What was your impression of the 1969 Woodstock?

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.

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

RIP Jeff Beck.

R.I.P Beck

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

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.

Sounds like it is much better to remember your experience than living 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!

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.

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 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.

I've seen the video of Carlos Santana at Woodstock. It was amazing

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 :)

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.

Who doesn’t know that ❓❓❓I would have given everything to be there 💕💜💕💜💕💜

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.

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.

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!! 😁👍

Everyone totally trashed the poor guy's field when the kids left. There were thousands of tents, sleeping bags, packs & drug paraphernalia.

Janis was not with Big Brother at Woodstock. She was with the Kosmic blues band.

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.

My Dad was just outside the gate at Woodstock, but he missed the actual show because of REASONS.

Janis didn’t play with big brother at Woodstock, it was the kozmic blues band.

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.

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! 🤗

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.

The pic at 4:10 is from the Altamont Festival, not Woodstock.

Interesting and intriguing video

Grunge, were you at Woodstock?

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 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.

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

Who can forget. Alvin Lee and Ten Years After, ''I'm Going Home"

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.

Wavy Gravy fed everyone for 2 days.

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

RIP Michael Lang 😔

The Monterey Pop Festival 1967, was the greatest Rock music festival of all time!

Janis did not perform with Big Brother, but with Kozmic Blues Bums...i mean band. Great 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!

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.

…….and then, there was Altamont. But that’s another story.

The Doors weren’t even there.

Damn. It's a shame I was born in 1975. I would have loooooove to be there!

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.

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.

❤

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....

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.

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.

Yeah it's always some hassle 😜. Philadelphia USA 🇺🇲😇 AMEN !!!

I hear Micheal Wang Michael Lang, but nobody mentions Artie Kornfeld. Why is it that Michael Lang gets all the credit. Artie Kornfeld

Janis Joplin did not play with Big Brother at Woodstock. She played with the Full Tilt Boogie Band.

Big Brother was not at Woodstock & Janice's band was awful, though she sang her heart out.

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.

Sounds like some of the same troubles as the US festival!!

Still have my signed copy of 'Young Men with Unlimited Capital '. Most people don't realize they lost a fortune on that event.

How doing a video on the summer of soul in I think Harlem New York

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........

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.

I find it both amusing and irksome how every place that is north of White Plains is called "Upstate New York".

At least bands could hang out on the side of the stage. Unlike the new corporate one in Elmira

MAD Magazine did a honest treatment on the event, looked like a horrible time.

I loved when Fred crowd surfed on plywood

IT WAS A Z O O !

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!

Research please, Joplin had left big brother and performed with her new band.

Woodstock was a little bit before my time.i may have gotten lucky if I would have gone I doubt I would have survived.

Janis did not play with Big Brother and the Holding Company here

😯

As flawed and fucked up as it was, and it turns out to be the concert to beat all concerts...

Make pilgrimages to the site yearly for concerts at Amphitheater there. Woodstock was a defining event of my generation .

This is a mystery

Janice Joplin

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.

Michael Lang has even admitted that The Who weren’t even part of the counterculture

The Dead was on acid!? Nooooo?

What is it with dairy farmers?

Janis Joplin performed with a 10 piece band NOT Big Brother:)

Um, Stillwater, from "Almost Famous," played Woodstock??

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 !

Tim Harding was asked to go on first and he stood up and started running away

Jimi really got robbed at that festival, sad.....

Glad you assessed the male/female ratio. How about people of color, trans, gay, queer, alien, French, south African and Jewish?

What does the skin color have to do with the show ?

Wasn't there like a Woodstock 2 that turned into a total disaster?

A lot of those hippies are now professionals, high paid jobs, mortgages.

They went on to be the worst generation of parents in the 70's.

Why did you show a military attack helicopter? Thanks for starting off with Creedence, though! They were first to sign on--for $10,000!

Western Washington had a number of great outdoor rock festivals in 68, 69, 70 and 71

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.

It wasn't All About a Party It Was About VIETNAM WAR 😭🇨🇦😭

Townsend and privilege. Wow.

A rebellion against the aggressive military mindset, known as passivism, peacenicks.

It's hard to concentrate on playing music when your lips are being kissed by lightning. Been there done that got the tee shirt.