Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

That appearance pretty much made the band in the US after the film came out. I remember a story that the organizers called for Bill Graham`s help w/ the festival and he said something to the effect ...If I can bring my band , Santana, I`ll be there.

Yes, that is one song I never get tired of hearing, I think it also started and cemented Santana's career.

firstbassman wrote:What the heck was I doing all weekend?

Tripping the light, fantastic?!

What a great performance !!!

digam11 wrote:I remember a story that the organizers called for Bill Graham`s help w/ the festival and he said something to the effect ...If I can bring my band , Santana, I`ll be there.

The story was that by the time Woodstock's organizers got around to booking bands for the festival, many of the bands already had full summer bookings at Graham's Fillmore and Avalon Ballrooms. In order to get Graham to free some time for some of the bands they wanted to play Woodstock, they agreed to take an 'unknown' band in Graham's stable, and give them stage time. Graham offered them the choice of Santana or It's a Beautiful Day. Arte Kornfeld wisely chose Santana.

Another great anecdote about Santana at Woodstock - The day they played was Saturday, August 16th. By that day, all the roads to the festival site were hopelessly clogged ith traffic, and literally everybody and everything was flown in by helicopters. Woodstock had already been declared a free festival, and word got around that the organizers were in financial trouble. Bands were demanding to be paid in full (in cash) before they went on. Most wanted to be flown out to the site immediately, go on, do their set, and then be immediately flown out of the area.

Santana were supposed to go on in the afternoon. They were at the site in the morning, and were told that with all the other bands wanting to go on NOW, Santana would be lucky to get on stage by the middle of the night - if at all. So they all dropped acid. An hour later, Emcee John Morris came and told them they had to go on stage next.

Look at Carlos' face in the video. You can tell he was tripping his *** off!

firstbassman wrote:Yup, agree.
What the heck was I doing all weekend?

I know what i was doing all weekend, the mufflers (yup both of them) fell off my friends 64 Pontiac Convertible which was going to get us there and I spent all weekend alone knowing my friends were at a rock festival. Of course no one how great it would be until they got there. I heard about it ALL the rest of that summer which made me even angrier that I didn't go

johnallg wrote:

firstbassman wrote:What the heck was I doing all weekend?

Tripping the light, fantastic?!

John,
I make no secret of the fact that during the 60s (and 70s) I had experiences similar to Clinton's and millions of others.
Though mine were extremly tame compared to many others.

By the way, the same weekend of Woodstock, Blind Faith were performing in Los Angeles. Too bad they weren't in Sullivan County, NY instead.

As far as cars go, my (future) brother-in-law drove us there in a '64 Plymouth Valient that was leaking oil by the bucket-full. Somehow we made it (and back).

Another one I missed was Altamont although I don't really think I missed much. I hitched out to CA and got there the same weekend.

firstbassman wrote:

johnallg wrote:

firstbassman wrote:What the heck was I doing all weekend?

Tripping the light, fantastic?!

John,
I make no secret of the fact that during the 60s (and 70s) I had experiences similar to Clinton's and millions of others.
Though mine were extremly tame compared to many others.

By the way, the same weekend of Woodstock, Blind Faith were performing in Los Angeles. Too bad they weren't in Sullivan County, NY instead.

As far as cars go, my (future) brother-in-law drove us there in a '64 Plymouth Valient that was leaking oil by the bucket-full. Somehow we made it (and back).

Mark, I meant nothing more than a humorous comment. What happened in the 60s/70s stays in the 60s/70s!!

The lead player in the group I was in back then had a Valiant, but he didn't leak oil, his had sludge so thick up under the rocker covers it was hard to put oil in.

I remember that video.
One hell of a drummer I always thought with really fast rolls.

Michael Shrieve played drums at Woodstock. On keyboards is Greg Rolie (later of Journey).