Category Archives: Music et al

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

Who Roger Daltrey CBE

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Who Roger Daltrey CBE

Happy birthday

March 1,  1944
Who Roger Harry Daltrey CBE

Who Founded Who?

In a sense, Roger Daltrey founded the Who.  It was he who recruited  John Entwistle in 1961 to form a band.  It was Entwistles suggestion to ask Pete Townshend to join the new band, the Detours.

Who Roger Daltrey CBE

Early on…

Daltrey’s daytime job was in a sheet metal factory, even making the band’s guitars. Interesting, since Pete’s later smashing of his guitars obviously required wooden ones.

The young band went through the usual young band growing pains adding members, firing others, changing its name to The Who, then changing it to The High Numbers, before changing it back to the Who in November 1964.

By that time, Pete Townshend was the leader of the band because of his ability to compose songs, but Roger Daltrey became the front man to sing Townshend’s songs. The famous swirling mic became Daltry’s signature.

Who Roger Daltrey CBE

1965 Who released

On December 3, 1965, the Who released their first album, “My Generation.”

Who Roger Harry Daltrey CBE
My Generation album cover
Who Roger Daltrey CBE

1967 breakout

1967 was a break-out year in the US where they appeared for the first time. One of their performance was well-timed. On June 18 they appeared at the Monterey International Pop Music Festival and were included on both its movie and soundtrack album.

Having said that, during a July – August tour that year, they opened for Herman’s Hermits.

In 1968 they began to headline and in 1969 Pete Townshends “Tommy” with Roger Daltrey embodying the character on stage, put them among the elite of rock groups.

Who Roger Daltrey CBE

Who Woodstock

Invited to perform at Woodstock, the band wasn’t certain whether to, but finally did. Like Monterey, it became a huge piece of that famous festival.

The Who’s Woodstock encore: My Generation

Who Roger Daltrey CBE

Roger Daltrey

Like many groups, members began to release solo albums, and Daltry released his first, Daltrey,  in 1973.  He has released eight solo albums, but others in collaboration as well as a children album, The Wheels on the Bus.

The Who continued, sometimes sporadically,  despite the death of Keith Moon in 1978 and John Entwistle in 2002.

The Who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

Who Roger Daltrey CBE

Teenage Cancer Trust

Since 2000 he has been a patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust, a charity that builds specialized wards for teenagers with cancer in the UK and in   November 2010, Roger and Pete Townshend launched Teen Cancer America.

Birthdays, Music et al, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Guitarist Ralph Towner

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Guitarist Ralph TownerBirthday Wishes

March 1, 1940

Icarus by Towner

Guitarist Ralph Towner

Guitarist Ralph Towner

One of many

Guitarist Ralph Towner? There were over 160 performers who played on the stage in 1969 at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Many were , became, and have remained everyday names. Instantly recognizable. Icons.

Those are the names that visitors to the Museum at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts ask about on a docent tour with a Woodstock alum. “Where you there for…?”

Tim Hardin is not one of the names asked after and those who played with him during his set even less so.

Guitarist Ralph Towner

Tim Hardin

Ralph Towner played at Woodstock. Ralph Towner played with Tim Hardin at Woodstock. Ralph Towner never stopped playing.

An interesting thing (to me at least) about his site‘s bio page is that the word Woodstock doesn’t even appear. Well, he really doesn’t need another credit to his very long list.

Guitarist Ralph Towner

Chehalis, Washington

Towner was born in Chehalis, Washington. His mother was a piano teacher, his father a trumpet player, so it was no surprise that he enrolled as an art major at the University of Oregon in 1958. He changed to composition.

He became interested in jazz and in 1968 Towner moved to New York City to deepen his love within its jazz scene.  Paul Winter invited Towner to be part of the Paul Winter Consort.

It was with the Paul Winter Consort that he met Glen Moore, Paul McCandless, and Collin Walcott. They would all form the band Oregon in 1971. Though Towner has played with dozens of other people, Oregon was and continues to be his home port.

Guitarist Ralph Towner

Acoustic jazz

There aren’t many acoustic jazz guitarists, but Towner is one of if not the best. I am far from an expert about jazz and those who fill that field with wonderful music, but I do recognize a few of the names he’s played with and have found their music great and wish it were more widely promoted.

Watch this video and be amazed.

Guitarist Ralph Towner

Avant garde music, Birthdays

Guitarist Extraordinaire John Fahey

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Guitarist Extraordinaire John Fahey

Remembering, appreciating, and recognizing his genius
February 28, 1939 — February 22, 2001

John Fahey

Guitarist Extraordinaire John Fahey

First light

I’m not sure when I first heard John Fahey. Probably on New York’s WNEW-FM and during Christmas time 1968 when his The New Possibility album came out.

Guitarist Extraordinaire John Fahey

Guitarist Extraordinaire John Fahey

Unique

I was often on the musical lookout for something new, good, and an outlier. For me, John Fahey fit all three. It seemed like he was doing more without words (most of the time), than many musicians were doing with them (most of the time).

Even a song as simple as Amazing Grace had this seesaw rhythm to it that somehow enhanced the whole experience. Songs seemed to stretch out slowly to new paths. The New Possibility.

Backstory 

His story is similar to others who found the music was their avocation. Both parents liked music and played the piano. Before television’s takeover, pianos were often a home’s entertainment system. John’s parents brought him to local bluegrass concerts near their home in Tacoma, Maryland. And like so many other young people, hearing Jimmie Rogers lighted an acoustic flame.

Unlike many young people, hearing Blind Willie Johnson ignited a love of the acoustic blues. His own playing progressed to the point that he began to record his music, but thinking no company would be interested in pressing the music, he decided to start his own label and name it after his hometown.

Tacoma Records

Thus in 1959 Tacoma Records was born.

To honor his musical progenitor, he  decided to name himself Blind Joe Death. He pressed only 100 albums. Of course they are very rare today, but thanks to that world-wide-internet, we can hear that album:

Guitarist Extraordinaire John Fahey

California

Fahey graduated from American University and moved west where he met fellow blues enthusiast, Alan”Blind Owl” Wilson. Wilson, of course, later went on to co-found Canned Heat, a band named after, what else, an  old Tommy Johnson‘s blues song.

Fahey’s Tacoma label struggled on, but he insisted on finding other musicians whose abilities far outweighed their commercial prospects. He discovered fellow guitarists Leo Kottke, Robbie Basho, Bola Sete, and Peter Lang, as well as pianist George Winston.

Health and lifestyle issues plagued Fahey. Tacoma was sold and Fahey eventually moved to Salem, Oregon where to survive he sometimes sold one of his guitars or rare records.

Guitarist Extraordinaire John Fahey

John Fahey

Guitarist John Fahey pioneered the American primitive guitar style. (Photo from John Fahey site)

Revenant Records

In the late 90s, a new generation discovered his genius and Fortuna smiled. Or at least she grinned a bit. He released new albums, created a new label (Revenant Records) Not surprisingly it sought out obscure recordings of early blues, old-time music, and things that caught Fahey’s fancy.

In 2000, he published a book of loosely autobiographical stories, ”How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life” (Drag City Press). In it he said: ”I never considered for a minute that I had talent, What I did have was divine inspiration and an open subconscious.”

On February 22, 2001 Fahey died at Salem Hospital (Oregon) after undergoing a coronary bypass operation.

References

Guitarist Extraordinaire John Fahey