Woodstock Was A Peaceful Pied-Piper Of Change!
Jon Pareles` piece in the New York Times (Sunday, August 9th, Arts & Leisure) on the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, “A Moment Of Muddy Grace,” helped in summarizing the importance of this event. The Longhairs or Hippies, if you prefer, were more isolated, more scattered in local sub-cultural pockets, before that time. Woodstock legitimized the ‘counterculture,’ and maybe even commercialized it an iota. When the movie came out, and especially when it reached the more remote sectors of the nation, it acted like a distant ancestor of the internet, in terms of penetrating the social fabric of America. In Dallas we welcomed the film as a ‘Pied Piper of Change’ in a forest of wolves. The uptightness was lifted, if but for only a fleeting moment. “Well there aint no cure for the summertime blues!”
For me the true legacy of the ‘Hippies’ is Woodstock *(not the Manson Family). That 300,000 young people could assemble for three days straight, celebrating a potpourri (medley) of Peace, Love, & Music exclusively, is a miracle *(biblical, just as Jerry Garcia says in the movie). Woodstock allowed these ideas to endure, not perish from the memory of all Americans. This was a permanent change to America, and still maifests itself today, yet with a morsel of metamorphosis, factoring in natural adaptations in technology. You may want to reflect on the meaning of Woodstock for yourself? & if you can`t see Joe Cocker in his tie-dye shirt waxin` on “I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends,” as the epoch shatterin` performance of the `60s decade, then take a slow boat back to China, GOONFACE! “Following you, I climb the mountain. Let`s Go To The Hop.”
‘Woodstock 3 days of peace and music’ Is Out!
JOE COCK-ER, MAN! (with a tie-dye shirt in August, 1969) On Friday I managed to pick up the DVD: “Woodstock-3 days of peace and music.” It`s been forty years now since the historic festival happened, that apparently changed so many things. When the documentary film came out in 1970, directed by Michael Wadleigh, I immediately went out to see it, and then I saw again until I had memorized every scene *(100 times or more!). Naturally, I got the triple LP soundtrack; some of the kids in my neighborhood, who were garage musicians such as myself, tried to learn many of the songs on the record. When Woodstock came to the Gemini Drive-In in Dallas, we had a whole caravan of kids there to experience this festival together again.
The Museum at Bethel Woods has opened now at the original site of the festival, with many exhibits about Woodstock and also about the 1960s in general. I`d sure like to get up there to see it sometime. I did meet a man once, a Vietnam Vet, who was there all three days, and he related to me his own personal stories about the event. One item I remember, which he told me about, is that he somehow lost his Volkswagon Bug there, but later retrieved it. For myself, I would say, that I loved to experience the freedom and music of the festival, because the atmosphere of own life in Dallas was so oppressive, so uneventful, and those kids seemed to breaking out of the mold of mediocrity.
The film itself was well done; there was the split screens that required you to pay attention. It`s like three or four films all going on at once. The shots from the helicopter of the whole crowd are astounding! I guess that`s why they called it a nation. The bands were in top form; I have come to the belief that Santana was the very best act. Carlos playing that red Gibson SG on “Soul Survivor” was the peak for me. But I love all the little things too, like the interviews with the town folk, the port-a-let worker, Wavy Gravy, the Jerry Garcia clip, interviews with many of the kids, and the trash-cleaning ending, with Jimi Hendrix still jamming. We are still processing this whole affair; the importance to the American Experience is still in an assessment stage. It`s still unclear how a half a million people could have congregated peacefully for three days straight?