Isle of Wight Festival, Afton Down, Isle of Wight, Britain, 8-27-1970 to 8-30-1970 - 8-30-1970: Part 6: Leonard Cohen

This is the very last of the albums I've posting from the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, unless more music emerges with worthy sound quality. (And I know there's more out there, so please help if you can!) 

Many people got the impression that Jimi Hendrix was the last act of the festival. But there actually were three more big name acts who came after him: Joan Baez, Leonard Cohen, and Richie Havens. It was about 2 A.M. when Baez started her set, and about dawn when Havens finished his set. I don't know what the festival organizers were thinking putting on three mellow folk artists after the hard rocking Hendrix, but that's what they did.

Unfortunately, although I have a complete recording of Joan Baez's performance, it's the same problem with the recordings of John Sebastian and Donovan earlier in the festival: it sounds really bad. Once again, the problem of wind blowing on the microphone basically ruined this audience bootleg. Trust me, you don't want to hear any of these poor audience recordings, unless you're a glutton for punishment.

As it so happens, there's only one song sung by Joan Baez that's worth hearing, a cover of "Let It Be" by the Beatles. That's because that one song made it into the film documentary "Message to Love," so the sound quality is way better than the rest.

Richie Havens was the act to close the festival. Perhaps the organizers thought there would some symmetry to that, since Havens was the act to open the 1969 Woodstock Festival, and their hope was this would be seen as the British version of Woodstock. But in terms of music, I totally struck out with Havens. I couldn't even find poor recordings of a single song.

So that leaves just one act: Leonard Cohen. In contrast to the poor situation with Baez and Havens, Cohen's full set is presented here in excellent sound, due to the fact that it was officially released in 2008 as "Leonard Cohen: Live at the Isle of Wight 1970."

Here's what Murray Lerner, director of "Message to Love," had to say about Cohen's set: “[Cohen] said some very nice things about the radical movement of the time: 'We’re a small nation, but we're going to grow. We need our own land.' I remember he had a lot of beautiful women singing with him – I was jealous. He had that kind of attraction, I think – the suffering poet [laughs]."

This album is an hour and 23 minutes long.

So that's the end of the festival. All in all, I have to say that although the festival had some problems, in terms of music, the line-up was fantastic, and the recordings that have been made public contain a lot of great music. That's especially the case because so few festivals from this era were professionally recorded from start to finish like this one was. The only one that bests it, in my opinion, is Woodstock, because all of that has been released. 

Maybe someday there will be a complete release of this festival too, allowing us to hear the full sets from Kris Kristofferson, Mighty Baby, Supertramp, the Groundhogs, Gilberto Gil & Caetano Veloso, Fairfield Parlour (a.k.a. Kaleidoscope), Lighthouse, Family, Cactus, John Sebastian, Shawn Phillips, Tiny Tim, Melanie, Ralph McTell, Donovan, Joan Baez, and Richie Havens, and more. If that happens, I think it would be an even more impressive musical document than Woodstock, with even more big name classic artists.

Oh, as an aside, the Everly Brothers, Mungo Jerry,  Cat Mother, Spirit, and Redbone were on the bill for the concert, but none of them actually played. There were a lot of last minute arguments with the promoters about getting paid, since it was common for musical acts to get stiffed at big festivals like this at the time. Here's a concert poster showing the acts, including those who didn't show. You can tell from the font size which ones were considered the biggest attractions.

In case you want to know more about the festival, there's an entire website about it here, with lots of photos and personal accounts:

https://www.ukrockfestivals.com/iow1970menu.html

If you attended, I'd be curious to hear your impressions. Was it a disaster, or great, or somewhere in between? I gather the vast majority of people who went had a good time, so I'd consider that a successful festival.

091 Let It Be (Joan Baez)
092 talk (Leonard Cohen)
093 Bird on the Wire (Leonard Cohen)
094 talk (Leonard Cohen)
095 So Long, Marianne (Leonard Cohen)
096 talk (Leonard Cohen)
097 You Know Who I Am (Leonard Cohen)
098 talk (Leonard Cohen)
099 Lady Midnight (Leonard Cohen)
100 talk (Leonard Cohen)
101 One of Us Cannot Be Wrong (Leonard Cohen)
102 The Stranger Song (Leonard Cohen)
103 talk (Leonard Cohen)
104 Tonight Will Be Fine (Leonard Cohen)
105 talk (Leonard Cohen)
106 Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye (Leonard Cohen)
107 Diamonds in the Mine (Leonard Cohen)
108 Suzanne (Leonard Cohen)
109 talk (Leonard Cohen)
110 Sing Another Song, Boys (Leonard Cohen)
111 The Partisan [La Complainte du Partisan] (Leonard Cohen)
112 talk (Leonard Cohen)
113 Famous Blue Raincoat (Leonard Cohen)
114 talk (Leonard Cohen)
115 Seems So Long Ago, Nancy (Leonard Cohen)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15596831/IsleofWghtFestivlAftnDwnIsleofWghtBrtain__8-30-1970_Pt6LeonrdChen.zip.html

The cover photo is from this exact concert.