Can anyone give me a reason?
Well, someone had to tidy the pace up after.
They had a good agent.
Well duh:
Sha Na Na were the kings of Woodstock
You know it’s true deep in your heart
Greasy guys in gold lamae
If only Hendrix had been so smart
Pete Townshend wouldn’t be so deaf
If he had followed Sha Na Na’s advice
and played some fifties do-wop songs
That even your mom would think are nice
Bowser was bigger than Elvis. Well, taller maybe.
Are you saying you understand the reasons why every other act at Woodstock was there, and only Sha Na Na’s appearance baffles you? (If so) Why is that?
Gosh you are brilliant! You are correct! I understand the reason EVERY OTHER ACT was there. Sha Na Na is the last piece of the puzzle. I don’t know why it wasn’t clear to everyone else what I really meant? :smack:
Thanks for clearing that up!
Moved from IMHO to CS.
I don’t get why you have a problem with this either. I remember the bus ads for Woodstock, and I don’t recall them saying there would be no oldies bands. The rock’n’roll revival was just beginning, and wasn’t a cliche yet. And they hadn’t gotten their TV show yet either.
Who knows, maybe they had an empty slot?
According to this guy, the Jeff Beck Group and Iron Butterfly were originally booked, but the Beck Group broke up a couple of weeks earlier, and Iron Butterfly was stuck at the airport. Late additions to the concert included **Melanie, John Sebastian, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, **and Sha-Na-Na.
But even if they were a last minute filler, so what? Rock was hardly a single genre at that time, and Woodstock wasn’t limited to a single genre, either.
To those wondering why the OP would ask the question:
Woodstock is thought of as a “hippie concert.” Sha na na is not a band it is thought that hippies enjoy. Hence the suprise.
On a slightly OT note: I don’t think I believe you when you claim not to understand the OP. Why must people be difficult on these boards? Anyway…
-FrL-
no, bigger. heh heh
My guess is they were booked to provide campy comic relief.
They were also New York-based, having formed as students at Columbia University.
So there would be at least one band Grampa Simpson enjoyed listening to.
“Boo! Bring on Sha Na Na! [holds up “Bowzer for President” sign]”
It’s kind of hard to appreciate now, when a lot of the music out there sounds like music from 1990 and even before, and bands from that era and even farther back are still going strong, but in the late 1960s there wasn’t a lot of respect in the general public for “oldies”, which were mostly derided as “greasy teenager rock’n’roll.” Carl Perkins and Gene Vincent had about as much relevance to the average listener in 1969 as Glenn Miller or Rudy Vallee. Only the hip musicians themselves seemed to have any respect for the 1950s acts, since most of them had grown up listening to them and learning music from the older guys’ records.
I think nowadays there’s a lot more respect for older rock than there used to be, ad that’s one reason the style continues to survive at all. Rock’s gone on much longer than any other genre before it has.
As for Sha-Na-Na, they did get a decent hand when they finished their performance. True, it wasn’t as if the crowd was chanting "Sha na na! Sha na na! as they waited for them to appear onstage, but they weren’t booed or laughed off, either.
Don’t forget that if the average Woodstock attendee was in his or her early to mid twenties, the music Sha Na Na sang was the music they listened to as teenagers in the late 1950s.
I actually found them to be a refreshing surprise, and I was glad they were on the bill. I don’t know that I owould’ve chosen them, but I really appreciate the foresight of whoever did.
Sha Na Na were part of a music scene that encompassed everything from acid rock to folk. For example, here is a list of performers from a Canadian tour during which the performers lived together and traveled by train. Janis Joplin , The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin & The Full Tilt Boogie Band, The Band, Buddy Guy, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, The Flying Burrito Bros, Ian & Sylvia (Tyson) & The Great Speckled Bird (incl. , Jim Colegrove), Mashmakhan, Buddy Guy Blues Band, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Rick Danko, Ken Pearson, Richard Bell, John Till, Jerry Mercer, Kenny Gradney, Eric Andersen, David Dalton, James Cullingham, Rob Bowman, Ken Walker, Bonnie Bramlett, Ron McKernan, and (wait for it . . . ) Sha na Na.