photo from http://www.michaelshrieve.com/gallery.html#
Young Drummer Michael Shrieve
OPEN-HEARTEDNESS
Michael Shrieve’s internet page opens to this statement:
MUSIC PROMPTS US TO RESPOND WITH OPEN-HEARTEDNESS INSTEAD OF JUDGMENT. IT USHERS US TO A HIGHER PLACE FROM WHERE WE CAN SEE BEYOND DISTRACTIONS TO WHAT IS TRUE AND GOOD AND LASTING. IF MUSICIANS ACCEPT THIS RESPONSIBILITY, THEY CAN CHANGE THE WORLD.
Such a view is not surprising from someone who has spent a lifetime with open-hearted music.
Young Drummer Michael Shrieve
Young, not youngest Shrieve
When guests enter first part of the Main Gallery in the museum at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts they are surrounded by some of the 400,000 people who sat on the field at that historic event.
Above guests is a movie showing with commentary pieces of the festival. While Michael Shrieve does his iconic drum solo with Santana, Country Joe McDonald exclaims, “17!” referring to Shrieve’s age. On Saturday 16 August 1969, Michael Shrieve was young, but not that young.
Shrieve was born on July 6, 1949. He had just turned 20. We can forgive McDonald. By early Saturday, it was already a long weekend.
Interestingly, even Shrieve’s internet site gets it wrong. It states, “ As the original drummer for Santana, Michael – at age nineteen – was the youngest performer at Woodstock.”
Wrong twice as Sha Na Na’s Henry Gross, born on April 1, 1951 and 18 that August was likely the youngest performer.
And CSN & Y’s bassist Greg Reevesmay actually have been younger, but there’s a mystery there.
Ah well. Such is Woodstock Haze.
Young Drummer Michael Shrieve
Santana
During a performance at the Fillmore Auditorium, Shrieve came to the attention of Santana’s manager. A short time later Shrieve joined the band and became a mainstay. His jazz background helped develop a sound already influenced by the band Latin percussion component.
The aforementioned drum solo at Woodstock, it’s inclusion on the album as well as the movie put Michael Shrieve forever into the 1960s’ musical picture.
photo from http://www.michaelshrieve.com/gallery.html#
Young Drummer Michael Shrieve
Michael Shrieve
Shrive at the Monument at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts (photo from Shrieve’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/michaelshrieve
Shrieve remained with the Santana band until 1974 and has continued to be active since. He has released several of his own albums and collaborated with or sat in with dozens of other albums.
He occasionally rejoined the Santana band which continued to undergo various personnel changes throughout the years.
Jaime Royal “Robbie” Robertson was born on July 5th in Toronto, Canada. His father from Toronto; his mother, of Mohawk descent, born and raised on the Six Nations Reservation. At an early age, Robbie begins learning guitar from relatives during his summer visits to the reservation. (photo & text from Robertson site)
A lucky few are born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Apparently, James Royal “Robbie”Robertson was born with a guitar in his hands.
James Royal Robbie Robertson
Early on before Dylan…
Like many (most?) lifelong rock musicians, Robbie Robertson began playing in local bands in his mid-teens. By the time he was 18 he, along with Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Garth Hudson) was a part of Ronnie Hawkins’s band, Hawkins and the Hawks.
In 1961, Robbie Robertson and his mates became the Canadian Squires and released “Uh Uh Uh” with “Leave Me Alone” on the B-side. Robertson is credited for writing both.
James Royal Robbie Robertson
Enter Dylan
1965 was a turning point in rock and roll. Around for a decade already, the nonetheless “new” genre of Rock split with some headed in a new direction.
Why?
Bob Dylan had decided to stop working on Maggie’s farm and go electric. For his band, Dylan recruited Robertson who was quickly followed by the rest of the Squires. They toured with Dylan and then near Dylan’s in Woodstock, NY.
Their pink house was at 56 Parnassus Lane in nearby West Saugerties, NY. They set up a recording studio in its basement and played innumerable hours working on their music together. Dylan frequently stopped by and his famous Basement Tapes came out of this time.
Dylan’s band became The Band and Music From Big Pink became their first album. Al Kooper, in his Rolling Stone magazine review of the album, wrote in Rolling Stone magazine in August 1968, “I have chosen my album for 1968. Music from Big Pink is an event and should be treated as one.”
James Royal Robbie Robertson
The Band
Rolling Stone magazine carried a lot of weight and the fact that the well-respected Al Kooper endorsed it so enthusiastically was a double-barrel boost.
Robbie Robertson, the person who the record credits with doing most of the Band’s composing, became a star along with the rest of the Band.
James Royal Robbie Robertson
Woodstock Music and Art Fair
If the reclusive Bob Dylan wasn’t available for Woodstock Ventures get together in Bethel, NY, then getting the newly anointed Band there was nearly as good.
There style differed from most other bands surrounding them that weekend in general and that Sunday in particular. It is easy to forget how oddly “unrock” their style of rock was.
In concert the Band and Robertson were as tight and proficient as any ever was. Those basement hours paid many dividends.
James Royal Robbie Robertson
Fame
In 1969, they released their second album, The Band. In 1970, Time magazine put Robertson and the Band on its front cover with the caption “The New Sound of Country Rock.” 1970 saw their third album, Stage Fright. Cahoots in 1971. Rock of Ages in 1972.
They toured and they partied. They partied and they toured.
James Royal Robbie Robertson
Last Waltz
By 1976, only eight years after the release of Big Pink, Robertson and the other members took a break. They billed it as the Last Waltz and threw a party filmed and recorded by filmmaker friend Martin Scorsese. A who’s who of friends and musicians participated, including Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan.
James Royal Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson
It has been more than 40 years since the Band’s last waltz. The Band, always without Robertson, got together occasionally to record and tour.
Robertson continued to record as well as acting (eg. the 1980 Carny).
James Royal Robbie Robertson
Film scores
He has often contributed to film scores particularly working with Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, King of Comedy, Color of Money, Casino, Gangs of New York, Ladder 49, Shelter Island, The Wolf of Wall Street)
In November 2016, Robertson released his large memoir, Testimony. (NYT review)
Death
On August 2, 2023 Robertson’s management company confirmed the musician’s death. “Robbie was surrounded by his family at the time of his death, including his wife, Janet, his ex-wife, Dominique, her partner Nicholas, and his children Alexandra, Sebastian, Delphine, and Delphine’s partner Kenny,” his longtime manager Jared Levine said in a statement. “In lieu of flowers, the family…asked that donations be made to the Six Nations of the Grand River to support the building of their new cultural center.”
Martin Scorsese: ““Robbie Robertson was one of my closest friends, a constant in my life and my work. I could always go to him as a confidante. A collaborator. An advisor. I tried to be the same for him.
“Long before we ever met, his music played a central role in my life — me and millions and millions of other people all over this world. The Band’s music, and Robbie’s own later solo music, seemed to come from the deepest place at the heart of this continent, its traditions and tragedies and joys. It goes without saying that he was a giant, that his effect on the art form was profound and lasting. There’s never enough time with anyone you love. And I loved Robbie.” [Rolling Stone article]
On my Museum tours at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, when guest find out I was at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair they often ask, “Who was your favorite group?”
Remembering Alan Blind Owl Wilson
Favorite?
My answer is that “It depends.” At the time of the concert, the Who had just released Tommy and their performance at Woodstock included nearly their entire rock opera. The Who ended a long night of amazing music that greeted a sunrise which introduced the Jefferson Airplane. I loved all.
Remembering Alan Blind Owl Wilson
Emerging favorites
Since I regularly listen to music from the festival, I now can hear and appreciate groups that at the time I didn’t notice as much.
Nowadays, my answer is Canned Heat: Bob Bear Hite rambling around the stage, Larry Mole Taylor on bass, Harvey Mandel just joining band on guitar, Adolfo de la Parra on drums, and Alan Blind Owl Wilson on guitar. A great line-up banging away with a great groove.
Remembering Alan Blind Owl Wilson
Massachusetts-born
Alan Wilson was born on July 4, 1943 in Arlington, Massachusetts. Early on he developed a love not just of music (jazz in particular), but how music worked.
Like some other white kids of the 50s and 60s, Wilson also discovered the blues. American norms had long-relegated the blues to the Jim Crow back roads of American society, whose arbitrary cultural mores considered it too rude and crude for “polite” society. The civil rights movement and the evolution of rhythm & blues into rock and roll exposed the blues to teenage white youth open to new views.
More interesting is that some British youth, like Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Eric Burdon, had done the same thing and formed bands to expand that discovery.
Remembering Alan Blind Owl Wilson
Blues
Not only did Alan Wilson develop a love of the blues, he began to develop relationships with blues legends as they came to Cambridge, Massachusetts where Wilson lived. Skip James (whose vocal style Wilson imitated) and Son House in particular.
Remembering Alan Blind Owl Wilson
John Fahey
Wilson also met John Fahey, a young white kid with an equal love of acoustic blues. Fahey convinced Wilson to move to Los Angeles where Fahey was working on his master’s thesis. It was Fahey who lovingly gave Wilson the nickname “Blind Owl” because of Wilson’s extremely poor eyesight.
While in Los Angeles, Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson met Bob Hite. His collection of blues recordings immediately bonded them. They formed Canned Heat, a name from Tommy Johnson’s 1928 “Canned Heat Blues.” Where else?!
Remembering Alan Blind Owl Wilson
Festivals
Canned Heat played two of the most iconic festivals in American rock history: the Monterey International Pop Festival and the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Their recording of “Goin’ to the Country” became part of Woodstock film’s soundtrack.
Remembering Alan Blind Owl Wilson
Love of Nature
Alan Wilson loved Nature, but Alan Wilson suffered from one of Nature’s worst illnesses: depression. Canned Heat was readying for a fall 1970 European tour when he did not show up for the flight.
On September 3, they found Wilson dead in Bob Hite’s Topanga Canyon backyard where Alan lived in a tent.
From the Wilson site: “We will never know what Alan Wilson was thinking that night, as he unrolled his sleeping bag and looked up at the stars one last time. What we do know is that he was a talented musician and musicologist who promoted the revival of early Delta blues and left his own permanent mark on the blues and the music of the late 1960s. …We hope that this web site is a fitting tribute to his life.”
Wilson was 27 and sadly became part of what now we refer to as the 27 Club.
