Posted on 08/13/2019 8:00:47 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Of the rock festivals of the sixties, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was by far the most famous. Held on a 600-acre dairy farm near Bethel, N.Y. on August 15–17, 1969, the festival is the iconic representation of the drug-addled culture and sexual revolution that upended American life. This August marks the fiftieth anniversary of the era-defining event. Some have called for celebrating with another concert.
The occasion is hardly a cause for celebration—so many of the cultural changes after Woodstock had catastrophic consequences. Most do not know that the concert was a disaster—even from an organizational point of view.
What Went Wrong
Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong.
The organizers planned an event for 200,000 people. Nearly 400,000 people crashed the gates where they demanded and received free admission. Security fell apart. The highways were clogged with cars trying to get to the event. Heavy rains created a sea of mud that mixed with the promiscuity, drugs and marijuana that dominated the festival.
John Fogerty, from the rock group Creedence Clearwater Revival, described an early morning scene as “sort of like a painting of a Dante scene, just bodies from hell, all intertwined and asleep, covered with mud.”
Saving Woodstock
The “establishment” that the hippies condemned saved Woodstock. Professionals had already arranged to attract concertgoers by promising a star-studded cast that included Jimi Hendrix, the Who, Santana, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, and the Jefferson Airplane. A sympathetic media turned the logistic and moral disaster into a hippie legend by repackaging the event as “three days of peace and music.” When order broke down, the government stepped in with personnel from nearby Stewart Air Force Base. They flew in performers and put men on the ground to keep things from descending into total disorder.
(Excerpt) Read more at tfp.org ...
And the transition to Purple Haze was the very damn best in all history !
Exactly right. If it happened and millions showed up, they still would still have seen complete dog squeeze acts. Woodstock was rock music. This thing would have been terrible even if they pulled it off perfectly.
Freegards
So what if the original Woodstock had drugs, sex, and nudity. A lot of the people came out of it unscathed and still led productive lives.
This is precisely why the Right continues to get its ass kicked in the arts and culture. This stick-up-the-butt attitude. Even conservatives like Ann Coulter and Andrew Wilkow are metal fans and still head-bang at concerts.
Woodstock was badly needed. The 60s were such as turbulent decade. No wonder why everybody mellowed out in the 70s.
Ann Coulter likes metal?
Freegards
A lack of talent, and brown acid is now considered racist.
It's the conservative paradox.
And when the commies begged for Dylan to speak out about the war, he said, “How do you know you’re gonna like what I have to say?” And admiral’s son Jim Morrison was more concerned with pushing the limits of the first amendment than protesting the war.
“had drugs, sex, and nudity. “
I was only 10 years old at the time but a few years later I was into all of that.
The real reason was not enough cell phone charging stations and soy latte refreshment stands.
I guess the Grateful Dead is more believable for her than metal. I like both. I haven’t bought in to the hip hop.
Freegards
“So what if the original Woodstock had drugs, sex, and nudity. A lot of the people came out of it unscathed and still led productive lives.”
And I bet even more came out scathed, including many that didn’t physically attend but were influenced by its glorification and romanticization. We’re paying a huge societal price with the lax drug culture, “free love” and tolerance of irresponsible behavior.
I’m not saying we should return to puritanism, only that excesses are bad on both sides of the spectrum.
I suppose where you draw the line is what politics is all about. Right now, I’m for drawing that line quite a bit to the right of where we are.
the only turbulance of the 60’s was self created by the silver spoon first generation of the WW2 vets...the pampered first and second born who could do no wrong ....at least in my family....the first two got all the stuff and the rest of us just survived.....to this day , those first two are short sighted closed minded liberals...
Hippie crap was hippie crap.
That you have to say “A lot of the people came out of it unscathed and still led productive lives.” Speaks volumes.
Hippie crap is what destroyed us to the point we are destroyed.
And the music sucked for the most part.
Stick with me here ...
Last week I had some awful bug for 12 days.
I SWEAR I had a temperature of at least 117 degrees. Chills, pain and the most wicked headache I’ve ever had.
I was rubbing Icy Hot, Vicks, the muscle rub that smells like Canada Mints on my head and standing under a cool shower to try relieving it.
I also had the most amazing and wonderful hallucinogenic dreams. THAT might have the result of 8 different drugs I was taking to try feeling better, BUT
My favorite hallucination, which I will treasure for ever, was Levon Helm sitting on my bed for a few hours telling me *I* “ought to plan Woodstock at his place, The Barn, in Bethel, because “You know to put on a festival”.
(I do, I really do).
It ended up being a fitting tribute to the original.
Santana was not ‘Star-Studded’ at the time.
This was and is the way of the TRUE hippie
Peace and love, man !
The people there should have been left to rot - the country would be a MUCH BETTER place if that happened.
I wonder what Wavy Gravy would say about all of this?
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