Yes Tina ‘The Burp’ from Talking Heads was born on this day in 1950 (does not seem possible that she is older than me…..).

A fine bass player who always exhibited the typical burp that many bass players display as they play.  She has produced the Happy Mondays, worked with The Gorillaz and others.  Her style that combined minimalist proto art punk with a funk feel contributed to no little extent to Talking Heads’ signature sound.

I often think that people overlook the importance of bass players.  I can not think of a great band that did not have a great bass player.  The rythm section of a band is its bed rock.  You can be the flashiest guitarist in the world, you can have a voice that make angels weep but without a rythm section holding it together you are on a road to nowhere.

Talking about bass players who exhibit The Burp brings me to (the sadly missed) Gary Thain who played with ‘my’ band, The Keef Hartley Band from the 60s.  I LOVED that band, followed them all over the place.  Blessed with a supreme singer/guitarist in Miller Anderson their sound was based on one of the best rythm sections in the 60s.  They had Keef on drums and Gary on bass.

I need little excuse to add a clip of the mighty Keef Hartley Band………

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On this day in 1970 Max Yasgur who owned the farm where Woodstock was sued by neighbours for damages caused by the rampaging hippies. The suits either totaled $25,000 0r $35,000. Eventually, they were settled. The finances of ‘Woodstock Ventures’ are a bit murky but it seems that although it was planned as a profit making venture (it only became a free concert after so many people turned up) but the some 80 lawsuits filed against them were paid from the profits of the film. The film also helped to settle their $1.4m debts.

The people who didn’t play Woodstock?

The Beatles, some say because the organisers would not also book
the Yoko Ono Band, some because Lennon could not get into the states because of visa difficulties.

The Doors because they thought it would not be worthy of them ‘a second class Monteray’.

Led Zepp ‘cos they did not want to be just another band on the bill.

Dylan was negotiating but his son became ill.

The Moody Blues decided to play a gig in Paris instead. That was either a really bad decision or an inspired one. Bad because of the loss of exposure good because more than most they relied on a good sound system when playing live and the sound at Woodstock was bad, very bad.

Missed opportunity?

Keef Hartley played Woodstock but did not make the film because their manager refused to give the rights away. Shame ‘cos KH was ‘my’ band in the 60’s and they deserved much better recognition.

Best way to experience Woodstock? Watch the film turn up the volume, sit in a tub of mud, and smoke your little smoke, drink your little drink, while I dance the night away…….(No FZ wasn’t there either)

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Keef Hartley Band, Halfbreed

My scheduled posts was not working a little while ago I fixed the bug and wrote a test post to make sure that it was working.

In that test post I mentioned that I had lost a post about Keef Hartley.  I was surprised and pleased to see the number of people who had found this blog while searching for Keef Hartley.

Surprised because I assumed that few people remembered the glorious music made by Keef, and obviously pleased because they did.

In the late 60s The Keef Hartley band was ‘my’ band.  I loved them, from the genius of Miller Anderson (the best guitarist I had seen up to that point), to the strange facial expressions of Gary Thain.  Halfbreed was a seminal album for me.  It was a prime example of what was good about real rock.

It sounded like real grown up music to me, and still does.

Vist my Squidoo Lens about Keef Here.

Alternatively you can buy a copy of Keef’s book here.

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