It was September 6, 1970, a day that would go down in rock โnโ roll folklore. The scene was set: Germanyโs Open Air Love & Peace Festival in Fehmarn, an ambitious attempt to capture the Woodstock magic on European soil. But while the festival bore the weight of its own chaos, from relentless rain to…
In the radiant summer of 1969, the idyllic town of Bethel, New York, would bear witness to an event that would become the anthem of a generation. Over 400,000 free spirits, music lovers, and dreamers flocked to a sprawling dairy farm owned by the kind-hearted Max and Miriam Yasgur. The venue: the Woodstock Music &…
The stage, lit only by spotlights and the soft glow of amplifiers, became his canvas. From the opening riffs, the audience was entranced. Each note, each chord was not just heard but felt
1970 proved to be a landmark year in the annals of rock music.
By 1967, the Motor City is still monopolizing the music charts and airwaves, cruising full speed ahead, rivaled only by Britain’s Fab Four. But thereโs turbulence and static on the horizon stemming from a strong current blowing from the West Coast, along with inner tensions within Hitsville U.S.A., a.k.a. Motown Records.These combined factors would eventually…
In an earlier piece, I spoke about sharing with you, dear reader, a three-part homage to one of the biggest musical influences in my young life in ChicagoโBooker T. & the M.G.โs. In Part 1, I touched on the first pair of tunes from the band that grabbed my attention and affected me for the…
Barely in my teens, I listened to the very first albums I ever owned on a wide, floor-model stereo console placed prominently in the living room of my home on Chicagoโs South Side. My oldest sister gave it to my mother as a birthday gift in September, 1971. It cost five hundred bucks and was…