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photo by Burk Uzzle
photo of album cover by Styrous®
On April 1, 1970, the counterculture American documentary film, Woodstock, premiered in Hollywood. The film documents the music and artists that appeared at the Woodstock Festival which took place in August of 1969 near Bethel, New York.
The film was directed by Michael Wadleigh in his directional debut. Seven editors are credited, including Thelma Schoonmaker, Martin Scorsese, and Wadleigh.
The festival is regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history, as well as a defining event for the silent and baby boomer generations. The event's significance was reinforced by a 1970 documentary film, this soundtrack album, and a song written by Joni Mitchell that became a major hit for both Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Matthews Southern Comfort. Musical events bearing the Woodstock name were planned for anniversaries, including the tenth, twentieth, twenty-fifth, thirtieth, fortieth, and fiftieth. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine listed it as number 19 of the 50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock and Roll. In 2017, the festival site became listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Woodstock helped to save Warner Bros at a time when the company was on the verge of going out of business.
One of my favorite films is the 2009 movie, Taking Woodstock, directed by Ang Lee. The screenplay by James Schamus is based on the memoir Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert and a Life by Elliot Tiber and Tom Monte. It's a brilliant work that never shows any scenes of the event itself.
Side one
- "I Had a Dream" (John Sebastian) – 2:38 (2:53)
- Performed by John Sebastian.
- "Going Up the Country" (Alan Wilson) – 3:19 (5:53)
- Performed by Canned Heat
- "Freedom (Motherless Child)" (Richie Havens) – 5:13 (5:26)
- Performed by Richie Havens.
- "Rock and Soul Music" (McDonald, Melton, David Cohen, Barthol, Hirsh) – 2:09 (2:09)
- Performed by Country Joe & the Fish.
- "Coming into Los Angeles" (Arlo Guthrie) – 2:05 (2:50)
- Performed by Arlo Guthrie.
- "At the Hop" (Artie Singer, David White, John Medora) – 2:13 (2:33)
- Performed by Sha-Na-Na.
- "The "Fish" Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag" (McDonald) – 3:02 (3:48)
- Performed by Country Joe McDonald.
- "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man" (Roger McGuinn, Gram Parsons) – 2:08 (2:38)
- Performed by Joan Baez & Jeffrey Shurtleff.
- "Joe Hill" (Alfred Hayes, Earl Robinson) – 2:40 (5:34)
- Performed by Joan Baez.
- "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" (Stephen Stills) – 8:04 (9:02)
- Performed by Crosby, Stills & Nash.
- "Sea of Madness" (Neil Young) – 3:22 (4:20)
- Performed by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Recorded in September 1969 at the Fillmore East auditorium, New York City, New York.
- "Wooden Ships" (Stills, David Crosby, Paul Kantner—Kantner not credited on original release) – 5:26 (5:26)
- Performed by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
- "We're Not Gonna Take It" (Pete Townshend) – 4:39 (6:54)
- Performed by The Who. (The performance on the album picks up mid-song at the very end of the "We're Not Gonna Take It" portion and then finishes with the "See Me, Feel Me" and "Listening to You" sections.) The final 1:50 of the track is an emergency announcement and the statement that declared "It's a free concert from now on".
- "With a Little Help from My Friends" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 7:50 (10:06)
- Performed by Joe Cocker. In the CD version, the first disc would close with this track, with a 1:30 long recording of the rainstorm.
- "Soul Sacrifice" (Santana, Rolie, Brown, Carabello, Shrieve, Areas) – 8:05 (13:52)
- Performed by Santana. The first 3 minutes of the track is the "Crowd Rain Chant," a chant started by the crowd as an attempt to stop the rainstorm.
- "I'm Going Home" (Alvin Lee) – 9:20 (9:57)
- Performed by Ten Years After.
- "Volunteers" (Marty Balin, Kantner) – 2:45 (3:31)
- Performed by Jefferson Airplane. The final 34 seconds or so of the track is a speech by Max Yasgur, praising the crowd for coming to the festival.
- "Medley" (Performed by Sly & the Family Stone) – 13:47 (15:29)
- "Dance to the Music" (Sylvester Stewart) – 2:11
- "Music Lover" (Stewart) – 4:50
- "I Want to Take You Higher" (Stewart) – 6:46
- "Rainbows All Over Your Blues" (Sebastian) – 2:05 (3:54)
- Performed by John Sebastian.
- "Love March" (Gene Dinwiddie, Phillip Wilson) – 8:43 (8:59)
- Performed by Butterfield Blues Band.
- "Medley" (Performed by Jimi Hendrix.) – 12:51 (13:42)
- "Star Spangled Banner" (Traditional, arrangement, Jimi Hendrix)– 5:40
- "Purple Haze" (Hendrix) – 3:28
- "Instrumental Solo" (Hendrix) – 3:43 (retitled and re-edited when Hendrix's Woodstock show was released more fully in the 1990s. The improvised, fast solo section immediately following "Purple Haze" was heavily cut in the original Woodstock film and soundtrack, and most of the track here is what would later be titled "Villanova Junction", a slow bluesy ballad with the band joining in the background. The uncut version of the solo was restored in the director's cut of Woodstock and on the video of Jimi Hendrix: Live at Woodstock and titled "Woodstock Improvisation")
Viewfinder links:
YouTube links:
Styrous® ~ Monday, April 1, 2024 Amplified ~ 3 Days That Changed Everything (53 mins., 27 secs.)
History Channel ~ History of Woodstock PBS ~ 3 days that defined a generation (1 min., 59 secs.)
Woodstock (complete film)
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