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.
Woodstock Music and Art Fair alum Bobby Colomby was born in New York City on December 20, 1944.
After Al Kooper and Steve Katz left the Blues Project in 1967, Colomby joined them to found the original Blood Sweat and Tears. In addition to Colomby, Kooper, and Katz, there was Jim Fielder, who had played with the Mothers of Invention and Buffalo Springfield. The band recruited horn players from New York jazz and studio bands.
The original Blood, Sweat and Tears
Drummer Bobby Wayne Colomby
Sessions drummer
Previously, Bobby Colomby had drummed behind folksingers Odetta and Eric Andersen. When Kooper left for a solo career, many felt that the band was over, but Colomby and Katz continued with the others (NYT BST)
After dozens of personnel changes in the group Colomby became (in the end) the de facto owner of the Blood Sweat & Tears name. He maintains ownership of the “Blood, Sweat & Tears” band name and, although he no longer plays with the band, he still manages and oversees a tribute band that performs under that name. (BST Home site)
For a few years in the late 1980s Bobby Colomby was a reporter for the television programs Entertainment Tonight and “The CBS Morning Program.”
In 2000, Colomby and Richard Marx created short-lived Signal 21 Records.
In a December 2016, BroadwayWorld.com article stated that Colomby is always looking to keep Blood Sweat & Tears more than a band playing its old hits. “I no longer want to target just one generation. That would be a mistake. With this updated version, I want this band to gain recognition with a wider audience. I want people of all ages to experience what this music has to offer.” And none of the original member are in the current line up. Why? “I think of this band like baseball’s Yankees. When you’re at a Yankee gameyou’re not going to see Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle or Lou Gehrig. What you do come to expect is a team of top-notch players upholding a tradition of winning. That’s the Yankee legacy. It what people expect from BS&T as well… brilliant musicians, singers, songs and arrangements.”
And if you say Alvin Lee or Ten Years After, most music fans will say, “I’m Goin’ Home” and think of his Woodstock Music and Art Fair performance.
Alvin Graham Barnes Lee
Home albatross
It likely surprised Lee that he garnered so much fame from that song’s particular performance. An albatross laying a golden egg. He was already a great guitarist when he began his trek along 1969’s festival trail. How many times did he play “I’m Going Home” before Woodstock that summer? Likely dozens of times.
Alvin Graham Barnes Lee
Busy Band
Here’s theie North American tour list just for June and July:
After the Fillmore East dates, they flew back to do a European tour and did 20 more concerts! By the way, they’d already had done 40 European and American before returning for the summer of 1969. (complete list)
And while they may not have played “I’m Goin’ Home” at every gig, surely many heard it again and long before the album cut or the movie scene appeared in 1970.
But its filming at Woodstock preserved it and sent it worldwide. His name was and will forever be associated with that song and that performance.
Alvin Graham Barnes Lee
Remembering Alvin Lee
Some facts about Lee:
he was originally influenced by his parent’s collection of jazz and blues records
began playing guitar age 13
by aged 15 his Jaybirds band formed the core of Ten Years After
moved to London and changed the band’s name to Ten Years After in 1966
the band’s performance at the Windsor Jazz & Blues Festival in 1967 led to their first recording contract.
October 1967. Release of Ten Years After, the band’s first album.
concert promoter Bill Graham who invited the band to tour America for the first time in the summer of 1968. Ten Years After would ultimately tour the USA 28 times in 7 years, more than any other U.K. band.
Ten Years After had great success, releasing ten albums together between 1967 and 1973.
after the breakup of Ten Years After, Lee continue to form bands and record music.
Lee’s overall musical output includes more than 20 albums.
neither Alvin Lee nor Ten Years After are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
On December 7, 1942, the Japanese attacked the American naval base Pearl Harbor. The US declared war on Japan the next day.
On December 11, 1942, Germany declared war on the United States.
Thus in a matter of three days we were at war in two theaters against Japan, Germany, and Italy.
On January 14, 1942, President Roosevelt issued proclamation No. 2537, requiring Italian, German, and Japanese aliens to register with the Department of Justice. (NYT article) and
On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Order 9066, which cleared the way for the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps.
Three categories
The government created three categories of Japanese internees: Nisei (native U.S. citizens of Japanese immigrant parents), Issei (Japanese immigrants), and Kibei (native U.S. citizens educated largely in Japan).
By June, the government had relocated more than 110,000 Japanese Americans to camps scattered around the country. During the war the government convicted 10 Americans of spying for Japan, None were of Japanese ancestry.
Fred Korematsu v United States
Korematsu Arrested
Japanese American Fred Korematsu, 23, refused to go to the the incarceration camp. He was arrested and convicted of defying the government’s order. He appealed.
On December 18, 1944, the US Supreme court, in Korematsu vs United States, sided with the governmentruling that the exclusion order was constitutional.
Aftermath
With today’s often bitter discussions about who is American and who we should allow in the United States, it might be interesting to look at the aftermath of Korematsu vs the United States.
32 years after Korematsu vs United States, on February 19, 1976, President Gerald Ford signed “An American Promise,” which formally rescinded 1942’s Executive Order 9066.
In it, Ford said that during our bicentennial as it was important to have “An honest reckoning…[that included]…a recognition of our national mistakes…”
The text contained no apology.
Fred Korematsu v United States
Commission on Wartime Relocation…
36 years after Korematsu vs United States, on July 31, 1980, President Carter signed the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians Act, which created a group to study Executive Order 9066. In 1983, the Commission concluded that the exclusion, expulsion, and incarceration of Japanese-Americans were not justified by military necessity and the decisions to do so were based on race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.
39 years afterwards, on November 10, 1983, the San Francisco Federal District Court reversed Korematsu’s 1942 conviction and ruled that the internment was not justified. (Court Overturns… (Korematsu)
44 years afterwards, on August 10, 1988 President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.It provided for a Presidential apology and appropriated $1.25 billion for reparations of $20,000 to most internees, evacuees, and others of Japanese ancestry who lost liberty or property,
46 years after Korematsu vs United States, October 9, 1990, the Japanese internment redress payment was issued at a Washington, D.C. ceremony to the Reverend Mamoru Eto, 107 years old. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh knelt as he made the presentation
Presidential Medal of Freedom
On January 15, 1998, President Clinton awarded Fred Korematsu the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In his remarks, Clinton said, “ “In the long history of our country’s constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls. Plessy, Brown, Parks … to that distinguished list, today we add the name of Fred Korematsu.”
55 years after Korematsu vs United States, on October 22, 1999, groundbreaking on construction of a national memorial to both Japanese-American soldiers and those sent to internment camps takes place in Washington, D.C.
On March 30, 2005, Fred Korematu died. (NYT article)
Tule Lake Segregation Center
Tulle Lake Center
62 years after Korematsu vs United States, on February 17, 2006, the government designated Tule Lake Segregation Center a National Historic Landmark.
Fred Korematsu v United States
Don Miyada
Don Miyada with high school diploma
70 years afterward, on June 19, 2014, Don Miyada, 89, joined Newport (CA) Harbor High School’s 2014 graduating class on stage and received a standing ovation. He became an inaugural member of the school’s hall of fame. Miyada had missed his 1942 graduation because he was locked in an internment camp. [Independent article]
Supreme Court Again
June 22, 2018: he Supreme Court upheld the latest version of President Donald Trump’s travel ban, but as it did so, the Court also took the opportunity to expressly reject Korematsu v. United States.
Finally, the dissent invokes Korematsu v. United States, 323 U. S. 214 (1944). Whatever rhetorical advantage the dissent may see in doing so, Korematsu has nothing to do with this case. The forcible relocation of U. S. citizens to concentration camps, solely and explicitly on the basis of race, is objectively unlawful and outside the scope of Presidential authority. [Vox report]
January 26, 2021: the city of La Mesa, California issued a proclamation to declare January 30 Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution. [Californian article]
Fred Korematsu v United States
What's so funny about peace, love, art, and activism?
