Library Rock's Backpages

Various artists: Woodstock (Atlantic: 2663 001)

Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 17 July 1970

Update, 2020. Woodstock. The name has many meanings. There's Woodstock the town where Bob Dylan and the Band lived once. But the main resonance is with Woodstock the four-day rock music festival in mid-August 1969 (held in Bethel, 40 miles/65 kilometres away from Woodstock), and thus Woodstock the instant city, Woodstock the rain and mud, Woodstock the festival star acts including Richie Havens, Santana, Sly and the Family Stone, Canned Heat, Arlo Guthrie, John Sebastian, Joan Baez, Country Joe and the Fish, Janis Joplin, Crosby Nash Stills Young, the Grateful Dead, Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane, the Who, Jimi Hendrix (and many more), Woodstock as compered by set architect and lighting engineer 'Chip' Monck, and Woodstock the iconic images of the freaks at the festival and the 1969 massive media coverage (more on this, here).

Total word count of piece: 2592

Subscribe

Becoming a member is easy. Membership gives you access to all the thousands of articles in the library.

Click here to go to Subscribe page.

Click here for academic and other group subscriptions.