The First Annual Detroit Rock and Roll Revival is #9 on the list of 1969 festivals . With any of these festivals, one should not look at the price of admission and sigh with envy. Everything looks less expensive, but keep in mind that the 1969 minimum wage was $1.60 and of course, like now, not everyone even earned that minimum. And if you did, your gross pay for a 40 hour week was $64 or $3328 per year [table].
And like nearly every other festival that summer, recording or filming it did not happen. That being the case, we have to imagine what the festival sounded like. Sun Ra is what I placed at the top of this entry. A whole book is necessary to explain the amazing Sun Ra and his many contributions to jazz and the arts.
Ubiquitous Johnny Winter
Johnny Winter was there and as I’ve pointed out in the earlier posts on 1969’s festivals Winter was seemingly at all of them.
Psychedelic Stooges
The Psychedelic Stooges might not sound familiar, but Iggy Pop and the Stooges certainly will…
MC5
The MC5 (“Motor City 5”) were the “big” name and their song “Kick Out the Jams” typified their far left in-your-face pre-punk sound. Under the “management” of John Sinclair. Sinclair was the founder of the White Panthers and was sentenced to ten years in prison in 1969 after giving two joints to an undercover narcotics officer. Sinclair was infamously referred to by Abbie Hoffman at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair that August during the Who set. Pete Townshend was not happy about it.
Here is an amazing example of an MC5 performance 14 months later at Tarter Field, Wayne State University on July 19, 1970.
Mention the words festival and 1969 and most people will respond Woodstock. That is a sensible association as too would be the word Altamont. However, dig around a bit and you’ll find that 1969 is spangled with rock festivals.
May 23 marks the first of them. In fact there were three that occurred that weekend, two of which were less than a mile apart.
On May 18 – 19, 1968 The Northern California Folk-Rock Festival had been held. It was controversial because of the several “announced” bands had not actually been booked and nearly 1,000 attendees experienced PCP drug reactions.
Dennis Jay
The following year when the 1969 Northern California Folk-Rock Festival was announced, Dennis Jay (of the Drug Crisis Intervention group), members of San Jose’s Free University, the Institute for Research and Understanding, and the Druid Corporation (a musicians collective) announced a counter-festival: the Aquarian Family Festival. It was a free concert.
While free concerts were not unheard of, major free concerts were rare. Any actual free concert fed the idea that music should be for free, not something to be paid for. Such an idea doppled forward to that famous August weekend in Bethel, NY.
Another unique facet of the Aquarian Family Festival was that camping was permitted so that attendees could stay on site for the two days. Perhaps Michael Lang read about that, too?
Great line-up
Since the Aquarian Family Festival wasn’t recorded or filmed, it lives in obscurity like most of the many other 1969 festivals. Those facts should not deny its just place in festival history.
Here is the not-too-shabby list of performers for this festival and keep in mind that the Northern California Folk-Rock Festival was happening simultaneously. Interestingly, Jefferson Airplane appeared at both. Most of the bands were local and there are so many because one of the stipulations was that the music had to be continuous. (*would play at Woodstock)
The Ace of Cups
All Men Joy
Birth
Beggars Opera
Big Brother and the Holding Company*
Boz Scaggs
Chocolate Watchband
Crabs
Crow
Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band
Devine Madness
Denver
The Doobie Brothers
Elgin Marble
Flamin’ Groovies
Frumious Bandersnatch
Gentle Dance
Greater Carmichael Traveling Street Band
Glass
Mountain*
High Country
Jefferson Airplane*
Joy of Cooking
Last Mile
Libras, Lamb
Living Color
Linn County
Mother Ball
Morning Glory
Mad River
Mt. Rushmore
Nymbus
Old Davis
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Red Grass
Green Smoke
Rubber Maze
Rising Tide
Rejoice
Sunrise
Sable
Sons of Champlin
Sounds Unlimited Blues Band
Sandy Bull
The Steve Miller Blues Band
Strawberry Alarm Clock
Stoned Fox
South Bay Experimental Flash
Throckmorton
Tree of Life
Weird Herald, Womb
Warren Purcell
Zephyr Grove
Amphetamine Gazelle
I hope Mad River played “Amphetamine Gazelle.” And many thanks to Metroactive.com. Also, the featured image on top is of the Chocolate Watchband. Who knew!
Aquarian Family Festival
Ace of Cups
The first band listed (alphabetically) is the Ace of Cups, an all-female band from the Haight. Here’s a report about them.
Aquarian Family Festival
I always enjoy getting someone’s first-hand account about an event I blog about. I got this email from Roger Desmond who was at the festival:
It was a bunch of us talking. We thought the fairgrounds festival was a rip-off for many reasons. Mainly, the promoter, Bob Blodgett promised that Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin would play but we found out they were booked at another venue at the same time. Soooo we basically contacted the bands and told them we wanted to do a free concert and wham! It was happening. As a San Jose State student I was able to help secure the venue. Ironically, Jimi showed up and checked it out, and would have played but the amps he needed were not present. But the bands that DID play were amazing!
As major organizer Dennis Jay said “Its what we always wanted!”
This blog entry is on the second of the three 1969 rock festivals held on Memorial Day weekend. The first piece was on the Aquarian Family Festival in Santa Clara, California.
This entry is on its rival a half-mile away: the Northern California Folk-Rock Festival. The Aquarian was a two-day free event. The Northern California Folk-Rock Festival was a three-day ticketed event.
1968 debacle
The first Northern California Folk-Rock Festival had happened in 1968 and had issues. Some of the bands advertised weren’t actually booked and PCP sent hundreds of attendees to the local emergency room. “Never again” was the immediate reaction by local law enforcement, but a year later the second (and last) NCFRF came off.
How? According to the Rock Prosopography site: After the drug-addled debacle of the previous year, it was surprising that there was an encore. Supposedly the promoters managed to rent the Fairgrounds on false pretenses, and then started advertising Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, even though they had neither under contract. The festival ended up occurring, and was well attended, but the city and county made sure there wasn’t any further events.
Northern California Folk-Rock Festival
1969 happens
Newspaper announcement that festival would be allowed.
The Northern California Folk Rock Festival, organized by Bob Blodgett, was held at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. It had a stellar line-up. I’ve highlighted those who would perform at Woodstock in August.
Jimi Hendrix, now a super-star was the main attraction. It is a portion of his “Red House” performance that is heard at the top of this entry and the full 11-minutes in the YouTube selection below.
Northern California Folk-Rock Festival
A great lineup by any measure
Jimi Hendrix Experience
Jefferson Airplane
The Chambers Brothers
Led Zeppelin
Eric Burdon
Spirit
Canned Heat
Buffy Sainte-Marie
The Youngbloods
Steve Miller
Chuck Berry
Muddy Waters
Taj Mahal
Lee Michaels
Blues Image
Santana
Aum
Elvin Bishop
Poco
People!
Lynn County
Loading Zone
Sweet Linda Divine
Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys
Doc Watson & New Lost City Ramblers
Northern California Folk-Rock Festival
No recording/no film
Unlike Woodstock, but exactly like the more than two dozen other major festivals in 1969, the Northern California Folk-Rock Festival was not filmed nor recorded. The overpiece song at the top of this entry is Sweet Linda Divine from her solo album. Sadly most of us have not heard of Linda Tillery, but from the powerful performance we hear a piece of, we should have. And I’m sure the same can be said of many of the other performers from this sadly “unknown” festival.
