Tuesday’s Tune: Poor Moon

What started out as the opening act to gigs for Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Buffalo Springfield and Sly and The Family Stone, Canned Heat soon stole the stage to their own audiences in 1968, after playing before 80,000 people at the first annual Newport Pop Festival in September.

Securing their niche in the pages of rock ‘n roll history with their performances at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival (along with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and The Who) and the headlining slot at the original Woodstock Festival in 1969, Canned Heat can boast of collaborations with John Mayall and Little Richard and later with blues icon, John Lee Hooker, the musician that they initially got much of their musical inspiration from in the first place.

Nowadays, Canned Heat are celebrated amongst blues enthusiasts for their musicality. One of my favourite tunes of their is from their fourth album Hallelujah. Controversy was sparked by the cover’s image of the moon landing with its upside-down American flag. The flag was Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson’s idea and was supposed to represent his love of nature, growing environmentalism and concern that humankind would soon be polluting the moon as well as the Earth – this concept that is further reflected in his song “Poor Moon”.

Enjoy!