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 of the 60s, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Bluesman Paul Vaughn Butterfield

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Bluesman Paul Vaughn Butterfield

December 17, 1942 – May 4, 1987
Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield Blues Band

Remembering Paul Butterfield

Paul Butterfield was born in Chicago on December 17, 1942. He initially started playing the flute, but the magnetism of Chicago’s blues pulled him in and the harmonica became his instrument.

Butterfield began performing with fellow blues enthusiasts Nick Gravenites and Elvin Bishop and with the addition of a few others, including Michael Bloomfield, formed the Butterfield Blues Band.

Bluesman Paul Vaughn Butterfield

Newport 1965

Bluesman Paul Vaughn Butterfield
Paul Butterfield Blues Band at Newport

It was at that famous Newport Folk Festival of 1965, that Butterfield first met fame. Well-received by many there (electric blues was not what some came to hear), particularly by a young guy named Bob Dylan, Dylan invited some of the band to back him on part of his performance. Electric Dylan! Definitely not what some came to hear.

Like Paul Revere, Paul Butterfield helped deliver the big news: Dylan ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more:

Bluesman Paul Vaughn Butterfield

Vinyl Butterfield

Butterfield released seven albums with Elektra Records and later four albums for manager Albert Grossman’s Bearsville Records.

He also performed at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair on Monday morning after Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and before Sha Na Na. Quite a placement! Here’s a great video from that performance:

Solo

The Blues band ended and he went solo. In 1976 he was part of the amazing line-up for The Band’s Last Waltz.

Bluesman Paul Vaughn Butterfield

Sessions

Over the next few years, Butterfield mostly confined himself to session work. He began to play more gigs in Los Angeles during the early ’80s, and eventually relocated there permanently; he also toured on a limited basis during the mid-’80s, and in 1986 released his final album, The Legendary Paul Butterfield Rides Again.

Paul Butterfield died on May 4, 1987.

R & R H of F

In 2015 he was (finally) inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (with band members Mike Bloomfield, Elvin Bishop, Mark Naftalin, Jerome Arnold, Billy Davenport and Sam Lay) (New York Times obituary)

Bluesman Paul Vaughn Butterfield
Peace Love Art and Activism, Today in history, Vietnam

Tinker v Des Moines 1969

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Tinker v Des Moines 1969

1969. It was a time of empowerment. Blacks. Women. College students. The disabled. LGBTQ. Migrant laborers.  Native Americans. Immigrants.

And high school students.

Tinker v Des Moines

Tinker v Des Moines 1969

December 16, 1965

On December 11, 1965, high school student Christopher Eckhardt held a meeting with a group of students at his Des Moines, Iowa home. The group decided to wear black armbands in school on December 16 as both a Vietnam War protest and in support of Robert F Kennedy’s proposed extension of a truce the Viet Cong proposed truce on Christmas Eve. The student would keep wearing the bands until January 1, 1966.

Principals of the Des Moines schools learned of the plan and on December 14, 1965, adopted a policy that required any student wearing an armband in school to remove it. Any student who refused would be suspended until they agreed to comply.

On December 16, 1965, Chrisopher Eckhardt (16), Mary Beth Tinker (13) and her siblings, Hope (11) and Paul (8) wore black armbands. Christopher and Mary were suspended. The two younger students were not.  Mary Beth’s brother, John Tinker (15), was suspended for doing the same on the following day.

Tinker v DesMoines
Mary and John Tinker
Tinker v Des Moines 1969

Echhardt explains why

Christopher Eckhardt: I wore the black armband over a camel-colored jacket. The captain of the football team attempted to rip it off. I turned myself in to the principal’s office where the vice principal asked if ‘I wanted a busted nose.’ He said seniors wouldn’t like the armband. Tears welled up in my eyes because I was afraid of violence. He called my mom to get her to ask me to take the armband off. Then he called a school counselor in. The counselor asked if I wanted to go to college, and said that colleges didn’t accept protesters. She said I would probably need to look for a new high school if I didn’t take the armband off.

Tinker v Des Moines 1969

The beginning

The Iowa Civil Liberties Union approached the families and the ACLU agreed to help the family with a lawsuit. The Tinker and Eckhardts filed suit in U.S. District Court which upheld the board’s decision.

Tinker v Des Moines

Continues

A tie vote in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit meant that the U.S. District Court’s decision continued to stand.

Continues still…

The Tinkers and Eckhardts to appealed to the Supreme Court. The case was argued before the court on November 12, 1968.

Decided

On February 24, 1969 the US Supreme Court sided with the Tinkers in  Tinker v. Des Moines. Justice Abe Fortas delivered the opinion of the 7-2 majority. The Supreme Court held that the armbands represented pure speech that is entirely separate from the actions or conduct of those participating in it. The Court also held that the students did not lose their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech when they stepped onto school property. In order to justify the suppression of speech, the school officials must be able to prove that the conduct in question would “materially and substantially interfere” with the operation of the school. In this case, the school district’s actions evidently stemmed from a fear of possible disruption rather than any actual interference. (Tinker article) [Oyez article]

Tinker v Des Moines Independent Community School District
Mary Beth Tinker, and her brother, John Tinker, stand next to locker 319 in 2013 at Harding Elementary School in Des Moines
Tinker v Des Moines 1969

John & Yoko

Appropriately, on December 16, 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono put up eleven billboards in major cities worldwide with the slogan: War Is Over!

Tinker v Des Moines 1969
John & Yoko’s billboard
Tinker v Des Moines 1969

John F. Tinker Foundation

Today, the  mission of the John F. Tinker Foundation is to promote awareness and understanding of the First Amendment rights of students and teachers, and to facilitate civil conversation about controversial social issues.

Here is a link to a 2019 Smithsonian Magazine article entitled The Young Anti-War Activists Who Fought for Free Speech at School

Tinker v Des Moines 1969

Today in history

Many Motown Grapevines

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Many Motown Grapevines

Marvin Gaye

December 14, 1968

There are many Motown Grapevines, but Marvin Gaye’s Grapevine is considered the best version. It hit #1 on December 14, 1968. It stayed there until January 21, 1969, ushering in the last year of that turbulent decade.

Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, two of Motown Records biggest writers, wrote “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” in 1966.

Gaye’s recorded his single in early 1967, but Motown did not release it until October 1968. In the meantime…

First Motown Grapevine

Smokey Robinson & the Miracles released a version on their 1968 album, Special Occasion.

Many Motown Grapevines

Gladys Knight

Gladys Knight & the Pips released it as a single in September 1967 and which went to number two in the Billboard chart.

Many Motown Grapevines

And back to Marvin Gaye

Many Motown Grapevines
Marvin Gaye’s Grapevine

Marvin Gaye’s Grapevine was placed on his 1968 album In the Groove and released as a single in October 1968. It was one of the  biggest hit single on the Motown label (Tamla).

#81

Rolling Stone magazine placed Marvin Gaye’s Grapevine at #81 on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Marvin Gaye’s Grapevine was also inducted to the Grammy Hall of Fame for “historical, artistic and significant” value.

Not at Woodstock

Creedence Clearwater Revival did not perform the song at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, but did have a hit with it on their 1970 Cosmo’s Factory album.

Many Motown Grapevines

Commercial grapevines

California raisins

Inevitably, commercialism jumped on the Motown Grapevines bandwagon and we had the California raisins…

Levi’s jeans

…or Levi’s “Launderette” commercial featuring Nick Kamen.

And it continues in various forms to match the times:

Zapp and Roger

Mashed grapevine

Or simply mashed with another song as with Queen Latifah in Paper.

Whatever the year, “I Heard It through the Grapevine” is one hell of a song. Happy Anniversary to all the Motown Grapevines.

Songfact.com has a interesting piece about the songs varied history.

Many Motown Grapevines