Woodstock

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Woodstock
3 Days of Peace and Music
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Beginnings..

• Woodstock was assembled through the joint work of
  Michael Lang, John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, and
  Artie Kornfeld.
• Woodstock was a profit-making venture, aptly
  titled "Woodstock Ventures".

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Selling Tickets

• Around 186,000 tickets were sold beforehand and
  organizers anticipated approximately 200,000
  festival-goers would turn up.

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Forget the Tickets!

• The fence was purposely cut in order to create a
  totally FREE EVENT, prompting many more to show
  up. Est. 500,000

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Woodstock the Movie

• The four founders behind Woodstock Ventures made
  Warner Brothers an offer to make a movie about
  Woodstock.
• It received the Academy Award for Documentary
  Feature, as well as a nomination for Best Sound.

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Woodstock the Album

• Live album of the festival was released in 1970.
• Set of 3 LPs was highly successful and popular.

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Location Problem?

• The date was set for August 15-18, 1969.
• It was supposed to be held in Woodstock, New
  York.
• Local opposition forced it to be moved.

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Max Yasgur

• Owner of the farm where the festival took place.
• 600 acre farm in Bethel, New York.
• His son convinced him to allow the concert to
  take place on his farm.

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Max had a Dairy Farm
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The Performers

• Many of the biggest artists of the 60s were at
  the Festival.
• Thirty-two of the best-known musicians of the day
  appeared during the sometimes rainy weekend.
• Lets meet some

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Joan Baez

• Baez was 6 months pregnant at the time.
• Appearance at the music festival in upstate New
  York afforded her an international musical and
  political podium, particularly upon the
  successful release of the like-titled documentary
  film.

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Janis Joplin

• By most accounts, Woodstock was not a happy
  affair for Joplin.
• Had to wait 10 hours after arriving at the
  festival.
• However, did sing 10 songs including a memorable
  performance of Piece of My Heart

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The Grateful Dead

• Performance was plagued by technical problems,
  including a faulty electrical ground and members
  Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir reported getting
  shocked every time they touched their guitars.
• Played 4 songs

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The Who

• The Who performed much of Tommy at Woodstock.
• That performance, and the ensuing film,
  catapulted The Who to superstar status in the
  USA.
• Played 25 songs and started at 4 am Sunday
  morning.

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Jefferson Airplane

• They performed in what Grace Slick called an
  early "morning maniac music" slot at the
  Woodstock festival.
• Played 8 songs starting at 6 am.
• Memorable performance of White Rabbit.

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Joe Cocker

• First act on the last officially booked day
  (Sunday) he opened up the day's events at 2 PM.
• After Joe Cocker's set, a storm disrupted the
  events for several hours.
• Memorable rendition of With a Little Help from
  my Friends.

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Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

• Influential folk rock group.
• CSNY's recording of the Joni Mitchell song
  memorializing Woodstock would later become a hit
  and the recording most associated with the
  festival.

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Jimi Hendrix

• Hendrix's popularity eventually saw him headline
  the Woodstock music festival.
• Delivered a historic performance, which featured
  his highly-regarded rendition of the The
  Star-Spangled Banner, a solo improvisation which
  stands as a special symbol of the 1960's era.

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Pictures from Woodstock

• The following slides present a variety of images
  from Woodstock

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Significance of Woodstock

• It was the biggest bash for the counterculture
  and is a reminder of the youthful hedonism and
  excess of the 60s.
• It was a culmination of what the counterculture
  meant - the bands appealed to the generation that
  was questioning the direction of American
  society.
• At the time, it held the record for the largest
  music audience in the world.

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Counterculture
To many, the festival exemplified the
counterculture of the 1960s and the "hippie era."
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Rolling Stone Magazine

• Woodstock is widely regarded as one of the
  greatest moments in popular music history.
• It was listed on Rolling Stone's 50 Moments That
  Changed the History of Rock and Roll.

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Any Problems?

• Although the festival was remarkably peaceful
  given the number of people and the conditions
  involved, there were two recorded fatalities
• one from what was believed to be a heroin
  overdose
• another caused by an occupied sleeping bag
  accidentally being run over by a tractor in a
  nearby hayfield.

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Woodstock a Success

• In tune with the idealistic hopes of the 1960s,
  Woodstock satisfied most attendees.
• Especially memorable were the sense of social
  harmony, the quality of music, and the
  overwhelming mass of people, many sporting
  bohemian dress, behavior, and attitudes.

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The End!