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.
Anniversary, Music of the 60s

Los Angeles Whisky a Go Go

Leave a comment

Los Angeles Whisky a Go Go

Los Angeles Whisky a Go Go

The Los Angeles Whisky a Go Go opened on January 15, 1964 .

Rock and Roll was gaining main stream momentum. The Beatles were about to arrive with their British invaders in tow. There were few places to regularly hear rock and roll–recorded or live.

The LA Whisky a Go Go was not the first ‘a Go Go, but is now the most famous. Others had opened earlier in  Paris (1947),  Chicago (1958), and Washington, DC (1966). These first venues were discotheques, that is, they played recorded music.

According to the Whisky a Go Go’s site, The Whisky had to spell its name without the ‘e’ in whiskey because Los Angeles city zoning laws didn’t allow any club to be named after alcohols

Los Angeles Whisky a Go Go

Live music/Caged dancing

Johnny Rivers headlined LA’s Whisky a Go Go opening night with recorded music between sets.

The DJ (the club’s first was Joanie Labine) played records from a suspended booth and Joanie danced there during the songs. Her performance became so popular, that the club soon had other hanging platforms (“cages”) in which dancers performed.

The club quickly became famous for its music (rock ‘n’ roll), dancing (both  the go-go dancers and the patrons) and the Hollywood celebrities attracted to the club.

The Whisky played an important role in many musical careers, especially for bands based in southern California. The Byrds, Alice Cooper, Buffalo Springfield,  and Love were regulars, and The Doors were the house band for a while.

Whisky a Go Go

Los Angeles Whisky a Go Go

Complaints

Despite the popularity of the Whisky (or perhaps because of it popularity) and other Sunset Strip clubs, there were complaints about the noise, the gathering of young people, and traditional rock-phobia. LA officials passed a 10 PM curfew .

On November 12, 1966, fliers were distributed along the Strip inviting people to demonstrate later that day.

The Los Angeles Times reported that as many as 1,000  demonstrators, erupted in protest against the perceived repressive curfew laws.

And though the Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” is typically thought of as an anti-Vietnam War song, it’s a song written about those riots.

While the venue has had it’s ups and downs, the club continues today.

Los Angeles Whisky a Go Go
Anniversary, Music of the 60s

San Francisco Human Be In

1 Comment

San Francisco Human Be In

Turn on, tune in, and drop out.

San Francisco Human Be In
poster by artist Rick Griffin

 

On January 14, 1967 the San Francisco Human Be In was held in Golden Gate Park. It was a prelude to San Francisco’s Summer of Love, which made the Haight-Ashbury district a symbol of American counterculture and introduced the word “psychedelic” to suburbia.

San Francisco Be In
another poster

The San Francisco Human Be In exhibited the ideas of the 1960s counterculture: personal empowerment, cultural and political decentralization, communal living, ecological awareness, higher consciousness (with the aid of psychedelic drugs), acceptance of illicit drug use, and radical liberal political consciousness. The hippie movement developed out of disaffected student communities around San Francisco State and Berkeley and in San Francisco’s beat generation poets and jazz hipsters, who also combined a search for intuitive spontaneity with a rejection of “middle-class morality”. Allen Ginsberg personified the transition between the beat and hippie generations.

The San Francisco Oracle announced The San Francisco Human Be In on the cover of its fifth issue. The headline called it “A Gathering of the Tribes for a Human Be-In”.

A new California law banning the use of LSD that had come into effect on October 6, 1966 spurred the idea. The speakers at the rally included Timothy Leary in his first San Francisco appearance, who set the tone that afternoon with his famous phrase “Turn on, tune in, drop out,” Allen Ginsberg, who chanted mantras, and other counterculture gurus including comedian Dick Gregory, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Jerry Rubin.

Music was provided by several local bands including Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company and Quicksilver Messenger Service.

“Underground chemist” Owsley Stanley provided massive amounts of his “White Lightning” LSD, specially produced for the event, to the gathered masses.

San Francisco Human Be In

A great first-hand account from Rosie McGee [from: Brandelius, Jerilyn Lee, “Grateful Dead Family Album — p 40. New York: Warner Books, Inc., 1989.]

 “The Great Human Be-In” – afternoon concert…Best of all were the glorious free concerts in the Panhandle — a flatbed truck, makeshift electricity, food, wine, friends, sunshine, and some wonderful bands who hadn’t hit the big time yet. At first it seemed amazing that we knew by name so many of the hundreds gathered; but as the months went by, our awareness of a larger community grew until it peaked that fine day in January of 1967, the day of the tribal Stomp at the Polo Fields to be known as the “Human Be In.” We heard it through the grapevine, and a half dozen of us started early that morning to walk the couple of miles to the park. As we walked along Lincoln Avenue, we noticed other groups of neighbors walking in the same direction. More joined in off side streets, and by the time we turned north into the park, we were a large, laughing group. A half mile later, we were a horde and as the Be-In took shape through the day, we were awed and thrilled as the Polo Fields filled up with more than 20,000 people. It was a day of innonence and hope; and in many ways the last moments of naivete for a neighborhood that had just gone public.

And, of course, the Dead recorded their performance: Morning Dew ; Viola Lee Blues ; Good Morning Little Schoolgirl >>>

Grateful Dead at the 1967 Human Be-In

San Francisco Human Be In

San Francisco Human Be In

Beatles, Music of the 60s

Beatles Yellow Submarine album

Leave a comment

Beatles Yellow Submarine album

Beatles Yellow Submarine album

The Beatles released their Yellow Submarine album in the US on January 13, 1969. The album contained six Beatle songs on Side one and instrumental pieces from the movie on Side 2:

Side one:

  1. Yellow Submarine
  2. Only a Northern Song
  3. All Together Now
  4. Hey Bulldog
  5. It’s All Too Much
  6. All You Need Is Love
 Side 2:

  1. Pepperland
  2. Sea of Time
  3. Sea of Holes
  4. Sea of Monsters
  5. March of the Meanies
  6. Pepperland Laid Waste
  7. Yellow Submarine in Pepperland

They had previously released “Yellow Submarine” and “All You Need Is Love,” as singles.

My sense is that to the average Beatle fan, the soundtrack, however interesting the songs may be, does not count as a “real” Beatle album. It’s more an interesting collection that reminds us of the much more enjoyable movie.

Beatles Yellow Submarine album

Album songs

Beatles Yellow Submarine album

Some information about the songs from Beatle.com:

Only a Northern Song has been described as Harrison’s “personal denunciation of the Beatles’ music publishing business.”

Hey Bulldog…written primarily by John Lennon(credited to Lennon–McCartney). It is one of the few Beatles’ songs to revolve around a piano riff.

It’s All Too Much was written and sung by George Harrison. It was originally recorded in 1967, shortly before the release of Sgt. Pepper’s. It had been slated to appear on the next release, Magical Mystery Tour, but it was pushed back.

Richie Unterberger of AllMusic wrote: What is here…is a good enough reason for owning the record, though nothing rates it as anything near a high-priority purchase. The album would have been far better value if it had been released as a four-song EP (an idea the Beatles even considered at one point, with the addition of a bonus track in “Across the Universe” but ultimately discarded).

A Rolling Stone magazine article about the song says that, “The Beatles’ most beloved kiddie song was written for — who else? — Ringo. As McCartney explained, “I thought, with Ringo being so good with children — a knockabout-uncle type — it might not be a bad idea for him to have a children’s song.” Years later, “Yellow Submarine” remains the gateway drug that turns little children into Beatle fans, with that cheery singalong chorus. It inspired the Beatles’ 1968 animated film, as well as Starr’s unofficial sequel on Abbey Road, “Octopus’ Garden.”

Beatles Yellow Submarine album