Woodstock Question

Off-topic
1

Dave has speculated that it was Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham. The new book, Woodstock : An Encyclopedia of the Music and Art Fair may be our best bet.

Dave, I’m going to see if I can locate a copy without putting out the $70. It’s not clear if the “encyclopedic entries” about the performers includes their back up players names.

2

that reminds me, i used to have a pretty kewl book about woodstock
i wonder whatever happened to it?
probably one of those permanent lends that happen to kewl books
i haven’t been able to find an online source that includes that kind of information

does anyone on this forum have access to this book or this kind of information?

3

I have/had a woodstock DVD though I think it’s gone the same way as GILD’s book. Why is it I always decide to lend people my favourite stuff when I’m drunk.

Gotta love Arlo Guthrie’s Woostock performance…What a chap.

4

5…

which reminds me (i keep getting reminded today, am i forgetfull?), i have to find a video version of Alice’s Restaurant Massacree

5

Re: Woodstock Question

I tried to google my way to an answer on this last night, and got everywhere and nowhere. I’ll try to refine my searching tonight. I’m having a hard time believing this info doesn’t exist.

Anybody have Joe’s home number? Maybe we can just ring him up.

6

3…

my original suspicion that it was bonham is based on the fact that i know he did play with him and had to choose between staying with cocker or going to what became zeppelin
and a rumour i heard somewhere that ropert plant and jimmy page sung backing vocals on ‘with a little help from my friends’
i’ve never found anything to corroborate that, but somewhere between the two, i became convinced that bonham drummed at woodstock

7

Could the drummer have been Tommy Reilly, Mike Kellie or Kenny Slade? That’s the best Google hit I could find.

8

I was actually at Woodstock itself, stuck in traffic a few miles from the festival back in 1969. It was totally by accident.

I was nine years old. My Dad had this side business on weekends and holidays where he ran a camp referral business, and that usually meant that he had to visit some camps in upstate New York to talk to the camp managers, or whatever. He usually brought me or one of my brothers along–I remember it was always fun.

Well, one time, we were driving and the highway got really crowded. Then the traffic ground to a standstill. Outside the window, it occurred to me that there were like hundreds of hippies wandering around (people just got out of their cars, and there was a spontainous party atmosphere) and half the vehicles were Ryder trucks. I remember people playing acoustic guitars.

My Dad got out of the car and wandered up the road a bit. When he returned, I asked him what was going on.

“It appears that we seem to have run smack into some kind of Rock Music festival” he answered, amused. “Something called Woodstock.”

I can’t remember how long we were stuck there, but it was for a really long time. I did hear music in the distance, but it could have easily been a radio.

I guess this does not exactly answer the question about Joe Coker’s drummer, but what the heck…

9

We should look at this from the Led Zeppelin side. The 1st Day of Woodstock was Aug 15, I think Joe Cocker sang on Aug 17th.

Aug. 15 San Antonio, Texas

Aug. 16 Convention Hall, Asbury Park, New Jersey

Aug. 17 Oakdale Musical Theatre, Wallingford, Connecticut

So I doubt it was Bonham. The maestro, Jimi Page, I can’t see singing backup.

As for who was the drummer at Woodstock? It’s still a mystery. I’ll keep looking now.

10

my math teacher went to woodstock, and she’s on the cover of a National Geographic or something that talked about it. Or she thinks she is… it’s just the back of her head in the crowd, but it’s her.

11

dogbowl, that is a very cool story.

The librarian at the Woodstock, NY public library says that it was Tommy Reilly. The encyclopedia I mentioned above apparently does not contain this information, but the librarian pieced together this conclusion from some local histories and the Internet. Unfortunately her process did not include any source that stated definitively that it was Reilly. She simply took the available information about Cocker’s band and the timeline of the members and concluded that it was Reilly. Shibumi’s logic seems to suggest at least that it was not Bonham.

I’m still going to dig on this, but it’s likely that it was Reilly. Kudos to UniBrier. :slight_smile:

12

while it’s rather clear that i was barking up the wrong tree by suggesting bonham played with him at woodstock, it’s at least nice to see that a connection between page and cocker did exist

esp since this must’ve been some time after Page’s session muso days?

13

According to the quote from UniBrier, Reilly left in 68 so it would more likely be Kenny Slade or Mike Kellie that played woodstock.

14

Any progress on this comrades?

15

I have not made any additional progress. shibumi’s observation seems to rule out Tommy Reilly, but nothing definitive is yet in the offing.

I did rent Woodstock this weekend. Cocker’s performance is absolutely one of the highlights. The camera is briefly on his drummer, but only from the side. I’ve tried googling various of the candidates for images but haven’t come up with anything that is definitive, either.

We keep plugging along.