Back to the farm as Woodstock fades to grey
http://www.theage.com.au/world/back-to-the-farm-as-woodstock-fades-to-grey-20090816-emba.html
KEITH RICHBURG, BETHEL, NEW YORK
August 17, 2009
FORTY years after the Woodstock concert made rock music history,
thousands of music lovers, old and young, converged on the site for
what was billed as a reunion.
Only a few of the original Woodstock musicians were on hand, and the
crowd, estimated at about 15,000, was a fraction of the half-million
or so at this isolated rural area decades ago. The farm itself now
houses the Bethel Woods Centre for the Arts, and the performances
took place in an open-air amphitheatre with most attendees seated
picnic-style on a grass-covered slope.
''It's funny seeing everybody getting old,'' said Vinny Verdi, 59, a
motion picture projectionist from New Jersey, who was here as a
19-year-old for the festival in 1969.
John Westbrook, 61, came to the first Woodstock festival when he
happened to be home on a break from the navy in Vietnam. ''I was
stoned when I got here, stoned when I left and stoned for many years
after,'' said Westbrook, wearing a tie-dyed sleeveless T-shirt,
loose-fitting tie-dyed trousers and a matching headband over his greying hair.
The music opened just after 5pm on Saturday, with Conor Oberst
reprising Jimi Hendrix's acclaimed electric guitar version of The
Star Spangled Banner.
Country Joe McDonald, singing and acting as MC, tried to link the
1969 anti-war mood of the crowd to today with US troops currently
fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He asked the crowd for a moment of silence while he read off the
names of the nine service members from the local county who were
killed in Vietnam, and the five killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Then he sang his anti-war anthem, Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die.
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Remembering Woodstock
http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/16862/
John Unger, of Saugus, was 17 when he traveled to upstate New York
for a weekend of music
By Michele E. Buttelman
Signal Features Editor
mbuttelman@the-signal.com
661-259-1234 x590
Posted: Aug. 15, 2009
John Unger, of Saugus, knows exactly where he was 40 years ago today.
Unger and two friends, Paul Hamer and Mike Gedney, were perched atop
a hill at the Woodstock Music Festival in upstate New York.
The trio flew from Chicago to New York and took a bus to Bethel,
N.Y., the nearest bus station to where a hay field owned by dairy
farmer Max Yasgur became a touchstone for a generation. The
festival officially was scheduled to run Friday through Sunday, Aug.
15-17, 1969. It actually ran through mid-morning on Monday, Aug. 18, 1969.
Woodstock is considered to be one of the defining musical events of
the last century. It featured 32 musical acts over four days.
Forty years ago, the lineup on that significant Saturday included
Quill (which played a 40-minute set of four songs), Keef Hartley
Band, Santana (who started playing at approximately 2:30 p.m.),
Mountain, Canned Heat, Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival,
Country Joe McDonald, John Sebastian and Janis Joplin. Sly and the
Family Stone didn't arrive on stage until 1:30 a.m., The Who at 3
a.m. (the band played a 25-song set including "Tommy") and Jefferson
Airplane, scheduled for Saturday, began playing at 8:30 a.m. Sunday morning.
"I remember most vividly Sly and the Family Stone and The Who. I saw
when Pete Townsend whacked (1960s radical) Abby Hoffman with a guitar
and knocked him off the stage," Unger said.
Unger, a resident of the SCV since 1993, still has his tickets and
his program from the event. Both are preserved in near perfect condition.
"They didn't pass the programs out until near the end of the concert
so it didn't get rained on or dropped in the mud," he said.
The program does sport a small "official" Woodstock mud stain on a
corner of the full page photo of Joe Cocker where Cocker is dubbed
"The Prince of Wails on A&M Records."
Unger was 17 and between his junior and senior years in high school
when he and his friends attended Woodstock.
"My father subscribed to the Sunday New York Times and I was looking
through it and I saw an advertisement (for the concert). I thought it
looked interesting," Unger said. "My friend Paul Hamer and I had seen
the film about the Monterey International Pop Music Festival that
took place in the Bay area in 1967 and left the theater and said,
'Hey, we have to go to Woodstock, we have to go.' We talked another
one of our friends into going (Mike Gedney) and somehow we talked our
parents into letting us go. We purchased our plane tickets and
figured out the bus schedule to Bethel, N.Y., where the festival was held."
Unger said the beginning of the trip demonstrates how different 1969
was from today.
"The adventure began at the airport where the airline refused to let
Paul (Hamer) on the airplane because he had holes in the knees of his
jeans and this was considered to be unacceptable attire in which to
fly (in 1969)," Unger said.
Hamer changed into a different pair of pants he retrieved from a
carry-on bag and was allowed on the plane. The trio flew to New York.
"Our plane was late, and we were afraid we would miss the last bus to
Bethel," Unger said.
The young men didn't have much money, said Unger. They had planned on
camping at the festival site and needed to make the last bus.
After Unger and the others climbed aboard a taxi and told the driver
of their plight "the driver took off like a crazy man," Unger said.
"When we got into downtown the traffic was gridlocked ... there were
fire engines blocking a lane of traffic," Unger said. "Then the cab
driver drove onto the sidewalk for a full city block. People were
diving out of the way."
Unger said he and his friends "laughed hysterically."
"We couldn't believe it was happening," he said.
The group made their bus. After arriving in Bethel the three youths
hiked to the festival site.
"Since we were there a couple of days early, we found a nice camp
site where some others were camping," he said. "You had to walk
through some woods to get to it, which made it interesting at night,
but our camp was close to the stage."
Unger said they were surprised to find a lot of people were already
there, many of them "hippies."
"There were free kitchens and hippie buses and a small stage in our
camp area where some bands played. I don't know if it was organized
or if it was a place where anyone could just get up and play," he said.
Unger and his friends "hung out" until the festival started, then
found their place atop a hill overlooking the stage.
"We had a great view of the stage and the sound was great. The hill
was a great place because when it rained, the rain ran downhill, and
people on the hill basically sat and listened to the music they
weren't dancing around and churning up the mud," he said.
No account of Woodstock is complete without mention of the rain that
drenched the 600-acre pasture on and off throughout the three-day
festival. The rain-delayed performances and turned the festival site
into a sea of mud.
Unger said many memories are lost in the mists of time, but "lots and
lots of great music was played."
"We were there until the very end, the last night went all night. On
Monday morning when the sun was coming up, Sha Na Na came out and
played. It seemed incongruous," Unger said of the group that performs
classic 1950s rock 'n' roll. The bands in the festival were almost
all contemporary rock acts. "Many people left not realizing that Jimi
Hendrix was coming out to finish the show."
According to Woodstock organizer Michael Lang in his book "The Road
to Woodstock," Hendrix was paid $32,000 to perform at the festival
earning the largest paycheck of any performer at the event.
Officials estimated the crowd, that at one point numbered 450,000 or
more, had dwindled to only 25,000 by Monday morning.
"I don't know that there were even that many people left," said
Unger. "We walked down and were right in front of the stage when
Hendrix played. We were transfixed throughout his whole show
especially with Hendrix playing the 'Star Spangled Banner' like no
one had ever heard it played before. Then it ended."
Woodstock is also remembered for its nudity, casual sex, open drug
use and a stage announcer who famously warned people to steer clear
of the "brown acid."
However, Unger said he and his friends "stayed out of trouble. We
were fairly responsible."
Unger said he doesn't remember much about the trip home.
"I guess we were a bit of a sight, I think we would have been. We
weren't rolling around in the mud, but we hadn't showered or anything
for three days," he said.
Despite memories that have faded with time, Unger said he knows the
impact of Woodstock hung with him for years.
"A few weeks later (after Woodstock), there I was back in my algebra
class in high school and wondering if this had really happened," he
said. "I have a great feeling that stuck with me for years."
Unger's friend Hamer started Hamer Guitars which is generally
considered to be the first "boutique" electric guitar brand that
specifically catered to professional musicians. Hamer Guitars have
been played by members of Bad Company, Jethro Tull and Cheap Trick.
Unger has also worked in the music business most of his adult life.
He currently is employed by Guitar Center as the director of
treasury. He isn't sure if Woodstock played a role in his career choice.
"I look back on Woodstock as a great time a once-in-a-lifetime
experience," he said. "As you get older, other things become more
important in your life family, children, career but it left me
with a great feeling that lasted a long time, a feeling that you were
part of something that was really magical at the time."
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