Woodstock Anniversary

[blondebear]

Of course, the 40 year anniversary is a chance to re-issue "collectors editions" of the movie and the music. (I got the 4 DVD set from Target with the tambourine myself). It's also the perfect time to release Ang Lee's new movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1127896/). The School of Rock (http://www.sordc.com/woodstock.shtml) has a series of commemorative shows. And the "Heroes of Woodstock" are playing at Bethel Woods (http://bethelwoodscenter.org/bwevents/eventdetail.aspx?id=64) as I type this.

In the articles I've read, it seems fashionable to diminish Woodstock...that it wasn't really as wonderful as people (mis-)remember. Yeah, maybe the artists didn't really sound that good--the studio enhancements have been revealed. One author I read was obsessed about the male-female ratio in the crowd. And everyone gets to re-tell the joke that if you remember Woodstock, you weren't there.

I don't think that those three days of peace and music resonate with anyone unless they're of a certain age. The groups have disbanded, died, or lost their relevance to today's musical consumers. But still, I doubt any other concert will ever achieve the same mythological status.

I'm curious about Doper's take on Woodstock--the event, and the hoopla surrounding the 40th anniversary.

[RealityChuck]

I remember the event happening -- it was in all the news at the time, but for most people of my age, the main knowledge of what happens was from the movie and album (my sophomore year of college, it was ubiquitous -- you couldn't walk around campus on warm days without hearing it being played somewhere).

The news at the time seemed to indicate it was a mess. I had no desire to go there because I hate crowds, and reports concentrated on things like the people storming the gate and the difficulty of conditions. The movie and album is what made it more than just a mess.

[Jackmannii]

I have already passed my nausea threshold what with the semi-saturated media coverage of the anniversary of this event. It was a bit interesting though reading a newspaper article about all the hassles the organizers went through, the screwups with sound and getting groups onstage on time, assuming they weren't doped up intentionally or otherwise (supposedly someone put acid in the Who's drinks, resulting in what one of them called their worst performance ever). And based on the recordings I've heard it overall wasn't so hot as a musical event.*

I generally do a :rolleyes: at griping about how "boomers" supposedly monopolize attention with their historical doings, but some of the hot air being expelled by Woodstock-era nostalgists is worth not only a bevy of :rolleyes: but a few barfing smilies as well. This was not some miraculous milestone of peace and love; it was more a case of having a drug-fueled blast, making a huge mess and managing not to kill anybody in the process, which some apparently feel was a miracle of sorts.

For awhile, Rhino Records supposedly was thinking of coming out with a 30-CD set of all the music and stage announcements from Woodstock. 30 CDs! Based on the glurge that infested the original concert albums, I can't imagine the pain of trying to listen to all that. If they played it through just once for a captured Osama bin Laden, the Amnesty International people would go berserk citing it as horrendous torture.

[Ephemera]

Even if it was as miserable as many people now say it was, I'd've still loved to've gone, but I was born thirteen years too late.

[gonzomax]

Open concerts were all over back then. They were mostly free with some very good groups and some local bands getting a chance to show their stuff. I went to lots of them but not Woodstock. i had a girl friend who did not want to go and of course did not want me to go with friends. It was expensive. i think tickets were about 8 bucks. But a day there a day back and 3 days at the concert could kill a week.
The entertainment was fabulous. To get all those powerhouse groups in one place at one time was amazing. The Gratefull Dead, Cocker, Joplin.The Who, etc etc. Anybody bitching about the acoustics is not getting it. No it is not in a controlled studio. So it is not as good as the recordings. What concert ever is? It is about being there ,having fun and listening to great bands.

[DMark]

I've posted on this subject before, but worth repeating.

I vividly recall seeing the ads in the Chicago newspapers before the event - the ads made it seem like it was going to be an intimate, cozy, country-fair - with booths for art and exotic foods, etc. and - oh yeah, some cool music groups as well!

I really, really wanted to go but:
1. I was in Illinois and to get someone to schlep with me, all the way to NY, was going to be difficult.
2. I was also in a summer stock theater production of Brigadoon that was in rehearsal at the time.
3. The director of that summer stock show was a tyrant, and not only would he never have allowed me to take off to see that show - he didn't even allow us to step off the stage to watch the moon landing! So while the rest of the world was glued to the television screen, watching man's first landing on the moon, I was doing the Highland Fling on a stage.

As the events in Woodstock started to unfold, and now everybody wished they had gone, I had friends come up to me and say, "Damn, we should have listened to you and driven there!"
I do recall that when the film version of Woodstock finally hit the theaters, the place was jammed, people were smoking weed in the movie theater and dancing in the aisles. Not as good as being there, by any stretch of the imagination, but still pretty cool to remember.

[Dallas Jones]

Don't eat the brown acid.

[Dallas Jones]

Don't eat the brown acid.

In case that reference is lost on the young:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=brown%20acid

[Exapno Mapcase]

This may be a good place to ask what the heck is going on with Woodstock: 40 Years on: Back to Yasgur's Farm, the 6CD, Limited Edition, version of two dozen bands from Rhino. Amazon now lists it as "This item has been discontinued by the manufacturer."

Does that mean that the edition was so limited it sold out? Was it pulled for some rights reason? Has Amazon just screwed up the release date?

Or is it The Man messing with our music?

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

Does that mean that the edition was so limited it sold out? Was it pulled for some rights reason? Has Amazon just screwed up the release date?

It was released as scheduled; my copy was shipped last week. I expect to have it in hand tomorrow.

[Exapno Mapcase]

It was released as scheduled; my copy was shipped last week. I expect to have it in hand tomorrow.

Shipped from whom? Amazon? Rhino? Somebody else?

I'm sure it was available. But last week is a long time ago. Anything could have happened since then to make it unavailable now. That's what I'm asking.

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

Shipped from Amazon. Investigating their page, it looks like there may have been a mix-up with the release date. Amazon lists both August 11 and August 18 as release dates. Possibly it wasn't supposed to go out last week, in which case it should be available again on Tuesday.

OTOH, Amazon does appear to have sold out their allotment of the Beatles' Mono Box Set almost a month before the release date.

[Colibri]

I'm curious about Doper's take on Woodstock--the event, and the hoopla surrounding the 40th anniversary.

I was there, man. I was seventeen, the summer after I graduated high school. I went with two friends, who I promptly got separated from. Like everyone else, we had no idea what we were getting in to. I was on the field in the middle of the crowd almost the whole three days, except for a few hours when I went to scrounge food on Saturday. For me, it was an absolutely fantastic event.

[BigBertha]

I was not there, being slightly too young, but the best part for me, was Wavy Gravy. :D older folk may get the smilie joke..

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

I was not there, being slightly too young, but the best part for me, was Wavy Gravy. :D older folk may get the smilie joke..

Hey, he's got more teeth than Richie Havens!

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

I'm sure it was available. But last week is a long time ago. Anything could have happened since then to make it unavailable now. That's what I'm asking.

Someone on the Amazon discussion board called Rhino about this. It seems August 18th is the official release date; copies bought directly from Rhino ship then. They also confirmed that it is not a limited edition.

Got my copy today, but I won't be breaking the shrinkwrap till I get home.

[xanthous]

I was 2 weeks from being born when Woodstock happened, and maybe I'm terribly naive, but I think that movie is an awesomely filmed documentary of a phenomenal moment in music (and U.S.) history. That split screen stuff blows my mind. My favorite moments: Crosby, Stills & Nash saying they're scared shitless cause it's their second gig, Pete Townsend playing guitar, Jerry Garcia stringing his guitar and talking about how cool/and "biblical" it all looks, that awesome chick in the red/black checked coat w/ the blue headband talking about all the different "cats" she's run into there, Joan Baez, Ten Years After, Arlo Guthrie, Santana, Richie Havens, Jimi Hendrix- man, the whole thing. I watch it at least every couple years or so.

I would love to see a documentary (now) of people that were there, right up front, the baby that was born there, people whose lives were changed there, even the people that thought it was awful and had a terrible time. I'm totally fascinated by it all.

[jsc1953]

I was alive but missed the event, living 3000 miles away and under my parent's roof.

But I wore the grooves out of my soundtrack album (Sly & the Family Stone being a particular favorite) and absolutely loved the film. I've seen bits of it twice this weekend, and some parts hold up amazingly well (Who, Sly), both musically and cinematically. Some don't. And some of the extended / director's cuts should've been left on the cutting room floor -- like Jefferson Airplane (although Grace Slick has amazing eyes).

I always wonder who got Pete Townshend's guitar when he threw it into the crowd.

[Lute Skywatcher]

VH1 Classic has been showing the Woodstock concert footage--in pan & scan. Ugh!

[xanthous]

I always wonder who got Pete Townshend's guitar when he threw it into the crowd.

Exactly. I'd love to know about this kind of stuff. Or what the guy is like now who was talking about being called a "freak" and what that word meant.

I actually shared a house once with a woman who was at Woodstock, and she is still a big ol' hippie- the necklaces, the beads, the crazy bedroom with all kinds of eccentric found objects in it (including a giant molar that was on the floor under her bed). Super cool, super politically opinionated, super whichever-way-the-wind-blows kind of woman. I really liked her. She was definitely an individual.

[woodstockbirdybird]

Except for The Who (who weren't very good at Woodstock, in any case), Creedence, and Sly & the Family Stone, I have pretty much no use for any of the acts that appeared at the festival (though I might have enjoyed Hendrix live - on record, he bores me to tears). So I've always been a bit baffled by the mythologizing of the event. Then again, I've never bought into the whole "communal feeling" thing, either - crowds annoy the shit out of me whether they're all banded together for the same purpose or not. Nothing about it really speaks to me. Which isn't to say every festival that's followed hasn't been equally uninspiring.

[jsc1953]

VH1 Classic has been showing the Woodstock concert footage--in pan & scan. Ugh!

Yeah, this is one movie that should never be shown in any format other than widescreen. I saw a widescreen version Fri night on some weird all-music cable channel (Palladium?).

Dana Carvey did a standup routine about rock guitarists -- how when they do chord changes they act like they've done a magic trick, and something about similarity with a dog scraping his butt on the driveway. Woodstock was the pinnacle of rock guitarists making faces...and now I can't get Dana Carvey out of my head.

[xanthous]

I was just watching it in the background as I was doing stuff on the computer and had never really read all the end credits. Martin Scorsese is listed as editor and assistant director. Didn't know that.

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

I always wonder who got Pete Townshend's guitar when he threw it into the crowd.

I don't think he actually lobbed it far enough to go into the crowd. I think it just dropped into the photographers' pit. A stagehand probably retrieved it--you can see one scurrying across the stage with a guitar in each hand in the movie.

[kelly5078]

I was 19 at the time, and could have gone, I guess, except that I didn't hear about it until it was over. I have no regrets about that, since it's always sounded like pure hell to me. I might have handled the rain and mud okay, but if there was as much annoying hippie-speak as the movie suggests, I probably would have become homicidal. Believe it or not, most people didn't talk that way. There were always a few stoner buttheads around who did, most of them so self-righteous you wanted to shoot them, but standard English was then, as now, the norm.

Anyway, we got a reasonably good movie out of it, and a nice Joni Mitchell song. But all the media stuff about how it was such a big deal, and it looked like the world was going to be lovely, then Altamont ended the sixties, blah, blah, blah; I could just gag.

[Exapno Mapcase]

Someone on the Amazon discussion board called Rhino about this. It seems August 18th is the official release date; copies bought directly from Rhino ship then. They also confirmed that it is not a limited edition.

Got my copy today, but I won't be breaking the shrinkwrap till I get home.

That's what I was wondering. Thanks for checking. I'm torn on getting this. I have the feeling that I'd play it once and then it will wind up on a shelve. OTOH, I have a ton of gift certificates so I can get it for free.

Woodstock was close enough that I could have gone. A guy I went to high school with is actually interviewed in the movie.

Instead, I choose to go to Worldcon, the World Science Fiction Convention, in St. Louis that year. Changed my life. Made my a permanent member of the sf crowd. Would I have gone into music if I went to Woodstock? Makes an interesting "what if?"

[panache45]

I was 23, and 5 or 6 of us made the trip from Ohio State, packed into a VW Beetle. I honestly don't remember that much about the concert itself, and certainly didn't think I was at some historical event. I had already seen most of the performers in various concerts, so what I remember most was the crowd, the drugs, the nudity (not as much as you'd think), and the rain . . . and the stench coming from the areas people were using as toilets.

[Rilchiam]

I would love to see a documentary (now) of people that were there, right up front, the baby that was born there,

I'm certain that that's an urban legend. I could be convinced otherwise with proof. Until then, I call UL.

[jsc1953]

I'm certain that that's an urban legend. I could be convinced otherwise with proof. Until then, I call UL.

The extended version of the movie that I saw last week showed a clip of an extremely pregnant woman being taken into the medical tent...

[blondebear]

Re: Pete's Woodstock Gibson SG--apparently it was caught by someone named Kurt Pfeiffer, and "retrieved" by a roadie.

There is an exhaustive history of Townshend's equipment on thewho.net...here's the Gibson SG Special page (http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/sg.htm).

[freckafree]

The couple draped in a muddy quilt in the iconic photo (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2009/07/07/2009-07-07_woodstocks_undercover_lovers_.html)are still together.

[t-bonham@scc.net]

Interesting to think that the gay iconic event of the Stonewall revolt and the hippie iconic event of Woodstock took place about 6 weeks and 100 miles apart.

[AppallingGael]

Interesting to think that the gay iconic event of the Stonewall revolt and the hippie iconic event of Woodstock took place about 6 weeks and 100 miles apart.

Throw in the scientifically iconic moon landing and it's only 6 weeks and 240,000 miles.

[Kalhoun]

I was a little too young to attend, but I wouda if I coulda. I still love listening to the album and seeing the movie. It brings me back to a good time in my life. I loved the music and the significance of the 60s. To me, the anniversary is worthy of all the coverage. Different strokes, I s'pose.

[singular1]

I was 16 and only a couple hundred miles from the event, but I couldn't get a ride. I went to the 1973 Watkins Glen Summer Jam (http://www.chronos-historical.org/rockfest/articles/WG1.html) in an effort to get the experience, but it fell a bit short. People were there to make money, which bummed out my little hippie heart. It was a blast, though, and looking at the pictures from it a) makes me smile and 2) makes me wonder how on earth I enjoyed the crowd, because they freak me out now.
I'm with Kalhoun, though. I'm really glad to revisit that time and those feelings.

[Labdad]

Good remembrance here (http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=6f0546b5-71c6-4a0b-9d5c-48cf0c6cd813), written on the 20th anniversary of Woodstock, by Hendrik Hertzberg, then of The New Republic, now of The New Yorker.

[Dogzilla]

Got time for a Generation X mini-rant? Good! :D (I'll keep it clean because we're not in the Pit.)

My dad recently sent me an email about the wonderful world of 60s hippie culture, citing Woodstock specifically as a time when a bunch of people got together, organized, flaunted "the rules" (was there some law about organizing rock concerts or something?), and accomplished this amazing, miraculous, world-changing feat. Only he thought it was 30 years ago. I promptly informed him that he is 10 years older than he apparently thinks he is and that I, his darling daughter, am 40, not 30. Senility must suck.

He replied something like, "Yeah, but isn't it amazing what a group of people can accomplish when they band together?"

I have dropped the conversation. The following responses have come to mind since then:

1) Oh. You mean like Tiananmen Square? Or the Gulf War protests of my college days? Or do you mean like Lollapalooza? Or Habitat for Humanity? Would you even recognize "Work together to accomplish a great feat" if it jumped up and bit you on the ass? How many of my examples above were orchestrated by 60's hippies?

2) Hm. Sounds like "community organizing." I thought you hated Obama and community organizers. I guess it's okay if it's a bunch of stinky hippies from your glory days, right? P.S. Dad: You had a three-year-old and a 1-month-old. You were working in some factory while your wife was working as a nurse. You guys were not remotely anything like hippies; you did not go to rock concerts, and you did not smoke pot until the 70s at least. You were squares (I believe that's the correct term). Straight Squares, IIRC.

3) So what did this band of organized hippies actually accomplish anyway? In fact, nevermind Woodstock -- what did the hippies of the 1960s actually accomplish? They weren't the people involved in the Civil Rights marches, not so much. They didn't manage to bring the Vietnam War to an end, despite all that weed-fueled protesting. They didn't stimulate the economy or invent some magical, wonderful Hippie Thing that saved the world. They didn't stop, or even slow, the Cold War. They didn't end hunger or homelessness. They certainly didn't improve education (New Math anyone?). Seems to me as though all they really managed to accomplish was to make a mess on some poor farmer's property and ingest a bunch of drugs. Then they promptly turned around and made free sex, drugs, and rock and roll forbidden, if not illegal, for the generations to come after them. The hippies had Free Love! We had Silence = Death. The hippies had Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out. We had Just Say No.

Maybe that should be a Great Debate thread. What did the hippies actually achieve? Aside from wallowing in naive idealism and navel gazing? Why is Woodstock better/stronger/faster for the world than Lollapallooza? Aren't they really the same thing: a minor distraction for the youth of the era, about which they get to wax nostalgic 40 years later?

[kelly5078]

Dogzilla:
Your rant betrays bitterness, but for the life of me I can't figure out what, exactly, is making you bitter.

Also, you don't seem to have much of a handle on what the hippies were about, and seem to be confusing everyone of your parents generation with hippies.

A short answer to your question is that the hippies didn't accomplish anything, because accomplishing things was not on the hippie agenda. Dropping out of society was what they were about. Eventually, though, the fact that dropping out of society leads to what I like to call "grinding poverty" dawned on the hippies, and they became ex-hippies and got jobs. Or they tried living in communes, mostly figured out they couldn't get along, and so left and got jobs.

Most of the kids at the time were not hippies. They were perfectly normal kids, going to school, working towards earning a living. Aside from fashion and slang differences, you could plop them down among a bunch of kids today, and no one would be able to tell the difference. Do you seriously think the American psyche has changed that much in a mere 40-50 years?

[jsc1953]

Hippie-ness was mostly about a particular mind-set...which I think has bubbled into the national consciousness to some degree. The 60s changed the way we as a society look at things.

But back to Woodstock....it was the first and last semi-spontaneous, unforeseen, unorganized, non-commercialized event in music. It can never be repeated (something analogous may happen in an entirely different field of human endeavor, but it won't be concert-going), and that may be why people feel so nostalgic about it.