BY THE TIME WE GOT TO WOODSTOCK

By the Time We Got to Woodstock: Goin’ up the Country

Welcome to my latest adventure in self-promotion, an Imix disguised as a press release disguised as a radio program from 1969.

I’ve developed about a dozen 20 track programs so far from my own extensive CD collection. But since the Apple Store only lets you use tracks from specific albums, I’ve decided to make the Imixes 10 tracks apiece. But the way I figure, 10 tracks is a nice 30-40 minute set of segues like you used to hear on FM during its heyday (circa ’67-70). And best of all (to me at least) each mix is taken from a chapter or a segment of the book. So you can hear the book as well as read it. By hear the book I mean, you can probably hear all these songs in your head. But if you’re feeling especially flush, you can also buy them from the Apple Store and I get probably a penny for every thousand downloads.

The playlist below is taken from an early chapter in the book that I like to call “The Vegetable Theory.”
As you might remember, 1969 gave us a wholesale shift among the rock cognoscenti toward Country music. The simple answer as to why this happened was to blame it all on Bob Dylan, who scheduled a return trip to Nashville in February of 1969 for the recording of his first pure country album, Nashville Skyline. Although Dylan had been recording in Nashville since Blonde on Blonde in 1966, to the faithful this radical move to the music of the enemy (the right) could be explained by one thing and one thing only: he had clearly lost his mind in his 1966 motorcycle accident.

Whether Dylan was actually a vegetable in the late ’60s as many of us believed, or not, thanks to him and friends like the Byrds, the Band, and the Flying Burrito Brothers, a previously close-minded generation was opened up to some great songs and songwriters, including legends like Johnny Cash, Joe South and Kris Kristofferson.

To me, hearing my favorite bluesy belter Tracy Nelson take on ”That’s All Right, Mama,” with Elvis sideman Scotty Moore backing her on guitar, is alone worth the price of admission.

(Note: Since at present the technical people here have not advised me how to link this to my Imix page at the Apple Store, anyone wanting to reference the songs on that mix (or buy them) will have to go to my other blog at http://thejoyofsegues.blogspot.com/ manually).

My complete playlist is as follows

Going up the Country Canned Heat
Lay Lady Lay Bob Dylan
Wanted Man Johnny Cash
Ballad of Easy Rider The Byrds
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down The Band
Hot Burrito No. 1 Flying Burrito Brothers
Suspicious Minds Elvis Presley
That’s All Right Mama Tracy Nelson
Me and Bobbie McGee Roger Miller
The Taker Waylon Jennings
For the Good Times Kris Kristofferson
Games People Play Joe South
These Are Not My People Freddy Weller
Galveston Glen Cambpell
Son of a Preacher Man Dusty Springfield
Stand by Your Man Tammy Wynette
Hickory Wind The Byrds
King Harvest The Band
Pickin’ up the Pieces Poco
Good Shepherd Jefferson Airplane

Love to hear from people with their memories of 1969.

Posted by Bruce Pollock at 2:17 PM 0 comments