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.
Dead at Woodstock…Jerry and Bob
Grateful Dead Woodstock Woes
Dead at Woodstock
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 articlethat 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!
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.”
The Woodstock Music and Art Fair made some things famous that had been there in front of us but we weren’t listening.
It was Sunday night about 9 when a sweating exhausted-looking Alvin Lee introduced Ten Year After’s last song of the set: “This is a thing called “I’m Going Home” by…[pause]…helicopter.”
I’m sure the band had already played the song many times that summer. It’s a great example of a song that one might mistake for a cover of and old blues song that Rick Lee shifted into high gear. It isn’t. Lee wrote it and Lee (guitar), Chick Churchill (keyboard), Leo Lyons (bass) and Ric Lee (drums) played it.
Ten Years After Ric Lee
Ric Lee
So who is this guy Ric Lee besides the drummer for Ten Years After? I gathered most of this from the Ten Years After site.
Ric’s first band was as the drummer with the Falcons and from there here joined Ricky Storm and the Stormcats (as opposed to Rory Storm and the Hurricanes .
While a Stormcat, Ric studied drumming with Dave Quickmire who was a drummer with the Jaybirds. The Jaybirds’ guitarist was Alvin Lee. The bassist Leo Lyons.
When Quickmire got married he left the Jaybirds and recommended Lee to replace him. Chick Churchill joined the band first as their road manager and later as their keyboardist.
The Jaybirds backed The Ivy League, a vocal group. The Jaybirds later went solo again and briefly became the Bluesyard before becoming Ten Years After in 1966 in honor of Elvis Presley’s 10 year arrival anniversary.
We were in a chopper with a medic. He told us once we got there not to drink anything that’s not out of a sealed can and not to eat anything unless it’s been cooked. There was an outbreak of hepatitis [no medical records indicate any such outbreak] that could turn into an epidemic if we were not careful. When we landed, there were no drinks, of course, that weren’t opened. I watched the beginning of [Joe] Cocker’s set, which was fantastic, and not long after came the storm. It was a mini-cyclone I think, with very strong winds. The whole stage was live, but they wouldn’t let anybody use it. That festival these days would not get past health and safety. If you look at the film, you’ll see the covering for the stage was really pathetic. The whole thing got soaked. They were also scared that the big speaker towers people were climbing and sitting on were inadequate. The speakers were very heavy. We were incredibly lucky none came down.
Playing after the storm
The band followed Country Joe and the Fish at about 8:15 Sunday night. Well, it was still very damp. I remember we had to start Good Morning Little School Girl four times because the guitars wouldn’t stay in tune. Alvin just would not play out of tune and try to sing to it. That was nerve-wracking because 400,000 or 500,000 people – no one seems to know the exact number — were sitting there wanting us to play. In those days, there were no electronic tuners, so everything was by ear. Leo [Lyons] was tone-deaf, so Alvin had to tune his bass! Once we finally got going, the crowd loved it. What can I say? [for their full set, see Woodstock day 3]
Ten Years After Ric Lee
Side interests
While still in Ten Years After, Ric studied at Berklee School of Music in Boston, with Alan Dawson, then drummer with the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Ric also began teaching young enthusiasts privately when at home between touring commitments.
Ten Years After Ric Lee
After Ten Years After
After Ten Years After stopped touring in 1976, Ric ran his own Music Publishing, Management and Record Production company. He continued to study, now tuned percussion at the Guildhall School of Music and Dramaunder Gilbert Webster, percussionist with the BBC Radio Orchestra.
In 1980 for 18 months, Ric joined Stan Webb in Chicken Shack. Chicken Shack toured the UK and Europe many times in this short period and made an album for RCA Records “Roadies’ Concerto”.
Ten Years After re-formed again in 1983 for the Marquee Club’s 25th Anniversary. During this short “rebirth”, Ric managed the group as well as being its drummer.
Between 1984 and 1986, Ric managed several up and coming young acts and continued publishing catalog.
Ten Years After Ric Lee
Ten Years again
Ten Years After re-formed yet again in 1988 and recorded a new album “About Time” in Memphis, Tennessee and spent the next four years touring Europe and the US. In between tours Ric continued to study drum techniques, this time Latin percussion with Trevor Tompkins, Professor of Percussion at the Guildhall and the Royal College of Music.
In 1994, Ric formed The Breakers with an old friend, Ian Ellis and together they wrote and produced MILAN, released in July 1995.
In the middle nineties Lee produced a series of ambient albums, the most successful of which was Spirit of Africa.
Ric worked again with Ten Years After between 1995 and 1999. In 2001 he recorded an album in Nashville.
Ten Years After continues its intermittent existence and Lee is also part of Natural Born Swingers. Here is a link to a reviewin Elmore magazine from September 2017.
And in 2021, Ric Lee, published his autobiography, From Headstocks To Woodstock.
“It was something I’d always wanted to do and I actually started it more than 10 years ago, but kept stopping and starting for various reasons, Then a chance conversation with a friend in Los Angeles persuaded me to get it finished.”
Comprised of 448 pages, the book is available for purchase directly via Lee’s website.
From a 10/29/23 FB post: Hello everyone, Happy Sunday!!! Been back home a few weeks, getting back into the rhythm. Thank you for your prayers and well wishes.
Happy birthday: born October 18, 1941
Old Army Buddy
A July 12, 1969 article entitled Jimi Hendrix Has a Brand New Bass in Rolling Stone said in part:Jimi Hendrix has named an old Army buddy as the bass player he may soon be recording with and hinted during a recent visit to Los Angeles that as soon as contracts allow, the Jimi Hendrix Experience may make the transition from trio to creative commune.
The bassist is Billy Cox, who was stationed with Hendrix at Ft. Campbell, Ky., several years ago when both were in the Army and then for three years following the service, in the Clarksville, Ky., and Nashville areas. Since that time, Cox has remained in Nashville, playing pickup dates and touring occasionally with Wilson Pickett, Gene Chandler and most recently, Buddy Miles.
Wheeling, West Virginia
That’s me, age three with hatchet in hand, Wellsburg, West Virginia. Wonder what I was knowing? That’s my friend, Jimi, Memphis, 1969. A lot was going on with him, at that time, and NONE of it good. After a few years of not seeing each other, Jimi had made it big and he had called me to meet him in Memphis. In the early years, we always planned and talked about making it and being big together. So, there I was in Memphis, on the side of the stage, watching my old friend, sing about chopping down a mountain with the edge of his hand. Soon I would be on stage with him. ~The Last Gypsy, Billy Cox
From his site: Billy Cox was born in Wheeling, West Virginia. His father was a Baptist minister and teacher of mathematics and his mother was a classical pianist. Billy was blessed with the best of both worlds. One world revolved around the strong intellectual discipline of his father and the other world revolved around the loving tenderness and sensitivity of his mother.
Hendrix Bassist Billy Cox
Woodstock
Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock was Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. Yes, he had a band behind him, but Jimi’s talent and showmanship always shone so brightly, other band members were often in the shadows, so Billy’s presence at Woodstock is more of a footnote.
Having said that, he is a part of, albeit momentarily, of what is perhaps Woodstock’s most famous song: the Star Spangled Banner.
From a May 2023 Bassplayer magazine article Billy said: “If you listen to the recording you hear me playing the first five or six notes,” “Then I thought, ‘Wait a minute – we never practiced this.’ So I immediately stepped back, and it was bang – such a great thing that Jimi did.”
He continued: “That [Woodstock] was great; it was the first big gig I played with Jimi. We came around the back way and looked out on that crowd – it was the largest crowd I’d ever played in front of. Mitch said, ‘Hell, I don’t know whether I want to go out there!’ Jimi said, ‘We’ll give to them and they’ll give back to us, and we’ll have a good time.’ It was great, it was exhilarating.”
From the same article: Onstage with Hendrix during his first serious gigs and for his very last performances, Cox’s low-end support aptly complemented Hendrix’s guitar stratospherics. “A bloody marvellous bass player – has soul and feel for days,” noted Hendrix engineer Eddie Kramer. “Billy was Jimi’s confidante and buddy – and a wonderful human being.”
Hall of Fame
From his site: legendary bassist and Musicians Hall of Fame inductee Billy Cox, is synonymous with almost any reference to Jimi Hendrix and Rock-n-Roll history. From their army days, Billy would always have an extended friendship with Jimi Hendrix. The kindred spirits would have a musical chemistry that was nurtured over the years as both performed regularly as sidemen for the most prominent blues and R&B acts of the day. The bond between the two men would write a new chapter in music history.
Hendrix Bassist Billy Cox
Billy Cox and his Hendrix Experience band at the Allen Blues Festival
Billy Cox has released four solo albums:
Nitro Function, 1971
Last Gypsy Standing, 2009
Old School Blue Blues, 2011
Unfiltered, 2014
From Wikipedia: Today, Billy Cox owns a video production company. He has produced numerous blues and a myriad of gospel shows. He co-authored the books, Jimi Hendrix Sessions and Ultimate Hendrix with John McDermott and Eddie Kramer. Billy has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors among which: In 2009 Billy Cox was inducted into The Musicians Hall Of Fame; Billy received The Founders Award in 2010. It was given by Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen and in 2011 Billy was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall Of Fame. Billy released his latest album, Old School Blue Blues, in 2011 and continues to tour with “The Experience Hendrix Tour” each year and his own Band of Gypsys Experience. He released the single Run featuring the androgynous singer and songwriter Marlon Alarm in November 2011.
Hendrix Bassist Billy Cox
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