I told my nephew that I was watching the original Woodstock movie this weekend. He asked me was I there. No, I said, I was in the midst of hitchhiking from Woodstock, Ontario to Vancouver. (I'm actually from Woodstock, Ontario.)But I was there in spirit.
What was Woodstock? For me, most of my information comes from the movie which was released a year later. The movie is the event, the myth. Remember the movie (and your TV news) is a story told from a particular perspective. The people who planned the event for 50,000 people and lost money when 400,000 showed up, most without buying tickets, lost money - until Woodstock the movie came out. Then they made money. One of the purposes of the film, perhaps the main purpose says the Cynic in me was to make money. The purpose of the film was to tell an attractive story. The parts of the story that didn't fit the purpose ended up on the cutting room floor.
What was so great about "Woodstock?"
First the music - at least the music that made it into the film - was superb. Ten Years After blues rockin' Goin' Home still thrills my soul 40 years after first seeing it in the film. Hendrix's rendition of Star Spangled Banner still breaks the heart with longing for healing for a world that was coming apart due to the Viet Nam war. Janis never did find her man to love but she sure sang about it in a way that made us all want to find that someone. Top musicians at the top of their form and their best performances selected for the film.
Woodstock the Movie set me on a search for the next couple of years for Woodstock. I went to a few music festivals, rock concerts, parks and city centres but never found Woodstock. I smoked dope and kissed a few girls but I never found Woodstock.
What was Woodstock? It was a movie. A bunch of extra people showed up at a music festival, got high and listened to some great music. More people showed up and it rained. Food, water, toilets and medical attention were in short supply so everyone pitched in and cooperated including the army and local townspeople. Food, blankets and even flowers were brought in by helicopter. No one punched anyone, at least on camera. Some attractive women took off their clothes and some people played in the mud. They kept announcing from the stage that the world was being changed by this event. We all tried to believe it.
Within a few short years I had come to the conclusion that it was easy to have a 3 day festival of peace and love but that was about all we could manage. We didn't change the world for the better.We had a vision of a better world and out of that vision came a few songs and many broken lives. I honour the time and the hope that we had. I can still weep over what I wanted the world to be.
I wanted to go to Woodstock, I would have loved to hear the music. I was too young at the time anyway and I remember my Dad saying "Why the would you want to be there with a bunch of damned doped-up hippies?
ReplyDelete