Boomer music haters, feel free to keep going, because today gives us another opportunity to look back on an exceptionally creative time in popular music, and specifically what many consider the peak musical event of that time: the "Woodstock Music and Art Fair," a.k.a., just "Woodstock." On August 15, 1969, its 32 musical acts including Santana, Richie Havens, Grateful Dead, CCR, Janis Joplin, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, The Band, Sly and the Family Stone, CSNY, and Jimi Hendrix provided the soundtrack for a ramshackle, muddy, indulgent, chaotic 3-day counterculture trip. We like Alexandra Petri's description of the phenomenon:
"Woodstock didn't define a generation because everyone showed up or those who did were a perfectly representative sample. It defined a generation because, for a few days, it bottled its peculiar zeitgeist."
One artist who wasn't there was Joni Mitchell, who wrote her wistful, achingly beautiful, utopian tribute to the festival based on what she saw on television. If it doesn't bring a tear to your eye, or a lump to your throat, well... Here's "Woodstock."
Beatles fans might note it was 60 years ago today that they performed at Shea Stadium in New York in front of 55,600, up until that time the largest attendance at a pop concert. Woodstock shattered that record with its attendance pegged at 460,000.
When I saw this this morning it occurred, not for the first time, how there were a lot of names in that lineup that otherwise wouldn't have, if you know what I mean
ReplyDeleteThen I got a wild hair ~ 50 years of wearing a braid and I still get 'em ~ and watched the movie clip of Country Joe get famous
I have mixed feelings about that show but do get a chuckle when I hear it in the supermarket ...