Not only that, the Woodstock producers wanted to cut Sha na na as the last day was running very late (Hendrix was supposed to close the show about 6 hours prior), and Hendrix said no, he wanted them to play before him regardless.
@@rickacton7540 what, Hendrix opening for the Monkees? You know, computers have search engines... but I'll help you out a bit. In 1967, The Jimi Hendrix Experience was booked for almost 30 shows as the Monkees opening act, but quit after 7 gigs - apparently, the little Monkee-etes didn't quite get the proper Experience from Jimi.
@@MikeBarnett1776 shlomo-nana was not "invited by jimi hendrix", idc what internet misinformation you choose to invoke. every participant was a high-level freemason, specifically programmed by the FM funders Michael Lang, Artie Kornfeld, Joel Rosenman, and John P. Roberts.
About the whole Woodstock event, you see this footage and it becomes apparent that these people are TRULY having fun. You don’t see that nowadays anymore. We, as humans beings, seriously need to lighten up
One of the best lines I heard was from one of the members from ShaNaNa, When told that he ShaNaNa was the opening act for Hendrix (i.e., they were the last act before Hendrix), he replied "All 30 bands were the opening act for Hendrix at Woodstock"
It was 50 years ago today - Monday, August 18, 1969. Sha Na Na were originally scheduled to play on Sunday, August 17th, and nearly didn't get to play at all, until Jimi Hendrix intervened. He closed the festival, and said he wouldn't set foot on the stage until they finished their set.
@@DavidRice111 Its true, I've read on several sources. There are some books and stories about Woodstock. Sha na na used to do college tours and Hendrix loved their energy and sound. He wanted them booked.
Cuppa Tea I think they probably enjoyed it. It was the music they heard as kids, the original anti establishment genre. You can here good applause after they play
Remember being a punk rock kid in the 90s. I caught this on VH1 during Woodstock 98 and it absolutely blew my mind and gave me a greater appreciate of how chains of influence create sounds.
No doubt a mosh pit would've opened up had this been several years later. '50s rock-n-roll is my favorite but the 1% at the very top is the same stuff only harder faster louder. Like this.
not true-received a standing ovation and brought back for encores on that Monday (8am) morning.People had left because of the bad weather on the sunday.Hendrix loved them.
My folks got the double live "Golden Age of RocknRoll" from Columbia Record club, along with Cash at Folsom and Tom Jones Live in Vegas. It was 1974, I was in 4th grade, and these are STILL my favourite records. Especially The Na. So ahead of their time, Jocko Marcellino especially. Thrash drummer extraordinaire!! I think it was She a Na Na That ruined studio albums for me. Almost all my favorite recordings are live shows. From KISS to AC/DC to Motorhead, my loyalty has been unbending. GREASE FOR PEACE,,
Just goes to show how fast things developed in music back then. The difference between 1957 and 1969 was enormous and might as well have been a hundred years. The difference between 2001 and 2013, not so much except original creativity has fallen off even more.
@@mylifesjuly anyone whose interest in pop music began between 2001 and 2013 would like find it to be a dumb point. But, people who have a longer perspective on pop music have a better basis for drawing conclusions. As for current music, much of it is not even human, it is computer generated and computer enhanced [because no song royalties need to be paid to a computer]. Just my opinion, but the largely non-human "music" heard now in stores and on radio and online is just noise, devoid of all humanity and creativity...almost bad enough to make Thomas Edison sorry that he invented the machinery to record voices and music and then invented the electric sound amplifier...he invented everything that makes modern music possible...and alos motion pictures, the electric ligt, etc etc
Sha na na and sly stone were the true stars of woodstock. Any hippy band could have turned up and have the crowd on their side, but to be playing music that was left of the general centre and win the crowd over was a absolutely special!!!
I don't man. 50's music was part of the national consciousness. It wasn't radical or anything. Everyone there had grown up on that kind of music. Sha na na was super popular well into the 70's.
It had only been a few years since "greaser" music had disappeared from the musical landscape, yet I'll bet many of the kids in the audience were stunned to hear real rock and roll music.
All those in the audience would have lived with and grown up with this era of music. Just as the band did. Though I’m sure none of them were expecting to hear anything like this at the festival
If an artist in 2021 came onstage and played “2011 music” it wouldn’t even seem that different. Just goes to show how much culture changed during the 60s
Yep, if Ed Sheeran or Justin Bieber played their 2014 hits it could still be enjoyable even nostalgic. Not sure with this though. Overall, Jolly 50s first, stoned 60s second!
Well in 1969 the biggest song of the year was Sugar, Sugar and Elvis made two number one hits. Most people were not into hippie stuff and 60's Motown was still going strong.
you could also say that wearing the same clothes from back then wouldn't look out of place. it is like american culture and fashion hasn't changed a whole lot. except for the politics. that has changed a lot.
I always thought this was a very important performance in Woodstock because it proved that there was something for everybody in that concert and that was what Woodstock was all about!
Well if Hendrix didn't get them on the bill they wouldn't be there. Hendrix liked Sha Na Na and got them in. He was there for him. Not sure if those young hippies at the show really liked and appreciated them.
What’s even more amazing, half these guys left the music business behind and went on to become not only doctors and lawyers, but leaders in their respective fields. Alan Cooper (singing lead on At the Hop) had 2 PHDs in Religious Studies and served on university faculties. Robert Leonard, young guy dressed in gold is an internationally renowned linguistics expert (even been on Forensic Files)
These guys along with 'Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids' were an important part of a 50's revival that was taking place then. All of these movies were 50's themed: 'American Graffiti': 1973, 'The Lord's of Flatbush': 1974, and the 'Happy Days' TV sitcom that started in 1974. And don't forget 'Grease'. 50's themed costume parties were popular. Then came a resurgence of Rockabilly (as Bonehead1170 mentioned below, one of the top groups was The Blasters). Then these groups that put a New Wave spin on Rockabilly ('X' and 'The Stray Cats' to mention two) You will see a 50's influence in New Wave fashion.
@@wmbrown6 Just watched both bands videos. Both are very good but Darts was over the top fun. Watched the song combo Cool Daddy/The Girl Can't Help It. Very talented group. The lead singer cracked me up. Glad you told us about them.
From what I heard, a lot of people hated em ...quite a few people left during their performance and weren't around to see the followup act: Jimi Hendrix.
As the movie shows the audience was left amazed with the Sha Na Na's music . Rob Leonard and David Garrett claimed that they were asked to play the Woodstock Festival based upon Jimi Hendrix's recommendation to the Woodstock producers after Hendrix saw Sha Na Na at Steve paul's night club during the summer of 1969
Just learned that Robert Leonard, bassist and one of the founders, is now Dr Robert Leonard, a college professor, expert on forensic linguistics ! ! . . saw him on an old Forensic Files helping to solve a murder
You should read the Bio on some of these original members. One guy is the leading forensic linguist in the world.He literally wrote the book on it and trains the FBI and other world governments in the technique. A couple other guys became highly successful surgeons. One guy went to yale law school and became the vice president of production and features at at Columbia pictures. Another guy is a English professor at TTU and another guy is a lawyer for a firm in NYC. This has to be the smartest group of guys ever assembled for a music group.
These guys were retro even in 69. I wondered what the stones audience thought of them. Don’t matter because all the current artists were inspired by early rock and roll.
I revcently came across the entire performance and liked it a lot...They had lots of energy and did many songs I have heard over the years. I was glad to be able to hear the rest of their setlist. I also didnt know years back that they were the second to last act and actually performed Monday morning! I thought seeing how a bright sunny moning it was that they played on Satuday morning because I read thst Saturday morning was sunny as well not knowing at the time the concert went into Monday.
Willie Gordon very true but even in those days a song from the 50s was considered from a different planet and was hardly appreciated. Those hippies just didn’t get it.
As a kid in the eighties the late sixties and even most of the seventies seemed like a lifetime ago to me at the time. Ten years is a very long time when you're young, and given the drastic cultural shifts at the time the fifties probably seemed very far away to the hippies of the mid to late sixties.
Lead singer Robert Leonard is considered by many to be the smartest man in rock history. He has a doctorate in linguistics. The FBI calls him to solve cases.
There was a lot of great contemporary rock in 1969. Woodstock is proof of that. But we lost so much when the Beatles brought along a bunch of less than rock and rollers. The 1955-63 sound seemed to be lost forever. But a lot of rock in 1969 and before was (I think) just droning, boring, noise and that gave rise for a look back (to not so very long ago) to some giants of rock and roll who had pretty much been discarded by the American music scene. Guys like Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard remained giants in Europe and elsewhere overseas. But in America they were neglected to the point of disappearance. I remember seeing so many "oldies" acts on tv as the 70's got underway and wondering "where have these guys been all my life"
Old cassette I had was early in the songlist. Had no idea they were 2nd to last. Laughed so hard watching this the first time, absolutely hilarious. "And a splendid time is guaranteed for all..."
As someone who grew up in the 50's and 60's and remembered the 50's era music, sha na na was a joke, not to be taken seriously. A comedy routine. Initially they were NY college students that organized a group that mocked and made a parody of that era. Their dress style, hair seen in the video were actually contemporary for the times. From a purist standpoint nobody looked like that (except motorcycle jackets). The choregraphy as some writer put it was "Busby Berkeley style". Sha na na was in part formed because 50's era music was hardly played on Midwest and East Coast radio stations since the British invasion of "64. For the most part they trivialized an artform that was sophisticated and required talent to perform well particularly doo wop. As far as Hippie reaction, very few early baby boomers were into Elvis or other artists from the time especially Woodstock people. Most had outgrown it and identified with the post Beatles era. Some history, the greaser (represented by Sha na na) subculture was alive and well in Chicago (as well as NY) throughout the 1960's. The blue collar 60's greasers, throw backs (hair and look) to the 50's hated the hippies, and a lot of their music. Many did not get along with college bound kids either. Picked on them in high school (John Bauman "Bowzer" was one of their targets). On the positive side Sha na na brought this music to new generations and influenced punk rock as some have mentioned. The group did produce talented people like Johnny Contardo and Henry Gross.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the Sha Na Na! Harold, turn up the mike!" I'll always remember that outro. My uncle gave me a bootleg 4 track (yes 4 track) tape of the first Woodstock disk. This was one of the standout performers.
There is only so much a producer can do with a recording like this... but it's fast and tight. 2 lead vocals hitting it on point. Excitement, harmonies. Tight rope tempo. Great performance.
I think maybe the best thing to do is mix it to mono, or at least narrow the spread down quite a lot, - especially on the last eight bars, where the stereo jumping is particularly 'orrible. None the less - this performance puts a great big smile on my face !
I believe that the guitar player was Henry Gross of "Shannon" fame. I remember seeing them shortly after this at the Boston Tea Party concert venue as an opening act. The movie hadn't come out yet and we were all like "Who the hell is Sha Na Na?" They freaked everyone out and did a great set. And yes, we knew all the songs because they were only 10 to 15 years old but being cool hippies and seeing people in 50's garb while stoned was funny as crap!
This and Ten Years After have to be the most underrated musical performances ever. This must have been too much for some people. Get messed up and next thing you know you've time traveled back to the 50s. What a mindfuck.
Rich Joffee and Gino Cohn were my camp counselors at Rowe Unitarian Universalist Camp in 74-75. The wretched TV show has nothing to do with the high-spirited original group. The 1st. 2 LPs are very good.
The entire audience grew up and loved this music..This is the music they heard when they were young kids.. No matter how the world changed in the late 60's , the "Hippie" generation had this music in their DNA. The music loved as a kid never goes from your heart.. 2:24
I was at a summer camp around '70 where a counselor was a Sha-Na-Na fanatic and took the 50's look to heart. He would go to the kitchen before breakfast and get bacon grease and do-up his hair.
this version of Sha Na Na is so superior to the version that the TV executive created for television, I wish they would have performed longer and we had more footage to view
The lineup on TV was not created by an executive. It was their current lineup at the time, all the members were in the group for years before they got the show gig, about half of them were original.
I saw them at CHICO STATE UNIVERSITY right after Woodstock and they were a lot of fun and a really tight band...my friend and I were up front and Bowser spit on my friend..good times lol
At least they were willing to perform at the event, (unlike the Doors, or the Beatles) so they went on and did their act- which must have been quite a challenge, as it was so different from all the others. The crowd at first thought it was a joke, but eventually caught on.
As a huge Doors fan I have to say you don't understand timelines. Jim was already in rough shape and they were never a true stadium band. He was a poet, never wanted to be a rock star. You're comparing 2 completely different types of groups. The Beatles were gods, no way there could be proper payment or accomodations for them. One was better suited for the Whiskey, the other giant stadiums. Woodstock was neither.
@@moemanley2579 Whoever didn't make it to Woodstock, regretted it. Publicly, they might have rationalized it in any way they could, but deep down they were kicking themselves... No one predicted that that concert would become what it became. John Roberts and Artie Kornfeld basically told Pete Townshend to, "take it or leave it"- e.g., be happy with the lower pay they offered, when the money ran out, because- if his band refused to play, over meager pay, no one would eventually know who they were anymore...
This music was only 15 years old...musta been odd for the hippies lol truly cool funny nuff lotta bands were doing this like pub rockers, Dave Edmunds, Beatles, Stones,Fairport Conv crew etc etc
@@ElCameronDormido I disagree . Alvin Lee an Ten Years After’s performance of “I’m Going Home by Helicopter “ was the best act . This was second but if you think about it , that Ten Years After performance was really roots RocknRoll just like what ShaNaNa did.
One thing for sure. When that one cat whirls around and he’s combing his hair and chewin gum at the end of the tune? It always made me think that it was a fitting end to the late 50s era. Ushered out in front of 2 generations that pretty much were there for it all. Never to rule the airwaves again. A sense of pride for every Rockabilly of the time. Unmatched by any Rock n Roller since the late 50s. “You can stop me, butcha can’t stop Rock n Roll!” - Alan Freed
