Rotary Connection was an American psychedelic soul band, formed in Chicago in 1966.
18-413: In addition to their own recordings, including their 1967 debut album Rotary Connection , the band backed Muddy Waters on his 1968 psychedelic blues album Electric Mud . The band's members included Minnie Riperton , who would later emerge as a solo artist. The highly experimental band was the idea of Marshall Chess , son of Chess Records founder Leonard Chess . Marshall was the director behind
36-673: A songwriter within the Chess organization, also joined, as did Judy Hauff and a Chess receptionist named Minnie Riperton , who would later be successful in her own solo career. Marshall also called up prominent session musicians associated with the Chess label, including guitarist Phil Upchurch and drummer Morris Jennings . Chess described the band's members as "the hottest, most avant garde rock guys in Chicago ". The band released their self-titled debut album in late 1967. It had various styles, borrowing heavily from pop, rock, and soul, but
54-566: A start-up label, Cadet Concept Records, and wanted to focus on music outside of the blues and rock genres, which had made the Chess label popular. This led Marshall to turn his attention to the burgeoning psychedelic movement. He recruited Charles Stepney , a vibraphonist and classically trained arranger and producer . Marshall then recruited members of a little-known white rock band, the Proper Strangers: Bobby Simms, Mitch Aliotta , and Ken Venegas. Sidney Barnes,
72-547: The James Cotton (Blues Band), Delaney and Bonnie and Friends , Grand Funk Railroad , The Incredible String Band , Janis Joplin , B.B. King , Freddie King , Led Zeppelin , Herbie Mann , Nazz , Rotary Connection , Sam and Dave , Santana , John Sebastian , Shiva's Headband , Sly and the Family Stone , Space Opera , Spirit , Sweetwater , Ten Years After , Tony Joe White and Johnny Winter . North of
90-509: The afternoon heat till the 4:00 p.m. opening band. BB King played all three nights and told the same jokes and stories, perhaps thinking he had a different 150,000 person crowd for each show. On January 29, 2010, the Texas Historical Commission approved the placement of a state historical marker near Hebron Station , a Denton County Transportation Authority train station in eastern Lewisville , close to
108-682: The album's cover art, a drunken executive at Montgomery Ward cancelled all shipments of the album. On August 30, 1969, the band played at the Texas International Pop Festival followed by the Palm Beach Pop Festival on November 29. Rotary Connection released three more albums: Songs , in 1969, a collection of drastic reworkings of other artists' songs, including Otis Redding 's " Respect " and The Band 's " The Weight "; Dinner Music in 1970, in which they added elements of folk and country into
126-637: The career of bluesmen Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf , by recording two albums of experimental, psychedelic blues with members of Rotary Connection as the backing band for the singers, producing the albums Electric Mud (1968) and The Howlin' Wolf Album (1969). Chess hoped the new albums would sell well among fans of psychedelic rock bands influenced by Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. In place of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf's regular musicians were Gene Barge, Pete Cosey , Roland Faulkner, Morris Jennings , Louis Satterfield , Charles Stepney and Phil Upchurch . Cosey, Upchurch and Jennings joked about calling
144-436: The debut. The latter was a Christmas release, with strong messages of love and understanding for a nation in the grips of Vietnam . The album's cover art featured a hippie Santa Claus . Peace was notable for being involved in controversy: an anti-war cartoon , in a December 1968 edition of Billboard magazine, featured a graphic image of a bruised and bloodied Santa on a Vietnam battlefield. Mistaking this cartoon for
162-469: The festival site was the campground on Lewisville Lake , where hippie attendees skinny-dipped and bathed. Also on the campground was the free stage, where some bands played after their main stage gig and several bands not playing on the main stage performed. It was on this stage that Hugh Romney, head of the Hog Farm commune of Woodstock fame, was given his sobriquet, Wavy Gravy , by King. (At , he
180-540: The former site of the festival stage. A benefit concert was held in Lake Dallas, Texas , on January 31, 2010, to raise the $ 1,500 required to pay for this marker. The marker was placed at the site with a formal dedication ceremony held at the nearby train station on October 1, 2011. A current overlay map shows the main concert stage area now covered by the Hebron-121 Station town home development, and
198-738: The founder of the Six Flags Over Texas Amusement Park. Wynne was a concert promoter who had attended the Atlanta International Pop Festival on the July Fourth weekend. He decided to put a festival on near Dallas, and joined with the Atlanta festival's main organizer, Alex Cooley , forming the company Interpop Superfest. Artists performing at the festival were: Canned Heat , Chicago (then called Chicago Transit Authority),
SECTION 10
#1732776436445216-429: The group "The Electric Niggers". Marshall Chess liked the suggestion, but Leonard Chess refused to allow the name. Ultimately, blues purists criticized the psychedelic sound of Electric Mud and The Howlin' Wolf Album . In 1968, Rotary Connection released their second and third albums, Aladdin and Peace . Aladdin found Riperton assuming a more prominent vocal role than the "background instrument" status she had on
234-608: The legacy of Electric Mud (1968). Main albums As backing band Compilations Rotary Connection (album) Rotary Connection is the debut album of the American psychedelic soul band Rotary Connection . It was released in 1968 on Cadet Concept Records . The album rose to No. 37 on the Billboard 200 chart. Rotary Connection Additional musicians Technical personnel Texas International Pop Festival The Texas International Pop Festival
252-750: The mix along with some electronic experimentation; and Hey, Love in 1971, a more jazz-oriented LP on which the band was billed as the New Rotary Connection. From this album came "I Am the Black Gold of the Sun". The outfit disbanded in 1974. As part of the documentary film series The Blues (2003), produced by Martin Scorsese , members of the Rotary Connection recorded with rapper Chuck D and members of The Roots , to reflect
270-525: Was .) The Merry Pranksters , Ken Kesey 's group, were in charge of the free stage and camping area. While Kesey was neither at the Texas event nor at Woodstock, his right-hand man, Ken Babbs , and his psychedelic bus Further were. The Hog Farm peacefully provided security, a "trip tent," and free food. Attendance at the festival remains unknown, but is estimated between 120,000 and 150,000. As with Woodstock, there were no violent crimes reported. There
288-520: Was a music festival held at Lewisville, Texas , on Labor Day weekend, August 30 to September 1, 1969. It occurred two weeks after Woodstock . The site for the event was an open field just south and west of the newly opened Dallas International Motor Speedway , located on the east side of Interstate Highway 35E , across from the Round Grove Road intersection. The festival was the brainchild of Angus G. Wynne III, son of Angus G. Wynne ,
306-511: Was not radio friendly. The album also boasted an Eastern influence through its use of the sitar on the tracks "Turn Me On" and "Memory Band". Stepney's arrangements, brought to life by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra , imbued the album with a certain dreamlike quality; this would become a trademark of both the arranger and the mouthpiece. As a result of the success of The Rotary Connection , Chess felt that he could revive
324-446: Was one death, due to heatstroke , and one birth. High-quality soundboard bootleg recordings of almost the entire festival are circulated on the internet. Led Zeppelin's set is one of the most popular Led Zeppelin bootlegs due to the high technical and musical quality of the performance. The Festival began at 4:00 p.m. each day. Grand Funk Railroad (announced as "Grand Funk Railway") opened all three days and played through
#444555