The Who vs Abbie Hoffman: Celebrating Woodstock's 40th Anniversary

In the book Back to the Garden: The Story of Woodstock (Touchstone), author and legendary New York radio personality Pete Fornatale collected first-hand accounts to tell the tale of the world's most famous concert.

In the below essay, the author looks at a significant moment at Woodstock where Abbie Hoffman took the stage during a set by Saturday headliners, The Who.

It was well after midnight when the Who took the stage. Townshend was already a bit grumpy. Meanwhile, festival organizer Michael Lang invited Abbie Hoffman to sit on the stage next to him to watch the set. Hoffman had been working as a volunteer in one of the medical tents, consuming large amounts of LSD to keep himself awake. Lang thought it would be beneficial for him to take a break, chill, and enjoy some great music.

Hoffman was still very involved in various types of political activism. One of his causes at the time John Sinclair. Sinclair, the leader of the White Panther Party, had recently been busted for selling a small amount of marijuana to an undercover cop. Hoffman, quite sensibly believed the sentence was an outrage, and that Sinclair was really being punished for his radical politics. Hoffman wanted to get up on stage and rally the crowd the injustice against Sinclair.

Let's just say his timing was a little off. Pete Townshend, never one to tolerate sharing the stage with anyone who didn't work with The Who, was already in a bad mood. There were rumors circulating that the tea and coffee backstage were spiked with acid. He was just looking for a place to sit down when, as he put it, "Some lunatic would come up to me like Abbie Hoffman or some stagehand and go, "Ahhhhhhh! Aaaaaaaah! Buuuuuuuupw."

Joe McDonald: I knew Abbie and I knew Jerry [Rubin] because I moved in circles where there were radicals. I knew that it was not uncommon for the pontificators, politicians, underground politicians to get up and try and make a speech. I knew he had been making a scene around there. He was stoned. Someone said he had taken acid and he was stoned, and I can believe that because it was crazy what he did. I was watching and all of a sudden, there was a pause because they didn't introduce their songs. Which was something that bands would do. Then -- boom -- Abbie walks up to the microphone and starts giving this talk, which I knew about. I remember thinking at the time that the audience was not going to be able to process this.

Hoffman remembered shouting into the mike, "Four hundred thousand of our brothers and sisters [are being persecuted] for no more than we're doing on this hill. It's only fair that we help out. We are the Woodstock Nation. We are one."

Joe McDonald: The Who was well into their set, and all of a sudden, this guy shows up and starts talking politics and anti-marijuana laws. I don't think Townshend was even aware that he was there. He just kind of looked up and "Who the hell's this guy?" A stranger shows up and starts talking in your microphone. It's your turf, but it wasn't a hostile takeover.

The mic went dead and Hoffman thought to himself, "What the fuck did they do that for?" and he kicked the mic.

What happened next provided one of the true Roshomon moments of Woodstock. Actually, that's not strictly speaking true. There were only two versions of what happened next: Hoffman's and everybody else's.

Hoffman remembered that he and Townshend bumped.

Joe McDonald: Peter walked over and bonked Abbie in the head with his guitar. Abbie's response was so funny because he just looked at Peter and then jumped into the press pit and went through the crowd and kept going.

And so ended one of the few moments of violence at a festival that celebrated peace.

Comments

[Mr Babealoni]

I remember this like it was yesterday. When it happened we were tripping our brains out, and I could not get anyone around me to verify that it had. Like whether or not the Grateful Dead ever played. All I heard was Chip Monk saying, "And that was the Grateful Dead." They were too stoned to play. Anyway, it took 20 years before I was able to verify it. A friend was a neighbor of Roger Daltry on Nevis and he said that it had indeed occurred. You see, LSD doesn't really create unreality it just enhances it.

[RFWoodstock]

WOODSTOCK LIVES ONLINE!!!! Listen to RADIO WOODSTOCK 69 which features only music from the original Woodstock era (1967-1971) and RADIO WOODSTOCK with music from the original Woodstock era to today’s artists who reflect the spirit of Woodstock. Win a Woodstock special limited edition white Stratocaster guitar and Collector's Edition Woodstock DVD. Go to http://www.woodstockuniverse.com for details.

Peace, love, music,
RFWoodstock
[e-mail]

[Dereck Evans]

And for an accurate soundbite from this incident listen to track 20, disc 3 of Thirty years of Maximum R&B. ( The Who)

[BrianInAtlanta]

What odd about this is that it appears all footage of the event was deliberately cut and suppressed. See my recreation from the existing footage and the unedited sound on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIG7nJ3w6qY
As you can see the film stops just as Hoffman begins to speak and starts up right after Townshend pushed him off camera.

Why was this footage suppressed and by whom? My own theory is that threats were made by the White Panthers in revenge for what happened. Townshend told later of being directly threatened during The Who's 1970 tour by the White Panthers.