Stand Up Notes from Flyover Country: Woodstock Revisited Revisited
by Jeffrey JenaI was at a friend’s house a few nights ago for a little informal gathering. When we were chatting he had his iPod providing some background music. One of the songs that came on was from the “Woodstock” soundtrack. So there I was in a kitchen full of conservative upper middle class Midwesterners who were suddenly waxing poetic about how great Woodstock was.
What happened next was the kind of thing I do that keeps me off the party circuit. I said something to the effect that Woodstock was an unmitigated disaster and a perfect metaphor for the Obama administration. If it were technically possible this is the point where we would have heard a needle scratching across the album and dead silence while the folks stared at me in disbelief.
The whole Woodstock myth that has grown up over the years is like the memory of your old college girlfriend or boyfriend, as the case may be. You tend to remember the good and forget the bad. You remember the smoothness of her skin but forget the night of the Kappa party when she disappeared for three days and turned up in Vegas married to a soybean farmer from Indiana.
That’s Woodstock! We remember the music and forget the drugs, the OD’s and lives ruined. We remember the artwork and forget the acres of mud and filth. We forget that the State of New York footed the bill for untold millions for clean up. We thought it was cool when Arlo announced the New York State Thruway was closed but forget the cost to the State and the people. We forget the fact that people who couldn’t use the highway were inconvenienced and may have lost income.
What started out as a middle of the road business venture to open a recording studio ended up as a giant poorly planned disaster. Woodstock was Hurricane Katrina with music. This simple for- profit music festival lost money for its promoters due to rushed and poor planning. Any money made off of the success of their film was lost to lawyers and plaintiffs in lawsuits later.
Isn’t that how it seems to be going for the Obama folks? What was promised in the campaign to be a centrist and uniting administration in the space of a few months has deteriorated into a bitterly partisan and leftist power grab. A lot of folks who thought it was cool that we elected our first African-American president are now unhappy that they voted for a guy who is more Marxist divider than nonpartisan uniter.
A rush into trillion dollar programs and poorly thought out bailouts has created unrest. All President Obama needs to do to complete the metaphor is hire Wavy Gravy to replace Robert Gibbs and announce the new government “breakfast in bed for 500,000″ plan.
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176 Comments
I’ve had the same response Jeffrey, the proverbial fart in the space suit. When I was a kid I thought it was to cool, we used to crow about how The Woodstock Nation is borne, “just wait until we get control, things are gonna change man.” Rocket forward forty years and tra-la… we have hope and change we can believe in, …yuk! Carter cured me I “hope” Barry will cure the rest and maybe, just maybe we can finally get rid of the ‘60s, were all getting older soon it’ll be nothing but a memory.
An apt assessment of an overated and misrepresented event.
I thought I heard that within the last couple of years the organizers finally did turn a profit. But it took over 35 years to pay off the bills.
It's debatable if pop-culture and conventional wisdom are one in the same, if not, they are greatly affected by each other, and both forces are extremely powerful. Pop culture has ruled that Woodstock was a Utopia, and so every one remembers it that way. And nothing anyone can say will change it.
This was the high water mark of the 60s baby boomer malcontents screwing in the mud and getting stone while 109 American GIs were killed in Vietnam during that disgraceful weekend. We are all now reaping whirlwind of this useless generation.
yeah but, informed about what?
I'm afraid that I find most discussions of Woodstock rather boring. 40 years ago, the Baby Boomers had a wild party. They apparently enjoyed it a lot. They enjoyed it so much, in fact, that even after most of them have theoretically grown up, they can't stop talking about it. They seem to believe that all the generations that came after want to keep hearing this same story over and over again.
News flash: we don't care. If Woodstock had never happened, history would have continued exactly the same way that it did. Get over yourselves.
Amen!
It all seems so romantic, but when you take the time to watch the actual footage instead of the rapturous documentaries about it's historicity, you realize what a mess it was. A lot of innarticulate, dirty people who can't dance a lick. Blaring, haphazard performances. Save perhaps Crosby, Stills, and Nash, which I enjoyed. I'm a fan of the classic rock era, but they do not live up to themselves. I feel the same way about the Stones at Altamont. Don't play high, kids.
I remember the first time I saw CS&N on the live (Woodstock) movie I thought, wow, the in studio version is so much better. They kind of flubbed the harmonies in the Woodstock version.
I believe that, had I gone to Woodstock, I would have seen it as a pretty darn good party … for maybe a few hours. That's the way things are with hippies. They just don't understand the concept of closure or moving in. Hanging out with friends and hearing great bands play? Awesome. Rolling around in mud and vomit while frying on 'the red acid' and convincing yourself that being half-naked and dancing will 'change the world' and 'upset the system'? Idiotic.
I am always embarrassed for my generation when the subject of Woodstock comes up. I was listening to a young newscaster talking about the anniverary of the event, chuckling as he mentioned something about the "sweet smoke" circling the air. "Wink-wink" Why is drug abuse excused when it comes to Woodstock? I don't understand how people can get nostalgic about a shameful display of hedonism, self-absorption, and moral corruption some of the people in my generation displayed. Having sex in the mud in front of thousands of people is not high-minded. It is just plain nasty!
"Save perhaps Crosby, Stills, and Nash"
And Joe Cocker. But since he was always raspy, frumpled, dirty, and a bad dancer, I guess he was in his milieu.
"a standout at Woodstock was Joe Cocker singing With A Little Help from my Friends…"
As I said below, since Cocker was always raspy, frumpled, dirty, and a bad dancer, I guess he was in his milieu.
"I thought, wow, the in studio version is so much better. They kind of flubbed the harmonies in the Woodstock version."
Oh, yes, absolutely. That's true of most rock musicians. I realize they couldn't hear themselves, but have you seen Beatlemania performances? Awful.
I should have said I relatively enjoyed CSN. Compared to everyone else, they and Cocker were the best.
More Baby Boomer backslapping. My father, who while in college decided he hated hippies cut his hair short and started wearing only t-shirts and blue jeans, still has the temerity to talk about the "importance" of Woodstock. At times like that, I feel like acting out like Matthew Lillard's Stevo from "SLC Punk." Of course, this is why we have a constant stream of "documentaries" and specials on the History channel about the 60's and the students and the protests, etc., etc., etc. If I'm not mistaken, even at the end of the war, the majority of Americans still supported the fighting in Vietnam. It was only the obnoxiously vocal, spoiled crowd (though a sizable minority) that claims they "ended" the war (much to the chagrin of the 1-2 million Vietnamese we abandoned to slaughter, I'm sure).
Honestly, I think all of this self-congratulation is just the natural egocentrism of the Baby Boomers exploding in our faces. Of course, that would be a pot and kettle, wouldn't it? After all, what could one say about all of us post-Boomers constantly commenting on these things on the internet?
God forgive me!
the sinner,
Patrick
I hate to paint an entire generation. The selfless sacrafices of the few have been completely overshadowed by the narcassitic tendencies of the many. But, you're right.
Santana…so much talent, but nothing upstairs. Between his inability to make a new album without fluff pop stars and his Che Guevera t-shirts, I'll have to be satisfied with Abraxas and a few other songs here and there. I'm in awe and ashamed of him all at once…
I'm a Baby Boomer and Woodstock non-participant. I can only say that I couldn't agree with you more. We Boomers make fetishes of the oddest things and Woodstock seems to top the list. I suppose it's because it's all that we have. A large number of us funked out of Vietnam, developed sophmoric rationals to despire our families and embraced an adolescent hedonism that did incalculable damage to society. My dad and the fathers of my friends all lived through the Depression and then fought in World War II. Their youth was marked by endurance, courage and sacrifice. We have had to make monuments out of things like Woodstock because, without them, we don't have much to talk about.
A few good things that came from the '60's; Muscle Cars, The Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, Star Trek.
Woodstock, hippies, and the Beatles, however, are a stain on our history.
It very comforting to know that there are some young people out there that actually have not bought the load of anti-American and Markist crap that this generation has forced on America nor their great nostalgic blow out party in the woods. Yes, they have changed the world..make no mistake about it. The hedonism, self-absorption, anti-americanism, and moral corruption is now a corenerstone of our culture and has culminated in the election of a product of that generation..a self absorbed, anti-capitalistic, socialist government and President.. Please know clearly where much of this has originated. There are now avowed communist in federal positions and czar appointments! I firmly beleive that if this country is going to be saved form self destruction, it will be due to the unexpected rejection of baby boomer indulgences and misdirection from future young people who will steer a new course.
I'll add that in addition to being a stain on our history, hippies are also a stench.
The "Camelot" era has officially ended. The end of the Woodstock era can't be far behind. Woo hoo!!!
If this is what Nietzsche had in mind for the ecstacy of Dionysiac experience, count me out!
Dudes! The Who ROCKED Woodstock! Plus Pete Townsend put a whoopin' to Abby Hoffman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIG7nJ3w6qY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qhkFkoFEyU&fe...
I remember how on TV for the last couple of decades, every "cool" character just happened to have been at Woodstock….
Maybe they will cremate Teddy and dump the ashes off of the Chappaquiddick bridge as the final insult to the family and the memory of Mary Jo Kopechne.
Not to mention the epic version of Sparks. Keep your eyes and ears on Keith Moon… amazing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3kY-2sOTcU&fe...
Woodstock is much like the Camelot myth. I just wish people would let it go already. I accept it's a generational touchstone, but it is one that 75% or more only experienced in a movie theatre. Edited for widescreen, mixed down and with the bands no one remembers on the cutting room floor. I was born in December of '69 so I've gotten to deal with the 10th anniversary re-release, I think there was a 15th anniversary showing on Mtv or PBS, 20th anniversary retrospectives, the cluster_____ of two attempts at anniversary concerts/cashing in…and let's not forget the Boomer elite navel gazing when the movie came out on various formats for the first time in non-anniversary years. Here's hoping the 45th passes without much fanfare and enjoy the fact that when the 50th hits, the generation of MSM members that shove it down our throats every five years will have stepped to the side for the people who associate "Woodstock" with either Snoopy's buddy or the disasters that were the Clinton era concerts under that name.
What I don't get is what you people have against a little yellow bird.
a couple of things here…
Woodstockwas always a good music and interesting cultural phenomenon. However, it was, like the hippy movement from Haight-Ashbury ultimately fraudulent. Just ass the 'Summer of Love' was hyped non-existent nonsense, so was the great warm fuzzy commune of Max Yasgur's farm.
When George Harrison went to SanFran to check out the blissed out hippy scene he found, much to his horror, durg addicts and kids passed out in doorways and general squalor. He immediately and correctly labled it for what it was and retunrned to the UK and sought out spiritual guidance… smart man…
Same thing here. Just as the inexplicable poplarity of the Grateful Dead and the 'peace, love, dope' message they sold, Woodstaock has achieved undeserved myth status. No mention of the countless lives ruined because of the libertine messages espoused.
Joseph Campbell would even be confused by this particular mythos…
Woodstock was before my time but it appears overrated. Burning Man seems to be a lot more fun with better performances.
Cockers' band was aptly named The Grease Band and you're certainly right that Cocker was an unbelievably spastic dancer.
I recently watched a disgustingly self serving Woodstock anniversary special on the History Channel. The narcisism of the old hippies, even today, is nauseating. Aside from watching some great footage from my favorite music artists, especially the delightful recollections of Pete Townshend assaulting Abbie Hoffman with his Gibson SG, there was only one moment of enlightenment in the show:
The aftermath of Woodstock. After Hendrix closed the festival, there was nothing left but miles and miles of garbage. Once valuable farmland, was reduced to mud and strewn wreckage.
This was a brilliant metaphor – decidedly un-intentional of course. Here was the self indulgent hippie generation in their finest moment; they had just partied their brains out for three days, on someone else's property, entertained by someone else's labor, and in return they left a mountain of filth, and millions in damage.
Am I the only one who just loves the irony of it all?
While in Vietnam…… on that date…..
I HATE Woodstock, and all the idiots that attended. They've got to GET OVER IT! REALLY! It was everything I hated then, and now. A bunch of filthy, disgusting people, doing degrading and destructive things to themselves and others, then bragging about it – To bad music!
Yes, that's right, I said Bad Music! Get over that, too. The only reason most of that music is considered good, is because it's been played to death, and you get your head bitten off, if you dis the music. Go ahead, get someone with equal talent to put out that drivel now, and see how fast they'd get booted off the stage. The only reason it was ever considered good was because all the idiots there were stoned. Hmmm, that's a well known path to good decision making, isn't it? Ever seen a movie from that time? Total crap. I won't even watch a movie made during the hippie/druggie years.
I too have seen some PBS specials on that whole time, and agree totally with the others who posted. As someone who lived through it, I can tell you it's quite the whitewash job they're putting out there – Total Baloney!
as was my Father-in-Law. Three tours to be exact.
Yes, sweet delicious irony!
Now just imagine the outcry from the media if every NASCAR rally ended that way….
good thing none of you people went. You just would have ruined everyone else's good time.
Funny the topic of "whitewashing" should come up today….what with the massive job the media needs to do to rehabilitate the image of Ted Kennedy.
But that's what our beloved media does, eh? Whitewash their friends on the Left, and villify us on the Right.
Whenever I hear a woodstockophile reminisce on what a grand moment it was, I get visions of Al Bundy, standing in the shoe store and waxing nostalgic about his 4 touchdowns during that most fateful homecomming game at ol' Polk High.
Nostalgia – always trying to remember things as they never were.
I'm cool
I was at Woodstock : )
I am Wavy Davey
My generation's idea of music
No wonder I now like hanging out with extremist mobs.
they still are. The Rothbury music festival here in West Michigan had it's second running this summer and attracts them like ticks on a dog. A very close friend of mine works at one of the gas station/convenience store on the route away from that town and was subjected to crowds of the most rude, obnixious and most foul smelling hippies filling up her store all day long. She told me it took her three showers late that night to feel clean again.
they still are. The Rothbury music festival here in West Michigan had it's second running this summer and attracts them like ticks on a dog. A very close friend of mine works at one of the gas station/convenience stores on the route away from that town and was subjected to crowds of the most rude, obnixious and most foul smelling hippies filling up her store all day long. She told me it took her three showers late that night to feel clean again.
It's cause he's always pickin on that poor puttytat!
Amen and prayers to those who now stand at God's side.
And today, they are doing the same thing to the entire country.
you need a mob name. Mine's Richie Two-Blades.
that's debatable. Dylan could write, no doubt. But sing?
And what were those American GIs dying for? A political class that knew the war was both unwinnable and useless, but chose to keep murdering American youths for their own career advancement. But it was the hippies who were a disgrace.
How did the suffering of soldiers in Vietnam have anything to do with other people partying? What, was the North Vietnamese army going to invade upstate New York if Johnson and Nixon stopped sending young men to be killed over there?
Yes, and let us also remember the names of those who sent them to die for no reason, and of those who fought to end this useless, obscene war.
“All these hippies wandering about thinking the world was going to be different from that day on. As a cynical English arsehole, I walked through it all and felt like spitting on the lot of them, trying to make them realize that nothing had changed and nothing was going to change. Not only that, what they thought was an alternative society was basically a field full of six-foot-deep mud laced with LSD. If that was the world they wanted to live in, then fuck the lot of them.”
Pete Townshend
LOL. Maybe I should clarify: "at least he can play the guitar."
[...] Mark Tapscott highlights a report establishing that ObamaCare will cover illegal immigrants. Stand Up Notes from Flyover Country: Woodstock Revisited Revisited – bighollywood.breitbart.com 08/26/2009 I was at a friend’s house a few nights ago for a little [...]
Think there were any vietnam vets at Woodstock. I bet there were plenty. Should they have had a good time?
That point I will concede with no hesitancy. I will reserve judgement on his harmonica playing though until I hear him play without that stupid neckbrace holder thing. Either play the strings (which he knew how to do quite well) or blow the harp, but not both at the same time. You cant get a proper sound out of a harmonica that way.
I saw a Dick Cavett tv show on cable about Woodstock that had as guests Crosby,Stills, Joni Mitchell – a bunch of hippies who still had mud on them from the event.
They said they had just come from Woodstock. Cavett tried to build up this event but all I saw were hippies who dressed up funny
I imagine they smelled real bad too
Dick Cavett – Woodstock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRLEVWR1jJk
LOL! Thanks for the comic relief! (Just in case you're wondering if we got the joke.)
I'll 2nd the Beach Boys and Jan & Dean…Jan Berry might be one the of the most underrated musical talents of all time.
Let me add one to your list: Motown.
Sean…just use "charlie foxtrot" in place of cluster ____ and you'll say the same thing.
And the 2nd attempt was worse than first. When will people realize you can't catch lightning in a bottle twice? And sure, you can argue that the "original" Woodstock wasn't lightning in a bottle, but trying to recreate it was nothing but a disaster waiting to happen.
I was about 1 year old when Woodstock happened. I've grown up my entire life hearing and believing that myth of how wonderful, life changing and WORLD changing it was.
It's only nowadays that I am learning it wasn't so.
These days, nobody gives Brian Wilson enough credit anymore.
And been damned proud to do it.
When you think about all the dreams that the hippies threw away for their own mirage of peace, love and dope, Woodstock becomes even more of an abomination.
First we’d walk upon the Moon,
Then we’d land on Mars,
The asteroids, the planets,
And finally the Stars.
That beautiful Tomorrow,
Waiting on today…
Screwing in the mud at Woodstock
We threw it all away.
We preferred to gorge on slogans
And masturbate with angst;
Instead of firing rockets
We wound up shooting blanks;
We scorned the triumphs of science
And raised superstition high —
To screw in the mud at Woodstock
We sacrificed the sky.
What's the use of spaceflight
To end poverty or strife?
And what's the point of science
If it won't extend MY life?
We reject the claims of history,
With its tears and sweat and blood:
We think Mankind's finest hour
Was an orgy in the mud.
We abandoned our ambitions
For short-term pleasure schemes
And arrested our development
With counterfeited dreams;
We demanded dope and circuses,
Enough for you and me —
We screwed in the mud at Woodstock,
Then went home and watched TV.
– HeadlessUnicornGuy and JakeWasHere
For all the hippie and "counterculture" haters out there, I recomment We're Only In It For the Money, Frank Zappa's best album IMHO. The Album cover is a mockery of Sgt. Peppers and the music just makes fun of how the hippie movement became fake and commercial.
???
Wrong yellow bird, methinks…
"a perfect metaphor for the Obama administration."
I'm sure there's a comment to be made about the announcements at Woodstock warning of bad acid, as they compare to the Obamacare protests..
But I'll let someone else make it, since I was only 4 years old when Woodstock was held.
It's a well known fact that the North Vietnamese were about to surrender until they heard of how the war was being covered in the United States. The liberal media mis-reported the war. You want to talk about blood, what about the thousands of South Vietnamese that were slaughtered after the United States pulled out?
The hippie hedonists are responsible for their deaths. Their blood is on your hands.
"Camelot" Era hasn't officially ended. Chris "tickle up my leg" Matthews has informed us that President Obama is now the last Kennedy brother.
It's almost like reading fanfiction written by the left. Now Obama is black, genetically related to the Kennedy family, demi-God, and embodiment of all goodness.
And we thought Mary Sues were bad…
The myth of Woodstock must continue in order to justify the liberalism within the media. They cannot look at the lives destroyed, or else they would have to re-evaluate or even justify their political agenda. That would require accountability and responsibility. Hippies don't know the meaning of those words.
Remember the thousands of South Vietnamese who died after the Americans pulled out.
Yup, with volumes of bad acid I would have handed out.
I was thinking the same thing….Our inheritance being destroyed by our father's hedonism.
"brown acid" dickweed. Get your facts straight! Sorry if your mother was on the red acid when you were concieved:)
Perhaps they shouldn't have had a good time. Perhaps they had a moral obligation to prepare themselves to be citizens. This includes education, and preparations for the work force. We can't afford to have a massive wave of hedonists destroying their bodies with drugs.
it's "brown acid" dumbass. Get your facts straight before you comment. Perhaps your mother was on "red acid" during conception?
Hmm.
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/ne...
The quote "don't take the red acid" is a pretty famous quote from Woodstock.
But thank you for the chance to ask: what the heck IS a 'dickweed'?
Hmm.
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/ne...
The line "don't take the red acid" is a pretty famous quote from Woodstock.
But thank you for the chance to ask: what the heck IS a 'dickweed'?
I've been reading a lot about Woodstock lately. I find it pretty interesting. I am curious what the author of this article means by lives ruined. I also didn't know that the State of NY funded the cleanup.
It is BROWN ACID dipstick. Dont lure me to dead links either! Take a breath, get a clue, you are probably unemployed, bitter & listening to talk radio too much.
Ouch! Man that is exactly right.
it is preaching to their choir- and to themselves. they have much invested in this particular view of mankind, and only stark reality will disabuse them of that notion. And that stark reality lies just around the corner…
And both gave no thought as to where everyone would take a piss or shit (isn't that always the case with slap dash put togethers?). As a result the attendees eventually end(ed) up rolling around in the mud, drugged out of their mind and screwing some pig they would later eat for dinner along with some underdone brown rice.
Yeah, good times.
You must have a pretty spectacular wife Jeffery.
How much dope do you really think was there? Enough to get 400,000 people high? Enough acid for everyone to trip? Probably the vast majority stayed sober. It was one weekend. I bet the vast majority of those kids went on to jobs, kids, mortgages etc. You people are blowing this all out of proportion. Lighten up. Everybody on this site is always so furious. Is it just that you're all still sore because Obama won?
My parents had jobs, so they couldn't make it to this oh so historic event. Not like they would have been let in. Dad was a Vietnam vet who didn't hate his country.
In my 20s, I kind of wished they were cooler, but I've grown up. I really need to tell my parents more often how much I appreciate they weren't (and aren't) hippies.
Interesting parallel between the starry-eyed portrayal of Woodstock and the messianic Obamanut fascination.
My parents had jobs, so they couldn't make it to this oh so historic event. Not like they would have been let in. Dad was a Vietnam vet who didn't hate his country.
In my 20s, I kind of wished they were cooler, but I've grown up. I really need to tell my parents more often how much I appreciate they weren't (and aren't) hippies.
Interesting parallel you point out between the starry-eyed portrayal of Woodstock and the messianic Obamanut fascination.
I just can’t get into the commemoration of 500,000 people cavorting at a place called Woodstock. At that time in 1969, I and 500,000 other Americans were fighting a war in another place called Vietnam. We were crushing a Communist offensive that was called the Ho Chi Minh Emulation Campaign. Talk of Woodstock just leaves me cold.
The "entitlement" philosophy embodied, lives on.
Thank you for your service, John. (I was only 11 years old in 1969; however, I can now appreciate all that you and the other Vietnam vets sacrificed.)_
Obama has been a uniter albeit not in the way he and his minions thought. He has, in less than a year, united and expanded the conservative base beyond what he could have ever imagined. By the way, a standout at Woodstock was Joe Cocker singing With A Little Help from my Friends and we conservatives at Tea Parties and Town Halls across America are feeling the love with a little help from our friends!
Woodstock. What a perfect metaphor for everything that is wrong with the boomers, also. Some suffered, (Nam vets) so that others could party endlessly. The absolute truth of the unintended consequences of the counter culture ridiculously unaware while expanding the collective consciousness. Intentionally for profit economic disaster. Running round in a state of Eco-Love then trashing the place so that, "the man", read: Conservative minded squares, could clean up after them. Sounds real familiar, right now. Good article, Jeffery, right on the money or, if you're a Woodstock organizer, lack thereof.
"I saw a Dick Cavett tv show on cable about Woodstock that had as guests Crosby,Stills, Joni Mitchell – a bunch of hippies who still had mud on them from the event."
Actually, I don't think Mitchell was there, and I only know this because she wrote the song "Woodstock"–which was a rockin' little number when CSN did it, but a whiny piece of crap with her singing–in lament of having missed her generation's version of Heaven Gate's First Contact (without the suicide, but you get my point; the "transendental" moment)
And so, you can see from the tendency to repeat oneself incessantly, and the very vulgar and limited language skills, exactly why you should never use that 'brown acid' leftover from Woodstock.
"I am curious what the author of this article means by lives ruined"
Paired as it was with ODs, I might assume it was a reference to those who didn't live long past Woodstock, famously Hendrix and Joplin, and also certainly regular people. Maybe it refers to the people who didn't go so far as to die, but didn't emerge unscathed either.
I believe that, had I gone to Woodstock, I would have seen it as a pretty darn good party … for maybe a few hours. That's the way things are with hippies. They just don't understand the concept of closure or moving on. Hanging out with friends and hearing great bands play? Awesome. Rolling around in mud and vomit while frying on 'the red acid' and convincing yourself that being half-naked and dancing will 'change the world' and 'upset the system'? Idiotic. Refusing to let it go and continuing to romanticize if for 40 years?
Pathetic.
Oh, come on, the Beatles? They played some damn good music!
liberal? yeah…but is that so shocking?
You're welcome.
Woodstock. If you loved it and want to relive it, go drop about a pound of acid. That way, the only expense our society has is the expense of cremating your ass and pouring your ashes on the mud on that long suffering farm.
Wavy Gravey to replace Gibbs, now that is change I could get behind. We would be more informed on the Wavy Train in one presser than Gibbs has given in 7 long months.
I agree with your post up until the last two sentences. I think for the most part things here are quite civil, with exceptions of course. If you want to see fury, go to Salon.com and read the posts there. Just for fun, post a conservative thought and watch what happens.
Yes, I am a bit sore that Obama won, but McCain would have only been a little better, and if things keep going as they are, he is going to be a one-termer and may turn out to be the best thing that could have happened to the Republican party.
You still don't know what's happening.
Bitter turds
So your going against all the goofballs who proudly recall, at least what they can remember of their drug experiences? Your right it was one weekend that those same people won't let us forgot because everything they did had to be important and ground breaking because they were the coolest and smartest bunch…ever. No I'm not mad Obama won, he's doing a great job getting the GOP back into power, that stimulus worked.
Dudes! The Who ROCKED Woodstock! Plus Pete Townshend put a whoopin' to Abbie Hoffman.
<a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIG7nJ3w6qY” target=”_blank”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIG7nJ3w6qY
<a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qhkFkoFEyU&fe…” target=”_blank”><a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qhkFkoFEyU&fe…” target=”_blank”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qhkFkoFEyU&fe…
Woodstock was the symbol of it's generation, a bunch of kids who thought they were the most important and smartest generation ever went to a poorly planned concert and did drugs and had sex and left the place trashed for someone else to clean up. What hasn't been mentioned is the anniversary concerts they held. They were meant to celebrate the spirit of Woodstock and let a younger generation bask in the greatness of the Boomers. The 30th annivversary one was a publicly acknowledged disaster with the crowd running amok and trashed the place, the real legacy of Woodstock, do what you want and let someone else clean up the mess.
So the hippies took a weekend off from spitting on them and calling the babykillers? You liberals don't even go there, your treatment of the military veterans of that era is a disgusting and vile stain that you will never shed. 40 years is too late to start caring about them now.
a couple of things here…
Woodstock was always a good music and interesting cultural phenomenon. However, it was, like the hippy movement from Haight-Ashbury ultimately fraudulent. Just as the 'Summer of Love' was a hyped non-existent nonsense, so was the great warm fuzzy commune of Max Yasgur's farm.
When George Harrison went to SanFran to check out the blissed out hippy scene he found, much to his horror, durg addicts and kids passed out in doorways and general squalor. He immediately and correctly labled it for what it was and retunrned to the UK and sought out spiritual guidance… smart man…
Same thing here. Just as the inexplicable poplarity of the Grateful Dead and the 'peace, love, dope' message they sold, Woodstaock has achieved undeserved myth status. No mention of the countless lives ruined because of the libertine messages espoused.
Joseph Campbell would even be confused by this particular mythos…
No that's the problem we know exactly what the people of the Woodstock generation are doing to this country. I really love liberals, you take great joy in bashing every American accomplishment but when someone dares criticize one of your cherished myths now we are bitter. The term for you is hypocrite or liberal, its interchangeable
I noticed this year that the MSM, and even Fox News, tried to drum up the Woodstock natalgia. No one came to the party and commentary became non-existant.. It was hilarious. The concert that was to make history has already started to become history.
If you want to know what legacy Woodstock left go to the South Park web site. Look under season nine and watch Die Hippie Die. It still cracks me up but the truth of it is what is really funny.
As I collect my thoughts for this post I drift back 40 yrs.more than a life time ago for many of you. I remember a 3rd class gunners-mate who just turned 20 yrs. old serving aboard a Navy gunboat in the Mekong Delta Patrolling some funny named brown water river. Some of them not much wider than the streets or avenues you might live on right now. He's been in Country for 9 months he has 9 more to go. He will eventually find his way home.I also think about the 109 American boys who lost their lives in the same period of time the great army of Hippies,Freaks and lost misguided kids who rocked out on sex, drugs and rock and roll getting in touch with some mystical feeling defining who they are, whoever that is or was. The happening of course was Woodstock that great electric drug fest. The media venerated this happening and still does while 8500 miles away the efforts of half a million American fighting men was called meaningless a waste or worse. O.K. That's all ancient history . So be it. So while we remember The Great Unwashed of the 60's generation.Lets also remember the 109 whose names are on a Black Wall on the Washington Mall for just a few moments. They've earned that much . All on that Wall have.
Exactly right, the VC knew they had one last chance and organized the TET offensive, it failed but thanks to Cronkite&Co. it won
Hint: Peanuts cartoon, Charlie Brown, Snoopy…can you dig it?
They were linked, Woodstock was about freedom to be irresponsible and pulling the plug on the people protecting that freedom.
If Wavy Gravy replaces Gibbs, then at least let Dylan replace Biden. He'll do a better job and at least he can sing.
Are you saying that the, "Tune in, turn on, and drop out" mentality didn't change the world? And, that I've been lied to about it all of my life?
I'm stunned.
/sarc
I got to thinking about the reaction to your observations on Woodstock. How conservative could they be? I have sucked down my share of LSD, barely remembered going to Grateful Dead concerts and have littered disgracefully while bonfiring, rolling around on the ground and sharing a sandwich with my brothers and sisters to my left and right and yet… not the least bit sentimental about it. Maybe I was missing the selfish element. Nope. Check. Albeit on a smaller scale.
Sounds like Jeff's friends need to get a life.
Oh, Pe-e-e-e-g!!!! Not now!
Tuble
Thanks for the defense. Who else paid for the clean up, Abbie Hoffman?
At least wr1 is consistent in not knowing what he is talking about!
Unfortunately, it is the many that define the generation.
And what's this? Now those folks are running the US government. This should end well…
WR-
You do realize those are democrats you're talking about?
WR-
You do realize those are Democrats you're talking about?
"Dipstick", "dumbass", and "dickweed"? Nice use of alliteration…
Ponchus could be our resident poet. As to the acid controversy:
"I also remember the announcements about bad acid: 'Don’t take the red acid. The blue acid’s OK, but the red acid is bad.' Or maybe it was the blue acid that was bad, but there definitely was some bad acid going around. I remember three naked guys carrying a 6-foot-long spliff (joint) on their shoulders through the crowd, although I suspected that it was stuffed with newspapers, not ganja.
-Bill Roberts, 60 (article, Springfield Register-Guard, "Woodstock memories: Local residents recall adventures from 40 years ago")
I don't really know whether it was brown, red, or blue, in fact, but there are anecdotal sources that reference red acid.
Ponchus = dumbass.
Couldn't agree more. Woodstock was before my time a bit, but I still couldn't help but dream about what it would have been like to have attended. Let's face it, the music alone was a brilliant aspect not to mention how "cool" the whole free-love/drugs/etc part sounded.
Now, and I almost hate to admit this, when I look at Woodstock all I can see in the audience is the generation that ruined America. Maybe that's not fair, but it's what I think…
Have you by chance seen pictures of the National Mall after 'Earth Day'?
I will be Pat the Fish
I was two in 1968. I have been hearing Baby Boomers blathering about Woodstock my entire life. At times it has been a great comfort to me: nuclear war or a deadly pandemic don't seem so bad when one realizes either would FINALLY MAKE THEM SHUT UP ABOUT WOODSTOCK!
I wasn't there so I'll withhold judgment. The best music of the times was and still is pretty good even if the concert, itself, is mostly shite. The ensuing drug problems are totally due to the prohibition laws against cannibis and the jailing of people for its use. Over the last 80 years, a small molehill has gradually become a great mountain. It's wasn't magic, in fact it should have been predictable, human nature and criminal enterprise being what they are. Very few, if any, would ever have smoked crack or heroin or bathtub methamphetamine if they could have gotten a cheap joint of decent weed. And crime? Don't get me started.
Can I still be part of the club? I still hate socialism.
Ouch! As a "boomer" who was not at Woodstock, that was "bang-on"!
Zappa always had a way of saying things straight. I'm sure we may have differed on several issues, but he never was beholden to the mainstream around him and ciriticized all sides equally. I don't have to agree with someone all the time to respect him.
*grins* oh, no doubt, but as long as we're having fun, I'm ready to throw in all kinds of cartoon references.
Not a lot of people know it, but the Grateful Dead played at Woodstock too. They thought their performance was so horrendous, they refused to sign waivers, which is why you don't see them in the original movie, or on the sound track.
The did relent a little for the extended version of the movie, and there's a short interview with Garcia changing strings on his ax.
Also, the Who almost didn't go on stage. Financially, they were absolutely broke. If they didn't get money to pay off the lawyers and creditors, the band would have become legally bankrupt, and they would have lost the use of the name. So I think they were one of the few acts that got paid.
The event wasn't quite the love fest as its remembered.
That's right, I forgot about that one. Didn't Hoffman try to grab the mic away from Townsend, so he decked him?
I've been to about a dozen or so Dead shows back in the 80's and 90's. And they were an absolute blast. There's only two places I've been in my entire life where I have never seen any violence at all. Church and Dead shows.
But its a vacation, a temporary respite, not a life style. And people who tried to make it a life style, soon learned the folly of their ways. That or they died. My friend who got me interested in the shows once saw a kid drop dead right in front of him doing wiffets.
Evolve or perish.
According to Reason magazine, there's also a lot of free marketeers hanging out there, pushing their own inventions.
Let's Rock…
bon bon munchin' Oprah watchin' destroyer of souls!
I remember, we worked on that concrete tossing assignment by the pier last winter…
You're assuming that they're not psychotic.
Woodstock did change the world. We've been cursed with those druggies ever since.
Ok, to above three respondants, the obama comment was off-topic and maybe a cheap shot but still, it was a bunch of people who just happened to turn something that was supposed to be a little festival into a big event. I don't know where you get all this stuff about everybody clinging to it as some sort of turning point in the 20th century. As for people not going because they had to work unlike all the "dirty hippies", it was the weekend. And thanks for the civilized responses. Now I'm going to go check out Salon.com
I don't know where to start so I won't. I suggest you read something along the lines of this and get back to me. I hate lack of information, as well.
http://www.amazon.ca/Marijuana-Dopes-Joseph-Romai...
even psychosis hits the wall eventually. There will come a reckonin'…
yes…
And the Jimmy Buffet thing is of little difference; they offer an escapism. But if it becomes your reality- as it does with the Dead- then you not only drink the Kool-Aid but you seek it out as well…
i thought it was about some dude known as 'bad ass sid'? but what do i know- i was 8 yrs old…
I would love to see Jimmy Buffet live. I've seenhim on TV and I can only imagine what its like to be there. I only have one Buffet album, his double live, Feeding Frenzy, and its all I need. I give it five stars.
One thing I noticed at Dead shows, is how few people actually "get on the bus" as they say about joining the traveling circus full time. A very large segment of the audience were professionals, just out for a great weekend. When we went, I was a software engineer, my friend was a asst. manager at a large super market in Albany, his wife was working towards her teaching degree, and the other guy was a manager of a zoo in Utica. My friend said he met lawyers, doctors, accountants, pretty much every professional field.
But yes, there were the die hards, but they seemed to be the minority. And they didn't particularly smell very good either. But they were nice as hell. I remember my first show in Philly in 1987 I think. As soon as we got parked, I said I was starving and wanted to find some vendor selling anything I could eat. I hadn't even finished the sentence when some guy called us over and offered us free hamburgers. He was closing up his grill and going inside, and didn't want to waste food. The whole event had that positive kind of vibe about it.
I would love to see Jimmy Buffet live. I've seen him on TV and I can only imagine what its like to be there. I only have one Buffet album, his double live, Feeding Frenzy, and its all I need. I give it five stars.
One thing I noticed at Dead shows, is how few people actually "get on the bus" as they say about joining the traveling circus full time. A very large segment of the audience were professionals, just out for a great weekend. When we went, I was a software engineer, my friend was a asst. manager at a large super market in Albany, his wife was working towards her teaching degree, and the other guy was a manager of a zoo in Utica. My friend said he met lawyers, doctors, accountants, pretty much every professional field.
But yes, there were the die hards, but they seemed to be the minority. And they didn't particularly smell very good either. But they were nice as hell. I remember my first show in Philly in 1987 I think. As soon as we got parked, I said I was starving and wanted to find some vendor selling anything I could eat. I hadn't even finished the sentence when some guy called us over and offered us free hamburgers. He was closing up his grill and going inside, and didn't want to waste food. The whole event had that positive kind of vibe about it.
From what I heard, apparently there's no film, Townshend hit him with his Gibson SG. The incident marginalized Hoffman right in front of his core audience.
Too bad there's no footage. I'd pay a quarter to watch that on the internet.
What is your argument? I'm assuming that your argument is something along the lines of "people used marijuana in the past, therefore, it is still safe to use (please clarify if I'm incorrect)." Providing a detailed history of the use of marijuana will not prove that smoking marijuana is safe.
I looked at the product description of that book, and I have deduced that it is a detailed history of the use of marijuana. I do not intend to spend good money to read a pot-head's endorsement of smoking based on historical use. Humanity has used plenty of substances for medicinal or religious purposes that are not good for the body. The Taoists drank mercury as an elixir of life. No one in their right mind would drink mercury now; it's been proven to kill people.
Yes, obviously. I'm not so blinded by party loyalty that I can't see the truth. It was Kennedy and Johnson, and then it was Nixon, all of whom kept escalating the war for their own political benefit, even though everyone involved in planning it knew it was unwinnable.
Saying "they were linked" hardly suggests any kind of real linkage at all. Again, how were soldiers drafted and sent to die in Vietnam protecting any American's freedom? Had we not sent troops over there, how would anyone over here have been any less free?
perhaps because you are grounded. Our experience has been different; the 'weekend warriors' were vastly outnumbered by the scion of liberal wealth- the legacies…those trust funders who could afford to keep the delirium alive. We have no truck with either the band (stunningly mediocre) or their fans. It's the empty headed liberalism- and the metaphysical certitude that they are somehow on a higher 'plane'- that confounds reality…
Of what? You seem as if you're expecting them to repent…or even acknowledge their responsibilities in the situation. A psychotic man will hit a wall, and assume that the FBI pushed him into it in order to silence him about an invasion of space monsters.
A liberal media person will hit their wall and assume that the successful white man built the wall to suppress minorities and women. Psychosis is by definition a "break" from reality. The wall you speak of exists in reality. If they cannot see reality, then how can they hit your wall or common sense?
no, what we mean is a reality check…
No fun anywhere, just basic survival- that's what smart people smell coming and the clueless will be caught unaware. Repenting will not help them then… and blaming Bush or the war or you- or us- will net them nothing. That's what we mean…
Spot on. The idolization of Woodstock is much more damaging than the actual event. This society cannot progress if the media and baby boomers hold up their mud covered orgy and drug abuse as some sort of gilded standard for living.
As for Obama, I woke up at 4:00 in the morning to vote against him. If I could have stayed up for five days and nights straight to stop him, I would have. McCain was never my choice. He's a decent guy, but his administration would have resembled Bush's last two years. A moderate Republican does not have the stomach to stop a Democratic controlled congress. At least this modern generation can see the horrible aftermath of the Carter/Obama administrations. It's better that the Democratic party cannot hide behind a weak administration to mask their failures. Not everyone is sophisticated enough to see the impact of congress on an administration.
Basic economic principles: decrease in price will result in an increase in consumption.
Right now, the price of illegal drugs is artificially elevated to account for the risk dealers make in smuggling the crap into the country and into the hands of users. If we legalized these drugs, the price will go down, more people will smoke. You're assuming that marijuana would be a substitution good instead of a complimentary good. I'd like to see the evidence you've collected that would suggest that the increase consumption of dope has lead to a decrease consumption of other drugs. I'm under the impression that EVERYTHING has increased.
Controlling supply won't decrease consumption. We have to affect the demand in non-monetary means. I.E. people must not want to use the drugs. This includes education. We've seen how hedonistic the baby boomers are. They have passed these values onto future generations.
You hate socialism? I hate loss of productivity. I also hate paying welfare for drug addicts. Join my club.
I get the creeping suspicion that the Obama administration will be remembered in the same way, regardless of the actual facts.
To hear them talk about it, you'd think they'd ended all the suffering in the world or something. Your summary is on the nose, and I completely agree. Every time the History channel threatens yet another Woodstock retrospective, I change the channel (or, preferably, turn off the TV altogether).
I have zero interest in listening to people my parents' age waxing nostalgic about this one really great kegger they had one time where they ran around naked and screwed strangers while getting high.
Look out for Sid, man, he'll mess you up.
The Obama comment was not only off-topic, but fallaciously employed to discredit our concerns about drug consumption at Woodstock. Look up ad hominem circumstantial, you gave a perfect example of it. "Oh, you're only saying that because you didn't support Obama." Voting for or against Obama has no bearing on our valid or invalid perspectives on Woodstock.
If you watch the history channel, PBS, or any other program, you'll see a massive amount of material "celebrating" the anniversaries to Woodstock. Walk into a Target, the Woodstock whitewashing materials are all over the place. And if people buy it, then that's their choice. We've NEVER said that people cannot purchase materials regarding Woodstock. We've condemned their choice to do so.
I find the political indoctrination within the Woodstock persona disgusting. You'll see the Woodstock t-shirts in Target. They're cut and sold to pre-teen girls–girls too young to have lived through Woodstock. They have the "peace" and "love" slogans on the shirts with little doves. Isn't it sweet? We all want peace, right? It starts out as peace, and leads to a culture of drugs.
Peaceful Protesting wars: fine.
Wanting peace: fine.
Listening to music: fine.
Destroying private property: unacceptable.
Consumption of illegal and harmful drugs: unacceptable.
They say "free love." How many of the sexually active were engaging in sex while high? DID they consent? If not, then it's rape. That's something the Woodstock crowd won't report. How many men and women had sex while high at Woodstock and contracted STDs, or ended up pregnant? How many women felt like they were raped because they had sex while high?
Legalize everything, make it affordable (or even give it away), then Natural Selection will solve the drug issue.
Well all the selling of woodstock is just good old capitalism at work. never let your morals get in the way of making a buck.
Like a lot of things about woodstock, I think all that free sex stuff was a myth. The film-makers found the 20 people walking around naked and filmed them. In my life I haven't found to many girls who want to have sex in the wet grass. Same goes for all the drug consumption. I think it was overblown too.
All the mean-spirited stuff about them being dirty hippies I don't believe either. I bet they all couldn't wait to get hom and take a shower.
And if you believe all the stuff about woodstock then I guess all that stuff about drug taking and screwing hookers and getting STDs goes for all the GIs in Vietnam too
My argument. You've already dismissed what you think it might be but I'll try anyway. Safe? Interesting. Safe as anything we allow adults to do with their lives, I'll wager but safety, although I would argue that it is safer than beer, isn't my point or the book's. It mostly talks about the history and futility of prohibition. It makes a good arguement that the "war on drugs" has caused more damage that the mere use of cannibis could ever dream of causing. It argues persuasively that the prohibition of cannabis has led to the huge criminal problems we now have where drugs are concerned. It outlines the government commissions that have been done regarding cannabis from the India Hemp Commission to Canada's Le Dain Commission to Consumer Reports findings. You might be interested in what they all decided. It details the industrial and practical uses for hemp and all that, as well.
Finally, (not in the book) do we realize how we force so many, especially the young into the camp of the commies by this one little thing? Misinformation on one thing can lead to the gulping down of disinformation on the other.
Something to think about.
No, although cannabis prohibition has led to the mess we're in, I don't believe they all should be legalized. Methamphetamines especially are a huge problem. Decriminalization of cannabis might be a good first step towards normalizing things, however. Doing the same old thing is a sure way to continue to make it worse. There is too much money involved in illegal drugs to easily fix this mess. The huge amounts if money drive all aspects of the "war on drugs". No one from corner dealer, to the cops and the politicians is immune to the lure of easy cash. We know how prohibition did that with alcohol but we can't see how it has done the same thing, only much worse with drugs?
I've known too many people ruin their lives by being stoned all the time. Nothing worse than an old stoner.
Too many? Maybe you should hang out with better and smarter folks. I hate to break up your imaginary world but there are, of course, much and many worse things than people like me but thanks for that wonderful and informative piece of … whatever. Have a beer.
I'll go where ever I want. You think everyone who was against the war was spitting on vietnam vets, even the ones who were drafted. talk about painting everyone with one brush. You're an idiot
Learn some history. It was absolutely winnable. It was badly led for a while, but we would have muddled through as we usually do. It was a war of choice, so you can argue that maybe we should not have gotten involved. But the cost of losing it by choice was what really damaged the country. And those soldiers are still dead and those who spit on them are still sanctimonious assholes.
Wuck Foodstock
saw a report from the park service several years ago, saying that the mall after 'earth day' was the worst clean-up project they had.
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