Wow! 40 years ago today Woodstock was gearing up!
John and I just finished The Road to Woodstock by Michael Lang (read it on the drive home Wednesday from Canada). It was an awesome read! I thought I would recap the next three days with some excerpts and info from the book.
The lineup on day one (August 15, 1969) included:
- Richie Havens, who did not want to open the show, went on stage at at 5:07 pm (eastern time) and opened Woodstock. He played six or seven encores, "I'm back out there one more time, when finally I've completely run out of songs and know I've got to get off, no mater what the situation is. So I start tuning and retuning, hoping to remember a song I've missed, when I hear that word in my head again, that word I kept hearing while I was looking over the crowd in my first moments onstage. The word was: freedom." ~ Richie Havens (page 182, The Road to Woodstock).
Sweetwater - slated to open the concert, their delay led them to appear second. The first electric group to play on stage, their performance ended up being the sound crew's sound check. (page 187)Bert Sommer - He sat cross-legged on stage, backed up by electric guitars and sang ballads such as "Jennifer," "She's Gone," and Simon and Garfunkel's "America." (page 188)
Tim Hardin - it was dark by the time he took the stage that night, and he played the first half of his set solo. Joined by his band for the second half of the set, guitarist Gilles Malkine remembers "You could not see the end of the crowd. It was like all humanity looking at you." (page 189)
Ravi Shankar - Around 10:30, Shankar was about to take the stage when it began thundering. nervous, Shankar took the stage and Lang reminisces "...his playing transcended the problems of the weather. The vibe was intense. When those spiritual moments would happen, you could really feel them. You could feel everyone coming together." (page 190)
Melanie - Preforming after Shankar, folk artist Melanie was rather unknown at the time. Her set was an acoustic one, and the sight of all the hundreds of thousands of people shivering in the dark and rain made her later write the song "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)," which was her first big hit in the 1970's. As Melanie recalls "...Chip Monck said that if you lit candles, it would help keep the rain away. By the time I finished my set, the whole hillside was a mass of little flickering lights. It was an amazing experience to be there, to be in that time and to live though that group of people who were acknowledging each other, as if we were all in one family. Woodstock was an affirmation that we were part of each other." (page 191)
Arlo Guthrie - at around 11:55 pm Guthrie took the stage. "Coming into Los Angeles" is famously know for his impromptu statement: "I don't know how many of you can dig how many people there are, man. Like I was rappin to the fuzz - right, can you dig it? - man, there is supposed to be a million and a half people here by tonight. Can you dig that? New York State Freeway [Thruway?] is closed man... hhhaaaa. Ya, its far out man."
Joan Baez - After midnight, Baez went onstage. Singing in the rain, only lit by spot lights and five months pregnant, she started her set with "Oh Happy Day," followed by "Joe Hill" (for her husband who was imprisoned for draft resistance), "Sweet Sir Galahad," " "Hickory Wind," "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and "We Shall Overcome."
The first day ended around 2 am.
Richie Haven's image from jambase.com; Ravi Shankar and Joan Baez images from woodstock.wikia.com.
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