Tomorrow, August 15, marks the fortieth anniversary of Woodstock’s opening day in 1969. On Father’s Day this year my wife (whose birthday also happens to be today—Happy Birthday, Pam!) gave me a copy of the new remastered edition DVD of Woodstock so that I could enjoy the music and atmosphere once more. Recently, I watched the concert footage with my son, who is now 17, exactly the same age I was during Woodstock, and I realized how distant that time now seems, as if it were another lifetime. Indeed, as stated among the words sung by Crosby, Stills, and Nash in the video above, the era now seems “A Long Time Gone.”
When my son and I viewed the musical acts and the activities of attendees at the festival on my DVD as it was shown on the HD screen in our entertainment room, he decided this song was his favorite. I was pleased he did not ask for explanations or clarifications from me. I concluded that like most who attended the festival, my friends and I at the time exhibited a blend of characteristics: looking back now, I see how we were young, certainly energetic, surely naïve, a little immature, somewhat idealistic, and admittedly a bit foolish. Nevertheless, four decades later, even if many of the fashions and behavior today appear silly and embarrassing, much of the music and lyrics still seems to stand up fairly well.
In any case, on this date four decades ago hundreds of thousands of young people were on the road to a small farming community in upstate New York where the stage was still being prepared for the numerous bands who would perform, all unaware they would create a memorable chapter of musical and cultural history in the few days ahead.
When my son and I viewed the musical acts and the activities of attendees at the festival on my DVD as it was shown on the HD screen in our entertainment room, he decided this song was his favorite. I was pleased he did not ask for explanations or clarifications from me. I concluded that like most who attended the festival, my friends and I at the time exhibited a blend of characteristics: looking back now, I see how we were young, certainly energetic, surely naïve, a little immature, somewhat idealistic, and admittedly a bit foolish. Nevertheless, four decades later, even if many of the fashions and behavior today appear silly and embarrassing, much of the music and lyrics still seems to stand up fairly well.
In any case, on this date four decades ago hundreds of thousands of young people were on the road to a small farming community in upstate New York where the stage was still being prepared for the numerous bands who would perform, all unaware they would create a memorable chapter of musical and cultural history in the few days ahead.
5 comments:
I was not alive to experience Woodstock. But having read Divine Right's Trip, by Gurney Norman, a part of me feels that kinship that only a very good book can give you to some place, event, or people who you could never have really known.
If you've never read it, I strongly suggest buying a copy.
I turned 17 nine days after the opening day. My friends and I in Pomona, CA, LONGED to travel there in an old converted dairy truck. Alas, we never even set out on the road, likely a good thing, as that truck would not have got us to Yasgur's farm.
Last weekend I enjoyed thinking about the 40th anniversary of the Abbey Road photo. Next week I will turn 57. Where did it all go?
I think the music and lyrics DO hold up. I also think our ideals weren't that far off base. I've held most of them very dear and I've done all right for a girl.
O whither Woodstock days of yore
With Love and Peace galore;
Those bygone greener salad days
Preceded Alfred Gore …
(Part of the fifty page narrative poem, “O Whither Woodstock,” by Sir Percy Bisque Silley, Poet Laureate and Lulu Prize Winner.)
I wasn't able to make the trip since I was in 1st grade and my parents wouldn't allow it. Every day was a kind of Woodstock back then in Roseburg, Oregon. I found some young hippies living in our barnhouse (kind of an old shed)and they made me promise not to tell my parents. But it wasn't creepy or anything. They were just so sweet and loving. I wasn't sure if they were real people or angels.
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