Sunday, August 23, 2009

MORE WOODSTOCK

>So given that it was the Woodstock Festival's fortieth anniversary weekend, I checked out to see if any station had something about it. It turns out The History Channel had a program called “Woodstock Now and Then.” There were a few things I learned. One being that doctors came in to treat the “wounded”. For free. Which was nice of the doctors. Another thing was that the Army helped out as well. They transported people with helicopters. In fact, it would've been hard for the concert to go on without their help. It was a terrific gesture on their part given the fact that most of the people and performers were against the Vietnam war.
iv> There were two deaths that occurred. One of them was drug related, which makes sense, while the other was a real tragedy. Someone driving a tractor ran over a person covered by a blanket. Just thinking about that is horrible. I don't know what happened as a result of that, but on last weeks blog I mentioned that something like Woodstock wouldn't happen now because the promotors would be afraid of too many lawsuits. Well it turns out that the promoters were sued quite a bit. Even back then. Around eighty lawsuits. One of the lawsuits was because a cow wasn't giving out enough milk, presumably because of the stress of the concert.
Richie Havens opened the concert and played around three hours because no other performers were around or ready. They ran out of stuff to play so they improvised a song called “Freedom.” That song became one of the anthems of the concert.
Other things I found out, and not necessarily from the program, is that one of the announcers and the head of security was a peace activist named Wavy Gravy. Security was very lax, so the backstage password became “I forgot.” Albert Einstein knew Wavy Gravy as a little boy and held his hand to go for a walk. That was not his name at the time however. Some people were upset at seeing Joe Cocker perform because he moves like he's having a spastic attack. They thought he was making fun of handicapped people, until they found out that that's just the way he performs.
Santana was not that well known at the time. Especially on the East coast, which is where Woodstock was held. Carlos Santana was only twenty two years old. The band really hadn't played concerts anywhere near this size. But Carlos played like an old soul who was making love. The drummer, Michael Shrieve, played an amazing, and legendary drum solo. He had just turned twenty years old. All the band was fantastic. They just nailed it. "Soul Sacrifice" is considered one of the best performances of the concert. Another band that nailed it was Ten Years after with “I'm Going Home.” Alvin Lee was known as “the fastest guitarist in the West.” And for good reason. All you have to do is listen to the beginning riff. He was as raw as you want to be.
One of the highlights of the Woodstock movie, which was also on, was the girls taking a bath in the lake scene. It just seemed so natural. So gay. In the original sense of the word. Their privates, however, were blurred out, so I suppose one has to see it on DVD to get the whole effect. The cover of the Woodstock album has a couple covered by a blanket. They are surrounded by people lying down covered in mud. It was originally seen on Life magazine and then the cover. It has even been exhibited in the Library of Congress. Well, it turns out that that couple is still together. They got married and have been all this time.
When Jimi Hendrix told people he was going to play “The Star Spangled Banner,” they had no idea what he was going to do. Little did they know that they were going to hear “The bombs bursting in air” played on the guitar. It was an amazing rendition.
You can see the influence the movie had on commercials such as Apple Computers. The dancing silhouette for instance. The editing and camera work were terrific. And of course some of the performances were spectacular. I might have to buy one of the DVD's. And not just because of the girls taking a bath scene.
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