Aug 16, 2010

On this Date: Woodstock 1969

These past few days have been the anniversary of the 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Festival in Bethel, NY.

A few bits of trivia to honor the occasion:

- The Grateful Dead's performance was so dreadful that they begged-off from appearing on the album. Years later, Jerry Garcia noted how the band always tended to bomb at the large festivals.

- Old gentleman farmer Max Yasgur wasn't really that old. The man on whose dairy farm the event was staged was only 49 at the time. He seemed much older, did he not? He died three and a half years later.

- Martin Scorcese was hired to hired by director Michael Wadleigh to shoot and edit the event for a planned movie. That's Scorcese in the photo, cheering on Mr Yasgur.

- Folk singer Bert Sommer was given an early slot on the Friday acoustic music) bill. But Sommer became the forgotten man of Woodstock -- he did not appear on either album or in the movie. In fact, his name is even missing from the ceremonial monument that marks the site today. He dropped off the national radar and spent the last few years of his career (and life) playing in small rooms in the Capital Region.

Here is the only known video record of his Woodstock performance:

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm 25 years old now. Born in 1985. I grew up with the advent of the internet and the MTV glam phenomena. I would trade both in a heartbeat if I could live in the time portrayed above.

Anonymous said...

He blows. So's his 'do.

Sam the Bugler's fancy pants said...

I think I just threw up a little bit in my mouth.

Broadway Billy said...

Gee I was gonna kiss you too Sam. Thanks for the heads up.

Oh yea, in case anybody forgot since it has not been mentioned in a long time: Ron Kim Sux.

Karen S. said...

What have I gotten myself into? Those had to be the words from Max'
s mouth as it started getting out of hand.

I once bought a dairy bottle from Yasgur's Farm, thinking I had a find. It ends up that it was made 20 years after the fact and after the farm was long gone.

I was pissed so I let me son shoot it with his BB gun.

A Jewish farmer. Now how often do you see that?