Today was the final day of the 50th anniversary of Woodstock's 3 day (Actually 4) groundbreaking festival of peace, love and music. Supposed to only be 3 days, rain pushed it to an extra day. It wasn't the first of it's kind, but at the time, it was the largest collection of people in one place. It had the biggest stars in rock and roll and set the precedent for rock concerts moving forward. On August 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th, the hippie movement coalesced into a beautiful, idyllic moment that was often imitated in the months preceding, but never duplicated.
As a teenager, I dove head first into anything "hippie", so Woodstock was always this mythical beast, the ultimate hippie happening that was the perfect coming together where the only thing on people's minds was peace and music. And...it's almost that way. It's less idealism and more capitalistic. The only reason the concert was free was because the festival runners couldn't handle the sheer amount of people who showed up. Hell, Jimi Hendrix made 18 thousand bucks for his performance (125 thousand in today dollars) but honestly, learning the backstage stuff later on wasn't the reality shattering gut punch to a young wannabe hippie's mind as I'm making it out to be but there is a period of naivete where you may think it was put on for completely unselfish reasons.
Woodstock really was the peak of the hippie movement, as never again would there be such a big gathering of like minded people, showing that the younger generation could really get it together and live peacefully for a few days. Later that year there was Altamont and we all know the tragedy that occurred and the year after there was the Isle of Wight Festival (1970's was the 3rd edition of the festival but most notorious) which was supposed to be England's Woodstock but the English had a much more hostile reaction to the large hippie crowds that demanded to be let in for free. Seriously, watching the Isle of Wight doc, it's pretty amazing how angry and disgusted the promoters are at the audience, contrasted with the people running Woodstock just shrugging it off and letting it happen.
One of the many pieces of trivia I find more interesting about the artist that appeared at the festival are the number of artists/groups that either didn't make it or declined. Jeff Beck Group broke up before being able to appear and Iron Butterfly got stuck at an airport and demanded a helicopter fly them in. They were then sent a telegram where the first letter of each sentence read "FUCK YOU" so...obviously they weren't getting a helicopter. Both Frank Zappa and Jethro Tull were invited but both declined for similar reasons as Zappa said he didn't want to play in mud and Ian Anderson said he, "Did not like hippies and had other concerns including inappropriate nudity, heavy drinking and drug use." Other groups either had previous engagements and thought Woodstock wouldn't be that big of a deal like The Doors and The Byrds where some, like Chicago, were advised against it by their manager. Most of the groups that declined later regretted it, not realizing how big of a deal it was going to be.
Where Monterey Pop two years prior made stars of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, Woodstock had similar effects on groups/artists like Sly And The Family Stone, Ten Years After, Santana and Joe Cocker. These groups put everything they had to make sure they made a mark, whether it was Sly And The Family Stone's rave up during "I Want To Take You Higher", Ten Years After's Alvin Lee's face-melting guitar fireworks on their "I'm Going Home" or Joe Cocker's unmatched belting of The Beatles' "With A Little Help From My Friends".
But it wasn't all great for the groups. Some bands have said Woodstock ranks amongst their worst performances. The Grateful Dead were notorious for bombing the big shows and this was no exception, though technical difficulties may have been more the reason than anything else. Apparently they kept getting small shocks from their microphones and even from their instruments so they probably played a lot less feverishly than they would, especially in this period of the group. Another group that weren't high on their own performance was CCR who, ironically, played right after the Dead. John Fogerty later said that because the Dead played so long, that by the time CCR went on, a huge chunk of the audience went to bed. Both groups were not in the subsequent film, probably due to each group not being very proud of their performances. Other not so hot performances, in my opinion anyways, was Sha-Na-Na who, by all accounts played well and they were always a huge hit with the hippie crowd but I've always disliked them. I thought their schtick was hokey and cringey and though it was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, I still think they were dumb. Another group which I admit my opinion is biased negatively is Jefferson Airplane. Out of all the big bands that came to "define" the 60's, the Airplane has always been my least favourite, but unlike Sha-Na-Na who performed well but just didn't vibe with me, objectively, the Airplane bombed (pun absolutely intended). They look and sound drag-ass tired and they're sloppy (they usually were), their harmonies are off (they usually were). Also, the less that's to be said about The Incredible String Band on any platform the better.
Most of the more famous performances have been well documented. From Jimi Hendrix's Star-Spangled Banner to Country Joe MacDonald getting the entire crowd to spell out fuck, I don't need to go into the details as those performances have been talked about at length.
Some more great performances that don't get mentioned I feel are Arlo Guthrie's funny, rambling folk set, John Sebastian's stoned-as-hell comments between songs (he mentions that he was told that someone just gave birth as he was playing, to which he said, "Whew, your kid’s gonna be far out."), or Mountain's amazing "Beside The Sea" which unfortunately never made the film.
Overall, Woodstock deserves it's praise as the monumental event that it was. Though the world never became the blissful, peaceful utopia that was promised at Woodstock, it seemed like it could exist, even if just for a few short days. I can't watch the film without leaving feeling a sense of hippie pride and it really makes you hopeful even if you know what comes next.
Rhino released a 50th anniversary 10 CD/3 LP edition of the festival called Back To The Garden which you can purchase on their website or you can check out the 1970 documentary. I personally have the 40th anniversary Director's Cut which has some super cool extra stuff like some groups that didn't appear in the original film and also some awesome memorabilia like replicas of the original ticket stubs and info of Woodstock by the numbers. I implore everyone to at the very least, watch the film as it is a perfect encapsulation of the 60's counterculture movement. Even if you're not a fan of the music, it's still an amazing time capsule that should be viewed by everyone.
