Bands that could and should have played at Woodstock

Tommy James was in the thick of the hippie audience. He was not thought of as "bubble gunmmy" by any stretch at the time.
He would have fit right in.


Traffic, The Guess Who, and Mamas and Papas should have been there as well.

 

The Kinks.............but they were still banned.

 

You never know. They sound fantastic on the DVD, but that could have been restored years later. Johnny Winter is another one who wasn't included on either the film or the soundtrack and again, on the DVD, he's brilliant. I suppose they already had Ten Years After...but I would have preferred Johnny. Better guitarist and a better singer. At the time Ten Years After probably had the bigger profile I guess.

 

Do you play guitar?

 

According to the book by the guy who organized Woodstock (his name escapes me at the moment), Dylan was in the town of Woodstock - where he lived - that weekend, and considered showing up but decided against it. The day after it ended, the organizer says he saw Dylan on the street and he gave him a sort of wave, which he interpreted as an apology for not coming.

I've heard the Doors were deliberately not invited because the folks in charge were afraid Morrison might stir up too much trouble.

Procol Harum were reportedly invited but declined because Gary Brooker had already made plans for a vacation with his family for that week. While I love PH, I'm not sure they'd have fit in too well anyway.

 

They didn't jell until 1970. They were not asked to play, no one knew who they were in 1969.

 

The Flying Burrito Brothers....

 

I saw The Kinks in SF 3 months after Woodstock .

 

The Velvet Underground actually did play a peace 'n' love hippie festival on August 2, 1969, two weeks before Woodstock. It is called the Hilltop Pop Festival, or the Ostrich Festival, and was a fairly dinky affair (the only other act was Van Morrison), but it still was very hippiesque. It is one of the only known outdoor, daytime performances by the Velvet Underground, and has circulated as a pretty popular bootleg for many years. The festival cost $3 to attend and was intended to raise money for a new fire engine for the town of Mason, NH. No, I'm not making any of this up... This is only about the eleventh weirdest gig of their career, however.

 

I think Simon & Garfunkel would have fit it.

Cuba si, Nixon no.

 

Bass...and guitar.

 

Cold Blood and Joy of Cooking.

 

Savoy Brown

 

Although it could have been fun, I don't know when the booking of those events took place in advance, but the Mothers were booked in Ottawa on the 15th, then in Montreal for the following two days.

I believe Zappa did hate phoney hippies. Other than that, I don't think he would have had any contempt for fans (of any sty;e of music) who sincerely want to live in the mud, and a bit in the sun, for a little while... Not to the point of actually refusing to play there at least. I think with the right money (material conditions) he would have went.

 

Dylan comes to mind first. Agree with those that mention Spirit, a Blue Cheer. Was a Grand funk invited? Procol Harum?

 

More bands?! There were already so many that Hendrix didn't even go on until Monday morning after 9 when just about everyone had gone home already. If anymore bands showed up, they would've been playing for the clean up crew and a couple farmers.

 

Did not know that. In Junior High, we dismissed him, he was AM, FM was cool.

 

FWIW:
http://www.examiner.com/article/dylan-s-back-pages-isle-of-wight-concert-august-31-1969
Dylan was asked to play the legendary Woodstock Festival, which took place very near his home, but decided instead to leave town and play in the U.K., at the Isle Of Wight Festival, two weeks later on August 31, 1969.

How did the promoters persuade Dylan to play his first full-length concert in three years? Besides paying a reported $50,000-to-$84,000-plus-expenses for the gig, organizers Fiery Creations, aka brothers Ronnie and Ray Foulk, said that they sold Dylan on the idea of the festival by sending him a short film highlighting the island's cultural and literary heritage.While rehearsing for the show, Dylan was interviewed and said that he'd always wanted to visit the Isle of Wight because it was the home of Alfred Lord Tennyson.

There were protests in the U.S. about Dylan only appearing in the U.K., rumors of Dylan writing new material for the gig, and 300 American journalists and photographers that reportedly followed Dylan to the U.K.

To get ready for his upcoming festival performance, Dylan made a surprise appearance at a July 14 concert by The Band, who were playing the Mississippi River Festival in Edwardsville, Illinois. Dylan appeared as "Elmer Johnson" during the encore, performing four songs.

Dylan planned on leaving the Woodstock area with his family by the start of the festival, but his son Jesse was knocked unconscious when he hit his head on a doorknob while boarding the Queen Elizabeth II. So Bob and Sara (pregnant with son Jakob at the time) had to fly to London on the 25th. Starting the next day, Dylan rehearsed with the Band at a barn in Foreland Farm, Bennbridge. According to guitarist Robbie Robertson, Dylan was far more into the rehearsals than the Band.

 

The Rolling Stones
The Allman Brothers Band
The Doors
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Free
Steppenwolf
Savoy Brown
Humble Pie
Blue Cheer
Taste w/Rory Gallagher
Blind Faith
Jethro Tull
Grand Funk Railroad
Iron Butterfly
Fleetwood Mac w/Peter Green
Led Zeppelin
The Steve Miller Band
Moby Grape
Frank Zappa - probably would have declined
The Groundhogs
Deep Purple
The James Gang

 

Steve Winwood was in Blind Faith at the time and Traffic was dissolved.

 

It's kind of sad that Joni Mitchell missed it just so that she could appear on The freakin' Dick Cavett Show the Monday after. The funny thing is, Woodstock was such a sensation that Cavett altered the show to fit Woodstock bands Jefferson Airplane and CSNY on the show as well as Joni.

At least we got a great song out of it.

 

Quoted from that Wiki link:

• Chicago, at the time still known as the Chicago Transit Authority, had initially been signed on to play at Woodstock. However, they had a contract with concert promoter Bill Graham, which allowed him to move Chicago's concerts at the Fillmore West. He rescheduled some of their dates to August 17, thus forcing the band to back out of the concert. Graham did so to ensure that Santana, which he managed at the time, would take their slot at the festival. According to singer and bassist Peter Cetera, "We were sort of peeved at him for pulling that one."[40]

Wow, what a big break for Santana (if that's true).

 

Santana played Woodstock before their first album was released if I remember correctly.

 

I am pretty sure that I read that the Allman Brothers Band had other gigs already booked during the time of the festival. I think Led Zeppelin did as well.

 

Every pop/rock/soul band who didn't play there should've played there.

End of thread.