As the 40-year anniv approaches, I thought it fitting to ask:
-What are your views of it?
-What kind of legacy did the event leave?
-How did the Stones view the festival?

Keith Richards, Anita Pallenberg and baby Marlon depart King's College Hospital, London, August 18, 1969.

[i642.photobucket.com]

Marlon Richards turns 40 - Congratulations !!

I think Woodstock gets way too much press.
Monterey was the better festival: besides, His Majesty Prince Jones was there.
Even Pete Townshend has his suspicions about Woodstock.
No, I didn't go, but I've heard so many stories about people who went and hated it, and then as time went by kept saying how cool and groovy it was.

Wish I had been there. Saw a very shallow, lame story about it on NBC last night. It has always been romanticized ad infinitum. I had been to some 2 and 3 day rock festivals around that time. It was all about sex, drugs, and rock n' roll. The whole peace and love angle is a bunch of crap. We had peace and love as long as we had drugs and were screwing each other. The music was great but the whole scene was indulgent. Sorry for the jaded view, but having been a part of the scene, I can say that at least my friends and I laughed at the media version of the "hippie" movement.

Having said that, I really would love to have been there, if nothing else that just to see Ten Years After and The Who (saw TYA a week later in Pasadena).

Wish I'd been there. And anyone who says something else is a blatant liar.

2 weeks before Woodstock, there was a better 3 day festival held in New Jersey...the Atlantic City Pop Festival...only 110,000 over 3 days and no Hendrix or Who but a much better event...Joni Mitchell turned down Woodstock because she hated the massive concert scene she witnessed at the ACPF...anyway, many great stories & photos are available on the web about this excellent festival which happened August 1,2 & 3, 1969... peterstupar.com atlanticcitypopfestival.com blackswansociety.com ....peter

Grace Slick has recently captured her version of Woodstock on canvas.....

In Grace Slicks own words:

At the time (1969), A concert with ½ a million people was unheard of. To be honest we were blissfully unprepared and unmercifully hammered by the weather. As the painting shows, the audience had to slog around in the mud. Young people adapt to that kind of a mess better than old farts.



Saying goodbye on the last of three days, the clump of musicians on the stage is appreciating the audience and vice versa. Everything except murder is happening in the crowd – as it would in any gathering of that size.

I have taken the liberty of inserting some individuals who could not have been there, but maybe they were in spirit – Abraham, Buddha, Mohamed, Jesus, Adam & Eve, Alice in Wonderland, The White Rabbit, My daughter and Barack Obama.

For composition and space, I have simplified the stage gear and the sound towers. If it looks like a cartoon – it was.
- Grace Slick 2009

.....and here is the painting :



Can you find them all?
Jack Cassady - Jorma Kaukonen - Marty Balin
Spencer Dryden - Santana - Paul Kantner
Barack Obama - Roger Daltry - Keith Moon
Pete Townshend - Mickey Hart - Phil Lesh
Jerry Garcia - Bob Weir - Bill Kreutzmann
White Rabbit - Jimi Hendrix - Alice
Ravi Shankar - Richie Havens - Graham Nash
David Crosby - Neil Young - Stephen Stills
Buddha - Country Joe McDonald - John Sebastian
Joan Baez - Alvin Lee - John Entwistle
Janis Joplin - Grace Slick - Jesus - Max Yasgur

What's the story with The Stones not playing? Were they asked and did they decline? Not heard too much about this. I would have thought the promoters would have tried to get them. Perhaps it was too soon after Brian's death although they had by then done the Hyde park show.

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Bimmelzerbott
Wish I'd been there. And anyone who says something else is a blatant liar.

Wouldn't want to be at ANY rock event for three days. I DO wish I could have been helicoptered in to see the Who, then gotten back on the helicopter, and gotten the hell out of there.

Quote
peter
Joni Mitchell turned down Woodstock because she hated the massive concert scene she witnessed at the ACPF.

And yet she played for 600,000 at the Isle of Wight the following year?

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DaveG

Having said that, I really would love to have been there.

Let's all agree to stop using the expression "having said that" when we could just as easily say "but".

That being said, it's the kind of trendy expression that will probably disapear from public usage soon enough.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-08-11 17:06 by tatters.

wish i was there....watched the 40th anniversary DVD the other night with the bonus featyres...very cool

I was too young for the first one and too old for the second and third. A listen to virtually any of the performances, Santana and The Who notwithstanding, demonstrates Woodstock was hardly a forum for brilliant music. Rather, it's a romanticized point of historical reference for self-important, spoiled baby-boomers. I say this at age 52.

i for one am glad tha i was not there ,also skipped the 94 woodstock at saugerties to go see the stones at giants stadium .you know one day can be okay but three days and nights way to much crap for my liking and i never bought into the peace and love thing either .

Well, tatters, at the end of the day, it is what it is . . . . .

(although I have been occasionally using the phrase "having said that" for many years. I didn't know it was a trendy expression)

Wasnt there, but once meet a man who was. I'm sure the reality of it was hell, but still would have loved to have been there.

as for Joni, thats not the reason I heard, but you know, peoples memories of stuff gets hazey and selective.

Didnt the Stones have their own Woodstock in mind, but managed to feck it up ?

A

Quote
Bimmelzerbott
Wish I'd been there. And anyone who says something else is a blatant liar.

I'd love to have seen of the bands that played their while they were in their prime, especially Hendrix and The Who, but I would not have wanted to see them at Woodstock as I'm not a fan of big crowds. I'm not lying. Really!

Exhibitions
Celebrate Woodstock's 40th at the Morrison Hotel Gallery The Bowery, NYC

Celebrate Woodstock's 40th Anniversary at the Morrison Hotel Gallery, 313 Bowery, NYC,
featuring Woodstock Festival producer Michael Lang and official Woodstock photographer Henry Diltz.

On August 13, 2009 from 5PM - 7PM Official festival photographer Henry Diltz and festival producer Michael Lang will attend the event and will be on hand to sign copies of The Woodstock Experience (Genesis Publications), a limited edition double book set with text by Lang and photos by Diltz. Michael Lang will also sign copies of his book The Road To Woodstock (HarperCollins). At 7PM the Morrison Hotel Gallery will unveil a special exhibition of photographs, some never before seen, from Woodstock '69 in honor of the 40th anniversary of the storied festival. The exhibit will feature iconic photographs of many Woodstock performers and the large festival crowds. Photographs by Diltz, Jim Marshall, Baron Wolman and Lisa Law will be on display and available to purchase.

My neighbours were going to go but heard it was muddy & rainy & everything was awful.

I knew a person who was there. She told me that it was dirty, embarassing and not always fun - but it was highly romantic.

I was just born too late and too far away ;-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-08-11 21:56 by Meise.

i would have loved being at woodstock....having said that....i thought the music was better, pound for pound, at monterey. having said that...the woodstock scene is my kinda thing. having said that, i'm pretty much done talking about it.....

My friends are there right now, touring the grounds.

Actually, Peter, Joni Mitchell really was bummed that she was NOT at Woodstock; she was scheduled to be on the Dick Cavitt show that weekend and feared she'd not get out of the festival in time to get to the studio, so she stayed behind. She was living with Graham Nash at the time and he was there so I'd imagine he told her all about it. She then wrote the song " Woodstock", recorded by C,S & N.
My Dad was going to drive my best friend and myself there on Saturday but we blew the clutch in our car that day!! BUMMER! We'd never have gotten through so I guess it was not meant to be. I agree with those trhat say they wish they could have been air-lifted in to see a few of those big acts like THE WHO, Santana, and Hendrix, then zipped OUT!!

I was too young to have been there myself.

How about "That said"?

My impression is that those there were quite well-behaved,
considering how the roads closed down, the weather and the size
of the crowd. Peace, love and happiness, to a certain extent,
supplemented by the drugs.

Ang Lee's movie is coming out this month, Taking Woodstock.
It's more about the planning than the festival itself, I think.

No, but I saw Wayne's World.

I was at the Watkins Glen thing in 1973

I would loved to have been at woodstock taking LSD listening to some good music.I think thats what alot of the dance festivils are like today good DJs love and peace and ecstasy

Feel The Fear
And Do It Anyway

Last month , there was a great special issue of the French Magazine Rock'n'Folk on Woodstock with a Promo CD,with lots of pics and a good review of the psychedelic era!
Here's some funny things

The Front Cover



The Promo CD Sampler include in the Magazine








HMN

HMN



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2009-08-13 22:24 by Honestman.

Thank you 'mickschix' for clarifying the Joni Mitchell saga...I have attempted to get all the stories correct from this excellent event for decades...I was standing in front of the stage when Joni said to the crowd, "I just sang that verse twice & no one noticed"...she never finished her set..some said she was in tears..I cannot confirm that but she was certainly not happy..articles mentioned that she wasn't excited about appearing @ Woodstock for this very reason but they could be wrong..I took the liberty in thinking that this made sense..so thank you for your response & correction....peter