Reissues, new film revisit Woodstock
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_12856746
By Jonathan Takiff
Philadelphia Daily News
Posted: 07/19/2009
Several outdoor, multiday music festivals were held in the summer of '69.
All were celebrating a seismic explosion in conscious rock music
spirited by the Beatles, Bob Dylan and "the movements" (anti-war,
civil rights, feminist, ecological, psychedelic) and proffered by the
likes of Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Janis Joplin, the Who,
Creedence Clearwater Revival, Canned Heat, Joe Cocker and the Band.
Simultaneously, this surge of oversized shows served as a coming of
age and coming together for the just-emerging baby boomer generation
that would embrace its new stars as countercultural heroes.
The biggest, baddest and most legendary music fest of all was
Woodstock, a venture "created for wallets ... designed to make bucks.
And then the universe took over and did a little dance." So quipped
Wavy Gravy, performance artist and frontman for the famed Hog Farm
commune, which gently policed and fed the festival.
Woodstock pilgrims anywhere from 300,000 to "half a million
strong," depending on who's counting clogged the New York State
Thruway and turned the cow pastures of Sullivan County, N.Y., into an
instant city on Aug. 15-18, 1969. They suffered rain and famine of
almost biblical proportions enough for then-New York Gov. Nelson
Rockefeller to declare the site a disaster area. Yet, through it all,
festivalgoers never lost their sense of cool or their kindliness
toward one another.
The Woodstock festival wasn't just the lead story for a day or two.
Captured first note to last by sound engineer Eddie Kramer, and
visually (pristine fields to muddy mess) by a camera crew led by
Michael Wad- leigh, the epic event would soar to legendary stature,
dwarfing that other historic '69 summer happening, man's first walk
on the moon.
Even those in attendance came to rely on Wadleigh's pointedly
political, three-hour film document first released in theaters in
March 1970 to define what the newly anointed "Woodstock Nation" was
all about. "Most of what I know of the festival, I saw in the movie,"
said Joel Rosenman, one of the event's four producers, who was stuck
in an office all weekend, dealing with "life and death" issues.
And millions more who would dose just on the movie (considered the
best documentary ever) and soundtrack albums would likewise become
imbued with Woodstock's spirit those calls to rock free, get back
to nature, make love, not war, expand your mind ... so much so that,
when asked, they too would swear, "Yeah, I was at Woodstock."
This summer, you can be there too, even better than before. To mark
the festival's 40th anniversary, Woodstock is being revisited and
celebrated anew with treasure troves of freshly unearthed
performances, insightful books, commemorative concerts and a
promising new feature film, "Taking Woodstock."
"Woodstock was a ray of hope in a dark time, and today, it can be
that again," believes the festival's most visible creator, Michael
Lang. "It's telling that Barack Obama's inaugural celebration was
characterized as 'Washington's Woodstock.' " The place to start our
magical mystery tour is still Wadleigh's documentary, "Woodstock 3
Days of Peace & Music," just reissued by Warner Home Video in a new
Blu-ray disc form (as well as conventional DVD) in that extended,
four-hour director's cut edition first let loose at the 25th-anniversary mark.
A limited-edition "ultimate collector's" treatment packs cute touches
like a wrapper of fringed buckskin a major Woodstock fashion
statement. But the really big deal here is a new bonus disc with an
extra 2 1/2 hours of concert footage, including a big helping of
Creedence Clearwater Revival and a 38-minute grind through the
Grateful Dead's "Turn on Your Lovelight," two bands missing from the
movie due to artistic and business "differences."
Newly mixed by Kramer in 5.1- channel sound a neat feat since he
only had seven tracks of band music to juggle and freshly edited
and sharpened for high-def viewing (more obviously so than the
movie), this extra content brings us closer in spirit and endurance
to the six-hour marathon that Wadleigh first intended to foist on the
world "in two, three-hour or three, two-hour chunks," he said.
Even 40 years later, this long- haired director still relishes
recalling how he stuck it to the man, breaking into a Warner facility
and spiriting away the "Woodstock" negative, then threatening to burn
it after hearing that a studio exec wanted to cut the movie down to 90 minute.
Also enhancing our virtual festivalgoing experience are a series of
five new "Woodstock Experience" CDs from Sony Legacy that deliver the
complete Woodstock performances previously heard only in truncated
form of five label notables. Each is paired with the musical act's
big studio album of the same year.
Janis Joplin's performance with her then new, soul revue-style band
sounds snappier than on-site reviewers suggested. Another Texas
bluester, Johnny Winter, was in sturdy form. Best of show Sly and the
Family Stone were at absolute peak powers, blazing a funk-rock trail
still being tread by the minions.
And the Jefferson Airplane's trippy, 90-minute, dawn-on-Sunday set
was way better than the musicians believed at the time, or their
overly fatigued audience could appreciate.
Conversely, not all of Santana's Latin fusion coming-out party at
Woodstock proves as legend-making as the fiery "Soul Sacrifice"
finale spotlighted in the film.
--------
Going down to Yasgur's farm
http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=249683
Woodstock and all that music that rocked America in 1969.
BY ERIK HOGSTROM TH STAFF WRITER
July 12, 2009
You'd never know what to expect back then, slapping some vinyl on the
turntable or switching on the transistor radio.
"It was just so exciting," Luis Moscoso said of the music scene of 1969.
Now living in the Seattle area, Moscoso was the singer for Dutch
Uncle, a popular Dubuque band during 1969 -- the year of Woodstock,
Led Zeppelin's first two albums and The Beatles' final performance on
the roof of the Apple building.
Although the Woodstock Music & Art Fair helped define the era, the
Aug. 15-18 festival wasn't actually held in Woodstock. Instead, the
gathering of musicians and fans was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre
dairy farm in the rural town of Bethel, N.Y., about 43 miles
southwest of its namesake.
Friday's lineup included Richie Havens, Tim Hardin, Ravi Shankar and
Joan Baez. Saturday's bill included Country Joe McDonald, Santana,
Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Sly &
The Family Stone, The Who and Jefferson Airplane. The festival
concluded Sunday with acts that included The Band, Blood, Sweat &
Tears, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Jimi Hendrix.
Several seminal albums were released in 1969, including The Beatles'
"Abbey Road," the debut album by the Jackson 5 and The Band's
self-titled second album. "Dusty in Memphis" and "From Elvis in
Memphis" also arrived in record stores 40 years ago, giving music
fans Dusty Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man" and Elvis Presley's
"In the Ghetto."
Singer and "Wizard of Oz" star Judy Garland died in 1969, as did
Delta bluesman Skip James. Guitarist Brian Jones, a founding member
of The Rolling Stones, died in July 1969.
The Rolling Stones also experienced the highs of "Let it Bleed" --
the album included classic songs such as "Gimme Shelter," "Midnight
Rambler" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" -- and the lows of
Altamont -- the site of a California concert marred by a stabbed fan
-- during 1969.
The Who released "Tommy" in 1969, and Iggy Pop's Stooges released
their debut album.
"There were new and creative sounds coming out all the time." Moscoso said.
A pair of classic albums highlighted the year in country music -- "At
San Quentin" by Johnny Cash and "Okie From Muskogee" by Merle Haggard.
In Iowa, Simon & Garfunkel performed in Ames. That concert yielded
the pair's recording of the Everly Brothers' classic "Bye Bye Love,"
included later on the "Bridge Over Troubled Water" album.
Moscoso witnessed rock history during a trip out of his native Dubuque.
"We attended the first concert by Crosby, Stills & Nash in Chicago,"
he said. "It was a couple of weeks before Woodstock."
--
Top-selling singles
1. The Archies: "Sugar,Sugar"
2. 5th Dimension:"Aquarius/Let the
Sunshine in"
3. The Temptations: "I Can't Get Next to You"
4. The Rolling Stones: "Honky Tonk Women"
5. The Beatles: "Come Together/Something"
6. Sly & The Family Stone: "Everyday People"
Billboard
Grammy winners
Some of the winners at the 12th Grammy Awards, honoring the musical
accomplishments of 1969:
Record of the Year:
Bones Howe (producer) and The Fifth Dimension for "Aquarius/Let the
Sunshine In"
Album of the Year: James William Guercio (producer) and Blood, Sweat
& Tears for "Blood,
Sweat & Tears"
Song of the Year:
Joe South for "Games People Play"
Best New Artist:
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Best Country Vocal Performance, Female:
Tammy Wynette for "Stand By Your Man"
Best Country Vocal Performance, Male:
Johnny Cash for "A Boy Named Sue"
Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female:
Aretha Franklin for "Share Your Love With Me"
Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male:
Joe Simon for "The Chokin' Kind"
Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group:
Isley Brothers for "It's Your Thing"
The National Academy of
Recording Arts and Sciences
-------
Woodstock Ventures & Sony Music Entertainment Launch of Woodstock.com
Social Network
07 July 2009
Woodstock Ventures has teamed with Sony Music Entertainment to launch
Woodstock.com, the official website for the Woodstock community.
Woodstock.com will feature a cutting edge live music social
network for all concerts, including complete artist and event
information, access to ticketing, concert reviews, blogs and a forum
to connect with other fan events throughout the world. There will be
platforms for environmental initiatives, social issues, and other
current topics. Visitors to the site can meet on a virtual village
green, a platform for developing initiatives about global warming,
carbon emissions, and responsible energy use.
A special interactive portion of the site will make clear to the
world which issues are of the greatest importance to the Woodstock
community. And of course, the site will be the ultimate source for
all things Woodstock exclusive interviews, guest editors,
audio-visual content, rare photographs and other memorabilia with an
online store offering a wide variety of goods including fine art
prints of never-before-seen photography, music, film, collectables,
apparel and books.
Woodstock.com will also offer a platform where fans can share their
experiences from all of the Woodstock Festivals ('69,'94 & '99) as
well as other live concert events. Woodstock.com will also premiere
WikiStock, an interactive wiki-style encyclopedia of all things
Woodstock, which will accept and incorporate contributions about the
individual experiences visitors have had at Woodstock festivals over the years.
Woodstock.com is being created under the auspices of Michael Lang and
Joel Rosenman, two of the founders of the Woodstock Festival. The
launch of Woodstock.com is planned to coincide with the 40th
anniversary of the 1969 Woodstock Festival, the historic weekend that
showed the world how the youth of America could unite in peace and music.
"Woodstock began as a dream and became a reality that exceeded our
wildest expectations," said Michael Lang. "That dream lives on and
our hope is that Woodstock.com will harness the power of 21st century
technology to the communal idealism and values that continue to grow
out of Woodstock."
Joel Rosenman added, "Like the Woodstock Festival, Woodstock.com is
designed with the Woodstock community in mind a destination for
music, social issues, memories and hopes, and above all, a place to
have fun. And, like the festival, the website will change and evolve.
The Woodstock community will see right away that Woodstock.com is not
only a place, it's a pathway for a fascinating journey."
"The original Woodstock festival shaped the musical and cultural
values of a generation," said Adam Block, Senior Vice President and
General Manager, Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music
Entertainment. "We at Sony Music are grateful for the opportunity to
partner with Woodstock Ventures in bringing the heritage and spirit
of Woodstock Nation into the future."
.
0 comments:
Post a Comment