Category Archives: Music et al

John Yoko Two Virgins

John Yoko Two Virgins

Released November 11, 1968

John Yoko Two Virgins

Two Virgins

Whenever musicians release a record album, whatever the format, it is the album’s content that critics use to determine their review. Though it is making a comeback, vinyl record collectors bemoan the passing of the Vinyl Age both because they feel the sound quality digital formats fall below that of vinyl and album art needs more than the 5″ x 5″ that a CD allows or no album art at all when streaming to say nothing about the nothing one gets when downloading music.

John Yoko Two Virgins

Not the Beatles

John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Two Virgins album  was the exception. Most fans found the recording unlistenable, but had even more to say about the cover art: a black and white photo of John and Yoko standing casually naked against a plain white background.

John Yoko Two Virgins

John and Yoko had recorded the album on May 19, 1968 at Kenwood, Lennon’s former home in Weybridge. It featured the following tracks: Two Virgins No. 1; Together; Two Virgins (numbers 2-6); Two Virgins; Hushabye Hushabye; Two Virgins (numbers 7-10).

John Yoko Two Virgins

Album cover controversy

Capitol Records refused to release it not because of the avant garde sound, but the company feared negative reaction to the cover.

Tetragrammaton released Two Virgins in a brown paper sleeve on November 11, 1968.  The sleeve had a small opening through which Lennon and Ono’s faces peeked.

Quantities of the album were seized in several US jurisdictions, including 30,000 copies in New Jersey. Nonetheless, it managed to reach number 124 on the US charts.

John Yoko Two Virgins

Lennon’s views

Lennon described the picture of Ono and him as “two slightly overweight ex-junkies.” He spoke of the album’s recording in Jann S Wenner’s Rolling Stone magazine 1970 interview, Lennon Remembers:

When we got back from India, we were talking to each other on the phone. I called her [Ono] over, it was the middle of the night and Cyn  [Cynthia Lennon} was away, and I thought, ‘Well, now’s the time if I’m going to get to know her any more.’ She came to the house and I didn’t know what to do; so we went upstairs to my studio and I played her all the tapes that I’d made, all this far-out stuff, some comedy stuff, and some electronic music. There were very few people I could play those tapes to. She was suitably impressed, and then she said, ‘Well, let’s make one ourselves,’ so we made Two Virgins. It was midnight when we finished, and then we made love at dawn. It was very beautiful.

They took the self-portrait later in the year at Ringo Starr’s basement apartment in London, where Lennon and Ono were temporarily living. In the notes that came with the Anthology collection, Lennon said:

We were both a bit embarrassed when we peeled off for the picture, so I took it myself with a delayed-action shutter. The picture was to prove that we are not a couple of demented freaks, that we are not deformed in any way and that our minds are healthy. If we can make society accept these kind of things without offence, without sniggering, then we shall be achieving our purpose.

What we did purposely is not have a pretty photograph; not have it lighted so as we looked sexy or good. There were a couple of other takes from that session where we looked rather nice, hid the little bits that aren’t that beautiful; we looked good. We used the straightest, most unflattering picture just to show that we were human.

John Yoko Two Virgins

Yoko vs Beatle fans

It is a shibboleth among many Beatle fans to excoriate Yoko Ono as the cause of the Beatles demise. In my view, John was a powder keg looking for a liaght. Yoko was that spark.

If it wasn’t Yoko, it would have been someone else. Yoko brought forth even more artistic freedom than Bob Dylan had three years earlier.

Here is side one of Two Virgins. I suppose many of you are familiar with the first minute because that’s all you could get through the first (and last) time you listened.

It certainly is a long way from “Love Me Do” to “Two Virgins.” Those of us who stuck it out for at least the first side may have kept waiting for the song to start. Compared to side 1, the white album’s “Number 9” seems pop.

And perhaps that’s what it’s all about. Stretch the boundaries of familiarity so that what is unapproachable today becomes familiar tomorrow…or next year.

John Yoko Two Virgins

Drummer Greg Duke Dewey

Drummer Greg Duke Dewey

Drummer with Country Joe and the Fish at Woodstock
Greg Duke Dewey
Left to Right: Mark Kapner. Country Joe, Greg Dewey, Doug Metzler, (standing) Barry “The Fish” Melton

Greg Duke Dewey

I note the various performers from the Woodstock Music and Art Fair and try do that on their birthdays. Unfortunately I cannot find birthdays for many of those performers.

Greg Duke Dewey is one of them. I’ve decided to do that today. He was 21 when he played Woodstock, which puts his birth year as either 1947 or 48.

And just as it’s difficult to find birthdays, it is sometimes difficult to find much about performers, particularly those who “simply” backed up the named performer.

Country Joe was such a name and those behind him that weekend less known. Fortunately for me (and so, you) Greg Dewey wrote a long essay about his Woodstock experience and it is from that essay that much of the following was mined.

He he and the band flew to New York from San Francisco. Who did they meet on the plane none other than Colonel Jim Sanders. Dewey asked the Colonel what he thought about hippies? Sanders responded, “They eat chicken, don’t they?”

Drummer Greg Duke Dewey

Woodstock

Dewey remembers that the Woodstock crowd just kept getting bigger and bigger. At least until Sunday’s afternoon downpour when time, hunger, the soaking, and Monday responsibilities sent thousand of that crowd home.

It was after that storm’s delay that the Fish played.

Relating a story I’d never read, Dewey said since drums were an acoustic instrument and not subject to the issues electric instruments and water caused, he asked his equipment manager to set up his drums, but the storm nearly blew them down. He sought shelter under the stage. That worked well until  up above stage hands used axes to punch holes in the stage to drain the water. Torrents came down on Dewey.

Drummer Greg Duke Dewey

Eventually, with new sheets of plywood under them, the band went on. Dewey says he never felt more compelled to play for an audience given all they’d gone through, especially the storm. It was about 6:30 PM and the previous act, Joe Cocker, had ended his set at about 3 PM.

In Dewey’s words, “what set this concert apart from all other concerts for us musicians is this: We ALL came the first night, so we could hear each other. Normally we are all buzzing around the world at the same time so we don’t have time to hear one another unless we are in a concert together, and at this one, we were ALL going to be there.”

Drummer Greg Duke Dewey

Hotel stories

He also remembered the hotel in Liberty where “…there were huge games of cards….” Also “…a table with some of The Band, Airplane, Steve Miller Band, Jimi himself, Grace, Marty Balin, Garcia and the Dead, Janice, myself, Mitch Mitchell, Noel Redding, Richie Havens, Sebastian, guys from Blood Sweat and Tears, David Crosby, Sly’s band, Joe Cocker’s band… everyone would be down in the restaurant/bar, it was open 24 hours a day for four days. We ate a lot of food and drank a grunt-load of booze, and the party never stopped, because the concert went on around the clock.”

Finally, “The big thing was for me, about this experience, is that we, the musicians had to make friends with each other, and live together as if on a ship for four days, as we all, in turn, flew out over the massive 500,000 strong audience to play for them.”

Drummer Greg Duke Dewey

Greatest Hits

Drummer Greg Duke Dewey

In early 2018, Dewey began a GoFundMe page for a greatest hits album. One fan wrote at the page: What a wonderful set of three CDs…was not expecting such a wealth of music. Duke you are the best! 

Drummer Greg Duke Dewey

Thanks

Greg has continued to drum with various bands to this day. Those include The Rowans, Bodacious, Janey & Dennnis, Don McLean, Mad River, Alice Stuart, Jerry Corbitt, and Grootna.

Drummer Greg Duke Dewey

50th

Dewey with Bethel Woods Robin Green and the drum set he used at Woodstock

From a Yellow Springs News article:

Dewey is loaning his drums for the special exhibit, “We Are Golden — Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the Woodstock Festival and Aspirations for a Peaceful Future” at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.

Robin Green of the museum, who made the 10-hour trip to retrieve the drums, explained the exhibit’s purpose as to spark a conversation across the generations about peace and love.

Woodstock, remembered as nonviolent and communal, still has lessons for the present, Green believes. 

They were trying to symbolize peace, and to protest the Vietnam War,” she said. “We can all take something away from it.

I’m still hopeful for peace and that we can all live in harmony,” she added.

Thanks for the memories…and the drum set, Greg!

Drummer Greg Duke Dewey

Raccoon Creek Rock Festival

Raccoon Creek Rock Festival

at Livingston Gymnasium indoor track of
Denison University
November 6, 7, & 8, 1969
1969 festival #48

Presented by the Denison Campus Government Association, the Racoon Creek Rock Festival was one of the smaller festivals of 1969, but a festival nonetheless.  Held indoors at the school’s Livingston Gymnasium indoor track (it was November and it was Ohio, after all).

This is one of those festivals about which not much is known. I’ve tried to contact the Denison newspaper, but received no response. I did find a school newspaper edition from just before the event. It’s humorous to me how the article’s headline described the event as featuring “Six Name Groups.”

Raccoon Creek Rock Festival

Raccoon v Racoon


It’s also interesting to me that the newspaper spells Raccoon with the two “c”s as it is normally spelled, but I find several spots where the second “c” is omitted. 

Raccoon Creek Rock Festival

 

Raccoon Creek Rock Festival

Vague

The newspaper article also fails to say specifically who would play on Friday, yet one of the posters does specify.

The Who and Owen B were scheduled for Thursday. The article also notes that “The English group has produced many hit singles including “Magic Bus,” “Pinball Wizard,” and “I’m Free.”

The article then states that The Spirit (I have only seen them referred to as simply Spirit) and The Dust (ditto) would play on Saturday.  The day is a typo and should read Friday as the article continues and states that Johnny Winter, Lycidas, and The Dust would appear on Saturday (also) to complete the 3-day festival.

Raccoon Creek Rock Festival

Johnny “Everywhere” Winter


Winter, it is noted, “performs a variety of interpretations of black vernacular and a wide range of black instrumental approaches.”

Good to know.

Raccoon Creek Rock Festival

Raccoon Creek Rock Festival

Concerns

The writer seems to be somewhat unfamiliar with the line-up, but has the same worries expressed by all who would be in the range of a 1969 festival. After mentioning that there had been outside interest in the event (“as far away as upstate New York”) they go on to say: “We’re expecting to turn people away, but we hope the Denison campus will still be one peaceful community during the festival.”

Raccoon Creek Rock Festival

Raccoon Creek Rock Festival

Great price points

The Who on Thursday cost a ticket-buyer $3.50. The lesser known Spirit only $2.50, but back up a touch for Johnny Winter’s Saturday appearance to $3.00. Student could purchase all three nights for $8.00, a savings of $1.

Raccoon Creek Rock Festival

Looking for more

Thank you to those who have commented below. If anyone else  has any information about the festival, I’d love to hear from you.

Raccoon Creek Rock Festival

Next 1969 festival: Palm Beach Pop Festival