LUCIDMEDIA

Woodstock: 40 Years Later – The Music

Written by Andrew Skinner Monday, 10 August 2009 13:49

Woodstock is remembered for much more than its music, and the movie is a factor in promoting this, but it is clear that Woodstock was a disaster waiting to happen. It was a fluke, and perhaps that precarious intensity is why the music is remembered the way it is.

Busihippie hybrids Artie Kornfeld and pied piper Michael Lang together with the financial backing of the ‘counterculture curious’ John Roberts and Joel Rosenman brought it all together, planning well for some things and not so well for others. There were about 600 portable toilets for about half a million people, so it’s a good thing the festival was only three days, the maximum that most people could wait. Perhaps without “We shall overcome” by Joan Baez at the end of day one, things would not have been alright.

The tone was set on Friday: Richie Havens with his song ‘Freedom” [his bass player couldn’t make it to the stage]; Joe McDonald continued filling airspace with his F.U.C.K. cheer, and the rain during Ravi Shankar’s set. Bert Sommer played too, but left out of the movie is barely remembered. There were also many unscheduled solo appearances.

Canadian author of Woodstock: Peace, Music & Memories Brad Littleproud says “They almost electrocuted everybody. They were afraid as hell that they were going to fry everybody on the hill… and …They watched those towers swaying.” It was perhaps this heightening of anxiety and other restraints that pulled everyone together more than anything else- their adventurous and jittery expressions were not just their excitement and drug buzz, but fear as well.

The gang of four decided that to get all the folksy, funk and rock bands, they had to pay them a lot. Once Jefferson Airplane and Sly & The Family Stone signed on everybody wanted in. The Who and Creedence Clearwater Revival were paid about 12 grand for the gig. Jimi Hendrix, the headliner, was paid more than double that in a deal made by Lang. Hendrix also insisted on going last right after Sha Na Na, who was paid 300 bucks, apparently.

“Too pretty to sing,” Melanie, the female Bob Dylan who was casually invited to play by Lang, was terrified before her performance which she thought was going to be a low key “picnic in the park,” so she brought her mother with her. Most of the 32 musical acts made much more than their usual fare and many of them, particularly the less popular, were part of a package deal. “Who the hell is Santana?!” someone is reported to have said.

Music historian James E. Perone, author of Woodstock: An Encyclopedia of the Music and Art Fair,also feels its success came in the face of adversity. “First of all, the promoters advertised the festival as ‘Three Days of Peace and Music…An Aquarian Exposition.’ Studiously avoiding the advertising paradigm of the time, which was to list all the big-name performers. This shifted the emphasis from the performers to the entire gestalt of the experience…”

Littleproud agrees that without Artie Kornfeld smoothing things over, and “Wavy Gravy” and Abbie Hoffman, there may have been real problems. There is generally the belief that everyone was unprepared, but that they would help each other. The end of peace was never far off as when Hoffman marched on stage during The Who’s set to make a political statement.

Most people were “goin’” up the country’ and thought it would be a very laid back affair of music, art and peace. According to Susan Reynolds author of Woodstock Revisited: 50 Far Out, Groovy, Peace-Loving, Flashback-Inducing Stories From Those Who Were There, “Everybody thought Dylan would be there. People were buzzing about it the whole time…sure he would show up and then he didn’t” She feels there is often a confusion between what people actually saw or heard and what actually happened in their experience and vice versa, with what they saw in the movie. Because of Joni Mitchell’s song “Woodstock,” “Everybody thinks she was there, but she wasn’t there.” Her agent booked her for The Dick Cavett Show instead. Dylan was simply a no-show even after Lang visited him, for reasons that remain unclear: poor health, not enough money, or annoyance at the hippies loitering around his house.

CCR were hot on the charts at the time she says, “We really got a kick out of them.” A contributor to her book Vinny Stefanelli says that he wanted to see Jimi Hendrix but had to leave before the performance like most other people and missed the star spangled moment. Joe Cocker was a great guitarist and he was knocked over by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. He even remembers the farmer Max Yasgur coming out and speaking. “I thought it was incredible that this guy whose land was being pretty much destroyed… was so gracious and hospitable.” He goes on to say “It defined a moment in time more than it did a generation that moved on.”

Another contributor John Bianco vividly remembers being woken up by Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, constant reminders about the towers and Sha Na Na; but, “The Who, for some reason I don’t remember them at Woodstock. They are always the band that I can’t be sure whether they were there or not there.” The greatest song and anthem for him that defines Woodstock was CSN and “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.”

Iron Butterfly got stuck at the airport and never made it to the Garden of Eden. The Doors didn’t like outdoor shows, and Jethro Tull thought it would be “no big deal.” Led Zeppelin, a young band then, got more money elsewhere and their manager didn’t want them playing with other bands. And Canadian band Lighthouse feared a “bad scene.” Woodstock Ventures, Inc. was not so fussy.

Opinion seems divided on Janice Joplin’s performance. The big surprise of the show was the completely unknown Santana, and the high point, at least according to Littleproud, was the song “I Want to Take You Higher” by Sly & the Family Stone. “People just got totally energized. They could feel the vibration under their feet…hundreds of thousands of people just stomping.” From that extreme there’s the band Sweetwater who jokingly say they were the sound check as the first rock band to go on and could not hear each other. Meanwhile, The Grateful Dead were getting shocks every time they touched their microphones, their reactions sparking rumors for years that this was just how they played. But none of it mattered at Woodstock

There were some technical accomplishments. Bill Hanley would shout at the crowd “Can you still hear us?,” and pretty much created the front-of-the-house sound system. “As the clouds got lower the sound got better” says Littleproud. Chip Monck when not working on the lighting did the “bad acid” announcements! Which were perhaps too late for Carlos Santana praying to God to stay in tune as his guitar neck turned into a snake. But still he got through it and that’s good karma.

There are certainly a number of unknown knowns such as Quill, Melanie, Tim Harden, Keef Hartley Band, Paul Butterfield, and Johnny and Edgar Winter, that did not appear in the movie and that is everything. The paradox-anachronism of helicopters and skinny dipping hippies is a little morbid but it does creatively keep Woodstock on the mind. And it’s still just great music.