Woodstock's 40th Anniversary

This Saturday, August 15th, marks the 40th anniversary of the start of Woodstock. In my just-published oral history, Back to the Garden: The Story of Woodstock (Touchstone), I share personal stories from Joan Baez, Roger Daltrey, David Crosby and many others. Here's part of my own story

Just after midnight on July 27, 1969, twenty minutes into my debut program at WNEW-FM in New York, I did my first live commercial. As instructed during orientation, I looked at the program log, opened up the alphabetized copybook in front of me, and rifled through it until I came to the Ws. When the vinyl record on the turntable to my right ended, I turned on the mic switch and did a quick back-sell of the music I had just played ("Sing This Altogether" by the Rolling Stones, "All Together Now" by the Beatles, and "You Can All Join In" by Traffic). I then proceeded to read these exact words from that copybook:

"The Woodstock Music and Art Fair is a three-day Aquarian exposition at White Lake in the town of Bethel, Sullivan County, New York. Friday, August 15, you'll hear and see Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Tim Hardin, Richie Havens, the Incredible String Band, Ravi Shankar, and Sweetwater.

"Then on Saturday, August 16, it's Canned Heat, Creedence Clearwater, the Grateful Dead, Keef Hartley, Janis Joplin, the Jefferson Airplane, Mountain, Santana, and the Who--the hottest group on the scene right now.

"Sunday, August 17, the Band; Jeff Beck; Blood, Sweat and Tears; Iron Butterfly; Joe Cocker; Crosby, Stills and Nash; Jimi Hendrix; the Moody Blues; Johnny Winter; and that's not all. Tickets are available by mail or at your local ticket agency for any one day at $7.00, two days at $14.00, and for all three days, just $18.00. A special two-day ticket is available by mail for only $13.00.

"For tickets and information, you can write the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, Box 996, Radio City Station, New York, one-zero-zero-one-nine, or phone Murray Hill 7-0700. M-U-seven-zero-seven-zero-zero. Remember, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair is being held at White Lake in the town of Bethel, Sullivan County, New York.

"They've had their hassles, but it looks like everything's gonna be okay."

That last line was an ad-lib -- a fairly pithy one at that -- but no one had any idea at the time just how important that three-day festival would turn out to be, not only to music fans but also to commentators, journalists, politicians, pundits, sociologists, writers, and members of the youth movement. These were my first few minutes on the air at the most important of the new breed of FM-rock radio stations in the country, and I was talking about an event that would soon redefine the culture, the country, and the core values of an entire generation.

Woodstock was, without question, the high-water mark of the '60s youth revolution--musically, politically, and socially. A gathering of close to half a million people in one place at one time is bound to get attention, no matter what the reason. But half a million young people gathered in one place at one time to flex their cultural muscle and celebrate their life-altering music sent shock waves from upstate New York to the rest of the country. Even in the technologically primitive stages of our global village, this legendary tribal gathering put Woodstock front and center in the consciousness of citizens around the world.

Without initially intending to, Woodstock made a statement. It became a symbol for all the changes that bubbled up during the first half of the American '60s and boiled over during the second half. Just eight years earlier, John F. Kennedy had galvanized the nation during his inaugural address with his declaration that "the torch has been passed to a new generation." He was talking about the torch handed off by the pre-World War II generation to the men and women who actually fought it. Woodstock was about the passing of the torch to the next generation--from the World War II veterans to their children, the already labeled "baby boomers," who grew up very differently than their forebears, with affluence, education, television, and, of course, with rock 'n' roll.

Comments

[Mazurka]

I so wanted to go, but I knew my parents would never let me. In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't. I probably never would have gotten through the traffic. My thoughts: people give the concert-goers all the credit -- I never thought enough good things were said about the people who fed them, gave them medical care, entertained them, shepherded them through the logistical breakdown. The audience were passive, helpless, almost infantile. Not much to be proud of there, really. It meant a lot to us then because it seemed like the beginning of the counter-cultural revolution. But it really was the beginning of the end of rock and roll as a social force. Soon it would only be about money. It's only about money now. It probably always was only about money. But we didn't know that then. And that's why we imagine that the time was blessed.

[jl4141]

To me, the spirit of Woodstock will always be epitomized by this quote from the stage:

"If you think really hard, maybe we can stop this rain!"

[thebirdstheword]

looking at it as someone who admittedly didn't remember the sixties (i was born in 68), i'd say that woodstock was really the low water mark. something that supposedly stands for youth & love & peace that has become nothing more than an endless & boring way to market re-re-re-repackaged crap to boomers. and i expect it wasn't really much more at the time. every generation thinks theirs is the cultural peak. i'm sure modern hipsters will tell you the last modest mouse / mgmt show they saw was the ultimate experience.

being a big fan of the who, i know they felt that way. and from what i understand, the whole "flower power" thing was already on the way down.

for me, as an admitted outsider but a fan of pop culture history, i would assume that 65-66 london was the height of the decade.

[SuzyRi]

Eons.com surveyed almost 2000 Boomers about Woodstock and the '60s this summer. From Proclaiming “Far Out” as their favorite slang term to electing an African American president as something they never would have imagined seeing in their lifetime, Boomers share who they were and who they’ve become in this survey. Here are some of the surprising results:

* Our favorite performer at Woodstock was Crosby Stills Nash & Young not Jimi Hendrix!

* Bell bottom pants and lots of hair dominated the scene—Bell bottoms were a must-have for both genders (80%).

* We became "The Man" and had satisfying careers (67%).

* And…we definitely feel there is still more work to be done to achieve the goals of our generation. As one participant stated, “We made more change happen faster than anyone dreamed possible before us. There is still a distance to go, but our impact on the process has been undeniable­.”

You can see more of the Eons Woodstock 40th Anniversary Survey results on the EonsTeam blog http://www.eons.com/blogs/entry/1793546