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, Music et al, Music of the 60s

Sullivan Repeats Beatles

Leave a comment

Sullivan Repeats Beatles

February 16, 1964

A week ago I noted the anniversary of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan Show, the first time that the Beatles appeared live on American television.

The Beatles had endured a snow storm after their first Sullivan appearance and had to take a train to Washington, DC for their first American concert (The Beatles Meet Washington) on February 11. They flew back to NYC the next day to appear at Carnegie Hall.

The next day, they flew down to Miami. After the miserable weather of New York and Washington, Florida’s weather was a welcome respite.

There, they appeared on Ed Sullivan again. Again live, but this time at the Deauville Hotel where they were staying.

Sullivan Repeats Beatles

Second Sullivan

From the Beatles Bible site: One week after their record-breaking debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Beatles made their second live appearance.

A rehearsal took place at 2 pm, which was filmed but not broadcast.

The performance took place at The Beatles’ Miami hotel, the Deauville, from 8pm-9pm, in front of an audience of 2,600. CBS had given out 3,500, and police had to calm angry ticket holders who were denied entry.

Sullivan Repeats Beatles

Tech-ups

There were some tech hiccups at the start. Paul’s mic isn’t turned up enough and John’s was set too low, but all recover and the Beatles, who’ve likely had to deal with far more serious issues, completed the three songs.

Remarkably, given the ratings success of their appearance on 9 February, The Beatles did not top the bill this time; Mitzi Gaynor was the headliner. Also on the bill was Myron Cohen, and boxers Joe Louis and Sonny Liston  were both in the audience at the Deauville.

Sullivan Repeats Beatles

Set-list

The Beatles performed six songs: She Loves You, This Boy, All My Loving, I Saw Her Standing There, From Me To You and I Want To Hold Your Hand.

The show was watched by an estimated 70 million people in 22,445,000 homes, and was repeated on 20 September 1964 at 8 pm. After filming the hotel’s owner, Maurice Lansberg, gave a party for the performers and crew who worked on the show; the food included lobster, beef, chicken and fish.

Sullivan Repeats Beatles
Birthdays, Music et al, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Santana Bassist David Brown

29 Comments

Santana Bassist David Brown

Remembering and appreciating
February 15, 1947 – September 4, 2000
Bassist for Santana band: 1967 – 71 and 1974 – 76

Santana Bassist David Brown

Santana Bassist David Brown

Daly City, California

David grew up in Daly City, California.

According to a Ben Fong-Torres piece in Rolling Stone magazine from December 7, 1972,  David Brown, who’d gone to public and private school in San Francisco and played bass at night with Latin jazz bands and at clubs behind touring groups like the Four Tops, was walking up Grant Ave., in North Beach, when he heard some music from a small club. He stepped in, sat in, and was approached by Stan Marcum, who would become Santana’s manager. 

From that same article, David Brown is quoted that early in the band’s development they found that “We didn’t like the music too repetitious, the way Butterfield or other blues bands were playing…so we got into improvisation and we’d find the drums in there more of the time. Eventually, we just sat back and said let them do their thing.

Woodstock

Brown played with  Santana at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in 1969 and on several other dates and albums.

While most of us listen enthralled to Carlos Santana’s lead guitar on Soul Sacrifice (and deservedly so), for David Brown’s birthday celebration, let’s listen to the bass. Pretty good!

Though best known as part of Santana, David Brown also played in Boz Scaggs band on three of Scaggs’s albums: Moments, Boz Scaggs and Band, and My Time.

Here is his credit listing from AllMusic.com

David Brown

Santana Bassist David BrownIn 1998, he was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Santana. All the members of the band speak, except Brown.

David Brown died in 2000 due to liver and kidney failure. Be sure to read the several comments below, especially  Beachdog67’s. A wonderful and personal memory.

Santana Bassist David Brown

Anniversary, Beatles, Music et al

Beatles Meet Washington

3 Comments

Beatles Meet Washington

February 11, 1964
The Beatles Meet Washington
poster for Washington, DC concert. The first US Beatle concert performance.
Beatles Meet Washington

Snowstorm cancels flight

A snowstorm had cancelled their flight, so the Beatles took a train to Washington DC and made their live concert debut in the US at the Washington Coliseum. Over 350 police surrounded the stage to try and control the 8,000 plus screaming fans. One police officer who found the noise so loud stuck a bullet in each ear as ear plugs. The Beatles had to stop three times and turn Ringo’s drum kit around and re-position their microphones so that they faced a different part of the audience. The set list: ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, ‘From Me to You’, ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, ‘This Boy’, ‘All My Loving’, ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’, ‘Please Please Me’, ‘She Loves You’, ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’, ‘Twist and Shout’, and ‘Long Tall Sally’.

Beatles Meet Washington

George Harrison remembers

George Harrison summed up his experience this way: That night, we were absolutely pelted by the fuckin’ things. They don’t have soft jelly babies there; they have hard jelly beans. To make matters worse, we were on a circular stage, so they hit us from all sides. Imagine waves of rock-hard little bullets raining down on your from the sky. It’s a bit dangerous, you know, ’cause if a jelly bean, travelling about 50 miles an hour through the air, hits you in the eye, you’re finished. You’re blind aren’t you? We’ve never liked people throwing stuff like that. We don’t mind them throwing streamers, but jelly beans are a bit dangerous, you see! Every now and again, one would hit a string on my guitar and plonk off a bad note as I was trying to play. (from The Beatles Off The Record, Keith Badman)

Beatles Meet Washington

Paul McCartney remembers

In 2010, Paul McCartney remembered, We’d seen a lot of British stars come back from America with their tails between their legs. We made a promise to ourselves to not go until we had a No. 1. We were so excited to be madly popular in America, which was to us the Holy Grail because every shred of music we ever loved came from there. It was euphoric, and now we were heading to Washington on the train, which was very glamorous. And to cap it off, there was that beautiful snow. (Washington Post article)

Beatles Meet Washington

John Lennon remembers

John Lennon’s memory of the reception following was a discomforting one: People were sort of touching us as we walked past, that kind of thing. Wherever we went we were supposed to be not normal and we were supposed to put up with all sorts of shit from lord mayors and their wives and be touched and pawed like A Hard Day’s Night only a million more times. At the American Embassy, the British Embassy in Washington, or wherever it was, some bloody animal cut Ringo’s hair, in the middle of… I walked out of that. Swearing at all of them and I just left in the middle of it. (John Lennon, 1970. Lennon Remembers by Jann S Wenner)

You can listen to the whole concert with the YouTube link below:

Today, the concert site looks a bit different than in 1964.

The Beatles Meet Washington

Reference >>> Beatles Bible site

Beatles Meet Washington