From Woodstock to Whelans...
Sitting pretty: Arlo Guthrie begins an extensive Irish tour tonight. Inset: the original cover of Alice?s Restaurant and the 1999 reissue
It's always the anniversary of something or other. As Oscar Wilde said: "Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event."
This year is no different. In 2009, Motown will be 50. The Stone Roses are rumoured to be reforming in the summer to mark the 20th anniversary of their classic debut album. Meanwhile, the ultimate party will be held in Berlin in November to celebrate two decades since the Wall came down.
In the run-up to August 15 this year, expect a lot of talk about the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, arguably the most famous and influential music festival of all time.
If it weren't for Woodstock, music festivals would not be such an omnipresent feature of popular culture.
Billed as an 'Aquarian exposition', Woodstock wrote the script that Glastonbury and many other festivals followed. The hubris that a festival can be much more than the sum of its acts and become an era-defining historic event is based almost entirely on Woodstock.
In fact, Woodstock is nearly as famous for who didn't play. Bob Dylan fell ill. Jim Morrison of the Doors hated playing outdoors. Led Zeppelin felt they had bigger fish to fry. Joni Mitchell's agent insisted that she honour a television appearance.
The Beatles weren't interested and when John Lennon offered his Plastic Ono Band instead, the organisers turned him down. Jethro Tull also refused to perform, as singer Ian Anderson didn't fancy spending the weekend "in a field of unwashed hippies".
However, the roll call of those present is still very impressive: The Who, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, the Band, the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Sly & the Family Stone, Janis Joplin and Joe Cocker were just a handful of the participants in a legendary line-up.
On the opening day, a singer called Arlo Guthrie played a short, four-song set between Melanie and Joan Baez, who was six months pregnant at the time. Unlike other artists on the Woodstock bill, Guthrie junior went on to further successes in both film and music.
The opening act that August day was Richie Havens. Havens played a Dublin show a few years ago, and while his biggest hit and Woodstock anthem Freedom sounded fantastic, the bulk of his set was rather dull, and members of the audience talked throughout the performance.
One got the impression that Havens was still dining out on opening Woodstock.
The same certainly cannot be said of Arlo Guthrie, who begins an eight-date Irish tour tonight.
Born in Coney Island, New York, in 1947, Arlo is the eldest son of folk legend Woody Guthrie, the man who inspired Bob Dylan to pick up the guitar and so many timeless songs. Guthrie's most famous song, Alice's Restaurant, is remarkable for being so well- known, even though its 18- minute, 20-second duration guaranteed that it never received any radio airplay. Arlo also starred in the Arthur Penn movie of the same name.
"The unique feature of playing Woodstock is that it was a historic moment and we fully realised this at the time rather than in hindsight," says Arlo. "It was largest crowd I've ever played for and I could tell that something very special was happening."
Amazingly, only one journalist attended Woodstock during the first 36 hours of the event. This seems astounding by modern standards, where virtually every festival has a press area complete with a lengthy media accreditation list. Despite the pitiful press attendance, controversy reigned as Barnard Collier of the New York Times was under pressure to report negatively on the event.
"Every major Times editor, up to and including executive editor James Reston, insisted that the tenor of the story must be a social catastrophe in the making," says Collier.
"After many acrimonious telephone exchanges, the editors agreed to publish the story as I saw it, and although the nuts-and-bolts matters of gridlock and minor lawbreaking were put close to the lead of the stories, the real flavour of the gathering was permitted to get across. After the first day's Times story appeared on page one, the event was widely recognised for the amazing and beautiful accident it was."
Before the Woodstock anniversary runs the risk of getting a little tiresome later this year, it's a considerable coup for a motley crew of independent Irish promoters to secure such a comprehensive Irish tour for Arlo when most artists still only play Dublin as a stop-off en route to the UK.
"I played in Ireland in 2006 with my grandson and we loved it," Guthrie reveals. "When we were planning this tour, I saw no reason in the world not to play more Irish dates."
Such an attitude is to be commended in an age when most artists will only do the Dublin-Cork-Belfast axis at an absolute push and anything over two dates is rare.
Indeed, as Guthrie gets older he seems to be speeding up, rather than slowing down.
"I appear to be going in the wrong direction," Arlo laughs. "But look at Pete Seeger. He's nearly 90. This makes me realise that for me, retirement is not an option. On the other hand, a bit more time off and a bit more fishing definitely will be on at some point. But there's no rush."
Arlo Guthrie plays Cyprus Avenue, Cork tonight; Whelan's, Dublin (Sunday); Roisin Dubh, Galway (Tuesday); Dolans, Limerick (Wednesday); Grants Hotel, Roscrea (Friday); Royal Theatre, Castlebar (Saturday, 24); McGrorys, Culdaff (Sunday, 25); The Menagerie, Belfast (Monday, 26)
