by Robert Wilkinson
August 29 marks the 55th anniversary of the 1969 Isle of Wight Music Festival! This year we have clips from both the 1969 and 1970 festivals. The 1969 Festival was especially important since it happened just after Woodstock, and these two historic festivals marked the beginning of something huge.
The Isle of Wight had the best of the best of the day, including The Band, the Who, the Doors, Jethro Tull, and the Moody Blues. Due to the sheer number of acts, I can’t do an entire tribute of both festivals due to time limits. But I found a few great ones from both festivals!
First, a live video of The Band performing “The Weight”
Here’s a 38 minute audio of their set. The Band – Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1969
The headliner was Bob Dylan, backed by the Band. This year I found a score! Here’s a magical 13 minute clip of Elston Gunn performing “I Threw it all Away,” “Highway 61 Revisited,” “One Too Many Mornings,” “I Pity the Poor Immigrant”
Also from that performance, two classic video clips! First, a mashup of color home movies set to a couple of Zimmie’s tunes. “Maggie’s Farm” and more and “The Mighty Quinn”
This one surfaced this year. Here’s Lucky Wilbury’s performance of “Lay Lady Lay”
Our third tune from IOW 69 comes from the bootleg album GWW (Great White Wonder) “Wild Mountain Thyme”
Last year I had a clip of a strange interview and then movie footage of Zimmieset to an acoustic duet of “If Not For You” with George Harrison, but like so many other clips, it’s also disappeared.
I found it again! A very poor b/w video, but an hour and 10 of history in the making! The band was at its peak after Woodstock! For your enjoyment, The Who At the Isle of Wight 1969 Here’s the set list assembled in previous years on individual clips: (Pt 1 - “Heaven and Hell,” “I Can’t Explain,” “Fortune Teller”) (Pt 2 - “Young Man Blues,” “It’s A Boy,” “1921”) ( Pt 3 - “Amazing Journey/Sparks” “Eyesight To the Blind”)(Pt 4 - "Christmas," "The Acid Queen," "Pinball Wizard," "Do You Think It's Alright") (Pt 5 - "Fiddle About," "There's A Doctor," "Go To The Mirror," "Smash The Mirror," "I'm Free," "Tommy's Holiday Camp") (Pt 6 - "We're Not Gonna Take It," "See Me Feel Me / Listening To You”) (Pt 7 (“Shakin’ All Over”)
For our closer of the 1969 concert, here’s the legendary Gene Vincent at the festival doing “Long Tall Sally” and his original hit from the beginning of rock and roll, “Be Bop A Lula”
The Who also played at the 1970 IOW! Here’s a classic one hour and 26 video of their set without the Tommy footage. The Who At the Isle of Wight 1970 (“Heaven or Hell,” “I Can’t Explain,” “Young Man Blues,” “I Don’t Even Know Myself,” “Water,” “Shakin’ all Over,” “Spoonful,” “Twist and Shout,” “Summertime Blues,” “My Generation,” “Naked Eye,” “Magic Bus,” and then at 55 minutes, the “Overture” from Tommy followed by a bunch of the opera!
And now, a few from the 1970 Festival that didn’t play in 1969!
First, the Doors! This was their third to the last concert they ever played. Here’s a great set of videos of some of their biggest!
Here’s 12 minutes of “When the Music’s Over”
Here’s all 17 minutes of “The End”
This year I found the video of their entire 1 hour and 7 set! The Doors Live at the Isle of Wight 1970
I found part 1 again! For your enjoyment, the video of the Moody Blues performing at the Isle of Wight. The Moody Blues at the 1970 Isle of Wight – Part 1
Here’s part 2 and when it’s finished it will autoload all the other parts! The Moody Blues at the 1970 Isle of Wight – Part 2
A great live video of Leonard Cohen performing his signature hit! “Suzanne” which we'll follow with an audio-only clip of him performing “Bird on a Wire” which autoloads to audio clips of the rest of his set, so enjoy!
Continuing the folk set, here's a great video of Melanie performing "Look What They've Done to my Song." And in a nod to this incredible voice, here's a video of Melanie performing her greatest hit at the 2010 IOW Festival, "Lay Down (Candles In the Rain)"
Our penultimate offering is Kris Kristofferson’s performance of “Me and Bobby McGee.” He had Zal Yanovsky in his band at the time and the crowd was ugly at everyone, even including Jimi.
Last year I finished this folk section with a one hour and 16 video of Joni Mitchell’s entire set. While that clip is gone, I found a few individual songs!
”That Song About the MidwayOn to Jethro Tull! Here’s a great video of Jethro Tull doing “My Sunday Feeling”
“We Used To Know” and “For A Thousand Mothers"
“My God” and “Nothing Is Easy”
Before we leave Jethro Tull, I found two more videos of performances from the era. First, from the UK in 1969, “Sweet Dream” and “For A Thousand Mothers” and a full 1 hour 11 show from July 7, 1970! Jethro Tull Live at Tanglewood - 1970
I found this incredible 4 minute 30 video of Ten Years After at their peak, with Alvin Lee cranking up "I Can't Keep From Crying." This year their 5:33 version of Goin’ Home” surfaced as well.
I no longer have their IOW 19 minute audio-only version of “I Can’t Keep From Crying,” but to get a sense of just how great Ten Years After was, here’s a clip from Danish TV earlier in 1970 where they crank out a blistering version of "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl.”
Here’s a band called Taste that I’ve never heard of performing “What’s Going On” (NOT the Marvin Gaye tune!)
Here’s another band I’ve never heard of, called Gracious. They had a mellotron that kept going out of tune while they played this 17 minute prototypical electronica rock piece called “Super Nova”
Terry Reid performed “July” and “C’mon Mary”
We’ve all heard of Free! Here’s their big one, “All Right Now”
Here's a 35 minute video of their set! Free at the Isle of Wight - 1970
We’ll close with ELP! First, a great live 10 minute video of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer doing the Nice/Keith Emerson masterpiece, “Rondo”
Here’s the audio-only recording of their entire hour set! Emerson, Lake, and Palmer at the Isle of Wight - 1970 Last year I had an hour and 6 documentary titled Emerson Lake and Palmer at the 1970 Isle of Wight - the Birth of a Band but it’s not up this year.
For the finale, a slice of history! Said to be his last interview just 18 days before he died, it's 3 minutes and 19, and begins with Jimi being interviewed backstage as he walked toward the stage, and then the guitar magic begins with “Dolly Dagger”
This year I also found the videos of “Hey Joe,” the awesome “Machine Gun,” and my favorite tune, “All Along the Watchtower”
Here’s a 16 minute documentary about the 1970 Festival. The 1970 Isle of Wight Documentary
Next year I'll find more clips if they’re out there. It seems the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival has a lot of great performance videos by many more bands than the 1969 Festival. Until then, enjoy!
© Copyright 2024 Robert Wilkinson
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