Daily Dirt: All of today’s concert-goers owe Lang a debt of gratitude

Make sure you examine the following appearance fees for some of the biggest names in music back in 1969 … That and more in today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 182 of the Daily Dirt.

1. Bob Saget. Sidney Poitier. Dan Reeves. And now Michael Lang.

It’s already been a brutal year for deaths of well-known personalities — and we’re not even halfway through January. For those who might be scratching their heads about Lang, he was the co-creator of Woodstock, the festival that revolutionized rock music, or at least the way it would be presented in the years and decades to come. Woodstock, for those young readers, was the famous three-day outdoor concert in 1969 that drew somewhere between 450,000 and 500,000 people to upstate New York.

Lang died a few days ago at age 77, but leaves quite a legacy. His role in making Woodstock a reality more than 50 years ago laid the groundwork for the modern music festival(s). We should all turn the volume notch on our car radios up today and give a celebratory fist pump in his honor.What has been lost about Woodstock over the years is the incredible lineup of talent — and what it cost. Or perhaps, did not cost. Here’s a list of the major acts that appeared and what they were paid:

Jimi Hendrix, $18,000.– Blood, Sweat and Tears, $15,000.– Joan Baez, $10,000– Creedence Clearwater Revival, $10,000.– Janis Joplin, $7,500.– Jefferson Airplane, $7,500.– Sly and the Family Stone, $7,000.– The Who, $6,250.– Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, $5,000– Joe Cocker, $1,350.– John Sebastian, $1,000– Melanie, $750.– Santana, $750.– Sha Na Na, $700.

All together, 29 acts performed at Woodstock. 

2. My favorite minor league sports nicknames are currently:

Gold medal: Fort Wayne (Ind.) Mad Ants, a member of the NBA’s G League.

Silver Medal: Binghamton (N.Y.) Rumble Ponies, a minor league affiliate of the New York Mets.

Bronze medal: Florence (Ky.) Y’alls, a minor-league baseball team in the Frontier League, an independent circuit.

Honorable mention: The Victorious Secrets, a name used by numerous teams across the country in a variety of softball, volleyball, kickball, hockey, touch football and other leagues.

3. The latest five finds on Facebook that I found funny:

“The other day I held the door open for a clown. It was a nice jester.”

“I put my grandma on speed dial. I call that Instagram.”

“I just got fired from the bread factory for loafing around.”

“I’m reading a book about anti-gravity. It’s impossible to put down.”

“I was up all night thinking about where the sun went, Then it dawned on me.”

Steve Fact O’ The Day Steve knows the words to the “Rawhide” theme song by heart. “Move ’em on, head ’em up!”

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. That ain’t no Hank Williams song.