This Date In Rock History: 18 August

On this date in 1969, hundreds of thousands of people were trudging back from what was to become a generational touchstone: the Woodstock Music Festival at Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, New York. The "Three Days of Peace & Music" featured landmark performances by The Who (highlighting their new rock opera, Tommy); Sly & The Family Stone; Santana; Jimi Hendrix; and (making only their second live appearance) Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

A festival invitee -- but noted absentee -- was Miss Joni Mitchell, the Saskatoon, Saskatchewan singer-songwriter whose intimate lyrical style was beginning to take firm root in the rock world. Her agent had recommended that Joni not attend Woodstock, in order to make sure she could honor her contractual agreement to appear on the Dick Cavett Show, the nightly ABC late night talk program making a name for itself for showcasing rock artists.

In what was to become known in TV folklore as "The Woodstock Show," the 90 minute Cavett episode would feature Mitchell, The Jefferson Airplane, Stephen Stills and David Crosby. The latter were all recent arrivals from Woodstock, having played sets there in the past couple of days. (Jimi Hendrix was scheduled to appear on the show as well, but had gone on stage at 7.30 a.m. that morning and could not make it back to New York City for the late afternoon taping.)

All these years later, "The Woodstock Show" is a pleasure to watch, both as a time capsule but especially for the music, which is first rate. Through the graces of YouTube, you can view the episode in five parts, which we link below with some brief comments:

PART ONE -- Cavett's brief monologue; The Jefferson Airplane sings "We Can Be Together."

PART TWO -- The Jefferson Airplane sings "Volunteers." Joni Mitchell is introduced, and she plays "Chelsea Morning" (acoustic guitar) as well as "Willy" (piano).

PART THREE -- Joni Mitchell sings "For Free" (piano). Stephen Stills and David Crosby are introduced and join all the artists for an interview with Cavett.

PART FOUR -- The interview with all the guests continues. Stephen Stills plays a solo "4 + 20" with his acoustic guitar.

PART FIVE -- Joni Mitchell performs "The Fiddle & The Drum" a cappella. The Jefferson Airplane does "Somebody To Love," accompanied by Crosby. The show ends with a fade out from an extended jam by The Airplane with Stills sitting in on electric guitar.

Spanning The Globe . . .

. . . to bring you the constant variety of music, TNOP brings you the latest news.

We've been an occasional user of the music service Lala over the years as a convenient service to stream albums new and old. Apple bought out Lala last year for $89 million. Now, Apple will shut down Lala on 31 May. Go figure. Pop & Hiss discusses.

Veteran rock crit David Fricke makes the case for reissue of The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Axis: Bold As Love. Better than Are You Experienced? and Electric Ladyland. Um, well . . .

Rick Mason of the City Pages interviews legendary keyboardist Al Kooper about his extraordinary career. And according to Kooper, The Mighty Max Weinberg won't be joining Conan O'Brien on TBS.

Greil Marcus' new book is When That Rough God Goes Riding: Listening to Van Morrison. He talks about that and much, much more in a frank, fascinating, extended talk with PopMatters.

Yeasayer brought their tour to Metro in Chicago the other night. Greg Kot was there.

The anticipation is high for the 14 May release from The National, High Violet. Nicholas Dawidoff writes an in depth profile of the band and the painstaking process of the making of the record for the New York Times Magazine.

Colin Meloy of The Decemberists tried out a couple of new tunes at PDX Pop Now! in Portland. Stereogum has the video.

It appears Neil Young is holed up in the studio with uber-producer Daniel Lanois making a new album. At least according to David Crosby. We believe him. But if this was twenty years ago . . .

The Belfast Telegraph reports Paul Hewson met with President Obama at the White House Friday to discuss development in Africa.

Josh Ritter's busy. A new album, a novel and an extensive tour of Ireland. The Irish Times fills us in.

Patron Saint vs. Poet Laureate? TNOP has no comment. But this column by Tony Norman in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is well-researched and very thoughtful about the recent comments attributed to Joni Mitchell about Bob Dylan.

Nialler9 gets Jim Carroll to sit down and write about his Top 5 Irish Acts right now. We dig Villagers too. And Celtic Ray suggests you check out The Cast of Cheers and download their album Chariot for free.

The Queen of Soul abruptly cancelled her scheduled appearance for Friday night at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. While that seems to be the way of the world (Aretha stood the festival up last year as well), the mighty, mighty Earth, Wind & Fire was nearby and stepped in to pinch hit. NOLA.com gives them some deserved love. And so does TNOP, as we bid you adieu from the news desk good ladies and gentlemen . . .

Ultimate Singles Jukebox [Slot 105]

You Get What You Give
b/w "To Think I Thought"
New Radicals
MCA Records
Released 10 November 1998
Produced by Gregg Alexander
Written by Gregg Alexander & Rick Nowels

In the annals of rock history, there have been plenty of memorable "one hit wonders." And although the term must gall many musicians - particularly those who have made the profession their life's work - if you were in that position wouldn't it be great if your particular song had been praised by artists as noted and varied as The Edge, Ice-T and Joni Mitchell?

In 1997, Michigan native Gregg Alexander (nee Gregory Aiuto) had two ignored solo records in the rear view mirror and was busking in Central Park in New York City. But somehow he configured New Radicals, meant to be a revolving door band with no permanent members save for long-time collaborator (and former child TV star) Danielle Brisebois, and landed a one album deal with MCA Records. Using the $600,000 advance, the band cut the long player Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too, which went on to sell over a million copies.

The trigger for that avalanche of sales was the lead single, "You Get What You Give." It is a rousing youth anthem questioning authority and calling out celebrity excess (the lyrics name Beck, Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson). While the song did create controversy in that regard, the reason for its success was clearly its irresistible rhythm. Anchored by a distorted piano, driving electric guitar and steady drum beat, Alexander screams the classic "1, 2, 3, 4" downbeat and delivers a passionate, call-to-arms vocal, reassuring the listener that even When the night is falling/And you cannot find the light/If you feel your dream is dying/Hold tight/You've got the music in you.

Over ten years later, when "You Get What You Give" comes on the radio, the listener is still moved to turn the volume up to the higher ranges, because as long as there's one dance left, the world is going to pull through. Indeed, U2's The Edge, when asked in 2006 to identify which song he was most jealous of, indicated "Oh. Easy. . . I would love to have written that. Great Music, great energy." And no less the poet laureate of TNOP, Miss Joni Mitchell, selected the song to her eclectic list in the Artist's Choice CD series, citing "You Get What You Give" as "rising from the swamp of 'McMusic' like a flower of hope."

The band configured by Gregg Alexander were scheduled to begin a world tour in May 1999, but instead New Radicals were disbanded without much explanation. Alexander would resurface on the music scene in 2003, authoring "The Game of Love," a Grammy award winning song recorded by Santana and Michelle Branch.

====================================

The original video of New Radicals' "You Get What You Give" can be viewed here.