Woodstock...Anyone go?

[SkyChurch]

Unfortunately I was born 14 years after but I was just wondering if anyone on here went. Neither of my parents did. But the 60s seemed to be such a revolutionary time with so much going on. Even today's multi day music and art fests can't compare to Woodstock it seems. So I was just wondering if anyone went and has any stories to share about the music or the people that were around you, good, bad or ugly.

Oh yeah, Peace!

[Earlsays]

Do yourself a favor, pick up the woodstock concert/movie they made during the show on DVD...if memory serves, I believe it was just re-released with additional footage...I have it on laserdisc, and it's just wonderful. Unfortunately, I was not around during that time either.

[jfzea]

Woodstock - peace and love. I have a friend over 50s that were there. Very good experience. Santana spectacular Soul Sacrifice, Hendrix, Country Joe, a lot of music. 3 days men...

[Earlsays]

The country joe part of the show is great....GIVE ME AN F...GIVE ME A U...GIVE ME A C.....hehehehehe

WHAT'S THAT SPELL?!?!

[Twenty20Man]

The country joe part of the show is great....GIVE ME AN F...GIVE ME A U...GIVE ME A C.....hehehehehe

WHAT'S THAT SPELL?!?!

Soupy Sales.......lol

I was in Boot camp in Great Lakes.My sister and her dippy B/F had tickets but New York officials closed the NY Thruway and the B/F said screw it and came home...it would have been sooo cool.

[Toasted Almond]

I remember the original radio ads for tickets on New York City's WNEW-FM, and that I didn't really want to go camping that weekend. I am glad I made the decision I did. Sleeping in mud and dying of thirst for three days STILL ain't my bag.

[Sandy G]

I was 12 at the time, & I thought "Hippies" were dirty, nasty, EVIL people...

[LBPete]

This has been covered before. Here are links to a couple of threads. I was there.

Woodstock Link 1 (http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=93833&page=2&highlight=jefferson)

Woodstock Link 2 (http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=23003&highlight=sly+stone)

- Pete

[SkyChurch]

That's weird I searched the forums first to see if anyone had posted on woodstock yet and found nothing. I actually did see the movie a couple times, it was real cool especially Hendrix. Now that they have additional footage I might have to get it for that. Thought it would be interesting to hear from people firsthand what they experienced that wasn't caught on the cameras though.

[slow_jazz]

I had to sneak into the movie because I was too young. We thought it was the greatest seeing an R rated movie.

I used to have the 3 record album years ago. The Who were very good, Santana was very good also.

[Celt]

Was in 8th grade when the event took place. Remember all the hoopla surrounding it in the papers and on TV. Got the album when it came out and have it on DVD too.

[e2e4c7c5]

I was 12 at the time, & I thought "Hippies" were dirty, nasty, EVIL people...


:lmao: :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

[SpeakerLabFan]

I was 13 that summer and pretty much oblivous to rock festivals until a couple of years later, although I was vaguely aware of a few of my classmates turning into longhaired freaks and going to Grateful Dead concerts.

The Seattle area had a regional festival out in the mountain foothills starting in August 1968 - the Sky River Rock Festival and Lighter Than Air Fair with Santana, Big Mama Thornton, James Cotton, Country Joe and the Fish, Richard Pryor, Dino Valenti, Byron Pope, It’s a Beautiful Day, Peanut Butter Conspiracy, Alice Stuart Thomas, the Youngbloods, New Lost City Ramblers, and local groups such as Juggernaut and Easy Chair. On the last day, The Grateful Dead arrived unscheduled. I've also read accounts that Janis Joplin came up and hung out at the farm in Sultan where the festival was hosted.

http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=5425

[SkyChurch]

Speakerlabfan, that sky river rock fest sounds real cool. I go out to washington state every year, have been for like 18 years now. My grandparents live in Port Townsend. Western washington has got to be the coolest placest in America. It's so laid back and the scenery is amazing. If that fest was still going on I'd be there in a heartbeat. Doesn't matter though because the 60s are pretty much still going in western washington, lol.

[Ultra-Hog]

If anyone that went to Woodstock saw me there please let me know. I am missing quite a few weekends from that point in time:smoke: :scratch2: .

Seriously, I remember discussing taking a road trip to Woodstock with some friends but I ended up having to work. If I had any idea that it was going to turn out to be the event that it did I would have gone even if it had cost me my job. I was working at Radio Shack at the time (and for the next 25 or so years). If I quit and went to Woodstock things would be different for me today. Maybe better, maybe not.

[emoxley]

A couple of friends came to me and said we should all go. I said, "how are we gonna get there?" They said hitchhike. I said "NO". Be too hard for three of us to catch a ride. So, they went, and I didn't. When they got back, and was telling about it, I wished then, that I had gone. Hindsight is 20/20.

Since I missed Woodstock, I wasn't going to miss the big concert, the next year. I did make it to The Atlanta Pop Festival, in 1970. Knowing what I know about Woodstock, I think Atlanta was just as good, or even better. We didn't have all the rain and mud, in Atlanta. :)

[www.records]

I was 16 at the time and would have been considered a runaway if I had gone. I was well into my 60s rebellious period, and talked to a bunch of my friends about how cool it would be to go. I did love the movie though and acted like I was there, without ever leaving the farm.

[6thumbs]

I understand there are still tickets available

[Andyman]

Well I was 16 and about 700 miles away so I missed it, but I did hit the Midwest Rock Festival at the State Fair Park racetrack for Blind Faith, John Mayall, and Rory Gallagher in Taste!! :thmbsp:

[jonman]

. I did love the movie though and acted like I was there, without ever leaving the farm.[/QUOTE]


Did you have any of that wildwood weed?

[SpeakerLabFan]

Speakerlabfan, that sky river rock fest sounds real cool. I go out to washington state every year, have been for like 18 years now. My grandparents live in Port Townsend. Western washington has got to be the coolest placest in America. It's so laid back and the scenery is amazing. If that fest was still going on I'd be there in a heartbeat. Doesn't matter though because the 60s are pretty much still going in western washington, lol.

Hi SkyChurch,

Yeah, the summers are amazing - perfect for being outdoors and daylight until 10pm, but if anyone asks be sure to tell them it rains nonstop. In fact, I think that parts of the Sky River Festival were mudbaths. There are pictures of naked, muddy people if you do an online search. I remember listening to bootlegs of the Sky river concerts from the Grateful Dead archives - used to be available for download online at archive.org but it may be streaming only now.

Have you checked out the Experience Music Project? http://www.emplive.org/aboutEMP/index.asp

With your avatar, I figure you be all over the Sky Church soundstage at EMP. I've had memberships off and on, whenever I go there, I always have to be dragged away by who I'm with because I don't want to leave. :music: There's a permanent Northwest Rock gallery with some information and artifacts including posters from the Sky River festivals.

[Fast_Eddie]

Not sure if it was Sam or Dave, but one (or both?) of them went to Woodstock. Woodstock High School in Memphis. That's where the line in Soul Man came from "I was educated at Woodstock".

[tentoze]

Not sure if it was Sam or Dave, but one (or both?) of them went to Woodstock. Woodstock High School in Memphis. That's where the line in Soul Man came from "I was educated at Woodstock".

Interesting observation, since the song was written by Isaac Hayes & David Porter, I think. And that lyrical variant can be found, but "I was educated from good stock" is what I always heard in the song.

[eljr]

I was told about the concert by my cousins who were going. I was 15. I asked who was playing. The reply was ," Ravi Shankar and Joan Baez . I said I was not interested. I was a Hendrix, Airplane guy. Well when it popped up on my tV and on the front page of the Times I went ballistic and started hitch hiking to the site. Got about half way and realized I had to face facts. :sigh:


I went up just to see the fields on the 25th anniversary.

[Fast_Eddie]

Interesting observation, since the song was written by Isaac Hayes & David Porter, I think. And that lyrical variant can be found, but "I was educated from good stock" is what I always heard in the song.

I think that's it- it was David Porter. The version the Blues Brothers did say "educated from good stock" which, when you think about it doesn't make any sense at all.

David Porter went to Wood Stock Middle School in Memphis Tennessee and that's the reference in the song. As it was told to me, it was his way of saying he was from the home of Soul.

When I was working as a producer at WMC TV in Memphis, we did a show about Memphis music. We interviewed Rufus Thomas who told the story. Seems he knew everyone at Stax, or at least that's how he tells it. My faviorite line in the documentry is still Rufus saying "when Stax was Stax, Stax was Stax." He's a real character.

He also told a story about "Hold On, I'm Coming." His story is that the song was written in the studio when one of the band members excused himself to go to the men's room. After being gone for quite a while everyone started to yell to him to get back to work. He responded "Hold on, I'm coming." They started to mock him a bit, which quickly tured into the chorus of the song.

We also interviewed Isaac Hayes for the show. We met him late one night at a studio where he was working. We ended up staying there until early the next morning as Isaac explained Scientology to us. It was a very strange but very cool night to be sure.

[Fast_Eddie]

Wow, there's not much information on this on the internet, but I did find this link:

http://www.fretplay.com/tabs/s/sam_and_dave/soul_man-tab.shtml

It really only tells the same story. I found one other that did the same, but nothing from a credible source. As I heard it from someone who was actually there at the time, I'll accept it as true.

For the record, the song was written two years before the concert at Woodstock, so it's universally accepted by music historians that that's not what the song is refering to, though most casual fans assume it is.

[tdst51]

Not sure if it was Sam or Dave, but one (or both?) of them went to Woodstock. Woodstock High School in Memphis. That's where the line in Soul Man came from "I was educated at Woodstock".



EEGADS!! Where'd you ever come up with that?!? :scratch2:

[Fast_Eddie]

EEGADS!! Where'd you ever come up with that?!? :scratch2:

See my post above...

[DougMac]

Woodstock is a little too far from Macon, Georgia. I did work on the film crew of the 2nd Annual Atlanta Pop Festival (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_International_Pop_Festival_(1970)).

I still have a cassette tape of Duane. I handed out beers to ABB after they got rained off the stage during their performance. I was 18 at the time and my mom made the beer run for me. One of the perks of being on the film crew was the ability to get out of the rain.

I have never taken drugs. It was interesting to attend the festival clean and sober. Actually, the experience helped me decide that I never wanted to try drugs. That part was a bummer, dude. Too many kids too messed up.

Doug

[ZebraBlvd]

Wanted so much to go to Woodstock but was denied by the over 30 people running the house I lived in (aka Mom & Dad).

BUT I was able to talk them into letting me go to the Goose lake Festival that was held in Jackson Michigan in 1970. The festival only got together a little over 200,000 hippies. But it is 3 days that I will never forget.:banana: :banana:

[SkyChurch]

Yeah speakerlabfan, I've been to the EMP two or three times now. That Hendrix exibhit is great with his guitar and effects pedals, all his original art. One of the most talented musicians to ever touch the planet in my opinion. Whenever I tell people that I go out to Washington every year they always say "it rains a lot there doesn't it"? Although the summers are pretty damn dry.

[Scottsmrnyc]

Hey, I have an original, not a copy of the Woodstock 69 poster. I am told it is original because it has the Woodstock Music Address at Radio City Station; plus it is on the original wood back with cross wood for hanging purposes. If you go to headfi.org and look for Scottsmrnyc you can see it as my avatar. Unfortunately, I have been trying unsuccessfully to upload pics on this website with no success. You can also go to my website Explorationproj.com and see it there. I have seen many copies, but to my knowledge mine is the only original I have ever saw. I should point out that I was a teenager during the heart of the 1960s and remember hanging out at the Fillmore East and the village. I am also a collector of 1960s memorabilia. I am also a musician/ conceptual artist and an avid reader of books on the 1960s. The 1960s and all that it is and was has always been my main passion. I am now 55 years of age and have keep the faith going for all this time and will continue to do this until I am no longer here. Scottsmrnyc

[outshined]

Q. How many people attended Woodstock? A. 400,000.

Q. How many people say they attended Woodstock? A. 400,000,000.

[vinyldavid]

The country joe part of the show is great....GIVE ME AN F...GIVE ME A U...GIVE ME A C.....hehehehehe

WHAT'S THAT SPELL?!?!

I have been known to play this at loud levels...:D

[ScramMan2]

My boss knew I wanted to go and made me work that weekend. I was working at the local radio station at the time, got to "read" all about it, and share it with others.

[chillwolf]

I have been known to play this at loud levels...:D

I bet your Mama's not around when you do! :nono:

[leadlike]

My parents were just the right age for Woodstock but did not attend. My mom went to see the movie in theaters and took her friends. My mom had the largest vinyl collection and wore a purple cape on most days. For her friends, these were credentials enough for her to 'guide' them through the movie as they were clueless to who even Hendrix was. It was after seeing that movie that my poor mom realized that she only knew about half the acts that appeared in the film.

My Woodstock experience was through my best friend in High School-who went to the last revival one in 1999. I may have had a chance to go, but the music scene in '99 was nothing I really was into. Anyway, he described James Brown's opener as unending, where he spent 45 minutes introducing the band, followed by bringing out the guy who played 'mini me' doing a stand-up routine. He passed out from dehydration on the second day, as the bottled water was too expensive. Luckily, the IV he recieved at the medical station revived him nicely. He described it as incredibly hot, and that only the Free Tibet tent had air conditioning. So he hung around that place between shows, faking interest in their plight as they made sand paintings and gave him free water. The only act that impressed him (really by surprise) was Korn.

Now for the riot: In the news reports it was said that the final act had incited the crowd to burn stuff-this may or may not be true, but it was during that show that my buddy saw fifteen foot flames rising above the crowd from various bonfires out of control. There was a desperate race back to the car, however, they did stop to steal some souveniers from a trashed stand (I still have the shirt from that place) before seeing the big one: A cola truck (whoever sponsored the mess pepsi or coke) carrying pallets of soda all aflame on one side burst open; sending scalding soda over a rioting crowd.

Having survived it all to become a high school hero; he summed up the experience as just being really depressed by the negative atmosphere that pervaded. Sure, the retailers and promoters were charging a lot for everything, but most of the crowd seemed to be interested in that same 'all for me' attitude. Probably didn't help that Danny Masterson's entourage kicked the shit out of everyone who came within fifty feet of him.

[vinyldavid]

I bet your Mama's not around when you do! :nono:

Nope......but a friend or three usually is...

[AnalogDigit]

I only was 6 years old, I did enjoy the movie. I really love the groups from the 60's.