15th August - 18th August 1969
Poor Max Yasgur's dairy farm land, in Woodstock, Ulster County, New York, away from the din and mechanical drone of the city... Even the silent hayfield never guessed the approximate number of milling men women and kids who would troop in to its peaceful surrounding...making the next three days an unforgettable monumental moment in the history of music in the whole world! Within few hours of the 15th , voices were heard coming in on bikes, on trucks, on tractors, on their own vans and chevvys, on bicycles, and even by foot. There was a mad rush of setting up the stage, nobody was too big or small, too exclusive or even too snooty to take off their shirts and hammer planks into place, and build the entire stage, backstage, and cubicles for the equipments, towers for setting up the sound boxes, and wired the place for sound within an exceptionally short time!
It was as if they were working like hell, driven by the excitement and urge to make this meaningful , as if their life depended on it, that when they turned back to check out how it looked, their eyes fell on the audience which they had estimated would be a few thousand, but what they saw took their breaths away... Uncountable, as far as the eye went over the lazy hill, under the mellow sun, for acres and acres around, thousands of heads could be seen, waiting expectantly for them to start...
And then, Richie Havens came on to the stage with “i cant make it anymore”, and went mad singing his “freedom” all over the stage, riffing his acoustic with a passion never seen before. It was as if the guitar in his hand and he were united in their own emotions, dead to the world, possessed with fever! Donovan with “yellow is the colour of her hair” and Daryn Stafford with his “i said i believe”. It was evening when Joan Baez came to the stage with “i dreamed i saw joe hill last night alive as you and me” and ended with “swing alone” 15th nights’ performance was brought to an electric jamming by the artists of The Who singing “see me feel me, summertime blues”...
The next day when it was light enough to check out your immediate surroundings, one could see the mass insanity setting in... girls in sarong, jumping around like crazy were tearing daffodils mumbling he loves me, he loves me not...
There was a young girl who said that her mommy she would go to hell, her mommy never understood her, and there was no communication between them, age gap, generation difeerence, or god knows what... she was all here, smoking deeply though those young lungs and dreaming of going along with the flow. The fellow who had hooked up with her was equally enthusiastic sitting outside with no money in his pocket for a ticket to enter the hayfield said, that his dad thought he was in the communist training club, what he believed was in drugs and revolution, and once he got to Woodstock, he had swore he would think about it... 60,000 people came here for what? people do not know how to live anymore, they do not know what to do.. they are lost - they came here for answers...they came to be free....
Back at the stage was the Sha-Na-Na singers, A. Singer, J. Medora, P. White with what became the cult of the youth for decades to come, “lets go to the hop” and Joe Cocker and his “with a little help from my friends”.
Nearby along the vans between breaks and short gaps in music, we see energy exercises - kundalini yoga to be specific. Same rush we get from drugs...clean air is what we want, we will experiment with this, and get high...the nerve of awareness... this was what was being taught... taught to free oneself...falling into the mad frenzy to be free...
A sudden brewing storm unexpectedly was suddenly looming up on the crowd. The stage manager and the team together screamed on the microphones to cover the equipments, to get away from the towers, maybe if we think hard, we can stop the storm, wind is strong, please take it calm and easy, we will groove to Country Joe soon enough"... the rain chant...magic. mud. madness... Bodies from hell, or heaven as i would prefer all intertwined and covered in mud, as if from a Dante's painting said someone in the crowd after Creedence Clearwater's performance... all over the place, people were all smoking pot and blowing into the air from hand crafted aluminium foiled pipes with arlo gutherie’s “coming into los angeles” in the background...
The next day Crosby, Stills And Nash was up on stage with “Judy Blue Eyes, Sea Of Madness, Wooden Ships” and later, Alvin Lee “ im going home” from his band The helicopter and Jefferson Airplane sang “wont you try my love?”
Meanwhile, people were on the phone lines, and quite suddenly, the US Army arrived to give them a medical team, “they're with us man, they are helping us, 45 doctors, here without pay, taking what it is all about...”
Morning showed naked kids at the drums, kids playing at the tent poles, at their mommy's breast, on their papa's shoulder while John Sebastian sang “younger generation.” Country Joe Macdonald electrified the crowd as they sang along with him, “5-6-7 what are fighting for?”
Max Yasgur and his family along with some older men went stomping off the farm, "its a disgrace - our fields have been cleared! its a mess..its a loss”...they were pissed off at the 60,000 spending their days lazing around as if in an open whore house, devoid of scruples, religion, culture, and sense ... the beautiful young nymphs, dancing in the waters, cleaning themselves...on the beautiful afternoon... and the young men joining them in the game they called music and free love...
We got one more tune for you.... Joe Santana “ soul sacrifice”... no words to describe it, a mad exhilaration and ecstasy... Santana and the banjos, his killer drummer, and the electric pulse. All raising hell and fire inside the souls present... Sly And The Family Stone “baby take me higher!!!” and Janis Jolin “dont you forget me lord!”
Something was proven to the cosmos - the largest people assembled in one place without any thought for few inconveniences of food and water, shelter. The singers and their audience were connected. When they were hungry, love kept them alive.
The Woodstock stage welcomed Jimi Hendrix who started with “the star spangled banner”, then moved on to “purple haze”, and ended with an instrumental on his guitar driving them crazy with his crazy shit.
The last scene in the documentary on Woodstock showed me the entire crowd cheering and screaming and overflowing emotions....
The world's largest gathering at one place...
Music and madness...
To be relived again and again.
Woodstock.
ALVIN LEE AND THE HELICOPTER WITH I'M GOING HOME
JOAN BAEZ BACKSTAGE WITH RAVI SHANKAR AFTER JOE HILL
COCKER AND HIS WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS!
CROSBY, STILLS AND NASH WITH THREE MAD NUMBERS JUDY BLUE EYES, WOODEN SHIPS AND ENDING WITH THE SEA OF MADNESS!
DONOVAN WITH YELLOW IS THE COLOUR OF HER HAIR <3
JIMI HENDRIX WITH PURPLE HAZE!!
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE WITH WON'T YOU TRY MY LOVE?!
RICHIE HAVENS WITH FREEDOM
SANTANA
SANTANA WITH SOUL SACRIFICE
SEBASTIAN WITH THE YOUNGER GENERATION!
THE CROWD OF 500,000 AT WOODSTOCK
KUNDALINI YOGA FOR A CLEAN BREATH AND TO GET HIGH!
SHA-NA-NA WITH LETS GO TO THE HOP!!!
ARLO GUTHERIE WITH COMING INTO LOS ANGELES
COUNTRY JOE WITH WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR!
JIMI HENDRIX ENDING WITH AN AWESOME INSTRUMENTAL!
strange fact: The byrds ( their song "turn turn turn" matches so much wid the mood of the fest) refused to participate as they thought woodstock is no different from any other music festival
ReplyDeleteand Dylan had to fly back to England due to an emergency and the Beatles didn't play as Lennon had some differences with the parties involved!!
ReplyDeleteIt was great read, it very well captures the spirit of a hippie crowd. its the fight against "the man" and the feel of being free that brings them all together...
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