1969 Woodstock, or Not

I had actually been to the Woodstock area about 2 weeks before the Festival.  Even then, there were lots of signs for "Three days of peace and music".  

A Woodstock sign

David and I had thought about going but he was busy at the recording studio and I would have had to call in sick to work which I did a lot.  Our across-the-street neighbors,, Lynne and Samik went though, leaving on Thursday morning early.  We thought they were crazy because Woodstock is only about 100 miles from New York, but it turns out they knew what they were doing.  They got there early Thursday afternoon and already there was so much traffic that they had to abandon their red VW bus about 5 miles from the meadow.  They just left it on the side of the road, along with many others, keys in it, and hitchhiked with all their stuff to the site.  When they returned to it on Monday, keys were still in it and nothing was missing  They got home later Monday night.

Traffic jam on the way to Woodstock

David and I had considered going up Friday night after work, but by the news helicopters were already showing traffic backed up for miles and over 500,000 in attendance, so we wisely decided against it. 

There was a crowd of over half a million people

Still, I can't believe I missed one of the most significant events of my lifetime!  David was mad because he knew so many of the performers.  He knew some of the members of The Band; he was pretty good friends with Richie Havens, who was the opening act by default; and he knew Arlo Guthrie.  We were both on a first-name basis with Roger Daltrey of The Who.  John Sebastian of the Lovin' Spoonful was there, and of course we knew him from seeing him riding around the Village with his parrot on his head.  We also knew Tim Hardin from when David lived at the Hotel Albert (he later died of an overdose in 1980).  And of course he knew, Melanie (who later because David's star-f**ker moment).  Then, of course though I didn't know him at all, I had seen Jimi Hendrix onstage in Paris in 1966.
 

Arlo Guthrie

The Band

Richie Havens

Roger Daltrey and The Who

Tim Hardin

John Sebastian

Melanie

Jimi Hendrix

To me the quintessential image of Woodstock is Jimi playing the Star-Spangled Banner, fringes flying, bombs dropping, and rockets exploding.  Amazingly, that performance was impromptu and not rehearsed.

Later on, after the movie was released, David and I went to the New York press preview.  The movie was wonderful,  But then, when Jimi started playing the Star-Spangled Banner, a lot of people got up and walked out.  I guess they felt it was disrespectful, but I will never understand why.  After all, my generation was against the Vietnam war; that was the whole point of Three Days of Peace and Music.

1966 La Loco,The Animals, and The Streak

One night my friend Yves and I were at La Loco, the rock nightclub in Paris.  The band was Eric Burdon and the Animals, who were quite well known by then.

Eric Burdon and The Animals at La Loco 1966

La Loco 1966

La Loco 1966

Cream at La Loco 1966

The Hollies at La Loco in 1966

The Who at La Loco in 1966

As usual, during the performance, Yves and I sat on the dance floor, which was blocks of lighted tiles.  I was sitting on the edge right in front of Chas Chandler's amplifier.  They were rocking pretty hard, and the dance floor, and probably the stage too, was vibrating.

I was wearing my favorite outfit,  a cream-colored pantsuit made of fine wale corduroy, with a longish fitted jacket and slightly bell bottom pants.  I loved it.  As were were sitting there enjoying the show, suddenly I felt a stunning hit to my head, on the front, just behind my hairline, and just to the right of my part which was in the middle.  The next thing I knew, I was lying on the dance floor, Yves looking down at me, and the owner of the club pressing a napkin to my head.  The band had stopped.  

When I was finally aware of what was going on, the owner took me upstairs to his office suite and made sure I was all right.  He took me to his bathroom and helped me wash all the blood off my face.  There was blood all over my turtleneck and a few drops on the lapel of my jacket.  There was quite a bit on the pants.  I was traumatized by the blood.  When he got the bleeding pretty much controlled, he told me there was a fairly deep cut in my scalp.  He asked if I wanted him to take me to the hospital and I said absolutely not.  I had noticed some blood on Yves so I asked how he was.  Apparently, he just got a glancing blow on the shoulder - the blood was mine!

The owner made me drink some kind of alcohol and told me to lie down on his couch and he would send Yves up, which he did.   

Yves told me that Chas' amp had fallen over right onto my head.  The band immediately stopped playing and after they hauled me upstairs, they moved the equipment and started again (after they cleaned the blood off the lighted floor tiles of course).

We stayed upstairs for about a hour, then went back downstairs.  The Animals were done by then, and we sat at a table and took it easy.  When the club closed, the owner got me a cab and paid for it.  When I got home around 2:30 am, everyone was asleep of course.  I probably spent an hour in the bathroom trying to see my injury but I really couldn't so i went to bed. 

The next morning, I had my sister look at it and she thought it was bad.  My mother said I needed stitches and that I should have let the owner take me to the hospital.  My dad just shook his head.   I had a headache for a few days, but otherwise, I was fine.

My corduroy pants were ruined, but we were able to save the jacket.  In fact, David used to wear it on stage when he played with his band.

One added benefit was that I had free admission to La Loco for life!

About a year or so after this happened, I noticed something strange with my hair; in the area of the scar it was growing in white!  I loved it.  It was a permanent reminder of that night.  Ever since then, I have had a white streak in that spot.  I started parting my hair there, because it made a nice effect.  Now,even though my hair has a considerable amount of gray, I can still see my white streak.

In an odd twist of fate, Eric Burdon played at the one and only music festival held here in 2010.  I was excited, because I wanted to ask him if he remember that episode at La Loco.  The concert was good, and after he came offstage, I couldn't wait to go backstage and meet him.  My friend Jody and I stood in line to get into the tent they had set up, and we met one of the other bands who had played, Wishbone Ash.  They were very nice.  But then everyone was told that Mr. Burdon would not be giving autographs or talking to fans.  I asked for a special visit because I wanted to see if he remember something that had happened close to 45 years prior, but they weren't having it.  I was horribly crushed.

Eric Burdon 2010

Wishbone Ash 2010