Woodstock - How Much Were They Paid?

[Dave James]

With all the 50th anniversary talk, I thought folks might find it interesting what the performers at Woodstock were paid.  Here's a list.  If you want to convert these amounts into today's dollars, multiply them by a factor of 6.842 

01. Jimi Hendrix – $18,000
02. Blood, Sweat and Tears – $15,000
03. Joan Baez – $10,000
04. Creedence Clearwater Revival – $10,000
05. The Band – $7,500
06. Janis Joplin – $7,500
07. Jefferson Airplane – $7,500
08. Sly and the Family Stone – $7,000
09. Canned Heat – $6,500
10. The Who – $6,250
11. Richie Havens – $6,000
12. Arlo Guthrie – $5,000
13. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young – $5,000
14. Ravi Shankar – $4,500
15. Johnny Winter – $3,750
16. Ten Years After – $3,250
17. Country Joe and the Fish – $2,500
18. Grateful Dead – $2,500
19. The Incredible String Band – $2,250
20. Mountain – $2,000
21. Tim Hardin – $2,000
22. Joe Cocker – $1,375
23. Sweetwater – $1,250
24. John B. Sebastian – $1,000
25. Melanie – $750
26. Santana – $750
27. Sha Na Na – $700
28. Keef Hartley – $500
29. Quill – $375

[Milestones]

Jimi and BS&T made our rather well, didn't they?

 

 

[Brad]

I guess only a lawyer would care about this but I wonder if they shared the royalties from the film and record/cd packages. I presume the artists retained the rights to the songs they sang at Woodstock, but what about the CDs being put out by the individual artists. Do they have to give the promoters a cut.  Perhaps somebody knows. 

Edited August 11, 2019 by Brad

[felser]

The payout to Keef Hartley is shockingly low.  They had to come over from the UK, and there were quite a few band members in the group at that time, including the great Miller Anderson.

[Brad]

$375 is worth approximately $2,700 in today’s dollars, not a lot. 

[Milestones]

The issue of royalties from the film and records is interesting too.  I've never seen/heard Woodstock performances by BS&T or CCR.  Maybe that too was a money issue.

Actually, with all the talk of peace, love, etc--you'd think everyone would play for free.

 

 

[Brad]

This article about the Woodstock brand is rather interesting, even though it’s 10 years old. However, it doesn’t answer the royalty question. 

40 years later, Woodstock a thriving business

[felser]

4 hours ago, Milestones said:

The issue of royalties from the film and records is interesting too.  I've never seen/heard Woodstock performances by BS&T or CCR.  Maybe that too was a money issue.

Actually, with all the talk of peace, love, etc--you'd think everyone would play for free.

 

 

Some cuts by both have been out before.  Creedence had cuts on the 25th and 40th boxes.  BST had one cut on the 40th box.  Both, of course, are on the new sets, and the full CCR set has just been released on a standalone CD.  There were a lot of money issues around Woodstock, for sure.   May have been "peace and love" for some of the attendees, but it was a gig for the musicians and their management.  Some who did seem to lift their game are Havens, Sweetwater, Sommer, Johnny Winter, maybe TYA ( have not heard their whole set), but it seems like most of the musicians just did their set amidst the chaos, and a few (Hendrix, CSNY) were really quite subpar.

[Teasing the Korean]

Which was the band whose manager didn't allow them to be recorded or filmed - and as a result, they slipped into obscurity forever?

[AllenLowe]

problem is, we'll never know.....

[Teasing the Korean]

4 minutes ago, AllenLowe said:

problem is, we'll never know.....

No, there have been plenty of stories about this over the years.  

[kh1958]

7 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Which was the band whose manager didn't allow them to be recorded or filmed - and as a result, they slipped into obscurity forever?

Mountain, possibly. They are not in the movie or on the first two record sets. And I heard Leslie West say something like that in an interview.

[T.D.]

On 8/11/2019 at 10:31 PM, Milestones said:

Jimi and BS&T made our rather well, didn't they?

 

 

I recently saw a film on Hendrix (Electric Church) which stated that Jimi was rock's highest-paid concert act in 1970 (date of the festival filmed). I figure he was right up there in 1969.

Edited August 12, 2019 by T.D.

[Teasing the Korean]

8 hours ago, kh1958 said:

Mountain, possibly. They are not in the movie or on the first two record sets. And I heard Leslie West say something like that in an interview.

Thanks, but the act I'm referring to is an obscure group that basically went nowhere.  Their manager thought he was doing them a favor by not letting them get exploited, but it had the opposite effect. 

[felser]

17 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Which was the band whose manager didn't allow them to be recorded or filmed - and as a result, they slipped into obscurity forever?

Keef Hartley Band, but somehow there is now audio of their set.

16 hours ago, AllenLowe said:

problem is, we'll never know.....

LOL!

[B. Clugston]

16 hours ago, kh1958 said:

Mountain, possibly. They are not in the movie or on the first two record sets. And I heard Leslie West say something like that in an interview.

Mountain actually does have two tracks on the second Woodstock set.

[kh1958]

51 minutes ago, B. Clugston said:

Mountain actually does have two tracks on the second Woodstock set.

My bad memory. 1972 or 1973, approximately the last time I listened to the LP, sure is long ago..

[six string]

On 8/11/2019 at 11:56 AM, Teasing the Korean said:

Which was the band whose manager didn't allow them to be recorded or filmed - and as a result, they slipped into obscurity forever?

Memory could be faulty but I think it was the Incredible String Band.

[Dave James]

To put this in context, the Beach Boys earned $300 for their first paying gig in Long Beach, California in 1961.  

[JSngry]

Kind of afraid to ask this (because past the point of them(?) being the only name on that list I've never heard of, I really don't care), but who the hell is/was Quill?

[Rooster_Ties]

14 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Kind of afraid to ask this (because past the point of them(?) being the only name on that list I've never heard of, I really don't care), but who the hell is/was Quill?

Better (more detailed) Wikipedia entry than I was expecting.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quill_(band)

[JSngry]

Yeah, I saw that, but it tells me nothing other than words. I mean were they a really good band, like Madura, or just some, hey, we are here, let's be there, like sooooo many others?

Oh, ok.

Well, there they were, they were there.

[Rooster_Ties]

7 minutes ago, JSngry said:

I mean were they a really good band, like Madura...

Never even heard of Madura, that i can remember.

(But I've forgotten a shit-ton of stuff over the years too.)

[felser]

1 hour ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Never even heard of Madura, that i can remember.

(But I've forgotten a shit-ton of stuff over the years too.)

I haven't either.  Azteca was a really good and interesting band from the same period - I know them.  As for Madura, just looked them up.  Talented keyboard player Hawk Wolinski (later of Rufus - he wrote the spectacular "Ain't Nobody") was a member, and Chicago mainstay James William Guercio produced, so I'm interested to give a listen via the magic of youtube or whatever.

[JSngry]

I succumbed to peer pressure and went to a Chicago concert somewhere during my high school years and Madura opened (I think they were managed by the same guy, that Guercio dude). I was really NOT liking Chicago by then, but was pleasantly surprised with Madura. Never bought any records or anything, but the name stuck, and in the 45 or so years since, I've met, like, at most 3 people who have heard of them.

I mean, today, bfd, right? But compared to Quill??????