Tag Archives: Woodstock setlists

Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

 

It was 3 AM Monday. Those still there had heard reveille about 15 hours earlier! I was home in bed and would be at my summer job in NYC in 5 hours. Crosby, Stills and Nash was one of the bands I hated to miss. Had I known that Neil Young would be there as well, I would have been more disappointed, but c’est la vie.

The initial band’s three members were familiar to most because of the well-known bands they’d recently left: David Crosby from the Byrds, Stephen Stills from Buffalo Springfield, and Graham Nash from the Hollies.

They’d been together informally the year before and found they harmonized well. In early 1969 they signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records, recorded an album in February and March, and Atlantic released the eponymous album on May 29, 1969.

Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

As they famously say at Woodstock, this was only the second time that they’d performed live and they were “scared shitless.” They’d perform for about an hour and a quarter.

Personnel:

Setlist:

Acoustic

  • Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
  • Blackbird
  • Helplessly Hoping
  • Guinnevere
  • Marrakesh Express
  • 4 + 20
  • Mr. Soul
  • I’m Wonderin’
  • You Don’t Have to Cry

Electric

  • Pre-Road Downs
  • Long Time Gone
  • Bluebird
  • Sea of Madness
  • Wooden Ships

Acoustic encores

  • Find the Cost of Freedom
  • 49 Bye-Byes
Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

Acoustic Set

Suite: Judy Blue Eyes

From that first album, Judy Collins inspired Stephen Stills to writer the song. This was the opening track to their first album.

It’s getting to the point where I’m no fun anymore
I am sorry
Sometimes it hurts so badly I must cry out loud
I am lonely
I am yours, you are mine, you are what you are
You make it hard
Remember what we’ve said and done and felt about each other
Oh, babe have mercy
Don’t let the past remind us of what we are not now
I am not dreaming
I am yours, you are mine, you are what you are
You make it hard
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Tearing yourself away from me now you are free
And I am crying
This does not mean I don’t love you I do that’s forever
Yes and for always
I am yours, you are mine, you are what you are
You make it hard
Something inside is telling me that I’ve got your secret
Are you still listening?
Fear is the lock and laughter the key to your heart
And I love you
I am yours, you are mine, you are what you are
You make it hard
And you make it hard
And you make it hard
And you make it hard
Friday evening
Sunday in the afternoon
What have you got to lose?
Tuesday morning
Please be gone I’m tired of you
What have you got to lose?
Can I tell it like it is? (Help me I’m sufferin’)
Listen to me baby
It’s my heart that’s a sufferin’ it’s a dyin’ (Help me I’m dyin’)
And that’s what I have to lose (To lose)
I’ve got an answer
I’m going to fly away
What have I got to lose?
Will you come see me
Thursdays and Saturdays?
What have you got to lose?
Chestnut brown canary
Ruby throated sparrow
Sing a song, don’t be long
Thrill me to the marrow
Voices of the angels
Ring around the moonlight
Asking me said she so free
How can you catch the sparrow?
Lacy lilting lady
Losing love lamenting
Change my life, make it right
Be my lady
Que linda me la traiga Cuba [How beautiful Cuba brings to me]
La reina de la Mar Caribe [The Queen of the Caribbean Sea]
Cielo sol no tiene sangreahi [Sunny sky has no blood there]
Y que triste que no puedo vaya oh va, oh va [And how sad I cannot go]

 

Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

Blackbird

Once again, the Beatles are part of the Fair if not in actual presence, then in their music. The crowd loves their cover.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free
Blackbird fly, blackbird fly
Into the light of a dark black night
Blackbird fly, blackbird fly
Into the light of a dark black night
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

Helplessly Hoping

Another song by Stephen Stills and the third song on side two of their first album. He jokes as the song begins, “Helpless hoping as a helicopter hovers nearby.”

They start and restart.

Helplessly hoping
Her harlequin hovers nearby
Awaiting a word
Gasping at glimpses
Of gentle true spirit
He runs, wishing he could fly
Only to trip at the sound of good-bye
Wordlessly watching
He waits by the window
And wonders
At the empty place inside
Heartlessly helping himself to her bad dreams
He worries
Did he hear a good-bye? Or even hello?
They are one person
They are two alone
They are three together
They are for-or each other
Stand by the stairway
You’ll see something
Certain to tell you confusion has its cost
Love isn’t lying
It’s loose in a lady who lingers
Saying she is lost
And choking on hello
They are one person
They are two alone
They are three together
They are for-or each other
Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

Guinnevere

David Crosby wrote the song. It the third song on side one of their first album.

Guinnevere had green eyes
Like yours, m’lady, like yours
She’d walk down
Through the garden
In the morning after it rained
Peacocks wandered aimlessly
Underneath an orange tree
Why can’t she see me?
Guinnevere drew pentagrams
Like yours, m’lady, like yours
Late at night
When she thought
That no one was watching at all
On the wall
She shall be free
As she turns her gaze
Down the slope
To the harbor where I lay
Anchored for a day
Guinnevere had golden hair
Like yours, m’lady, like yours
Streaming out
When we’d ride
Through the warm wind down by the bay
Yesterday
Seagulls circle endlessly
I sing in silent harmony
We shall be free
Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

Marrakesh Express

A Graham Nash song and again from their first album. Someone calls out to get off the projector. Nash says that they’d like to do “a medley of our hit.” The band had released the song as a single with Helplessly Hoping on the B-side. It had reached 28 on Billboard.

Looking at the world
Through the sunset in your eyes
Trying to make the train
Through clear Moroccan skies
Ducks and pigs and chickens call
Animal carpet wall to wall
American ladies five foot tall in blue.
Sweeping cobwebs from the edges of my mind
Had to get away to see what we could find
Hope the days that lie ahead
Bring us back to where they’ve led
Listen not to what’s been said to you
Would you know we’re riding
On the Marrakesh Express
Would you know we’re riding
On the Marrakesh Express
All on board that train
I’ve been saving all my money just to take you there
I smell the garden in your hair
Take the train from Casablanca going south
Blowing smoke rings from the corners of my my, my, my, my mouth
Colored cottons hang in air
Charming cobras in the square
Striped Djellebas we can wear at home
Don’t you know we’re riding on the Marrakesh Express
Don’t you know we’re riding on the Marrakesh Express
They’re taking me to Marrakesh Express
Don’t you know we’re riding on the Marrakesh Express
Don’t you know we’re riding on the Marrakesh Express
They’re taking me to Marrakesh
All on board that train
All on board that train
Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

4 + 20

Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

A Stephen Stills song that would appear on their next album, Déjà Vu which they’d already started to record, would finish recording in January 1970, and release on March 11, 1970. The album would include Neil Young. This performance is sung alone by Stills.

Four and twenty years ago, I come into this life,
The song of a woman and a man who lived in strife.
He was tired of being poor and he wasn’t into selling door to door
And he worked like the devil to be more.
A different kind of poverty now upsets me so.
Night after sleepless night, I walk the floor and I want to know- why am I so alone?
Where is my woman can I bring her home? Have I driven her away? Is she gone?
Morning comes to sunrise and I’m driven to my bed.
I see that it is empty and there’s devils in my head.
I embrace the many colored beast. I grow weary of the torment, can there be no peace?
And I find myself just wishing that my life would simply cease.

Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

Mr. Soul

Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

A song well-known Neil Young song to Buffalo Springfield fans and Neil Young comes out on the stage. He refused to be filmed, thus there are no pictures of him at Woodstock. Young sings. It was the A-side of a Springfield single that Atco Records had released on June 15, 1967. It had been on their Buffalo Springfield Again album.

Oh, hello, Mr. Soul, I dropped by to pick up a reason
For the thought that I caught that my head is the event of the season
Why in crowds just a trace of my face could seem so pleasin’
I’ll cop out to the change, but a stranger is putting the tease on
I was down on a frown when the messenger brought me a letter
I was raised by the praise of a fan who said I upset her
Any girl in the world could have easily known me better
She said, “you’re strange, but don’t change, ” and I let her
In a while, will the smile on my face turn to plaster?
Stick around while the clown who is sick does the trick of disaster
For the race of my head and my face is moving much faster
Is it strange I should change?
I don’t know, why don’t you ask her?
Is it strange I should change?
I don’t know, why don’t you ask her?
Is it strange I should change?
I don’t know, why don’t you ask her?
Is it strange I should change?
I don’t know, why don’t you ask her?
Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

I’m Wonderin’

A Neil Young song that would not appear on an album until 1983, Everybody’s Rockin’ a version will have a rockabilly feel.

At the end of this song, David Crosby says, “As you’ve gathered by now, our shows are very easy, it’s just the music that counts.”

I’ve been walking all night long
My footsteps made me crazy
Baby, you’ve been gone so long
I’m wonderin’ if you’ll come home
I’m hopin’ that you’ll be my baby
I’m wonderin’ if I’ll be alone
Knowin’ that I need you to save me.I’ve been talking all day long
To keep my heart from sadness
Baby, you’ve been gone so long
I’m wonderin’ if you’ll come home
I’m hopin’ that you’ll be my baby
I’m wonderin’ if I’ll be alone
Knowin’ that I need you to save me.I’m wonderin’, I’m wonderin’,
I’m wonderin’, I’m wonderin’,
I’m wonderin’, I’m wonderin’,
I’m wonderin’, I’m wonderin’.Well, I’m knowin’
that I need you to save me
Knowin’ that I need you to save me.
Knowin’ that I need you to save me.
Knowin’ that I need you to save me.
I’m wonderin’, I’m wonderin’.
Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

You Don’t Have to Cry

A Stephen Stills song, the song closed side one of their debut album and the last song of this first acoustic set.

In the mornin’ when you rise
Do you think of me and how you left me cryin’?
Are you thinkin’ of telephones, and managers
And where you got to be at noon?
You are living a reality I left years ago
It quite nearly killed me
In the long run it will make you cry
Make you crazy and old before your time
And the difference between me and you
I won’t argue right or wrong
But I have time to cry, my baby
You don’t have to cry
I said cry my baby, you don’t have to cry
I said cry my baby, you don’t have to cry
In the mornin’ when you rise
Do you think of me and how you left me cryin’?
Are you thinkin’ of telephones, and managers
And where you got to be at noon?
You are living a reality I left years ago
It quite nearly killed me
In the long run it will make you cry
Make you crazy and old before your time
And the difference between me and you
I won’t argue right or wrong
But I have time to cry, my baby
You don’t have to cry
I said cry my baby, you don’t have to cry
I said cry my baby, you don’t have to cry
Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

Electric set

Pre-Road Downs

A Graham Nash song, it closed side one of their debut album. Graham Nash introduced the two other band members at this point: Dallas Taylor and Greg Reeves.

I have kissed you
So I’ll miss you
On the road I’ll be wantin’ you
But I have you
‘Cause I love you
And you have me ’cause you love me too, yeah

Felt forsaken
You’ll awaken
To the joys of livin’ hand in glove
And then I will
Lend you my will
And your days will be filled with love

Don’t run, the time approaches
Hotels and midnight coaches
Be sure to hide the roaches

Felt rejected
As expected
You rejected all the thoughts of words
So I’ll pray with
You to stay with
Me forever and we’ll make it work, whoa-oh-oh!

Elevated
You’re elated
‘Cause I’ve waited a year for you
If you’re thinkin’
What I’m thinkin’
Then I’m gonna make my love to you, whoa-oh-oh!

Don’t run, the time approaches
Hotels and midnight coaches
Be sure to hide the roaches

Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

Long Time Gone

A David Crosby song from their debut album.

It’s been a long time comin’
It’s goin’ to be a long time gone

And it appears to be a long
Appears to be a long
Appears to be a long time
Yes, a long, long, long, long time before the dawn

Turn, turn any corner
Hear, you must hear what the people say
You know there’s something that’s goin’ on around here
That surely, surely, surely won’t stand the light of day, no

And it appears to be a long (yes it does)
Appears to be a long (mm)
Appears to be a long time
Such a long, long time before the dawn

Speak out, you got to speak out against the madness
You got to speak your mind, if you dare
But don’t—no, don’t no—try to get yourself elected
If you do you had better cut your hair, mm

And it appears to be a long (yes it does)
Appears to be a long (mm)
Appears to be a long time
Such a long, long, long, long time before the dawn

It’s been a (long) long (time) time (comin’) comin’
It’s going to be (long) a long (time) time (gone) gone
But you know the darkest hour
Is always, always just before the dawn

And it appears to be a long
Appears to be a long
Appears to be a long time
Such a long, long, long, long time before the dawn

Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

Bluebird Revisited

A follow-up to another well-known Stephen Stills song from the Buffalo Springfield canon and the single referenced above. Graham Nash introduced the song as on their new album, but it was not there.

The pain of losing you well it made me an angry man
Was there something else that I could do? or was it over?
Had I the chance?

So I listened once again to my bluebird sing
Oh yes and children how she made the mountains ring
Now when hearts be stilled that gentle voice is spring
Oh my precious my soul says to my blue eyed sparrow
Come back, come back. I can peel away the cages
Come back, come back. I can put away the rages
Come back, come back. Can we turn the next page together?

Listen to my bluebird laugh she can tell you why
Deep within her heart you see she knows only cryin’
There she sits aloft at perch strangest color blue
Flying is forgotten now thinks only of you

Get into all those blues must be a thousand years
And each is differently used you just know
You sit there mesmerized by the depth of her eyes
I can tell you no lies
She’s got soul, she’s got soul she’s got soul, she’s got soul
She’s got soul

Soon she’s goin’ to fly away sadness is her own
Give herself a bath of tears and go home
So I listened once again to my bluebird sing
Oh yes and children how she made the mountains ring
Now when hearts be stilled that voice is spring
Oh my precious my soul says to my blue eyed sparrow
Fly back home, fly back home, fly back home

Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

Sea of Madness

A Neil Young song. Interestingly, as the band tunes the little riff from the Byrds famous cover of Bob Dylan’s Mr Tambourine Man can be hears and one assumes Crosby was just having some fun. The song will sort of appear on the Woodstock album the following year. Sort of because the producers of the album actually used a recording from a September 1969 performance at the Fillmore East.

How can I bring you
To the Sea of Madness
I love you so much
It’s gonna bring me sadness
I’ve never seen you
Through these eyes before
Now I don’t believe it
I think I’ll take it
Or leave it.
All I need is your sweet sweet loving
Fill my life with happiness
All I want is your heart
Every time I think of you
Mine falls apart.
I went to heaven
And I stood at the crossroads
I’ll love you tomorrow
As sure as the wind blows
Silver rain
On the mountain clover
Washes away
Until the music is over
Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

Wooden Ships

Written by Stills, Crosby, and the Airplane’s Paul Kantner. It was about 4 AM Monday at this point and the Airplane had done a 20+ minute version of the song about 19 hours before.

If you smile at me, I will understand
‘Cause that is something
Everybody everywhere does in the same language
I can see by your coat, my friend
You’re from the other side
There’s just one thing I got to know
Can you tell me please, who won?
Say, can I have some of your purple berries?
Yes, I’ve been eating them for six or seven weeks now
Haven’t got sick once
Probably keep us both alive
Wooden ships on the water, very free and easy
Easy, you know the way it’s supposed to be
Silver people on the shoreline, let us be
Talkin’ ’bout very free and easy
Horror grips us as we watch you die
All we can do is echo your anguished cries
Stare as all human feelings die
We are leaving, you don’t need us
Go, take your sister then, by the hand
Lead her away from this foreign land
Far away, where we might laugh again
We are leaving, you don’t need us
And it’s a fair wind blowin’ warm
Out of the south over my shoulder
Guess I’ll set a course and go
Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

Back to Acoustic

Find the Cost of Freedom

A song by Stephen Still that he’d written  for the movie Easy RiderThe song would sadly become the B-side of Neil Young and the band’s sadder Ohio in less than a year.

Find the cost of freedom
Buried in the ground
Mother Earth will swallow you
Lay your body down

Find the cost of freedom
Buried in the ground
Mother Earth will swallow you
Lay your body down

Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

Encore

49 Bye-Byes

Written by Stephen Stills, the song was the closing track of side two on their debut album. It takes a bit to get going, but get going they do.

Forty Nine reasons all in a line
All of them good ones
All of them lies

Driftin’ with my lady
We’re oldest of friends
Need a little work, and there’s fences to mend

Steady girl, be my world
`Till the drifter come, now she’s gone
I let that man play his hand
I let them go, how was I to know?
I’m down on my knees
Nobody left to please

Now it’s over, they left in the spring
Her and the drifter, looking for beautiful things

Steady girl, be my world
`Till the drifter come, now she’s gone
I let that man play his hand
I let them go, how was I to know?
I’m down on my knees
Nobody left to please

On my knees
Feeling wrong
Mama’s gone
Bye bye baby

Write if you think of it, maybe
Know I love you (Know I love you)
Go if it means that much to you
Hey, but you can run, baby
If the feeling’s wrong before too long it’s crazy
And you’re trapped, babe
And you know that’s not where it’s at, babe

You’re just seein’ things through a cat’s eye, baby
That’s not my old lady

Come on and tell me, baby
You better tell me, baby
Who do you
Who do you love?
Time will tell us
Who is trying to sell us
Bye, bye, baby
Write if you think of it, maybe
Hey, but you can run, baby
If the feeling’s wrong, before too long, it’s crazy
And you’re trapped babe
And you know that’s not where it’s at baby
You’re just seein’ things through a cat’s eye, baby
That’s not my old lady

Come on and tell me, baby
You better tell me, baby
Who do you
Who do you love?

Crosby Stills Nash Young Woodstock

The next act was the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

Blood Sweat Tears Woodstock

Blood Sweat Tears Woodstock

Blood Sweat Tears Woodstock

It was about 1:30 AM, Monday 18 August.  Bethel’s dairy farmers would be up soon and hoped that the roads would be open so trucks could pick up their milk.  Many Catskill weekend vacationers bemoaned their luck to have picked a weekend when 500,000 others unintentionally closed down the area.

For those who had remained at the festival, there were still four more bands yet to play after Blood, Sweat and Tears to complete Sunday’s lineup: Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Sha Na Na, and Jimi Hendrix. The rain storm had delayed the day’s progression, but even without the downpour, the festival would still have stretched out into early Monday.

The live performance often gave individual band members the chance to stretch out their studio performances. The set lasted about 55 minutes.

Personnel:

Setlist:

  • More and More
  • Just One Smile
  • Something’s Coming on
  • More Than You’ll Ever Know
  • Spinning Wheel
  • Sometimes in Winter
  • Smiling Phases
  • God Bless the Child
  • And When I Die
  • You’ve Made Me So Very Happy
Blood Sweat Tears Woodstock

More and More

Recorded in October 1968 and released by Columbia Records on December 11, 1968. It received a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1970.

The song is from the band’s second album, Blood, Sweat & Tears. Little Milton first covered it.

According to the funky16corners site: The tune, which was written by a mysterious pair named Don Juan and Vee Pee Smith, would later be covered by Blood Sweat and Tears. Listening to the Little Milton original, it’s not hard to see why David Clayton-Thomas wanted to cover it, as it’s right up his (and the bands) stylistic alley. They take it at a much faster pace, in which the tune loses a little bit of its built-in funk, but it’s still worth a listen.

Like medicine baby
You’re good for me
Like honey, darlin’ girl
I know you’re sweet to me
Each passing day,
Brings us much closer together
And the love you bring me darlin’
Just gets better and better
That’s why my love for you
Keeps on growin’
More and more
All the time
More and more
All the time, yeah!

Uh huh,
Gonna say it again, now now now
Hah!
Like a ship that’s driftin’ baby
You’re apart from me
Like old man time
You controll my destiny
If from my life, you ever tried to go
It would destroy in a second
What took a lifetime to mold
That’s why my love for you
Just keeps on growin’
More and more
All the time
More and more
All the time

As sure as a sunrise
I’ll stand by your side
As sure as the daybreak
I’ll love you for Heaven’s Sake
I’m ready to pay, yeah
My dues for lovin’ you
For lovin’ you too much woman,
You know I stand accused

More,
And more
All the time
More and More!

Blood Sweat Tears Woodstock

Just One Smile

Blood Sweat Tears Woodstock
Recorded in November and December 1968, Columbia Records released the album on February 21, 1968.

Written by Randy Newman and from the first Blood, Sweat and Tears album, Child Is Father To the ManThe Tokens recorded the original version of the song in 1965. It was the B-side to their single “The Bells Of St. Mary“.

Can I cry a little bit
There’s nobody to notice it
Can I cry if I want to
No one cares
Why can’t I pretend
That you love me again?
All I had has been taken from me
Now I’m cryin’
And tears don’t become me
Chorus: Just one smile,
Pain’s forgiven
Just one kiss, girl
Now the hurt’s all gone
Just one smile to my
Make my little life worth livin’
A little dream to build my world upon
How I wish
I could say
All the things that I got to say
How I wish you
Could see what’s here
In My heart
I don’t ask for much
A look, a smile, a touch
Try to forget
Well, the Lord knows I’m tryin’
But it’s so hard to forget girl,
When your whole world is dyin’
(Chorus)
(Solos)
Try to forget
Well, the Lord knows I’m tryin’
But it’s so hard to forget girl,
When your whole world is dyin’

Blood Sweat Tears Woodstock

Something’s Coming on

Also from the first Blood, Sweat and Tears album. Chris Stainton and Joe Cocker wrote it and had performed it about 12 hours earlier!

Let me tell you story about a pain
It will hunt you down and leave the stain, so give it a think
When someone’s hurt nobody care
When a children’s being left, hey it’s not fair
I wonder is this happiness?
All i know this life is just a mess, it’s like a poison kiss
Sometimes it’s useless when you crying
No one will help to wipe those tears
Some won’t survive, the evil break their gut
But i will try, i’ll put it in a fight
I better die for something, cause i won’t live for nothing
They could burn and crush me all they want
Leave me if you want to, kill me if you need to
You could drink my blood i don’t care anymore
Life is tough, it’s cruel enough to break you in a half.
So listen,
So don’t surrender not this time, so take a breath say a grace
I’ll take a bullet in this fight and i’ll be bleed to reach the light
No one stop me in this war, cause i don’t care even if i die
Some wont survive, the evil break their gut
But I will try, i’ll put it in a fight
Blood Sweat Tears Woodstock

More Than You’ll Ever Know

The band seques right into the next song. Al Kooper wrote More Than You’ll Ever Know and again it is from the first Blood, Sweat and Tears album. Here’s Kooper’s live version. You can decide whose you prefer.

If I ever leave you
You can say I told you so
And if I ever hurt you baby
You know I hurt myself as well

Is that any way for a man to carry on ?
You think he wants his little loved one gone
I love you baby, more than you’ll ever know
More than you’ll ever know

When I wasn’t makin’ too much money
You know where my paycheck went
You know I brought it home to baby
And I never spent one red cent

Is that any way for a man to carry on ?
You think he wants his little loved one gone
I love you baby, more than you’ll ever know
More than you’ll ever know

I’m not tryin’ to be any kind of man
I’m tryin’ to be somebody you can love, trust and understand
I know that I can dream, yeah
A part of you that no one else could see
I just gotta hear, hear you say : ‘It’s all right, yeah, yeah, yeah’

I’m only flesh and blood
I can be anything that you demand
I could president of General Motors baby, heh
Or just a tiny little grain of sand

Is that any way for a man to carry on ?
You think he wants his little loved one gone
I love you babe, I love you babe
I love you more than you’ll ever know

Yeah
Yeah, yeah

If I ever leave you
You can say I told you so
And if I ever hurt you
You know I hurt myself as well

Is that any way for a man to carry on ?
You think he wants his little loved one gone
I tried to tell I love you baby, love you baby, yeah love you baby
I love you more than you’ll ever know, ooh yeah yeah …

I love you, I love you, I love you baby

Well all right!
I told you so many times before
I love you, I love you, I love you
If you don’t know then I’ll tell you one more time
I love you, I love you, I love you .

Blood Sweat Tears Woodstock

Spinning Wheel

Recorded in October 1968 and released by Columbia Records on December 11, 1968. It received a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1970.

Written by David Clayton Thomas and from Blood, Sweat & Tears second and then most recent album, Blood, Sweat and Tears.  

On the critical side,  Jon Landau of Rolling Stone  wrote in his March 1969 review: “The listener responds to the illusion that he is hearing something new when in fact he is hearing mediocre rock, OK jazz, etc., thrown together in a contrived and purposeless way.

William Ruhlmann of All Music wrote: “ the second BS&T, under the aegis of producer James William Guercio, was a less adventurous unit, and, as fronted by Clayton-Thomas, a far more commercial one. Not only did the album contain three songs that neared the top of the charts as singles — “Happy,” “Spinning Wheel,” and “And When I Die” — but the whole album, including an arrangement of “God Bless the Child” and the radical rewrite of Traffic‘s “Smiling Phases,” was wonderfully accessible. It was a repertoire to build a career on, and Blood, Sweat & Tears did exactly that…”

What goes up, must come down
Spinning wheel got to go round
Talkin’ ’bout your troubles, it’s a cryin’ sin
Ride a painted pony, let the spinning wheel spin

You got no money and you, you got no home
Spinning wheel, all alone
Talkin’ ’bout your troubles and you, you never learn
Ride a painted pony, let the spinning wheel turn

Did you find a directing sign on the straight and narrow highway?
Would you mind a reflecting sign?
Just let it shine within your mind
And show you the colors that are real

Someone is waiting just for you
Spinning wheel spinning through
Drop all your troubles by the riverside
Catch a painted pony on the spinning wheel ride
Ha!

Someone’s waiting just for you
Spinning wheel spinning through
Drop all your troubles by the riverside
Ride a painted pony, let the spinning wheel fly

Blood Sweat Tears Woodstock

Sometimes in Winter

Also from the Blood, Sweat & Tears album written by Steve Katz. Katz still sings it.

Sometimes in winter
I gaze into the streets
And walk through snow and city sleet
Behind your room

Sometimes in winter
Forgotten memories
Remember you behind the trees
With leaves that cried

By the window once I waited for you
Laughing slightly you would run
Trees alone would shield us in the meadow
Makin’ love in the evening sun

Now you’re gone girl
And the lamp posts call your name
I can hear, them
In the spring of frozen rain
Now you’re gone girl
And the time’s slowed down till dawn
It’s a cold room and the walls ask
Where you’ve gone

Sometimes in winter
I love you when the good times
Seem like memories in the spring
That never came

Sometimes in winter
I wish the empty streets
Would fill with laughter from the tears
That ease my pain

Blood Sweat Tears Woodstock

Smiling Phases

From Blood, Sweat & Tears album written by Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, and Chris Wood of Traffic.

Do yourself a favor,
Wake up to your mind
Life is what you make it
You see, but still you’re blindGet yourself together,
Give before you take
You’ll find out the hard way,
Soon you’re gonna break
Hey hey heySmiling phases
Showing traces
Even if they bust you
Keep on smiling through and through
And you’ll be amazed at the gaze
On their faces as they sentence youYou don’t need a lawyer
When you’re in a fix
Someone gets to pay up
Your friends are full of tricks
But happiness is something
That you just can’t buy
Own up to the truth girl,
Your love has gone on bySmiling Phases bring you flowers
You can line ’em up
And you can watch ’em grow for hours
And you’ll be amazed at the way that they stare
As they walk by your door.Do yourself a favor,
Wake up to your mind
Life is what you make it
You see, but still you’re blindGet yourself together,
Give before you take
You’ll find out the hard way,
Soon you’re gonna break
Hey hey heySmiling phases
Going Places
Even if they bust you
Keep on smiling through and through
And you’ll be amazed at the gaze
On their faces as they sentence…you!!
Blood Sweat Tears Woodstock

God Bless the Child

Blood Sweat Tears Woodstock

Also from Blood, Sweat & Tears album. Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr. wrote “God Bless the Child” in 1939. It was first recorded on May 9, 1941 and released by the Okeh Records in 1942.

It’s likely impossible to top her version.

David Clayton-Thomas says as the song starts, “I don’t think ever in my lifetime…there’s a song that seems so appropriate to me.”

Them that’s got, shall get
Them that’s not, shall lose
So the Bible says
And it still is news

Mama may have
And papa may have
But God bless the child that’s got his own will
That’s got his own

And the strong seem to get more
While the weak ones fade
Empty pockets don’t
Ever make the grade
Cause mama may have
And papa may have
But God bless the child that’s got his own
That’s got his own

And when you got money
You got lots of friends
Their crowding round your door
When the money’s gone
And all you’re spending ends
They won’t be round anymore, no, no, no

And rich relations may give you
A crust of bread and such
You can help yourself
But don’t take too much
Mama may have
And papa may have
But God bless the child that’s got his own
That’s got his own

And when you got money
You got lots of friends
Their crowding round your door
But wait a minute children
When the money’s gone
And all you’re spending ends
They won’t be round anymore, no, no

And rich relations may give you
A crust of bread and such
You can help yourself
But don’t take too much
Mama may have
And papa may have
But God bless the child who can
Stand up and say
I got my own

Every child’s got to have his own bell

Blood Sweat Tears Woodstock

And When I Die

Written by Laura Nyro, Peter, Paul and Mary first recorded “And When I Die” in 1966. Nyro released her own version on her debut album More Than a New Discovery in February 1967.

Again from the Blood, Sweat & Tears album. Laura’s is pretty good, but then a composer’s own version would seem closer to their intent.

With tongue in cheek, Steve Katz introduced the song by saying, “We hope you look upon this next little number as a little piece of sunshine amidst a lot of sunshine.”

I’m not scared of dying
And I, don’t really care
If it’s peace you find in dying
Well then, let the time be near

If it’s peace you find in dying
Well then dying time is near
Just bundle up my coffin
‘Cause it’s cold way down there
I hear that it’s
Cold way down there, yeah
Crazy cold, way down there

And when I die, and when I’m gone
There’ll be, one child born
In this world
To carry on, to carry on

Now troubles are many
They’re as
Deep as a well
I can swear there ain’t no Heaven
But I pray there ain’t no hell
Swear there ain’t no Heaven
And I’ll pray there ain’t no hell
But I’ll never know by livin’
Only my dyin’ will tell, yes only my
Dyin’ will tell, oh yeah
Only my dyin’ will tell

And when I die, and when I’m gone
There’ll be, one child born, in this world
To carry on, to carry on
Yeah yeah

Give me my freedom
For as long as I be
All I ask of livin’
Is to have no chains on me
All I ask of livin’
Is to have no chains on me
And all I ask of dyin’ is to
Go natrually, only wanna
Go naturally
Here I go!
Hey hey
Here come the devil
Right behind
Look out children, here he come
Here he come, heyyy

Don’t wanna go by the devil
Don’t wanna go by the demon
Don’t wanna go by satan
Don’t wann die uneasy
Just let me go
Naturally

And when I die, and when I’m dead
Dead and gone
There’ll be
One child born, in our world
To carry on, to carry on.

This was the “last” song, but the crowd cheers brings back the band for one more song.

Blood Sweat Tears Woodstock

You’ve Made Me So Very Happy

Written by Gordy Berry, Frank Wilson, Brenda Holloway, and Patrice Holloway, it is from the Blood, Sweat & Tears album

I lost at love before
Got mad and closed the door
But you said child just once more

I chose you for the one
Now we’re havin’ so much fun
You treated me so kind
I’m about to lose my mind

You made me so very happy
I’m so glad you
Came into my life

The others were untrue
But when it came to lovin’ you
I’d spend my whole life with you

‘Cause you came and you took control
You touch my very soul
You always show me that
Lovin’ you is where it’s at

You made me so very happy
I’m so glad you
Came into my life

Thank you, baby

I love you so much you see
You’re even in my dreams
I can hear
Baby, I can hear you calling me
I’m so in love with you
All I ever want to do is
Thank you baby, thank you baby

You made me so very happy
I’m so glad you
Came into my life

You made me so very happy
You made me so, so very happy
I’m so glad you
Came into my life

Mmmm, I want to thank you, girl
Every day of my life
I wanna thank you
You made me so very happy
Oh, I wanna spend my life thanking you
Thank you baby, thank you baby
Thank you baby thank you baby

Blood Sweat Tears Woodstock

The next act is Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

Johnny Winter Woodstock

Johnny Winter Woodstock

Johnny Winter Woodstock

In it’s December 7, 1968 issue, Rolling Stone magazine’s Larry Sepulvado and John Burks wrote in an article titled “Tribute to the Lone Star State: Dispossessed Men and Mothers of Texas” :

The hottest item outside of Janis Joplin, though, still remains in Texas. If you can imagine a hundred and thirty pound cross-eyed albino with long fleecy hair playing some of the gutsiest fluid blues guitar you have ever heard, then enter Johnny Winter. At 16, Bloomfield called him the best white blues guitarist he had ever heard. 

Winter reportedly received $600,000 for signing with Columbia Records in 1969. That was a huge sum of money for that time.

The band started at midnight; played a little over an hour.

Personnel:

Setlist:

  • Mama, Talk to Your Daughter
  • Leland Mississippi Blues
  • Mean Town Blues
  • You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now > Mean Mistreater
  • I Can’t Stand It
  • Tobacco Road
  • Tell the Truth
  • Johnny B. Goode

* with Edgar Winter

Johnny Winter Woodstock

Mama, Talk to Your Daughter

Johnny Winter Woodstock

The band starts minus brother Edgar Winter.  JB Lenoir wrote the song. The song would appear on Winter’s third album and the third Columbia Records release for Winter in 1969!

Mama, mama please talk to your daughter ’bout me
Mama, mama please talk to your daughter ’bout me
She made me love her and I ain’t gonna leave her be

You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk)
You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk)
You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk)
You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk)
She made me love her and I ain’t gonna leave her be

I ain’t gonna stand no quitting and she won’t have me aroun
I ain’t gonna stand no quitting and she won’t have me around
If she got me a ride, she’d be six feet in the ground

You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk)
You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk)
You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk)
You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk)
She made me love her and I ain’t gonna leave her be

You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk)
You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk)
You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk)
You should talk to your daughter (talk, talk)
She made me love her and I ain’t gonna leave her be

Johnny Winter Woodstock

Leland Mississippi Blues

Written by Johnny Winter, the song appeared on The Progressive Blues Experiment, his first album. Austin’s Sonobeat Records label originally issued the album in 1968, but when Winter signed to Columbia Records, the rights were sold to Imperial Records who reissued the album in 1969.

Oh yeah, oh yeah, uh huh, oh yeah
I’ve been in Texas, I’ve been on the run
I’ve been in Texas, I’ve been on the run
I’m going to Leland, Mississippi, mama
You all know that’s where I come from
Right down on the Delta, man
Well, I’m alone, baby, I’m free free from my home
Well, I’m alone, I’m free from my home
You know I was sittin’ right down people
On my daddy’s cotton farm
Come hear, baby, let your long hair down
Ah, come here, woman, let your hair down
I want you to love me with a feeling
‘Cause I’m Mississippi bound
The best woman, the best waist in town
The best woman, the best waist in town
Oh yeah
You’ll never keep me woman
‘Cause I have a travellin’ mind
Johnny Winter Woodstock

Mean Town Blues

Johnny Winter wrote it and it also appeared on his first Columbia Records album.

Lord my mother she done told me and my
Father done told me
Grandfather told me too
My mother she done told me
And my father done told me
Grandfather told me too
It’s a mean old town to live in by yourself

Yeah, I worked for a dollar could not
Save a lousy
Could not save a dime
You know I worked for a dollar could not
Save a lousy
Could not save a dime
Ain’t nobody worried, man, ain’t nobody crying

Everybody’s got a hand out trying to
Get a hold on
Trying to get some of my cash
Everybody’s got a hand out trying to
Get a hold on
Trying to get some of my cash
Smiling great big smiles, man, keep on talking trash

You know I packed up my suitcase and I
Moved on down the
Hit that lonesome road
You know I packed up my suitcase and I
Moved on down the
Hit that lonesome road
I’m still trying to make it, man, when the day is done

Johnny Winter Woodstock

 

You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now > Mean Mistreater

BB King and Joe Josea wrote You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now and had been on his 1960 album. Written by Jimmie Gordon, “Mean Mistreater” appeared on Winter’s second album. My Kind of Blues.

Oh, baby you done lost your good thing now
Oh, baby you done lost your good thing now
Well the way I used to love you baby
Baby that’s the way I hate you now
You used to say that you loved me
But baby I believe you’ve changed your mind
You used to say that you loved me
But baby I believe you’ve changed your mind
Well I don’t blame you baby
Because you ain’t what you used to be
Let me love you just one more time
Yes let me love you just one more time anyway
Oh, let me love you, let me love you, let me love you
One more time baby
Let me love you just one more time anyway
Oh you can’t quit me now baby
Because you didn’t mean me no good anyway
Well you know where I’m from baby
So please don’t try to mistreat me
Yes you know where I’m from baby
So please don’t try to mistreat me
Yes because I’ll make your mother a present
Baby of you and your casket too
Oh you once said you loved me
And you would do anything I said
Oh you once said you loved me baby
And you would do anything I said
Oh but the way you treat me now baby
I just soon rather be dead
Oh, baby you done lost your good thing now
Oh, baby you done lost your good thing now
The way I used to love you
Baby that’s the way I hate you now

Johnny Winter Woodstock

She’s a mean mistreater
And she don’t mean me no good
She’s a mean mistreater,
And the woman she don’t mean me no good
Well you know I don’t blame you baby,
I’d be the same way if I could
She’s a mean mistreater,
And the girl mistreats me all the time
She’s a mean mistreater,
And the little girl mistreats me all the time
Well you know you just wants to quit me darlin’,
Because you got that on your mind
Well you remember that Monday mornin’ that I knocked up, up on your door
You had the nerve to tell me that you didn’t love, me no more
Can’t you remember baby,
When I knocked up on your door
Well you know you had the nerve to tell me that you,
Didn’t love me no more
Well you know it’s lonesome you know it’s lonesome,
When you sleepin’, all by yourself
The little girl that you lovin’,
She lovin’ someone else
And it’s lonesome,
Sleepin’ by yourself
Well you know the little woman that you involved with now,
She is loving someone else
Johnny Winter Woodstock

I Can’t Stand It

Brother Edgar Winter now joined Johnny, who explained that they’d just finished cutting their next album in Nashville and that I Can’t Stand It was one of the tracks from it. That album would be Second Winter,  but the song does not appear on it and will not appear on any album until Columbia Legacy released Winter’s complete Woodstock set as part of the The Woodstock Experience album in 2009.

Johnny Winter Woodstock

Tobacco Road

By John Loudermilk the song has become especially associated with Edgar more than Johnny. In fact, Edgar is the vocalist on this song.

I was born in a trunk
Mama died and my daddy got drunk
Let me hear two dying crows
In the middle of tobacco road
Grew up in a rusty shack
All I owned was hanging on my back
Only lord knows how I loved tobacco road
But it’s hard, hard the only life I’ve ever known
But the lord knows how I loved
Tobacco road
Gonna leave, get a job
With the help of the treesome god
Save my money, get rich enough
Bring it back to tobacco road
Bring dynamite and a crane
Blow it up and start all over again
Build a town be proud to show
Give the name tobacco road
‘Cause it’s hard, hard the only life I’ve ever known
I despise you cause you’re filthy
But I love you cause you’re home
Bring dynamite and a crane
Blow it up start all over again
Build a town be proud to know
This place called tobacco road
‘Cause it’s hard, hard the only life I’ve ever known
But the lord knows how I love
Tobacco road
Johnny Winter Woodstock

Tell the Truth 

By Lowman Pauling  wrote it and it was supposed to be included on Winter’s next album, but wasn’t released until a 2004 re-release.

Tell the truth
Tell the truth
You know you can make me do what you want me to
Tell the truth
Tell the truth
You know you can make me do what you want me to
Loving you, feelings started
But, I’m goin’ to stop it
If I could, I surely would
I would roll up around you
If I thought it would do any good
Tell the truth
Tell the truth
Well you know you can make me do what you want me to
Loving you, feelings started
But, I’m goin’ to stop it
If I could, I surely would
I would roll up around you
If I thought it would do any good
Why don’t you tell the truth
Tell the truth
Well you know you can make me do what you want me to
Whooah, come on, tell the truth, now
(Tell the truth)
And I know, I know, baby
(Tell the truth)
Every day, every night
(Tell the truth)
Whooah, hold me tight
(Tell the truth)
And I know, and I know
(Tell the truth)
You ‘oughta, you ‘oughta
(Tell the truth)
Stop Lying
(Tell the truth)
Stop Lying, whooh
(Tell the truth)
Whoooh
(Tell the truth)
Whoooh
(Tell the truth)
Oh baby
(Tell the truth)
Now tell the truth
(Tell the truth)
Every day of your life, tell the truth little girl
(Tell the truth)
What about that man you were with last night
(Tell the truth)
I want to know
(Tell the truth)
Come on baby
(Tell the truth)
Hey hey
(Tell the truth)
Every day of your life, you ‘oughta
(Tell the truth)

 

Johnny Winter Woodstock

Johnny B. Goode

The crowd called for more and Johnny Winter gives Chuck Berry’s classic composition a great treatment. It did appear on Second Winter.

Deep down Louisiana close to New Orleans,
Way back up in the woods among the evergreens…
There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood,
Where lived a country boy name of Johnny B. Goode…
He never ever learned to read or write so well,
But he could play the guitar like ringing a bell.
Go Go
Go Johnny Go
Go Go
Johnny B. Goode
He use to carry his guitar in a gunny sack
And sit beneath the trees by the railroad track.
Oh, the engineers used to see him sitting in the shade,
Playing to the rhythm that the drivers made.
People passing by would stop and say
Oh my that little country boy could play
His mama told him someday he would be a man,
And he would be the leader of a big old band.
Many people coming from miles around
To hear him play his music when the sun go down
Maybe someday his name would be in lights
Saying Johnny B. Goode tonight.
Johnny Winter Woodstock

The next act was Blood, Sweat and Tears.