Category Archives: Music of the 60s

Festivals, Music et al, Music of the 60s

1969 Gold Rush Festival

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1969 Gold Rush Festival

Country Weather – “Over and Over”
October 4, 1969
Amador, CA
1969 festival #46

1969 Gold Rush Festival

1969 Gold Rush Festival

Nice line-up

It’s October 1969 and you’ve heard all about that Woodstock Music and Art Fair back east, but you were on the west coast. You still are. You hear about a one-day festival coming up in Lake Amador, which is about 50 miles southeast of Sacramento. The price is $3 for the day. Very reasonable. You look at the line-up. Not bad. Not bad at all:

  • Santana
  • Taj Mahal
  • Bo Diddley
  • Albert Collins
  • Kaleidoscope
  • Al Wilson
  • Southwind
  • Ike and Tina Turner
  • Sons of Champlin
  • Country Weather
  • Linn
  • Cold Weather
  • County Daybreak
1969 Gold Rush Festival

Day in the Country

You knew about Santana before Woodstock and knew they were pretty good. There wasn’t anything like Ike and Tina Turner at Woodstock. Nor a Taj Mahal. Nor an Albert Collins.

This could be a very nice day in the country. It was.

If there is a criticism of Woodstock’s three-day lineup, it is that given the year and perspective, there were no black bands as such. There  certainly were black performers and there were bands playing blues and blues/rock, but there was no Taj Mahal. No Albert Collins. No Al Wilson. And certainly no Ike and Tina Turner. One must imagine the impact Tina would have had on 400,000 people that day, on the album that she surely would have been on, and the movie she absolutely appeared in.

1969 Gold Rush Festival

Robert Strand1969 Gold Rush Festival

Robert Strand promoted the event and 40,000 people showed up. He and his family were the financial backers.  Strand was the manager of Country Weather, one of the bands that appeared. He describes the event as a perfect combination of location, music, stage, PA, and weather. He recently assisted in a video report of the event. That video can be found on YouTube in four parts. Here is a link to Part 1. It is a wonderful story by someone who humbly tells the story with lots of detail. Lots of specific information.

Unfortunately, there is no video or recording of the event.

1969 Gold Rush Festival

Remembrances…

1969 Gold Rush Festival

James Hackworth was 22 years old when he and his wife and two kids attended the Gold Rush Festival. His memories include, “…people jammed the banks of Lake Amador to sunbathe, drink wine, smoke marijuana and listen to an all-star roster of musicians at the Gold Rush Rock Music Festival. Since the crowd was peaceful, Amador County sheriff’s deputies chose to ignore the drug use and skinny-dipping. …I remember looking over a sea of people and everyone was really happy and full of enthusiasm.  The music was the catalyst that drew us together. It really was a time of believing in love and peace for humanity.” [Messynesschic dot com site]

1969 Gold Rush Festival

Next 1969 festival: Internationales Essener Festival

Beatles, Music of the 60s

Beatles Abbey Road

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Beatles Abbey Road

Beatles Abbey Road

US release: October 1, 1969

What is the last Beatles album? The answer depends on whether one uses the actual times that Apple released the album or the actual time(s) that the Beatles recorded the album.

Beatles Abbey Road

Let It Be

Beatles Abbey Road

The US release of Let It Be was May 8, 1970. The Beatles actually recorded in before Abbey Road in February 1968, January – February 1969. Since most of Let It Be was recorded in January 1969, before the recording and release of  Abbey Road, some argue that Abbey Road should be considered the group’s final album and Let It Be the penultimate.

Famed producer Phil Spector is typically associated with the ablum, but his post-production embellishments so disappointed so many that in 2003 Apple re-released the album as Let It Be…Naked and removed  those embellishments that Paul McCartney in particular felt got in the way of the group’s original stripped down  sound goal.

Beatles Abbey Road

Beatles Abbey Road

Beatles Abbey Road

In any case, Abbey Road is a different album than Let It Be.  With Abbey Road, knowing it  was likely their last, the Beatles wanted to do what they did best and go into the studio with George Martin, not Phil Spector.

The album cover is, of course, iconic and no other site of an album cover has had so many visitors and pictures taken by those visitors. Also of note about the album cover is that it contains neither the album’s nor the group’s name.

Beatles Abbey Road

George Martin

As had almost always been the case, George Martin was a huge part of the album. He later said that his response to Paul McCartney’s request to produce it: “I was quite surprised when Paul rang me up and said, ‘We’re going to make another record, would you like to produce it?‘ and my immediate answer was, ‘Only if you let me produce it the way we used to.’ and he said, ‘We do want to do that’ and I said, ‘John included?’ and he said, ‘Yes, honestly.”

He also said, ““It was a very very happy album. Everybody worked frightfully well and that’s why I’m very fond of it.”

Beatles Abbey Road

Side Two

We all know side two.  “Here Comes the Sun” then “Because.” Then the medley. THE medley.

The Beatles had popularized the segue with Sgt Pepper’s. Not an album of singles, but songs that literally flowed one into the other.

Abbey Road’s “Medley” perfected that production technique with its 16 minutes melodious  jaunt:

  1. At 4:03, “You Never Give Me Your Money” is the longest of the eight songs. Even the song itself has different parts perhaps a foreshadowing of McCartneys 1971 Uncle Albert Admiral Halsey ,
  2. John Lennon’s “Sun King” follows with lots of backing harmonies.
  3. Lennon wrote toth “Mean Mr Mustard” (is the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi the “dirty old man”?) and 
  4. “Polythene Pam” during the Beatles 1968 visit to India.
  5.  Four McCartney songs follow:  “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window” (written after a fan entered McCartney’s residence via his bathroom window)
  6. “Golden Slumbers” (based onThomas Dekker’s 17th-century poem set to new music),
  7. “Carry That Weight” (reprising elements from “You Never Give Me Your Money”, and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and closing with
  8. “The End” which has the only Ringo drum solo.  Appropriately (and sadly)_, the song contains three guitar solos, too. McCartney, then Harrison,  then Lennon.

Though “Her Majesty” ends the entire album and is not part of the medley, it is the end of “The End” that is the true final message of the Beatles to us. One that has always been true whether before any of them were born, any of us were born, or after any of our progeny will be born:

“And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make”.

Beatles Abbey Road

Link to Beatles Bible site article on Abbey Road

Music et al, Music of the 60s, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Today in history

Time Peace Rascals Greatest Hits

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Time Peace Rascals Greatest Hits

Billboard #1 album
September 28 – October 4, 1968

Time Peace Rascals Greatest HitsWhat is your favorite Rascals song? Do you still call them the Young Rascals? Do you think of someplace in particular when you hear some of their songs?

Time Peace Rascals Greatest Hits
I Ain’t Gonna Eat My Heart Out Anymore

I don’t think I knew that the Rascals were a Jersey band, but I heard about that along the way. I didn’t know what blue-eyed soul meant. I do know I immediately liked their music. Rock and Roll.

The Rascals were: Felix Cavaliere (vocals, Hammond B3/keyboards), Eddie Brigati (vocals and percussion), Gene Cornish (guitar and vocals), and  Dino Danelli (drummer).

Eddie’s brother David Brigati was an original member of Joey Dee & The Starliters. The Starliters were another Jersey band (out of Lodi, NJ) who are most famous for their hit “Peppermint Twist.”

The Young Rascals began in Brigati and Danelli’s hometown of Garfield, NJ.

I knew neither the Starlighter nor Garfield connections. I did know I loved “I Ain’t Gonna Eat My Heart Out Anymore.”

Time Peace Rascals Greatest Hits

Hit single after hit single

I also knew that I loved each single that followed. These were compact hits. All under 3 minutes as were the typical timings then , but like all great pop hits, they packed it all in.

Good Lovin’ February 1966
You Better Run May 1966
Come On Up September 1966
I’ve Been Lonely Too Long January 1967
A Girl Like You July 1967
How Can I Be Sure August 1967
It’s Wonderful November 1967
A Beautiful Morning April 1968
Time Peace Rascals Greatest Hits

Especially, A Beautiful Morning

I had fallen in love again in 1966 and this time it lasted. It became a life-long romance that is still strong. Of course we went to our Senior Prom in 1968 and stayed up all night. We had a very early eyes-drooping breakfast at a classmate’s house.

The sun rose. I drove my love to her house.

I started my sister’s VW bug to finally head home after reluctantly ending our longest date ever. Of course I turned on the radio–AM only. And as I passed Cliffside Park High School and turned the corner off of Riverview Avenue onto Palisade Avenue what song came on?  A Beautiful Morning of course.

Time Peace Rascals Greatest Hits

Time Peace

Although I’d been purchasing albums for a few years already, I still counted my newspaper route’s pennies before I invested in another record whether it was a single or an album.

When I saw the Rascals had released a greatest hits album, it went on the list and after collecting the week’s payment from my route’s customers, I headed to the record section of my town’s Woolworth Store and purchased it.

It was a beautiful evening and the album still holds up well today.

Here is a video of the band. I was very impressed with Dino Danelli drumstick twirling and thought their clothes were pretty cool. I wonder what they thought. I wonder what their agent was thinking?

Time Peace Rascals Greatest Hits

Side One

  1. “I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore” (Pam Sawyer, Laurie Burton) – The Rascals’ first single (1965); also included on the 1966 album The Young Rascals
  2. “Good Lovin'” (Rudy Clark, Arthur Resnick)
    • The Rascals’ second single (1966), and first #1 hit; also included on The Young Rascals
  3. “You Better Run” (Felix Cavaliere, Eddie Brigati)
    • The A-side of the Rascals’ third single (1966); later included on the 1967 album Groovin’
  4. “Come On Up” (Cavaliere)
    • The Rascals’ fourth single (1966), also included on the 1967 album Collections
  5. “Mustang Sally” (Bonny Rice) Uncut version from The Young Rascals
  6. “Love is a Beautiful Thing” (Cavaliere, Brigati)
    • Originally released as the B-side of “You Better Run”; later included on Collections
  7. “In the Midnight Hour” (Wilson Pickett, Steve Cropper)
    • From The Young Rascals
Time Peace Rascals Greatest Hits

Side Two

  1. “(I’ve Been) Lonely Too Long” (Cavaliere)
    • Uncut version from Collections
  2. “Groovin'” (Cavaliere, Brigati)
    • The Rascals’ second #1 single (1967); also included on Groovin’
  3. “A Girl Like You” (Cavaliere, Brigati)
    • The follow-up Top 10 single to “Groovin'” (1967); also included on Groovin’
  4. “How Can I Be Sure” (Cavaliere, Brigati)
    • The Rascals’ third Top 10 single of 1967; also included on Groovin’
  5. “It’s Wonderful” (Cavaliere, Brigati)
    • LP version (without the “Mardi Gras” special effects coda) from the 1968 album Once Upon a Dream
  6. “Easy Rollin'” (Cavaliere, Brigati)
    • From Once Upon a Dream
  7. “A Beautiful Morning” (Cavaliere, Brigati)
    • Non-LP single from 1968
Time Peace Rascals Greatest Hits

Hall of Fame

The (Young) Rascals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

Time Peace Rascals Greatest Hits