The Woodstock Show

December 7, 2011 10:48 AM

On August 19, 1969, the (prime time ABC version of the) Dick Cavett show featured several popular musicians. pt 1 - pt 2 - pt 3 - pt 4 - pt 5 The Jefferson Airplane, David Crosby and Stephen Stills had rushed back from a show they did at a festival. Jimi Hendrix couldn't get back in time, but appeared later. The third guest, Joni Mitchell, skipped Woodstock to make sure she was on time for this broadcast, but a month later she wrote a cool song based on what she saw on TV and heard from friends.

Songs:
Jefferson Airplane - "We Can Be Together" (first f*ck, actual motherf*cker, on national TV in U.S.)
Jefferson Airplane - "Volunteers"
Joni Mitchell -- "Chelsea Morning"
Joni Mitchell -- "Willy"
Joni Mitchell -- "For Free"
Stephen Stills -- "4 + 20"
Joni Mitchell (acapella) -- "The Fiddler and the Drum"
Jefferson Airplane (with David Crosby) - "Somebody to Love"
Jefferson Airplane (with David Crosby) - instrumental jam (maybe a bit of Plastic Fantastic Lover in there) 2:25 (cut)
Jefferson Airplane (with David Crosby) - another instrumental jam 0:33 (cut)
Jefferson Airplane (with David Crosby) - another instrumental jam under credits 0:59 (cut)

posted by msalt (16 comments total)

Love the monologue at the beginning.

Let me tell you who our guests are today-- I cannot make it with this scarf! [removes ridiculous scarf to much applause]
posted by swift at 11:01 AM on December 7, 2011

I got kind of lost in that wikipedia entry

June 1971: Vietnam War Debate

During a debate about the Vietnam war, Cavett had two veterans debating on the show. The anti-war side was led by a young John Kerry and the pro-war side by John E. O'Neill, later the founder of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. It was later revealed through then-President Richard Nixon's secret White House tapes that Nixon wanted to "get rid" of Cavett because of this debate.
posted by The Whelk at 11:25 AM on December 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

That set looks like something out of the crazy cake store window down the street from my house. Don't you love the late 60's design sensibility?
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 11:25 AM on December 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

I used to love watching the Dick Cavett Show when I was in high school. I never noticed Cavett's ego, I just thought he had reallly interesting guests. And the version of the show I remember just had one guest, so it was a longer form interview. Am I remembering that correctly?
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 11:38 AM on December 7, 2011

Take home lesson: When you're Dick Cavett, and you're a noted commentator of intellectshual pedigree, and you can't get over your collegiate background in New Haven, and you're wardrobe designer tells you to hipster it up by tying a dishtowel around your neck, tell them to fuck off.
posted by Gordion Knott at 11:44 AM on December 7, 2011

I was at Woodstock in ‘69. We got into the area on Saturday morning and found traffic backed up and stopped about 3 miles from the festival. It finally sunk in that we weren’t going to be able to drive any closer, so we parked on the side of the road and walked in. When we got close we could hear Santana playing. Then we passed people laughing and skinny dipping in the lake.

I grew a little marijuana in the woods that summer, harvested early and sold my green, wet leaf to get money for tickets and expenses. As I remember tickets for the three days were advertised at $16, but it was a free concert by the time I got there. So I sold all my pot to get money for tickets that I didn’t need and, out of all the joints that were being passed around, not one came my way... but I didn’t care.

For most people Woodstock is synonymous with sex, drugs and rock and roll. But the first day was all folk music, and the whole thing was advertised as an arts and music festival in peaceful rural setting. Along with the music, I expected to find arts and crafts galleries out in the woods. I also expected Bob Dylan to play. It was well known that he lived in the area and that helped set the tone for festival, and probably helped to draw some of the performers as well. He was the biggest draw who never showed up.

We stayed up all night listening to great bands. I somehow managed to cross paths, in that huge throng of people, with everyone I knew who was there. There was a break in the music just before dawn, and we moved down close to the stage. Then The Jefferson Airplane came on and I watched the sun rise behind Grace Slick.

We left late that morning. It was hot and everyone was thirsty. As we passed through the town of White Lake people were out on their front lawns with picnic tables, selling water out of garden hoses. They were charging 25 cents for a little paper cup. But the Hasidic Jews were giving water away.
posted by Huplescat at 12:19 PM on December 7, 2011 [14 favorites]

the monologue...that roach joke just killed!
posted by OHenryPacey at 12:25 PM on December 7, 2011

Oh man. I saw Jefferson Airplane live in 1968 and ever since then, I've been trying to find an image of the "trippy" light show. This is exactly it. Now imagine that light show projected like 40 feet tall behind the band, in a live concert.
posted by charlie don't surf at 12:42 PM on December 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Trippy?" That lightshow was in our CHURCH in 1969.

Okay. It was Glide Memorial in San Francisco, but still....
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 1:34 PM on December 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think that was the Heavy Water Light Show (Joan Chase, Mary Ann Mayer and John Hardham), perhaps best known for the cover of the album Santana III.

By the late 1970s they had moved to Oregon and were doing planetarium shows, which kicked the crap out of the standard laser light shows, mixing movies, photos, and effects in perfect synchronization with the music. I ran into Chase at Portland's public access TV studio in 1979; she seemed smart if a bit nervy and edgy. Hunter Thompson might say something clever and dramatic about nerve synapses here.
posted by msalt at 1:45 PM on December 7, 2011

I think that was the Heavy Water Light Show

Or the Joshua Light Show?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:33 PM on December 7, 2011

(first f*ck, actual motherf*cker, on national TV in U.S.)

Truly a great moment in American television!
posted by Yakuman at 3:48 PM on December 7, 2011

i saw a documentary about Joni in which David Crosby describes getting a letter from Joni telling him that the relationship was over - and i can't remember the exact quotation, but was along the lines that the letter was so beautifully written and final, he was happy with her decision.
posted by mattoxic at 6:13 PM on December 7, 2011

If you haven't seen it, Taking Woodstock is a really great movie about the event which doesn't try to create the event, but instead gets into the way it happened and what the event was like from a bit of an outsider perspective. Starring Demetri Martin, no less.

Outstanding movie. I wish I'd payed to see it in the theater rather than waiting for it to hit the premium channels. It would have been worth the money.
posted by hippybear at 7:06 PM on December 7, 2011

It just so happened that I heard the CS&N version of "Woodstock" before I heard Joni Mitchell's version. I then actually got mad that they had "ruined" her song.

If you haven't seen it, Taking Woodstock is a really great movie about the event which doesn't try to create the event, but instead gets into the way it happened and what the event was like from a bit of an outsider perspective...Outstanding movie. I wish I'd payed to see it in the theater rather than waiting for it to hit the premium channels. It would have been worth the money.

I saw it in a theater. It wasn't really much about the concert performances so I didn't feel that it wouldn't have been just as satisfactory to have seen it on TV instead. What an eye-opener though. I hadn't realized until then what a simply commercial venture Woodstock was.
posted by fuse theorem at 8:37 PM on December 7, 2011

Or the Joshua Light Show?

According to the credits, it's actually "Glenn McKay's Head Lights." Looks like he/they did all of the the Airplane's east coast gigs.
posted by msalt at 11:10 PM on December 7, 2011