I just received the Woodstock CD from Amazon. Ah, what memories! Though I was 10 in the Summer of Love, my (much looked up to) sister gave me the 4 album set when I was 13 and she was 21. Also the summer I first smoked pot. I listened to it all the time. I’m sure my Mom got sick of hearing the FISH cheer, but she was cool about it.
Anyway, it was so cool to hear Alvin Lee and Ten Years After sing I’m Going Home. Crosby, Still, Nash (and Young) sounded so young!!! Fresh and alive. “This is only our second gig, man! We’re scared shitless!”
And then there’s Jimi. Whoa. The Star Spangled Banner. As I was listening to the improv in the middle - I think he might have been trying to attempt “the bombs bursting in air.” Or maybe I was reading to much into it!
Ten Years After, Santana and Hendrix are certainly high points, but don’t forget The Who! “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “Summertime Blues” are definite pick me ups. When I saw the movie 35 years ago I was so stunned when Townshend tossed his guitar into the crowd. I was very disillusioned when I later learned it was retrieved!
I’ve always regretted all the acts that didn’t make it into the movie, especially the Incredible String Band, Melanie, Ravi Shankar, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Grateful Dead, and the Band.
One of the things that sticks in my memory is Joan Baez talking about how her husband was in jail for protesting the war and how he had recently led a strike there and then she sang a totally non rock song accapella. It’s uniqueness alone would have made it memorable, but its beauty was something else. She had such a beautiful voice (may still have for all I know).
I especially liked when Woodstock would land on Snoopy’s house and…
Oh. The film?
I remember going to our local movie theater (small town in Illinois) when the film was first released and seeing the Saturday late night showing…every stoner for about 100 miles had shown up and it was quite an event! Dancing in the aisles, smoking in the sold-out theater, I recall there were wine bottles being passed down the rows…very cool night. Ah yes - simpler times, age of Aquarius, and it’s One, Two, Three what’re we fightin’ for…
I mean, I look at that line-up now, and I just think, “Oh. My. God.” All those fabulous bands on one ticket. Just look at this line-up!:
DAY ONE
Richie Havens
Country Joe McDonald
John B. Sebastian
Incredible String Band
Sweetwater
Bert Sommer
Tim Hardin
Ravi Shankar
Melanie
Arlo Guthrie
Joan Baez
DAY TWO
Quill
Santana
Canned Heat
Mountain
Janis Joplin
Sly & The Family Stone
Grateful Dead
Creedence Clearwater Revival
The Who
DAY THREE
Jefferson Airplane
Joe Cocker
Country Joe & The Fish
Ten Years After
The Band
Blood Sweat And Tears
Johnny Winter
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
DAY FOUR
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Sha-Na-Na
Jimi Hendrix
Ok, granted one day one I would be sort of lost until Arlo and Joan showed up. But days two, three and four? How fan-freakin’ tastic can you get? Were all these artists as big then, or was it a fluke of future genius all in one spot?
Seriously, this makes the greatest Lollapalooza look like my neighborhood Battle of the Bands crap-fest.
I did not get to go, we had moved from NY to Colorado the previous summer (the same summer is the infamous 1968 Chicago Democratic convention.) My old boyfriend got to go–or maybe he just ignored his mom and went. He said it was very cool and very muddy.
I did get to see Alvin Lee and his band play at Red Rocks during a thunderstorm two years later. The cool thing about Lee (outside of his musicianship) was the fact that he often wore clogs. For some reason I just loved this.
In the 70’s, a friend of mine here in Denver mentioned that she had met the guy with the blanket on the cover of the album. She said the guy was always dragging it around.
Of course Woodstock was the best, and Altamont was the symbolic end of it all, but there were a lot of great concert lineups those days.
Good times, and no regrets.
Back in those days, going to a “record store” was a heady experience…and all of those acts were considered pretty good, even back then. Granted, some went on to bigger and better things, and for others, Woodstock was the high point in careers that then petered out. I can’t think of any names offhand, but I believe a few big groups/performers cancelled at the last minute, or didn’t go for other reasons. They later regretted not being a part of it.
Well if you’d just witnessed what Pete Townshend did to Abbie Hoffman with that guitar an hour earlier, you’d know he’s not a man to fuck around with. He wants his guitar back, you’d better give it to him!
