A summer clip for a winter day:
One of the highlights of last summer's Woodstock anniversary for me was seeing Barbara Koppel's documentary, "Woodstock: Now and Then", full of old newsreels, concert footage, and now and thens of many of the performers and concert goers. One of the interviewees who particularly stood out was Santana drummer Michael Shrieve, who I remember from my teen years as being about the coolest guy around and whose cool I thought stood up pretty well 40 years on!
One of many great stories from the film was how Carlos Santana was so zonked out on mescalin he thought his guitar was a snake and most of his performance was trying to hold on to the writhing snake and keep it under some kind of control. Watch the Koppel documentary clip (above) first, then if you're still interested, you can see the whole 9 minute+ performance (below).
1 comment:
Synchronicity! For some reason I recently dug into the story of Michael Shrieve and his Woodstock performance.
At 19, he was the youngest performer at the festival, and yet many people I talk to remember his drum solo as a highlight of the film. (I've since heard that a member of Sha Na Na was actually younger.)
At his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Shrieve told the story of being 17 years old, still living with his parents, and being invited to join Santana. http://www.michaelshrieve.com/speeches.html
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