August 15, 1969 - the start of the Woodstock festival. I know at least one GN member was there - any chance of sharing your memories, Cat?
I must have watched the film of the festival at least 100 times - listened to the music a hell of a lot more.
Funny, I really don't remember hearing about it at the time - it was probably a year or so later, when the film came out, that I first took notice.
Just looking at the Saturday line-up..... how much would you pay to see Santana, Canned Heat, Mountain, Grateful Dead,
Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin with The Kozmic Blues Band, Sly & the Family Stone, The Who (started their set at 4 AM; 25 songs, including Tommy in it's entirety) and Jefferson Airplane? Hell, that's some line up!
Just watching a documentary now...."Woodstock Diary"....part one of three, showing tonight, tomorrow and Sunday. Guess who's going to be glued to the TV while they're on?
Gotta go - watching Ritchie Havens.....
Peace and love, y'all!
:D :D :D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
Oh, and by the way, one of the all time great rock singles was at #1 in the UK when Woodstock kicked off - Honky Tonk Women, by the Stones. (Hard to believe that was their last ~1 over here, but 'tis true.)
Some other UK #1's that year were:
Alabatross
Where Do You Go To My Lovely
Get Back
Dizzy
Something In The Air (Pete Townshend played bass on this - used the pseudonym, Bijou Drains!)
Ballad Of John And Yoko
Bad Moon Rising
Good year for music, wasn't it!
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
Funny...I was supposed to address my Rotary Club yesterday and reminisce about it...but here I am...ridden with the flu.
I was Class of '69 in a Westchester (NY) high school. After the prom we went to Jones Beach to swim with the dolphins and sewer fish. As you do, we talked about the coming summer and what you were going to do if you didn't get drafted. Someone said that there was a "hippy thing" happening in August a little bit upstate so we all planned on going...
As I got there early Thursday I was pretty much spared the traffic hassles. Me and my bud (Ron) had two cars parked side by side with maybe ten feet between them...and we banged in fence pickets in a box pattern around them, wrapped a roll of burlap around it...then over the two car bodies with plastic. We went for a walk...to see who else was showing up. Ground Zero check in was my friend's Dunkin Donut truck. Ya couldn't miss it. He had been freezing stale donuts for the previous month and he stocked up on Coke, hot dogs and "smokables"...he even had a sign out. He said "I just saw Linda and Maria and they were looking for you guys." During this time, Joan Baez was buying stale donuts. Anyhoo...when we got back to our bivouack...there were L & M...wearing short shorts and body painting themselves. "The paint's organic...you can even lick it!" they said. That was my first hour...it got way better from that point.
T
"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"
Wow this is getting interesting I want Cat to continue :D.. so what are smokables ????? :P jk jk
I wanna be that guy that you wish you were ! ( i wish I were that guy)
You gotta set your sights high to get high!
Everyone is a teacher when you are looking to learn.
( wise stuff man! )
Its Kirby....
Yeah Vic, Cat, Cool guy, most of 1969 was 40 years ago, for sure! It really was one of the greatest years in the history of our planet, even the moon too OMG :roll: :lol:
I was just thinking about Woodstock as well. The music was to die for or to live for and remember always. :D
Cars were out of this world and musical instruments were really, really hot too, all collectible now!!! :lol:
It probably led to my 1970 Plymouth Duster, ohhh.... and picking up the guitar and starting it. :shock:
Vic: "Where Do You Go To My Lovely" was a fairly obscure song here, but on my set list. :wink:
Like a bird on the wire,
like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.
Wow this is getting interesting I want Cat to continue :D.. so what are smokables ????? :P jk jk
Mmmm....Banana peels...yeah, thats it , that's all we were smoking back then. Mellow Yellow :lol:
It's true...you can't "go home again". It does NOT "seem like yesterday" that I was 18. My mirror puts pay to that. But...as I was supposed to outline for my Rotary Club (Sheesh! I'm a Rotarian now...who'd of guessed, then!) Sex, drugs and rock 'n roll ruled...as it seems to do today. 'Cept now I've got three teen sons...all musicians...and I can see that "sex, drugs and rock 'n roll" is still the norm. HOWEVER! Sex nowadays could kill ya, drugs nowadays WILL kill ya...and as far as rock 'n roll goes...I'm fed up with profanities, gangsta crap (oops, I mean "rap") and the complete lack of karma in any lyrics. You can even get ARRESTED for praying in a public place.
There was another, and way MORE IMPORTANT event 40 years ago: Death Of Hippy.
Off my soapbox, now...
The worst:
Ritchie Havens, Joan Baez (Civil War ballads??? Sheesh, lady!)
The BEST...hands down...was Sly and The Family Stone. They got the crowd up and gave a good dancin' lesson to white kids, fer sure! The Who were as clean as their recordings. Joplin was too drunk to be at her best...but, what the hey...Canned Heat: WAYYYYYYYYY TOOOOOOOO LOUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hendrix was tuned to the taste of guitar afficianados in the crowd so was all but lost on "normal" ears...Country Joe & The Fish REALLY hit home with "Viet Nam" (remember, kiddies...there was a war goin' on and a DRAFT!)
Oddest/nicest thing: a huge National Guard helicopter hovering over the crowd...and...just as everyone was getting bummed out...they began shoveling flowers out over everybody!
Stunned mullet moment: coming up face to face with Gracie Slick...WHAT China Blue eyes on that babe! Wore a nice hippy lacy top...see through-ish, too. Whoa!
Odd sights: hash pipes actually GLOWING in the dark!!!!! Cops getting loaded, too, and riding freakos around on their car roofs as they passed 'em in and out of their windows.
TERRIBLE things: some guy went to sleep under a farm tractor got his head run over when the farmer stepped on the cluth as he tried to start it next morning. Stepping on a fresh, hot turd out in the grass...barefoot...in the middle of the night.
All in all...it was a great time for me. I remember it as...truly...poignantly...as the "end" of my childhood.
There's lots of young uns here on GN with such a long and marvelous future stretched out in front of them. Don't blow it.
Cat
"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"
When you get almost 500,000 folks together you will have some problems. After all this was not the most well planned event of the twentieth century :wink: I was only 12 but my second cousin(Clarkie Clark) was there and told me all about it. Believe me , this was a BIG family scandal :lol: My brother in law just got the new Woodstock box set for his birthday (43). I plan to watch this with him this week 8) BTW they are going to re-issue the closing of the Fillmore west movie this month (I think it was west) It was put out in 72 I think but never released on VHS or DVD 8)
Whats so wrong about Peace Love and Understanding :D
(Sheesh! I'm a Rotarian now...who'd of guessed, then!)
News item broadcast on TV: "Researchers say that the average lion has sex 40 times a day."
Comment from listener: "Dang! I just joined Rotary."
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Ouch! But, hey...there's more than a few 55/60 year old cuties still out there! :lol:
But...yeah...okay. We're all on the same conveyor belt, Doc!
Cat
"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"
Stunned mullet moment: coming up face to face with Gracie Slick...WHAT China Blue eyes on that babe! Wore a nice hippy lacy top...see through-ish, too. Whoa!
WHo is that ??? o.o
I wanna be that guy that you wish you were ! ( i wish I were that guy)
You gotta set your sights high to get high!
Everyone is a teacher when you are looking to learn.
( wise stuff man! )
Its Kirby....
Ouch! But, hey...there's more than a few 55/60 year old cuties still out there! :lol:
Cat
Well, this 53 year old is certainly glad to hear that! :D
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-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´ -:¦:- Elecktrablue -:¦:-
"Don't wanna ride no shootin' star. Just wanna play on the rhythm guitar." Emmylou Harris, "Rhythm Guitar" from "The Ballad of Sally Rose"
Stunned mullet moment: coming up face to face with Gracie Slick...WHAT China Blue eyes on that babe! Wore a nice hippy lacy top...see through-ish, too. Whoa!
WHo is that ??? o.o
Been trying to find "Someone to love" as well - but can't find the woodstock version.
THE great moment from Woodstock? Well - there were a lot. Santana's "Soul Sacrifice" - the Who's "See Me, Feel Me" - Country Joe ("Gimme an F.....") I could go on, but nothing compares to THIS IMHO......a moment of absolute magic. Well, 8-minutes-odd of sheer musical perfection.....
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
you sure it wasn't Pete Townshend using his guitar to whack Abbie Hoffman in the head to get him off stage?
just had dinner tonite with friends hadn't seen in a while. turns out Jerry was 16-yo counselor at a camp located close to Bethel. when the fences came down, he went in with all the others. what cool thing for a teen.
-=tension & release=-
I heard that Ang Lee did a film on Woodstock, it will be interesting to check if he got the "spirit".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1127896/
I was 3 years old at that moment and my knowledge is only from DVD concerts and documentaries.
