Iron Leg Radio #16

Beep beep beep beep…..

Playlist

Hawkshaw/Mansfield – Action Scene (KPM)
13th Floor Elevators – You’re Gonna Miss Me (International Artists)
New Colony Six – Let Me Love You (Sentar)
The Strangeloves – Night Time (Bang)
British Walkers – I Found You (Try)
Buffalo Springfield – Mr Soul (45 Mix) (Atco)
Curtis Knight – Fancy Meeting You Here (RCA UK)
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich – He’s a Raver (Star Club)
Raspberries – Go All the Way (Capitol)
Moby Grape – Omaha (Columbia)
Moby Grape Radio Spot

Captain Beefheart – Diddy Wah Diddy (A&M)
Question Mark and the Mysterians – Can’t Get Enough of You Baby (Cameo)
Toys – Can’t Get Enough Of You Baby (Dynovoice)
Mickey Newbury – Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) (RCA)
Gosdin Brothers – Sounds of Goodbye (Capitol)
Love – She Comes In Colors (Elektra)
Artie Wayne – Automated Man (Smash)
Music Machine – Masculine Intuition (Original Sound)
Dave Van Ronk and the Hudson Dusters – Head Inspector (Verve)
Dave Van Ronk and the Hudson Dusters – New Dreams (Verve)
Paul Revere and the Raiders – Louie Go Home (Columbia)
Paul Revere and the Raiders Radio Spot

Peggy Lee – I Think It’ s Going To Rain Today (Capitol)
Randy Newman – I Think It’s Going To Rain Today (Reprise)
Randy Newman – Living Without You (Reprise)
Paul Williams – Just and Old Fashioned Love Song (A&M)
Paul Williams – Someday Man (A&M)
Paul Williams – Trust (A&M)
Bugsy Maugh – In Limbo (Dot)
Tom Northcott – Iron Pines (Uni)
Tom Northcott – I Think It’s Going To Rain Today (Uni)

Listen/Download -Iron Leg Radio Show Episode 16 – 162MB/256kbps

Greetings all.

I hope the new week finds you well.

It’s time once again for the Iron Leg Radio Show.

This month’s Iron Leg Radio Show brings you another diverse, lovingly selected helping of sounds.

You get lots of garage punk (Elevators, Capt Beefheart etc), some beat, psychedelia and a long set of gentler, more introspective pop by the likes of Randy Newman and Paul Williams.

As always, I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back next week with something groovy.

Peace

Larry

PS Head over to Funky16Corners

Iron Leg Radio Show #14

Beep beep beep beep…..

Playlist

Action Scene – Hawkshaw/Mansfield (KPM)
Beauregard and the Tuffs – (Love Is Like a) Ramblin’ Rose (Decca)
Ferris Wheel – I Can’t Break the Habit (Philips)
Ananda Shankar – Jumping Jack Flash (Reprise)
Ananda Shankar – Dance Indra (Reprise)
Fireballs – Groovy Motions (Atco)
Grass Roots – No Exit (Dunhill)
Grass Roots – Alone Phone Spot

Bee Gees – Coke Spot
Bee Gees – I Can’t See Nobody (Atco)
Robin Gibb – Saved By the Bell (Atco)
Robin Gibb – Mother and Jack (Atco)
Bee Gees – The Earnest of Being George (Atco)
Biff Rose – Fill Your Heart (Tetragrammaton)
Biff Rose – What’s Gnawing at Me (Tetragrammaton)
Biff Rose – The Promise (Buddah)
Laugh-In Promo

Curt Boettcher – Levis Spot #1
Curt Becher and California – Happy In Hollywood (WB)
Curt Boetcher – I Love You More Each Day (Elektra)
Eternity’s Children – Mrs Bluebird (Tower)
Tom Northcott – Who Planted Thorns In Miss Alice’s Garden (WB)
Tom Northcott – Sunny Goodge Street (WB)
Artie Schroeck Implosion – Six O’Clock (Verve)
The Association – Birthday Morning (WB)
The Beach Boys – I Know There’s an Answer (Capitol)
Blades of Grass – I Love You Alice B Toklas (Jubilee)
Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart – Smilin’ (Aquarian)
Emmit Rhodes – Golden Child of God (ABC/Dunhill)
Enoch Light and the Light Brigade – Marrakesh Express (Project 3)
The Herd – Understand Me (Fontana)

Listen/Download -Iron Leg Radio Show Episode 14 – 90MB/256kbps

Greetings all.

I hope the new week finds you well.

It’s time once again for the Iron Leg Radio Show.

Before we get started I want to let you know that this is Pledge Week over at Funky16Corners (aka the mothership).

I always put out the tip cup about this time every year to raise money for the server costs related to Funky16Corners and Iron Leg.

If soul and funk is a bag you’re in, there are close to 150 mixes and another 110 or so radio shows posted in the archives at Funky16Corners.

If you’re solely an Iron Leg-ger, there’s lots to pour into your ears over here as well, with the Iron Leg Digital Trip Podcast Archive as well as the Iron Leg Radio Show.

If it’s something you find valuable in any way, please click on the donate link over at F16C.
______________________________________________________________________________________________

This month’s Iron Leg Radio Show sees us back around the 90 minute mark, with some garage, freakbeat, worldbeat, a tribute to Robin Gibb, some tunes by Biff Rose and a very long set of sunshiney pop.

As always, I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back next week with something groovy.

Peace

Larry

PS Head over to Funky16Corners

Iron Leg Radio Show #13

Beep beep beep beep…..

Playlist

Intro – Action Scene KPM Mansfield/Hawkshaw
Montanas – That’s When Happiness Began (Pye)
Guess Who – Shakin’ All Over (Scepter)
Question Mark and the Mysterians – 18 (Cameo)
Nashville Teens – Find My Way Home (London)
Ian and the Zodiacs – Why Can’t It Be Me (Philips)
TV Spot

Neon Philharmonic Radio Spot
Neon Philharmonic – Brilliant Colors (WB)
Mike Stoller and the Stoller System – Silver Sea Horse (Amy)
Jack Sheldon – I Think It’s Gonna Rain Today (Dot)
Harry Nilsson – I Think the Lord Must Be In New York City (RCA)

Pearls Before Swine – I Saw the World (ESP)
Pearls Before Swine – When the War Began (Reprise)
Pearls Before Swine – The Jeweler (Reprise)
Pearls Before Swine – The Wedding (Reprise)

Listen/Download -Iron Leg Radio Show Episode 13 – 90MB/256kbps

Greetings all.

I hope the new week finds you well.

It’s time once again for the Iron Leg Radio Show.

What you see before you is a truncated version thereof, bringing it in at a little bit under an hour.

Times are a little harder than normal these days so I don’t have quite as much time to get things together as I normally do. I’ll go back to the longer format as soon as time allows.

This month you get some interesting stuff, including a couple of great, obscure slices of pop and a set from one of my favorite groups, Thom Rapp and Pearls Before Swine.

As always, I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back next week with more cool stuff.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners

Gordon Lightfoot – For Lovin’ Me

Gordon Lightfoot

Listen/Download – Gordon Lightfoot – For Lovin’ Me

Greetings all.

Welcome to another week here at the ole leg of iron.

The tune I bring you this fine day is one that I first heard not in its original version, but in a cover by one of the most successful commercial folk acts of the 1960s.

Peter, Paul and Mary were hugely successful in their day, and unlike so many of their contemporaries managed to be so without sacrificing all of their folk movement cred.

Some of this was the result of their activist bent, and some due to the fact that they managed to maintain a level of musical and artistic quality, rarely pandering to the middle of the road. I know some people would disagree, but I won’t hold PPM’s efforts to be entertaining against them.

They are often remembered today as representative of “commercialized” folk music, but this is usually by people that forget groups like the Kingston Trio.

Their LP ‘A Song Will Rise’ was a cornerstone of my father’s record collection (the small, non-jazz contemporary wing thereof) and as a result a major formative touchstone for yours truly.

The album featured some cool originals but also some exceptional cover material, such as the Weavers stirring ‘Wasn’t That a Time’ and the song I bring you today.

Naturally, when I was a tot I had yet to discover the value of reading record labels, so I was unaware that ‘For Lovin’ Me’ had been written by Gordon Lightfoot.

Oddly enough, I know who Lightfoot was, but only because by that time he had already entered the pop charts a number of times with songs like ‘If You Could Read My Mind’ (1971).

It wasn’t until decades later, when I picked up Lightfoot’s 1965 debut that I realized that the song I loved so much as a kid was a cover.

Of course by that time, I’d read and listened to enough that I was familiar with his early work as a songwriter, with material being recorded by artists like Nico (‘I’m Not Sayin’), Judy Collins (Early Mornin’ Rain) and Marty Robbins (Ribbon Of Darkness).

Much like his countrywoman Joni Mitchell, many of his most famous songs were recorded (or were popularized) by others first.

Lightfoot got his start as a folksinger/songwriter in his native Canada having chart success in his native country and doing TV work in the UK before being signed by none other than Albert Grossman in 1965 and recording his debut album for United Artists the following year.

Though the record was acoustic, in the folky tradition, the songs and performances had the sound not of a coffeehouse troubadour but rather an early iteration of the singer/songwriter vibe that would become huge over the next five years (much like Tom Rush during the same period).

‘For Lovin’ Me’ is a great, slightly dark feel to it with some haunting chord changes. Though I’ll always love the harmonies in the PPM version it’s also cool to hear the song delivered in Lightfoot’s rich baritone.

The ‘Lightfoot’ album has been reissued, but oddly enough original copies tend to turn up fairly frequently. You not only get to hear Lightfoot’s versions of his own songs but covers of tunes by Phil Ochs (Changes), Ewan McColl (The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face) and a cool take on Hamilton Camp’s ‘Pride of Man’ which would later be covered by Quicksilver Messenger Service.

I hope you dig the tune and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

ILDT37 – Iron Leg 2011 Year In Vintage Pop

Playlist

Unrelated Segments – Where You Gonna Go (Liberty)
Spats – She Done Moved (ABC)
Underdogs – Loves Gone Bad (VIP)
Pretty Things – Don’t Bring Me Down (Fontana)
Tweeds – We Got Time (Coral)
Bruce Johnston – Jersey Channel Islands Pt7 (Columbia)
Beverley – Where The Good Times Are (Deram)
The Gas Co – Your Time’s Up (Mirwood)
Thorinshield – Wrong My Friend (Philips)
PJ Proby – Don’t Forget About Me (Liberty)

Pt2

Chad and Jeremy – Rest In Peace (Columbia)
Don Agrati – Protoplasm Blues (Elektra)
Mama Cass – Talking To Your Toothbrush (Dunhill)
Grace Markay – Sally Go Round The Roses (Capitol)
Bobby Vee – The Passing of a Friend (Liberty)
Incredible String Band – No Sleep Blues (Elektra)
MFQ – If All You Think (WB)
Sonny Curtis – The Straight Life (Viva)
Marian Segal and Silver Jade – Amongst Anemones (DJM)
Peggy Lee – Is That All There Is (Capitol)

Listen/Download -ILDT37 – Iron Leg 2011 Year In Vintage Pop – 115MB/256kbps

Greetings all.

Welcome to the 231st annual Iron Leg Year In Vintage Pop.

Of course it hasn’t really been that long, but this being the intertubes and all there’s always the chance that some gullible soul will happen by and think they’ve stumbled on the first blog ever.

That said, what we have here is a cross section – as determined by the management – of the best stuff featured in this space during two thousand ought eleven.

What I’ve done, instead of stirring too vigorously, is allowed the vibes to separate as it were, with the heavy stuff up on top and the lighter, slightly deeper stuff resting on the bottom end.

It has been a very interesting year hereabouts, with me tracking down all kinds of groovy music that was new (at least to me), getting the rare chance to DJ Iron Leggy stuff out in the world and dealing with a serious “outside world” crisis that almost put the kibosh on the blog for the second time in two years.

Things seem to be rolling along nicely at the one-post-a-week pace, allowing me to keep my shit together outside the blog, and still get to post some cool stuff here as well.

Hopefully I’ll be able to keep it together for another year, or at least until Iron Leg celebrates it’s fifth anniversary this coming June.

So, I hope you have dug what I brought you this year, and continue to dig what comes up in the future.

Happy New Year to all, and I’ll see you all in 2012.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners

Tony Roman and Nanette Workman – Hey Joe

Tony Roman and Nanette Workman

Listen/Download – Tony Roman and Nanette Workman – Hey Joe

Greetings all.

I hope the new week finds you all well.

Things in our part of the world are still tense and emotionally trying, but progress (no matter how incremental) is being made, so we can dig that.

I hope all of you had a chance to listen to the latest edition of the Iron Leg Radio Show, and if you haven’t, get thee to the archive and pull down the ones and zeros.

The tune I bring you today is something I picked up recently on something between a whim and an educated guess, and got lucky (as you shall soon hear).

Though I’ve only featured one example of it previously, I am fascinated, and simultaneously clueless about Quebecois rock of the 60s.

I’d say that it has something to do with the language barrier (much of it being en francais) but so is Dutronc and all of his Gallic amis, and that doesn’t stop les collecteurs.

I can say that there was a fairly significant (for a single Canadian province) scene, but what I have seen is mostly in reissue.

That said, I had an in of sorts with today’s selection because I already had a 45 by Nanette Workman in my funk crates, a particularly tasty cover of Labelle’s ‘Lady Marmalade’.

Workman is an American who worked for a while on Broadway, then emigrated to Canada in the 60s after meeting Tony Roman (already a star in his native country).

She and Roman recorded a number of 45s and at least one album in a Sonny and Cher style (see here) before Workman moved yet again, this time to the UK where she recorded backing vocals on the Stones ‘Let It Bleed’ as well as her own records.

‘Hey Joe’ was recorded for the duo’s 1968 LP ‘Fleurs D’Amour, Fleurs D’Amitie’, and is a very cool, moody, vaguely punky interpretation of the classic.

It starts out with a drum break (?!?) , with Workman and Roman trading lines.

It’s a cool take on the oft recorded folk punk chestnut, and I thought you might like to hear it.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back next week.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Iron Leg Radio Episode #3

Beep beep beep beep…..

Playlist

Opening Theme – Alan Hawkshaw/Keith Mansfield – Action Scene (KPM)

Brenda Patterson – This Wheel’s On Fire (Epic)
Gas Co – Your Times Up (Mirwood)
Plasticland – Rattail Comb (Scadillac)
The Knack – Time Waits For No One (Capitol)
The Bougalieu – Let’s Do Wrong (Roulette)
Crip Guerney – Understanding Each Other (Hi)
The Spats – Bonie Moronie (ABC)
Del Shannon – Sweet Mary Lou (Dunhill)
Modern Folk Quartet – If All You Think (WB)
Small Faces Radio Spot

Electronic Concept Orchestra – Rock me (Limelight)
Quinteto Violado – Acaua (Philips Brazil)
Free Design – 2002 a Hit Song (Project 3)
Beverley – Where the Good Times Are (Deram)
Moody Blues – This is My House (London)
Underdogs – Love’s Gone Bad (VIP)
Orpheus – Lesley’s World (MGM)
PJ Proby – Don’t Forget About Me (Imperial)
PJ Proby Radio Spot

Apple – Buffalo Billycan (Page One)
1910 Fruitgum Co – Blue Eyes and Orange Skies (Buddah)
The Association – Come On In (WB)
The Millennium – I Just Want To be Your Friend (Columbia)
Mighty Baby – Egyptian Tomb (Head)
The Neats – Six (Ace of Hearts)
New Vaudeville Band – There’s a Kind of Hush (Fontana)
Richie Havens – Strawberry Fields Forever (Stormy Forest)
Easybeats Coke Commercial

Listen/Download -Iron Leg Radio Show Episode 3 – 153MB/256kbps

Greetings all.

As hard as it may be to believe, it’s already time for the third installment of the Iron Leg Radio Show.

This time out there’s all kinds of groovy ish, from the psyche, to the garage, to vaguely almost kinda prog, to cool stuff from Brazil, freakbeat, Moog and the cusp of heavyosity, all delivered with the kind of sub-Wolfman Jack-ery that you’ve come to expect during the three months that this has been going on.

If you dig what I’m doing here (or not, heaven forfend…) , take a moment to drop me a line.

Requests are welcomed (as long as I have it I’ll play it) and while we’re on the subject, should you also dig the sounds of soul, you might want to skip over to the mothership, aka the Funky16Corners blog and click on the F16C Radio Show tab to pull down the ones and zeros on episodes of the long-running show of the same name that airs every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio.

That said, I hope you dig the show, and I’ll be back next week with something cool.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners

The Sugar Shoppe – The Attitude

The Sugar Shoppe (Victor Garber 2nd from left)

Listen/Download – The Sugar Shoppe – The Attitude

Greetings all.

Welcome to the new week.
The tune I bring you today is by a group that I was completely unaware of until last year, when I stumbled across their album in the midst of a bleary-eyes sunshine pop binge.
I saw the album cover, and one of the group members looked awfully familiar. It was a few seconds before the face registered and I realized that I was looking at actor Victor Garber, who I remembered from the movie of ‘Godspell’ (in which he portrayed Jeebus) and countless TV and movie appearances.
I hit the old Google-matic, and discovered some positive writing about the group, so I figured as soon as I found an affordable copy of the Sugar Shoppe album I grab one and give it a listen.
When I finally did, I liked it (to a point).
The Sunshine Pop oeuvre, while packed with underappreciated gems, is also jam packed with sugary junk, i.e. glassy-eyed, overly twee, insubstantial, stuff that only the most hard-core collector of the stuff would be able to tolerate.
Fortunately, 30+ years of listening to music has (if nothing else) provided me with a sense about these things, and a quick appraisal of an unheard record (i.e. material, producer, arranger etc) can give some idea of what you might be in for.
Since the album in question wasn’t very expensive, and since the group did covers of Donovan’s ‘Skip-a-long Sam’ (their version adding an unnecessary dollops of saccharine to the original) and the theme from the film ‘Privilege’ I figured I’d give it a go.
There were a couple of things that strayed a little too close to the universe of show-tunes, but there were also a couple of real gems, so on balance I’d say I like the record.
The Sugar Shoppe were a foursome, mixed between US and Canadian residents that released some 45s (for the Yorkville label) before recording the Capitol album that gave us today’s selection.
The tune I bring you today, ‘The Attitude’ starts with an Eastern touch, mixing sitar with what sounds like a call to prayer, before turning into a great pastiche of the Mamas and Papas Cali-folk rock sound. I’d go as far as to say that the female singers were doing their best to duplicate the harmonies of Cass Elliot and Michelle Phillips (wait for the phrase ‘beyond your years’ which sounds like it was spliced in from a Mamas and Papas album).
It’s sweet without being cloying and has enough kick to keep it interesting.
I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back later in the week.

Peace

Larry

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for both sides of a southern funk 45

Neil Young – The Loner

The first solo LP (I forgot to take a picture of the label…)

Listen – Neil Young – The Loner – MP3

Greetings all.
The new week is dawning, and in a surprise twist that nobody (especially not me) saw coming, all of a sudden it’s summer in New Jersey.
I just came in out of the heat, while my two sons soaked themselves in the sprinkler.
This is the time of year when I enter into one of the great conflicts of my life, wherein my extremely pale, Irish/Swedish self wants to crawl into a chaise lounge and bake in the sun, the catch being that were I to do so, I’d be trading a week in a burn unit for a few moments of delicious sunshine.
So, I bake under an umbrella, watching everyone else have fun in the sun, keeping a close eye on my equally transparent children so that they don’t end up little Irish briquettes, repeating a cycle that probably goes back to the very day some Viking savage stepped off of his longboat and grabbed himself a lovely Irish girl to take back to the fjords.
That said, I sit here now, comfortably ensconced in the air conditioning, tapping away at the ole laptop, feeding the blog again.
The tune I bring you today is by an artist who at first glance would seem a little too “big” for Iron Leg (though he’s occupied this space a few times before inside of other bands).
The man I speak of is the mighty Neil Young.
I’ve said it here before, but to reiterate, aside from Arthur Lee and Love, no American band looms as large for me as the Buffalo Springfield, and next to Stephen Stills, no member of that band was more responsible for its greatness than Neil Young.
Young’s self-titled solo debut was recorded in 1968 and released at the beginning of 1969. ‘Neil Young’ is, like much of his first few solo records a direct stylistic continuation of the foundation he put down with the Buffalo Springfield, mixing an acid-tinged brand of country rock, Laurel Canyon sunshine and Young’s special brand of Canadian bitters.
The track I bring you today has been a favorite of mine for literally decades, a cornerstone of my stoner mix tapes and still near the top of the list years after the last tendrils of weed smoke blew out the window.
That may be one of the reasons Young’s music is so enduring for me, in that while he was always – to a point – of his times, he was also consistently far ahead of the pack.
While bits and pieces of the Sunset Strip were still bobbing in his wake, he was charging ahead, the lonesome whine of a steel guitar winding in and out of his fuzzed out leads and overmodulated organ. Though he employed elements of a ‘country’ sound, compared to the kinds of things Richie Furay was doing in the Springfield, it was clear that he was wrestling with something else entirely.
‘The Loner’, opening with an organ fanfare almost immediately drops down into a what sounds like a slower version of ‘Mr Soul’, firing his leads out in every direction, dueling with the Hammond, grooving alongside some tight drums. The strings – arranged by Jack Nitzsche – manage to augment the track in an almost cinematic way, never softening the impact of the electric guitar as well as providing a bed of sorts for the acoustic guitar as well.
If you haven’t heard the entire ‘Neil Young’ LP, grab yourself a copy. Though ‘The Loner’ and ‘The Old Laughing Lady’ were included on ‘Decade’, it remains one of Neil Young’s worst selling albums, which is a shame since it’s uniformly excellent.
I hope you dig the track, and I’ll be back later in the week.

Peace

Larry

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for a Ray Charles cover of a Stevie Wonder song.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Sea of Madness

Crosby rehashes the Kennedy Assassination for what he
promised would be the last time. Stills doesn’t look confident, Nash
is contractually obligated to sit still, and Young stopped paying attention
to him in 1966

Listen -CSNT – Sea of Madness – MP3

Greetings all.

I hope the dawn of the new week finds you all well.
I spent the second half of last week cooling jets (and the rest of my body) in the hospital after I was felled by a renegade bacteria with which I wrestled for four unpleasant days.
I’m home now, and I’m going to post another Woodstock track (which I had planned to drop last Friday).
But first, a story.
Back in the olden days (1994), the 25th Anniversary of Woodstock rolled around, and my sister, her then-fiance and myself (Deadheads one and all) decided to pile into her Geo Metro and roll on up to Yasgurs farm to see what was going down. There were a lot of rumors in the air, about who might show up and play.  There was no official concert planned on the site, but in the spirit of the day, and no doubt a small, billowing cloud of pot smoke, we departed.
The drive up to the site was fairly easy going, until we got close and it suddenly struck me how small the roads were leading up to Yasgur’s Farm. I couldn’t imagine how the producers of the original event thought people were going to get there. It was also surprising to pass by a number of orthodox Jewish summer retreats a very short way from the festival, many of which looked to have been there in 1969.
As we got within a half-mile of the field we realized we could go no further, and paid some (other) industrious farmer ten bucks to park in his field. We unloaded our cooler and started marching down the dirt road to what appeared to be a fairly large gathering of similarly longhaired, tie-dyed typed, lots of tents, a small stage and a couple of what looked like tourbuses.
We got down to the field, set down a blanket and the cooler, and set out to explore. There had to be upwards of 10,000 people there, lots of young folks as well as many who looked like if they were not there in 1969, they were certainly old enough to have attended.
We sat, and waited, and waited, and waited,….no music (as long as we were there) but something simultaneously insulting and miraculous happened.
It started to rain.
Not just “rain” rain. Torrential, unforgiving, soaking rain.
Which of course brought on the mud, and the chanting.
It was like someone managed to preserve Woodstock but in a moment of stoned stupidity, forgot to grab the music.
Up until that very moment, I was all starry-eyed, zoning out and back in again thinking that something cool was going to go down.
However, things took another turn as soon as my clothes soaked through, and we were all wrapped in a icy blanket of unseasonable, August cold.
It was that moment that changed my mind about the whole, insane episode.
I was 32 years old, and no matter how much of a reprobate, I knew enough to get the fuck out of the rain and mud.
We packed up our gear, and slogged down one hill, and up the other, all through several inches of fresh mud, in sandals.
My brand new Birkenstocks (you’d be surprised how hard it used to be to find shoes like that in my Gargantuan size), mud squishing between my toes, making my feet slip on the soles.
I don’t recall exactly how long it took us to make it back to the car, but it seemed like an eternity.
We drove all the way home that night. More than three hours mud-to-door, and collapsed.
And there you have my personal “Woodstock Moment”.
The tune I bring you today has long been one of my favorites from the soundtrack album, which oddly enough did not appear in the movie.
As far as I’ve ever been able to discover ‘Sea of Madness’ was only recorded twice, both live concerts, once at Woodstock, and again at the Big Sur Folk Festival
I find the inclusion of ‘Suite Judy Blue Eyes’, and exclusion of ‘Sea of Madness’ from the film, ummm…maddening.
Listen/watch the SJBE performance in the film and it really backs up Stephen Stills proclamations about the festival only being their secong gig, and how the band was scared shitless. It’s shambolic, and amateurish at a level that I don’t see many other Woodstock bands sinking to.
‘Sea of Madness’ a Neil Young composition, is not only a better song, but a better performance. CSN were always stronger with the Y. However, the mercurial Mr. Young apparently refused to be filmed (huh?).
Flash ahead almost a month to the Big Sur Folk Festival, where CSNY, along with Dallas Taylor and Greg Reeves can be seen (in the film ‘Celebration at Big Sur’, a personal fave) the band is tigher, the selections more interesting (‘Sea of Madness, 4&20, Down By the River, and the Youngblood’s ‘Get Together’ with Joni Mitchell). It’s a great movie, and while neither the line-up nor the crowd could match the monumental status of Woodstock, there are some incredible performance, including Joni doing ‘Woodstock’, John Sebastian, and Dorothy Morrison and the Combs Sisters laying down a serious version of ‘Oh Happy Day’. You should check it out whenever you can.
I hope you dig David, Stephen, Graham and Neil (but especially Neil), and I’ll be back on Friday.

Peace

Larry

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for a WILD version of ‘Light My Fire’.