Matthew’s Southern Comfort - Woodstock (October 1970)(Stereo Mixed)

Matthews Southern Comfort (MSC) was originally a British country rock/folk rock band, formed in 1970 by former Fairport Convention singer Ian (later Iain) Matthews. The original line-up consisted of Matthews, lead guitarist Mark Griffiths (who would later become the bass player with both The Shadows and The Everly Brothers), rhythm guitarist Carl Barnwell, bass player Pete Watkins, drummer Roger Swallow and pedal steel guitarist Gordon Huntley. Watkins and Swallow, however, left the band after just a few weeks and were replaced by bass player Andy Leigh and drummer Ray Duffy. The band was formed to allow Matthews to go on tour following the success of his first post-Fairport album released in early 1970, Matthews’ Southern Comfort. They recorded two more albums that year, Second Spring and Later That Same Year, before splitting up when Matthews abruptly quit during the height of their fame, shortly after their version of the Joni Mitchell song “Woodstock“ became a worldwide hit, reaching the top of the UK music charts in October 1970, their only No. 1 hit single. “Woodstock“ also charted in several European countries, as well as reaching No. 5 in Canada,[4] and No. 23 in the Billboard Top 100 in the United States. By the time of the recording of their third album Unhalfbricking in early 1969, Fairport, under Denny’s influence, had largely abandoned their original American singer-songwriter material and were moving towards what would become known as English folk rock. The genre was somewhat alien to Matthews’ tastes leading to a discontent within Fairport that saw him essentially fired from the band after a meeting with producer Joe Boyd in February 1969. Matthews nevertheless continued to live in the same shared house in Brent as his former Fairport band members Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol and was paid a £20 per week retainer until he found his new path. In Fairport he had not played any instruments save the odd conga drum or Jew’s harp; to counter this ’deficiency’ he set about learning to play the guitar, being taught by no less than Richard was still living with Thompson and Nicol at the time of the motorway crash in May 1969 that killed Fairport drummer Martin Lamble and Thompson’s then girlfriend, Jeannie Franklyn. During the summer of 1969, after discussions with DJ John Peel (who had always championed Fairport’s music),Matthews decided that the singer-songwriter path was the direction he wanted to head in musically, and he thus recorded his debut solo album Matthews’ Southern Comfort at De Lane Lea Studios in London in November 1969. The musicians who played on it with Matthews were all stalwarts of the British folk rock scene and included his ex-Fairport colleagues Ashley Hutchings, Simon Nicol and Richard Thompson, plus Gerry Conway, the drummer from the folk rock band Fotheringay in which Sandy Denny was now the vocalist. Thompson was the original producer of the album, though Matthews himself later took over that role. The album was released in January 1970 on the Uni record label (a subsidiary of MCA Records) under the title Matthews’ Southern Comfort. Matthews Southern Comfort (without the apostrophe) were not yet a band at that stage and Matthews was not yet ready to go solo so the title was an all embracing attempt to encompass an album title and the collective of musicians that made it. As Matthews told author Ian Clayton in one of the interviews for their co-written 2018 book Thro’ My Eyes: A Memoir, “it got me out of the dilemma of not wanting to go solo and it sounded like a band name“. The album took its name from a song that Matthews liked, “Southern Comfort“ by the Canadian folk duo Ian & Sylvia. Lyrics I came upon a child of God He was walking along the road When I asked him, where are you going? This he told me I’m going down to Yasgur’s farm Think I’ll join a rock and roll band I’ll camp out on the land I’ll try and set my soul free We are stardust, we are golden And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden Then can I walk beside you I have come here to lose the smog And I feel just like a cog In something turning Well, maybe it’s the time of year Or maybe it’s the time of man And I don’t know who I am But life’s for learning We are stardust, we are golden And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden By the time I got to Woodstock They were half a million strong Everywhere there were songs And celebration And I dreamed I saw the bombers Riding shotgun in the sky Turning into butterflies Above our nation We are stardust, we are golden And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden We are stardust, we are golden And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden We are stardust, we are golden And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden Source: Musixmatch Songwriters: Joni Mitchell