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"Oh, how cute. A bunch of drug addled children trying to prolong their adolescence as long as possible. Then, forty years later, they'll look back on the emptiness of it all and try to ascribe meaning to it."
Didn't make it to Woodstock although a lot of my friends did, but I went to Goose Lake, MI the following summer.
Managed to get in free, get really stoned and also lost my clothes. I even remember a few of the bands.
Jethro Tull; 10 Years After; Savage Grace; Mountain; Chicago; RAM; Bob Seger; John Sebastian; Litter; SRC; James Gang; Stooges; John Drake Shakedown; Flock 3; Power; Wizard; Mighty Quick; Brownsville Station; Flying Burrito Brothers; Suite Charity; MC5; Rod Stewart.
I was ten or eleven at the time Woodstock happened. So, I have to rely on what I've read and what I've heard.
IMO, while many good things actually happened during the sixties and early seventies, Woodstock typifies some of the worst things that happened.
I never could relate to people whose idea of living was to deal wit the complexities and unfairness of the world by getting high on dope, having indiscriminate sex, and basically tuning out things going on around them. That's exactly how some people respond to challenges even today and they aren't people who get any real respect from me. Rock music was the least of the problems. The major problem was the way a segment of the population was choosing to deal with the world around them.
Woodstock was the personification of what was known at the time as the "Hippy Movement" In addition to every thing I've listed above, people who participated in the Hippy Movement generally didn't work. Many simply chose to lay around in communal houses with other similarly minded people doing nothing. When I think of what I didn't like about this historical period this is about at the top of my list.
Heaven knows, there were a lot of bad things going in our country at the time of Woodstock. We had recently had the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. The Vietnam War was a huge conflict that in 1968 brought over 500,000 American soldiers to Vietnam. Racial issues were a huge ever present issue. People were beginning to wake up to other problems like air and water pollution. Richard Nixon was elected President and part of the reason why was a backlash by ordinary people against groups like the hippies. What has always been true is that one doesn't fix tough problems by doing nothing about them and choosing to drop out of society.
The music at Woodstock may have been some of the best in the country and that is fine. However, the rest of what the whole event stood for is better forgotten. I have no nostalgia for that sort of thing at all.
I was ten or eleven at the time Woodstock happened. So, I have to rely on what I've read and what I've heard.
Well you must have been reading the conservative mainstream media of the time, or were fed a diet of same by mom and dad, because your "information" is akin to the Reefer Madness hyperbole.
Many Woodstock attendees were still teenagers. They had limited ability to tackle the social ills of the time. The voting age was still 21 then---so they couldn't even vote! But they could get drafted. And yet, powerless as they were, they marched on Washington against the war, organized for the rights of blacks, women's and gays, organized Earth Day in 1970 for the environment, and participated in many more of the nascent movements of the time to attempt to change what they saw needed changing. And a lot of the good things stayed changed. There isn't even a draft anymore, people recycle rather than litter, people can look and dress how they want.
Did some just want to party at Woodstock? Or live in a permanent party? Sure, just like some young people today.
And at least use the more recognized spelling of hippie:
"New York Times editor and usage writer Theodore M. Bernstein said the paper changed the spelling from hippy to hippie to avoid the ambiguous description of clothing as hippy fashions." ---Wikipedia
I tell ya I feel blessed I found a copy of the ORIGINAL WOODSTOCK FESTIVAL ON VHS that isnt digitally processed!!!! (No sense seeing that.... The music wouldnt sound good,wouldnt look good,etc)
I would LOVE getting woodstock 94 on its official VHS also but I know thats not possible...... (They digitally mastered that tape) ......plus I dont like every band @ woodstock 94 where as Woodstock 69 i love every band/song -- Thats the one to have in its purity!! (Took a little bit but I thankfully got a copy )
ALL THE BEAUTIFUL PURITY OF THIS WORLD DESTROYED AND ITS VERY SAD!!
How could you say that peace, love and togetherness was crap ? If you look at the 69 Woodstock and the 99 Woodstock I think it obviously was not crap. Compared to 99 it was all about peace, love and togetherness. Jimi Hendrix was by far the best performance at Woodstock. You must have left early. The acid was a fun trip maybe you should have tried it. Why would you be worried about your clothes? It wasnt about that. You make it sound like such a terrible place to be when in all reality it was the best place to be. Thats all.
Losing one's clothes is not exactly the most pleasant thing to have happen. Obviously, Woodstock was not all love, peace, yada yada, yada, if people's clothes were stolen. Come on, now. I'm a baby-boomer myself, and I think that the "togetherness and the community feeling" that presumably existed back then was merely a short-lived mirage. Not everybody was that nice during the 1960's, either. There was plenty of meanness back then, which was quite overt, and that I experienced personally, due to reasons that I will not disclose here.
I just got WOODSTOCK on VHS and it is the best event I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!!!! (I have heard of it but didnt see it like this until now)
I cant believe how many were openly smoking pot!!
I have also seen Woodstock 94 (Live TV in 94 (Recorded to VHS)) and 99 (VHS) and heres my views
94 is just about as good as 69 was..... (Although some bands I didnt like)
99 is complete crap and a disgrace to the original woodstock meaning!! (I got rid of the tape after I watched it,i was disgusted...... (Took it back to salvation army))
BOY WHAT A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WOODSTOCK 69 AND 99!! (What happend to this once beautiful/pure world??)
The world was never as beautiful and/or pure as you care to believe.
So, we have remember when threads going, and Woodstock's Festival appears to have come up, at least on a couple of occasions. Do you remember it? Did you participate and what did it represent in our society or to you personally?
I believe a new museum is opening to commemorate the event not far from the site sometime later this year.
What are your thoughts? Mine, sadly are blank. I must have been busy. elsewhere!
I was 12 and at summer camp in New Hampshire when Woodstock happened. My "firsthand experience" was with the weeks of rain that turned the entire region into a mudfest, made famous by the movie. My parents took me to see the movie when it opened in October 1970.
The fact that Woodstock didn't turn into a disaster along the lines of Altamont was pure luck. There was nothing about "hippy culture," good or bad that made things work out as well as they did. If anything, I suspect the rain helped since big rainstorms and snowstorms can create a temporary sense of community. If the conditions prevailing almost exactly a month earlier, from July 15-19 prevailed (a major East Coast heat wave) I would expect that the out-of-shape drunk and high hippies might have been in serious danger, since there was no good way to get people out. To have roughly one quarter million badly out of shape people in such a gridlocked setting, lacking basic sanitation, and potentially food, could have ended very badly.
I bought the record album. The music, of course, was great. In that era, roughly from the mid-sixties to 1972 or 1973 wwe were spoiled by an unusually good array of musicians, albums and songs. That's wy people my children's age, 20 and 19 still listen to it. At that era we wouldn't have been caught dead listening to music of 25 years earlier, i.e. Tommy Dorsey or the Andrews Sisters. I will admit one of my sons listens to Glenn Miller but I digress.
In short, the music was great. That Woodstock is remembered as a triumph and not a tragedy is a fete of pure luck.
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