Why Can't the Boomers Just Shut Up About Woodstock?

Enough with Woodstock. Please. Put me out of this baby boomer misery.

I have lived with this generation's self-absorbed false sense of grandeur long enough. I can not take one more day of Woodstock nostalgia, of both crass commercialism and well-crafted gooey reminiscences. I can not stand another thirty years of pats on the back, of admiration for a short lived burst of rebellion forty years ago (by a small fraction of the population) followed by a systematic destruction of most things good in America.

Hey, boomers. Let's put the sixties aside and examine your report card. So, um, thanks for Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Thanks for Yuppies and the culture wars and this silly division into red and blue America. Thanks for your generation's two signature presidents, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Could you have produced two more ethically challenged leaders? Thanks for Iraq, both times. Thanks for all the burst bubbles and the lack of infrastructure. Thanks for the exurbs and the McMansions and all those horrifying Cadillac commercials that ruined Led Zeppelin for me.

The failures of the baby boomers are no secret, of course. Back in June, the Wall Street Journal did a story on all the boomer college commencement speakers who castigated their own generation for all sorts of sins.

Yes, the music was great. Of course it was. I love the music, just about all of it. And Woodstock is a tough target, three days of groovy peace, love and jamming. I get it. I lived an hour from Bethel, NY, where Woodstock took place, for five years. I heard all the stories. But I also was awash in boomer nostalgia, covering both boomer politicians and boomer urban refugees fleeing to the exurbs to drive their kids between subdivisions.

So, you know, I snapped. At least generationally. Then I got called out in this column by a former boomer colleague for my GenX churlishness on the 60s (though you notice he sticks to music and divisive mockery, never addressing anything of substance ... typical boomer).

But unless you were backing up Janis Joplin in a secret jam session, or at least at, you know, actually at Woodstock, please, shut up.

One of the only good things that may come out of our current Great Recession is this: baby boomers will not be able to turn themselves into the Greatest Generation Part II.

Because you know they would if they could. After all, the Greatest Generation accomplished most of its heroics early on (afterwards, it gave us the military-industrial complex and raised the baby boomers).

So why not keep commercializing the 1960s and make everyone feel good about themselves out at the boomer retirement community? Boomers would be happy to take on that challenge.

That is impossible now, I hope. And that is good. For once in a coddled life, maybe this generation will have to stand accountable and stop coasting on all that incredibly good music.

And, in all seriousness, putting the 60s behind us is a good thing. Yes, the movements that came to a head in that era -- civil rights, gay rights, women's lib -- have now disseminated into the larger culture.

That is a victory. But those movements are not really of the 60s. They each were a culmination of decades, if not centuries, of activism and sacrifice.

And, as Andrew Sullivan pointed out in The Atlantic in 2007, the nation has been for decades largely defined on how it reacts to the 60s.

That is not a victory.

So let's put the Janis and Jimi next to Frank Sinatra and Benny Goodman in the "Really Cool Old Music" file. Let's put a moratorium on new books and documentaries about Woodstock. Let's help the boomers look beyond their own interests.

Let's move on.

Comments

[mspennyhughes]

Nathan, what are you a self-pitying Gen X or a sheltered Millenial? You are right about one thing, however. We can't be the Greatest Generation, Part 2 because we spawned empty-headed little wannabe's such as yourself.
Many of us relate to Woodstock because of the large numbers that were attracted primarily by word of mouth. Not via texting, advertising, internet banners, blogs, tweets or any other forms of communication, but by word of mouth.
Woodstock was an example of how people spontaneously assembled to celebrate and sometimes protest. When we tried to levitate the Pentagon, for example, we also did it without electronic communication. At the University of MD we shut down Route 1 to protest the war, without any twitter accounts. And May Day happened without one single text.
For the Woodstock generation, music and politics are inextricably linked.
What's your generation's politics and/or music? Who are your spokespeople, your music icons? Britney Spears? Kanye West? Beyonce? Yeah, they have a lot to contribute.
I say, shut up Nathan. You don't have the right to point the finger at my generation for anything.
The day you and your lazy cohorts get off your ever-expanding butts and actually DO something other than vote in American Idol or breathlessly reporting your whereabouts on a social networking site you can pass judgement on Baby Boomers.
We tried to change the world. Maybe it didn't work out the way we fervently hoped, but we tried.

[PaxMundis]

If you actually look at what was on the charts in the 60s, you get a very different picture. Yeah, yeah, there was Hendrix and Janice and Jefferson Airplane (the last of which really doesn't hold up, btw), but there was also the Monkees, TOmmy James and The Shondells, Paul Revere and The Raiders and a lot of very bland pop. Of course, through movies we get the impression that all people listened to were the Beatles, Dylan and The Doors (again, a group that doesn't hold up to the frantic hero worship) when there was a lot of chaff among the wheat.

[Nathan Hegedus - Huffpost Blogger]

Yippee. The 60s were cool. You all tried for about five years then, what, gave up?

And there has been lots of amazing music since Woodstock. Maybe not in the concentration on that special stage, but, please, don't bring up the best of the 60s and the worst of the current day.

That is so typical.

[ron27]

One thing corporate media has succeeded in doing over the years is to eliminate most references to the peace and anti-war movement. All of the retrospectives on radio and TV this weekend have ignored the famous anthem from Country Joe McDonald and the Fish:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwwEHJ0K_yw

Give me an F.........­...!!!!!!!

And it's 1,2 3 what are we fighting for.......­..........­.......!!!­!???????

[Theodore Trout]

Get Bent.
The Woodstock Nation was and is the Saving Grace of America, without it you would be totally lame.
PS:
I don't envy today's youth culture one bit.
You missed out; get used to it.

[PaxMundis]

Yeah, nuts to the authors of the Constitution, the Transcendentalists, the abolitionists, Eugene Debs, Dorothy Day, the Berrigans,the leaders of the civil rights movement (MLK was not a boomer), all their accomplishments pale in comparison to the "new greatest generation."

As someone smarter than me pointed out, a generation that coined the phrase "don't trust anyone over 30" does not have a lot of foresight.

[GeorgeLeonard]

Nathan Hegedus wrote, "But unless you were backing up Janis Joplin in a secret jam session, or at least at, you know, actually at Woodstock, please, shut up." Can't resist. Yes, my (very minor) group Sha Na Na played at Woodstock. Yes, we backed Janis Joplin up in secret jam sessions-- on Festival Express, and before that at Steve Paul's Scene. Now I've got a right to talk, huh? Never heard of you before but on behalf of the Boomers, here's what you've failed to grasp. Kid. Woodstock, in 69, was the year we Boomers reached critical mass against the old American values that were sending us to Vietnam as fast as we came of age. Since 1966, an amazing five million Baby Boomers had been reaching 21 every year-- and in the Summer of Sixty Nine we lost all patience with being drafted and being busted for pot and suddenly swarmed, like enraged army ants, marching in such numbers for the Woodstock orgy of music, sex and drugs that we closed down the New York State Thruway—and, what was immediately noticed, effectively revoked all the laws on the books, since arresting us all was impossible—a demographic prediction of America’s future: the world you live in, its values. We created it. You just live in it. It is continuous with Woodstock. Go back before it, you'd be in another universe. Goodnight. Kid. --George Leonard

[Roguer]

It's an honor Dr. Leonard. I am very familiar with your former group, although I had not followed where the members had ended up. Your resume is most impressive and your appearance here a timely welcome.

Keep up the good works...

[JimR]

Hi George... I was not at Woodstock (I was only a toddler at the time), but loved Sha Na Na, and as a kid regularly watched the TV show! (Not sure if you were still involved with the group at that point, but I do know you were instrumental in the group's formation.) Anyway, just wanted to mention that, because I am a fan.

I do have an aunt who was at Woodstock, and she cites many of the same reasons you just did for it being a momentous occasion. And I believe you both. And to hear you both describe it, it sounds great. I am not kidding.

So what the hell happened?

The Eighties, the era of unprecedented greed? That was still the Boomers and their values running things. But I notice none of you rush to claim credit for that. Don't you have to accept the bad with the good, just like every generation does?

[countfloyd]

Who was getting busted for pot?

[PaxMundis]

"effectively revoked all the laws on the books, since arresting us all was impossible—a demographic prediction of America’s future: the world you live in, its values"

Yeah, no one ever went to jail in New York state for drug possession ever again...

The fact is that it was the Boomers' immediate forebearers - the so-called "silent generation" of Martin Luther King, Rachel Carson and Betty Friedan - that really changed things for the better.

[Nathan Hegedus - Huffpost Blogger]

I have to respond to this. It is just too cool that I get called on the Janis Joplin jibe. I, too, loved the Sha Na Na TV show, and I still sing the goodbye song from it to my small children.

But, George, what world do you think I live in? Some groovy Woodstock enclave where the baby boomers kept their word and, at the very least, tried to do no harm? I live in a world where your generation polarized and paralyzed politics so that nothing gets done, where we have culture wars and Dick Cheney and two wars in Iraq that seem pretty in line with those "old American values" you supposedly washed away.

And as other people have mentioned, most of the movements that really changed the world in the 60s had leaders who were NOT boomers, but had been working quietly and at great risk to change things.

So, again, the music was great. Really really great. The spirit of the 60s was great. Really really great. But the 40 years since then? Pretty much a generational failure across the board.

[RoseMerry]

The thing is, those longhaired freak folk of the Woodstock Nation were numerous but only a small minority of the Boomers. Millions believed in Mom, apple pie, the military and Nixon's "Peace with Honor" and invest dollars in the stock market and joined the Reagan Revolution.

Do blame the Woodstock Nation for all that came after. We were just a small loud minority. Still wish we did better, though

[DiogenesOfAlaska]

Excuse me, what's your problem? Don't have any cool music on your own in your generation?

Same as it ever was...

[APMOTRBC]

Yes . . . we have plenty of cool music for our generation . . . music has continued, it didn't stop with the 60s even though most boomers got old really early and closed their ears.

Actually my problem as someone who was born in 1962, is how smug and self-centered boomers are . . . how certain of the greatness of the music. The snotty attitude that their music is better than anything that came before . . .Miles Davis, Ella, etc. and of course way better than anything that came later, Jason Mraz, Chic, Michael Jackson). According to the Boomers, music began and ended with them. But it didn't.

[DiogenesOfAlaska]

Do they really have that attitude? Isn't it a fact that many of the very musicians at that time have changed their own tastes and did something different later on? Like Bob Dylan, who got himself arrested last night?

And of course the notion that there was nothing before is ... well ... narrow-minded.

[PaxMundis]

"same as it ever was"

Funny you should quote one of the great bands of the 80s, a band which was mostly Boomers but who represented a new generation very different from the 60s.

Just because you stopped listening after "Rumours" doesn't mean there was no good music after taht point.

[Perry Clease]

I am willing to compromise. I will shut up about Woodstock if the "Greatest Generation" will shut up about President Reagan.

[PaxMundis]

...who was elected to two majorities largely by boomers.

[RobinSeattle]

Woodstock went from three days of love and peace to 40 years of merchandising.

And that is the problem with the boomers in a nutshell: they sold out.

The first indication of this for me was when Jann Wenner turned the counterculture Rolling Stone into a glorified version of People Magazine in the early 1980's, complete with glossy covers and fawning celebrity puff pieces. He then went and bought US Magazine to make the decline into inanity complete. I haven't read Rolling Stone regularly since about 1990.

Mind you, the so-called Greatest Generation wasn't that great, no matter what Tom Brokaw's (who is not a historian, but a college dropout) slobbering adulation might try to tell you. All generations have their stupid sides and their brilliant ones. However, with the boomers, they went from carving out new lifestyles and sensibilities to co-opting them with often cutesy salesmanship and ratcheting the level of hostility in our political discourse to previously unimagined heights (with GenX kids often fronting these asinine messages created by boomer consultants)..

The Revolution indeed wasn't televised, it was merged with the media-military industrial complex and anyone with any integrity was assiduously laid off since there was money to be made in milking cannibis fueled nostalgia. Heckuva job there, hippies!

[Tom Christian]

I really don't get the animosity between Baby Boomers and Gen Xers. I'm Gen X and I LOVE the music of the1960's. Woodstock was instrumental in later waves of music festivals which I am grateful to have had opportunities to attend.

But just as some in later generations simply have no interest in what came before, many times the older generation finds no value whatsoever in what came after.

Many of the technological innovations of the last 20 years was accomplished by Gen X. As an earlier poster mentioned, Google changed the way we do research, Amazon the way we shop, and Napster changed the entire music landscape. Yet all of these Gen X contributions were built on the foundations laid by the earlier generation (Jobs, Gates, etc...). Just as many of the contributions of the Boomers were built on the foundations of other earlier movements. It is all connected and that should at least be acknowledged if not respected.

By the way I'll be at Bethel Woods to watch some of the Woodstock 69 Alumni play this weekend, it's gonna be awesome! The Woodstock spirit still lives, even if many of the original attendees have long since conformed to social norms.

[APMOTRBC]

Well, maybe as someone born in 1962--supposedly a boomer myself--can share why there is such resentment . . . If you were born in 1962, that means at the age of 8 it was 1970, the 60s were over. That means that in order to celebrate our own coming of age, our own experience of youth was completely denigrated and belittled by those just slightly older. So, the music that we knew and loved . . .The Hotel California, Best of my Love the Emotions, The Wall, Pink Floyd were all discounted and dismissed as not being "real music" and certainly nothing as great as anything in the 60s. In fact, for years the music reviewers, those who determined that which had value were (and in some ways remain) were of the 60s. I, for one, resent the boomers and the 60s . . the music wasn't that good, they didn't get that much accomplished and took credit for much more than they actually did and then looked down at everyone else.

[countfloyd]

the music that we knew and loved

Speak for yourself. I was so happy when so called punk hit and brought back straight forward rock n roll.

[APMOTRBC]

The other big reason is that the baby boomer generation were like a generation of locusts. If you were born in 1959-1963 you are more likely to have dropped out of high school, more likely to be working outside of the "system," because the simple truth is the boomer generation by shear size took up all the resources, space, oxygen if you will.

They left little space or resources in the world for those who came before them. And, as the true feat, did that while acting as though they were so enlightened and cool. While voting white fears for Reagan and ensuring that in the 80s those who came behind them had less public resources. They became the generation of the "government is the problem." "I've got mine and I don't care if you ever get yours."

It is true, I have a hate on for the boomers.

[adobeman]

Hey Nathan! As a Mexican-American, it gave me ONE hero I could look up to....Carlos Santana...and he was in a band that had "mixed" race...which no one of that magnitude was doing. Either everyone was All-White (Crosby,St­ills,Nash)­, Zeppelin, Stones, etc...or All-Black (Motown), Isley Brothers, etc.

But Santana, with the great Gregg Rolie (who would go on to found Journey) was ELECTRICAL. To see Soul Sacrifice, in its 12 minute un-cut glory, still gives me goosebumps.

They came out of the streets of San Francisco's Mission District with Carlos Santana, born in Mexico, and Rollie on his Hammond B3 organ, Chepito Areas from Nicaragua on timbales and percussion, Michael Carabello, of Puerto Rican heritage, and the late, great David Brown, on Base guitar. To see the see the 17 year old Michael Shrieve on drums is still amazing...40 F>>>> years later.

You've cast a wide net in your self-analysis of the lint in your belly button. All I can say, I'm still listening to Carlos Santana, and appreciating his music. P.S. If you look at the movie, "Woodstock" you can see a very young Bill Graham on the stage, as usual, in the background.

From Evil Ways, Black Magic Woman, Europa, Stormy, Smooth and Maria Maria...the music still makes me smile!

[APMOTRBC]

I still listen to Carlos too . .. but I listen to his new music! Things have actually happened. Carlos is more artful now than ever! And, his new music is amazing, showing depth, growth and artistry . . .

So, join us and Carlos in 2009.

[Nathan Hegedus - Huffpost Blogger]

I saw Santana for the first time in 1989 in Berkeley when I was 16. But he was different then than he was in the 60s. And he is different now. This is my point. So many boomers have not moved on ...

[tnlib]

Ignorance is bliss - especially in the young who think they know it all but don't have the experience or knowlege to know a damn thing.

[APMOTRBC]

Ignorance is also bliss for the old who refuse to open their ears and actually be held accountable.

I was there as a young person. Boomers where then and remain the most self-involved generation ever.

Get over it . ..stuff has happened since then. Lot so stuff.

[WSKI77]

Summer of 69 was just prior to my senior year in high school. The British invasion started in 6th grade, and the Beatles broke up upon graduation in 1970. What a great time to be a kid and get schooled on the baby of the blues....rock n roll. It really became big money after woodstock, and that is really when the music died. I saw Cream, Who, Stones, Hendrix, Doors, and never paid more than 10 bucks. Eat your heart out. And oh yea....a "nickle bag" was 5 bucks....again, eat your heart out. It will never happen again. But I was there....

[APMOTRBC]

The music DID NOT DIE! There is still great new music being created . . . get an iPod . . .listen up!

[countfloyd]

Keith Moon - drank himself to death, John Entwistle -cocaine, Hendrix drank himself to death and who knows what happened to Morrison. Not exactly something to proud of.

[GenerationXpert]

Nathan:

As a Gen Xer who writes on the topic of generations, I'm here to tell you not to waste your energy writing this kind of stuff about the Boomers. We all know you are right, however, telling them to stop will not work. All they do is then come out and start calling us slackers and asking, "Oh yeah, what did YOUR generation do?" And then when we say, "Well, we invented Google. And Amazon.com," and then they just go back to calling us slackers.

I find that the smile, nod, and then get the real work done works well. Eventually they can head off to the retirement communities (I mean next life stage resorts) and listen to their favorite commericals, I mean songs from the 60s, and participate in team-building activities.

Cheers
www.GenerationXpert.com

[APMOTRBC]

You have just become my goddess hero!

[chaya]

As a baby-boomer, I thank you for this great piece. I heartily agree with every word.

[OnTheCusp]

Wow! They let you print this piece, but they (usually) won't print my posts if they dare to mention any boomer-loathing. Congratulations!