Category Archives: Woodstock Music and Art Fair

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

Ten Years After album

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Ten Years After album

October 27, 1967
Happy anniversary

Ten Years After album

“I Wanna Know” first cut, first album

Ten Years After released its first album, Ten Years After, on October 27, 1967.  The band consisted of Alvin Lee (guitar), Chick Churchill (organ), Ric Lee (drums), and Leo Lyons (bass). Here was another example of a British band bringing American blues back to us. The band did write most of the album’s material, but their sound and the song’s they covered clearly showed those roots.

Ten Years After album

Side one

Ten Years After album

Here’s side one:

Side one
  1. “I Want to Know” (Sheila McLeod as pseudonym Paul Jones) – 2:11
  2. “I Can’t Keep from Crying Sometimes” (Al Kooper) – 5:24
  3. “Adventures of a Young Organ” (Alvin Lee, Chick Churchill) – 2:34
  4. “Spoonful” (Willie Dixon) – 6:05
  5. “Losing the Dogs” (Alvin Lee, Gus Dudgeon) – 3:03

Side two

And side two:

Side two
  1. “Feel It for Me” (Alvin Lee) – 2:40
  2. “Love Until I Die” (Alvin Lee) – 2:06
  3. “Don’t Want You Woman” (Alvin Lee) – 2:37
  4. “Help Me” (Ralph Bass, Willie Dixon, Sonny Boy Williamson) – 9:51

Note how short the majority of the songs were, the single-size under-three-minute good-for-radio-play type. Of course, there are those few where the band gets to stretch it out.

Ten Years After album

Alvin Lee

Ten Years After album

Alvin Lee was the heart of the band and for better or worse the inclusion of the band’s “Goin’ Home”  into the film and onto the record of Woodstock brought fame.

Fame from a single song’s performance that likely sounded like dozens of others performed that summer and likely surprised Alvin Lee.  An albatross that laid a golden egg.  He was already a great guitarist when he began his trek along the summer of 1969’s festivals:

  1. June 28, 1969: Bath Festival of Blues.
  2. July 3 – 6, Newport Jazz Festival.
  3. July 11 – 12, Laurel Pop Festival.
  4. July 25 – 27, Seattle Pop Festival,
  5. Aug 15 – 18 – Woodstock Music and Art Festival.
  6. Aug 30 – Sept 1: Texas International Pop Festival.

How many times did Alvin Lee play “I’m Going Home” that summer? It’s filming in August at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair preserved it and sent it worldwide. His name was and will forever be associated with that song and that performance.

Here are some factoids about Lee:

  • originally influenced by his parent’s collection of jazz and blues records
  • began playing guitar age 13
  • by aged 15 his Jaybirds band formed the core of Ten Years After
  • moved to London and changed the band’s name to Ten Years After in 1966
  • the band’s performance at the Windsor Jazz & Blues Festival in 1967 led to their first recording contract.
  • concert promoter Bill Graham who invited the band to tour America for the first time in the summer of 1968. Ten Years After would ultimately tour the USA 28 times in 7 years, more than any other U.K. band. 
  • After the breakup of Ten Years After, Lee continue to form bands and record music.
  • Lee’s overall musical output included more than 20 albums.

Ten Years After album

Today, the band consists of Marcus Bonfanti, Colin Hodgkinson, Chick Churchill , and Ric Lee

And here is a YouTube review of the group’s album, “Naturally Live” and  a link to the band’s site.

Ten Years After album
Birthdays, Music of the 60s, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Mountain Leslie Weinstein West

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Mountain Leslie Weinstein West

Remembering him his his birthday

Mountain Leslie Weinstein West

October 22, 1945 – December 23, 2020

Mountain, “Theme for an Imaginary Western”

Forest Hills High School

What do the four original members of the Ramones (Johnny, Dee Dee, Tommy and Joey), Burt Bacharach, Dick Stockton, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Bob Keeshan, aka Captain Kangaroo, Jerry Springer and Peter “Spiderman” Parker all have in common with Leslie West?

Except Peter Parker, aka Spiderman, they all actually attended Forest Hills High School in Queens, NYC.

Mountain Leslie Weinstein West

Leslie Weinstein

Leslie Weinstein became Leslie West after his parents divorced, but talent and luck (always a bit of luck), made Leslie West a household name among rock fans in the late 60s.

While Greenwich Village was pumping out folk musician after folk musician into the 1960’s cultural revolution, West though nearby geographically was light years artistically on “distant” Long Island, NY.

Leslie West was in the Vagrants and the band had minor success. Felix Pappalardi produced some of their recordings.  And a side note from Woodstock fan extraordinaire Sharon Watts: …” a teenaged Bert Sommer hung out with the Vagrants and wrote quite a few of their songs, including And When It’s Over, and one performed by Mountain at Woodstock: Beside the Sea. Bert also came up with the name Mountain. He called West “a mountain of a man”, and it stuck.”

Pappalardi produced and played on West’s first album, called Mountain (1969). It was from that album’s name that, in 1969, they formed the band Mountain.

Pappalardi had also produced Cream and some compared Mountain’s sound to theirs.  Steve Knight (keyboards) and N.D. Smart (drums) were the other two original members.

Mountain Leslie Weinstein West

Woodstock Music and Art Fair

The band appeared at Woodstock on Saturday night. Their well-received set was neither on the movie soundtrack nor the first movie, but the strength of their sound made West and the band favorites especially among the FM crowd.

Following Woodstock, the band released its first album,  Climbing! (February 1970). Nantucket Sleighride followed in January 1971, and Flowers of Evil in November 1971.

In 1972 Pappalardi left the band to do more productions and West, Jack Bruce and Corky Laing (had replaced Smart on drums) formed West, Bruce, and Lang.

Over the decades, versions of Mountain have formed and re-formed, always with West at the center.

Mountain Leslie Weinstein West

Leslie West

Substance abuse and diabetes plagued West, but did not him away from music very long. He lost the bottom half of his right leg to diabetes in 2011.

He told Billboard afterwards, ““I cried a couple fuckin’ times. I look down — ‘Where is it?!’ You still feel the nerves and stuff like that. I had to make a decision — lose my leg or lose my life. What are you gonna do?  But I’ll tell you, it’s a good thing it wasn’t one of my arms. Then I’d be really fucked.” [insert gallows humor comment here]

On August 15, 2009 he married Jenni Maurer on stage after Mountain’s performance at the Woodstock 40th anniversary concert at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, located on the site of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair.  Levon Helm was one of the ushers.

In 2015, Rolling Stone magazine rated West as 65/100 among the greatest guitar players. The blurb said in part that, “ On songs like the 1970 hit “Mississippi Queen,” West played roughened blues lines with deceiving facility and an R&B flair, through a black forest of stressed-amp distortion. “

West died on December 23, 2020. The cause of death was cardiac arrest. (Rolling Stone magazine article)

In it’s obituary,  Copper Magazine wrote:

Leslie West, like Albert King, just knew how to play one note with feeling. It sounds so simple.

It isn’t.

Mountain Leslie Weinstein West

Grateful Dead, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Grateful Dead Woodstock Woes

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Grateful Dead Woodstock Woes

The oft’ told tale of the Dead’s Woodstock performance was that it was plagued with various difficulties and was generally lackluster.  That it wasn’t a typical ’69 performance.  

Their Woodstock was only about 70 minutes of music with a more than 15 minute technical break after only two songs (St Stephen and Mama Tried) which had only totaled about five minutes.

Plus, there was the mic/walkie-talkie/PA  interference  during some parts. 

Grateful Dead Woodstock Woes
Dead at Woodstock…Jerry and Bob
Grateful Dead Woodstock Woes

Dead at Woodstock

Grateful Dead Woodstock Woes
Dead at Woodstock

 Well, let’s take a look at the set list: 

  • 1. Saint Stephen (2:04)
  • 2. Mama Tried (2:42)
  • 3. a High Time tease (30 seconds)
  • the 15 minute technical issues break
  • 4. Dark Star (19:10)
  • 5. High Time (6:20),
  • 6. Turn On Your Lovelight (which included some Ken Babbs ravings) (38:42)

Typical?

So how atypical were the Dead at Woodstock? The concert immediately before at the Family Dog at the Great Highway in San Francisco on  August 3  was about 90 minutes. Their first concert afterward was on August 20 at the Aqua Theater in Seattle (no recording available).  How long was it? About 90 minutes.

If not for the technical issues, faced by most of the Woodstock performers, the Dead set at Woodstock was not too different.

Perhaps it’d be best to give the Dead at Woodstock an actual listen and decide for yourself. As for me, I enjoy it. Of course the spice of it being at Woodstock is an enticing enhancement, but even without that, it’s still good. After all, there’s only one Barton Hall and that was eight years in the future.

Double-dare

I dare you to click and open ↓ .

It’s really a nice listen for any day and a slice of history. You’ll hear the actual radio feedback that Phil Lesh talks about during a quieter part of their set.

For another much more thorough and thoughtful article on the Dead’s Woodstock set, see this article that Scott Parker, author of Woodstock Documented. wrote.

The whole article is well worth the read, but in his closing comments he concluded: Some have described this show as the worst Grateful Dead show ever, but this is a serious exaggeration. It is an uneven set, without a doubt. There are some real low points. But there are also some great moments, and it is worth remembering that on their worst night in 1969, the Grateful Dead were still better than most bands at their peak.

Finally!

On August 23, 2021, Dead and Company played at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.  At the beginning of their second set, Bob Weir said this: “…50 something years ago [applause] we…right here…we tried this next sequence [Weir laughs] …it didn’t go so well for us. So, we’re gonna’ try it again.”

And so Woodstock finally heard the set so many had hoped for 52 years earlier.  And it was very nice!

Follow link to listen

Post Script

I occasionally give site tours to band members, guests of the bands, and, of course, the all-important roadies.

In 2023, Dead & Company was playing at Bethel Woods and Bob Weir needed a ride to a booth promoting voter registration that he was helping to support. He sat next to me (thrill!) and I had the following very brief “conversation” with him:

Me: “Thank you for your music.”

Bob: “You’re welcome.”

Me: “By the way, I didn’t think your Woodstock set was that bad.”

Rob: “It was.”

Grateful Dead Woodstock Woes