Tag Archives: Woodstock Music and Art Fair

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

James Marshall Jimi Hendrix

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James Marshall Jimi Hendrix

We all know his National Anthem
Imagine if he’d played Happy Birthday?
November 27, 1942 — September 18, 1970

Jimi Hendrix

James Marshall Jimi Hendrix

Most influential?

Too often media ask us questions like “Who is the greatest guitar player of all time?” The answer, of course, depends on many things: Who is asking? Who is answering? What does greatest mean?

Perhaps the better questions is “Who is the most influential guitarist of all time?” or simply, “What guitarist influenced you the most?”

Graffiti said Eric Clapton was “God.” Woodstock devotees likely answer Hendrix.

I think it’s better to avoid the whole question and admit what all must: Hendrix was an amazing, groundbreaking, and immensely influential guitarist.

And Buddy Guy was one of Hendrix’s influences.

James Marshall Jimi Hendrix

Woodstock Music and Art Fair

There were many performers scheduled for the Woodstock Music and Art Fair that easily convinced me that I had to attend. The Who. Jefferson Airplane. Crosby, Stills, and Nash. The Band.

At the top of that list was Jimi Hendrix.

Joe Cocker opened day three. Then the skies darkened and the torrents fell.

Tired, wet, hungry, worried whether our car was still parked on the side of the road eight miles away, having to be at work in 14 hours, friend Tony and I reluctantly left Max’s field that muddy Sunday afternoon and headed back to Jersey. No Hendrix.

So did 370,000 other fans in similar straits.

James Marshall Jimi Hendrix

1967 New York Rock Festival
James Marshall Jimi Hendrix

I have been very fortunate in many ways and missing Hendrix simply meant I did not see him a second time.

On August 23, 1968 I saw the Experience with the Soft Machine, the Chambers Brothers, and Big Brother and the Holding Company. Big Brother featured, of course, Janis Poplin. That’s how the program listed Joplin. Twice.

James Marshall Jimi Hendrix

Though no Woodstock, the New York Rock Festival was drier and we didn’t have to walk eight miles to get to our seats. A great night.

Elevator

I was on my dorm’s elevator on September 18, 1970 when I heard Jimi had died. I was on the same elevator 16 days later when I heard Janis died. Two of the greatest to many Boomers. Two of the greatest to anyone with ears to listen.

Rolling Stone magazine obit for Jimi Hendrix

James Marshall Jimi Hendrix

Photos of his grave in Renton, Washington, Greenwood Memorial Cemetery taken by Molly O’Reilly McCoy:

James Marshall Jimi Hendrix
Birthdays, Music et al, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Santana Percussionist Mike Carabello

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Santana Percussionist Mike Carabello

Santana Percussionist Mike Carabello

born November 18, 1947

Happy birthday

From a YouTube video

Country Joe McDonald had just finished his 9-song solo set at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Few remember the first 8 songs, but any Woodstock fan remembers the last: Fish Cheer > I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag.

Quite an experience to shout out FUCK four times along with 400,000 other people.

Joe over, the people sitting in front of me on that famous field turned and asked if I’d ever heard of the next band that Chip Monck had just introduced? I said no.

Neither had 399,000 others, but when Santana finished “Soul Sacrifice” they knew.

Santana Percussionist Mike Carabello

Human earthquake

This white suburban middle class kid had never heard such rock and roll. Carlos Santana’s guitar playing was amazing, but it was more than that. The beat pounded, but it was more than that, too. Afro-Caribbean?

Three percussionists. That was it! The whole combination of voluminous electricity with three heaving beating hearts

No wonder 400,000 people stood, cheered, shouted, stomped, called, whistled, and applauded to create a human earthquake.

Santana Percussionist Mike Carabello
Woodstock ovation after Soul Sacrifice
Santana Percussionist Mike Carabello
The other side of that earthquake.

Mike Carabello was 21 at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair when he played with Santana that sunny Saturday afternoon. A bit younger than most performers, but still older than a few.

Santana Percussionist Mike Carabello

Youth

Mike Carabello grew up in San Francisco hearing lots of music in his grandparents’s home. They had moved to California from Puerto Rico.

On weekends his father took him fishing to San Francisco’s Municipal Pier in Aquatic Park, but more than fish, Carabello caught percussion.

“I’d see these beatniks playing bongos and congas there.”

On one weekend a different group was there and they were playing Afro-Cuban drumming. Carabello found himself “fishing” there more and more.

Santana Percussionist Mike Carabello

Mike Carabello

In 1966, Carlos Santana and Gregg Rolie formed the Santana Blues Band with Tim Frazer on guitar, Gus Rodrigues on bass, Rod Harper on drums and Michael Carabello on congas. Carabello provided the third element in what became simply Santana.

Carabello brought his Puerto Rican sensibility to the band helping it create the sound that astounded so many at Woodstock.

Though Santana is the band Carabello is most associated with in its various incarnations, he has played with and for many others including Elvin Bishop, Boz Scaggs, Buddy Miles, Harvey Mandel, Neal Schon, and the Steve Miller Band.

Here is his credit list from All Music.

Santana Percussionist Mike Carabello

Santana IV

In April 2016 Santana released its twenty-third studio album: Santana IV. Santana IV because it was the fourth album released by the band consisting primarily of its original members.

“No one does it [this kind of music] better” according to Felix Contreras in an NPR review. “Drummer Michael Shrieve and conguero Michael Carabello lay a familiar rhythmic foundation that allows guitarists Carlos Santana and Neal Schon to inspire one another in solos that are as melodic as they are rhythmic.”

As the Dead sang, the music never stopped.

Many happy returns Michael Carabello.

Carlos Santana describes how he met Michael Carabello and they started the original Santana group. At Mohegan Sun 2019.

Santana Percussionist Mike Carabello
Birthdays, Music of the 60s, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Drummer Greg Duke Dewey

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Drummer Greg Duke Dewey

Drummer with Country Joe and the Fish at Woodstock
Greg Duke Dewey
Left to Right: Mark Kapner. Country Joe, Greg Dewey, Doug Metzler, (standing) Barry “The Fish” Melton

Greg Duke Dewey

I note the various performers from the Woodstock Music and Art Fair and try do that on their birthdays. Unfortunately I cannot find birthdays for many of those performers.

Greg Duke Dewey is one of them. I’ve decided to do that today. He was 21 when he played Woodstock, which puts his birth year as either 1947 or 48.

And just as it’s difficult to find birthdays, it is sometimes difficult to find much about performers, particularly those who “simply” backed up the named performer.

Country Joe was such a name and those behind him that weekend less known. Fortunately for me (and so, you) Greg Dewey wrote a long essay about his Woodstock experience and it is from that essay that much of the following was mined.

He he and the band flew to New York from San Francisco. Who did they meet on the plane none other than Colonel Jim Sanders. Dewey asked the Colonel what he thought about hippies? Sanders responded, “They eat chicken, don’t they?”

Drummer Greg Duke Dewey

Woodstock

Dewey remembers that the Woodstock crowd just kept getting bigger and bigger. At least until Sunday’s afternoon downpour when time, hunger, the soaking, and Monday responsibilities sent thousand of that crowd home.

It was after that storm’s delay that the Fish played.

Relating a story I’d never read, Dewey said since drums were an acoustic instrument and not subject to the issues electric instruments and water caused, he asked his equipment manager to set up his drums, but the storm nearly blew them down. He sought shelter under the stage. That worked well until  up above stage hands used axes to punch holes in the stage to drain the water. Torrents came down on Dewey.

Drummer Greg Duke Dewey

Eventually, with new sheets of plywood under them, the band went on. Dewey says he never felt more compelled to play for an audience given all they’d gone through, especially the storm. It was about 6:30 PM and the previous act, Joe Cocker, had ended his set at about 3 PM.

In Dewey’s words, “…what set this concert apart from all other concerts for us musicians is this: We ALL came the first night, so we could hear each other. Normally we are all buzzing around the world at the same time so we don’t have time to hear one another unless we are in a concert together, and at this one, we were ALL going to be there.”

Drummer Greg Duke Dewey

Hotel stories

He also remembered the hotel in Liberty where “…there were huge games of cards….” Also “…a table with some of The Band, Airplane, Steve Miller Band, Jimi himself, Grace, Marty Balin, Garcia and the Dead, Janice, myself, Mitch Mitchell, Noel Redding, Richie Havens, Sebastian, guys from Blood Sweat and Tears, David Crosby, Sly’s band, Joe Cocker’s band… everyone would be down in the restaurant/bar, it was open 24 hours a day for four days. We ate a lot of food and drank a grunt-load of booze, and the party never stopped, because the concert went on around the clock.”

Finally, “The big thing was for me, about this experience, is that we, the musicians had to make friends with each other, and live together as if on a ship for four days, as we all, in turn, flew out over the massive 500,000 strong audience to play for them.”

Drummer Greg Duke Dewey

Greatest Hits

Drummer Greg Duke Dewey

In early 2018, Dewey began a GoFundMe page for a greatest hits album. One fan wrote at the page: What a wonderful set of three CDs…was not expecting such a wealth of music. Duke you are the best! 

Drummer Greg Duke Dewey

Thanks

Greg has continued to drum with various bands to this day. Those include The Rowans, Bodacious, Janey & Dennnis, Don McLean, Mad River, Alice Stuart, Jerry Corbitt, and Grootna.

Drummer Greg Duke Dewey

50th

Dewey with Bethel Woods Robin Green and the drum set he used at Woodstock

From a Yellow Springs News article:

Dewey is loaning his drums for the special exhibit, “We Are Golden — Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the Woodstock Festival and Aspirations for a Peaceful Future” at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.

Robin Green of the museum, who made the 10-hour trip to retrieve the drums, explained the exhibit’s purpose as to spark a conversation across the generations about peace and love.

Woodstock, remembered as nonviolent and communal, still has lessons for the present, Green believes. 

“They were trying to symbolize peace, and to protest the Vietnam War,” she said. “We can all take something away from it.”

“I’m still hopeful for peace and that we can all live in harmony,” she added.

Thanks for the memories…and the drum set, Greg!

Drummer Greg Duke Dewey