# Why was Sha Na na at Woodstock? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 11, 2006, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093 "2006-07-11T22:42:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2006, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093/1 "2006-07-11T22:42:18Z")
Can anyone give me a reason? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2006, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093/2 "2006-07-11T22:56:41Z")
Well, _someone_ had to tidy the pace up after. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2006, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093/3 "2006-07-11T23:05:20Z")
They had a good agent. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2006, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093/4 "2006-07-11T23:09:20Z")
Well [duh](http://www.deadmilkmen.com/lyrics/in_praise_of_sha_na_na.html): 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 ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2006, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093/5 "2006-07-11T23:24:49Z")
Bowser was bigger than Elvis. Well, taller maybe. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2006, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093/6 "2006-07-11T23:52:01Z")
> [@newcrasher](#): > > Can anyone give me a reason? 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? ---
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093/7 "2006-07-12T00:17:12Z")
> [@Gary T](#): > > 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! ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093/8 "2006-07-12T01:10:22Z")
Moved from IMHO to CS. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093/9 "2006-07-12T01:16:15Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093/10 "2006-07-12T01:44:48Z")
According to [this guy,](http://home.columbus.rr.com/woodstock1969/) 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. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093/11 "2006-07-12T01:50:06Z")
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- ---
**Author:** ![bloo-bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c77e96/32.png) [@bloo-bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bloo-bird)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093/12 "2006-07-12T02:53:44Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Bowser was bigger than Elvis. Well, taller maybe. no, bigger. heh heh ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093/13 "2006-07-12T04:20:45Z")
My guess is they were booked to provide campy comic relief. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093/14 "2006-07-12T05:56:41Z")
They were also New York-based, having formed as students at Columbia University. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093/15 "2006-07-12T06:12:48Z")
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]” ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093/16 "2006-07-12T07:41:53Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > 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- 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. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093/17 "2006-07-12T07:46:34Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093/18 "2006-07-12T11:22:40Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093/19 "2006-07-12T11:52:14Z")
[Here](http://www.columbia.edu/cu/kingsmen/smen/archives/shananaarticle.html) is a nice piece about Sha Na Na and Woodstock. > [@](#): > > The Grease Festival turned out to be the first taste of Woodstock, three months later. Five thousand spaced-out, peaceful freaks from Harvard to Virginia made a bobbing sea of heads beneath the Kingsmen, who preformed on the steps next to Alma Mater. It was a grand ending for the Class of '69, soon to be called The Woodstock Generation. > > Our first agent wanted to call us “The Put-Ons” so George changed our name to Sha Na Na–just for the weekend, he promised, he’d think of something better next week. We hit so fast he became scared to. Within two months we were the hottest rock act in New York, held over week after week at Steve Paul’s Scene, where the stars themselves partied. One night Janis Joplin ran backstage to kiss us, reeking of Southern Comfort; another night Rob was being helped off the Scene’s floor after collapsing in the finale of “Teen Angel,” and Bruce Clarke, Ellie Cahn, and Henry Gross were blasting into “Wipe Out,” when Rob looked up and saw Jimi Hendrix not ten feet away, jumping up and down on a chair clapping and waving his arms, looking like he was going to take off and fly. Later he told us we were “Right ON!” > > Some of us figured Jimi got us invited to Woodstock, and as it turned out, we played right before him, when he closed the show with his immortal acid-rock “Star Spangled Banner.” ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093/20 "2006-07-12T12:20:57Z")
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. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-sha-na-na-at-woodstock/364093.md?page=2)