Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I am going to a dance in June (live band) with the theme of Woodstock. Dress appropriately etc. Which songs are the ones you think mostly epitomised Woodstock and would make a best of compilation of the event.?

The Fish Cheer, followed by "Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die, Rag"

JimK

Start Spangled Banner, Hendrix, Goin' Home, Ten Years After, Dance to the Music, Sly and the Family Stone, Soul Sacrifice, Santana was a high point.
My Woodstock story: Me and my antisocial buddy were going to go to Newport, RI instead of Woodstock that weekend (why? ask my buddy, he had the car). We put two mufflers on his 64 389 4 speed Bonneville convertible with coat hangers (of course), he backed out of the garage and they both promptly fell off, we stayed home, our town was deserted of friends the whole week, they all gradually drifted back. I heard story after story ad nauseum about this life changing euphoric event that was going to unite everyone and change the world every day for the rest of the summer, which of course made me madder and madder. No one knew though what it was going to be like before it happened, just another big festival of which there were many back then.
OK, that was my Woodstock story, I'm still POed,
Incidently there was no "Woodstock 69" It was called Woodstock.

I wanna take you higher, star spangled banner, rock n soul music, i'm goin home(by helicopter), soul sacrifice, and coming into los angeles (the ny state thruway is closed man, lotta freaks!).

Bob Young said: Incidently there was no "Woodstock 69" It was called Woodstock.
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The '69 was to differentiate between it and later festivals at Woodstock (just in case there was a doubt).
Enjoyed your recollections, even if they were disappointing for you.
It will be interesting to see what the top ten would be. I'll review the choices after a while.

Thanks Jim for starting this topic been a bit quite of late and to be honest based on number of people who downloaded the last few tracks I put up I did think interest had waned.

Woodstock I was never into to be honest, the beat boom is more my bag as James Brown would say but it was 69 and therefore qualifies for this forum.

Here is a interesting list Jim, supposedly of all the music played that day.

http://www.woodstock69.com/Woodstock_songs.htm


If I was choosing songs to play rather than sing and bearing in mind your audience Jim, North East of England is definitely not Los Angeles,I would stick to playing those acts/songs that the masses, for want of a better word would remember, it could be so easy to become self -indulgent.

I would also play Matthews Southern Comfort "Woodstock" a number 1 in UK in 1970,(one hit wonders) made 23 in 71 in States, whilst nothing to do with the festival, here in UK most associate it with that time, be a good opener.

So here is my top ten based on criteria I have just given.

Woodstock - Matthews Southern Comfort
Proud Mary - CCR
Foxy Lady - Jimi Hendrix
Pinball Wizard - Who
Darling Be Home Soon - John Sebastian
To Love Somebody - Janis Joplin
Dance To The Music - Sly and The Family Stone
With A Little Help From My Friends - Joe Cocker
Marrakesh Express - Crosby Stills Nash
If I were A Carpenter - Tim Hardin (one to slow things down with)


End the night on Joan Baez - We Shall Overcome.

Of course I will get the cries of "how can you leave out "X,Y and Z" but I have based this choice on the criteria I listed.

A decent site, Roy, but his list of songs has omissions and inaccuracies. For another take on the songs performed at Woodstock, as well as lots of other info about the Aquarian Exposition, look here:
www.utopiansound.com

The site is in dire need of an update, as loads of new information has become available in the past few years, but the set lists are a little closer to what was actually played. One of these days...

Assuming that actual Woodstock music is wanted (as opposed to songs by artists who played at Woodstock), here are my picks for what epitomised the festival. All of these songs are readily available from the Woodstock and Woodstock II albums, or the Woodstock - Director's Cut DVD. There is plenty of Woodstock music available from bootleg sources, but I haven't included that here:

Freedom - Richie Havens
Comin' Into Los Angeles - Arlo Guthrie
Fish Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag - Country Joe McDonald
Soul Sacrifice - Santana
Goin' Up The Country - Canned Heat
I Want To Take You Higher - Sly And The Family Stone
See Me, Feel Me - The Who
With A Little Help From My Friends - Joe Cocker
I'm Goin' Home - Ten Years After
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes - Crosby, Stills and Nash
Star Spangled Banner/Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix

I will defer to Kris as his list is pretty close to mine, except for the Who , Canned Heat and Cocker numbers I forgot!!

Kris

Not sure Star Spangled Banner would go down that well in North East of England!!!

Maybe not a favorite in England, Roy, but Jimi's rendition of the American National Anthem was quite possibly the pinnacle of Woodstock.

I think it would be OK to play it. We Yanks don't cringe when we hear God Save The Queen over here.

Well, you could research the lyrics of the old British drinking song that Francis Scott Key ripped off for his ode to a piece of cloth and just sing them instead...

Yes, and they didn't call it Woodstock '69, for much the same reason that nobody at Verdun thought of themselves as fighting in 'WWI'...

Kris

Not meant as a dismissive of SSB just IMO not right for the venue Jim was talking about.

I would have to chime in and mark Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner" as THE definitive Woodstock song. It epitomized the spirit of youthful rebellion in a cultural revolution, of youth taking charge of their own destiny, of politicizing their music. Perhaps those in the North of England might roll their eyes somewhat, but then again, the Beatles also "liberated" the cultural context of the French national anthem in the name of Love (Love Love). Not many of us can listen to that anthem without a mental segue into "All You Need Is Love." Hendrix took this to the next level, and his performance of SSB sounds like a US napalm attack on a Vietnamese village, just horrific, the hippie version of Picasso's "Guernica." It may be the only song other than the "Gimme an F!..." cheer that we connect solely to Woodstock and nothing else. Seems like the other songs appeared on albums or had radio airplay with studio versions---they didn't share the same exclusive-to-the-event status.

By the way, I love these discussions!

Mark: Great comments! Hendrix created one of the most distinctive moments in 1960s US concert history with his version of Star Spangled Banner.

To take your comments a bit further, I am wondering if those following this discussion are able to recall earlier versions of the US anthem in which artists bent the limits of formality as far as did Hendrix. It seems to me that this opened the door for other groups to make the formalized anthem more their own, so to speak.

Aye Man tha may be reet


Won't mean a thing Mark unless Auf Wiedersehen Pet was shown in US, probably with sub titles

Love you taking part too let's hear what Jim thinks, though I know he's off to Vegas soon may have gone.