felser

From the 10CD set:

I know I'm likely to absorb a good bit of snark for posting this, but also suspect there are others beside me who will find it of interest. Rhino is planning several different size releases of Woodstock material to mark the 50th anniversary. I'm certainly not paying $800 for the 38-disc extravaganza (I would pay an equitable price), but expect to be in for the 10-disc set once it is appropriately discounted by Amazon, ImportCDs, and other online retailors. And my primary interest is in the performances by the "lesser" names that have not previously seen the light of day (Bert Sommer, Tim Hardin, expanded Richie Havens, Keef Hartley Band, Sweetwater, etc.). https://theseconddisc.com/2019/05/developing-rhino-celebrates-woodstock-50th-with-massive-complete-38-cd-box-set/ DEVELOPING: Rhino Celebrates Woodstock 50th with Massive, Complete 38-CD Box Set (UPDATED WITH RHINO ORDER LINKS) MAY 8, 2019 BY JOE MARCHESE 11 COMMENTS PRE-ORDER “50TH ANNIVERSARY ARCHIVE” FROM RHINO Rolling Stone has broken the news this morning that Rhino Records is getting back to the garden in a big (make that BIG) way. Woodstock 50 – Back to the Garden: The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive, dueAugust 2, will live up to its name as the last word on the legendary festival. This 38CD/1BD set, limited to 1,969 copies, will include every note performed onstage by every act at Yasgur’s Farm over those three days of peace and music, save two tracks by Jimi Hendrix (omitted at the request of his family) and one song from Sha Na Na (which couldn’t be used due to a tape gap). Many of these recordings are being released for the very first time. In total, the set boasts an astounding 432 songs, 267 of them previously unreleased – plus crowd announcements and other “sonic memorabilia” from audience members. A Blu-ray of the director’s cut of Michael Wadleigh’s film is also included. “There have been large boxed sets devoted to particular eras or tours – the Grateful Dead do a great job of that sort of thing – but there’s never, to my knowledge, been an attempt to present a large-scale durational experience of this sort,” Andy Zax, the producer and archivist who co-produced the set with Rhino’s Steve Woolard, told Rolling Stone. “The Woodstock tapes give us a singular opportunity for a kind of sonic time travel, and my intention is to transport people back to 1969. There aren’t many other concerts you could make this argument about.” The box will retail for $799 and will include swag such as a hardbound book by Michael Lang, a replica original program, replica posters, photo prints, a guitar strap, and more, all housed in a screen-printed plywood box with canvas insert. 10CD, 5LP, and 3CD highlights versions will also be released on June 28. Woodstock – Back to the Garden – 50th Anniversary Experience features 162 tracks across 10 CDs and is the first Woodstock collection to feature live recordings of every performer at the festival. This version will be also available via digital download. Woodstock – Back to the Garden – 50th Anniversary Collectioncollects 42 tracks, and will be available on 3 CDs or 5 LPs. And that’s still not all. Vinyl Me Please will have a special 10LP package (due in early August) limited to 1,000 units pressed on tie-dyed-style colored vinyl. This set contains Woodstock Vols. 1, 2, 3 and 4, which haven’t been in print on vinyl since 2009. Get more information here! Visit Rolling Stone for the rest of Andy Zax’s interview about this monumental undertaking. The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive will not be released to general retail, and will be available exclusively through direct to consumer retailers such as Rhino, Woodstock.com, and dead.net. Head to Rhino to pre-order all iterations. Orders placed with Rhino for the big box will include exclusive Dale Saltzman 18×15 lithographs based on banners from the original festival. A complete track listing isn’t currently available for the Archive, but you can find the Experienceand Collection track listings and Rhino’s trailer below! All titles are currently available for pre-order at Rhino.com.

Be sure to check out that Keef Hartley album.

Finished my Day 1 (my days, not the festival) listening to the 10CD. Made it through Mountain, start with Grateful Dead tomorrow. Some thoughts: High point for me was Santana (though I knew that already). Low point was the Incredible String Band. The Keef Hartley material was clearly from a different, greatly inferior source than the other artists. Their long selection sounded really good musically, but not really different than what was on their outstanding 'Halfbreed' album. I also really liked the Richie Havens. Other artists tended to have some really good cuts and some not so good. I found something to like by all of them except ISB and Joan Baez. Canned Heat were strong, but I could have lived without the 10-minute drum solo on "Woodstock Boogie". Joan Baez was really a downer. Tim Hardin and Bert Sommer had some really strong cuts. Inconsistency of performances did not whet my appetite to lay out the $ or time for the full 38-CD set. I have the full Santana set already on the standalone release. Still have almost six CD's to go in this set, am looking forward to that over the next two days. Quite happy with the 10 CD purchase, which is now going for like $106 on Amazon.

Yes, I wish that the Monterey organizers had looked forward more and recorded the whole thing. Was stunned that there was NOTHING for the 50th anniversary in 2017, but I guess everything they had come out at the 25th in 1992. The breadth of the performers at Monterey was stunning and gratifying.

"Alone is the new community" deserves its own thread/discussion. But I don't think that one is on the boomers. The next generations have had plenty of opportunity to make their mark - how's that going? And the "greatest generation" before the boomers wasn't necessarily so great if you didn't look the part. When I was a kid, I lived in Huntsville, AL for a couple years, and still remember the crosses burning on the hill some nights. And this is the USA - it is (arguably or not) worse everywhere else. Human nature in need of redemption. There is so much right and so much wrong about us as people. My wife and I have not changed the world. We have tried and do try to make a difference in our corner of it, adopting our daughter, working with abused women, etc. Whatever God gives us. I can know the nostalgia has a lot of fiction, and still enjoy it.

I'm sure you have specifics in mind here, even though you painted your response in broad brush strokes. Would like to hear your backstories offline some time, as I know you think and care deeply about these things, and I place great value on your thoughts, whether I agree with/understand them or not (and I usually do). I would not want to offer a response/counterargument without really hearing you out. We're way beyond the Troggs/Wynton/Melanie here. Not to Canned Heat yet, but yes, I do get value from some of the announcements on the 10 CD set, such as the scaffolding, the blue acid, etc. And I know there are more to come, such as breakfast in bed for 400,000. Just starting Melanie now, I have always liked "Mama, Mama" by her, so I'm onboard so far.

Not totally following. Who needs humbly rehabilitated? The Troggs? Wynton? Melanie? I'm just trying to explain how subjectivity vs. objectivity might come into play. What speaks to each of us speaks to each of us, and does so for a variety of reasons, and varies from person to person (and somewhat from generation to generation). Green Acres was hardly emmy-award stuff, but we aren't trying to humbly rehabilitate Eva Gabor or Hank Patterson. They were who they were, and to some, that was/is thoroughly enjoyable. while it will be totally lost on others.

Nina Simone "Complete RCA Recordings" 9 CD box set being reissued. $37 pre-order, likely will be even cheaper from third party sellers once released. Inconsistent, but some real gems in there, and at $4/CD you can't go wrong. https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Rca-Albums-Collection-9Cd/dp/B07SRJF7CG/?tag=sdepcwus-20

Started into the 10CD set this morning, will spend the next three days listening. Just finished the Richie Havens selections and am on Sweetwater right now. Two observations, the audio work on this edition is nearly miraculous given the source material and the previous releases. Also, Havens really rose to the occasion and seemed to relish the moment. I know it will be musically mainly downhill from here. But I think much of the appeal will be nostalgic/emotional as opposed to purely musical. The musical quality of, say, a typical Wynton or Branford Marsalis etc. album is light years beyond, say "Wild Thing" by the Troggs or "96 Tears" by Question Mark and the Mysterians, But the latter bring back memories, have cultural/historical relevance etc., even though they aren't even good musical examples of their genre, so they have value to me where the Marsalis album does not. So I enjoy the oldies, and not so much the Marsalis recordings. Same thing with Woodstock, I suspect. The subjective meaning of hearing the recordings has much more than musical aspects. So I will, by nature, enjoy and value it, where younger members and those inclined in different directions maybe won't. I'll even dig the Melanie set, I'm sure, though I'll withhold judgment on the Ravi Shankar. Great moment in cultural perspective on the "Concert for Bangla Desh" soundtrack. Shankar & Co. play for about two minutes, stop, and the crowd goes into rapturous applause. Shankar then says something like "Thank you very much, and if you enjoyed our tuning up that much, we're sure you'll really like our performance".

You may well be right. I have the 10 CD set, and that probably will end up being sufficient, especially considering the sets that are available as standalone releases (Airplane, Santana, Hendrix, Cocker, Sly, Winter, Creedence, parts of Sweetwater, and likely more to come and likely more I am forgetting). I surely don't need (or want) 700 minutes of stage announcements!

I have 70's Downbeats and 70's/80's Cadences, same dilemma. But not ready to recycle them.

How's the sound quality and overall performance on this one? Looked at it in the past, and the all-standards repertoire was offputting.

Julie Miller is a FABULOUS songwriter. Here is what I consider to be her masterpiece. Buddy Miller brings music alive. They both added much to Emmylou Harris's great awakening, especially Buddy.

Havent seen that nutsness in a while. So much for me hoping to get one for $400 or so.

Really appreciate your thoughts and the leads, thanks so much!

There's only one Hank Patterson/Farmer Fred Ziffel! Very cool! My locale is stuck instead with Blobfest (which I don't partake of, though it would probably be fun). https://thecolonialtheatre.com/programs-categories/blobfest/ I look forward to watching this, thanks. Interestingly, Serling went the "Twilight Zone" supernatural route at least in part to get around the network censorship he was facing. The supernatural stuff was never the real point of the Twilight Zone, morality and redemption were. He hated Night Gallery overali, it was not his vision, he was just a hired hand - I was not aware he had written any scripts for it, and am excited to watch this.

My current watching project has been going back to view the pre- and post-Twilight Zone 1950's Rod Serling masterpieces from Playhouse 90. Started with "Patterns" last weekend, next up this weekend is "Requiem for A Heavyweight", then on to "Seven Days in May" and "The Velvet Alley", and we'll see from there. We have nothing to apologize for when we choose what art we want to partake, regardless of whether it is "current" or not. What speaks to us is what speaks to us. "Patterns" has more to do with my life than any of the current TV shows/movies I am aware of. Serling was, at root, a complex moralist, and I appreciate that in his work. I doubt there are any John Coltrane's out there right now that I am missing because they are not advertised sufficiently.

Sample definitely sounds all 1964-quartet0ish to me, so I am enthusiastically in, even if it is re-recordings of older material.

It isn't as bad as you make it. Out of 100, you'll have one person give you a hard time and two shipments that arrive late. That being said, it's still work. Just sell them here (no one will give you the trouble you are concerned about), then sell the remainder in bulk to Dusty Groove. You can get 100 good mailers for $25. Feel free to contact me via IM if you want to discuss some of these approaches in detail.

I always thought Johnny Marr made the Smiths. Saw CSNY twice, about 30 years apart. First time was at the Atlantic City Raceway concert in 1974/75, and Santana absolutely played them off the stage. That was the great group with Leon Pattilo and Tom Coster, Borboletta era. I actually like Crosby's music quite a bit. Graham Nash is the one whose music always annoyed me with that group (though I liked him in the Hollies). Could live my life quite happily without ever hearing "Teach Your Children" or "Our House" again.

Sell them here on the forum in the "offering and looking for" section. Just note CD's with visual defects as far as grading. Much friendlier crowd than on the usual sites.

I've had mixed success with bundles here (still can't believe no one wanted that Atlantic Aretha Franklin bundle at like $3/CD), but Lon knows how to do this stuff, and has the magic touch (totally meant as a compliment to him).

Met him once when he played Upper Merion Concerts Under The Stars, about two blocks from my house. He was wonderful musically and personally, so very kind to our obviously adopted daughter, who was about 10 at the time. Have his autograph ("to my good friends, the Felser's) in his autobiography. Got to see him live three times overall, always a delight. "Freedom" is the #1 highlight of the whole Woodstock Festival for me.

And yet the song itself is about the second coming of Jesus. Thank you, Columbia Records Art Department.