. In fact, the Internet Archive site has the qualifying notation: reportedly this date, plus other ’66. 

The recording is magnificent and one wonders whether the atmosphere at an acid test would be conducive to such quality.

Los Angeles Acid Test
Birthdays, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Ubiquitous Nicky Hopkins

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Ubiquitous Nicky Hopkins

February 24, 1944 — September 6, 1994

Ubiquitous Nicky Hopkins

Ubiquitous Nicky Hopkins

Back of the album cover

I regularly mention in these blog entries that sitting and listening to my vinyl albums “back in the day” was different mainly because my constant companion were records’ album covers and inner sleeves. Perhaps following the lyrics. Perhaps looking at a personnel list. Song timings. Writers. Producers. There was a lot to look at and if the cover were a gatefold, well my goodness gracious! Twice as much for the money. Of course there was always the possibility of even more with a special insert–thank you Sgt Pepper for starting that trend!

One of the names that popped up in seemingly the most widely varied places was this pianist Nicky Hopkins.

Ubiquitous Nicky Hopkins

Misty Woodstock sunrise

When I stared at the Woodstock sunrise that long-ago August 17, 1969 and heard Grace Slick announce “The regular guys…and Nicky Hopkins”  I thought to myself, “There’s that guy again!”

Keyboardist Ubiquitous Nicky Hopkins
1969-08-17 Sunday sunrise at Woodstock (photo by J Shelley)

Nicky Hopkins

Nicky Hopkins had Crohn’s disease from childhood which plagued him in school and during his career, but his talent on the keyboard won him a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London.

He had early success playing with bands such as Screaming Lord Sutchand theSavages which became part of Cyril Davies‘s All Stars. The nascent Rolling Stones occasionally opened for the All Stars.

In May 1963, Crohn’s disease put him in hospital for 19 months during which Cyril Davies died.

Too weak to tour with a band, Nicky Hopkins became a piano sessions player. He would become the piano sessions player.

Rolling Stones keyboardist

He is perhaps best known for his work with the Rolling Stones–that’s him in the intro sound above with the vocals removed. He worked with Led Zeppelin. The Kinks. The Who. He was in the Jeff Beck Group. The New Riders of the Purple Sage. Steve Miller Band. Quicksilver Messenger Service. Jerry Garcia Band. His credit list at AllMusic feels endless.

He played electric piano on  the Beatles “Revolution.” He worked with Harry Nilsson

Jamming with Edward

In 1972, Nicky Hopkins, Ry Cooder, Mick Jagger, Bill Wyman, and Charlie Watts, Hopkins released the album Jamming with Edward! [Edward was Hopkins’s nickname]

Keyboardist Ubiquitous Nicky Hopkins

Hopkins died on 6 September 1994, at the age of 50, in Nashville from complications resulting from intestinal surgery.

In 2010, Random House published a biography, “And On Piano…Nicky Hopkins“, written by Julian Dawson.

Nicky Hopkins – Piano Blues Jam
Ubiquitous Nicky Hopkins

Birthdays, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

John Johnny Dawson Winter

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John Johnny Dawson Winter

February 23, 1944 — July 16, 2014

John Johnny Dawson Winter III was born in Beaumont, Texas. He and his brother, Edgar, both got into music early in their lives and after seeing  artists such Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and Bobby Bland, they fell in love with the blues.

John Johnny Dawson Winter

In 1968, Sonobeat Recording Company released Johnny Winter’s first album, The Progressive Blues Experiment. The small label’s limited distribution gave the album limited success. In December 1968, while at an Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield concert at the Fillmore East, Bloomfield  invited Winter on stage. His performance attracted the attention of Columbia Records executives in the audience and they soon signed him to “largest solo artist deal of it’s time.” (from Winter site)

Johnny Winter released his first Columbia record in 1969. He toured and performed at festival after festival, including…

Oh yea. He played at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, the festival that turned out to be THE festival of 1969 and, in the eyes of many still today, THE festival of all time.

Both photos by David Marks who assisted with sound at Woodstock.

Johnny Winter came on around midnight (Monday 18 August) after The Band and before Blood, Sweat and Tears. He played about an hour. His setlist was:

  1. Mama, Talk to Your Daughter
  2. Leland Mississippi Blues
  3. Mean Town Blues
  4. You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now > Mean Mistreater
  5. I Can’t Stand It (with Edgar)
  6. Tobacco Road (with Edgar)
  7. Tell the Truth (with Edgar)
  8. Johnny B. Goode

Here’s a YouTube of that performance (not a film).

John Johnny Dawson Winter

Johnny Winter

Most know of Alvin Lee and his Ten Years After performance of “Goin’ Home” from the 1970 movie or album. Johnny Winter did not get the Woodstock golden touch from either because he was not in or on either.

That did not stop his career. He successfully buffeted his way through rock and roll’s many Scylla and Charybdis with a long career.

He kept on making albums (Winter discography) and fulfilled a dream by playing with and producing Muddy Waters. Winter produced Waters’ , Hard Again (1977). He again worked with Waters on I’m Ready (1978). It was another Grammy winner.

Here’s a great video from a movie on Johnny Winter. It’s called Down and Dirty and was directed by Greg Olliver.

John Johnny Dawson Winter

Johnny Winter

John Johnny Dawson Winter III

Johnny Winter died in Zurich, Switzerland on July 16, 2014. Writing in Rolling Stone magazine ranked him #63 of the 100 greatest guitarists. The review said: Out of all the hopped-up Caucasians who turbocharged the blues in the late Sixties, Texas albino Johnny Winter was both the whitest and the fastest. Songs like his 1969 cover of “Highway 61 Revisited” are astonishing showpieces of his lightning-fast thumb-picked electric slide playing. Jimi Hendrix sought him out as a sideman, and Muddy Waters recognized his talent at first glance, becoming a friend and collaborator: “That guy up there onstage – I got to see him up close,” Waters later said. “He plays eight notes to my one!”

John Johnny Dawson Winter

Addendum: As you can see, this site is a dot info site, not a dot com. I do not accept advertising or any compensation for anything I post. I do not accept anything. Period.

With that in mind, in February 2020, I received an e-mail from a Joey Miller, who is an Editor at Jen Reviews.  In the e-mail he said that  they had “just published an updated, comprehensive guide on easy guitar riffs for beginners on our sister site, BeginnerGuitarHQ. It is completely free and you can find it here: https://beginnerguitarhq.com/easy-guitar-riffs/”

I don’t know if you’ll ever be as good as Johnny, but this free intro may be a start. Who knows?!

John Johnny Dawson Winter