THE PASSING OF STARS-

Otis Redding - 12/10/67

Jimi Hendrix - 9/18/70

Janis Joplin - 10/8/70

Jim Morrison - 7/3/71

Duane Allman - 10/29/71

Berry Oakly, Allman Brothers - 11/11/72

Elvis Presley  - 8/16/77

Minnie Ripperton , Rotary Connection, +++ - 7/12/79

John Lennon - 12/8/80

Harry Chapin - 7/16/81

Paul Butterfield - 5/4/87

Frank Zappa - 12/4/93

Jerry Garcia - 8/9/95

John Lee Hooker - 6/21/01

Noel Redding, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, + - 5/11/03

James Brown - 12/25/06

Isaac Hayes - 8/10/08

Mitch Mitchell,The Jimi Hendrix Experience, + - 11/12/08

Dickie Peterson, Blue Cheer - 10 /12/ 09

                  

                   HISTORICAL DATES OF THE LATE SIXTIES                                               

                                               1967

1/3/67 - Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys is indicted for Draft Evasion

1/6/67 - Last Milton Berle Show on TV

1/15/67 - 1st SUPERBOWL, in L.A.

1/27/67 - Beatles sign 9 year contract with B.M.I. Records

2/3/67 - Jimi Hendrix Records" Purple Haze"

2/17/67 - Beatles record Penny Lane, and Strawberry Fields

3/7/67 - Alice B. Toklas dies

3/11/67 - " Penny Lane" is #1

4/28/67 - Mohummad Ali is indicted by the Selective Service for refusing to register for the draft

5/1/67 -  Elvis marries Pricilla

5/14/67 - Mickey Mantle hits his 500th home run

5/17/67 -  Bob Dylan's movie "Don't Look Back" is released

5/22/67 - Mr. Rogers Neighborhood  has debut

6/1/67 - Beatles release" Sgt. Pepper"

6/16/67 - Monterey Pop Festival

6/25/67 - M. Ali gets 5 years in prison for draft evasion

7/22/67 - Jimi Hendrix quits as opening act for The Monkees

8/18/67 -  Stones release 'We Love You"

8/25/67 - Beatles study with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, in India

9/29/67 -  Gladys Knight records 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine"

10/1/67 -  Pink Floyd's 1st U.S. tour

10/6/67 -  Haight Ashbury, hippies have a funeral for the end of Hippies

10/8/67 - Che Gueverra caught in Boliva

10/27/67 - " Majical Mystery Tour" is released

12/3/67 - 1st Human Heart transplant, Dr. William DeBakey

12/14/67 -  Fl. Gov. Claude Kirk's Wedding, Breakers Hotel, P. Beach, Armed guards on the hotel roof, U.S. President, Richard M. Nixon attends. My Dad & I photographed the Wedding.

12/30/67 - "Hello,Goodby" is #1

                                                1968

1/4/68 - Leo Fender sells company for $13 million

1/22/68 -  Laugh In Premiers on TV

3/8/68 - Filmore East opens in NYC

4/4/68 - Martin Luther King is assassinated

4/9/68 - The Rev. Ralph Abernathy is elected to the head of The Southern  Christian Leadership Conference

5/14/68 - Apple Records starts

5/18/68 - The Miami Pop Festival, Gulfstream Racetrack, Hallendale, Fl. Michael Lang and Rick O'Barry's first promotion, with Jimi Hendrix headlining. This festival was "The Road To Woodstock".

6/5/68 -  Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated

8/21/68 - Democratic Convention in Chicago, major street rioting against the War in Viet Nam, and police brutality.

9/16/68 - Nixon is on " Laugh In "

9/25/68 - "Hey Jude" is #1

9/28/68 - Janis Joplin leaves her band "Big Brother and the Holding Company"

11/6/68 - President Nixon is elected

12/28-30/68 - Miami Pop II, also Gulfstream Racetrack, Hallendale, Fl.  The 1st  East Coast Festival with 1000,000 people

12/12/68 - Arthur Ash is #1 in tennis

12/26/68 -  Led Zeppelin concert debut opens for Vanilla Fudge

                                                 1969

1/11/69 - Jethro Tull's first album is released

1/31/69 - Beatles last concert together, on top of Apple Records building

2/19/69 - the 1st test flight of a Boing 747

3/1/69 - Jim Morrison arrested at Dinner Key Auditorium

3/20/69 - John Marries Yoko

4/25/69 - Mass demonstration in the U.S., against the Viet Nam War

5/23/69 - The Who release The Rock Opera," Tommy "

6/8/69 - the last Smothers Brothers Show is aired

6/8/69 - Brian Jones leaves The Rolling Stones

7/2/69 - Leslie West forms the band, Mountain

7/20/69 - Neil Armstrong is the 1st man on the Moon

8/16/69 - WOODSTOCK, NEED I SAY MORE ?

10/18/69 - Rod Stewart joins The Small Faces

10/29/69 - The Supreme Court orders an end to Segragation

11/26/69 - Nixon signs the Draft Bill, my number was a lucky 313

11/28/69 - The Palm Beach Pop Festival, with the Rolling Stones, I was the Official Photographer

12/6/69 - the free concert by The Rolling Stones, at Altamount, Ca.

12/13/69 - " Alices Restaurant" is released

12/16/69 - John Lennon and Yoko announce the War is Over, this was a ploy to control the media and the U.S. Government, they had to say the War was still going on.

    THE DECADE OF THE SIXTIES IS OVER, and so is this excercise in History, Peace, Ken Davidoff

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ROCK FESTIVALS of the SIXTIES, + ONE, compiled by Ken Davidoff,

Except for my direct knowledge of the Palm Beach Festival, Miami Pop Festivals One, & Two, and The Shea Stadium Peace Festival, the rest of the information you see here is from my research on the internet.

6/16-18/67 -  MONTERY POP, MONTERY CA.- 55,000 people - Promoted by Lou Adler, John Phillips producer, Alan Pariser, and publicist Derek Taylor - Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Ravi Shankar, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, The Mamas & the Papas, ++ This was the summer of love, and Monterey Pop was the 1st widely promoted festival. 1'st American appearences by The Who, and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, plus the 1'st major performances by Janis Joplin and the Full Tilt Boogy Band, and Otis Redding, had the crowd swelling to almost 90,000 people at its peak. The movie "Monterey Pop " by D.A.Pennebaker, is a must see..

5/17-18/68 -  THE MIAMI POP FESTIVAL, GULFSTREAM TRACK, HALLENDALE, FL. - .50,000 people - Promoted by MICHAEL LANG, Rick O'Barry, Marshall Brevitz, James McBarren and Barry Taran. With special thanks to Stan Goldstein. Jimi Hendrix,  Frank Zappa, and the Mothers of Invention, Blue Cheer, Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, +  Inspired by Monterey, this was  Michael Lang's first production, and is called 'The Road to Woodstock ." It was a two day, leave at night, and come back the next day, festival. Headlined by JImi Hendrix and the Experience, who arrived by helicopter, this festival used flatbed trucks for stages?  On the first day, a daytime & night time set was performed by Blue Cheer, Chuck Berry, and Jimi Hendrix. The next day bad rain storms kept Jimi from performing, and was the inspiration for "Rainy Day, Dream Away ". This was very early in my concert photography career, and I only knew how to shoot with a flash at night. This would prove to be a big problem only two frames into Jimi's night time set; I was stopped cold in my photographic tracks. I had a Honeywell strobe powered by a 510 volt battery that was very powerful and too powerful for Jimi indeed. "There will be no more flash photography "Jimi told me, and the whole audience. I took the hint, and sat and watched the rest of the concert with my friends.

12/28-30/68 - MIAMI POP II, GULFSTREAM TRACK, HALLENDALE, FL. - 100,000 people - Promoted by Tom Rounds - admission, $7.00 - Procal Harum, The Box Tops, The Turtles, Grass Roots, 3 Dog Night, Steppenwolf, Blues Image, Richie Havens, The Sweet Inspirations, Pacific Gas & Electric, Joni Mitchell, Jr. Walker & The Allstars, The Infinate McCoys, Sweetwater, Jose Feliciano, The James Cotten Blues Band, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Hugh Masakela, Chuck Berry, The Joe Tex Revue, Canned Heat, Marvin Gaye, Iron Butterfly, The Charles Lloyd Quartet, Booker T & The M. G.'s, Flatt and Scruggs, Ian & Sylvia, Country Joe and The Fish, Buffy St. Marie, Fleetwood Mac, And The Greatful Dead - The first major festival on the East Coast, 100,000 people showed up for a 3 day, leave at night festival that really had no problems to speak of. It was organized by Tom Rounds, who had previously promoted the Mount Tam Fest, in Oakland, Ca. He worked with the local Hallendale government officials to solve difficulties over sleeping arrangements and traffic jams. With a varied line up and, two stages a few hundred yards from each other, you could see one band, then go to the other stage and catch the next act. This set up insured there would be no lag in the music; one stage always had a band playing. In between the stages were huge pieces of art work that you could climb on and explore a giant milk carton, and a giant slide, the kind you see at fairs and carnivals these days. this was also the first time I saw the work of artist Duane Hanson. He had an exhibit of very life like human figures made of fiberglass, all in very attention getting poses. It was at this concert that I met Richie Havens, he wa standing on the side of the stage watching another band, I took this opportunity to introduce myself. Every time I went to see him after that, I would always give him pics from the previous concert. The hit of the concert was Pacific Gas & Electric; they played four times at the festival, and rocked the sox off everyone. I remember an amazing drum solo. My favorite artist at MP II was Marvin Gaye, what a sweet soulful set," I Heard it Through The Grapevine" and all. Rolling Stone Magazine, issue 26, had a picture of Jimi Hendrix on the cover, (which probably confused everyone, to think he played at MP II, he played at the first Miami Pop festival in May of '68) and declared it " The Most Festive Festival of 1968 ".

5/25/69 - NORTHERN CALIFORNIA FOLK ROCK FESTIVAL, San Jose Ca. - 80,000 people - Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Steve Miller, Spirit, Canned Heat, Poco, Chambers Bros., Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry,  Jefferson Airplane, + This one day festival's  great line-up was one of the forgotten one's, not much was written about it. 

6/21-22/69 - THE TORONTO POP FESTIVAL - 20,000 people - The Doors, Chuck Berry, Procal Harum, Dr. John, Johnny Winter, Tiny Tim, Sly and the Family Stone, + One of the smallest festivals of the summer, it was a two day event. Chuck Berry opened the festival, Tiny Tim was backed by an 8 piece band, and Sly & the Family Stone closed the show with Funkadellic style.

6/29/69 - THE DENVER POP FESTIVAL - 75,000 people - Jimi Hendrix, Tim Buckley, Joe Cocker, 3 Dog Nite, Frank Zappa, Iron Butterfly, Poco, Tim Buckley, C.C.R., Johnny Winter, Joe Cocker, + Overshadowed by Woodstock, this festival was promoted by Barry Fey, and was the last performance by Jimi Hendrix with his band, The Experience. This festival was unique, in that it had the support and full resources of the city of Denver.

7/3-6/69 - NEWPORT JAZZ FESTIVAL, Newport R.I. - 78,000 people -  Led Zeppelin, Johnny Winter, Sweetwater, Canned Heat, Jeff Beck, Blood Sweat and Tears, James Brown. All four of these bands, Led Zeppelin, Johnny  Winter, C. Heat & Sweetwater played both the Newport J. Fest. And  Atlanta that same weekend.

7/4-6/69 - THE  ATLANTA POP FESTIVAL- 140,000 people -  Promoted by Alex Cooley - Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Sweetwater, Pacific Gas & Electric, Blood Sweat & Tears, Dave Brubeck, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Chicago Transit A., Joe Cocker, Creedence C.R., Led Zeppelin, and early, ( before they had a record contract ) Grand Funk Railroad, + +  Done by the same promoter who did the Texas festival, people had to deal with 100 + degree temps, and there was a shortage of food and water.

7/11-13/69 -  THE LAUREL POP FESTIVAL, Laurel, Md. - 50,000 people - Jeff Beck, Jethro Tull, Buddy Guy, Al kooper, Frank Zappa, Led Zeppelin, Savoy Brown, Sly and the Family Stone , Johnny Winter,+  Held at Laurel Race Cource, this festival featured a crowd stopping performance by " a new white blues player " unknown at the time, the great, Johnny Winter.

7/25/69 - THE SEATLE POP FESTIVAL - 70,000 people -  Promoted by Boyd Grafmyer - Chuck Berry, Black Snake, Tim Buckley, Byrds, Chicago Transit A., Albert Collins, Ike and Tina Turner, +  Larger crowds than expected caused food and water shortages. Held at Woodinville's, Gold Creek Park, ticket prices were $6.00 for one day, and $15.00 for the whole show.

8/1/69 - ATLANTIC CITY POP FESTIVAL - 110,000 people -  Booker T. & The M.G.'s, Tim Buckley, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, The Byrds, Canned Heat, Joni Mitchell, Chambers Bros, Chicago Transit A., Crazy World of Arthur Brown, C.C.R., Iron Butterfly ,Janis Joplin, Hugh Masakela, Frank Zappa & the Mothers, B.B. King, Santana, +  Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young were a no show, Joni Mitchell left the stage three songs into her set, because of lack of audience attention, and Johnny Winter's equipment never made it .

8/3-4/69 - THE NEWPORT POP FESTIVAL, Northridge, Ca. - 150,000 people -  Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, Eric Burden, Byrds, Chambers Brothers, Joe Cocker, Creedence C.R.+  JImi Hendrix got $120,000.00 to play there, and just a few days later got only one tenth of that to play Woodstock.

8/15-18/69 - THE WOODSTOCK MUSIC AND ARTS FAIR, Bethel, N.Y. 500,000 people -  Promoted by Michael Lang, Artie Kornfeld, John Koberts and Joel Roseman -  In order of appearence, Friday, Aug. 15th, Richie Havens, Swami Satchidananda ( Invocation ), Bert Sommer, Tim Hardin, Ravi Shankar, Melanie, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Biaz, Sat. 16th, Quill, Keef Hartley Band, Country Joe and The Fish, John Sebastion, Santana, Canned Heat, Mountain, Greatful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janice Joplin with the Kozmic Blues Band, Sly and the Family Stone, the Who, and The Jefferson Airplane, Sunday 17th & Monday 18th, The Grease Band, Joe Cocker, Country Joe, and The Fish, Ten Years After, Blood, Sweat, and Tears, Johnny Winter & Edgar Winter, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Sha Na Na, and finally the Master of the Stratocaster, Jimi Hendrix. This was the most historic rock festival ever held, and in my mind, Woodstock changed the world, and how the world perceived us. (Baby Boomers, Hippies, or whatever label you want to put on us ) The first act to sign was Creedence, with an exclusion clause for the movie; John Fogerty did not want to be in it. The rest of the 31 acts were signed quickly after. Some of the acts that weren't there were; The Beatles, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, The Byrds, Tommy James and The Shondells, The Moody Blues, Joni Mitchell, Spirit, and Bob Dylan. Parnelli Award winning, Bill Hanley was the sound engineer for the Woodstock Festival. He built special speaker columns with 16 loudspeaker arrays for a special platform on 70 ft. towers. Altec designed marine ply cabinets, each weighing 1000 lbs. were 6 feet tall by 4 feet deep by 3 feet wide. Each woofer had four 15 in. J.B.L. Lansing D-140 loudspeakers, the tweeters had, 4x2 cell and 2x10 cell Altec horns. This sound system was nicknamed the Woodstock Bins. With the crowd swelling, and not enough food or facilities to go around,  help came from, WAVY GRAVY, TOM LAW, and the HOG FARM, feeding the crowd ,and doing stage announcements. The Gov. of New York, Nelson Rockefeller threatened to call out the National Guard. He wanted to declare a "State of Emergency ", but was talked out of it by one of the promoters, John Roberts. The movie" Woodstock " by Michael Wadleigh, edited by Thelma Shoemaker and Martin Scorsese  was a fantastic trip into the event, I felt I was there, it was filmed so well.

8/30/69 to 9/1/69 - TEXAS INTERNATIONAL POP FESTIVAL, Lewisville, Tx. - 120,000 people -  Led Zepplein, B.B. King, Canned Heat, Chicago Transit A., Delaney, & Bonnie and Friends, G.F.R.R.,  James Cotten Blues Band, Herbie Mann, Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter, Rotary Connection, with Minnie Ripperton, Spirti, Sweetwater, Ten Years After, +++  They had most of the Woodstock line up, the crowd baked in the Labor Day sun to see this incredible collection of musicians. It was on the free Texas stage that Wavy Gravy got his name (he was Hugh Romney at Woodstock ) he was the head of the Hog Farm , and gave out free food.

8/30/69 to 9/1/69 - THE 2nd ANNUAL SKY RIVER POP FESTIVAL, Tenino, Wa. - 25,000 people - Joe Cocker, James Cotten Blues Band, Crow, Country Joe and The Fish,  +  This festival did not live up to expectations, besides the lineup they had, the first festival had The Dead, Santana, and Richard Pryor.

8/30/60 - ISLE OF WIGHT - 10,000 people -  Bob Dylan and The Band, Who, Frank Zappa, Joe Cocker, Tom Paxton, Moody Blues, Richie Havens, + Even though they didn't draw a large crowd, some of the audience members consisted of, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Ringo Star, George Harrison, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, and Eric Clapton.

8/31/69 - NEW ORLEANS POP FESTIVAL - 25,000 people - Byrds, Canned Heat, Cat Mother & All Nite Newsboys, Chicago Transit A., Country Joe & The Fish, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, It's a Beautiful Day, The Greatful Dead, Iron Butterfly, +  +  Another small crowd, not much written.

10/24-27/69 - ACTUEL FESTIVAL, Belgium - 20,000 people - Frank Zappa, The Band, Nice, Pink Floyd, + Originally to happen in Paris, it was moved to Belgium, for fear of large crowds. Frank Zappa was the M. C., and introduced Captian Beefheart. This was a 5 day open air festival that turned uncomfortable, foggy and had very cold temps.

11/28-30/69 -THE FIRST ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL PALM BEACH MUSIC AND ARTS FESTIVAL ( PALM BEACH POP FESTIVAL ) - 50,000 people - Promoted by Dave Rupp -  Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter, Spirit, Byrds, Grand Funk R.R., Sweetwater, Iron Butterfly, Country Joe & The Fish, Chambers Brothers, Vanilla Fudge, King Crimson ( American Debut ), Pacific Gas & Electric, Sly Stone, Rotary Connection with Minnie Ripperton, Jefferson Airplane, Terry Reid, Bethlehem Asylum, The Rugby's didn't make it, helicopter problems, and Steppenwolf was there but the Airplane's set ran long and John Kay was left to stand around backstage. + Parnelli Award winning, Bill Hanley, who was the sound engineer for Woodstock, was also the sound engineer for the Palm Beach Pop Festival. PBP also had the one and only WAVY GRAVY, TOM LAW, and the HOG FARM, helping feed the crowd, and dissolving the line between the stage and the audience. Palm Beach Pop almost never was, the Local, State, and even a hint of National Government, tried to stop this event. Even unknown forces were at work. The promoter's place of business was burned to the ground, his home was shot at, and the festival became a free event when the gates were crashed. The first Republican Governor in 100 years showed up "to meet a Hippie ",and make some drug busts. The National Guard patrolled the perimeter of the festival, this was just six months' before Kent State, and the closing act, The Rolling Stones, signed only two weeks before the event for $100,000.00, were held up on the tarmac of a New York airport for six hours, because President Nixon's plane was landing there. Then there's the issue of the weather, it rained prior to the event ever Happening, the opening day was fine, but then it rained again during the festival. It got muddy, and was sooooooo cold, that the last two nights, people couldn't even sleep on the ground, they had to sleep on their cars. A dry pair of sox was all anyone could ask for. The Local paper called it " Woodstock South. " I was the Official Photographer for the Festival.

12/6/69 - ALTAMOUNT - 300,000 people - Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Flying Burrito Bros., +  This infamous free concert was organized by the Rolling Stones, at the Altamount Race Track in northern Ca. Marred by violence, the lineup was cut short by one group, when The Greatful Dead declined to play as scheduled. At an event where one homicide and three accidental deaths were recorded, there was also four births. The 1970 documentary " Gimme Shelter " by Albert and David Maysles, was an amazing film, make sure you see it.

12/27-29/69 - MIAMI ROCK FESTIVAL, Hollywood Speedway Park, Pembroke Pines, Fl. admission, $20.00, Hollywood, Fl. - attendance unknown - Santana, Canned Heat, Smith, Crow, Vanilla Fudge, Greatful Dead, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, BB King, Hugh Masakela, Tony Joe White, Biff Rose, Amboy Dukes, The Turtles, Mother Lode, The Band, Johnny Winter, Cold Blood, Sweetwater, I really couldn't find anything on this festival except the poster.

8/6/70 - THE SHEA STADIUM PEACE FESTIVAL - my estimate is 35/40,000 people - organized by Peter Yarrow and Phil Freidmann, -  Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter, Rick Derringer, Poco, Sha Na Na, Herbie Hancock, Richie Havens, James Gang, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Miles Davis, Steppenwolf, Paul Simon,Tom Paxton, Ten Wheel Drive, Dionne Warwick, Al Kooper, The Young Rascals + The Shea Stadium Peace Festival has some amazing history. It was the 1st major concert at Shea since the Beatles in '66, and occurred on the 25th ann. of the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. This was the 2nd festival by the organizers, the first was at Madison Square Garden. Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Phil Freidmann, an Amherst grad. who worked for the Presidential peace candidate, Sen. Eugene McCarthy, convinced the major artists of the day to donate their performances. This was the first time that stars from, rock, jazz, blues, and folk all got together to aid a specific cause, the antiwar movement with a social/political agenda. S.S.P.F. was the forerunner of The Concert for Bangladesh, Farm Aid, and Live Aid . This was also to be one of Janis Joplins last performances, we lost her just two months later, almost to the day. This was a great festival, I was going to The School of Visual Arts, in New York City at the time, and went there with some friends, I don't have any night time performance photos, I was in the stands, so as not to get separated from my friends. One of the moments I will never forget is, the stadium stands were actually bouncing up and down, and dust was flying up from underneath the stands, from the crowd being so excited at the end of Janis Joplin set. This was the last big festival I attended; I hope that the next one is out there somewhere in the future.                         Thank you for your interest, Ken Davidoff