Just so you know, Janis Joplin was no longer with Big Brother and the Holding Company when she played Woodstock. Her Woodstock band was The Kozmic Blues Band.
Nothing is perfect, But I have spoken to many old timers around here in Tampa Bay who either went to the festival or they knew somebody who went. It was the time of Peace & Love. I wasn't alive the time but I was born on the anniversary of the festival and now I actually own a piece of the stage from the festival.
I consider my brother in law the luckiest man on the face of the earth. He's a retired geophysicist from NASA. He was part of a group who mapped ocean floors for the return of Apollo 11. After the mission he took a vacation and visited his parents who lived less than 5 miles from Max Yasgurs farm. He simply walked a few miles to the concert.
Sly and the Family Stone's performance was legendary, I heard they went on at 4 in the morning. One of the promoters had to bust into Sly's trailer and drag him onstage due to his mental state. It was a beautiful weekend though, just groovy.
I was in fifth grade when this came to Woodstock. I remember my dad saying Look at all those Hippies!! I thought to myself dang dad get with it man. I couldn’t say that out loud.
FYI: because of rain storms bands would not go on, one of the producers made an announcement saying everyone should light candles to keep away the rain, so when Melanie went on stage to do her set in the rain all she saw was flickering candles in the rain all over the hill side, thus she wrote the song, Candles in the Rain & when ever she would perform that song ppl would light candles, until fire Marshalls started shutting her concerts down cuz her & her guitar were considered a "festival" , anyway over the years it became customary to light a candle during an encore of a concert, started w/ candles at Woodstock w/ Melanie, over yrs evolved to matches, lighters, flashlights and now cell phones, 54 years later!!
Joni Mitchell also famously had to miss the festival because her agent didn't want to risk not making her appearance on The Dick Cavett Show shortly after it
Saw Santana at the MGM Casino in Northfield, OH just recently - INCREDIBLE SHOW. He has an awesome band with him with two FANTASTIC vocalists that sound like they were on the original first 3 albums! Helluva show - go see him!
While I was JUST a bit too young to make my way from the West coast to Woodstock, I look back in time and thank God I could not have made it. I attended many concerts in the San Francisco bay area. It was wonderful for the music and experience, but a nightmare to get to bathrooms, such as "Snack Sunday."
I think it got much worse in 94 and even more in 99! I was not allowed to go in 94 at 14 but I was going to go in 99 at 19. I'm not really sure why we didn't end up going. It may have been because we went to Cancun for Spring Break that spring and MTV was down there. It may have been a tight squeeze on funds given we were in college full time and only working part time. After seeing the conditions at both 94 and 99, I was rather glad I did not go. Cancun was far more chill and luxurious lol. Clean, nice hotel, plenty of food. Lots of things to do. I don't regret Spring Break at all but annoyingly I was, mildly sexually assaulted (that was on our first night and I punched the guy in the face for putting his hand where it VERY much did not belong while on the dance floor), groped a lot and manhandled while I was there. The guys just assumed you were up for whatever. Idk why. Idiots. My boyfriend was at a different hotel and I was lucky I had a guy friend at my hotel that stepped in to look out for me to limit the amount of that crap I had to deal with. I quickly learned just to stick close to him to avoid that. That kind of BS was a major problem later that year at Woodstock 99. SMH.
I was 17 and desperately wanted to go. A cousin had seen it advertised in some music mag as "An Aquarian Festival," and he, myself and another cousin tried to take off for NY. We got about 60 miles and our crap car broke down - and that was the end of that. Who knows how that music festival would've changed our lives had we made it? We had to settle for Joni Mitchell singing about it after the fact.
My opinion was that Lang was never a good organizer. He was just the guy that happened to own the rights, but actually never should have been allowed to set foot anywhere near the decision making room. Thats why 1994 and 1999 were also poorly organized. Lang had been exposed.
WPDH in Poughkeepsie got their hands on a bunch of original Woodstock tickets back in the day. They were doing promotions and I ended up with one. Still have it. Not worth anything but it is still pretty cool to own.
Nobody collected our tickets, my ex still has them. Sound was not that good where we sat. Someone brought a roll of 8' plastic, we unraveled it to stop the rain, but ended up smoking dope and keeping it under the plastic so we all could breathe it. A fellow was having a bad trip and crying for his mother for about 1/2 hour. Finally a dude walked over and gave him an uppercut to the chin, he collapsed in the mud crying and laid there for 15 minutes, nobody helped him. We traded a can of ChungKing Chowmein for acid, big mistake! The music was almost secondary to the excitement of being there, it was a Happening!. Helicopters and helicopters, so many...many were the kind used in Viet Nam, and folks throughout commented they were going to shoot us. Everybody by the second day knew we were involved with something very very big, it made the miserable weather livable. The only reason we went was because in DC, the word was that Bob Dylan was going to be there. I went back exactly 30 years later, sat in the same spot...talking about spooky, it was the same feeling one feels when one is on a bloody civil war battlefield, deadly quiet, weirdly quiet. Sitting envisioning reliving the stage and the people, for some reason, and don't know why, dark, big time dark feeling. As I was leaving, I noticed young people scattered throughout, most had instruments. It was surprisingly a sort of a weird holy ground experience, glad I went back.
That drummer had those skins smoking. That was almost unbelievable. Then in 1974, I saw Emerson, Lake and Palmer twice! Carl Palmer played for about ten solid minutes! Keith Emerson and Greg Lake left the stage. Carl was in the middle of a circle of a drum set, floor Tom's, cimballs, etc. It was quite a sight. He had to have been drenched when that ended. Then he played till the end when the others came back on the stage absolutely positively unreal.
The artist had it much better than the crowd members. I missed Woodstock but I went to the Ozark Music Festival and it was just as crazy. The difference from Woodstock was we had heat of 107 all 5 days I was there. I went prepared with plenty of food but ice was hard to find. A few weeks later I went to the August Jam a one day show 250,000 people in the NC heat at the speedway.
I knew a couple who got married at Woodstock in '69. They went back in '99. After they got back home, he told her he wanted a divorce. I was in n.y. coming back from Canada. Even though it doesn't have the "magic" of attending, I can watch video. Food and bathroom much closer. All the best and may God bless.
I went to the 30th anniversary @ Yasgur's Farm in '99. No, not the "modern" one a few months before, but the one that had the originals- A Day in the Garden. Richie Havens, Melanie, Arlo Guthrie, Mountain, Johnny Winters, David Crosby and son, Country Joe McDonald, Rick Danko and Garth Hudson...it was GREAT! 🤗
holey mackeral l didnt know that about Richie well fantastic response Richie youkept them there or whatever world class performance it will be remembered as long as there is a historical record. credit where credit due Richie.
Pete Townshend describes his on stage mindset as being in a zone, almost a trance, and anything that disturbs him in that state of mind is going to get a rather violent response. Like getting whacked upside the head by Pete's Les Paul.
@@mtadams2009 I know, but it looks like they could've been more "Greta Thunberg" minded. I guess that was before it's time. Most of those people were so stoned it's a wonder they even got home! They had no idea they were in the middle of such an important piece of braggable history!
@@RideAcrossTheRiver ... I walked the property some 30 years later and found a vintage beer can between the rocks on a stone wall. (vintage = the kind where you needed to use a can opener)
For many years I had been curious why Alvin Lee of Ten Years After introduced his song, “Going Home,” by Helicopter. As an adolescent I wondered who was Helicopter. Years later, in the age of the internet, I discovered they were there to perform because of a helicopter. LOL. I loved TYA and Alvin Lee. Still do.
In 1986 my band opened for the Alvin Lee band and before their set I had asked him about Woodstock, he said it did give TYA a lot of attention but the conditions were dreadful. They also didn't have much rest but he did appreciate the watermelon. He also said they never played the song I'd love to change to change the world live but I don't know if that ever changed. Very nice man very gracious with his time and I'll never forget it great memories.
In the documentary the narrator states that Janis Joplin performed with Big Brother & the Holding Company. That is inaccurate, she performed with the Kozmic Blues Band.
For a video entitled "The Messed Up Truth", this had plenty of inaccuracies. Just to name a few: *Yes, Hendrix performed last, and there were only a fraction of attendees left. But he never gave any impression he was disappointed. He was relaxed and seemed to be enjoying himself during his performance. No complaints from him. * The Dead's performance was not "relatively poor". It was, by their own accounts, one of the WORST performances of their entire career. *"Very few women performed". Well of course. At that time there were very few women in the rock music industry, and even fewer starts. There were also women who performed in other groups (i.e., Sweetwater & The Incredible String Band) who weren't mentioned. This video seemed to imply there was some kind of discrimination going on, and nothing could be further from the truth. *"Some bands never made it" -- only one band didn't, and that was Iron Butterfly. Everyone else who was scheduled to play eventually did, and there were even a couple of performers (John Sebastian and Country Joe McDonald) who gave unplanned, spontaneous bonus performances. The Jeff Beck group broke up PRIOR to the event, and they cancelled. This doesn't qualify as "never made it". *The highest-paid performers at Woodstock were (1) Jimi Hendrix ($18000), (2) Joan Baez/Blood Sweat & Tears/CCR ($10000). The Who wasn't included in this group, and although they did demand to be paid first before performing, they were the exception to the rule -- other bands would still have performed whether The Who's demands were met or not. The video implied the whole event would not have been stopped if they never received their money. Not true. Don't know who put this video together, but they should have done their homework first.
@@spudwas Ok. Studio musicians are quite accomplished. That explains why that band she had at Woodstock was atrocious. I think (imo) her own vocal performance was so outstanding and now with the passage of time, is now legendary, ppl don’t notice that awful band. In other words, her awe-inspiring vocal performance overshadowed that awful performance from the backing band. JMO.
As a kid during most of the 70's, I went to quite a few big names of the era, yet it was always with my wife, near the center and within the first ten rows of a quality venue in So Cal. Given we lacked children meant we were able to go to exclusive, mid week engagements, fly to New Orleans for a concert. Our virtual children were callusedly denied a legacy in the pursuit of rock n roll. We seem to have resolved any issues associated.
The awful 2nd Woodstock festival is the one you want to lookfor nastiness in .Overrun by a super destructive combination of bands like Metallica counting off tunes in German to put a real nice touch on a night's festivities ala Rudolf hess.HipHop calling to the very worst in the music with thousands of punk's very finest directionless utterances.Bob Dylan was great and cooled people out after9inch Nails HellWorship portion of the festival.Greenday performed exclusively for hogs.A video of Jimi Hendrix at the end; the original filmed 20,000 years ago before people began to prize the inability to play.The ucfayed generations then proudly proclaimed that would never be another Woodstock and burned down a large part of the site.Now ther is no more Morning Dew....
Over the years I have had the pleasure to meet many of the people involved in Woodstock, including Mike Lang, Richie Havens, Melonie (and the rest of her family) plus work with Bill Hanley, who did the sound, which was pretty much the first attempt at doing audio for a large event. Heck, in that era there was nobody making large sound gear. Bill was experimenting with modified amplifiers from aircraft carriers that he bought government surplus. Yup, it was all tube gear!
Jimi Hendrix was originally scheduled to be the closing act at that coveted time slot, midnight, Sunday am. Because things got screwed up with the Grateful Dead playing a long set after 2 am, The Who on at 5:30 am, and finally Hendrix around 8 am to a much thinned out crowd of around 20,000 by then. So, just whom played at that midnight slot? Some band members at Catholic Youth Organization’s regular “Dance”, with tickets selling for $1.50 in advance, and $2.00 at the door, just a year or so before. The tickets also recommended “No Dates!”. None other than locals Johnny Winter, His Brother Edgar , Uncle John “Red” Turner, and bassist I.P. Sweat or Tommy Shannon. Those of us from Texas Golden Triangle of Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange, were so proud of the 5 locals that played at Woodstock. Besides The Winter Brothers and native drummer Uncle John; was Beaumont born- bassist for Sly and the Family Stone, Mr. Larry Graham; And last, but not least, Port Arthur born and raised- Janis Joplin.
Ian Anderson was asked to go with his band Jethro Tull, His manager said that indeed there would be drugs and girls and mud. "So I said, 'Right. I don't want to go.' ... I don't like hippies, and I'm usually rather put off by naked ladies unless the time is right.
One major mistake in your video. Janis did not perform with Big Brother and the Holding Company. She actually performed with a band quickly assembled for the event called The Kosmic Blues Band, which was not actually that well received as people were expecting the raw and psychologic sound of her previous band and got a more subdued performance
Big Brother And The Holding Company was a great Rock and Roll band. The music Janis made after leaving Big Brother was not exciting. Janis should have stayed in Big Brother And The Holding Company... Her music and career would have been much better in the long run. She shouldn't have listened to Albert Grossman...
That band that played with Janis at Woodstock sucked! I’m glad that wasn’t her real band! While HER performance was legendary, that music from the band was awful!
People love to proclaim this was such a fabulous experience. I imagine Farmer Yasgur regretted allowing this to take place on his property after all the "we love planet earth" masses left & his place was a filthy disaster. Not enough toilet facilities or food supplies. Drug over doses & fighting broke out among those screaming "give peace a chance". In reality, things are often not what others make them out to be. I grew up in this era & love its music. But it really wasn't a magical mystery tour.
Max never regretted it because he had the forethought to cover his expenses up front. What he did regret was having some of his neighbors treat him badly over allowing this festival to happen.
What fighting? I was there, and I didn't see any fights, or ever hear about any fights there, at the time or since then. There were a lot of people taking drugs, but for a crowd of half a million, it was pretty peaceful. It wasn't a magical mystery tour or even a regular tour, that's true, because it all occurred in one place.
You would have been miserable. If you had to take a piss, where? Had to poop, where? Thirsty, where to get water? Stink from 2 or 3 days, sex in the mud? Good times.
According to my count, approximately 13 women performed. In order of appearance: Nancy Nivens (Sweetwater) Tamboura player (Ravi Shankar) Melanie Safka Joan Baez Two women in The Incredible String Band Janis Joplin Two women in Sly & The Family Stone Grace Slick (Jefferson Hairpie) I'm guessing there were 3 female back-ups with Joe Cocker If any of the others had women in their ranks, I don't know about it. Possibly The Dreadful Great, Bert Sommer or Keef Hartley.
Joe Cocker didn’t bring the women backup singers. There is footage of his Woodstock performance with men on the backing vocals and they sound terrible.
@@andreacheney3593 I didn't think they were all that bad but, you gotta make due with what you got. For about a year, my band didn't have a bass player so, part of the time, Beefheart played the bass parts on his guitar using the low E and part of the time I played the bass parts on my Synare percussion synthesizer. we didn't sound great, either but, we made due `til the real thing came along. And, during a good part of that time, Beefheart had his strumming hand in a cast and some of my cymbals were so beat up they sounded like pie plates! Back in those days, nobody cared how the music sounded, as long as there WAS music.
@@RedVynil Well, Joe Cocker’s performance at Woodstock is definitely legendary at this point. I figured it was a cost-saving measure to forgo bringing the women backup singers. Like not bringing a string quartet even though one was used on the recorded edition of a song. Their voices on the recorded edition of the song were so sweet and melodic.
@@andreacheney3593 Questions arise: Did the studio recording come out before this Woodstock performance? Maybe he hadn't thought of using the girls until then. Maybe the girls simply couldn't make it due to other engagements. Maybe one was sick and couldn't do the gig so, they all backed out thinking, if we all can't do it, none of us will. Kind of an all or nothing attitude. Maybe they thought they'd suck with only two members. And, yeah, it could've just been a money issue.
Must give Ritchie a lot of credit that took guts to open that gig.he knocked it out of the park.getting wasted for anybody before a show is not a good idea.but those were the days my friend........
Joplin would fire Big Brother & The Holding Company shortly after Woodstock, which would spell the end for her. Sly Stone is nearly destitute these days, living off of Social Security in a mobile home.
What? I thought Sly Stone was dead! I saw the Family Stone perform in Oakland, Cal., his hometown, about 4 or 5 years ago, and Sly was not there, probably because he was 6 feet under.
Trapped living like war refugees for 3 days, little food, all your favorite bands a mile away playing 40 minute, mediocre sets, nah even with a time machine I'd pass on Woodstock.
Correction, Raphael - it was the Kosmic Blues band at Woodstock. The Fult Tilt Boogie band was her last, the following year. (I saw Janis play two months after Woodstock, and she had the Kosmic Blues Band.
Had people PAID the entrance fee instead of coming in over the destroyed (by attendees) hurricane fence surrounding the venue, the money would have been no problem.
@@Qrayon , a lot of people did, but for the rest it was, "Hey man, the music belongs to everyone, the concert should be free!" Well Altamont WAS free, and look what happened!
@@roberttaylor7064 Yes, I know they had an US festival not to long ago, remember. Van Halen was the closing act. They tried to make it Woodstock for this generation!
@@JuanchoFrmUpstate I spent many years up in the Queensberry and Lake George areas, I'm downstate now. But, anywhere north of Schenectady I would consider to be Upstate.
l had my hippie summer that year. bunch did a free concert echoing Woodstock. organizer had contacts local music scene, there was a screen printer what do you call it churned out the posters. l was the 17 y.o. electrician knew l cd substitute 20 amp fuse because of more than enough 'duty cycle' keep the amps blasting.. on a farm converted to a church with still lots of farm property monstrous front yard about 60 X 250feet. packed.
@@RideAcrossTheRiver The Who we’re never about peace and love they just wanted money and fame like many pop artists today. Earlier in the concert when Canned Heat were playing, an audience member came on to the stage and they even let him stay there and continued the show and even hugged him! The who are so egotistical that they nearly killed Abbie Hoffman when he went on the stage!
@@mattmadge5917 If Hoffman wanted time on the stage, he could have gone up between acts. The Who is a very active group. Guitars and mics flying around. It would have been better had he been hit in the head by Daltrey's mic as he flung it around and then booted off by Townshend's guitar. You can't go on stage and interfere with another performer. He was an arrogant SOB.
@@johnandrus3901 Also how do you know Hoffman didn’t just wanna have fun with them like everyone else? The same thing happened during other people’s performances and most of the bands were fine with it! The Who’s egos are too big for Woodstock! Abbie Hoffman was about being positive and changing the world where as The Who are just greedy phoneys who have even gone on record saying that they hated the whole idea of Woodstock.
Skin color denote identity, self-image and the ability for others to identify. It ain't rocket surgery. Got to quit getting your feelings hurt by every little ouchy.
It was about the music. Abbie Hoffman tried to make it about the war. My brother and I were both in during Vietnam. I was NOT over there. My brother went twice at his request! He was north of the DMZ in North Vietnam. He made it back. Sadly, we lost him to cancer due to Agent Orange. When bad things are happening, it helps to be able to take your mind off of what's happening. For me personally, music does that. All the best and may God bless. Stay strong in Canada, haven't been for awhile. Absolutely love visiting. Very nice people, great scenery, relaxing fishing. Wonderful country. Take care.
I was just several hundred miles away , and in the 10th grade , but had I known about this event , a week before , I would have just , left and hitched a ride up , to it , and from there , my life would have been a complete , WDF , I don’t know where I might have ended up ? So I am glad , I never heard about it until , it was over !
Was that the forerunner of Western Washington's current status as the homeless, Antifa, hypodermic heroin shithole capital of America? It is a well deserved honor & recent upgrades cement their status as "all-time worst area ever". If Russia comes for us, I hope Seattle is first. They have earned it.
Lack of women at Woodstock isn’t because of female oppression. It’s because there’s far less women in that field. You can’t expect the same amount of women as men if there’s less women 🤷🏻♀️
What was your impression of the 1969 Woodstock?
Just so you know, Janis Joplin was no longer with Big Brother and the Holding Company when she played Woodstock. Her Woodstock band was The Kozmic Blues Band.
Nothing is perfect, But I have spoken to many old timers around here in Tampa Bay who either went to the festival or they knew somebody who went. It was the time of Peace & Love. I wasn't alive the time but I was born on the anniversary of the festival and now I actually own a piece of the stage from the festival.
A musical disaster that made history!!!
@rahrahadam That’s right but a big mess that almost didn’t happen!
It was awful.
I consider my brother in law the luckiest man on the face of the earth. He's a retired geophysicist from NASA. He was part of a group who mapped ocean floors for the return of Apollo 11. After the mission he took a vacation and visited his parents who lived less than 5 miles from Max Yasgurs farm. He simply walked a few miles to the concert.
How awesome 👌
THAT is all very fortuitous and very cool.
LOL !!!!!!
What a life your brother-in-law lived 😮
It was an ordeal to just get there but any hardship was worth witnessing the greatest bands there ever was to witness the ending of the sixties
Sly and the Family Stone's performance was legendary, I heard they went on at 4 in the morning. One of the promoters had to bust into Sly's trailer and drag him onstage due to his mental state. It was a beautiful weekend though, just groovy.
I was in fifth grade when this came to Woodstock. I remember my dad saying Look at all those Hippies!! I thought to myself dang dad get with it man. I couldn’t say that out loud.
FYI: because of rain storms bands would not go on, one of the producers made an announcement saying everyone should light candles to keep away the rain, so when Melanie went on stage to do her set in the rain all she saw was flickering candles in the rain all over the hill side, thus she wrote the song, Candles in the Rain & when ever she would perform that song ppl would light candles, until fire Marshalls started shutting her concerts down cuz her & her guitar were considered a "festival" , anyway over the years it became customary to light a candle during an encore of a concert, started w/ candles at Woodstock w/ Melanie, over yrs evolved to matches, lighters, flashlights and now cell phones, 54 years later!!
RIP Jeff Beck.
Joni Mitchell also famously had to miss the festival because her agent didn't want to risk not making her appearance on The Dick Cavett Show shortly after it
Saw Santana at the MGM Casino in Northfield, OH just recently - INCREDIBLE SHOW. He has an awesome band with him with two FANTASTIC vocalists that sound like they were on the original first 3 albums! Helluva show - go see him!
Is Northfield park , the racetrack still there? A friend of mine washed dishes at 14! Years and years ago.
R.I.P Beck
While I was JUST a bit too young to make my way from the West coast to Woodstock, I look back in time and thank God I could not have made it. I attended many concerts in the San Francisco bay area. It was wonderful for the music and experience, but a nightmare to get to bathrooms, such as "Snack Sunday."
I think it got much worse in 94 and even more in 99! I was not allowed to go in 94 at 14 but I was going to go in 99 at 19. I'm not really sure why we didn't end up going. It may have been because we went to Cancun for Spring Break that spring and MTV was down there. It may have been a tight squeeze on funds given we were in college full time and only working part time. After seeing the conditions at both 94 and 99, I was rather glad I did not go. Cancun was far more chill and luxurious lol. Clean, nice hotel, plenty of food. Lots of things to do. I don't regret Spring Break at all but annoyingly I was, mildly sexually assaulted (that was on our first night and I punched the guy in the face for putting his hand where it VERY much did not belong while on the dance floor), groped a lot and manhandled while I was there. The guys just assumed you were up for whatever. Idk why. Idiots. My boyfriend was at a different hotel and I was lucky I had a guy friend at my hotel that stepped in to look out for me to limit the amount of that crap I had to deal with. I quickly learned just to stick close to him to avoid that. That kind of BS was a major problem later that year at Woodstock 99. SMH.
I was 17 and desperately wanted to go. A cousin had seen it advertised in some music mag as "An Aquarian Festival," and he, myself and another cousin tried to take off for NY. We got about 60 miles and our crap car broke down - and that was the end of that. Who knows how that music festival would've changed our lives had we made it? We had to settle for Joni Mitchell singing about it after the fact.
My opinion was that Lang was never a good organizer. He was just the guy that happened to own the rights, but actually never should have been allowed to set foot anywhere near the decision making room. Thats why 1994 and 1999 were also poorly organized. Lang had been exposed.
I was 3 and spending the summer at my grandmother's old summer place in Ardonia, NY just miles from the event. I recall nothing :)
Same...I was 3 as well....lol
@@niltomega2978 Cool! :)
Who doesn’t know that ❓❓❓I would have given everything to be there 💕💜💕💜💕💜
Sounds like it is much better to remember your experience than living it.
?
WPDH in Poughkeepsie got their hands on a bunch of original Woodstock tickets back in the day. They were doing promotions and I ended up with one. Still have it. Not worth anything but it is still pretty cool to own.
Nobody collected our tickets, my ex still has them. Sound was not that good where we sat. Someone brought a roll of 8' plastic, we unraveled it to stop the rain, but ended up smoking dope and keeping it under the plastic so we all could breathe it. A fellow was having a bad trip and crying for his mother for about 1/2 hour. Finally a dude walked over and gave him an uppercut to the chin, he collapsed in the mud crying and laid there for 15 minutes, nobody helped him. We traded a can of ChungKing Chowmein for acid, big mistake! The music was almost secondary to the excitement of being there, it was a Happening!. Helicopters and helicopters, so many...many were the kind used in Viet Nam, and folks throughout commented they were going to shoot us. Everybody by the second day knew we were involved with something very very big, it made the miserable weather livable. The only reason we went was because in DC, the word was that Bob Dylan was going to be there. I went back exactly 30 years later, sat in the same spot...talking about spooky, it was the same feeling one feels when one is on a bloody civil war battlefield, deadly quiet, weirdly quiet. Sitting envisioning reliving the stage and the people, for some reason, and don't know why, dark, big time dark feeling. As I was leaving, I noticed young people scattered throughout, most had instruments. It was surprisingly a sort of a weird holy ground experience, glad I went back.
Arent hippies all about peace and love? Meanwhile, someone knocked someone out, and nobody bothered to help him? Lol
I've seen the video of Carlos Santana at Woodstock. It was amazing
That drummer had those skins smoking. That was almost unbelievable. Then in 1974, I saw Emerson, Lake and Palmer twice! Carl Palmer played for about ten solid minutes! Keith Emerson and Greg Lake left the stage. Carl was in the middle of a circle of a drum set, floor Tom's, cimballs, etc. It was quite a sight. He had to have been drenched when that ended. Then he played till the end when the others came back on the stage absolutely positively unreal.
The artist had it much better than the crowd members. I missed Woodstock but I went to the Ozark Music Festival and it was just as crazy. The difference from Woodstock was we had heat of 107 all 5 days I was there. I went prepared with plenty of food but ice was hard to find. A few weeks later I went to the August Jam a one day show 250,000 people in the NC heat at the speedway.
Sly was my favorite performer…😊👍🏻🙏🏻 …in the middle of the night!
I knew a couple who got married at Woodstock in '69. They went back in '99. After they got back home, he told her he wanted a divorce. I was in n.y. coming back from Canada. Even though it doesn't have the "magic" of attending, I can watch video. Food and bathroom much closer. All the best and may God bless.
Also, the couple that I know, Terri & Rocky, had the added experience of sitting around a campfire with Melanie Sofka.
I went to the 30th anniversary @ Yasgur's Farm in '99. No, not the "modern" one a few months before, but the one that had the originals- A Day in the Garden. Richie Havens, Melanie, Arlo Guthrie, Mountain, Johnny Winters, David Crosby and son, Country Joe McDonald, Rick Danko and Garth Hudson...it was GREAT! 🤗
The payoff for all the hassles of organizing Woodstock? All the cool interviews you get to do in the 70's and 80's talking about it!! 😁👍
holey mackeral l didnt know that about Richie well fantastic response Richie youkept them there or whatever world class performance it will be remembered as long as there is a historical record. credit where credit due Richie.
The pic at 4:10 is from the Altamont Festival, not Woodstock.
Pete Townshend describes his on stage mindset as being in a zone, almost a trance, and anything that disturbs him in that state of mind is going to get a rather violent response. Like getting whacked upside the head by Pete's Les Paul.
Everyone totally trashed the poor guy's field when the kids left. There were thousands of tents, sleeping bags, packs & drug paraphernalia.
The beer can was the most common piece of trash.
That will happen when you have over 400,000 on your property for three days drinking, drugging and God knows what else.
@@mtadams2009 OMG! Do you mean people were hugging and kissing and even ... sex? I mean, who does that?
@@mtadams2009 I know, but it looks like they could've been more "Greta Thunberg" minded. I guess that was before it's time. Most of those people were so stoned it's a wonder they even got home! They had no idea they were in the middle of such an important piece of braggable history!
@@RideAcrossTheRiver ... I walked the property some 30 years later and found a vintage beer can between the rocks on a stone wall. (vintage = the kind where you needed to use a can opener)
For many years I had been curious why Alvin Lee of Ten Years After introduced his song, “Going Home,” by Helicopter. As an adolescent I wondered who was Helicopter. Years later, in the age of the internet, I discovered they were there to perform because of a helicopter. LOL. I loved TYA and Alvin Lee. Still do.
In 1986 my band opened for the Alvin Lee band and before their set I had asked him about Woodstock, he said it did give TYA a lot of attention but the conditions were dreadful. They also didn't have much rest but he did appreciate the watermelon.
He also said they never played the song I'd love to change to change the world live but I don't know if that ever changed.
Very nice man very gracious with his time and I'll never forget it great memories.
His playing is jaw dropping on that song!
My Dad was just outside the gate at Woodstock, but he missed the actual show because of REASONS.
In the documentary the narrator states that Janis Joplin performed with Big Brother & the Holding Company. That is inaccurate, she performed with the Kozmic Blues Band.
Yeah it's always some hassle 😜. Philadelphia USA 🇺🇲😇 AMEN !!!
The Monterey Pop Festival 1967, was the greatest Rock music festival of all time!
🎸👍🎸
🇺🇸🎸
Who can forget. Alvin Lee and Ten Years After, ''I'm Going Home"
For a video entitled "The Messed Up Truth", this had plenty of inaccuracies. Just to name a few:
*Yes, Hendrix performed last, and there were only a fraction of attendees left. But he never gave any impression he was disappointed. He was relaxed and seemed to be enjoying himself during his performance. No complaints from him.
* The Dead's performance was not "relatively poor". It was, by their own accounts, one of the WORST performances of their entire career.
*"Very few women performed". Well of course. At that time there were very few women in the rock music industry, and even fewer starts. There were also women who performed in other groups (i.e., Sweetwater & The Incredible String Band) who weren't mentioned. This video seemed to imply there was some kind of discrimination going on, and nothing could be further from the truth.
*"Some bands never made it" -- only one band didn't, and that was Iron Butterfly. Everyone else who was scheduled to play eventually did, and there were even a couple of performers (John Sebastian and Country Joe McDonald) who gave unplanned, spontaneous bonus performances. The Jeff Beck group broke up PRIOR to the event, and they cancelled. This doesn't qualify as "never made it".
*The highest-paid performers at Woodstock were (1) Jimi Hendrix ($18000), (2) Joan Baez/Blood Sweat & Tears/CCR ($10000). The Who wasn't included in this group, and although they did demand to be paid first before performing, they were the exception to the rule -- other bands would still have performed whether The Who's demands were met or not. The video implied the whole event would not have been stopped if they never received their money. Not true.
Don't know who put this video together, but they should have done their homework first.
Janis was not with Big Brother at Woodstock. She was with the Kosmic blues band.
I've heard the same. Pity, it would have still been good to see their set, even if it wasn't their best.
Her backing band was terrible, whomever they were.
@@andreacheney3593 ...Studio musicians...need I say more.
@@spudwas Ok. Studio musicians are quite accomplished. That explains why that band she had at Woodstock was atrocious.
I think (imo) her own vocal performance was so outstanding and now with the passage of time, is now legendary, ppl don’t notice that awful band. In other words, her awe-inspiring vocal performance overshadowed that awful performance from the backing band. JMO.
I hear Micheal Wang Michael Lang, but nobody mentions Artie Kornfeld. Why is it that Michael Lang gets all the credit.
Artie Kornfeld
As a kid during most of the 70's, I went to quite a few big names of the era, yet it was always with my wife, near the center and within the first ten rows of a quality venue in So Cal. Given we lacked children meant we were able to go to exclusive, mid week engagements, fly to New Orleans for a concert. Our virtual children were callusedly denied a legacy in the pursuit of rock n roll. We seem to have resolved any issues associated.
The awful 2nd Woodstock festival is the one you want to lookfor nastiness in .Overrun by a super destructive combination of bands like Metallica counting off tunes in German to put a real nice touch on a night's festivities ala Rudolf hess.HipHop calling to the very worst in the music with thousands of punk's very finest directionless utterances.Bob Dylan was great and cooled people out after9inch Nails HellWorship portion of the festival.Greenday performed exclusively for hogs.A video of Jimi Hendrix at the end; the original filmed 20,000 years ago before people began to prize the inability to play.The ucfayed generations then proudly proclaimed that would never be another Woodstock and burned down a large part of the site.Now ther is no more Morning Dew....
Interesting and intriguing video
Over the years I have had the pleasure to meet many of the people involved in Woodstock, including Mike Lang, Richie Havens, Melonie (and the rest of her family) plus work with Bill Hanley, who did the sound, which was pretty much the first attempt at doing audio for a large event. Heck, in that era there was nobody making large sound gear. Bill was experimenting with modified amplifiers from aircraft carriers that he bought government surplus. Yup, it was all tube gear!
Janis didn’t play with big brother at Woodstock, it was the kozmic blues band.
Full tilt boogie
Friends of my father John till just passed a year ago
Thank you. I was just going to post and then I found your comment
Jimi Hendrix was originally scheduled to be the closing act at that coveted time slot, midnight, Sunday am. Because things got screwed up with the Grateful Dead playing a long set after 2 am, The Who on at 5:30 am, and finally Hendrix around 8 am to a much thinned out crowd of around 20,000 by then. So, just whom played at that midnight slot? Some band members at Catholic Youth Organization’s regular “Dance”, with tickets selling for $1.50 in advance, and $2.00 at the door, just a year or so before. The tickets also recommended “No Dates!”. None other than locals Johnny Winter, His Brother Edgar , Uncle John “Red” Turner, and bassist I.P. Sweat or Tommy Shannon. Those of us from Texas Golden Triangle of Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange, were so proud of the 5 locals that played at Woodstock. Besides The Winter Brothers and native drummer Uncle John; was Beaumont born- bassist for Sly and the Family Stone, Mr. Larry Graham; And last, but not least, Port Arthur born and raised- Janis Joplin.
Grunge, were you at Woodstock?
Ian Anderson was asked to go with his band Jethro Tull, His manager said that indeed there would be drugs and girls and mud. "So I said, 'Right. I don't want to go.' ... I don't like hippies, and I'm usually rather put off by naked ladies unless the time is right.
One major mistake in your video.
Janis did not perform with Big Brother and the Holding Company. She actually performed with a band quickly assembled for the event called The Kosmic Blues Band, which was not actually that well received as people were expecting the raw and psychologic sound of her previous band and got a more subdued performance
Very correct my friend! I will always have a special place in my heart for Big Brother, but The Kozmic Blues Band we’re top notch musicians.
Big Brother And The Holding Company was a great Rock and Roll band. The music Janis made after leaving Big Brother was not exciting. Janis should have stayed in Big Brother And The Holding Company... Her music and career would have been much better in the long run. She shouldn't have listened to Albert Grossman...
@@garthkolbeck8674 Thanks dude, a lot of people feel that way.
That band that played with Janis at Woodstock sucked! I’m glad that wasn’t her real band! While HER performance was legendary, that music from the band was awful!
RIP Michael Lang 😔
People love to proclaim this was such a fabulous experience. I imagine Farmer Yasgur regretted allowing this to take place on his property after all the "we love planet earth" masses left & his place was a filthy disaster. Not enough toilet facilities or food supplies. Drug over doses & fighting broke out among those screaming "give peace a chance". In reality, things are often not what others make them out to be. I grew up in this era & love its music. But it really wasn't a magical mystery tour.
Max never regretted it because he had the forethought to cover his expenses up front. What he did regret was having some of his neighbors treat him badly over allowing this festival to happen.
What fighting? I was there, and I didn't see any fights, or ever hear about any fights there, at the time or since then. There were a lot of people taking drugs, but for a crowd of half a million, it was pretty peaceful.
It wasn't a magical mystery tour or even a regular tour, that's true, because it all occurred in one place.
Wasn’t “Give Peace a Chance” after Woodstock?
Loved living in Woodstock would tell people to walk down the street and the event was held in the park lol it was like two hours away in Bethel NY
Damn. It's a shame I was born in 1975. I would have loooooove to be there!
You would have been miserable. If you had to take a piss, where? Had to poop, where? Thirsty, where to get water? Stink from 2 or 3 days, sex in the mud? Good times.
? Huh, it was in 69
…….and then, there was Altamont.
But that’s another story.
According to my count, approximately 13 women performed.
In order of appearance:
Nancy Nivens (Sweetwater)
Tamboura player (Ravi Shankar)
Melanie Safka
Joan Baez
Two women in The Incredible String Band
Janis Joplin
Two women in Sly & The Family Stone
Grace Slick (Jefferson Hairpie)
I'm guessing there were 3 female back-ups with Joe Cocker
If any of the others had women in their ranks, I don't know about it. Possibly The Dreadful Great, Bert Sommer or Keef Hartley.
Joe Cocker didn’t bring the women backup singers. There is footage of his Woodstock performance with men on the backing vocals and they sound terrible.
@@andreacheney3593 I didn't think they were all that bad but, you gotta make due with what you got. For about a year, my band didn't have a bass player so, part of the time, Beefheart played the bass parts on his guitar using the low E and part of the time I played the bass parts on my Synare percussion synthesizer. we didn't sound great, either but, we made due `til the real thing came along. And, during a good part of that time, Beefheart had his strumming hand in a cast and some of my cymbals were so beat up they sounded like pie plates! Back in those days, nobody cared how the music sounded, as long as there WAS music.
@@RedVynil Well, Joe Cocker’s performance at Woodstock is definitely legendary at this point. I figured it was a cost-saving measure to forgo bringing the women backup singers. Like not bringing a string quartet even though one was used on the recorded edition of a song.
Their voices on the recorded edition of the song were so sweet and melodic.
@@andreacheney3593 Questions arise: Did the studio recording come out before this Woodstock performance?
Maybe he hadn't thought of using the girls until then.
Maybe the girls simply couldn't make it due to other engagements.
Maybe one was sick and couldn't do the gig so, they all backed out thinking, if we all can't do it, none of us will. Kind of an all or nothing attitude. Maybe they thought they'd suck with only two members.
And, yeah, it could've just been a money issue.
@@RedVynil Chuckle, chuckle 🤭
Big Brother was not at Woodstock & Janice's band was awful, though she sang her heart out.
Not there, too young but what a historical concert.
❤
I heard that Creedence Clearwater Revival banned any footage of their set being released because it was so terrible.
John Fogerty said their set was marred by horrible sound mix. The footage shows they played terrifically well.
Wavy Gravy fed everyone for 2 days.
Good ol' Wavy Gravy.
Must give Ritchie a lot of credit that took guts to open that gig.he knocked it out of the park.getting wasted for anybody before a show is not a good idea.but those were the days my friend........
he sucked, nothing ever happened to him.
Janis did not perform with Big Brother, but with Kozmic Blues Bums...i mean band. Great video.
The Doors weren’t even there.
@@ChorusArtists Bet ya don’t have any friends 😢
@@darlalove8863 I don't have any friends..Jim Morrison couldn't find a compass to find bethel
@@paulquick8806 Jim Morrison had an IQ of 149. Look it up, genius.
@@fearsomename4517 👍well I woke up this morning and had myself a beer 🍺 ×2 music 🎶 🎵 👌 🙂 lol
For a reason.
Joplin would fire Big Brother & The Holding Company shortly after Woodstock, which would spell the end for her.
Sly Stone is nearly destitute these days, living off of Social Security in a mobile home.
Big Brother and the Holding Company didn't play at Woodstock. Joplin did, they didn't.
@@kevinoneal4584 Never said they did.
@@allan9603 The video does. And she left them the year before Woodstock.
What? I thought Sly Stone was dead! I saw the Family Stone perform in Oakland, Cal., his hometown, about 4 or 5 years ago, and Sly was not there, probably because he was 6 feet under.
Trapped living like war refugees for 3 days, little food, all your favorite bands a mile away playing 40 minute, mediocre sets, nah even with a time machine I'd pass on Woodstock.
Janis Joplin did not play with Big Brother at Woodstock. She played with the Full Tilt Boogie Band.
Correction, Raphael - it was the Kosmic Blues band at Woodstock. The Fult Tilt Boogie band was her last, the following year. (I saw Janis play two months after Woodstock, and she had the Kosmic Blues Band.
Had people PAID the entrance fee instead of coming in over the destroyed (by attendees) hurricane fence surrounding the venue, the money would have been no problem.
They also had a problem with the vendors breeching contracts and keeping all the proceeds.
My friend and I paid for our tickets, but when we got there, everyone was entering whether they had tickets or not.
@@Qrayon , a lot of people did, but for the rest it was, "Hey man, the music belongs to everyone, the concert should be free!" Well Altamont WAS free, and look what happened!
Still have my signed copy of 'Young Men with Unlimited Capital '. Most people don't realize they lost a fortune on that event.
Sounds like some of the same troubles as the US festival!!
This was in The U.S., There was only one Woodstock.
@@roberttaylor7064 Yes, I know they had an US festival not to long ago, remember. Van Halen was the closing act. They tried to make it Woodstock for this generation!
At least bands could hang out on the side of the stage. Unlike the new corporate one in Elmira
I find it both amusing and irksome how every place that is north of White Plains is called "Upstate New York".
Living and being from Albany,NY we bascailly consider it Upstate because it's not far from the upstate region
@@JuanchoFrmUpstate I spent many years up in the Queensberry and Lake George areas, I'm downstate now.
But, anywhere north of Schenectady I would consider to be Upstate.
I loved when Fred crowd surfed on plywood
You're 30 years late and admiring a turd like Fred Durst...not too cool.
l had my hippie summer that year. bunch did a free concert echoing Woodstock.
organizer had contacts local music scene, there was a screen printer what do you call it churned out the posters.
l was the 17 y.o. electrician knew l cd substitute 20 amp fuse because of more than enough 'duty cycle' keep the amps blasting..
on a farm converted to a church with still lots of farm property monstrous front yard about 60 X 250feet.
packed.
Janis didn’t perform with Big Brother at Woodstock!
MAD Magazine did a honest treatment on the event, looked like a horrible time.
It's a safe bet that you're a Republican. Real bed wetters.
IT WAS A Z O O !
How doing a video on the summer of soul in I think Harlem New York
Janis did not play with Big Brother and the Holding Company here
Glad you assessed the male/female ratio. How about people of color, trans, gay, queer, alien, French, south African and Jewish?
eff'em
As flawed and fucked up as it was, and it turns out to be the concert to beat all concerts...
Woodstock was a little bit before my time.i may have gotten lucky if I would have gone I doubt I would have survived.
Research please, Joplin had left big brother and performed with her new band.
Janice Joplin
Um, Stillwater, from "Almost Famous," played Woodstock??
Sweetwater.
@@markoman5267 There's a bit of footage of the fictional band Stillwater, from "Almost Famous."
Janis Joplin performed with a 10 piece band NOT Big Brother:)
Michael Lang has even admitted that The Who weren’t even part of the counterculture
Who decides that? The Who had every right to be there. Lang was a profiteer.
@@RideAcrossTheRiver The Who we’re never about peace and love they just wanted money and fame like many pop artists today. Earlier in the concert when Canned Heat were playing, an audience member came on to the stage and they even let him stay there and continued the show and even hugged him! The who are so egotistical that they nearly killed Abbie Hoffman when he went on the stage!
@@mattmadge5917 If Hoffman wanted time on the stage, he could have gone up between acts. The Who is a very active group. Guitars and mics flying around. It would have been better had he been hit in the head by Daltrey's mic as he flung it around and then booted off by Townshend's guitar. You can't go on stage and interfere with another performer. He was an arrogant SOB.
@@johnandrus3901 That’s the same mentality as the Hell’s Angels at the Altamont concert!
@@johnandrus3901 Also how do you know Hoffman didn’t just wanna have fun with them like everyone else? The same thing happened during other people’s performances and most of the bands were fine with it! The Who’s egos are too big for Woodstock! Abbie Hoffman was about being positive and changing the world where as The Who are just greedy phoneys who have even gone on record saying that they hated the whole idea of Woodstock.
Tim Harding was asked to go on first and he stood up and started running away
Make pilgrimages to the site yearly for concerts at Amphitheater there. Woodstock was a defining event of my generation .
Until Altamont
This is a mystery
What is it with dairy farmers?
Jimi really got robbed at that festival, sad.....
The Dead was on acid!? Nooooo?
A lot of those hippies are now professionals, high paid jobs, mortgages.
What does the skin color have to do with the show ?
Skin color denote identity, self-image and the ability for others to identify.
It ain't rocket surgery.
Got to quit getting your feelings hurt by every little ouchy.
It wasn't All About a Party
It Was About VIETNAM WAR 😭🇨🇦😭
It was about the music. Abbie Hoffman tried to make it about the war. My brother and I were both in during Vietnam. I was NOT over there. My brother went twice at his request! He was north of the DMZ in North Vietnam. He made it back. Sadly, we lost him to cancer due to Agent Orange. When bad things are happening, it helps to be able to take your mind off of what's happening. For me personally, music does that. All the best and may God bless. Stay strong in Canada, haven't been for awhile. Absolutely love visiting. Very nice people, great scenery, relaxing fishing. Wonderful country. Take care.
RIP David R Hood, and all the other veterans who sacrificed for our Freedoms. We still remember.
They went on to be the worst generation of parents in the 70's.
I was just several hundred miles away , and in the 10th grade , but had I known about this event , a week before , I would have just , left and hitched a ride up , to it , and from there , my life would have been a complete , WDF , I don’t know where I might have ended up ? So I am glad , I never heard about it until , it was over !
Western Washington had a number of great outdoor rock festivals in 68, 69, 70 and 71
Was that the forerunner of Western Washington's current status as the homeless, Antifa, hypodermic heroin shithole capital of America? It is a well deserved honor & recent upgrades cement their status as "all-time worst area ever". If Russia comes for us, I hope Seattle is first. They have earned it.
@@Mister8224 Did I say Seattle?
Did you see an older guy there with sunglasses and a briefcase, initials D.B.C.?
Lack of women at Woodstock isn’t because of female oppression. It’s because there’s far less women in that field. You can’t expect the same amount of women as men if there’s less women 🤷🏻♀️
All the women who performed were bandleaders and solo acts. Narration is silly.
Ah the voice of reason!
Why did you show a military attack helicopter? Thanks for starting off with Creedence, though! They were first to sign on--for $10,000!
A rebellion against the aggressive military mindset, known as passivism, peacenicks.
Townsend and privilege. Wow.
What other female artists of the day would you have included to meet gender quotas?