Field of tie-dyed dreams: How Woodstock changed a generation
| Bethel, N.Y.
David Crosby鈥檚 most enduring memory of Woodstock isn鈥檛 going onstage at 3 o鈥檆lock in the morning. It isn鈥檛 the fear that Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young felt at playing their second-ever show. Nor is it the gargantuan crowd, teeming like an ant colony on a field in upstate New York. No, the first image that comes to the musician鈥檚 mind is an incident between a policeman and an attendee.聽
That summer of 1969, hirsute hippies such as Mr. Crosby typically viewed police with fear and suspicion. Blame the tumult of the times. During 1968, there鈥檇 been several incidents in which police had shot and wounded students and black activists. Most infamously, officers in riot gear used clubs and tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Demonstrators routinely referred to the authorities as pigs.
At Woodstock, Mr. Crosby witnessed a decidedly different act by a representative of The Man.
Why We Wrote This
Could a gathering the size of Tulsa live peace and love 鈥� not just as a slogan, but as a palpable part of their minute-by-minute being? The answer for many was yes in a way that became indelible, a stamp upon the heart.
鈥淎 girl cut her foot,鈥� recounts Mr. Crosby. 鈥淪he鈥檚 standing around on one foot, bleeding badly. And this cop, who鈥檚 just come on duty and he鈥檚 got a razor-sharp crease in his pants and his shoes are as shiny as mirrors 鈥� he is really turned out 鈥� sees her. Walks over into the mud. Gets the blood and the mud all over himself. Picks the girl up and carries her gently and sweetly to his car where he lays her on the back seat, again getting the blood and the mud all over himself and his uniform and his car. He doesn鈥檛 care. He鈥檚 taking care of the girl. And then about 14 hippies push that car out of the mud.鈥�
After a brief pause, Mr. Crosby鈥檚 voice softens. 鈥淚 thought to myself, 鈥榊ou know, that鈥檚 working,鈥欌�� he says. 鈥溾�楾hat鈥檚 a bunch of humans being good to each other.鈥欌��
Fifty years on, Mr. Crosby isn鈥檛 the only boomer wistfully recalling the seminal events of those three days. It isn鈥檛 just nostalgia for halcyon days when they had more hair. Nor is it just a celebration of great performances by iconic musicians. For the baby-boom generation, Woodstock is a cultural touchstone that defined an era. A number of social protest movements that bubbled up during the 1960s 鈥� opposition to the Vietnam War, a push for free love and personal autonomy, a clamor for civil rights and equality 鈥� seemed to converge in that field in upstate New York.聽
In the decades since, the festival has taken on something of a mythological status. That鈥檚 why the original site, now on the National Register of Historic Places, is the rock-music equivalent of a Civil War battlefield. Every day, visitors come from all over the world to see it. Some dress appropriately for the encounter, with tie-dye splattered across their T-shirts like melted Ben & Jerry鈥檚 ice cream.
More than a dozen books about Woodstock have been released in recent months. A big-screen documentary 鈥淲oodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation鈥� is scheduled to air on PBS in early August.聽
Today, there鈥檚 little evidence this bunny slope was once a mudslide that accommodated a stage, speaker towers, and a biblical-scale multitude. It鈥檚 now as verdant as an Irish meadow, but with a large peace sign subtly mowed in the grass. A team of archaeologists from Binghamton University, State University of New York, excavated the site earlier this year, but the only shrapnel they dug up were pull-tabs from cans.
What lingers is the legacy. On one side of the field, a stone monument lists all the performers. Duke Devlin, formerly a guide at the Woodstock museum just up the road, dubs it 鈥渢he Tomb of the Unknown Hippie.鈥澛�
Diane Armstrong made the pilgrimage here from Snowhill, Maryland, because she missed out on the festival when she was a young teen. 鈥淭here was a lot brewing back then, a lot that鈥檚 in common with what鈥檚 going on today,鈥� says Ms. Armstrong, who feels a kinship with the people putting aside differences in a loving community. 鈥淚t gives me hope. And it also makes me feel like, all those people, who are now in our political system, don鈥檛 they remember? Because they were all my age. What did they forget? Because even if they weren鈥檛 here, it was global, it was countrywide.鈥�
Many Americans then and now, to be sure, would dismiss the gathering as a bacchanalia in the mud 鈥� three days of drugs, nudity, subversive music, and psychedelic indulgence by a lost generation of hippies and flower children. But to vast numbers of others, such as Mr. Crosby, Woodstock was an epiphanic moment of pure idealism.
Despite the challenges posed by a poorly organized music festival, the multitudes spent the weekend embodying the peace and love they espoused. To them and others who shared the spirit of the moment, Woodstock represents the apotheosis of lofty ideals that still resonate.聽
鈥淭his was a shift of a whole generation of people watching that phenomenon and identifying with it in some way,鈥� says Mary VanderGoot, author of 鈥淎fter Freedom: How Boomers Pursued Freedom, Questioned Virtue, and Still Search for Meaning.鈥� 鈥淚t was protest music, but honestly, it was deeply optimistic in the sense there was a belief that, if you speak the truth, life will get better.鈥�
The birth of Woodstock
To coincide with Woodstock鈥檚 50th anniversary, event co-founder Michael Lang had wanted to stage a commemorative festival Aug. 16-18 near the original site. The lineup was to feature some performers from the gathering 50 years ago alongside newer acts such as Halsey and Chance the Rapper. (One imagines boomers asking, 鈥淲ho?鈥� And their progeny responding, 鈥淣o, The Who鈥檚 not on the bill, Granddad.鈥�) But multiple permit applications were denied, forcing Mr. Lang to consider a new venue, in Maryland. Many of the musicians, however, were uninterested in performing at a site so unoriginal from the original. Ultimately, the festival was canceled. A half-century ago, Mr. Lang faced similar travails trying to stage a concert.聽
In 1967, he and his cohort Artie Kornfeld, formerly a vice president of Capitol Records, set out to establish a recording studio near Woodstock, New York. They had financial backing from the heir to a pharmaceutical company and a young venture capitalist. Two years later, the four men decided to hold a music and arts festival on the site of the proposed recording studio. But locals rejected the idea. Two other venues were considered, but officials refused to issue permits. The situation was desperate. The festival had already been advertised in publications such as The New York Times. During a ride through Bethel with a local real estate agent, Mr. Lang dipped down a side road past Max Yasgur鈥檚 dairy farm and spotted the ideal venue: a bowl-shaped meadow. It was July. They only had a month to prepare the site.
With just days to go before the event, Mr. Lang鈥檚 team faced a stark choice given their limited workers and time. They could either build the stage or erect fences and ticket booths around the festival grounds. They chose the staging. The festival had pre-sold 186,000 tickets via mail order. Without fencing, the organizers would have to let the additional people who showed up in for free. They were expecting 15,000. Their predictions were off by only 200,000. The organizers ended up going heavily into debt.
The 鈥淎quarian Exposition,鈥� as it was called, tapped into a counterculture movement that was sweeping the United States. Two years earlier, in 1967, Time magazine had run a cover story on hippies. The Woodstock organizers apparently didn鈥檛 read it, or if they did, weren鈥檛 aware of the number of hippies, peaceniks, rock aficionados, and others who would be drawn to a meadow in upstate New York.聽
鈥淚n 1965, by some estimates, there were roughly a thousand prototypical hippies living in the Bay Area,鈥� says cultural anthropologist Grant McCracken, author of 鈥淐hief Culture Officer.鈥� 鈥淏y 1969, you鈥檝e got a half-million people showing up for entertainment in an open field. So it鈥檚 a tremendously rapid acceleration. And I think one of the ways it gets accomplished, culturally speaking, is that people just simply define themselves in very careful opposition to the cultural model that was in place by the mid 鈥�50s.鈥�
That postwar period was a time of remarkable economic growth, epitomized by the rise of the suburbs and what they symbolized for material comfort and the competition for social standing. As a 1950s Ford television commercial put it: Why have one car, when you can have two? But many members of the nonconformist 鈥�60s generation spurned status and individualistic competition in favor of egalitarianism and social solidarity.聽
鈥淪pending a weekend in a muddy field seemed like a good idea, for starters, because it so affirmed the equality of all those people,鈥� says Mr. McCracken. 鈥淓verything about the clothing and the hair was pretty deliberately an effort to efface differences.鈥�
But what lay behind the sudden youthful attraction to Human Be-Ins (a supposedly humanistic version of the old sit-ins), Eastern mysticism, and drugs? And why did some flower children display a disregard for clothing that would make even the cast of 鈥淗air鈥� blush?
It was a desire for personal empowerment and expression. Earlier generations believed that if you lived in accordance with the social mores of your community, you鈥檇 be happy. But the boomers balked at that notion. First, they said, follow your bliss. Second, find a community that you fit into.聽
This so-called Me Generation鈥檚 redefinition of freedom included a rejection of their parents鈥� conservatism and the morality of the middle class. Political upheaval 鈥� the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and two Kennedys, race riots, and fear of the draft 鈥� only fueled their disaffection. They challenged authority, agitated for civil rights and women鈥檚 rights, and embraced sexual liberation. At the time, the most potent messengers for change were musicians.聽
A slapdash start 鈥撀爓ith heart
On a spring morning, Donny York surveys the field where his group, Sha Na Na, played just prior to Jimi Hendrix 50 years ago. The revivalists of 1950s doo-wop rock 鈥檔鈥� roll have returned for a Woodstock commemorative show at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. They were unknowns the first time around. The festival and a subsequent documentary movie turned them into stars.
鈥淢y helicopter landed maybe between here and the stage,鈥� recalls Mr. York, whose 鈥淲est Side Story鈥� garb, a leather jacket and rolled-up jeans, looks as anachronistic now as it did in 1969. 鈥淚鈥檇 never seen so many people in one place.鈥�
The backcountry roads were jammed with cars and minibuses muraled with flowers. When Bob Mulvey arrived, he was dangerously hanging out the open back of a U-Haul truck that he and some friends had stuffed with mattresses. Most festivalgoers arrived far less prepared. 鈥淲e had a bunch of food in the truck, so we gave away some,鈥� says Mr. Mulvey, now a teacher at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Conditions deteriorated. First, food vendor supplies ran out. Then, their booths collapsed as a storm produced the worst mud since the Battle of Passchendaele. Upon hearing about the shortages, locals collected food donations (including 10,000 sandwiches) and airlifted them into the festival鈥檚 makeshift kitchens. Thousands of cups of granola were passed from hand to hand to those crammed near the stage.
鈥淭hey had sort of a free food setup, which was really interesting,鈥� says Mr. Mulvey. 鈥淚 remember sitting down with just this huge group of people that we didn鈥檛 know ... and sharing food and laughing and joking about the size of the crowd.鈥�
Sha Na Na鈥檚 Jocko Marcellino recalls venturing out among the masses because the artist hospitality pavilion had been turned into a medical station. At the top of the hill, he watched Creedence Clearwater Revival play 鈥淏orn on the Bayou.鈥� The band looked microscopic but the stage lights reflected off the drummer鈥檚 cymbals as shimmering halo rings.聽
鈥淚t really was a great weekend of cooperation,鈥� says Mr. Marcellino. 鈥淎nd that spirit made it so special that there wasn鈥檛 anybody fighting; there wasn鈥檛 anybody burning things. People took care of each other and it gave an important spiritual background to it.鈥�
The good vibes emanated from the stage, starting with the acoustic guitar-oriented lineup on Friday night.
鈥淢ost folk acts were protest acts. I鈥檓 thinking obviously of Joan Baez, who was the headliner for that day, and Arlo Guthrie, the son of Woody Guthrie, and obviously very politically committed,鈥� says Julien Bitoun, author of 鈥淭he Story of Woodstock Live.鈥� 鈥淭here was the 鈥楩ixin鈥� to Die Rag鈥� by Country Joe McDonald with the 鈥極ne, two, three / What are we fighting for? / Don鈥檛 ask me, I don鈥檛 give a damn / Next stop is Vietnam,鈥� with the whole crowd chanting.鈥�
The greatest protest song of the festival was entirely wordless. Hendrix鈥檚 instrumental version of the 鈥淪tar-Spangled Banner鈥� made the strings of his upside-down Stratocaster howl in distorted anguish. It was the aural equivalent of a flag-burning. The performance helped to establish the festival鈥檚 legendary status, says Mr. Bitoun. A few songs later, Woodstock was over.聽
鈥淭hat community was sort of engendered in that moment, and then dissipated afterwards,鈥� says Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the kind of thing you can鈥檛 really put into words or planning. All these people showed up, all this stuff happened, and they were sort of like a little Woodstock city for three days. And then it was gone. That鈥檚 the magic to me.鈥�
An enduring mythology聽
Mr. Mulvey remembers arriving home from Woodstock with his pants covered in dried mud. His father, who was pretty liberal, looked at him and shook his head. But for the young aspiring musician, those three days forged a shared cultural identity.
鈥淲oodstock is sort of a pinnacle of that sort of value system being created and understanding that there were many, many others like me,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f there were half a million people there, that probably meant that another half a million couldn鈥檛 get there. Which means it was a million people who kind of shared those values ... and probably even more than that.鈥�
The mythology of Woodstock began almost immediately. Joni Mitchell, who didn鈥檛 attend, wrote the famous song about it. The central refrain, 鈥淲e鈥檝e got to get ourselves back to the garden,鈥� conjured up images of festivalgoers dwelling in Edenic serenity.
It reinforced a narrative of Woodstock fitting into the centuries-old American impulse to create a utopian society, however briefly, as evidenced by the Shakers, transcendentalists, and others in early New England.聽
Yet within months, those utopian ideals suddenly seemed far more difficult to attain. In December of 1969, Mr. Lang鈥檚 attempt to mount a 鈥淲oodstock West鈥� at Altamont Speedway in California was marred by the death of an 18-year-old at the hands of a Hells Angels security team.聽
The turn of the decade also brought fresh challenges for the boomer generation. 鈥淎lmost as soon as people had decamped from that farm in Woodstock, the economy started souring,鈥� says Joseph Sternberg, author of 鈥淭he Theft of a Decade: How the Baby Boomers Stole the Millennials鈥� Economic Future.鈥� 鈥淚 mean you got into the oil crises of the 鈥�70s. The culminating fiasco of that era was the stagflation of the late 鈥�70s and then the deep recession in the early 鈥�80s.鈥�
Mr. Sternberg says a defining characteristic of boomers is that they鈥檙e always chasing the economic security that they grew up with in their childhoods. Only a slice of that generation identified as hippies, but many of them swapped their caftans for suits and ties. The generation鈥檚 politics, too, shifted, with many later voting for Ronald Reagan.
Now, in their twilight years, boomers are assessing their place in the world. Ms. VanderGoot says many of her contemporaries are gentle activists, no longer as strident as they once were, yet keenly involved in their communities and politics.聽
鈥淵ou get kind of a split between people who became more pragmatic about their idealism, but are still idealists, and then there are people who kind of gave in and said, 鈥楬ey, you know, I had a good run at it. I did what I could but now I just want to have a comfortable life as I coast through a few more decades.鈥欌��
She believes her generation still has spiritual impulses that challenge a proclivity to seek refuge in middle-class comforts. 鈥淭hey carried forward those deep values, the sense that life can鈥檛 just be purely material and be satisfying,鈥� says Ms. VanderGoot. 鈥淲e know that we won鈥檛 always be around. We want to believe that there鈥檚 more than just us.鈥�
Nowadays, the hippie is an endangered species seldom spotted outside its natural habitat of Phish concerts. But Mr. Mulvey says some of his Berklee students, fascinated to discover he attended Woodstock, are curious about his generation鈥檚 values. His students often tell him that the hippies of the time had more things to protest. His rejoinder to them is that the issues of civil rights, war, gay rights, women鈥檚 rights, and the environment haven鈥檛 gone away. Progress has been made. But there鈥檚 still work to be done. Yet the idea of music as a counterculture movement doesn鈥檛 resonate with a younger generation. 聽
鈥淢usic has changed somewhat in terms of its importance to the students I work with,鈥� he says. 鈥淢usic is a commodity as much as it is an art form.鈥澛�
Mr. Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane, who has a 12-year-old daughter and a 21-year-old son, wishes that today鈥檚 young musicians were inspired to write protest songs like his generation did. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just a different world. I think the issues today are not as clear cut,鈥� says Mr. Kaukonen, still an in-demand recording and touring songwriter. 鈥淭he issues were so clear cut back then. There was really very little gray area between what you believed in and what you didn鈥檛. And the music and the writing and the graphic art ... that were done by the people of that generation were inextricably intertwined with the current events of the time.鈥�
Yet in some ways, there are parallels between the idealism of the Woodstock generation and the so-called woke generation. Like their grandparents, the millennials and iGen display a zeal to change the world. Like their forebears, they鈥檙e willing to eschew some of the status symbol comforts they grew up with, like cars and homes. They鈥檙e giving up security, says Ms. VanderGoot, because they鈥檙e saying, 鈥淚鈥檓 willing to pay the price, but I hope the future will be different.鈥�
鈥淎 glimpse into what鈥檚 possible鈥�
Most days, Mr. Devlin drives over to the shaded Woodstock monument in Bethel. He loves to listen to the conversations of all the visitors. On occasion he might share memories such as how he, as a museum guide, once drove Mr. Crosby in a golf cart to see the site.
鈥淚 parked right on the stage and I turned the cart around, pointed up the hill and I said, 鈥楧avid this is what you saw back in 鈥�69, without people,鈥欌�� says Mr. Devlin. 鈥淗e looked and he was amazed and he says, 鈥榊ou know what, Duke? The vibe is still here.鈥欌��
In a telephone call, Mr. Crosby says the meaning of the festival remains with him. 鈥淲oodstock was a glimpse 鈥� a momentary glimpse 鈥� into what鈥檚 possible. Into us being able to live with each other decently and peacefully. It showed you what it could be. [That] we can do it.鈥�
