If any promoter ever gets the idea of forming a Sha-Na-Na tribute band, his new charges could only study the 1970 Woodstock documentary and not their performance at a second star-studded festival. That’s because there are only photographs (no video) of Sha-Na-Na and the other groups that performed at the Festival for Peace concerts in 1970. Yet, both of those shows deserve to be more than rock footnotes: before concerts raised millions to feed the world (The Concert for Bangladesh in 1971 or Live Aid in 1985) or help struggling farmers (Farm Aid), the Peace concerts wrote the playbook.
The first Peace concert, held in the winter of 1970, was imaginatively called Winter Festival for Peace; its bookend was the Summer Festival for Peace. Both were arguably the first concerts where every musician agreed to play for free, knowing that the proceeds were supporting anti-war politicians. Two of the Festivals’ producers were Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary, and Phil Friedman, who worked for presidential candidate Senator Eugene McCarthy. The third producer was the no-nonsense, middle-aged Sid Bernstein, the promoter who’d booked the Beatles’ first concert in America. Sid explained why he signed on to help two idealistic young men promote peace:
“Peace was important to me because I’d seen the ugliness of war in Europe, having served in England, Germany, and Belgium. It was people killing people. That’s why I got involved in the peace movement.”
The Winter Festival, held at Madison Square Garden featured (among others) Blood, Sweat and Tears, Judy Collins, Harry Belafonte, Dave Brubeck, and Jimi Hendrix.
The Summer Festival’s line-up included Creedence Clearwater Revival, Miles Davis, the James Gang, Paul Simon, Steppenwolf, Janis Joplin, the Rascals, the Turtles, Dionne Warwick, Johnny Winter, Richie Havens, Herbie Hancock, James Gang, Al Kooper, Pacific Gas & Electric, Tom Paxton, Poco and John Sebastian.
While Woodstock’s audience had preached peace and love a year earlier, the audience of this Summer concert wasn’t there to light any candles in the rain. A WCBS 101.1 FM Rock Flashback segment reported:
“The Winter Festival crowd had been full of committed activists, but this one was made up mostly of people who wanted to smoke, drink, and listen to amplified rock music, not [Paul] Simon’s acoustic stuff. In the middle of his third number, after a few boos broke out, Simon left the stage and did not return. The venue [Shea Stadium] was in the flight path of Kennedy Airport, and airplane noise was frequent. The stage was out at second base, but the crowd was in the bleachers. And the Summer Festival for Peace was quickly forgotten.”
The producers would’ve made more money if they’d recorded a live album with Janis Joplin performing for the last time with Big Brother and Holding Company. On October 4th, 1970, just 59 days after Janis Joplin surprised that crowd by performing with her original band, she joined the infamous “27 Club,” with Jimi Hendrix, who had died two weeks earlier.
Indeed, in the last year of his life, Jimi knew little peace because of Michael Jeffrey, his shady manager. Jimi’s previous manager, Animals’ bassist Chas Chandler, once said of Jeffrey, “He was a crook. Mike was the most immoral, amoral person you could ever meet. He was totally charming, great fun, and he would steal from my grandmother. But you’ve got to give the devil his due. He was very clever in terms of how he managed to get away with it and for fooling so many of us for so long.”
The pressure of wanting to leave his manager resulted in Hendrix’s meltdown at the Winter Peace Festival (although there were rumors he’d been slipped some bad acid). After playing two songs with his new band, Band of Gypsies, Jimi dropped his guitar and sat on the stage as drummer Buddy Miles and bassist Billy Cox played on. Jimi announced to the audience: “That’s what happens when Earth f_ _ _ks with space. Never forget that, that’s what happens.” He then left the stage and went to his dressing room. Alan Douglas, who later produced a number of Jimi’s albums after the guitarist’s death, recalled, “I ran backstage to the dressing room to see if he was okay. There he was; playing the guitar and smiling. I think he just got fed up.”
Like Altamont, these two concerts had good intentions but were plagued with darkness. Still, the promoters tried hard to give peace a chance.
-Mark Daponte
Photo: Janis Joplin (public domain)
0 comments on “The Unknown Concerts: The Festivals for Peace”