The Atlanta Pop Festival ~ Photo Memories
On July 4th & 5th in the year of 1969, somewhere around 200,000 young people flocked into the Atlanta Speedway to attend a Fourth of July holiday weekend of live music and festive activities. Attending the Atlanta Pop Festival was both work and play for me as I was a budding young record promoter who was still wet behind the ears. Armed with a coveted stage pass and new Minolta 35mm camera, I set out to document the event for my future archives. In this series, I have chosen only a few selected color shots. Don't claim to be the best photographer, or best record promoter, just claim to be lucky enough to have been there with a camera and live to tell about it. Hope you enjoy my trip. Please leave you thoughts in the comments section.All photographs copyrighted (c) by Phillip Rauls. All rights reserved. Duplication prohibited.
+prauls.jpg)
After walking for miles from our parking space located somewhere in the middle of a cow pasture, we entered from the rear entrance and the stage appeared very small and far away. I must have got whip-lash looking at all the chicks. Wow!
Imagine trying to hook-up with friends who said they'd meet us there. There was a sea of people on blankets with coolers and cameras. Had to be careful where you stepped. Note the individual left-center looking through his camera while taking a photograph of me. I'm sure that he was an IRS agent following me or perhaps an undercover narc.
We finally worked our way close to the stage. Damn, it was hot that day, about 92 degrees.
Band members from the group Sweetwater didn't know what to think when this guy called "Starman" jumped-up on stage and began waving around this giant star that was mounted on a stick. Very trippy stuff.
I worked my way to the photographers row and got some colorful shots. The entire first day I shot nothing but Kodacolor II 400 speed film. Why I don't know. What do you think of the contrast? +prauls.jpg)
You might recognize this band. And the vocalist also. Sometime in the late afternoon, Led Zeppelin hit the stage. It was about that time that I died and went to Heaven. I had previously worked with the band and they must have recognized me at stage front because on occasions Robert Plant and Jimmy Page starred directly into my camera. Later in the set, I shot several photos of the band from the stage. I'm saving those pictures for a book of my shots and stories.+prauls.jpg)
Led Zeppelin's dynamics of improvised unison set the Rock landscape for years to come.
I could have swore that Page starred directly into my camera lens on several occasions.
John "Bonzo" Bonham pounds his snare and high hat with brute force. Notice his use of a 6.5x14" snare, a 14x26" bass drum and a 14x14" tom. Not your standard kit.
The horn section from The Paul Butterfield Blues Band blanketed the festival with the sound of brass.
Delaney & Bonnie were a crowd favorite as they performed their Blue-Eyed Soul Music.
In 1969, smoking pot in broad daylight was still taboo. These hippies were smoking undercover while thinking nobody would notice their activity.
Festival attendants "Snuffy" Walden the guitarist from The Silver Spoon rock band and his sidekick Dennis Collins from KLOL-FM in Houston were in fine form that day.
(L-R) Dennis Collins-DJ-KLOL-FM Houston, Phillip Rauls-Atlantic Records Promo, Terry Fletcher-Electra Records Promo, Scott Shannon-DJ-WMPS and unidentified female.
+prauls.jpg)
(L-R Clockwise) Phyllis Young, Scott Shannon-DJ-WMPS Memphis, Terry Fletcher-Electra Records, unidentified female, Ken Woodley-songwriter, Larry Raspberry-recording artist and Phillip Rauls-Atlantic Records.All photographs copyrighted (c) Phillip Rauls. All Rights Reserved. Duplication prohibited.
Atlanta Pop poster from: Atlanta Pop Festival Posters LLC
posted by phillip rauls at 7:09 PM
30 Comments:
A buddy of mine just sold a program from the Atlanta Pop Festival: http://cgi.ebay.com/Led-Zeppelin-Atlanta-Pop-Festival-1969-program-rare_W0QQitemZ290160026391QQcmdZViewItemQQssPageNameZRSS:B:SRCH:US:101
It's interesting that pot smoking in broad daylight was not acceptable. The program actually included this info about drug use: "Atlanta is a generally cool town, with relatively few dope busts. Almost all psychedelics are available with the exception of grass. Prices on lids range from $15 to $20, tabs of acid from $4 to $6, hash at $10 a gram. We have music and be-in's in the park every weekend."
Phillip - Excellent piece on The Atlanta Pop Festival ~ Memories ~ Photos ~ DW
Phillip, you really caught the gist of the event. Thanks for sharing these photos. m-em-o-r-i-e-s...
ICan I link these from the Pop Festival part of The Strip Project?
Great COLOR!!! photos from the festival. I look forward to that book.
Carter
I enjoy your postings. The most recent one brought back lots of memories. Atlanta Pop Festival, wow, that was a great one! The next year was more about drugs than music, and a great disappointment..
Keep up the good work
Sheila & Ray
Hello, Phillip,
I have just discovered your photo blog/site and really enjoyed your photos of the first Atlanta Pop Festival. I worked for the promoters for both of the Atlanta festivals, including as a member of the stage crew at the '70 festival. At the '69 festival I managed to be onstage during the sets of Spirit and Led Zeppelin, though I did not have stage crew duties. To this day I've never seen any decent photos of either of those two acts at the festival - until your Zeppelin shots.
Bill M. Atlanta, GA.
Thanks for sharing your photos and comments. I assume that you did not see Joplin standing on the side of the stage while Zeppelin was performing. I always thought that would have been a picture for the ages. The '70 festival was entirely different. We all aged a lot in the one year. Carlton
Great Photos..the only ones i've seen of the '69 festival. What a show ! Charlie Williams,Gulfport,Fla.
Thanks for lending images to my fuzzy memories of the Pop Festival. Just a clarification, the band you identify as PG&E is actually Stillwater - you can tell by them having a flute player and a "chick singer" Also the guy is wearing the same hat he wore on the cover of their album. And an interesting note, the horn player in the orange shirt in Butterfield's band is David Sanborn.
Rex Patton
I meant Sweetwater.
Rex Patton
Thanks for posting. Great colors shots and crowd vibes. Can't wait to read and see more of your work.
~Susan Street Cook from Tennessee
If any one has any information on the movie that was being filmed during the concert please leave a message. Hendrix was great at midnight (Star Spangled Banner) on pharmy THC We were in the Navy then also.
the first festival was much better than the 2nd, although the music was incredible, going late into the night. i can still remember listening to johnnie rivers laying in my sleeping bag around 2 am. skinnydipping in the pond with hundreds of people. i remember the night after the festival was over, joe cocker, janis joplin, and sweetwater (which i believe was a local atlanta band)gave a free concert at piedmont park. at the end they jammed together. i was 17 and drove up to atl with a friend. i now reside in atlanta. it was and remains an incredible event of my life. thanks for the memories.
Finally...1969. I was a lucky 16 year old who begged his mom until she gave in. The Zepp pic's are outstanding. Remember the poor guy who climbed on stage, fell in J.B.'s drums and the roadies threw him off like a sack of potatoes. I remember Johnny Winter, CTA, Spirit, Grand Funk and Janis all blowing the crowd away. Have you all grown tired explaining to everyone that Woodstock was not a singular event that summer? Great site...I would love to see more photo's
I just wanted to thank you for posting this. I had a hard time finding anything about this festival. My brother worked the stage and three of my friends and I were fortunate enough to have backstage passes.
I was a teen, and the event "blew my mind" and changed me forever.
Once again, thanks, and much peace and love to you.
I was there for the whole Atlanta Pop Festival.
Sneaked backstage through a hole in chain link fence and met Janis Joplin in her small trailer. Her "Full Tilt" set that night was outstanding. She should have been the last act instead of Blood, Sweat & Tears.
Anyway, I was wondering if you got any photos when that dude frying on acid walked onstage naked during the Zeppelin set--twice? Got tossed the second time.
What a stoned out Independence holiday blast!
A group of us were stationed at Ft. Jackson, and made it around 2 am the 4th. One of our buddies had been a bar tender in Statesville, GA and was friends with dickey Betts, before he drafted. We found a a great deal $15.00 a lid plus they through in a tie-dye T-shirt. The sad highlight was knowing Hindrix performed the Star Spangle Banner for the last time.
Jim W
It's so weird to me that I haven't changed one bit since my Atlanta strip & festival days.I can't understand why I feel exactly the same way.I feel like I'm the same age when I hear the music or talk to people from those times going all the way back to the Allman Joys playing Gaslight Square Stl.The only thing different is I fall down more now but if nobody saw it it didn't happen.Great job! I'll be sending links around
40 Years and the memories are still great!
Phillip, did you see the news item about Kodak stopping production of Kodachrome film after 74 years? Only one lab (in Kansas) still processes it.
http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=2/6868&pq-locale=en_US&_requestid=1044
Thanks for the wonderful write up about the Atlanta Pop Festival, 1969. My mom and dad attended it on their honeymoon.
Have any pictures of Grand Funk Railroad? The 1969 Pop Festival was their debut....now, 40 years later, Mark Farner music is still alive (even if the band is gone in the way we are accustomed)
Happy 4th of July and"Forty Year's Funkin'"
A life changing event. First time I tried grass. Set my life on to a new path. Janis with a bottle of Southern Comfort in one hand and the mike in the other and Jimi doing the Star Spangled Banner were the highlights after dark. RIP. Great music all day long. And then many groups played for free on Sun. in Piedmont Park. That was awesome. Country Joe, Canned Heat, etc Don't remember them all but it was terrific.
Were both festivals held in Byron, ~90 miles south of Atlanta, at the small racetrack? I've talked to a few people who went to the one in Byron and I have a replica poster. One concert goer said there were "naked people everywhere" in the river nearby cleaning themselves. hah! I've been told it was better than Woodstock. I know that a few hippies opened a VW repair shop in Byron and they spelled VOLKSAWAGON (incorrectly). You could still read it in the late 80's but it's since faded. Rumor was that the hippies had broken down.
What a great read! Two friends and I drove up from Fort Benning to attend the festival. We were all "short" and I was starting college in September after three (3) years in the Army.
We were the guests of a wonderful Atlanta family so we didn't have to camp out anywhere.
I do remember how kind everyone was. The three of us were obviously "GIs" (all Vietnam veterans) and had expected some unpleasantness but everyone was great! Of course, the fact that we had some preemo weed with us helped to break the ice! LOL!!!
It was a great couple of days with some great friends and some great music!
I was there too, and so appreciate these photos. Woodstock has gotten all the publicity, but now I understand thatit was the last and most famous venue of some kind of cosmic, mind-altering tour and clarion call for our generation. I remember farmers trucking in watermelon for us, the fire department hosing us down, removing my bra for the first time and cutting my shorts off at the crotch because of the heat. Everyone shared all the food and libations they'd brought, and it bonded us all in a way we could not have anticipated. I fought my way through the throngs to the front so I could see Janis Joplin at 5 a.m. Her raw energy was so powerful, I thought then she'd not live long. I became a musician and activist afterwards and consider this weekend my awakening. Thanks.
Wow. Great shots. I commented on the black and white photos about Led Zeppelin and then here they were. I'd love to see more if anyone has them. Thanks for sharing.
Harvey
I was there also, not quite knowing what was up. I drove in from Kansas City with some hippies after living on the street in Kansas City. Our purpose was to set up a head shop in a tent, and almost fainted from the heat trying to set up the tent. Eventually in the heat at the far end of the race track far from anyone, I found a water faucet in the middle of the heat. People were fainting from the heat and heatstroke by the dozen--sun and no shelter endless hours on end. No water. The sun showed no mercy. Not knowing what was coming in Woodstock just a few weeks later, I remember looking out on the crowd and not being able to see the end of it at its peak. Someone said the estimate was 125,000 people. Everyone remembers being mesmerized by Janis Joplin, and bands that had hardly made their mark like Zeppelin,and total unknowns like Chicago, then Chicago Transit Authority, and Grand Funk Railroad in their first appearance (unfortunately they never got better). It was an exceptional moment in time, maybe magic, never to come again.
All the hoopla about "Taking Woodstock" has brought back memories of the first Atlanta Pop Festival and what a great gem I found with your photos. It's exactly how I remembered. It's fuzzy memories but I do remember CTA opened (I believe) with "Only the Beginning" and I was plugged in from then on. Only regret is that my stupid sister met someone who got her backstage and she had a conversation with Jimmy Page and had no idea who he was. She thought his accent was put on...oh, what a waste....if only it'd been me. They kept making announcements about a festival in Woodstock coming up and I was wishing I could go....who knew it would have such an impact. Boy, I miss those days. Peace, love and rock 'n roll
Anyone remember when Johnny Rivers hit the stage at night and the power went out? His drummer never missed a beat.
Post a Comment
<< Home