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, Music et al, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

James Timothy Tim Hardin

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James Timothy Tim Hardin

Remembering Tim Hardin on his birthday
December 23, 1941  – December 29, 1980

James Timothy Tim Hardin

Bob Dylan’s oft-quoted statement that Tim Hardin was “the greatest songwriter alive” does little to enshrine Hardin other than for those he’s an already-enshrined singer-songwriter.

James Timothy Tim Hardin

Birthday

Born James Timothy Hardin in Eugene Oregon on December 23, 1941, he dropped out of high school and joined the Marines. In his words, the move was “a legal loophole that allows the prisoner to sign himself into another prison, from parental care to the military.”

After the Marines, Hardin arrived in Greenwich Village in 1961 to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He became part of the Village’s folk scene and became part of a circle that included Fred Neil, Mama Cass, Karen Dalton and John Sebastian.

Hardin is best known for his simple, romantic songs made popular by other artists, most notably, Bobby Darin’s “If I Were a Carpenter” and Rod Stewart’s “Reason to Believe.”

James Timothy Tim Hardin
Hardin’s first album: Tim Hardin 1

He released Tim Hardin 1, in July 1966. Lisa Law, Hog Farm member and photographer took the album’s cover photo and all the photos on the back.

His Woodstock story is that he was scheduled to be the very first performer. 500,000 stomach butterflies prevented that, but opened the door for Richie Haven’s famous start. Hardin did perform later after Bert Sommer and before Ravi Shankar.

James Timothy Tim Hardin

Post Woodstock

During the years following Woodstock, Hardin moved between England and the U.S.

Due to ongoing drug and health problems, as well as a scarcity of new material, he did not complete any albums after 1973. Hardin died of a drug overdose in 1980.

James Timothy Tim Hardin

He is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

James Timothy Tim Hardin

2013 Rolling Stone magazine article on Hardin.

2013 Telegraph article on Hardin.

James Timothy Tim Hardin
Black history, Desegregation, Music et al, Music of the 60s

Change Is Gonna Come

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Change Is Gonna Come

Released December 22, 1964

Change Is Gonna Come

No Change

In October 1963 Sam Cooke was touring Louisiana. He had made reservations at a Shreveport Holiday Inn, but when he, his wife, brother, and another arrived, hotel personnel told them that there were no vacancies. 

Cooke argued to no avail and left angrily. When they arrived at their next hotel, police arrested them for disturbing the peace. 

With the rebirth of the civil rights movement, Black entertainers faced a difficult decision: make a living by catering to the tastes of the majority white audience, most of whom weren’t thrilled with black activism, or musically/philosophically join the civil rights struggle and risk their livelihood.

Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ In the Wind” surprised Cooke. How could a white person write such a moving song? Cooke began to use the song in his shows.

Change Is Gonna Come

His own change

And Cooke also decided to write his own.

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By December 1963 he’d written “A Change is Gonna Come.” In February he performed it live on the Johnny Carson Show (no video available), but had not yet recorded it. Two days after Cooke’s performance on the Tonight Show, the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan.

Change Is Gonna Come

RCA holds off

Cooke did not record “A Change is Gonna Come” until November 1964 and RCA did not release it until December.

Sadly, Cooke had died eleven days before on December 11, 1964. (NYT article)

Change Is Gonna Come

Change Is Gonna Come

Anthem

It became one of the civil rights movement’s anthems and dozens of artists have since covered the song.

In 2005, representatives of the music industry and press voted the song number 12 in Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Cooke’s style and spirit continue to inspire many of today’s young artists. The New York Times Magazine recently described Leon Bridges as “The Second Coming of Sam Cooke.” (NYT article)

Change Is Gonna Come
Today in history, Vietnam

Hero James Tom Davis

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Hero James Tom Davis

James T Davis, Tom to his friends, was one of the first American to die in action in Vietnam. He was killed on December 22, 1961. He was 25 years old.

President Lyndon Johnson, in a speech made years later, referred to Specialist 4 James T. Davis as “…the first American…”  to die in Vietnam and now several web sites refer to Davis this way. Even this blog had listed Davis that way. I have corrected that misstatement.

As the Virtual Wall site points out, “The first hostile action losses were two members of an Army advisory team, Major Dale R Buis of Pender, Nevada and Master Sergeant Chester M Ovnany, of Copperas Cove, Texas, who were killed (along with two ARVN security guards) in a VC raid on the team’s Bien Hoa headquarters on 8 July 1959.

None of which, of course, detracts in any way from SP4 Davis’s service to our country.

 

Cryptologic Hero James T Davis
Cryptologist James T Davis in the field

In 1961, the word Vietnam in 1961 meant nothing to most Americans. Only government officials involved in the deployment of American forces, the families of those forces, and  the very few media reporters assigned to the story could find it on a map.

Hero James Tom Davis

Cryptologist

Davis was in the 3rd Radio Research Unit. It used electronics to pinpoint the enemy’s location. The Vietnamese terrain made that job difficult and cryptologists had to get in close.

Hero James Tom Davis
Davis with fellow Vietnamese soldiers

Traveling in country, a landmine struck the truck Davis was in.  Davis and the other Vietnamese soldiers with him fought the following attack, but all died. (for a fuller explanation of Davis’s job See The Story of a Cryptologic Hero for a fuller explanation of Davis’s job and his death)

Hero James Tom Davis

Davis Station

Hero James Tom Davis
Following his death, the base was renamed in his honor

 

In 2009, Billy Petross, a friend of Tom wrote: I first met James Davis when we were in school at Tennessee Tech. During the short time that I had the honor of knowing James we became very close friends. James was an avid fisherman and we spent many hours together on the Dale Hollow lake near his home in Livingston. He was a quite and unassuming person. I met James’ mother at their home in Livingston. She was a wonderful person. I recall that once she fixed a steak dinner for us after one of our fishing trips. I was aware that James dropped out of college and joined the army because I recall trying to persuade him to stay in college. The last time I saw James was once after he joined the army he came back to the Tech campus while on leave. I never saw him after that. The next time I heard anything about James was an article in the Orange County Register in California about a James Davis from Livingston, TN who was the first soldier killed in action in Vietnam. He was a good friend. Billy Pettross  June 3, 2009 

Hero James Tom Davis

The Wall

Other comments about James T Davis from The Wall site)

Cryptologic Hero James T Davis

Cryptologic Hero James T Davis
Grave site of Davis

James T Davis’s name appears on Panel 1E, Row 4 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Hero James Tom Davis