Did anyone here go to Woodstock in 1969?

JBR said:
Yeah, isn't it interesting how the next big American festival, Altamont (near San Francisco), got all the bad press. I had no idea that Woodstock involved the sort of shenanigans katlupe & jimintoronto have related, above.
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Altamont was not nearly as large in terms of the number of people that attended it. Altamont Speedway was a race track which did have proper facilities in terms of seating, toilets, food stands and vehicle parking. The big error was having the California chapters of the Hell's Angels being hired as "Security ". The Rolling Stones were the BIG headliners, with Mick Jagger playing the part of the Devil, ramping up the crowd into a frenzy.

Things went waaaay off the rails in front of the stage when one of the Angels shot a black guy who had smacked some body else with a pool cue stick. Mick cut the band off, and pleaded with the crowd to "Be Cool People ". He knew that this was the time to back off the stage, and let things go, as the crowd as out of control. The Stones packed it in and got out of the site. Cahos ensued, with lots of injuries and arrests.

One of the most popular bands of the era were The Doors. If I was asked to pick just one "Acid era tune " that summed up both Altamont and Wood Stock, it would be "The End " by The Doors. A 12 minute musical trip into the bowels of insanity that still stands as a masterpiece of dystopian vision and despair. Here is a link to a 1965 CBC TV live recording of The End, by The Doors, recorded in brand new Quadraphonic sound in Toronto. Probably the best live cut of their best song.

ps://www.bing.com/search?pglt=43&q=CBC+TV+version+of+the+end+by+the+doors+recorded+live+in+toronto&cvid=ce2ed684a1f541b4bd8960933d045f82&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCTI5Nzk1ajBqMagCALACAA&FORM=ANNTA1&adppc=EDGEESS&PC=U531

The next year, in the summer of 1970, I bought a 99 day pass for $99 on the US Greyhound system, and set off in search of "something " Starting in Detroit, and ending up in LA about 5 weeks later. That pass allowed me to get on and off anywhere I liked, along the way. I was a 24, single and care free Canadian, carrying a CCM hockey equipment bag, and I had $1000 in traveler's checks hidden in my left cowboy boot. The story was an eye opener in a lot of different ways, for a kid who had never experienced racial segregation, or been south of Ohio. I think I'll start a thread about the trip . JIMB.
 
jimintoronto said:
The next year, in the summer of 1970, I bought a 99 day pass for $99 on the US Greyhound system, and set off in search of "something " Starting in Detroit, and ending up in LA about 5 weeks later. That pass allowed me to get on and off anywhere I liked, along the way. I was a 24, single and care free Canadian, carrying a CCM hockey equipment bag, and I had $1000 in traveler's checks hidden in my left cowboy boot. The story was an eye opener in a lot of different ways, for a kid who had never experienced racial segregation, or been south of Ohio. I think I'll start a thread about the trip . JIMB.
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Please do! I'd love to hear more. It sounds like such an exciting time.

It is indeed a shame that Altamont has been reduced to the Hell's Angels murder during "Sympathy for the Devil." I'm a longtime music and music history fan. I can rattle off the names of several bands who played at the Monterey Pop festival and at Woodstock, but I can't name one band that played Altamont other than the Rolling Stones, and only because that story overshadowed everything else. Actually, I'm off to Google the lineup right now.

Update: Just looked up details on Altamont. I had forgotten that it was not a festival but a free concert by the Rolling Stones with several additional acts. I'm sure everyone here already knew that.

But again, @jimintoronto, I'd be very interested if you do start a thread about your trip.
 
KSav said:
Please do! I'd love to hear more. It sounds like such an exciting time.

It is indeed a shame that Altamont has been reduced to the Hell's Angels murder during "Sympathy for the Devil." I'm a longtime music and music history fan. I can rattle off the names of several bands who played at the Monterey Pop festival and at Woodstock, but I can't name one band that played Altamont other than the Rolling Stones, and only because that story overshadowed everything else. Actually, I'm off to Google the lineup right now.

Update: Just looked up details on Altamont. I had forgotten that it was not a festival but a free concert by the Rolling Stones with several additional acts. I'm sure everyone here already knew that.

But again, @jimintoronto, I'd be very interested if you do start a thread about your trip.
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Do me a favour ? Take a look at my thread about The Doors, and see if you can fix the link I posted, so it works properly. Thanks. JimB.
 
Pepper said:
Bobby Vee comes from Fargo, @KSav. He probably wouldn't have had such stardom without the plane crash which killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens & the Big Bopper. Bobby filled in for them at the show they were scheduled to perform.

I was compelled to tell you that. o_O
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That is interesting; I did not know that!
 
PeppermintPatty said:
Pictures show a lot of grass ( lawn type ) and people with blankets
View attachment 353203
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I was never there, but two friends came back from the concert, and they talked about the knee deep mud, and I did have friend about 20 years later, who had pics , and she said the same about the mud. She said saw a news blurb about the concert, and people were barefoot, so they were called "hippies". But the reason was you couldn't wear shoes because they got suck off in the mud.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
I was never there, but two friends came back from the concert, and they talked about the knee deep mud, and I did have friend about 20 years later, who had pics , and she said the same about the mud. She said saw a news blurb about the concert, and people were barefoot, so they were called "hippies". But the reason was you couldn't wear shoes because they got suck off in the mud.
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I donā€™t think grass normally goes like that even after a heavy rainfall but thatā€™s a lot of people and a lot of weight and friction with them moving around. With another search, I found what I was looking for. Thanks
IMG_4917.jpegIMG_4918.gifIMG_4919.jpegIMG_4920.jpegIMG_4921.jpeg
 
PeppermintPatty said:
I donā€™t think grass normally goes like that even after a heavy rainfall but thatā€™s a lot of people and a lot of weight and friction with them moving around. With another search, I found what I was looking for. Thanks
View attachment 353303View attachment 353304View attachment 353305View attachment 353306View attachment 353307
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Here are some numbers to think about.......No one has ever been able to accurately measure the number of people who were at Wood Stock. The usual estimate is ABOUT 400 hundred thousand people. On average a human adult produces about 2 pounds of excrement per day, so multiply 2 pounds of excrement per day, times 400,000 people and you get a figure of about 800,000 pounds of it, per day. That is 40 TONS of it, per day, times 3 days. So about 120 TONS of excrement for the 3 days. Now add in urine. Now look at the photos of the mud bowl, and realize just what they are rolling around in. Yep, a soup of bacteria laden water. Dumb. JIMB>
 
jimintoronto said:
Here are some numbers to think about.......No one has ever been able to accurately measure the number of people who were at Wood Stock. The usual estimate is ABOUT 400 hundred thousand people. On average a human adult produces about 2 pounds of excrement per day, so multiply 2 pounds of excrement per day, times 400,000 people and you get a figure of about 800,000 pounds of it, per day. That is 40 TONS of it, per day, times 3 days. So about 120 TONS of excrement for the 3 days. Now add in urine. Now look at the photos of the mud bowl, and realize just what they are rolling around in. Yep, a soup of bacteria laden water. Dumb. JIMB>
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Ewwww! Thatā€™s REALLY disgusting. šŸ¤¢
 
barbarak333 said:
Nope, but at age 14, I went to Summer Jam 1973 in Watkins Glen with two older sisters and a brother-in-law. They planned for 150,000 people and 600,000 showed up. There were "only" 3 bands . . . The Allman Brothers, The Grateful Dead, and The Band. I wish I had photos . . .
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Long before they were The Band, the 5 musicians had been The Hawks, backing up Ronnie Hawkins in Toronto. Hawkins and Levon Helm both hailed from around Little Rock. The 2 of them travelled up to Toronto, having heard that there was a thriving live music scene there. Ronnie Hawkins founded a band with Levon on drums, Garth Hudson on keyboards, a 16 year old Robbie Robertson on lead guitar, and a couple of different bass players. Over the next few years the Hawks became one of the tightest most professional bands in Canada, with Ronnie Hawkins out front doing a unique blend of rock and hill billy tunes.

One night a small guy from Minnesota was playing a concert at Maple Leaf Gardens, and afterwards he dropped in to the Edison Hotel, to catch the last set of Hawkins and The Hawks. He was blown away by the ability of the 5 man group. He made them an offer. Drop Hawkins, and be my back up band for the rest of my tour. A large amount of cash was offered, and the deal was done.

Little Bobby Dylan had a new back up group the next week. This was when Dylan switched from acoustic guitar, to Fender Stratocaster electric. The line up with Dylan was Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, and Rick Danko. Leven Helm was the lone American, the other 4 were Canadians, all from the general area around Toronto. They toured with Dylan, and eventually they all moved to a big old pink house in upstate New York.

Robertson was the main song writer, while Levon did a lot of the vocals while playing drums, which isn't the easiest thing to do. Garth Hudson was a classically trained pianist with a degree in music composition. He was the one who wrote in odd musical instruments into some the The Band's later hits. Beside playing the usual rock and roll instruments, the Bands members also were able to play violin, bass viola, trombone, saxophone, trumpet, harp, hurdygurdy, piano , and electric organ.

After 20 years of being "The Band " they played a final concert in California, which was filmed as "The Last Waltz ". If you have not seen it, find it and watch it for the experience. Today in 2024, only Garth Hudson is still alive. Robbie Robertson died last year at age 80. JIMB.
 
Thank you for sharing your stories. The summer of '73 was a memorable one for me and my sister, as we geared up for our big adventure and listened to "Up on Cripple Creek" and all the other great songs by the 3 bands.

The strange thing is that I don't have vivid memories of the event. It rained a torrential downpour and became a super-size mud pit and then the sun came out and scorched us all with extreme heat. The four of us sat in a field for a day or so with a few hundred thousand other folks and I'm guessing we spent the night there, too, but I don't remember sleeping. There was no room to lay down--sitting room only.

Walking anywhere involved doing a balancing act and stepping over people. We carried heavy backpacks full of stuff that we couldn't use. By the time we got out of there, we were dehydrated, exhausted, covered with mud, and a bit disappointed that it was such a complicated mess.

I didn't know about the Canadian connection. I saw Levon Helm at the State Theater in Ithaca sometime around 2008 but didn't know his history--I thought he was a blues player. Just a bit clueless here. :) I'm familiar with Richard Manuel and Rick Danko through Jason Isbell's Danko/Manuel song.

"The Last Waltz " If you have not seen it, find it and watch it for the experience.
Thank you :) Wow, listening now to songs I haven't heard in decades. Sounds pretty darn good on an old Bose system.
 
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"The Last Waltz " was produced and directed by Martin Scorsese. In later years, Robbie Robertson and he collaborated on soundtracks for a number of his feature films. At the present time, Robertson's adult children are in a legal battle over the rights to most of his music . He married ( in secret ) just 3 months before his death at age 80. Three of his adult children are suing the woman who he married, claiming he was mentally incompetent at the time, and was a victim of "elder abuse " by her. Apparently, she forced him to take prescription drugs that caused " confusion, hallucinations, depression, memory loss and dissociation ". The suit will be heard in a California civil court later this year. link.

Legendary classic rock starā€™s children say widow committed ā€˜elder abuseā€™.

A sad end to a life of musical talent.
 
jimintoronto said:
Guess who was playing bass for Buddy Holley on that tour ? After the other 2 crickets quit ? Waylon Jennings . Buddy gave him a Fender jazz master bass and said...You got 3 days to learn how to play this thing. Waylon skipped the plane ride so he could do his laundry. Fate is a cruel lady. JIMB>
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Not true.... Waylon has told the story many times....

One member of Hollyā€™s band who did not make the trip went on to become a country music trailblazer, one of the genreā€™s original ā€œoutlaws.ā€ Waylon Jennings was hired by Holly to play bass for him on the Winter Dance Party Tour, which began January 23rd, 1959, in Milwaukee. Jennings, 21 at the time, had been in New York City recording sessions produced by Holly, and after taking a train to Chicago, met up with the rest of Hollyā€™s band.

Problems first arose when the tour buses hired to transport the group began breaking down. After a show in Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 2nd, Holly decided to charter a plane for himself, guitarist Tommy Allsup and Jennings so they could fly to Fargo, North Dakota, instead of taking the long, frozen bus trip. Richardson, who was suffering from the flu, asked Jennings for his seat on the plane, and Valens asked the same of Allsup. When Jennings told Holly that he was going to take the bus, Holly jokingly told him he hoped the bus broke down, to which Jennings replied, ā€œI hope your olā€™ plane crashes.ā€
God almighty, for years I thought I caused it,ā€ the country legend said decades later







ā€œ
 
jimintoronto said:
"The Last Waltz " was produced and directed by Martin Scorsese. In later years, Robbie Robertson and he collaborated on soundtracks for a number of his feature films. At the present time, Robertson's adult children are in a legal battle over the rights to most of his music . He married ( in secret ) just 3 months before his death at age 80. Three of his adult children are suing the woman who he married, claiming he was mentally incompetent at the time, and was a victim of "elder abuse " by her. Apparently, she forced him to take prescription drugs that caused " confusion, hallucinations, depression, memory loss and dissociation ". The suit will be heard in a California civil court later this year. link.

Legendary classic rock starā€™s children say widow committed ā€˜elder abuseā€™.

A sad end to a life of musical talent.
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This is so sad. I really liked Robbie Robertson and saw him in Toronto . It was a great concert
 

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