Rant #1,494: Rock Confluence (Part 2)

Yesterday, I wrote about how the Beatles and Elvis Presley somehow intersected in time and space, and today, I am going to show how another big event in rock history also took place about the same time on the calendar.

The Woodstock festival, which actually took place in Bethel, New York, had its final day today in 1969. The three-day music and cultural event took the nation by storm, solidifying the then relatively new rock culture into something more than just a fad or trend.

The "heaviest" acts going at that time played Woodstock: Sly and the Family Stone, Joe Cocker, Ritchie Havens, Canned Heat ... you name it, every emerging act back then played the festival.

But what isn't that well known is that originally, the festival was going to be more of a pop/rock festival than an emerging rock festival.

Several acts that were popular at the time, and had had many AM radio hits, were looked into as possible players at the venue, and I am not talking about the Grateful Dead here.

I am talking about the likes of the Rascals and Tommy James and the Shondells.

Yes, if they had agreed to perform, you probably would have heard "Good Lovin'" and "I Think We're Alone Now" at the festival.

Of course, those acts were changing their musical cues at the time, being more FM radio oriented, but they were still pop acts supreme at their core.

They both turned down the venue. The Rascals did, as they told me in an interview years ago, because they didn't want to play in the mud--and they admitted that it was the biggest mistake they made in their career as a band.

So, moving away from those types of acts, you had younger, hungrier bands who wanted to make a name for themselves appearing on the bill, and those acts became so well known that many of them had good careers, playing off their Woodstock success into pop dominance.

Certainly, Sly and the Family Stone fit that bill.

They were different--a mixed race band that wore the funkiest of outfits--but their music was also different, too.

Their music was the greatest mix of pop, rock, rhythm and blues, soul, and something new--funk--that had ever been heard at the time. It worked well at Woodstock, and it continued to work well for the next few years, as the band racked up hit after hit after hit, breaking new ground with every new recording.

I could have gone to Woodstock. I was asked by the sister of one of my friends, someone who actually had a real ticket to the show. Reconnecting with her earlier this year, she told me that it was actually her older brother who had the ticket, but whoever it was, I was asked, but politely declined.

Heck, my mother would have killed me if I went.

But whatever the case, Woodstock made it clear that youth culture had to be reckoned with, and each succeeding youth culture has been paid attention to since then.

Sure, it is pretty much watered down today, but yes, the younger generation is given heed today, whether it is in fashion or what they eat.

So, there you have it--the Beatles playing Shea Stadium, the death of Elvis, and the holding of the Woodstock music festival--all happening within a few years and a few days of themselves.

Some people call October "Rocktober" because of all the related events happening that month, but really August is the "real" rock and roll month, isn't it?

"Rockaugust" ... nope, it just doesn't have the same ring to it.