Category Archives: Music of the 60s

Birthdays, Music of the 60s, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Sweetwater Fred Herrera

2 Comments

Sweetwater Fred Herrera

Sweetwater Fred Herrera
Sweetwater Fred Herrera second from right

Woodstock’s opening band

Sweetwater is often described as the opening band at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. That is true as long as we exclude Richie Havens, Daniel Ben Zebulon, and Paul “Deano” Williams preceding performance.

Sweetwater deserves the title considering the path their lead singer Nancy Nevins and then the rest of band endured shortly after the famed Woodstock.

Sweetwater Fred Herrera

Jay Walker and the Pedestrians

Sweetwater evolved out of a band called Jay Walker and the Pedestrians, a band that bassist Robert ‘Bob’ Barboza  had formed in Rhode Island. Barboza relocated to Los Angeles and reformed his band there.

In June 1967, Pedestrians Alex Del Zoppo (keyboards) , Albert Moore (flute), Pete Cobian (percussion), and Andy Friend (guitar) along with newcomer Nevins (vocals) left Jay Walker and started a new band. It remained unnamed for a bit, but after Moore told Nevins that some stream water he’d just quenched his thirst with wasn’t bad at all, it was sweetwater, they realized they’d found a name.

Sweetwater Fred Herrera

Fred Herrera

Sweetwater Fred Herrera
Fred Herrera to the right of Nancy Nevins

Fred Herrera had not been in Jay Walker and the Pedestrians.  Del Zoppo knew him from playing other gigs and knew him to be a good rock bassist. Rock was the direction that Sweetwater wanted to head in.

Keep in mind that by 1967 the definition of rock had expanded to include the influences from all areas of music. They included idea of jazz jamming along with the feel of free wheeling rock. The odd thing about the band was that it had no guitarist. 

The band became one of the main opening groups for many other suddenly famous bands like the Doors, the Grateful Dead, and Johnny Winter. They joined those bands and many more on the festival circuit.

TV had realized that this “new music” sold well–that is, advertisers would buy time on shows if they featured such bands.  On June 10, 1969, Sweetwater played on the Los Angeles TV show, “New Sound.” Unusual for these new shows, Sweetwater played live. Herrera recalls, “They actually recorded us video and audio live at the same time, which was never done at that time. All of the other TV shows we did in those day either took the feed directly from the album which we then lip-synched to, or recorded the band offstage beforehand. Then they would come in and ‘stage’ us according to the music to allow for correct camera angles. It was refreshing that they didn’t care what we did. They just turned on the camera and said, ‘Go!’ It was a lot different than just about everything else on TV that was going down then.“

Sweetwater Fred Herrera

Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Bruce Blatman was Sweetwater’s manager. He suggested the band add another festival to their 1969 summer itinerary: “an intimate, no-pressure music and art fair itn ehcountryside of upstate New York called Woodstock.”  (see Horror stories).

Keyboardist Alex Del Zoppo was in the Air Force Reserves at the time. When facing the reality of fighting in Viet Nam, many young men of the time joined a reserved branch of the US military. Though the length of service was longer, the chance of deployment was far less. Del Zoppo told Blatman that his 2-week summer training started Sunday that weekend. Blatman said they’d be the opening act on Saturday afternoon, Del Zoppo could get to JFK Airport in plenty of time to fly to California and his base on time for Sunday.

We know that didn’t quite work out as planned. The word plan that Woodstock weekend had a very loose meaning.

Sweetwater Fred Herrera

Aftermath

Sweetwater Fred Herrera

Del Zoppo got in trouble but also eventually got out of the reserves without having to serve. The point was moot since on December 8, 1969 a drunk driver t-boned the car that lead singer Nancy Nevins sat in. She was in a coma for two weeks and awoke with damaged vocal cords.

Sweetwater did not make the 1970 movie’s soundtrack or the movie itself. It became a footnote, a bar bet: what Woodstock band had no guitarist?

The appetite for Woodstock has never gone away. Surprisingly to many, there are many gen-Xers who arrive in Bethel, NY at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts seeking inspiration. Some of Sweetwater’s Woodstock music is now available . Though three of the original members have died, the others, including a recovered Nevins, continue to play music.

Herrera’s credits include playing or producing Grupo Fuego (1993), The Exies (2000 and 2003), and Father John Misty (2015).

Sweetwater Fred Herrera

2019 Bethel Woods opening

Alex Del Zoppo (right), Fred Herrera (top left) speaking w Joyce Mitchel (in charge of administration of the Woodstock Ventures offices) at the opening.

When Bethel Woods Center for the Arts had its 2019 season’s grand opening, Fred Herrera was there to speak and feel the love so many expressed to him for his and the band’s presence 50 years earlier. Those at the opening found him to be a thankful and gracious speaker.

Thank you.

Sweetwater Fred Herrera
Music et al, Music of the 60s

February 19 Music et al

Leave a comment

February 19 Music et al

Rock Venues

February 19, 1966: Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin performed at the Fillmore Auditorium. (see March 8, 1968)

February 19 Music et al

Billboard Hot 100

February 19 Music et al

February 19 – 25, 1966 – “Lightnin’ Strikes” by Lou Christie #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

From Songfacts dot com: The song was released as a single on Christmas day 1965…. Speaking about the song in the September 16, 2005 issue of Goldmine magazine, Lou Christie said: “And they didn’t even like it! (Label head) Lenny Shear threw it in the wastebasket and said it was a piece of crap! So we put up our own money to get it played around the country, and it started taking off once it got played. Three months later, Lenny was taking a picture with me for Billboard magazine, handing me a gold record. I loved that.”

February 19 Music et al

Billboard #1 album

February 19 – March 4, 1966 — Herb Alpert’s Whipped Cream and Other Delights is the Billboard #1 album. It is one of the most famous album covers of all time. (see Whipped Cream for more)

February 19 Music et al

February 19 Music et al

The Beatles

Paul McCartney and Wings

February 19, 1972: Paul McCartney released “Give Ireland Back to the Irish.” BBC immediately banned the song.

From Songfacts dot com: Music and political historian Alexander Baron writes: “In March 1972, the British music weekly Melody Maker published a 2 page article called “CENSORED” which reported on a number of songs that had been banned – that the BBC, the official British government broadcasting body, had refused to play. Surprisingly, most of the article was devoted to a Paul McCartney composition, “Give Ireland Back To The Irish.”

The song was written as a protest against Bloody Sunday, a notorious incident which took place in Northern Ireland on January 30 that year in which British troops shot dead a number of protesters. At the time of the Melody Maker article the song was #23 in the paper’s chart and #19 in the BBC chart but was banned as “unsuitable for broadcasting.” The DJ Alan Freeman refused even to mention the song directly, and in his rundown of the Radio One chart referred to it only as “a song by a group called Wings.” (see Mar 23) (also see Sunday Bloody Sunday for more about the event)

February 19 Music et al

George Harrison

February 19, 1981:  George Harrison was ordered to pay ABKCO Music the sum of $587,000 for “subconscious plagiarism” between his song, “My Sweet Lord” and the Chiffons “He’s So Fine.”

From Song Facts dot com: In 1976, Bright Tunes Music sued Harrison because this sounded too much like the 1963 Chiffons hit “He’s So Fine.” Bright Tunes was controlled by The Tokens, who set it up when they formed the production company that recorded “He’s So Fine” – they owned the publishing rights to the song.

During the convoluted court case, Harrison explained how he composed the song: He said that in December 1969, he was playing a show in Copenhagen, Denmark, with the group Delaney and Bonnie, whose piano player was Billy Preston (who contributed to some Beatles recordings). Harrison said that he started writing the song after a press conference when he slipped away and started playing some guitar chords around the words “Hallelujah” and “Hare Krishna.” He then brought the song to the band, who helped him work it out as he came up with lyrics. When he returned to London, Harrison worked on Billy Preston’s album Encouraging Words. They recorded the song for the album, which was released on Apple Records later in 1970, and Harrison filed a copyright application for the melody, words and harmony of the song. Preston’s version remained an album cut, and it was Harrison’s single that was the huge hit and provoked the lawsuit, which was filed on February 10, 1971, while the song was still on the chart.

In further testimony, Harrison claimed he got the idea for “My Sweet Lord” from The Edwin Hawkins Singers’ “Oh Happy Day,” not “He’s So Fine.” (see May 11)

February 19 Music et al
Chiffons He’s So Fine

George Harrison My Sweet Lord

He’s So Fine versus My Sweet Lord

February 19 Music et al
Music et al, Music of the 60s, Today in history

February 16 Music et al

Leave a comment

February 16 Music et al

Beatles/Ed Sullivan

February 16, 1964: second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. This time in Miami. An estimated 70 million viewers watch that night Set list: She Loves You > That Boy > All My Loving; I Saw Her Standing There > With Love From Me To You > I Want To Hold Your Hand [Sullivan also refers to upcoming Clay/Liston fight in Miami] (next Beatles, see Feb 18) (see Ed Sullivan Meets the Beatles Again for more)

February 16 Music et al

Beatles/India

February 16 Music et al
L – R: Pattie Harrison, John, Mike Love, Maharishi, George, Mia Farrow, Donovan, Paul, Jane Asher, Cynthia Lennon

February 16, 1968: from the Beatles Bible site: John and Cynthia Lennon, and George and Pattie Harrison arrived in Delhi, India at 8:15 am, having flown overnight from London Airport.

They were met in Delhi by The Beatles’ assistant Mal Evans (who had arrived there on 14 February) and Mia Farrow.

Evans had organised three taxis to take the group from Delhi to Rishikesh, where they were to study meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It was a journey of some 150 miles.

Cynthia Lennon later said that “Our arrival at Delhi went very much unheralded. We were bundled unmolested and travel-weary into three battered, ancient Indian taxis without all the usual fuss and frantic rush. It was wonderfully refreshing and stress free. After alighting from the taxis, we were shown to our living quarters. They consisted of a number of stone-built bungalows, set in groups along a rough road. Flowers and shrubs surrounded them and were carefully tended by an Indian gardener whose work speed was dead slow, and stop.”   (see Apr 12)

Paul McCartney, Jane Asher, Ringo and wife Maureen will arrive four days later.

February 16 Music et al

Tony Sheridan

February 16, 2013: Tony Sheridan died. Sheridan, the British guitarist, singer and songwriter, was the star on the Beatles’ first commercial recording.

The Beatles (then a quintet of John, Paul, George, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Pete Best) met Sheridan in Hamburg. In 1961 Bert Kaempfert offered to record Sheridan with them as his back up band. They would record nine songs altogether over the next two years.

Mr. Sheridan sang seven of them — “My Bonnie,” “The Saints,” “Why (Can’t You Love Me Again),” “Nobody’s Child,” “Take Out Some Insurance On Me, Baby,” “Sweet Georgia Brown” and “Swanee River.” The other two were purely Beatles performances: “Cry for a Shadow,” an instrumental by Lennon and Harrison, and “Ain’t She Sweet,” with Lennon singing.

It was the single “My Bonnie” that led Beatle fans in Liverpool to request the song which eventually led record store owner Brian Epstein to visit the Cavern venue and see what all the fuss was about.

Tony Sheridan continued as a musician the rest of his life–his connection to the Beatles opened doors for him. He died in Germany where he lived. He was 72. (next Beatles, see March 21, 2016) 

Reference: NYT article/obit

February 16 Music et al