Woodstock, 40 years after

This is a fine six disc set commemorating the

Woodstock Festival, far better than the official release as it is MUCH more comprehensive......There are probably more lies about Woodstock than most any event of the 20th century, those that I have personally heard include one jerk who claims he appears on the album cover ("See? See" that blue jacket is ME man!").....sure....and another local dickweed claims to have started the "Rain Chant", which I am sure puts him in the company of about, oh, 10000 others......my hippie parents intended to go, and take me (age 7) and my brother (age 6), but fagged out for whatever reason....it would be easy for me to lie and say "I was THERE, MAN", but I wasn't.......but this six disc set is as good as being there really......let's investigate each disc, and at the end, I'm sure you will want this. were you there or not.

Well, Disc one, as does the "official' disc one, leads off with Richie Havens' amazing "Handsome Johnny", I have always loved that particular performance....anyway, the first disc also contains John Morris, Sweetwater, Tim Hardin, Melanie, Ravi Shankar (one of my Dad's very faves), and Arlo Guthrie (one of my Dad's SUPER-faves, including the fine version of "Coming into Los Angeles").....essential, as are all of these discs.

The second disc of this set is a nice blend of stuff that made the soundtrack and other odds n ends.....for example, a couple of fine Santana tracks, a great set by Joan Baez (NO LIE here, I saw Joan baez perform live in Columbus Ohio when I was about 8, likely the first legit live music performance I saw.....it was really good too), we also get Quill, Country Joe McDonald (the wonderful "Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag", as well as the overrated "Fish Cheer"), John Sebastian, and the Incredible String Band.......perhaps the weakest disc of the set, but not without merit.

Disc three has the fine Canned Heat set (I've been meaning to profile them for a while, perhaps this week), the definitive version of "Going Up the Country" for my dough, also some fine hard stuff from Mountain, mercifully not so much from the Grateful Dead, and capped off with an energetic set from CCR, three highly fine tracks that are just as rockin' as you could possibly want.

We move onto disc four, perhaps the best of the discs here......as a "period piece", we get to hear Abbie Hoffman's, uh, "speech", but the true gems here are a fantastic set by Janis Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone's high-energy take on "I Wanna Take You Higher" (now THERE is a band I should profile!), The Who doing excerpts from "Tommy", and a fine set from Jefferson Airplane (the "Somebody To Love", a great song to begin with, is perhaps performed in its best version here). Great disc.

No problem either with disc 5, the late Joe Cocker putting out like his life depended on it (especially "With a Little help From My Friends", a fine effort) and plenty more from Country Joe and the Fish, but also a couple fine tracks from Johnny Winter, and they even sneak one in from Blood Sweat and Tears. A good listen, once again.

Finally, we get to disc six.....a good portion of which is dominated by CS&N, not a bad thing, as they really put out in their set, arguably the highlight of the set, we also get the Butterfield Blues Band, just a touch of Jimi Hendrix, and plenty of Sha Na Na (ah, irony....)....normally, I'd find this odd, but what the fuck, I have documented Hendrix' Woodstock stuff ad infinitum, if you've been paying attention you've already got it all, so, well, dig up on Sha Na Na or whatever instead.

I hope you guys find this of interest.......it's more comprehensive, obviously, than the "official" release, which, in and of itself, was prettya damn good, this just fleshes it out a bit......let me know, as always, what you think of it, if it doesn't work for you, perhaps the next post (which is Jonder's INCREDIBLE Wire cover project) will.

Love you all, really......that is why I do this......PLEASE keep the requests and submissions coming....we have a good thing going here, despite what the band Tender Age and that "other" blog think......

DISC 1 01 RICHIE HAVENS-Handsome Johnny/02 RICHIE HAVENS-Freedom (Motherless Child)/03 JOHN MORRIS- Choppity Choppity/04 SWEETWATER-Look Out/05 SWEETWATER-Two Worlds/06 BERT SOMMER-Jennifer/07 BERT SOMMER-And When It's Over/08 BERT SOMMER-Smile/09 JOHN MORRIS-There Goes Marilyn/10 TIM HARDIN-Hang Onto A Dream/11 TIM HARDIN-Simple Song of Freedom/12 JOHN MORRIS-'Flat Blue Acid'/13 RAVI SHANKAR-Raga Puriya-Gat In Sawarital/14 MELANIE-Momma Momma/15 MELANIE-Beautiful People/16 MELANIE-Birthday of the Sun/17 ARLO GUTHRIE-Coming Into Los Angeles/18 ARLO GUTHRIE-Wheel of Fortune/19 ARLO GUTHRIE-Every Hand in the Land/20 JOHN MORRIS-'All You Funny People'

DISC 2-01 JOAN BAEZ-Joe Hill/02 JOAN| BAEZ-Sweet Sir Galahad/03 JOAN BAEZ-Hickory Wind/04 JOAN BAEZ WITH JEFFREY SHURTLE-Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man/05 JOHN MORRIS-'Bring Scully His Asthma Pills'/06 JOHN MORRIS-'Insulin and Quill Intro'/07 QUILL-They Live the Life/08 QUILL-That's How I Eat/09 CHIP MONCK-'I Understand Your Wife Is Having a baby'/10 COUNTRY JOE McDONALD-Donovan's Reef/11 COUNTRY JOE McDONALD-Fish Cheer-Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag/12 SANTANA-Pursuasion/13 SANTANA-Soul Sacrifice/14 JOHN SEBASTIAN-How Have You been/15 JOHN SEBASTIAN-Rainbows All Over Your Blues/16 JOHN SEbASTIAN-I Had a Dream/17 THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND-The Letter/18 THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND-When You Find Out Who You Are/19 CHIP MONCK-'She Is Lost 7'

DISC 3-01 CHIP MONCK-'We're In Pretty Good Shape'/02 CANNED HEAT-Going Up the Country/03 CANNED HEAT-Woodstock Boogie/04 CHIP MONCK-'The Brown Acid is Not Specifically Too Good'/05 MOUNTAIN-Blood of the Sun/06 MOUNTAIN-Theme For an Imaginary Western/07 MOUNTAIN-For Yasgur's Farm/08 CHIP MONCK-'For Those of You Who Have Partaken of the Green Acid'/09 JERRY GARCIA/COUNTRY JOE MCDONALD-Green Acid Advice/10 GRATEFUL DEAD-Dark Star/11 CCR-Green River/12 CCR-Bad Moon Rising/13 CCR-I Put a Spell On You

DISC 4-01 JANIS JOPLIN-Work Me Lord/02 JANIS JOPLIN-Ball and Chain/03 SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE-Medley: Dance To The Music-I Wanna Take You Higher/04 ABBIE HOFFMAN-'The Politics of the Situation'/05 THE WHO-Amazing Journey/06 THE WHO-Pinball Wizard/07 THE WHO-Abbie Hoffman vs. Pete Townsend/08 THE WHO-We're Not Gonna Take It/09 JEFFERSON AIRPLANE-The Other Side of This Life/10 JEFFERSON AIRPLANE-Somebody To Love/11 JEFFERSON AIRPLANE-Won't You Try-Saturday Afternoon/12 GRACE SLICK-We Got a Whole Lot of Orange/13 JEFFERSON AIRPLANE-Volunteers/14 WAVY GRAVY-'Breakfast in Bed for 400,000'/15 JOHN MORRIS-'It Just Keeps Goin''/16 MAX YASGUR-Max Yasgur Speaks

DSIC 5-01 JOE COCKER-Feelin' Alright/02 JOE COCKER-Let's Go Get Stoned/03 JOE COCKER-With a Little Help From My Friends/04 JOE COCKER-The Rainstorm/05 COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH-Rock N Soul Music/06 COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH-Love/07 COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH-Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine/08 COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH-Summer Dresses/09 COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH-Silver and Gold/10 COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH-Rock N Soul Music (reprise)/11 JOHNNY WINTER-Leland Mississippi Blues/12 JOHNNY WINTER-Meantown Blues/13 BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARS-You've Made Me So Very Happy

DISC 6- CROSBY STILLS & NASH-Suite-Judy Blue Eyes/02 CROSBY STILLS & NASH-Guinnevere/03 CROSBY STILLS & NASH-Merikesh Express/04 CROSBY STILLS & NASH-4+20/05 CROSBY STILLS & NASH-Sea of Madness/06 CROSBY STILLS & NASH-Wooden Ships/07 BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND-No Amount of Loving/08 BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND-Love March/09 BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND-Everything's Gonna Be Alright/10 SHA NA NA-Get a Job/11 SHA NA NA-At the Hop/12 SHA NA NA- Get a Job (reprise)/13 JIMI HENDRIX-The Star Spangled Banner-Purple Haze-Woodstock Improvisation/14 CHIP MONCK-Woodstock Farewell

Let me know what you think of this set, to me, it's as close to being there as we could possibly recreate.....I wasn'tat the OTHER one (in the 1990's) either, and I think I will sometime next week find a retrospective of it an post that as well (if I can find one).......ONE LOVE!