Isle of Wight Festival 1969
Encyclopedia
The 1969 Isle of Wight Festival
was held on August 30–31, 1969, at Wootton, and attracted an audience of approximately 150,000 to see the acts of Bob Dylan
, The Who
and Free
. It was the second of three music festivals held on the Isle of Wight
between 1968 and 1970. Organised by Fiery Creations, aka brothers Ronnie and Ray Foulk, it became a legendary event largely owing to the reappearance of Bob Dylan. The event was well managed and trouble free.
The festival was so much larger and more popular than the year before due to Dylan's performance. He hadn't played publicly for 3 years following a near fatal motorcycle accident, July 1966. Shunning the Woodstock festival held practically on his doorstep, Bob Dylan was initially reluctant to perform his comeback show on this little known island. After weeks of negotiations the promoters showed him a short video of the Island's cultural and literary heritage. This appealed to Dylan's artistic sensibilities as he was enthusiastic about performing in Tennyson country. Prior to the festival Bob Dylan
and The Band
rehearsed at Forelands Farm in Bembridge
, and were joined by The Beatles
minus Paul McCartney
. Among the 150,000 audience members were John Lennon
, Yoko Ono
, Ringo Starr
, George Harrison
, Rolling Stones Keith Richards
and Bill Wyman
, Syd Barrett
, Eric Clapton
, Elton John
and Jane Fonda
.
arrived on stage in a cream suit recalling Hank Williams, with a haircut and a short beard, performing his recent pieces from Nashville Skyline
and John Wesley Harding
: much to the surprise and confusion/consternation of the audience. During the press conference prior to his performance, Dylan remarked that he came to the Isle of Wight to see the birthplace of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, because he was "just curious." John Lennon
opined that his performance was reasonable, though slightly flat; and still the audience was waiting for Godot or Jesus. Eric Clapton
, however, was mesmerized, clearly - as he has stated, being inspired back to the blues and country by Bob Dylan
and The Band
's album Music From Big Pink
- saying "Dylan was fantastic. He changed everything. ... [The audience] couldn't understand it. You had to be a musician to understand it." Levon Helm
commented on their latency on the bill: "Bob had an extra list of songs with about eight or ten different titles ... that we would've gone ahead and done had it seemed like the right thing to do. But it seemed like everyone was a bit tired ... the festival was three days old by then." Tom Paxton
mentions the "negative reaction in the British press, including downright fabrications: like saying he had run off stage half-way through. ... I went with him and The Beatles
to the farmhouse where he was clearly in a merry mood because he had felt it had gone so well. ... The Beatles
had brought a test pressing of Abbey Road and we listened to it and had quite a party."
Dylan' setlist was as follows:
as they had recently released that album and were touring in support of it. They had just returned from a tour of United States where they had performed at Woodstock
about two weeks earlier. Keith Moon
looked depressed. They opened with "Heaven And Hell," "I Can't Explain," "Fortune Teller," "Young Man Blues," and then performed the opera nearly in full, finishing up with "Summertime Blues," "My Generation" and "Shakin' All Over."
Isle of Wight Festival
The Isle of Wight Festival is a music festival which takes place every year on the Isle of Wight in England. It was originally held from 1968 to 1970. These original events were promoted and organised by the Foulk brothers under the banner of their company Fiery Creations Limited...
was held on August 30–31, 1969, at Wootton, and attracted an audience of approximately 150,000 to see the acts of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
and Free
Free (band)
Free were an English rock band, formed in London in 1968, best known for their 1970 signature song "All Right Now". They disbanded in 1973 and lead singer Paul Rodgers went on to become a frontman of the band Bad Company along with Simon Kirke on drums; lead guitarist Paul Kossoff died from a...
. It was the second of three music festivals held on the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
between 1968 and 1970. Organised by Fiery Creations, aka brothers Ronnie and Ray Foulk, it became a legendary event largely owing to the reappearance of Bob Dylan. The event was well managed and trouble free.
The festival was so much larger and more popular than the year before due to Dylan's performance. He hadn't played publicly for 3 years following a near fatal motorcycle accident, July 1966. Shunning the Woodstock festival held practically on his doorstep, Bob Dylan was initially reluctant to perform his comeback show on this little known island. After weeks of negotiations the promoters showed him a short video of the Island's cultural and literary heritage. This appealed to Dylan's artistic sensibilities as he was enthusiastic about performing in Tennyson country. Prior to the festival Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
and The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
rehearsed at Forelands Farm in Bembridge
Bembridge
Bembridge is an affluent village and civil parish located on the easternmost point of the Isle of Wight. It had a population of 3,848 according to the 2001 census of the United Kingdom, leading to claims by residents that Bembridge is the largest village in England, and occasional claims that it is...
, and were joined by The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
minus Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
. Among the 150,000 audience members were John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
, Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
, Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
, George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
, Rolling Stones Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
and Bill Wyman
Bill Wyman
Bill Wyman is an English musician best known as the bass guitarist for the English rock and roll band the Rolling Stones from 1962 until 1992. Since 1997, he has recorded and toured with his own band, Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings...
, Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett , born Roger Keith Barrett, was an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and painter, best remembered as a founding member of the band Pink Floyd. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter during the band's psychedelic years, providing major musical and stylistic...
, Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
, Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
and Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
.
Bob Dylan's performance
On 31 August a nervous Bob DylanBob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
arrived on stage in a cream suit recalling Hank Williams, with a haircut and a short beard, performing his recent pieces from Nashville Skyline
Nashville Skyline
Nashville Skyline is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's ninth studio album, released by Columbia Records in April 1969.The album marked a dramatic departure for Dylan, previously known for his groundbreaking, poetic folk music and rock and roll...
and John Wesley Harding
John Wesley Harding (album)
John Wesley Harding is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's eighth studio album, released by Columbia Records in December 1967.Produced by Bob Johnston, the album marked Dylan's return to acoustic music and traditional roots, after three albums of electric rock music...
: much to the surprise and confusion/consternation of the audience. During the press conference prior to his performance, Dylan remarked that he came to the Isle of Wight to see the birthplace of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, because he was "just curious." John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
opined that his performance was reasonable, though slightly flat; and still the audience was waiting for Godot or Jesus. Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
, however, was mesmerized, clearly - as he has stated, being inspired back to the blues and country by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
and The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
's album Music From Big Pink
Music from Big Pink
Music from Big Pink is the 1968 debut album by rock band The Band. It features the well-known song, "The Weight". The music was composed partly in 'Big Pink', a house shared by Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Garth Hudson in West Saugerties, in upstate New York...
- saying "Dylan was fantastic. He changed everything. ... [The audience] couldn't understand it. You had to be a musician to understand it." Levon Helm
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....
commented on their latency on the bill: "Bob had an extra list of songs with about eight or ten different titles ... that we would've gone ahead and done had it seemed like the right thing to do. But it seemed like everyone was a bit tired ... the festival was three days old by then." Tom Paxton
Tom Paxton
Thomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...
mentions the "negative reaction in the British press, including downright fabrications: like saying he had run off stage half-way through. ... I went with him and The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
to the farmhouse where he was clearly in a merry mood because he had felt it had gone so well. ... The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
had brought a test pressing of Abbey Road and we listened to it and had quite a party."
Dylan' setlist was as follows:
- She Belongs to MeShe Belongs to Me"She Belongs to Me" is a song by Bob Dylan, and was first released as the second track on his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. It was one of the first anti-love songs and one of Dylan's first of many songs that describe a "witchy woman"...
* - I Threw It All AwayI Threw It All Away"I Threw It All Away" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. The track appeared on Dylan's album Nashville Skyline in 1969, and was released as its first single later that year, where it reached number 85 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number 30 on the UK Singles Chart...
- Maggie's FarmMaggie's Farm"Maggie's Farm" is a song written by Bob Dylan, recorded on January 15, 1965, and released on the album Bringing It All Back Home on March 22 of that year...
- Wild Mountain ThymeWild Mountain Thyme"Wild Mountain Thyme", also known as "Purple Heather" and "Will You Go Lassie, Go", is a folk song, rewritten by Francis McPeake, a native of Belfast, Northern Ireland...
- It Ain't Me BabeIt Ain't Me Babe"It Ain't Me Babe" is the title of a 1964 song by Bob Dylan, first included on his album Another Side of Bob Dylan. The song's opening line is allegedly influenced by musicologist/folk-singer John Jacob Niles' composition "Go 'Way From My Window." Niles is referred to by Dylan as an early...
- To RamonaTo Ramona"To Ramona" is a folk waltz written by Bob Dylan for his fourth studio album, Another Side of Bob Dylan. The song is one of the many on the album to highlight the more personal, and less political, side of Dylan's songwriting that would become evermore prominent in the future...
- Mr. Tambourine ManMr. Tambourine Man"Mr. Tambourine Man" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan, which was released on his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. The Byrds also recorded a version of the song that was released as their first single on Columbia Records, reaching number 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 chart and...
- I Dreamed I Saw St. AugustineI Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine"I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" is a song by Bob Dylan that was originally released on his 1967 album John Wesley Harding. It was recorded at the first John Wesley Harding session on October 17, 1967. It has been covered by many artists, including Joan Baez, Vic Chesnutt, John Doe, Thea Gilmore,...
- Lay Lady LayLay Lady Lay"Lay Lady Lay" is a song written by Bob Dylan and originally released in 1969 on his Nashville Skyline album. Like many of the tracks on the album, Dylan sings the song in a low croon, rather than in the high nasal singing style associated with his earlier recordings...
- Highway 61 RevisitedHighway 61 Revisited (song)"Highway 61 Revisited" is the title track of Bob Dylan's 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited. It was also released as the B-side to the single "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?" later the same year...
- One Too Many MorningsOne Too Many Mornings"One Too Many Mornings" is a song by Bob Dylan, released on his third studio album The Times They Are a-Changin in 1964. The chords and vocal melody are in some places very similar to the song "The Times They Are A-Changin'". "One Too Many Mornings" is in the key of C Major and is fingerpicked...
- I Pity the Poor Immigrant
- Like a Rolling StoneLike a Rolling Stone"Like a Rolling Stone" is a 1965 song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Its confrontational lyrics originate in an extended piece of verse Dylan wrote in June 1965, when he returned exhausted from a grueling tour of England...
* - I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
- The Mighty Quinn (Quinn The Eskimo)*
- Minstrel Boy*
- Rainy Day Women No. 12 & 35
- Live recordings of these performances were included on Dylan's 1970 album Self PortraitSelf Portrait (Bob Dylan album)Self Portrait is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's tenth studio album, released by Columbia Records in June 1970.Self Portrait was Dylan's second double album, and features mostly cover versions of well-known pop and folk songs. Also included are a handful of instrumentals and original compositions...
.
The Who's performance
The Who presented their standard set at that time, which included the rock opera TommyTommy
Tommy is a given name that is usually the English diminutive of Thomas. The name also could refer to:- People with the given name Tommy :* Tommy Alcedo , Venezuelan road cyclist* Tommy G...
as they had recently released that album and were touring in support of it. They had just returned from a tour of United States where they had performed at Woodstock
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
about two weeks earlier. Keith Moon
Keith Moon
Keith John Moon was an English musician, best known for being the drummer of the English rock group The Who. He gained acclaim for his exuberant and innovative drumming style, and notoriety for his eccentric and often self-destructive behaviour, earning him the nickname "Moon the Loon". Moon...
looked depressed. They opened with "Heaven And Hell," "I Can't Explain," "Fortune Teller," "Young Man Blues," and then performed the opera nearly in full, finishing up with "Summertime Blues," "My Generation" and "Shakin' All Over."