It's a cultural moment most boomers shared, even though they weren't physically there: the music festival at Bethel, NY, that kicked off 50 years ago today at the height of the Vietnam War: Woodstock. Four days of music, mud and mind- bending, with as many as 400,000 people listening to 32 acts perform. The fact that it was a largely peaceful gathering reaffirmed the sense of many of the attendees, as well as fellow generationals, that it was the dawning of a new age of social harmony. Ah, those ice cream castles in the air!
A 50th edition box set including nearly every note played at Woodstock was released on August 2 by Rhino records, if you have an urge to hear how the event went down. Most are familiar with the soundtrack to the Michael Wadleigh documentary movie "Woodstock," which was released in 1970 and includes a sampling of some of the songs and artists, or you can just check out the movie for a fuller experience.
Joni Mitchell wrote the song "Woodstock" after hearing about the festival from Graham Nash (CSNY) and first performed it at the Big Sur Folk Festival a month after Woodstock.
By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere was a song and a celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bomber death planes
Riding shotgun in the sky,
Turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust, we are goldenStill caught, we are.
We are caught in the devils bargain
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden
