You wot; No I'm Goin' 'ome????Don't get me wrong boys and girls of the Woodstock (first) Gen: I just LOVE anything to do with the August 15-19, 1969 gathering at Max yasgur's diary farm in upstate New York, near the town of Bethel.
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So, when it was announced earlier this year that the 40th anny of the fest would be the BIG one, for unreleased material from the shows-of which there is a TON-this here Woodstock warrior via the 1970 theatrical run of the film and original two sets of soundtracks, was brown acid giddy.
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Yes, the job done by Rhino-who else?-for the aptly skedded release date of Aug. 18 of their new 6 CD boxset, containing 77 songs, with 38 previously unreleased recordings, appears to the usual superb.-
BUT, is it really Woodstock without perhaps thee seminal moment, which would be the frenzied Ten Year's After take of I'm Goin' Home... by Helicopter.
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According to a recent, nice, report in Billboard, Ten Years After, for some bloody reason, mate, refused to allow their iconic tune to be included on this box set. Go figger, man.
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However, can't see how Rhino could have left TYA off, and the moneychangers must be at fault.
(The Band and Keef Hartley-who?-also declined to be included. despite the fact that some of the Band's set has already appeared on the Woodstock Three Days of Peace and Music box released in 1994.)
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Now, if we can forget about Alvin Lee and company not making the bill, we can say that there are some very good things on this box, and some things that perhaps only very serious completists will care enough to fork out the $80, for.
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Although it has been claimed that the Grateful Dead's Woodstock show was not up to par, this new set will include their 19 minute version of Dark Star. The Who will get two previously unreleased Tommy tracks, and the entire, honkin' 30 minute take of Canned Heat's Woodstock Boogie will appear for the first time. (The Woodstock Two set had a 10 minute version.)
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The above is very good news, indeed. So is the effort to restore the chronological running order of the fest, and include full set lists, which to my knowledge, has never been made public, before.
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Oh, and also very good is the inclsuion of an extra Mountain track, as well as the actual Woodstock version of Theme For an Immaginary Western, that original soundtrack producers had ixnayed for a claimed better take from another live Mountain show.
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Yet a first disc packed with the somewhat B-list of the fest-click on upper left for full track listings-the relegation of Santana's Evil Ways set opener-previously unused due to a out of tune Carlos guitar but now overdubbed by Santana himself-to a new Sony Legacy Woodstock series, is not so good, at all. (More on the Woodstock Legacy releases at a later date.)
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And Rhino VP of A&R Cheryl Pawelski's rather (green) acidy comment in the press release that the new set "feels like dirt..like a field," is, even for Woodstock, over the top.
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Again, don't get me wrong; this 40th anny box will be in my hands as soon as I can get it, BUT, and this is a BIG but, the clock is running on this Woodstock material.
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Many of the original festival attendees are shortly collecting old age pensions and even those-like moi-who were not there, and yet were surly radicalized by the film and music, are well into our 50s.
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Soon, many of us may not care to re-live the olden days. Makes us feel even older, even bitterly nostalgic.
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Hell, what are the keepers of the Woodstock camber waiting for? The 50th anniversary when many of us will surely be part-hardy with Jimi, Janis, and Jim?
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Director of the Woodstock film, Mike Wadleigh made a remark about what may come for the 50th, and I just hope he was kidding.
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Regardless of how many years from that August 1969 we get, MUCH MORE of the Woodstock tape archive needs to thrown open, and fast.
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While most of us, still care.
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Latest Boomer Media Review Woodstock stuff:
http://www.boomermediareview.com/Woodstock/40thAnnyRemasters.html
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AND, this, on the new DVD box:
http://www.boomermediareview.com/WoodstockUltColEdDVDBox.html
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