Woodstock

If you need to watch something uplifting about America, watch the PBS documentary on Woodstock. The country was in turmoil when Woodstock took place and the message was loud and clear. We can all come together without violence and enjoy a 3 day music festival while pitching in and helping each other. It was a different time and I wonder it that happen today?

Supposedly at one point there were 450,000 people at Woodstock. They needed the regular things a city of that many people would need for three days from bathrooms to food to water to medical help. The majority of them were young stoned and tripping. What is incredible is how for the most part they were respectful of each other which included helping hands in serving food and walking someone down from a bad trip. It was truly incredible.

Kids of today are very different. They are connected to each other through social media and are able to be in touch with their parents constantly. Parents hover so kids lean. Sure they go to music festivals but they are dramatically different from the kids who went to Woodstock. There is also the drugs. LSD and weed were the drug of choice but the drugs today are Molly, pills and too much alcohol. Big difference.

There has been an effort to put on another Woodstock celebrating the 50th anniversary but the ability to get a permit has been tough. I am not sure it what we need as a nation to come together. It don’t think it is a musical festival but something where we see a myriad of faces who want to show no anger, no division, no prejudice but just leadership from the youth as a time to step across the aisles and embrace each other for a new future and get out of the where we are right now because it isn’t pretty.

Comments (Archived):

  1. JLM

    .It is hard for youngish people to understand what a big deal Woodstock was in 1969. I was starting college that year.The Vietnam War was at its height. The country was filled with riots — I mean real riots not this penny ante stuff we see today.The post-assassination of MLK riots in Washington DC were the previous April (1968). The country was a tinder box waiting to explode.The DC riots ended up with troops — the 101st ABN and the DC National Guard — in the streets fighting looting, burning of entire city blocks, and incredible unrest. The government had to deploy the US Army — which was also fighting in VN — in the streets of our capital to regain control.This was the year before the Kent State riots that would result in 4 dead and 9 wounded. The public sentiment was building toward that lunacy. Armed troops were in the streets and on the college campuses.Info didn’t flow like it does today. When Woodstock happened, it was hard to believe. The cops lost complete control and the cops had control in those days. At the time, it was hard to fathom. I remember my parents talking about half a million people on a farm using drugs and listening to music.Three people died at Woodstock, so it had an odd vibe at the time.Woodstock actually wasn’t at Woodstock. It was at Bethel, 70 miles from Woodstock. Know why it was called Woodstock and held there? Because Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, the Band and others used to use a recording studio in Woodstock.Up until Woodstock, the largest music audience in the history of the US was 40,000.Woodstock was the coming out party for LSD.You must have been about 8 years old, no? Did you know about Woodstock in real time?JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  2. Erin Bagwell

    They should host this Woodstock at the American/Mexican border and have nonstop protests to release the refugee children held in concentration camps.

    1. Gotham Gal

      Great idea.

  3. awaldstein

    I will watch the documentary, thanks!Doing it again now makes little sense to me. Back then, music was part of the revolution and part of the community.And Woodstock was the culmination of it all, not the coming out. It was already going for years prior in smaller versions everywhere from Tompkins Park to the Straight Theatre on Haight Street.This was not the coming out of LSD–pure BS–had already been out there for years.Thanks for this.I’m gonna rewatch I think:https://www.imdb.com/title/

    1. Gotham Gal

      The music was part of the revolution but there is music out there now that is just part of a different revolution

      1. awaldstein

        You are so right.My comment is ignorant in this way. Immediately sent a note to the 18 year old in my extended family and she is sending me play lists for the gym for the next month.

        1. Gotham Gal

          perfect!

    2. JLM

      .Look up Project MKUltra which was a CIA project that amongst other bad things tried to use LSD for mind control purposes. The records were ordered destroyed in 1973. The CIA were the ones who flooded the US w/ LSD in ….. wait for it ….. 1969.Where did they peddle it? Woodstock.The Church Commission dug into it but their findings were classified.It wasn’t even a Schedule 1 drug in the USA until 1971.The records were destroyed by CIA Director Helms in 1973, but the story is still out there. There are 20K docs out there that were not destroyed.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  4. LE

    and are able to be in touch with their parents constantlyThis raises an interesting thought in itself.Back then there were pay phones and not cell phones. As such there was no way for parents of a child from a good family to even know where they were at any particular time. So a child could disappear and do something like this more easily.I wonder how many parents of kids that were at Woodstock (that weren’t those kids we saw running around naked) even knew they were there or had attended the event?but the ability to get a permit has been toughThis is really an artifact of the ‘not on my watch’ thinking that pervades so many things today. It’s all about mitigating risks and lawsuits as well as the easy access to be able to file lawsuits and now the ability (because of the internet) of publicizing a lawsuit. Think about that unintended consequence for a second.Meanwhile I can’t even (easily) get zoning for a legitimate business that wants to use some office space. What do they do? Eyebrow microblading. Need a zoning exception for that in a medical office complex. Tenant needs to apply by attorney before the zoning board and get approval a long and somewhat (for them) expensive process. So no wonder why NY State would deny a permit what is the upside vs. the downside. Not only that the downside will be well publicized and heads will roll. Not the old days where it had to rise to a certain level for people to end up knowing what was going on.