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Rteacher · Joined: 23 May 2005 Location: Western MA, USA

Well, since I'm as old as the hills, and I was in fact one of the first couple hundred people to show up at the event (...having bought a ticket costing $36.00 - I think two months in advance) let me give you a few of my impressions and thoughts about its significance.
...As I recall, I'd just dropped out of UMass-Amherst for the third time. Although I had usually been an excellent student through high school I just couldn't function as a student in the tumultuous Viet Nam/ turn on - tune in - drop out era. Like many others I was upset by images in films screened often on campuses graphically depicting the effects of napalm dropped on poor villagers. The faces of women and children could be seen horribly melted to the ground by the caustic chemicals manufactured by Dow Chemical (one of our favorite protest targets).
...Music was becoming increasing important by the late sixties - creative artists in various genres were seemingly coming together and expressing hatred of war and "the culture of death" and offering visions of peaceful, harmonious co-existence. The Beatles by their beautiful tunes, clever lyrics and charismatic personalities greatly increased awareness of the power of music and were like demigods. Bob Dylan ("Times...are a Changing"/"Blowin' in the Wind"/"A Hard Rains a Gonna Fall") was like an elder prophet. Joan Baez was the clarion voice of truth and justice. The Jefferson Airplane were inspiring their legions of fans to become "Volunteers of America" ("...GOT to revelution.!..GOT to revelution!...) Ravi Shankar devotedly created melodies so intensely brilliant that they seemed to transcend music and culture. The Who defiantly announced "We're not gonna take it...(anymore)! " Richie Havens was the soul of not just blacks - but all the downtrodden - praying loudly for "Freedom!" Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young memorialized the Kent State massacre by National Guardsmen with the battlecry "Remember OHIO!" Country Joe and the Fish sardonically urged "mothers throughout the land" to "get their boys off to Viet Nam" so they could "be the first ones on their blocks...to have their boy come back in a box!" The bad-boy Rolling Stones signaled that it might be "time for violent revelution."
So, all these acts - with the notable exception of the Beatles and Stones - came to Woodstock - along with other popular acts that also culturally significant (eg: Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone, John Sebastion, Arlo Guthrie) Some just produced very good and/or entertaining music like Santana, Ten Years After, Canned Heat, Mountain, Incredible String Band, Joe Cocker and Sha-Na-Na.
Anyway, some of my personal experience I noted on another thread (I was leaning against the stage - or very close to it - for a good part of the show...) When it was over on Monday morning I hitched a ride back to Springfield, Mass., outwardly muddy - but inwardly determined to promote the goals of peaceful revelution largely based on the mysterious power of music.
Unfortunately, drugs were also considered by many to be an essential part of "the whole scene," and it resulted in a lot of confusion, corruption, and death. The term "Woodstock Nation" was coined, I think, by Abbie Hoffman, and he may have been one of the more sincere among the youthful political leaders that emerged at that time (YIP) I personally met some of the other so-called leaders like Jerry Rubin, and I concluded that many of them were more-or-less phonies just in it for personal profit and fame...So, sorry to end on a sour note, but the music and ideals expressed were often great - and Woodstock was like a culmination of that vision...

Rteacher · Joined: 23 May 2005 Location: Western MA, USA

Reading my post over, I realized that I forgot to include a couple acts that were prominent at the original Woodstock. Credence Clearwater Revival and The Band were both great musically and CCR presented the perspective of Viet Nam vets ("I ain't no rich man's son"). Leon Russell was also there, but I don't think Bob Dylan actually made an appearance - there were just persistant rumors that he'd fly in. I also noticed that I mispelled "revolution" - I guess because there was so much revelling going on...

Rteacher · Joined: 23 May 2005 Location: Western MA, USA

Ok...only because I care, I looked it up, and it seems I left out some other notable acts that played at the original Woodstock: Sweetwater, Melanie, Tim Hardin, Blood Sweat and Tears, Johnny Winter - and the great Paul Butterfield Blues Band. No-shows were Jeff Beck (due to band break up) and Iron Butterfly (stuck at the airport).

Rteacher · Joined: 23 May 2005 Location: Western MA, USA

The Way This Thread Died!
I guess everyone accepts my rambling thoughts on Woodstock as definitive. (OK, I know I departed a little from the original thread - and I appreciate the link provided - but I really thought I'd stir up at least some further discussion on the significance of Woodstock...) Then again, there are some big generation gaps that need to be bridged somehow...I tried to give my honest impressions as a participant/observer of an unprecedented cultural phenomenon. I think it was Ravi Shankar who remarked that when he first saw all these long-haired, colorfully attired (or unattired) hippie types congregated en mass as far as the eye could see he thought he must be in India - not the U.S.

joe_doufu · Joined: 09 May 2005 Location: Elsewhere

Well I'm sure it was a good show.

igotthisguitar · Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 11:05 pm Post subject:

>. Thanks for you comments RTEACHER. Amazing you were actually there. I was just a baby in swaddling clothes !!!

The original Woodstock was undoubtedly an historic cultural landmark.