The 1960’s were one of the most tumultuous decades of our
country’s history.
The first big event of the decade was the Greensboro lunch
counter sit-in, which started on February 1, 1960. By the end of the summer of
1960, Woolworth’s lunch counters were fully integrated.
From May of 1961 until December of 1961, Freedom Riders rode
interstate busses into the segregated south to protest racial segregation.
In 1962, James Meredith (inspired by JFK’s inaugural speech)
applied to became the first African-American to be admitted to the University
of Mississippi. It took federal intervention to get him in, but he eventually
graduated in August of 1963 with a degree in political science.
On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was shot in
Dallas by Lee Harvey Oswald.
In 1964, Barry Goldwater was the Republican nominee in the
1964 presidential race. Due to his extreme views, he only carried 6 states in
the general election, and lost to LBJ 486 to 52 in the electoral college. Obviously,
America still was not ready for a crazy man to occupy the Oval Office (that
happened much later).
1964 was also the year when the Gulf of Tonkin resolution was
passed by Congress, which ultimately led to 11 more years of war and almost
58,000 deaths.
In 1965, race riots in
Watts started on August 11.
By 1966, the United States had increased the number or troops
in Vietnam to 500,000.
1967 was the year that the “summer of love” occurred. In spite
of that theme, race riots started in Detroit in July. Significantly, 1967 was also
the year that the Beatles released the “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band”
album. To add a little more excitement to the year, Arab forces attacked Israel
on Yom Kippur day in October.
1968 was the year that started out with the Tet offensive,
moved to the MLK assassination in April, the Bobby Kennedy assassination in
June, and the disastrous Democratic convention in Chicago in August.
After all of those events, what American REALLY needed was 3
days of peace and music, and it finally happened in August of 1969.
Woodstock
was initiated through the efforts of Michael Lang, Artie
Kornfeld, Joel Rosenman, and John P.
Roberts. Roberts and Rosenman financed the project. Lang had some
experience as a promoter, having co-organized a festival on the East Coast the
prior year, the Miami Pop Festival, where an estimated
25,000 people attended the two-day event.
The music festival was originally intended to be a profit
making venture to finance a sound studio, but the event turned out much
differently than planned.
Woodstock was designed as a
profit-making venture. It famously became a "free concert" only after
the event drew hundreds of thousands more people than the organizers had
prepared for. Tickets for the three-day event cost $18 in advance and $24 at
the gate (equivalent to about $120 and $160 today). Ticket sales were limited
to record stores in the greater New York City area, or by mail via a post
office box at the Radio City Station Post Office located
in Midtown Manhattan. Around 186,000 advance tickets
were sold, and the organizers anticipated approximately 200,000 festival-goers
would turn up. Eventually, of course, the number of attendees blossomed to
500,000.
After several changes of venue, the festival finally wound up
at Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, New York. At the time of the festival in 1969, Yasgur was married and had a son and daughter. On January 7, 1970, he was sued by his neighbors for property damage caused by the concert attendees.In 1971, Yasgur sold the 600-acre farm, and moved to Marathon, Florida, where, a year and a half later, he died of a heart attack at the age of 53.
The promoters originally offered Yasgur $50 a day to rent his farm, but the farmer knew that amount was absurdly low. Ultimately, the promoters agree to pay $75,000 to rent his land. When his neighbors objected, it strengthened his resolve, and he decided to go ahead with his plan to rent his land.
https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/1973-woodstock-s-unlikely-host-dies-1.5401698
The late change in venue did not give
the festival organizers enough time to prepare. At a meeting three days before
the event, organizers felt they had two options: one was to complete the
fencing and ticket booths, without which the promoters would lose any profit or
go into debt; the other option involved putting their remaining available
resources into building the stage, without which the promoters feared they
would have a disappointed and disgruntled audience. When the audience began
arriving by the tens of thousands the next day, the Wednesday before the
weekend, the decision was made for them. Those without tickets simply walked
through gaps in the fences, and the organizers were forced to make the event
free of charge. Though the festival left its promoters nearly bankrupt, their
ownership of the film and recording rights more than compensated for the losses
after the release of the hit documentary film in
1970.
The promoters originally offered Yasgur $50 a day to rent his farm, but the farmer knew that amount was absurdly low. Ultimately, the promoters agree to pay $75,000 to rent his land. When his neighbors objected, it strengthened his resolve, and he decided to go ahead with his plan to rent his land.
https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/1973-woodstock-s-unlikely-host-dies-1.5401698
Overall, the festival featured performances by 32 bands and 51
hours of almost interrupted music, starting at 5 p.m. on Friday, and ending at
11 a.m. Monday morning. Individual band performances ranged from 25 minutes to 1 hour and 40 minutes (by
Jefferson Airplane). The Who actually performed the most number of songs (23)
in their hour on the stage.
Crosby Stills Nash & Young did not perform until Sunday at
3 a.m., but their song, “Woodstock” (written by Joni Mitchell) perfectly
captured the event:
I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
When I asked him where are you going
This he told me.
He was walking along the road
When I asked him where are you going
This he told me.
I'm going down to Yasgur's farm
Think I’ll join a rock and roll band
I'll camp out on the land
I'll try and set my soul free.
Think I’ll join a rock and roll band
I'll camp out on the land
I'll try and set my soul free.
We are stardust, we are golden
Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel just like a cog in
something turning.
Well maybe it’s the time of year
Or maybe it’s the time of man
And I don't know who I am
Well maybe it’s the time of year
Or maybe it’s the time of man
And I don't know who I am
But life’s for learning.
We are stardust, we are golden
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.
By the time I got to Woodstock
They were half a million
strong
Everywhere there were songs and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
Everywhere there were songs and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
Turning into butterflies
Above our nation.
Above our nation.
We are stardust, we are golden
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.
We are stardust, we are golden
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.
We are stardust, we are golden
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.
The link below lists the performers who were at the festival:
The list below provides additional bio data on all of them:
1.1 – Richie Havens -died in 1973 – age 72
1.2 – Swami Satchidananda - died in 2002 – age 87
1.3 – Sweetwater - reunited in 1994 – all gone now
1.4 – Bert Sommer - died in 1990 – age 41
1.5- Tim Hardin - died 1980 – age 39 – heroin overdose
1.6 – Ravi Shankar - died 2012 – age 92
1.7 – Melanie Shafka - still living – age 71
1.8 – Arlo Guthrie - still living – age 71
1.9 – Joan Baez - still living – age 77
2.1 – Quill - disbanded – one member still performing
2.2 – Country Joe McDonald - age 76 – still performing
2.3 – Santana - age 71 – still performing
2.4 – John B. Sebastian - age 74 – still performing
2.5 – Keef Hartley band - still performing in 1980 - current status unknown
2.6 – The Incredible String band - active until 2006
2.7 – Canned Heat - still active
2.8 – Mountain - active until 2010
2.9 – Grateful Dead - disbanded in 1995 – some still active until 2015
2.10 – Creedence Clearwater revival - active until 1972
2.11 - Janis Joplin - died in 1970 –
age 27 – heroin overdose
2.12 – Sly and the Family Stone - active until 1987
2.13 – The Who - some members still active
2.14 – Jefferson Airplane - active until 1996 – some members still performing
3.1 – Joe Cocker - died 2014 – age 70
3.2 – Country Joe and the Fish - disbanded in 1970 - some members still perform
3.3 – Ten Years After - still active
3.4 – The Band - disbanded 1999
3.5 – Johnny Winter - died 2014 – age 70
3.6 – Blood, Sweat and Tears - still active
3.7 – Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - active until 2016
3.8 – Paul Butterfield Blues band - died 1987 – age 44 – heroin overdose
3.9 – Sha Na Na - still active
3.10 – Jimi Hendrix - died 1970 – age 27 – overdosed on sleeping tablets
Rain made a mess of the festival, but it didn’t cause many people
to leave early:
The late Joe Cocker (who was quite obviously inebriated)
captured the spirit of the event with his song “ I get high with the help of my
friends”:
Since we were smack dab in the middle of our involvement in
Vietnam, a few of the bands swerved into anti-war themes. The classic, of
course, is the song by Country Joe and the Fish, titled “ I feel like I’m fixin’
to die”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qPUJhy0Dz4
After 1969, anniversary events were held in 1994 and 1999, but the BIG news is that the 50th anniversary concert will be held at the same site as the original, starting on August 16, 2019.
After 1969, anniversary events were held in 1994 and 1999, but the BIG news is that the 50th anniversary concert will be held at the same site as the original, starting on August 16, 2019.
Yes, I know that nostalgia just isn’t what it used to be, but
if you had the chance, why in the world would you NOT go to the 2019 Woodstock
festival?
Just sayin’
