Myth & Legend Of Woodstock Lives On 40 Years Later

1969 was the year I began my career as a journalist with a leading Indian daily. That was also the year when a memorable event called The Woodstock Festival took place in a far-away rural town of Bethel, New York, and caught my fancy.

As The Independent recalls: “Performers flying in on helicopters – a portentous sight in the Vietnam era – food and drinks spiked with LSD, acts going on 14 hours or a day late, the myth and legend of Woodstock has remained a potent signifier for baby-boomers ever since.

“It has served as the backdrop to films like A Walk on the Moon, directed by Tony Goldwyn in 1999, and starring Diane Lane and Viggo Mortensen, and Ang Lee’s forthcoming comedy Taking Woodstock.

“Best remember the original Woodstock as Jefferson Airplane singer Grace Slick does. ‘So much of Woodstock’s appeal was the chance to simply come together and touch what we knew had already taken birth. It was our turn’, she writes in Somebody to Love?, her autobiography.

” ‘We were ready to breathe, ready to celebrate change. I really believed the whole world would look like that in about sixteen years – the different skin colours weaving in and out of the tapestry, the unrestricted language and lack of cultural animosity, and the beautiful power of our main language: rock’n'roll.

” ‘Did the gigantic dream work? It not only worked, it remains a magnificent symbol of an era. We are all accustomed to big outdoor concerts these days; they’ve become part of our culture. Not so in 1969.

” ‘Today, the mere name Woodstock immediately conjures an image of a specific point in time where for four days and nights in the spirit of acceptance, celebration, and profound ritual, wherever we were, we were all different – and we were all the same’.”

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, Woodstock: 40th Anniversary Edition is out now as a four-disc DVD and a two-disc Blu-ray on Warner Home Video. Music from the Original Soundtrack and More and Woodstock Two are out now on Rhino. The six CD-box set, Woodstock 40, will be out on 17 August on Rhino. More here…