@Hal Pollner Fair enough, Hal, if you feel so strongly about it. I don't. In the end, it's all a question of perspective. Know this? : N'oubliez Jamais Joe Cocker Papa, why do you play all the same old songs Why do you sing with the melody 'Cause down on the street something's goin' on There's a brand new beat and a brand new song In my life there was so much anger Still I have no regrets Just like you, I was such a rebel So dance your own dance and never forget N'oubliez jamais I heard my father say Every generation has its way A need to disobey N'oubliez jamais It's in your destiny A need to disagree When rules get in the way N'oubliez jamais Mama, why do you dance to the same old songs Why do you sing only harmony 'Cause down on the street something's goin' on There's a brand new beat and a brand new song In my heart there's a young girl's passion For a life long duet Someday soon someone's smile will haunt you So sing…
Thanks @Beth Gallagher I thought Hal wouldn't listen to it anyway. So I posted the lyrics for some faint hope...
@Hal Pollner is so vehemently opposed to those musicians and attendees at Woodstock, I am really thinking that Hal has some latent psychological tendencies toward wishing he were a hippy back then. After all, he HAS asked about pot before and “getting high” and I really believe he is quite jealous of the mansions and “stuff” most of those performers acquired after Woodstock. They played their instruments and sang their songs and actually get and got paid bunches and bunches of money for doing it and we all know how much Hal loves money and “stuff”. Or, could it be that his first real girlfriend was stolen by someone with long hair and lived in a commune? Did he come home one day and find his parents dancing to Satisfaction by the Stones? Did he find out that his own retired doctor was there and still smokes hash? When he found out that Jimmy Hendrix’s guitar that he played at Woodstock was worth a couple of million beans did he not grind and gnash his teeth so much that he had to buy new dentures? Traumatic happenings, that! Getting serious though.. Ya know, if anyone has a right to Hate the kids of that era and those who wore flowers and had long hair, I do. Those kids who went to Woodstock and thousands of kids like them openly demonstrated against a war I was fighting in. They were the ones who who threw rocks and spit at us and called us “baby killers” when we returned home. I should absolutely despise them but although it’s been a long road, I don’t. For the most part ( taking away the race riots) the anti-war kids were doing things relatively peacefully and although somewhat misguided in some cases, they changed a whole country and like it or not, we’re all a part of that change whether we were at Woodstock or not. Woodstock was just a candle among many other candles on a huge cake, but it was indeed the brightest one and most effective one.
Maybe a small game might be played here. Although it has been acknowledged that many of those who attended and played at Woodstock weren’t by definition, musicians because they couldn’t read music, there are those in other genre’s such as jazz who couldn’t read music. Stan Getz couldn’t read music. Buddy Rich couldn’t read music. Erroll Garner, nope, couldn’t decipher a note. Irving Berlin wasn’t a musician because he couldn’t read music. Wes Montgomery Lacy Doc Severinson (although later learned to read) Of course, Ray Charles was blind so he wasn’t a musician Yeah, there are probably another hundred or so throughout the earlier years who couldn’t build a score or read a chart....but they were still great weren’t they?
I knew that Errol Garner couldn't read music, and Irving Berlin was the composer of "God Bless America". Anyway, Errol could play "Misty" for you! I don't have a Proctologist...my Family Physician, a woman from India, takes care of all my needs, which are few. Hal
@Hal Pollner I didn't listen to that sort of rock music. I didn't listen to Bach either. I liked what we called country fried rock. That is why music is special, there are enough different kinds to make us all happy and find what speaks to us individually.
Ah, India. The place where a bit of hashish could mend all ailments. I’m really surprised that you have a person from India as a doctor seeing that a lot of people who went to Woodstock were heavily into some of the more, shall we say, subtle rites that are practiced by those from India?
Yes, you are indeed correct and I too like a lot of different types of music but I do not think that Woodstock was just about music. To be sure, it was about being able to practice a thing called freedom. There were a lot of things going on back then. A war, a racial divide the size of the Grand Canyon, a president and other ambassadors of peace were being assassinated, Kent State, demonstrations and sit in’s; bra burning and the list goes on. Everyone was at arms about something. If, among all the problems that the world and in particular, the U.S. was having, a whole bunch of kids got together and had their own escape from it through music, fellowship, and yeah, a bunch of pot and acid, then I still call that a comparative win.
Strangely enough, Master Robert Cole, I DO like "Satisfaction" by the Stones, although I've tried and I've tried and I've tried and I've tried NOT to like it... Hal