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Canned Heat Woodstock

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Canned Heat Woodstock

Canned Heat Woodstock

Canned Heat is on the Monument. Canned Heat is in the original movie release. Canned Heat is on the original soundtrack. They certainly deserved the triple.

It was around 7:30 PM when Chip Monck introduced Canned Heat. The 8 PM sunset ended a warm sunny  day.  The band would leave the stage about an hour and fifteen minutes later to cheers and applause.

Personnel:

Setlist:

  • I’m Her Man
  • Going Up the Country
  • A Change Is Gonna Come / Leaving This Town
  • I Know My Baby
  • Woodstock Boogie
  • On the Road Again
Canned Heat Woodstock

I’m Her Man

Canned Heat Woodstock
Canned Heat Hallelujah album cover

I’m Her Man  had appeared on their recently released Hallelujah album. Bob Hite wrote the song.

I found love sure is good to me
I found love sure is good to me
You know a man needs a woman though to keep him company
It feels good not to be alone
Oh so good not to be alone
I’m gonna make sure not to lose my happy home
Love can come and go
Why i sure don’t know
Never gonna let her go
You know love, is hard to understand
I said love is hard to understand
But it sure feels good to know that I’m her man
Love can come and go
Why i sure don’t know
Never gonna let her go
Canned Heat Woodstock

Going Up the Country

Canned Heat Woodstock
Living the Blues album cover. Release November 1, 1968

Going Up the Country was on their Living the Blues album, their third and a double alum. Alan Wilson wrote the song.

Before starting it, Bob Hite, as many other performers had, commented on the whole scene, mentioned a personal issue, and introduced a new band member.

“You know, this is the most outrageous spectacle I’ve ever witnessed, ever. There’s only one thing I wish: I sure gotta’ pee. And there ain’t nowhere to go. We’re gonna get one out here on the guitar and do a little Going Up the Country and I’d also like to take this  time to introduce you to our newest member. So now being official that Henry Vestine has left Canned Heat to form a group called Sun, we now have playing lead guitar Harvey Mandell…so everything’s together.”

I’m goin’ up the country, baby don’t you want to go?
I’m goin’ up the country, baby don’t you want to go?
I’m goin’ to some place, I’ve never been before
I’m goin’ I’m goin’ where the water tastes like wine
I’m goin’ where the water tastes like wine
We can jump in the water, stay drunk all the time
I’m gonna leave this city, got to get away
I’m gonna leave this city, got to get away
All this fussin’ and fightin’ man, you know I sure can’t stay
So baby pack your leavin’ trunk
You know we’ve got to leave today
Just exactly where we’re goin’ I cannot say
But we might even leave the U.S.A.
It’s a brand new game, that I want to play
No use in your runnin’, or screamin’ and cryin’
‘Cause you got a home as long as I’ve got mine
Canned Heat Woodstock

A Change Is Gonna Come/Leaving This Town

There is no studio recording of “A Change Is Gonna Come.”

Bob Hite comments before, “Nothing like suckin’ on an orange. Kinda’ something neat about it. Reminds me of something…I do believe it’s a lovely evening for a boogie.”

During the song  a young man from the audience climbs on stage but instead Hite allows him to stay. The kid grabs the pack of Marlboro cigarettes from Hite’s tee-shirt while they hug each other. They share a cigarette. It was a perfect Woodstock moment.

I said I believe…
Yeah ’bout a change is gonna come

I said I believe…
Yeah people the change… will surely come

We all have good peace of mind
Lord, I free they will surely surely come

Yeah, I believe in the morning
I believe I go ah back home

Well, I’ll tell I believe I’m gonna get up in the morning
Yeah, people ah people, I’m gonna go back home

Well, now I gotta find my little mama
You know I gotta have some gratitude beyond

Well…I’m standing sown at he crossroads, 

My friend began to shout

Well, ah it’s all I’ve got my self a friend
Dolla I try… ah surely done

Well, when you’ve got yourself a good friend
You are the luckiest man on earth

I say you got yourself a good friend
Yeah now do know you’re the luckiest man on earth

‘Couse you’ve got love in your heart
Lord God’s good… all is winin’ call

Oh you gotta cool down

Well, I got to go an’ to when
When your troubles through to down mile

I said what you’re gonna do babe
Yeah time when your troubles show you to the line mile

Well, now you take youself a mouth full of sugar
You drink yourself a put of bottle turpentine

Well I believe in the morning yeah
‘Tou for it moun too tough

I said I believe in the big time
Lord roar the moan too tough

Well, I gotta find my little ride’
You know this time I’m goin’ back home

Well, I believe in this time on
Lord I wont be back for long

Well, I believe in this time …
Lord people I wont be back… go home

Well, now I got myself a grand of nothing
Child don’t you know it’s shocking I’ve been told

Canned Heat Woodstock

Rollin’ Blues

From the Woodstock Fandom site: “Rollin’ Blues”, originally written by John Lee Hooker, is a version of the Blues traditional “Rollin’ and Tumblin.'” Canned Heat recorded their version of “Rollin’ and Tumblin'” (which has hardly any similarities to “Rollin’ Blues”) on their first self-titled album. They also recorded and performed with Hooker, so it is not unusual that they played one of “his” songs at the festival.

Canned Heat Woodstock

Woodstock Boogie

Bob Hite again says the guitarists need some time to tune and that Sharon’s dad is looking for her backstage.

Alan Wilson says that new member Harvey continues the Canned Heat tradition of extensive re-tuning.

Again from the Woodstock Fandom site: The song “Woodstock Boogie” is basically an almost 30-minute jam, including a drum solo. On their album Boogie With Canned Heat  the song is called “Fried Hockey Boogie.“

Canned Heat Woodstock

On the Road Again

Before their encore, Hite explains how difficult the previous two weeks had been, that they even thought that the band might end.

Chip Monck has pretty much lost his patience with the tower climbers. He asked Hite if he could interrupt to tell them, “Get the fuck down!”

“On the Road Again” first appeared on their second album, Boogie with Canned Heat, in January 1968; when an edited version was released as a single in April 1968, “On the Road Again” became Canned Heat’s first record chart hit and one of their best-known songs.

Well, I’m so tired of crying
But I’m out on the road again
I’m on the road again
Well, I’m so tired of crying
But I’m out on the road again
I’m on the road again
I ain’t got no woman
Just to call my special friend
You know the first time I traveled
Out in the rain and snow
In the rain and snow
You know the first time I traveled
Out in the rain and snow
In the rain and snow
I didn’t have no payroll
Not even no place to go
And my dear mother left me
When I was quite young
When I was quite young
And my dear mother left me
When I was quite young
When I was quite young
She said, [“Lord, have mercy on my wicked son.”]
Take a hint from me, mama
Please don’t you cry no more
Don’t you cry no more
Take a hint from me, mama
Please don’t you cry no more
Don’t you cry no more
‘Cause it’s soon one morning
Down the road I’m going
But I ain’t going down
That long old lonesome road
All by myself
But I ain’t going down
That long old lonesome road
All by myself
I can’t carry you, baby
Gonna carry somebody else
Canned Heat Woodstock

The next act is Mountain.

Peace Love Art and Activism

Charlotte Brown Refused

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Charlotte Brown Refused

…on April 17, 1863

Associating bus travel and luxury is not the case, unless one is a star musician.  And for those stars, one of their roadies once told me, “Travelling down a highway in a steel tube at 75 mph is not luxurious.”

In other words, the huge majority of people taking bus transportation are doing so for its necessary convenience not its Lucullan comfort.

We know the name Rosa Parks and her refusal in 1955.  We are less likely to know the name Irene Morgan and her refusal in 1944.  Nor Sarah Keys‘s refusal in 1954 nor Claudette Colvin‘s  or Aurelia Browder‘s in 1955.

Before there were busses, there were street cars.

Charlotte Brown Refused

Charlotte Brown

Charlotte Brown was born in Maryland in  1839.  James E Brown, her father, had been a slave. Her mother, Charlotte, was a free seamstress who had purchased James’s freedom.

With California having just made slavery illegal in 1949, the Brown family moved to San Francisco during its Gold Rush. James, an ardent abolitionist,  ran a livery stable and was a partner in Mirror of the Times, a black newspaper.

Charlotte Brown Refused

Refusal

On the evening of April 17, 1863, Charlotte had a doctor’s appointment and boarded a Omnibus Railroad and Cable Company streetcar.  The conductor, collecting tickets, came to Charlotte, refused to take her ticket, told her to get off the car, and when Charlotte refused, forcibly removed her saying Blacks were not allowed on the cars.

From a Wherever There’s a Fight article:  Brown recalled, “He took hold of me, by the left arm, somewhere. I made no resistance as he had taken me by the arm. I knew it was of no use to resist, and therefore I went out, and he kept hold of me until I was out of the car, holding on to me until I struck the walk.”

James Brown filed suit.

Charlotte Brown Refused

$25 Success/5 cent reality

From KQED Rebel Girls:  [filing suit was a brave reaction] ...given that it had only been a matter of months since African Americans in California had gained the right to testify against white people in court. During the case, Omnibus defended its racist policies, arguing that people of color should not be permitted to ride streetcars in case they made white women and children feel “fearful or repulsed.”

While Charlotte ultimately won the case and was awarded $25 and costs, appeals by Omnibus kept her tied up in court for months. The end result saw her award sum reduced to just five cents, the cost of Charlotte’s original ticket. What’s more, the case did not change Omnibus policy.

Just days after the first case was finally over, Charlotte was removed from another Omnibus streetcar.

Charlotte Brown Refused

Judge Orville C. Pratt

Judge Orville C. Pratt

Charlotte and her father went straight back to court, this time finding themselves arguing in front of a very sympathetic judge. Judge Orville C. Pratt of the 12th District Court deemed segregation “barbaric” and awarded Charlotte $500.

in his opinion: “It has been already quite too long tolerated by the dominant race to see with indifference the Negro or mulatto treated as a brute, insulted, wronged, enslaved, made to wear a yoke, to tremble before white men, to serve him as a tool, to hold property and life at his will, to surrender to him his intellect and conscience, and to seal his lips and belie his thought through dread of the white man’s power.” [from a Black Then article]

Charlotte Brown Refused

Mary Ellen Pleasant

Though Pratt’s ruling would suggest that San Francisco’s Black residents could now ride the streetcars, that was not the reality. Refusals continued.

In 1866  a conductor on the North Beach Municipal Railroad refused to pick up Mary Ellen Pleasant.

She sued, and a jury awarded Pleasant five hundred dollars in punitive damages. The streetcar company appealed the decision to the California Supreme Court. The high court ruled streetcar exclusion based on race was unlawful, but it also rescinded the damage payment to Pleasant, since there was no proof “to show willful injury,” or any proof that the streetcar company had a policy of excluding blacks. 

The lawsuits succeeded in changing the racist practice: no more stories about streetcar exclusion appeared in the local black press, which had reported all such incidents vigilantly. In 1893 the legislature enacted a statewide prohibition on streetcar segregation and exclusion. [also from Wherever There’s a Fight site]

Charlotte Brown Refused

Peace Love Art and Activism

Incredible String Band Woodstock

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Incredible String Band Woodstock

photo taken by David Marks who was on Bill Hanley’s sound crew

The Incredible String Band was supposed to be part of Friday’s folk-oriented lineup, but circumstances pushed their performance to Saturday.  Unfortunately the so-called psychedelic-folk group using mainly acoustic instruments  followed the rousing electric and brass performance of the Keef Hartley Band. It was about 6 PM and for some in the crowd who hadn’t had “lunch” it was dinner time. They went in search, often unsuccessfully, for that dinner.

Incredible String Band did make it to the Monument, but not into the  initial release of the movie or the soundtrack.

A 2020 BBC article says that comedian and banjo-player Billy Connolly, who was a massive fan and who got to know them when they played the folk clubs of Glasgow, described the band as “hairy, exotic and interesting“.

The band consisted of: Mike Heron, Robin Williamson, Christina “Licorice” McKechnie, and Muse, Odalisque, HandmaidenISR Rose Simpson. They would be on stage for about a half hour.

Their setlist was:

  • Invocation (spoken word)
  • The Letter
  • Gather ‘Round
  • This Moment
  • Come with Me
  • When You Find Out Who You Are

And before we get to the set, here’s a picture that David Marks took of ISR’s performance. He was part of Bill Hanley‘s sound crew that weekend (as well as a few other time’s). David took lots of pictures when he had the chance.

May be an image of 2 people, people playing musical instruments and people standing

Incredible String Band Woodstock

Invocation

For some this band is too difficult to approach. Their instrumentation is proficient, but their lyrics require attention. For many the huge setting was not the intimate setting to appreciate this band.

Mike Heron began with a poem.

I make a love peace with you
Lifers that move the heart
In fur and scale
Ancient associates
And fellow wanderers
You that place yourselves in this space.
You that strengthen the horn
And make quick the eye
You who run the swift fox and the zigzag fly
You sizeless makers of the mole and whale
Aid me and I will aid you
I make a peace with you
You that lift the blossom and the green branch
You that weave symmetries more true
You who make time slower,
And watch the patterns
You who eat deep 
And eat water stretching high    
You rough-coated
Your green blood
My red blood
We will mingle them
But I harm you not
That you shield me.
I make a pact with you
You who are unconfined
And have no shape
Who are not seen
But only in your action
Who have no depth
But choose direction
Who bring what is willed
That you blow my ship to pleasant harbors
I make a pact with you
You who are the liquidness of the waters
And the spark of flame
I make a pact with you
You who make fertile the soft ground
And guard growth
I make peace with you
You who are the blueness of the sky
And the wrath of the storm
I take the cup of deepness with you
Earthshakers
And with you the sharp and the hollow hills
I make reverence to you
Round wakefulness we
Call the earth
I make wide eyes to you
You who are also awake
Every created thing both solid and sleepy
Or airy light
I weave colours round you
You who will come with me
I will consider it beauty
Incredible String Band Woodstock

The Letter

Incredible String Band Woodstock
I Looked Up album cover

The Letter typifies what ISB did. In some ways, its simplicity and beauty is comparable to a Richard Brautigan poem. The song would appear on their 1970 album, I Looked Up.

Started rubbing my eyes
When I heard the birds talk
Hey Mister Sleep you’re gonna
Have to take a walk
But nothing has as much power to
Make me rise as the post man
Bringing a morning surprise
Here he comes
Here he comes
Too much I’ve got a letter
I’d better get out of bed
I said
Then I pulled the covers right
Up to my nose
I thought well the letter
Might be for Rose
Her mother she writes very regularly
Mister Postman have you got
A letter for me
Mr. Heron, yes I have yes I have
Too much I’ve got a letter
Better get on up out of bed
Came from Maria, Chicago, Illinois
And I never have met her but she sounds sweet
Like a flower
Grown on a rubbish heap
She’s got a lot of things ’round her
She’s gotta sort out
But she’s gonna make it
And I have no doubt 
Neither does she, not Maria
Maria, the plane that brought your letter must have
Felt a little bit lighter
And  air hostesses must’ve felt brighter bringing your letter over the sea
And the pilot was your Orpheus
Singing a song for you
Maria I’m singing
Hear me singing I’ll be your Orpheus too
And by the time you hear this song your
Your troubles will be gone
And you’ll be left with what’s shining
Through your letter you
By the time you hear this song your
Troubles will be gone
And you’ll be left with what’s shining
Through your letter you

Incredible String Band Woodstock

Gather Round

Before the band can begin their next song, Chip Monck asks people to sit down, to move away from the camera crane, and to descent from the light towers. He emphasized the importance of the crowd’s cooperation.

Gather Round does not appear on any ISB album.

Gather round and I will tell you,
Of the man who walked alone,
He met with me one dusty evening,
He could not recall his home.
And he was not a beggar
But people pressed coins in his hand
And his skin it was weathered
His eyes full of far foreign lands
And beneath the food they offered him
For the hunger in his soul
And the ones who wished him evil
It was written on their scroll

He had sold his heart's desire
Winding many a tangled thread,
Salted tears, he drank for water
Hopeful thoughts he ate for bread.
In the bag across his shoulder
Was a painted paper heart
Filled with several thousand reasons
Why two souls can seem to part
For he knew the truth was seldom spoke
Nor written with the ten pens of the hand
And he sought not wealth or glory
Only wished to understand
And he sang of times a'coming
When those secrets would be known
And the stars will sing in the chorus
And no soul will walk alone.

Here we are
Here we are
Here we are
Here we stay

Here we are
Here we are
'til the clouds shall roll away
Incredible String Band Woodstock

Fantastically Happy

Robin Williamson mentions to the crowd something that is often heard by other Woodstock alum: “I’d just like to say right now that I’ve never been to anything like this before and the thing that surprises me is how many of us there are and it makes me fantastically happy.”

Incredible String Band Woodstock

This Moment

This Mike Heron song would also appear on their I Looked Up album.

This moment
Is different
From any
Before it
And this moment
Is different
It’s now
And if I
Don’t kiss you
That kiss is
Untasted
I’ll never
No never
Get it back
But why should
I want to
I’ll be in
The next moment
Sweet moment
Sweet lover
Sweet now
The walls of this room
Are different from any before them
They are now
They are now
The air that you breathe
Is different from any before it
It is now
It is now
You may think that life is repeating
Repeating, repeating, repeating, repeating
You may think that life is repeating
Oh no, Oh no, Oh no, Oh no, Oh no
Oh no.
Each moment
Is different
From any before it
Each moment
Is different
It’s now
Incredible String Band Woodstock

Come With Me

Incredible String Band Woodstock

This Robin Williamson song was recorded before Woodstock, but did not appear on an album until they Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending [the soundtrack for a film of the same name,] in March 1971.

I have a ship both sleek and fine
I point her bows wherever I will
The seven bright seas they all are mine
I call the winds
I call the winds her sails to fill

If you will flee away with me
And bid farewell to the land you know
I’ll show you marvels presently
And wonders
And wonders that the earth does show

The diamond mountains
– 0 Speak on sir
Shouting valleys
The caves where sleep the stars by day
Eve’s clouded bower
Adam’s garden
The secret land that love does see
O come with me
I will come with thee

The gentle spring rains will lave your face
The winds will bear your train
The morning birds will sing your song
The earth will call your name
The stars will be your canopy
The sun your candle flame
The greenygold wheat your incense sweet
My heart your windowpane
O come with me
I will come with thee

Acknowledgement

Incredible String Band Woodstock
Robin Williamson

Robin Williamson, as many other performers had already observed, speaks to the size of the crowd and thanks them for their called-out requests, but “…we thought it would be nice to do all new songs today which haven’t been recorded yet cause it’s nice for us to play them. I hope you don’t mind that. 

Incredible String Band Woodstock

When You Find Out Who You Are

The last song is  Robin Williamson tune also appears on the I Looked Up album. Again an apology for the time it took to start songs as “all the instruments got wet last night.”

It’s of a strange and furious time
When men did speed to pray
Along the road of discontent to gods of gold and clay
Some did seek security
Among the seas of change
Some did seek dear life to wound
A furious time and strange
But when you find out who you are
Beautiful beyond your dreams
But when you find out who you are
Beautiful beyond your dreams
But when you find out who you are
Beautiful beyond your dreams
But when you find out why you are
Beautiful beyond your dreams
Just look around and notice where you are
Just look around and notice what you see
Each moment born for you innocently
And when I see what we have made
What we have cut with the mind’s blade
Stood In the blackness feel it all
Repeated faces rise and fall
With ancient goals unwondering fail
Further obscures the ancient trail
Filling with the endless years
Rivers of my heart’s tears
You are the way
I swear you have the power
As the angels do
Spread out your fingers and
Make all things new
Change the world by the things you say
By the things you love
And by the games you play
And you make each new day

You are the way

But when you find out who you are
Beautiful beyond your dreams
When you find out who you are
Beautiful beyond your dreams
When you find out who you are
Beautiful beyond your dreams
When you find out why you are
Beautiful beyond your dreams
Oh how funny in your mummy’s tummy
Before you get born into
The world for to carry on
Remember young man of the time
Before you first went to school
How did it feel trying to live by the rule
Remember young man of the time
When your love stick
First rose free between your legs
Like a growing tree
Remember you walked with your lover
Like a gypsy and a gypsy queen
Under the stars where the sign was seen
Under the stars where
The leaves were green
Under the stars where the sign was seen
0 how many shining hearts
With love have guided me
And many I have met before
In lands across the sea
We used to speak of that ocean deep
How little words can say
It’s better now to ask your friend
What makes you sad today
0 how many shining hearts
With love have guided me
And many I have met before
In lands across the sea
We used to speak of that ocean deep
What little words can say
It’s better now to ask your friend
What makes you sad today
You can make it come true
Make it come true
Incredible String Band Woodstock

Goodbye

We have to leave now. I’d like to say goodbye. Thank you very much. Goodbye.

Incredible String Band Woodstock

The next act is Canned Heat.