Bert Sommer

Tuesday, 25 December 2012

Sarge Blotto's Hot Seat: Bert Sommer (Part 1 of 2)

Bert Sommer - 'We're All Playing In The Same Band' (1970)

Sarge Blotto's Hot Seat: Bert Sommer (Part 2 of 2)

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Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City. Along with London's West End theatre, Broadway theatre is widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world.
The Broadway theatre district is a popular tourist attraction in New York. According to The Broadway League, Broadway shows sold approximately $1.081 billion worth of tickets in calendar year 2011, compared with $1.037 billion for 2010. Attendance in 2011 was 12.13 million.
New York did not have a significant theatre presence until about 1750, when actor-managers Walter Murray and Thomas Kean established a resident theatre company at the Theatre on Nassau Street, which held about 280 people. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggar's Opera. In 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice and The Anatomist. The company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the year the 2,000-seat Park Theatre was built on Chatham Street (now called Park Row). The Bowery Theatre opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, and especially so with the arrival of the Virginia Minstrels in the 1840s.

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Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital District. The city is one of the three major centers for the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which has a population of 850,957. At the 2010 census, the population of Troy was 50,129. Troy's motto is Ilium fuit, Troja est, which means "Ilium was, Troy is".
Before European arrival, the area was settled by the Mahican Indian tribe. There were at least two settlements within today's city limits, Panhooseck and Paanpack. The Dutch began settling in the mid 17th century; the patroon Kiliaen van Rensselaer called the area Pafraets Dael, after his mother. Control of New York passed to the English in 1664 and in 1707 Derick Van der Heyden purchased a farm near today's downtown area. In 1771 Abraham Lansing had his farm in today's Lansingburgh laid out into lots. Responding to Lansing's success to the north, in 1787, Van der Heyden's grandson Jacob had his extensive holdings surveyed and laid out into lots as well, calling the new village Vanderheyden.

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Woodstock
Woodstock Music & Art Fair (informally, Woodstock or The Woodstock Festival) was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre (2.4 km²; 240 ha, 0.94 mi²) dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969. Bethel, in Sullivan County, is 43 miles (69 km) southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, in adjoining Ulster County.
During the sometimes rainy weekend, thirty-two acts performed outdoors in front of 500,000 concert-goers. It is widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history. Rolling Stone called it one of the 50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock and Roll.
The event was captured in the 1970 documentary movie Woodstock, an accompanying soundtrack album, and Joni Mitchell's song "Woodstock" which commemorated the event and became a major hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
Woodstock was initiated through the efforts of Michael Lang, John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, and Artie Kornfeld. It was Roberts and Rosenman who had the finances. Lang had experience as a promoter and had already organized the largest festival on the East Coast at the time, the Miami Pop Festival, which had an estimated 100,000 people attend the two day event. Roberts and Rosenman placed the following advertisement in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal under the name of Challenge International, Ltd.: "Young men with unlimited capital looking for interesting, legitimate investment opportunities and business propositions".

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Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie (born July 10, 1947) is an American folk singer. Like his late father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo is known for singing songs of protest against social injustice. One of Guthrie's better-known works is "Alice's Restaurant Massacree", a satirical talking blues song about 18 minutes in length.
Arlo Guthrie was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of folk singer and composer Woody Guthrie and his wife Marjorie Mazia Guthrie. His sister is Nora Guthrie. His mother was a one-time professional dancer with the Martha Graham Company and founder of the Committee to Combat Huntington's disease, the disease that took Woody's life in 1967. His maternal grandmother was renowned Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt. His father was from a Protestant family and his mother was Jewish; Guthrie received religious training for his bar mitzvah from Rabbi Meir Kahane, who would go on to form the Jewish Defense League. "Rabbi Kahane was a really nice, patient teacher," Guthrie later recalled, "but shortly after he started giving me my lessons, he started going haywire. Maybe I was responsible." Guthrie attended Woodward School in Clinton Hill Brooklyn 1st through 8th grades and later graduated from the Stockbridge School, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in 1965, and briefly attended Rocky Mountain College. He received an Honorary Doctorate from Westfield State College, in 2008.

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Artie Kornfeld
Artie Kornfeld (born Arthur Lawrence Kornfeld, 9 September 1942, Brooklyn, New York) is an American musician, record producer and music executive. He is perhaps best known as the music promoter for the Woodstock Festival held in 1969.
Co-creator and sole promoter of Woodstock 1969, Artie Kornfeld was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1942. The man who would later be deemed "The Father of Woodstock" would go on to become one of the most respected composers, publishers, producers, managers, and promoters in the history of rock and roll.
Kornfeld is the son of a New York City policeman and his wife (Irving & Shirley). Brought up in the early 50s in Levittown, New York, Kornfeld's family constantly moved and he attended six different schools, learning the lessons of the world through the song lyrics played over the radio. Artie Kornfeld would soon live his American dream and become the guiding force to what is now known as "The Woodstock Generation".
Kornfeld got his first guitar in 1956 and learned a few chords that were pretty much universal at the time. He soon found himself with a record deal and on stage with Dion and the Belmonts with The Skyliners singing backup. Kornfeld would further his music career by attending Adelphi College and American University where he met Cass Elliot of the Mamas and the Papas.

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Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana (born July 20, 1947) is a Mexican and American rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, Latin music and jazz fusion. The band's sound featured his melodic, blues-based guitar lines set against Latin and African rhythms featuring percussion instruments such as timbales and congas not generally heard in rock music. Santana continued to work in these forms over the following decades. He experienced a resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990s. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine listed Santana at number 15 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He has won 10 Grammy Awards and 3 Latin Grammy Awards.
Santana was born in Autlán de Navarro, Jalisco, Mexico. Carlos learned to play the violin at age five and the guitar at age eight. His younger brother, Jorge Santana, would also become a professional guitarist. Young Carlos was heavily influenced by Ritchie Valens at a time when there were very few Latinos in American rock and pop music. The family moved from Autlán de Navarro to Tijuana In La Colonia Libertad, the city on Mexico's border with California, and then San Francisco. Carlos stayed in Tijuana but joined his family in San Francisco later and graduated from James Lick Middle School and Mission High School there. He graduated from Mission High in 1965. Carlos was accepted into the California State University, Northridge and Humboldt State University, but turned down both of the offers. Javier Bátiz, a famous guitarist from Tijuana, was said to have been Carlos's guitar teacher who taught him to play a different style of guitar soloing. After learning Javier Batiz's techniques, Santana would make them his own as well.

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Country Joe McDonald
Country Joe McDonald (born Joseph Allen McDonald; January 1, 1942) is an American musician who was the lead singer of the 1960s psychedelic rock group Country Joe and the Fish.
McDonald was born in Washington, D.C., At the age of 17, he enlisted in the United States Navy. After his enlistment, he attended Los Angeles City College for a year. In the early 1960s, he began busking on the famous Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California. His father, Worden McDonald, from Oklahoma, was of Scottish Presbyterian heritage (the son of a minister). His mother, Florence Plotnick, was the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants and served for many years on the Berkeley city council. As of 2009, Country Joe still lives in Berkeley, California.
McDonald was married to Kathe Werrum from 1965 to 1966 and married Robin Menken a year after his divorce from Werrum. In 1968, Menken gave birth to the couple's first daughter, Seven Anne McDonald, in San Francisco. Seven, currently a columnist for LA Weekly, had a previous career as a TV child actor in the late 1970s and early 1980s, managed Johnny Depp's Viper Room nightclub and the alternative rock band Smashing Pumpkins in the 1990s , and wrote for Details, Elle and Harper's Bazaar magazines in the 1990s and 2000s. According to Ron Cabral's biography on Country Joe and the Fish, Seven was the subject of and inspiration behind the song Silver and Gold.

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Edgar Winter
Edgar Holland Winter (born December 28, 1946) is an American musician. He is famous for being a multi-instrumentalist. He is a highly skilled keyboardist, saxophonist and percussionist. He often plays an instrument while singing. He was most successful in the 1970s with his band, The Edgar Winter Group, notably with their popular songs "Frankenstein" and "Free Ride". He has albinism.
Winter was born to John Winter II and Edith Winter on December 28, 1946, in Beaumont, Texas. Both he and his brother Johnny have albinism, and both were required to take special education classes in high school. Winter states, "In school I had a lot of friends. I wore a lot of white shirts to, like, blend in I guess. No one really gave me a hard time about being albino or taking special education classes. Then again, I wasn't really popular."
By the time Edgar Winter left his hometown of Beaumont, Texas, in the 1960s, he was already a proficient musician. A child prodigy who achieved international success early on, Edgar has found an audience in a number of major entertainment media, including music, film and television.

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Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and songwriter from Port Arthur, Texas. As a youth Joplin was ridiculed by her fellow students due to her unconventional appearance and personal beliefs. She later sang about her experience at school through her song "Ego Rock". Early in her life, Joplin cultivated a rebellious and unconventional lifestyle, becoming a beatnik poet. She began her singing career as a folk and blues singer in San Francisco, playing clubs and bars with her guitar and auto-harp.
Joplin first rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of the psychedelic-acid rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, and later as a solo artist with her more soulful and bluesy backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band. She was one of the more popular acts at the Monterey Pop Festival and later became one of the major attractions to the Woodstock festival and the Festival Express train tour.
Janis Joplin only charted five singles in her life but her hits and other popular songs from throughout her short four year career include "Down On Me", "Bye, Bye Baby", "Coo Coo", "Summertime", "Piece of My Heart", "Turtle Blues", "Ball 'n' Chain", "Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)", "Maybe", "To Love Somebody", "Kozmic Blues", "Work Me, Lord", "Move Over", "Cry Baby", "A Woman Left Lonely" "Get It While You Can", "My Baby", "Trust Me", "Mercedes Benz", "One Night Stand", "Raise Your Hand" and her only number one hit, "Me and Bobby McGee".

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Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American musician and singer-songwriter. He is widely considered to be the greatest electric guitarist in music history, and one of the most influential musicians of his era despite mainstream exposure limited to just three years. After initial success in Europe with his group The Jimi Hendrix Experience, he achieved fame in the United States following his 1967 performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. Later, he headlined the iconic 1969 Woodstock Festival and the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. He often favored raw overdriven amplifiers with high gain and treble and helped develop the previously undesirable technique of guitar amplifier feedback.
Hendrix helped to popularize use of the wah-wah pedal in mainstream rock, which he often used to deliver tonal exaggerations in his solos, particularly with high bends, complex guitar playing, and use of legato. As a record producer, he also broke new ground in using the recording studio as an extension of his musical ideas. He was one of the first to experiment with stereophonic phasing effects for rock recording.^{[citation needed]} He was influenced by blues artists such as B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Albert King and Elmore James,rhythm and blues and soul guitarists Curtis Mayfield and Steve Cropper, and the jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery. Hendrix began dressing and wearing a moustache like Little Richard when he performed and recorded in his band from March 1, 1964 through to the spring of 1965. In 1966, he stated, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice".

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Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez ( /ˈbaɪ.ɛz/) (born January 9, 1941 as Joan Chandos Báez) is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice.
Baez has a distinctive vocal style, with a strong vibrato. Her recordings include many topical songs and material dealing with social issues.
Baez began her career performing in coffeehouses in Boston and Cambridge, and rose to fame as an unbilled performer at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival. She began her recording career in 1960, and achieved immediate success. Her first three albums, Joan Baez, Joan Baez, Vol. 2, and Joan Baez in Concert all achieved gold record status, and stayed on the charts for two years.
Baez has had a popular hit song with "Diamonds & Rust" and hit covers of Phil Ochs's "There but for Fortune" and The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". Other songs associated with Baez include "Farewell, Angelina", "Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word", "Joe Hill", "Sweet Sir Galahad" and "We Shall Overcome". She performed three of the songs at the 1969 Woodstock Festival, helped to bring the songs of Bob Dylan to national prominence, and has displayed a lifelong commitment to political and social activism in the fields of nonviolence, civil rights, human rights and the environment.

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Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE (born 20 May 1944) is an English rock and blues singer, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of the Beatles.
He is the recipient of several awards, including a 1983 Grammy Award for his #1 hit "Up Where We Belong", a duet he performed with Jennifer Warnes. He was ranked #97 on Rolling Stone's 100 greatest singers list.
Cocker was born on 20 May 1944 at 38 Tasker Road, Crookes, Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire. He is the youngest son of a civil servant, Harold Cocker, and Madge Cocker. According to differing family stories, Cocker received his nickname of Joe either from playing a childhood game called "Cowboy Joe" or from a local window cleaner named Joe.
Cocker's main musical influences growing up were Ray Charles and Lonnie Donegan. Cocker's first experience singing in public was at age 12 when his elder brother Victor invited him on stage to sing during a gig of his skiffle group. In 1960, along with three friends, Cocker formed his first group, the Cavaliers. For the group's first performance at a youth club, they were required to pay the price of admission before entering. The Cavaliers eventually broke up after a year and Cocker left school to become an apprentice gasfitter while he pursued a career in music.

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Joel Rosenman
Joel Rosenman (born 1942), conceived and co-created the Woodstock Festival in 1969. Rosenman thought of the idea for the three-day concert when he and business partner John Roberts evaluated a recording studio proposal brought forward by Michael Lang and Artie Kornfeld. The four went on to create the event; Rosenman and Roberts are the co-authors of Young Men with Unlimited Capital, also published as Making Woodstock, a non-fiction account of their exploits as producers of Woodstock.
Born the second of three children, Rosenman grew up on Long Island in the town of Cold Spring Harbor, New York. He attended Huntington High School from 1956 to 1959, graduating at age 16. Rosenman earned a B.A. in English from Princeton in 1963, where he was a member of all-male a cappella group the Princeton Footnotes, and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1966. Throughout college and graduate school, he helped finance his studies by working as a professional musician, both as a solo artist and band member.
Following graduation from law school, Rosenman continued to perform in the New York City folk music scene of the 1960s, working at a law firm during the day. John Hammond, then head of A&R at Columbia Records, offered him a recording contract in 1967, but Rosenman opted instead for a career in writing and venture capital with friend, and then partner, John Roberts.

wn.com/Joel_Rosenman
John Sebastian
John Benson Sebastian (born March 17, 1944, in Greenwich Village, New York City) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and autoharpist. He is best known as a founder of The Lovin' Spoonful, a band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. His tie-dyed denim jacket is prominently displayed there.
Sebastian's father, John Sebastian , was a noted classical harmonica player and his mother was a radio script writer. He is the godson of Vivian Vance (Ethel Mertz of I Love Lucy). He grew up surrounded by music and musicians, including Burl Ives and Woody Guthrie and hearing such players as Leadbelly and Mississippi John Hurt in his own neighborhood.
One of his first recording gigs was playing guitar and harmonica for Billy Faier's 1964 album The Beast of Billy Faier. He also recorded with Fred Neil on the Bleecker & MacDougal album and Tom Rush's self-titled album in 1965. He came up through the Even Dozen Jug Band and The Mugwumps, which split to form the Lovin' Spoonful and The Mamas & the Papas. Sebastian was joined by Zal Yanovsky, Steve Boone and Joe Butler in the Spoonful, which was named after "The Coffee Blues," a Mississippi John Hurt song. Sebastian also played autoharp on occasion.

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Johnny Rabb
Johnny Rabb (born February 29, 1972 in Fairfax, Virginia ) is a professional live/studio drummer, author, inventor, and instructor.
As a Product Specialist for Roland V-DRUMS, Rabb performs around 70 international clinic dates per year. He endorses several companies including: Drum Workshop, Pacific Drums and Percussion, Remo, Audix Microphones, Prologix, Blowit Fans, Drumometer, and HansenFutz.
Rabb designed a series of cymbals with the MEINL company: Drumbals and Safari cymbals are part of MEINL's Generation X line[4]. For Pro-Mark Drumstick's Autograph Series, Johnny Rabb designed his signature stick, TX7731W.
Johnny Rabb has performed with artists Maynard Ferguson, Alain Caron, Frank Gambale, Larry Tagg, Tanya Tucker, DJ Hype, Hank Williams III, SHeDAISY, Deana Carter, and Mindy McCready.
In 2006, Johnny Rabb and Clay Parnell formed BioDiesel, describing their intense electronic sound as "environmentally friendly Intelligent Dance Music".
Johnny Rabb is the drummer for U.S.S.A., a rock n' roll collaboration with bassist/programmer/producer Paul Barker, guitarist/composer Duane Denison, and lead singer Gary Call.
Percussionist Chris Patterson (DJ Krushar) and Rabb drive out drum n' bass to acid jazz as DrumJockeys. Johnny also plays in Magnetic Lobster with friend Marco Minnemann).
Johnny Rabb held the title of "WFD World's Fastest Drummer Extreme Sport Drumming" by playing 1,071 single strokes in 60 seconds.

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Johnny Winter
John Dawson "Johnny" Winter III (born February 23, 1944) is an American blues guitarist, singer, and producer. Best known for his late 1960s and 1970s high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues legend Muddy Waters. Since his time with Waters, Johnny Winter has recorded several Grammy-nominated blues albums and continues to tour extensively. In 1988, he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and in 2003, he was ranked 74th in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" He was born with albinism.
Johnny Winter, along with his brother Edgar Winter, were nurtured at an early age by their parents in musical pursuits. Both he and his brother, who were born with albinism, began performing at an early age. When he was ten years old, Winter appeared on a local children's show, playing ukelele and singing Everly Brothers songs with his brother.
His recording career began at the age of fifteen, when his band Johnny and the Jammers released "School Day Blues" on a Houston record label. During this same period, he was able to see performances by classic blues artists such as Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and Bobby Bland. In the early days Winter would sometimes sit in with Roy Head and the Traits when they performed in the Beaumont, Texas area, and in 1967, Winter recorded a single with the Traits: "Tramp" backed with "Parchman Farm" (Universal Records 30496). In 1968, he released his first album The Progressive Blues Experiment, on Austin's Sonobeat Records.

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Keef Hartley
Keith "Keef" Hartley (8 April 1944 – 26 November 2011) was an English drummer and bandleader. He fronted his own eponymous band, known as the Keef Hartley Band or the Keef Hartley Big Band, and played at Woodstock. He was later a member of Dog Soldier, and variously worked with Rory Storm, The Artwoods and John Mayall.
Keith Hartley was born in Preston, Lancashire. His career began as the replacement for Ringo Starr as drummer for Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, a Liverpool-based band. Subsequently he played and recorded with The Artwoods, then achieved some notability as John Mayall's drummer (including his role as the only musician, other than Mayall, to play on Mayall's 1967 "solo" record The Blues Alone. He then formed The Keef Hartley (Big) Band, mixing elements of jazz, blues, and rock and roll; the group played at Woodstock in 1969.
They released five albums, including Halfbreed and The Battle of North West Six (characterised by a reviewer for the Vancouver Sun as "an amazing display of virtuosity"). After that Hartley released a 'solo' album (Lancashire Hustler, 1973) and then he formed Dog Soldier with Miller Anderson (guitar), Paul Bliss (bass), Derek Griffiths (guitar) and Mel Simpson (keyboards). They released an eponymous album in 1975, which had a remastered release in early 2011 on CD on the Esoteric label.

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Max Yasgur
Max B. Yasgur (December 15, 1919 – February 9, 1973) was an American farmer, best known as the owner of the dairy farm in Bethel, New York at which the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was held between August 15 and August 18, 1969.
Yasgur was born in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrants Samuel and Bella Yasgur. He was raised on the family's farm and attended New York University, studying real estate law. By the late 1960s, he was the largest milk producer in Sullivan County, New York. His farm had 650 cows, mostly Guernseys.
At the time of the festival in 1969, Yasgur was married and had a son and daughter. His son, Sam Yasgur, was an assistant district attorney in Manhattan at the time of Woodstock.
After area villages Saugerties (located about 40 miles (64 km) from Yasgur's farm) and Wallkill declined to provide a venue for the festival, Yasgur leased one of his farm's fields for a fee that festival sponsors said was $50,000. Soon afterward he began to receive both threatening and supporting phone calls. Some of the calls threatened to burn him out. However, the helpful calls outnumbered the threatening ones. Opposition to the festival began soon after the festival's relocation to Bethel was announced. Signs were erected around town, saying, "Stop Max's Hippie Music Festival. No 150,000 hippies here. Buy no milk."

wn.com/Max_Yasgur
Melanie Safka
Melanie Anne Safka-Schekeryk (born February 3, 1947) is an American singer-songwriter. Known professionally as simply Melanie, she is best known for her hits "Brand New Key", "Ruby Tuesday", "What Have They Done To My Song Ma" and "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)".
Melanie was born and grew up in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York City, New York. Melanie made her first public singing appearance at age four on the radio show Live Like A Millionaire, performing the song "Gimme a Little Kiss". She attended Red Bank High School in Red Bank, New Jersey, graduating in 1966. After school, her parents insisted she go to college, so she studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, where she began singing in the folk clubs of Greenwich Village and signed her first recording contract.
Initially signed to Columbia Records in the United States, Melanie released two singles on the label. Subsequently she signed with Buddah Records and first found chart success in Europe in 1969 with "Bobo's Party" which reached Number 1 in France. Her debut album received rave reviews from Billboard which heralded her voice as "... wise beyond her years. Her non-conformist approach to the selections on this LP make her a new talent to be reckoned with."^{[citation needed]}

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Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar (Bengali: রবি শংকর; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury on 7 April 1920), often referred to with the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the most known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.
Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent his youth touring Europe and India with the dance group of his brother Uday Shankar. He gave up dancing in 1938 to study sitar playing under court musician Allauddin Khan. After finishing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as a composer, creating the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, and was music director of All India Radio, New Delhi, from 1949 to 1956.
In 1956, he began to tour Europe and America playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching, performance, and his association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and George Harrison of The Beatles. Shankar engaged Western music by writing concerti for sitar and orchestra and toured the world in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1986 to 1992 he served as a nominated member of the upper chamber of the Parliament of India. Shankar was awarded India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999, and received three Grammy Awards. He continues to perform in the 2000s, often with his daughter Anoushka.

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Richie Havens
Richard P. "Richie" Havens (born January 21, 1941) is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style (often in open tunings), soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.
Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children. At an early age, he began organizing his neighborhood friends into street corner doo-wop groups and was performing with The McCrea Gospel Singers at 16. At age 20, Havens left Brooklyn, seeking artistic stimulation in Greenwich Village. "I saw the Village as a place to escape to, in order to express yourself," he recalls. "I had first gone there during the Beatnik days of the 1950s to perform poetry, then I drew portraits for two years and stayed up all night listening to folk music in the clubs. It took a while before I thought of picking up a guitar."^{[citation needed]}
Havens' reputation as a solo performer soon spread beyond the Village folk circles. After cutting 2 records for Douglas Records, Havens signed on with Bob Dylan's manager Albert Grossman, and landed a record deal with the Verve Forecast label. Verve released Mixed Bag in 1967, which featured tracks like "Handsome Johnny" (co-written by Havens and future Oscar-winning actor Louis Gossett Jr.), "Follow", and a cover of Bob Dylan's "Just Like a Woman". By 1969, he had released five more albums. Something Else Again (1968) became Havens' first album to hit the Billboard chart and also pulled Mixed Bag back onto the charts.

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Tim Hardin
James Timothy "Tim" Hardin (December 23, 1941 – December 29, 1980) was an American folk musician and composer. He wrote the Top 40 hits "If I Were a Carpenter", covered by, among others, Bobby Darin, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, The Four Tops, and Robert Plant; his song "Reason to Believe" has been covered by by many artists, including Rod Stewart (who had a chart hit with the song). Hardin is also known for his own recording career.
Hardin was born in Eugene, Oregon and attended South Eugene High School. He dropped out of high school at age 18 to join the Marine Corps. He spent part of 1959 in Vietnam as a military advisor.^{[citation needed]} Hardin is said to have discovered heroin in Vietnam.
After his discharge he moved to New York City in 1961, where he briefly attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He was dismissed because of truancy and began to focus on his musical career by performing around Greenwich Village, mostly in a blues style.
After moving to Boston in 1963 he was discovered by the record producer Erik Jacobsen (later the producer for The Lovin' Spoonful), who arranged a meeting with Columbia Records. In 1964 he moved back to Greenwich Village to record for his contract with Columbia. The resulting recordings were not released and Columbia terminated Hardin's recording contract.

wn.com/Tim_Hardin

Bert Sommer - "Jennifer", Woodstock 1969 (DVD)

pause - load - play _____________________ Bert Sommer (February 7, 1949 -- July 23, 1990) ...

published: 12 Sep 2007

author: olambubomba

BERT SOMMER - AMERICA - WOODSTOCK 69

The only standing ovation from Woodstock 1969. Unforgettable Bert. Video by Lorenzo Pianos...

published: 22 Feb 2010

author: lolloceci

Sarge Blotto's Hot Seat: Bert Sommer (Part 1 of 2)

The first episode of Sarge Blotto's Hot Seat featuring the late Bert Sommer. Produced by R...

published: 06 Oct 2010

author: Nippertown

Smile - Bert Sommer (Woodstock)

Bert Sommer performing Smile at Woodstock Festival, 1969...

published: 29 May 2011

author: summertreeshadow

Bert Sommer - 'We're All Playing In The Same Band' (1970)

released 1970...

published: 07 Oct 2010

author: Scott Washam

Sarge Blotto's Hot Seat: Bert Sommer (Part 2 of 2)

The first episode of Sarge Blotto's Hot Seat featuring the late Bert Sommer. Produced by R...

published: 06 Oct 2010

author: Nippertown

Smile - Bert Sommer (LP "Inside Bert Sommer", 1969)

Smile...And it only takes a song to understand......

published: 01 Nov 2009

author: preciousmusic2002

Bert Sommer - Stick together

Buddha (1970)....

published: 31 Jan 2010

author: Fourar Youness

Bert Sommer - She's Gone

...

published: 10 Mar 2011

author: JaNaBeMa

Bert Sommer - Jennifer

Jennifer's heaven, for Jenny I'd stay Skin shining white as a dove, Lying beside her I'm ...

published: 03 Aug 2008

author: edumota

Bert Sommer- Brink of death

Album "the road to travel"...

published: 27 Apr 2010

author: IZzKyzZ

Bert Sommer-Destiny

...

published: 03 Feb 2009

author: magicsrc

A Note That Read, Bert Sommer

A song from his first album, The Road to Travel (1968)....

published: 16 Mar 2010

author: elvy3313

Bert Sommer - Road to Travel (1968 Capitol)

Road to Travel...

published: 09 Jul 2012

author: SirSharon

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photo: AP / Aijaz Rahi

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, right, listens to his wife Asma Assad during their visit to the campus of Infosys Technologies Ltd., an Indian software services company, in Bangalore, India, Friday, June 20, 2008. Al-Assad is on five day official visit to India.

The incredible elegance of Syrian first lady Asma al-Assad

The Examiner

22 Dec 2012

Tweet. 0 Email. Report. Photo 1 of 18. In 2009, ELLE Magazine named Mrs Assad the most stylish woman in world politics. She is an icon of fashion in her country. Credit. Aimee Kligman. In 2009, ELLE Magazine named Mrs Assad the most stylish woman in world politics. She is an icon of fashion in her country.In 2009, ELLE Magazine named Mrs Assad the most stylish woman in world politics ... Syrians detained by the Assad regime. 13 Photos ... 10 Photos ... ....(size: 6.3Kb)

photo: AP / Virginie Nguyen Huang

In this Monday, Dec. 17, 2012 photo, a Free Syrian Army fighter takes cover during fighting with the Syrian Army in Azaz, Syria.

Syria's chemical weapons safe for now: Russia

Newstrack India

23 Dec 2012

Tweet. Moscow, Dec 23 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Chemical weapons in Syria are under the control of the government, which has consolidated them in one or two locations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. "As of right now, the (Syrian) government is doing all it can to safeguard those weapons," he said. "We are following all leads concerning chemical weapons," Lavrov said ... "My answer is very simple. Why use us as a postman ... pm/ ... ) .. ). ... . ....(size: 3.2Kb)

photo: Creative Commons / Giorgione

Anbetung der Hirten (Adoration of the Shepherds) (c. 1500–10), by Italian painter Giorgio da Castelfranco. Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary as a fulfillment of the Old Testament's Messianic prophecy.

Liberating Burdensome and Tortuous Beasts (An Animal Liberation Theology)

WorldNews.com

24 Dec 2012

Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. A deadly silence immediately followed after a bullet penetrated the calf's skull. Against my wishes, Vic had decided against either amputating its leg or contacting a veterinarian-something he reasoned would have been too expensive. The unfortunate calf had slid down into a ravine where its hind leg, which was mangled and torn, became wrapped in barbed wire ... But it was more than a bellow ... 9....(size: 6.3Kb)

photo: AP / Musadeq Sadeq

A member of security escorts a U.S. convoy in to the Kabul police headquarters, where a an American advisor was killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Dec. 24, 2012.

Afghan policewoman kills US adviser in Kabul

my SA

24 Dec 2012

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan policewoman shot and killed an American adviser outside the police headquarters in Kabul on Monday, the latest in a rising tide of insider attacks by Afghans against their foreign allies, senior Afghan officials said. The woman, identified as Afghan police Sgt ... The woman was taken into Afghan custody shortly after the attack ... As many Afghans, the policewoman uses only one name ... Air Force Lt. Col ... Gen ... ....(size: 4.6Kb)

photo: AP / Altaf Qadri

Indian police officers baton charge protesters near the Presidential Palace in New Delhi, India, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012.

India govt to probe gang-rape, enhance punishment

Khaleej Times

23 Dec 2012

A commission will be set up to probe the gang-rape and torture of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi and measures to ensure such crimes do not recur while laws will be amended to enhance punishment for rape, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said . He also appealed the thousands of protesters on the capital’s streets, demanding justice for the victim, to withdraw ... “The government is serious on the issue. ...  . . ....(size: 2.4Kb)

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Why Woodstock & Occupy WS are Different

American Spectator

27 Oct 2011

By Aaron Goldstein on 10.26.11 @ 5.53PM ... The Woodstock Music & Art Festival ... Then there was Bert Sommer ... Sommer had little success in the music business following Woodstock aside from a stint as part of Kaptain Kool & The Kongs on The Krofft Supershow as well as on Donny & Marie in the late 1970s. But Sommer had an exquisite voice as demonstrated in his song "Jennifer." Sadly, he passed away in 1990 ... ....(size: 2.9Kb)

Readers recommend: songs about the afterlife �Euro" results

The Guardian

27 May 2011

Phew. Harold Camping's prediction of a rapture last weekend didn't materialise – though like all good self-publicists, he's doing his darnedest to ensure the story won't go away ... Music, too, can have an afterlife ... It's dreamy and otherworldly, written by Bert Sommer of baroque'n'rollers the Left Banke and produced by synthesiser pioneer Walter Carlos, famed for Switched on Bach and the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange ... Here's one ... ....(size: 7.6Kb)

Readers recommend: songs about the afterlife – results

The Guardian

26 May 2011

Whether knocking on heaven's door or taking the highway to hell, here are your favourite songs about the great beyond Death is not the end? ... Songs about the afterlife. Photograph. Murdo Macleod for the Guardian. Phew ... It's dreamy and otherworldly, written by Bert Sommer of baroque'n'rollers the Left Banke and produced by synthesiser pioneer Walter Carlos, famed for Switched on Bach and the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange ... Here's one ... ....(size: 8.8Kb)

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Bert Sommer
Born	(1949-02-07)February 7, 1949
Died	July 23, 1990(1990-07-23) (aged 41) Troy, New York
Genres	Folk Rock Baroque pop Broadway
Occupations	singer, songwriter television performer
Years active	1960s, 1970s
Website	Bert Sommer Official Web Site

Bert Sommer (February 7, 1949 – July 23, 1990) was a folk singer who performed at Woodstock in 1969. Bert wrote "We're All Playing In The Same Band" at and about Woodstock,^[1] and his recording peaked at #48 on the Hot 100 on 12 September 1970. He was briefly a member of baroque-pop group the Left Banke, co-writing and singing lead on the "Ivy Ivy"/"And Suddenly" single.^[2]

Sommer also played Woof in the original Broadway production of Hair (his hair is on the playbill for Hair^[3]) and "Flatbush" of Kaptain Kool and the Kongs on The Krofft Supershow in 1976. He did not reprise the role in the second season.^[4]

Sommer died in Troy, New York on July 23, 1990, after a long battle with respiratory illness. His last performance was in Troy on June 11, 1990, with his friend Johnny Rabb.^[5]

Discography [link]

The Road To Travel (1969). Capitol.
Inside Bert Sommer (1970). Eleuthera.
Bert Sommer (1970). Buddah.
Bert Sommer (1977). Capitol.

References [link]

External links [link]

v t e Woodstock festival

Founders	Michael Lang John P. Roberts Joel Rosenman Artie Kornfeld

August 15, 1969	Richie Havens Sweetwater Bert Sommer Ravi Shankar Tim Hardin Melanie Safka Arlo Guthrie Joan Baez

August 16, 1969	Quill Country Joe McDonald John Sebastian Carlos Santana Keef Hartley The Incredible String Band Canned Heat Mountain Grateful Dead Creedence Clearwater Revival

August 17, 1969 August 18, 1969	Janis Joplin Sly & The Family Stone The Who Jefferson Airplane The Grease Band Joe Cocker Country Joe and the Fish Ten Years After The Band Blood, Sweat & Tears Johnny and Edgar Winter Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Paul Butterfield Blues Band Sha Na Na Jimi Hendrix

Related	Max Yasgur List of performances and events Taking Woodstock Woodstock (film)

Persondata
Name	Sommer
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	February 7, 1949
Place of birth
Date of death	July 23, 1990
Place of death	Troy, New York

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