• The Ultimate Collector’s Edition (3 discs total)
• The Director’s Cut version of just the movie (2 discs) – 225 minutes compared to 184 for original
• The VHS tape called The Lost Performances

In the Ultimate Collectors Edition you’ve got the Director’s Cut for the regular movie (2 discs). This comes on regular 2-disc version too. And then you’ve also got the Extras disc with a bunch more performances by the bands and lots of interviews with promoters and movie crew (and even a Hugh Hefner Playboy After Dark section). And you’ve also got the VHS tape called The Lost Performances with songs that you can’t get on any of the other DVDs.

The Woodstock Crowd

Anyway, I’ve been watching all these and it hit me. Even though some of these performances are great, it’s all the shots of the crowds that really get my attention.That’s where the real “fun” was being had and where the real story of Woodstock was happening.

And most of those shots aren’t necessarily of people watching the music although that’s what most people are there for. There’s also plenty of shots of people just hanging around, or doing yoga, or interviews with people (the one of the guy cleaning out the port-a-san is a classic), or of course the nude swimmers at the pond. These are the real stars of the movie to me.

You can tell these hippies are having fun and sharing something very special. But it’s the interviews with the townpeople and the movie crew and the organizers that are sticking in my mind.

Here’s some examples…

• The guy that jumped on stage with Canned Heat and Bob Hite totally accepted and put his arm around while he sang
• Artie Kornfield and Michael Lang (the promoters) talking about how the vision was working while they were getting rained on. In the middle of the interview a helicopter starts to drop flowers and dry clothes on the crowd. In split screen a couple undresses to make love.
• The Port-A-San man sharing how he is happy to help these kids and has his own kid at the show and one in Vietnam. I great man from the older generation. It had to open all our eyes that the older generation isn’t all bad.
• Max Yasgur addressing the crowd and saying “you’ve proven something to the world… 3 days of fund and music… and nothing but fun and music… and I God bless you for it.”

And on the Extras disc there are so many juicy tidbits like…

• Chip Monck got to be MC because Michael Lang forgot to book anyone. He was notified at 7:00 AM on Friday. Chip was actually in charge of the lights so he had no prior MC experience really. All this time I thought he was a professional announcer.
• The story of how the “brown acid” announcement happened. And how he did his best to soften the tone so it wouldn’t promote bad trips.
• How as the traffic congestion got worse and worse the promoters had to find more and more helicopters to get performers and supplies to the site.
• How big of a negative effect the rain on Saturday had on the logistics and equipment for the festival… but somehow the crowd and the bands and the organizers rose above it.
• Martin Scorsce’s comments about how the experience of the Woodstock music effected all of his subsequent movies. He was a lowly “assistant director” to Michael Wadleigh the film’s “creator.”

Yes, the crowd and the people were the real stars of Woodstock.

That couple that was on the cover to the album and became an icon to a generation got married and are still together 40 years later. Nick and Bobbi Ercoline, both now 60 — embracing underneath a dirty blanket, surrounded by exhausted concertgoers will forever be intertwined with Woodstock and a generation.

Nick and Bobbi Ercoline

They only met three months earlier. And weren’t even aware the picture was being taken. But once the movie came out they were famous. To the Ercolines’ surprise, the image became the cover of the ‘Woodstock’ album in 1970 and was featured on posters for the subsequent documentary film.

But it’s clear. Forty years after the legendary festival in Bethel, N.Y., a photo of two lovebirds taken at Woodstock has become an iconic symbol of love.

They married two summers after the fabled weekend, and they still live less than an hour’s drive from the original concert site of Bethel, N.Y., and within spitting distance of where they both grew up. Nick Ercoline works for the Orange County, N.Y., Department of Housing. Bobbi is a resident nurse at the elementary school in their hometown of Pine Bush.

The 40th anniversary of the ultimate hippie-fest, this Aug. 15-17, has thrown the Ercolines into the spotlight again – something they never expected or sought.

They say they remember nothing of the original shot, taken by Burk Uzzle. “We weren’t striking a pose,” Nick says. “We were as surprised as everybody to see that photo on the album cover.”

What resonates most about the photo is that it speaks to what many Woodstock veterans consider to be the true meaning of the festival — not just music but a movement of peace, love and unity. In a recent interview with Spinner, Woodstock performer Richie Havens cited a Martin Luther King Jr. speech, saying “It’s not him or him or him, it’s all of us or nothing. That was our thing, that’s what we went against the war with.”

And what held that generation together was the belief that love could change anything. And that love could last. It sure did for Nick and Bobbi.

The couple themselves acknowledge the social significance of the now legendary picture. “It’s an honest representation of a generation. When we look at that photo … I see our generation,” Nick told the NY Daily News.

Certainly Woodstock has been romanticized over the years, but for many, the image of Nick and Bobbi wrapped in a blanket represents exactly what Woodstock is all about.

What’s more, the couple has been together ever since.

I’ve been working my way through all the DVDs and videos of the recorded music at Woodstock. Now I’m just talking about the one’s on video. I haven’t started to check out all the music on vinyl or CDs. That’s my next project.

Anyway I counted…

• 23 actual video performances by 17 different performers on the “Director’s Cut” version now being released. It think there’s a couple here that weren’t on the original movie.
• 18 performances by 13 acts on the “Untold Stories” disc that comes with the Ultimate Collectors Edition
• 16 performances by 15 performers on The Lost Performances VHS tape

Now each of these performances are not repeated on the other tapes or discs. So the performances on the tape are not on any other DVD that I know of. Feel free to correct me on this if I’m wrong.

Which Are The Best Woodstock Performances?

Creedence Clearwater at Woodstock

Of course everyone has their own favorites. And if you’ve only watched the original movie you haven’t come close to seeing all the performances so how could you judge. But the songs I had never heard before were at least as good as the main ones you see in the movie. And if you’ve only seen the original that means there’s about 32 out of 55 performances that you haven’t heard or seen.

I was particulary surprised by Paul Butterfield on the VHS doing Drifting Blues. As a big blues lover I was blown away by just how authentic he was. The quality of his blues was as good as the best you could see today. It was clearly in the same league of a Rod Piazza or Mark Hummel that you would see today. The band was way ahead of it’s time.

And mostly because it was a big high point for me, Creedence Clearwater’s version of Born on the Bayou that got me to jump out of my sleeping bag at 3:00 AM on Saturday night, was great to finally get to hear. That’s on the Untold Stories disc.

Anyway my point is there is much more to hear. If you loved the music on the “old” Woodstock movie, the new stuff is not only just as good, but like seeing Woodstock from another perspective. It’s worth checking out if you get the chance.

Here’s a little taste of what you’ve been missing…

A Young Michael Shrieve

In fact, I think the Santana performance opened many people’s eyes that these hippie musicians and the whole 60’s music scene was higher quality than many understood. Santana definitely had raised the bar!

In fact, my 15 year old daughter, who plays guitar, now wants to play drums since seeing Michael’s drum solo. I bet the fact that that he was the youngest musician at Woodstock (and she thinks he’s very cute) has a little something to do with that.

Michael Shrieve’s Speech At His Induction Into the Roll & Roll Hall of Fame

“When I was 16 years old, I called up about a dozen of my musician friends and asked if they wanted to drive up to the Fillmore with me and see if we could sit in. Michael Bloomfield, Steven Stills and Al Kooper were playing together, billed as “Supersession.” Every one of my friends said no, that I was crazy. It would never happen. Until I called my last friend, who was older than me and had actually moved out of his parents’ house and was living with a girl, said, “Oh man, that sounds great. Hold on a minute,” whereupon he spoke to his girlfriend about it and came back to the phone and said to me “Hey, I think I’m just gonna stay in tonight.” Needless to say that one phone call is the reason I didn’t marry until my early thirties….

At least I can try, I said to myself. It probably won’t happen but tomorrow at least I can say that I tried. So I asked my folks, who
were always supportive and trusting of my musical endeavors, for the keys to the car and drove the thirty miles up to the Fillmore. I went in and walked up to the stage, pulled on Mike Bloomfield’s pant leg, looked up at him and said, ” Hey man, I play drums, can I sit in?”

Well I was 16 but looked 12 and I fully expected him to either kick me in the face or say “Go away kid!” But instead he said, “Well the drummer’s a really nice guy, let me ask him.”

Uh-oh. Hey, wait a minute, I thought. I was just going to try. Oh no! Well he comes back and says, “Yeah, it’s cool, you can play.” Oh shit. Then it hits me. I’m going to play with Michael Bloomfield, Steven Stills, and Al Kooper, on the sand stage that I’d seen with Cream, The Yardbirds, Van Morrison, Miles Davis, and BB King?

Well, I played but I swear to this day I don’t remember one note, not one moment of the jam. That’s how scared I was. So we finished playing and now I’m backstage hanging out with the other musicians. Am I cool or what?

Well Stan Marcum and David Brown, the manager and bass player of Santana, came up to me and said, “Hey man, we heard you play and you sounded really good. We have a band called Santana and we’ve been thinking about getting a new drummer. Why don’t you give us your number?”

Well, I knew who Santana was; everybody did in the area. I had seen them, and even said to my brother once when we were watching them play, “I really want to play with these guys.”

Cut to a year later. I never did hear from them. But, one night I was visiting a recording studio that I used to frequent to try to hustle free studio time for my own group. I’m walking in the front door and the drummer from Santana is walking out. I go inside and Santana was in the studio recording their first album for Columbia and Clive Davis, and they had just had a big falling out with their drummer! A couple of the guys recognized me from a year ago and asked me if I’d like to jam.

Well, we jammed. We played all night long and at the end of the night we all gathered in a small room off to the side. Actually, I think it was just Carlos, Gregg, and myself. Carlos asked me if I would like to join the band. I said, ” You know, let me check my schedule.” Just kidding!

That night they followed me home and I went into the house and woke my folks up and said, “See you later. This is where I get off.” I ran out to the street, jumped into the car and drove up to San Francisco’s Mission District, where the band was living in a house together. I took my appropriate place on the couch, and despite the excitement and because of the late hour, fell asleep.

I was in the band. And what a band it was! I soon saw this was no peace, love, hippie thing. This band was like a street gang and its weapon was music.

Cut to another year later and the band is set to play the Woodstock Festival. Bill Graham was able to get us on the show. We got paid, I think it was $500.00. We were known in California and we were doing a lot of festivals, always working, but still relatively unknown. We played the Woodstock show, which was of course incredible. It was also a mess. I think Paul Kantner had the best quote about Woodstock. ” If you said you had a great time at Woodstock, you weren’t there.”

Needless to say, we went over well. We were the right band at the right time. Our street gang tribal rhythms were perfect for the Woodstock tribe that day.

Another year later and we’re touring more, our first record is out and the Woodstock movie is opening in theaters across the country. Santana is playing in New York and our first day off we go to see the movie. We’re standing in line waiting for the earlier showing to finish, and as the people are coming out of the theatre, we notice quite a few of the people in line. We didn’t know if we were going to end up in the film or not. After all, we were the unknown group there that day.

Halfway through the movie there we are playing Soul Sacrifice. Halfway through into my drum solo the screen splits and there are 6 images of me across it. I didn’t know whether to shout out, “That’s me!” or sink down in my seat. I sank down in my seat and watched and listened. At the end of the song the whole theatre burst into applause, as the 6 of us turned in our seats and looked at each other in laughter and surprise.

Well, our little musical street gang had just made a sound heard round the world. As the film was released around the world, the band became known everywhere. On our first trip Europe to play the Montreux Jazz Festival, I walked to the train station to pick up some magazines, and there I was on the cover of one, in a small shot from Woodstock.

Everywhere we went people knew us. Our album shot up the charts. This was all pretty heavy stuff for a 19-year old kid, but I loved it. As a drummer, there was no better band to be in. This was about really playing your instrument and these guys would really keep you on your toes. If you didn’t play well you would hear about it! We played everywhere. We were one of the first groups to play Mexico and Central and South America. We played Africa, the Far East, the Philippines and Europe many times.

Cut to 15-20 years later and I’m walking down 5th Avenue in New York City. By this time, I’d been out of Santana over 10 years, made about 7 solo albums; played on many people’s records, done a lot of stuff. A guy walks up to me and says, “Hey Mike Shrieve! Oh man, I saw you in Woodstock. You were so great! I loved it so much….but what happened man? You’ve gotten….older.”

Well thousands of people have mentioned Woodstock to me. I kept trying to beat it with something else I did, but realized over time that this would never happen, and I learned to live with the fact, and accept that it meant so much to so many people, that you just couldn’t fight it. It seemed I was 18 forever to them, and so be it. I’m 48 now and I’ve had a fruitful and long creative career but nothing has compared to my experience of playing in Santana.

I am honored to stand here tonight to be inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. But I am even more honored to have had the experience that has meant so much to me my entire life – to have made such wonderful music with these gentlemen standing behind me.”

Check out his amazing drum solo in the video above.

]]> http://www.woodstock-memories.com/woodstock-music-festival/the-youngest-musician-at-woodstock-michael-shrieve/feed 1 http://www.woodstock-memories.com/woodstock-music-festival/my-woodstock-highlight http://www.woodstock-memories.com/woodstock-music-festival/my-woodstock-highlight#comments Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:49:53 +0000 admin http://www.woodstock-memories.com/?p=167 Of course trying to pick one highlight from something that changed your whole life is a little silly. But there is one moment from Woodstock 1969 that I will always remember…

It was late Saturday night. It was the night Janis Joplin and The Grateful Dead played.

Now I’ve never been a big Dead fan but even under these special conditions of being with all these other “freaks” I couldn’t really get into it. After a long day… and now it was about 2:00 AM in the morning… well their endless, noodling jams were just not hitting the spot. To be truthful they were putting me to sleep.

When they finally ended I was pretty much asleep physically and emotionally.

Creedance at Woodstock

Then…

I heard… well… da-da-da-da —- well it’s hard to describe… you’ve got to check out the video (below)… it was those first guitar licks from Born on the Bayou… Creedence Clearwater Revival was bringing us back to life. Everyone in that big, cold, sleepy field jumped out of their sleeping bags and started to dance. It was the perfect antidote to the Grateful Dead. Energy and groove had taken over from spacey noodling… I still remember that moment well.

And that performance never made it to the movie. In fact there was no Creedence Clearwater in the movie… until now.

The new Woodstock 40th Anniversary, Ultimate Collectors Edition has an extra DVD with many unheard performance… and guess what’s on it… yup Born On The Bayou in all it’s glory. Plus two more CCR songs too… I Put A Spell On You and Keep On Chooglin’.

But that one song was worth the price for me!

And there’s lot more songs that you probably haven’t heard. I counted 55 songs available on the 3 videos you can buy. There were only 23 actual performances on the original movie disc/tape. You’re missing out.

Here’s a sample of what you are missing. Of course the actual DVD is much better quality and sound.

By the way Joni didn’t go to Woodstock. Her manager talked her out of it because he thought she would miss her big break on the Dick Cavett Show on the Monday after Woodstock. Watching the even on TV inspired her to write her amazing song.

But the truth is the song can be interpreted in many ways. Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young’s version is upbeat and energetic. But Joni’s version is much more sombre (see video below) with a sense that maybe we were losing the Garden as the 60’s ended. But her later versions are even darker and more ominous. Maybe we all could submit versions that speak to our particular take on the festival and the times.

Here’s my version of Joni Mitchell’s Woodstock. Let me know what you think.

If you’re a musician why not create your own version and add it to the site. Maybe we’ll even have a contest and let folks choose their favorite.

By the way, here’s a video of Joni performing her song only a couple of weeks after Woodstock. It’s probably the first recorded version of the song.

Of course if you have anything else you’d like to share about the Woodstock experience… even if you weren’t there… we’d love to hear it.

Peace and Love

Rick

Well I had some good friends who said they were going to Woodstock but I never was able to hook up with them and get a ride. So somehow I convinced my parents that I could get there on my own (actually I’m not sure what excuse I used because that doesn’t sound like something my parents would fall for). I told them I’d just hook up with my friends when I got there. I figured they’d be easy to find. Sure Rick.

Plus I didn’t have any tickets. It was a last minute decision so I figured I’d just get them when I got there… or something. Typical teenage thinking.

Anyway, I stuck out my thumb and hitchhiked from just south of Boston (Avon), across the Mass Pike, and then headed south when I got to Interstate 87 (I think). Actually I don’t remember how I got there. I didn’t really have directions and someone else was driving anyways. And honestly I don’t remember much about the ride there. Hmm… not sure why.

Of course hitchhiking was common back then. Everyone did it and if you wanted to go long distances it was a great way to travel. I hitchhiked back from California and back and forth to Florida several times around that time. Mostly by myself by the way. Seems funny to think about that now. We just put a lot of faith in our fellow man back then. Or we were just naive. But we didn’t care and Woodstock proved our faith was right.

Too bad our kids will never be able to experience that freedom and adventure that hitchiking offered. I sure get to meet some cool people when I was hitchhiking.

Anyway, after many hours and lots of walking, I finally got there on Friday evening (did I say after a lot of walking). I was all by myself and soon realized after seeing the crowd that I was going to have a hard time finding my friends. So what I was going to make 450,000 new ones.

I guess the first think I noticed was that all the fences were down and no one was taking tickets so it was going to be a free concert. Now that was cool! Great way to start my weekend.

So I trugged in the rest of the way to the check things out.

I got there just in time to catch a little of Arlo Guthrie’s show. The energy was high and so was most of the crowd.

But I was getting tired after a long day of hitchhiking so I settled into my sleeping bag and took a little rest as Joan Baez was doing her set at around 1:30 in the morning. Nice music to chill out and relax on… and fall asleep.

Next… I’ll tell you what happened on Day 2 of Woodstock.