Woodstock — 50 Years Ago

[Buddy]

Woodstock — 50 Years Ago

”The greatest peaceful event in history.”

This is a quote from a promotion for one of the new Woodstock books. I’m not sure who actually said it.

If this is true, then maybe it’s worth devoting a few thoughts to, for a moment anyway.

Almost half-a-million were there. I was one of them. Being in the midst of it I didn’t see it as outside viewers did. I didn’t sense the effect it was having on the world except for announcements from the stage. David Crosby, who performed there, was flown in and witnessed the overwhelming expanse of the audience, which I didn’t. You saw his amazement when he briefly talked on the Dick Cavette Show the next day.

He said, “It was incredible. It was probably the strangest thing that ever happened in the world.” I would quite possibly go with the above mentioned quote, “The greatest peaceful event in history,” which I’m sure is what David Crosby was trying to say.

I’ve not really thought about it that much over the years and mentioned it less, my feeling being that if you weren’t there it might be hard to understand. I have been falling into things on the internet this month that keep my interest alive. One was a list of recent books. I’ve not bought any of them but I’ve read some of the excerpts and a lot of related comments.

Reading comments by folks who had been there, we all had our distinct experiences, but with many similarities. One thing that I perceive is that even many of those who had some negative experiences, still end by saying how much they loved having been there.

My experiences had very few negatives, actually. I somehow came through the mud and the rain without much discomfort and all I had was a sleeping bag, a reasonably wet one after the first day. Other reported shortages didn’t really effect me.

Two definable elements that enabled the Festival to be as it was were marijuana (or its equivalents) and the music. What’s not definable is the extent of the overall Good Will. It just happened.

Good Will — this may be the defining element. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I highly recommend the new PBS Woodstock documentary that emphasises this.

By the way, as part of one person’s ongoing Woodstock story, if I ever did drugs, which I won’t confirm or deny here, almost none of them would have been of the addictive type and I haven’t done any in almost fifty years. I haven’t had an alcoholic drink in about thirty and I’m not really religious, although I try to be as moral a person as possible. I participated in the ‘Woodstock days’ for about five years. Although I haven’t related to that way of being for a long time, it did change my life, I hope for the better.

I may add a few more thoughts. It’s been easy for me, being the 50th Anniversary, to get somewhat caught up in this.

 

  

[Buddy]

“Notwithstanding their personality, their dress, and their ideas, they were and they are the most courteous, considerate and well-behaved group of kids I have ever been in contact with in my twenty-four years of police work.” — said a local chief of police.

(Woodstock: 50 Years of Peace and Music)

[Buddy]

If anyone has any thoughts about the Festival and the times it would be nice to hear them. I’ve just added a few things that I’ve read.

I found a nice reference to Abbie Hoffman at Woodstock that I’d never heard before. He was considered the political radical of the hippies.

“You know who organised the whole scene of creating the hospital? Sorting out all that stuff that was flown in by a helicopter and what have you? It was Abbie Hoffman, who was a brilliant organiser, and he did it flawlessly and magnificently….”

(Hugh Romney,  page 35, Woodstock: 50 Years of Peace and Music)

This was confirmed in the book by two other festival organisers.

 

 

Edited September 2, 2019 by Buddy

[Buddy]

I’ve been doing some reading about the Festival which I’ve never done before. There were some very interesting and apparently highly capable individuals involved.

One that interests me is Wes Pomeroy. “Wesley A.C. Pomeroy (January 1, 1920 – May 4, 1998) was an American lawyer, Assistant U.S. Attorney General, federal coordinator for the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, assistant director of the DEA, and founding member of various humanitarian and policy-making organisations.” (Wikipedia).

He was made head of security by the Festival organisers. He was very sympathetic to the humanitarianism involved. He later worked in other police and humanitarian organisations.

“Ramsey Clark [US Attorney General in the Johnson administration] later stated after Pomeroy's death, "Wes Pomeroy was a loving and gentle person who worked hard, over the years, to heal the violence in our society. He was one of the few people in law enforcement whose interest and commitment was humanitarian and who understood that security depends finally on love not force." “ (Wikipedia)

 

Edited September 5, 2019 by Buddy
spelling corrections

[Buddy]

I’ve bought and read several books about the Festival. These include much information that I never thought about before, mainly about the organisation and the performers.

I did see many of the performances. I’ve read and heard various opinions about the quality of each, but I thoroughly enjoyed them all. I think that the artists for the most part, no matter what their condition or the conditions around them, rose to the occasion, some maybe giving their best performances ever.

Another description, this by Artie Kornfeld, Festival “co-creator,” rings a significant note of truth.

“When the song “The Weight” ended, I looked down and saw the crew trying to change the equipment. And it was the first time I truly realised that every part of the puzzle had to fit just right, or the whole thing wouldn’t have worked.

The crew members were doing awesome work. Not like it was a job, but out of love because they knew that the show couldn’t go on without them.”

(The Pied Piper of Woodstock)

By the way, the statement that Woodstock was either ”The greatest peaceful event in history" or "The greatest manmade peaceful event in history" was by Time Magazine shortly after the Festival according to the book "The Pied Piper of Woodstock."

Edited September 15, 2019 by Buddy
Last paragraph added

[pherank]

A friend of mine is a community radio DJ in San Francisco, and at the 50th anniversary time, he played some audio tapes his older brother had recorded at Woodstock. It was an odd mix of crowd noises, conversations, PA announcements and music from the main stage. There was something disorienting about hearing the same music available on soundtracks, but from an entirely different 'perspective', as it were. The recordings were picking up things that were not always obvious on the main soundtrack. I remember Creedence Clearwater Revival sounding really good  in this bootleg audio (although they didn't even make it on the original soundtrack album). Side note: Roger Daltry of The Who has stated that they were not wanting to follow CCR on the stage because CCR had played so well that night.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/07/arts/music/roger-daltrey-who-woodstock.html

[Buddy]

13 hours ago, pherank said:

A friend of mine is a community radio DJ in San Francisco, and at the 50th anniversary time, he played some audio tapes his older brother had recorded at Woodstock. It was an odd mix of crowd noises, conversations, PA announcements and music from the main stage. There was something disorienting about hearing the same music available on soundtracks, but from an entirely different 'perspective', as it were. The recordings were picking up things that were not always obvious on the main soundtrack. I remember Creedence Clearwater Revival sounding really good  in this bootleg audio (although they didn't even make it on the original soundtrack album). Side note: Roger Daltry of The Who has stated that they were not wanting to follow CCRy  on the stage because CCR had played so well that night.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/07/arts/music/roger-daltrey-who-woodstock.html

Thanks, Pherank, for your comments. The reason that Creedence Clearwater didn't get into the soundtracks or the movies was because of contractual disagreement between their management and their recording studio, more or less, according to one of the books that I read. John Fogerty, who essentially was Creedence Clearwater, was often at odds with his "boss at Fantasy records (Wikipedia)."

It's interesting that you mention tapes, because it brings us back to the same issue that I've often commented on at the ballet topics. Tapes, or any kind of recreations, may not best capture the real thing. My main reference here is the performance of Crosby, Stills, Nash (and Young). I was sitting very close and thought that they were excellent. I heard the original sound recording and didn't think that it captured the performance nearly as well as it could have. I always felt the same about Janis Joplin, that no recording, even live, ever captured what I saw her do more than a few times on stage.

As far as disorientation is concerned, I didn't feel this. It all seemed quite consistent. The many performances that I saw were straight forward and solid. The stage announcements were properly placed and very supportive for the entire event.  Distractions, including the audience, were almost non-existent. 

Added comment: When I wrote that distractions were almost non-existent, I probably should have said 'man made' distractions. Apparently the weather, rain and mud really effected many. I personally wasn't that over-inconvenienced by any of this. But everyone had their own experience and point of view, of course.

Still, the overall consensus by those who were there and those who weren't seems to be that it was quite an Amazing and Wonderful Event of historic proportion. I would totally agree.

Edited September 16, 2019 by Buddy
last sentence of paragraph one clarified

[Buddy]

Of the several books that I’ve recently read, the one that I most relate to and would recommend is “Pilgrims of Woodstock.” It’s a compilation of thirty, several page long, recollections by members of the audience. It also includes photos that I haven’t studied, although I felt at first that they gave a bit of a somber depiction but also had some lovely feeling. I would say that the text accurately describes the experience that many of us had, a multi-faceted, yet basically similar one, that overall was a very wonderful one.

I do have one personal qualification. This book and the other two that I’ve read, which are more about the performers and organisers, seem to emphasise some extremes, in particular the use of heavier psychedelic drugs, more than I ever experienced. I was pretty much in the San Francisco Bay area hippie culture for about five years, starting in 1968. Although marijuana was very prevalent, the use of stronger psychedelics, seemed more limited and less extreme in effect than these books would imply.

This is a calculation that I made that might be of interest. The estimate is that around 500,000 attended Woodstock. There are also claims (based on satellite photos, etc.) that as many as two million more were trying to get there. If this is true then approximately 1% of the entire population of the United States (around two hundred million) would have been directly related to the Woodstock Festival that weekend.

[Buddy]

This is a reader’s comment that has lingered in my mind for quite awhile. It’s in response to the book "Young Men With Unlimited Capital" written by two of the four Woodstock ‘producers.’ These two were pretty much the ones who raised the money. I don’t totally agree with the assessment of the audience or the producers, but something hits a right key and has to make you smile.

“….how could all of those wet and wasted young people know just how daffy its promoters were, how totally out of control they were, how far in over their heads they were. These "Young Men With Unlimited Capital" were taught the hard lessons of life….

 

in such a wonderfully loopy way that you just want to hug them.”

 

https://www.amazon.com/Young-Men-Unlimited-Capital-Legendary/product-reviews/0151559775/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_show_all_btm?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews

(last review on page)

 

Edited September 16, 2019 by Buddy

[Buddy]

It is a smiley sentiment in the post above, but I also think that much credit has to be given to everyone who helped make all the good that happened at Woodstock possible. There was a lot of very committed, competent and successful effort involved.

Edited September 17, 2019 by Buddy