Where were you? Not born yet? I plotted to see Hendrix at Red Rock in Colorado and my mom said, "Yeah right - who are you going to stay with?" I didn't get to go - had to settle for Three Dog Night in Sioux Falls SD and The Zombies in Mitchell SD.
The next summer, I was just out of high school and saw "Yellow Submarine" in a theater on the "West Bank" in Minneapolis and "Woodstock" movie too. I also saw David Crosby buying an album in the "Electric Fetus" head shop/ record shop nearby. Same summer I saw Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Eric Burdon and War, Johnny & Edgar Winter, Richie Havens, Sly Stone, The Who and more in concert and didn't pay for any of them. (I was a master at Entry.) I also had tickets to Janis Joplin but had to get a refund as she cancelled several times. Went off to college where I saw Todd Rundgren (who stayed for a month to party) and It's a Beautiful Day. We also saw Alice Cooper in Rapid City, SD and drove to Lincoln, NE to see Frank Zappa, who made a reference to the "Cornhusker Highway." Slugbug
Jimi Hendrix - overdosed a year later
Janis Joplin - overdosed a year later
(It was around the same time as Jim Morrison and Brian Jones, neither of whom played at Woodstock.)
Joe Cocker - recovered (from drugs and alcohol) and resurfaced in the '80s and is still performing
Sly Stone - cocaine habit worsened and he was jailed, arrested, sent to rehab and never really resurfaced
Canned Heat - Alan Wilson overdosed in 1970 as well but the rest were able to play at this year's Woodstock Reunited concert
The Band - retired in 1976 and Martin Scorcese made a film about it, but band members still get together sporadically
Carlos Santana - sold 25 million copies of Supernatural in 1999 and has put out 38 albums, designs gorgeous shoes and is considering a new career as a church minister
The Who - Keith Moon died and the group broke up in 1982 but occasionally regroup for concerts, and Daltrey and Townshend recorded a studio album in 2006
Grateful Dead - continued with a huge following until Jerry Garcia died in 1995
Jefferson Airplane - split up but some members would reunite periodically under such names as Jefferson Starship, Starship, KBC
Crosby, Stills & Nash - continued to release solo and group records and headline festivals worldwide, with or without on-off versatile partner Neil Young, who moved from folk to country to garage rock and dabbled in electronic music and was known as Godfather of grunge
Richie Havens - now schools children on the environment
Joan Baez - sang for Solidarnosc, Cambodia and now Iran and still tours
Country Joe McDonald - has worked with war veterans and launched a project promoting Florence Nightingale
Now that reporters make "news" by digging up all these anniversaries, the "40" of Manson Family Murders is also marked at this time.
Charlie Manson - still incarcerated
Win a Woodstock special edition Stratocaster guitar and Collector's Edition Woodstock DVD and listen to RADIO WOODSTOCK 69 with music from the original Woodstock era. Go to http://www.woodstockuniverse.com for details.
Peace, love, music,
RFWoodstock
[email protected]
Posted by: RFWoodstock | August 11, 2009 at 08:02 AM