Younger men grow older (Richie Havens) (LP 991)

Richie Havens Alarm Clock (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1971) ***  

Genre: Folk Rock

Places I remember: Record Fair

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Here Comes The Sun

Gear costume: Girls Don't Run Away

Active compensatory factors: I think I got carried away by his performance at Woodstock and expected his studio work to have the same magic, which is unrealistic. 

His Woodstock performance was a one off and those images of his feet keeping time and the sweat all over him from the humidity, plus those songs in that setting, are frozen in time.

By 1971 he was well established as an artist and this album became his biggest seller. So it's a good place to start listening to his studio albums.

Funnily enough, it begins with a great live version of Here Comes The Sun. With its percussive strumming, it forms a nice link from Woodstock in 1969 (also when the Beatles did the Harrison song) and 1971.

As for the rest? Pleasant, somewhat dated folk-rock is the order of the day. Richie had his moment (in the sun - sorry), and that was Woodstock. By Alarm Clock his time was waning (sorry part 2).

Where do they all belong? A stand alone in the collection. 

We are stardust (Joni Mitchell) #248

Matthews Southern Comfort 
Woodstock/ Scion (MCA, MC/S 2095, 1970)

Ah Woodstock. Long time readers will know how much I revere those three days man, threee days - we just love ya, we just love ya.

This version of Joni's song is for me the definitive version.

There are only three released versions that I know about: Joni's own version on Ladies Of The Canyon; CSN and Y's on Deja Vu; and Matthews Southern Comfort.

Why definitive?

It manages to capture the spirit of the time for me - all those dreamy hazy soundscapes with a laid back to the country vibe going on. And there are the group harmonies which are just perfect.

Went to #1 in the UK charts too.

Hidden gem: Scion is something of a rarity as it didn't appear on the MSC album of the time Later That Same Year; naturally, it has appeared as a bonus track subsequently. It's an Ian Matthews song in the same general style as the A side - loads of lovely pedal steel guitar and harmonies. A great second side!

Hooray, up she rises (Country Joe McDonald) # 91

Country Joe Mcdonald Save The Whales!/ Oh, Jamaica (Fantasy, K6355, 1975)

Country Joe had an interesting career as a solo performer after the split with the Fish. Interesting is an interesting word. It is a weasel word in some senses - his career wobbled and finally collapsed (in terms of commercial potential and critical acclaim - he's still alive and well and putting out albums) under the weight of all the increased activism after his turn at Woodstock.

His album Goodbye Blues (which I like a lot, bear in mind) is a lot like Lennon's Sometime In New York City - a potpourri of good causes but when all lumped together it comes across a little like rent-a-cause.

Still - you can't help admire the energy and the good intention that Joe puts into songs like Save The Whales.

Hidden gem: The B side comes from a previous album - Paradise With An Ocean View and it's a curious choice for a B side. It's a cod reggae paean to er...Jamaica and Jamaican weed (mon). Ho hum!

I'm going to camp out on the land, I'm going to try an' get my soul free (Joni Mitchell) # 80

Chapman And White Nambassa/ You And I Together (Mandrill Drill 2,  1977)

Ah...Nambassa, New Zealand's Woodstock - a naive but laudable attempt to marry new age sensibilities (yes - hippies) to music.

I went to the last Nambassa held in January 1981 - a five-day celebration of music, crafts and alternative lifestyles culture on a farm at Waitawheta Valley between Waihi and Waikino.

The attendance was low - 15,000 which suited me. The 1979 festival had been mega - 75,000 which would have been intolerable. As it was the toilets were abysmal and, even though it was January the rain poured down. 

I was at University at the time, in the middle of a masters' degree and Brett, a friend at varsity, talked me into going with him. I'm glad he did too. It was an experience for sure. The line up of musicians and speakers (Ram Dass for instance) was an eye opener for me (my stand outs are in bold):

Dizzy Gillespie

Billy TK 

John Mayall

Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee 

Charlie Daniels 

Kevin Borich 

Topp Twins

The Roger Fox Big Band

Limbs Dance Company

Dr Richard Alpert (aka Baba Ram Dass)

Chapman and White wrote the Nambassa anthem in 1977 and it suited perfectly the ambiance of trippy hippy freedom of expression (ok, yes - nudity) that was part of the Nambassa vibe.

Hidden gem: The B side is more pleasant melodic acoustic music but the vocals are not distinctive enough and so it's a kind of Donovanesque folky trip, maan. Nice though.

Don't blame it on the sunshine...blame it on the boogie (The Jacksons) #77

Canned Heat On The Road Again/ Boogie Music (Liberty LYK 2471,  1968)

And so we move on the C's with some timeless music from Canned Heat.

Who were they?

Canned Heat was a band launched by two blues enthusiasts, Al (Blind Owl) Wilson and Bob (The Bear) Hite, who took the name from Tommy Johnson's 1928 "Canned Heat Blues".

After appearances at Monterey and Woodstock, at the end of the 1960s the band acquired worldwide fame. Ask any sixties casualty who was supposedly at Woodstock about Canned Heat and the big bearded/ pony tailed vision of The Bear is bound to come up (maan).

On The Road Again was lifted from their second album - 1968's Boogie With Canned Heat. The line up at this time was Bob Hite, vocals, Alan Wilson, guitar, harmonica and vocals, Henry Vestine on lead guitar, Larry Taylor on bass, and Adolfo de la Parra on drums.

It's a great song that is credited to F Jones and A Wilson - meaning that Blind Owl 'borrowed' an old blues song by Floyd Jones (who, as is the way with the blues, had borrowed it from elsewhere). Al sings the song in his distinctive way with a drone instrument securely anchoring the song (in the sixties).

Hidden gem: Boogie Music was not originally on the parent album (it's been added as a bonus track to CD editions). It's a manifesto song - boogie music has a pleasant sound etc.

Rock and roll music to the world (Ten Years After)

Oh my! I read an emailed Mojo bulletin yesterday on Alvin Lee's death and it blind sided me.

You know what it's like when you read about something completely unexpected - it's an intake of breath and an 'Oh no!' moment. I'm struggling to grasp it quite frankly.

Mojo reported that he died in Spain (where he was living) from complications from a routine medical procedure. What??? How does that happen?

He was only 68 and still active in music (2012 he released his latest, now last, album Still On The Road To Freedom) and although he was never ever going to move the tectonic plates of rock and roll again, like he did at Woodstock with the revelatory I'm Going Home (by helicopter), he was a titan of the rock guitar world and the planet is a lesser place without him.

Readers will remember my other posts on my favourite Ten Years After/ Alvin Lee moments so for today I want to focus on the group's 1968 live performance of Woodchoppers' Ball, the old Woody Herman song.

It comes from the Afters' second album Undead which was recorded live (hardy ha!) in a little jazz club. At nearly 8 minutes long, it can be seen as a precursor to the seminal Woodstock performance. Like that legendary time in space, Woodchoppers wastes not one second in it's fiery trajectory.

Their version clearly displays all the wares - Leo Lyons on breathtaking bass guitar, Ricky Lee's virtuoso drum display and the underrated Chick Churchill on organ. All gel with Alvin's musicality on guitar.



Alvin signs off the performance with a name check for the band members and ends humbly with...'and me'.

Alvin! We loved you man!

Here's to the dawn of their days (Joan Baez)

I have spent a large portion of today trawling through my 6 CD box set of Woodstock (40th Anniversary version). It's a glorious way to spend the day (Fridays in the Middle East being a particular slow day and Ramadan means no cafes until 8pm) .

I managed to get the set from Fives in Leigh-on-Sea for a great price. I'd seen it at The Virgin Mega-store in the Mall of the Emirates (Dubai) for 700 dirhams (about $240NZ or 120 pounds) but that seemed a lot so I thought I'd wait and see if I could get it in the UK. It's not like it wouldn't be there when I returned from holiday at 700 dirhams right?

So - we went to London and then Paris and no one had it. Not Virgin, or HMV or FOPP. They all told me it would be tough to find as it came out in 2009. If I could find one, it was listed at 75 pounds - a lot cheaper than in Dubai, so I kept looking.

Until we went to Leigh-on-Sea for a day trip. Of course Fives had one. I gave a run down of my search in vain to the lady who owns and runs Fives and she said, "You mean like that one up there?", pointing to the collection of box sets on the wall!

My heart was beating fast as I asked her how much?

"52 pounds", she replied!

And it's fantastic. Tons of tracks not on any other version and some old favourites like Sweet Sir Galahad that appeared on the Woodstock 2 double album.

I love this song (a rare Joan Baez original) and I always think that line "but oh, was I born too late?" relates to me somehow, with my fascination for an event that took place when I was 11 in Nu Zild, a country so different to 1969 America that we might as well have lived on a different planet in a different solar system!

Joan Baez is an acquired taste and her warble can irrate me at times but her singing on this song is divine.

Go to you tube via the link for a Woodstock treat.
http://youtu.be/S4y2equAIdI

or else play this one from the Smother Brothers TV show:

Rolling in the deep (Adele)

I am fascinated, obsessed, forever interested in the Woodstock festival of 1969.

It all began with the trailer before a movie I watched it 1970 when I was 13. I have no idea what the actual movie was that I saw because all I could think about was the incredible new world of long hair, hippie chicks, nudity and freaky music that I had just had a tantalisin glimpse of. BTW - said trailer is no where to be found on youtube - just a corporate sell for the Blu Ray edition. Sad.

I've recently read a couple of books on the festival, got Santana's full set on CD and bought the 4 DVD director's cut edition. Woodstock definitely has legs. I for one, can't get enough.

Speaking of youtube - it has some cool clips from performances that haven't made the triple vinyl soundtrack, the Woodstock II double vinyl soundtrack, the director's cut DVD or the compilation soundtrack CDs that have appeared over the years.