Second Call:  All Classmate Musicians

Second Call: All Classmate Musicians

CALLING ALL CLASSMATE MUSICIANS: WE WANT TO HEAR YOU PERFORM!

As previously reported, we will have fun music at the reunion. By classmates. Yes, YOU!

We will have two “street pianos” in the tent at TD. Folks can just play a bit as they feel like it, while walking by, whether to entertain friends, jam or just communicate their thoughts.

Also, we are going to enjoy more music played by classmates after dinner on Saturday, including…

Re-releasing your music using new digital editing tools
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Re-releasing your music using new digital editing tools

Michael Folz and wife Maureen have been working and re-working some of their songs using some of the newer recording and engineering technology.  And it’s mind-blowing … well, more ear-blowing. Compare, for example “Right Through My Heart” from 2015 vs. the revision of the same song they created a couple months ago,  The 2015 version…

More original music from Michael and Maureen

More original music from Michael and Maureen

Is anyone else in the class composing and performing original music?   How about all the folks who serenaded us at the 50th — Classmates In Concert: Drost, Zamcheck, Bicknell?    How about all you veterans of those wonderful acapella singing groups we enjoyed in the ’60s?

Michael Folz (who’s recovering from kidney replacement surgery!) and his wife Maureen have mastered a new piece of recording equipment and have created three new songs.  Check ’em out!  And here’s a playlist of all three songs.

Eliot Norman, Chopin and The Joy of Music

Eliot Norman, Chopin and The Joy of Music

On May 16th, Classmate Eliot Norman shared his journey, moving from ‘one form of practice (law) to another (piano)‘ as his primary retirement activity. Organizing his remarks around Chopin’s astonishing Prelude No. 24, “Of Blood. Of Earthly Pleasure … of Death,” Eliot wove together Chopin’s personal journey and Eliot’s own. In truth, Eliot has played…

The Beatles: Get Back—an Experience or a Memory?

The Beatles: Get Back—an Experience or a Memory?

It’s the holidays and once again I’m arguing with classmates and friends about the latest Beatles’ release!  Plus ça change.  This time, it’s about Peter Jackson’s 8-hour miniseries on Disney+, studying the Fab Fours’ creation of the Let It Be album.

Back in our school days, The Beatles seemed to dominate our Decembers, beginning in freshman year when Rubber Soul could […]

Echo in the Canyon     

Echo in the Canyon     

Echo in the Canyon is an 82-minute rock doc that traces the music of this period—1965 to 1967—through the songs of The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Beach Boys, and Mamas and Papas.  These pop pioneers lived, hung out, and swapped songs (and occasionally lovers) in the Hollywood Hills in a woodsy region known as Laurel Canyon.  It quickly became an innovation nexus that changed music forever.

I was hooked from the start, beginning with the opening chords of “Turn! Turn! Turn!” through “The Bells of Rhymney” and “Wild Mountain Thyme.” These Byrds’ classics played well against the sweeping aerial visuals of Laurel Canyon. Highlights […]

Richard Tedlow on Charisma, Steve Jobs & Donald Trump: (a podcast)

Richard Tedlow on Charisma, Steve Jobs & Donald Trump: (a podcast)

Here is a podcast interview of our classmate Richard Tedlow, by Chris Yeh, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor.  Those of you who attended the 50th reunion may have seen Richard’s outstanding session on Thursday … demonstrating the “Socratic method” he perfected as an immensely popular HBS professor and later on the faculty at Apple…

A Home In Hendrie Hall

A Home In Hendrie Hall

“A Home in Hendrie Hall,” is an 18-minute film by Miriam Lewin ’80.  It chronicles the transformation of both the Glee Club and the University over the past 50 years — in celebration of the 50th anniversary of coeducation at Yale College.  It spends a lot of time on the classes of 1969, 70 and 71, as women arrived.  And it features more than a few recognizable faces of ’69ers.

The Class Memorial Service Completes the Reunion

The Class Memorial Service Completes the Reunion

The Memorial Service, held on the Sunday morning of Reunion weekend, was moving and evocative, according to many of the 60-ish classmates who attended. Most everyone said this one was deeply moving, in large part due to the magnificent singing of our own Dick Williams.
Good news: we have high quality recordings and pictures of the event; check it out —

Classmates In Concert

Classmates In Concert

On Saturday afternoon of Reunion Weekend, in Sprague Hall, several of us from the Class of 1969 regaled an audience of appreciative classmates, significant others, and passing bystanders with a program of original songs and classics from the 60s. If “writing about music is like dancing about architecture,” then let me not expound in text, but take you right to the goods:

Revised: Classmates in Concert: 1:30 pm, June 1, Sprague Hall

Revised: Classmates in Concert: 1:30 pm, June 1, Sprague Hall

Come to Sprague Hall just after lunch on Saturday to experience a great concert put on by some of the professional musicians in our Class: The Real Stormin’ Norman Zamcheck (ES), Rick Drost (BR), and host John O’Leary (SM), accompanied by Mat Kastner (SY). 

Between them, they have played national venues such as NY’s The Bitter End and Carnegie Hall, LA’s Hollywood Bowl and Troubadour, and Cambridge’s Passim.  They will perform their own songs as well as several 60s classics, including the song YOU chose in our survey as your favorite song.

The Almost Famous Psych-Pop Band From Yale–The Morning

The Almost Famous Psych-Pop Band From Yale–The Morning

The Morning was a Yale folk-rock band, birthed in the campus basements in the winter of ’67. Within six months it was playing the major coffeehouses in Greenwich Village and within 18 months it was sharing stages with Joni Mitchell, The Grateful Dead, Cream, Sly & the Family Stone, Jackson Browne, The Smothers Brothers, and Muddy Waters at the top nightclubs and concert venues on both coasts.

What Is YOUR Favorite Music of the ’60s?  Take a 3-Minute Survey.

What Is YOUR Favorite Music of the ’60s? Take a 3-Minute Survey.

We’ve created a simple 3-question survey, asking you to choose your favorite musical artist, favorite album, and favorite song from the 1960s. 

So please take a moment to respond. (You don’t even need to be logged into Yale1969.org to use this link!)   Taking the survey is guaranteed to give you a dopamine rush of nostalgia.