God's Love: Don't leave home without it!
Small connection to the event-it was one of the first gigs of the group Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. I saw them in Montreal in 1978, as I think I've mentioned here before.
Another connection-though just a kid, I did live through the 60's/70's in America, and I remember the generational clash from a pipsqueak's perspective. It wasn't fun or funny, and watching the movie brought back memories. I'll tell you about the dope smoking Priest some other time.
I've never been able to "get" the music from that era. I just scratch my head and wonder what it's supposed to mean and why everyone sounds like they're singing through a tin can.
It was a unique time in history, one that I doubt will be repeated any time soon. Generations X and Y were certainly nowhere near as rebellious or as "anti-establishment" as that generation was. Of course, cultural pendulums do tend to swing to and fro so maybe the next one ...
Just a guess, James, but might you have been hearing that music on clock radios, car stereos, etc. that haven't very good speakers? I know that you weren't around for the 'transistor radios' era, but really, the speakers have a lot to do with how music sounds.
I love listening to my iPod with good headphones.
Memories-I still have the first CD set I ever bought, the complete Blue Note collection of Thelonious Monk. The earliest recording are indeed tinny/cheap sounding, but that was the fault of the recording equipment small studios could afford in 1948.
Actually, Dylan did play the Isle of Wight Festival. In fact, he was sort of the raison d'etre for the whole thing. Once the promoters had Dylan they publicized the festival like heck and even told people he was going to play for three hours. However, he only got to the stage at about 10:50 P.M. and played for about 45 minutes, I think. There are four or five songs from the concert on Self Portrait. If you want to know more, it's all documented in Robert Shelton's book, No Direction Home. Pages 405-409.
The probable reason he isn't in the documentary is that he refused to let the film makers use the footage of him without some kind of compensation, the same way he almost did in The Last Waltz.
That said, I agree that it's a sad thing that so many people expected to get in for free and couldn't even come up with 6 pounds for a four day festival. Maybe they spent all their money on drugs.
Fred, thanks for the clarification-as you have the book in front of you, could you tell me if it says Isle of Wight Festival 1969? Not that it matters one way or another, but the movie I saw was from the 1970 event, and he's not listed on the playlists.
Wiki is known to be quite untrustworthy, though-take a quick look at the Dylan page and see if you can find any mistakes.
Doug,
Isn't that odd, eh? It was definitely 1970 that Dylan was in the Isle of Wight Festival and I'm pretty sure it was the only one.
1969, of course, was the year he refused to play Woodstock, even though it was just around the corner from where he lived.
Apparently, I'm wrong and it was the 1969 one. Mea Culpa.
Hi Doug,
Just found this on youtube. Apparently someone has posted the whole Isle of Wight Dylan set. Thought you might be interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D...h?
v=DPT12IYkZps
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