Woodstock’s 40th Anniversary

"If you can remember the 60s...." Mike Lang's new book about Woodstock is out (The Road to Woodstock) and I have just read it. It is a good book but it is inaccurate. It states that John Sebastian and myself performed on Saturday. That is incorrect. As I have always said I performed right after Ritchie Havens (see the story on my original Woodstock page) and then John Sebastian and sometime afterwards the Swami. The facts in Mike Langs' book are substantiated by Randy Zac who says he has listened to the tapes for Rhino Records for "four years," but he was not at Woodstock. He says he has forensic evidence that I performed the "Fuck Cheer" and "Fixin'-to-Die Rag" on Saturday. I thought that only applied to crime scenes. But maybe he thinks Woodstock was a crime scene. I donno. So of course all the new releases by Rhino are wrong also. That includes the new deluxe box set that brags that it finally has the complete song list and performance order. John Morris the MC at Woodstock confirms what I have said and I will soon post his set list for entire festival. (Chip Monck's songlist is here.) You can compare it to the Rhino and Lang lists if you like. It is a set list you can believe in. The myths just keep on coming. If you happen to have had the lucky experience of being there at the beginning on Friday and heard Ritchie perform and know what happened next and feel like doing it, please send us an email and we will post it here. PS: Upon reviewing the audio of my performance solo at Woodstock at the end of my performance encore the MC says "very soon we'll have Santana," so at this moment I am thinking I have been wrong for 40 years and I did go on Saturday. But please if you have your own memories send 'em. I thought I would take a look at some of the photographs and see if anything can be gleaned from those. What I have noticed is that the wooden fence in front of the stage became festooned with blankets and other soft furnishings as the weekend progressed. As shown in the attached photographs, Pictures 1 and 2 (Richie Havens and Sweetwater) were both taken on the first day and the fence is completely clear of blankets. Picture 3 is of Quill who opened the second day. Blankets are now clearly visible - as they are for the shots of Joe and John Sebastian (Pictures 4 and 5). As such, I conclude that the solo performance was on the Saturday. --Ross Hannan I am going to give an experience of a 7 year old. Our father David Faison and Kelly had driven my brother Jere and I from the city to The Woodstock concert. The road in to the amphitheatre was long and windy and it was more than a traffic jam as we were crawling in, and it probably took at least a hour or more to get to the stage. Finally when we got very close to the stage both of them had to work hard and fast to gather the equipment for the band to be ready. There were people everywhere and there was no elbow room. Somehow we manage to get to the back of the stage and then we were waiting and waiting, what seemed like hours. I remember being excited when Richie Havens went out and start to perform after a long, long wait, or so it seemed to me. Unexpectedly, within a short period of time after his performance, with no one stating it was time, but the time it was, as Country Joe started to play his song. That is it. --Jennifer Faison I was at Woodstock on that Friday, and always "thought" I remembered both you and John Sebastian playing that day. It gets a little fuzzy after forty years. Most set lists have you both performing on Saturday, but my drenched friends and I were already on our way home by then (Eight hours on Route 17-B). Thanks for clearing up what I've always believed. --Mark Elias I was at the original show. Let me tell ya what happened. Rithchie Havens played first set on Friday. Maybe around 5:00 pm start time. After he finished playing "Freedom," Country Joe played a solo set, my friend and I did not know Country Joe was going to play at that time, but he did. Without the "Fish." Then, Country Joe and the Fish did their set on Saturday, which would explain the picture of him on stage with the blankets on the fence. I went to the show to see Country Joe, as I have seen him at other concerts. This is no fluke, I was there to see him, and was very surprised when he did a set on Friday. --Lee Lamb Perhaps it is the way in which the album and movie have distorted my sense of the music order, or just a general loss of memory (during the event, and) after 40 years, but I can not say with any authority when Country Joe was on stage first or even if there was a second or third time (but I believe there was). My absolute and strongest memory of Saturday however is that Santana played that afternoon and brought the crowd to a frenzy -- at times I imagined we had all been possessed by the devil -- and it was only the mild mannered, easy lilt of John Sebastian that brought me back to earth. And just in time it turned out, since when he got me calmed down I had to make the long trek to the Port-a-Johns. As I returned Sebastian was finishing his set and I have always believed that Mountain came on next. Most of the official lists say that it was Canned Heat, Grateful Dead and then Mountain. None-the-less John Sebastian did play on Sat. afternoon, but it was an impromptu thing and not a part of the schedule. In interviews he has done since '69 he has noted this fact and that he was somewhat F**Ked up when he did the fill in job. Perhaps he should weigh-in on this and as to whether he followed another impromptu from Joe (alone on stage) doing the Fixin to Die Rag -- now that is what I think I remember happening.... --Blake D. Hayes I know Country Joe McDonald played the first day. I had never heard "Tennessee Stud" song before that and loved it. I didn’t hear it again until I listened to Doc Watson. Joe set the mood. He was really great then, one of my favorite memories from Woodstock, and is still as entertaining as ever. I know it wasn’t Saturday because the weather was still nice when Country Joe did his solo set and I was still halfway up the hill. --Patrick Connolly I am writing this email on behalf of my ex husband, Robert McLeish. He was at Woodstock and arrived there early Friday morning around 3:30 a.m. He vividly recalled Country Joe’s solo performance and the famous “Cheer.” He said that Country Joe played after Richie Havens’ many encore performances that Friday. --Flo Ford Sue and I departed for the festival on Saturday morning in my old 62 Plymouth Fury. We drove through intermittant rain showers and sunshine and of course the traffic got heavier and heavier the closer we got to the site. We persevered onward and eventually left the Plymouth on the side of the road, grabbed a blanket and started walking. We got a ride for a mile or so from some hippies in an already packed VW Beetle. They told us how groovy it was that we had a baby on the way. And then we walked some more and Sue who was barefoot stepped on a lit cigarette butt and burned the sole of her foot. We eventually got to the festival site. I remember hearing you sing "Sweet Lorraine" -- one of my favorite songs at the time -- as we walked past naked swimmers in the pond. And we got to the gate -- or where the gate used to be -- just as you launched into the "FUCK Cheer and FixinToDie Rag." I don't know whether this was solo or with the Fish. Anyway, we found a place to sit and stayed for all of John Sebastian's set. And all of Santana. And then another band. I was in paradise; Sue was suffering. It was hot and muddy. She was way pregnant and had a cigarette burn on her foot. We left. Hitched a ride to the car and drove home. So I was only there one afternoon, Joe, Saturday afternoon. I heard you, John Sebastian and Santana. Of this I am certain. I wish I had been there Friday and Sunday, but I wasn't. --Chris Martelli EVENTS Musicians for Peace has formed a coordinating committee to help organize and promote 40th Anniversary Woodstock events. West Fest is a free anniversary show in Golden Gate Park's Speedway Meadows on October 25. [ BULLETIN: Woodstock Ventures, who lay claim to the Woodstock name, have issued a cease and desist order to the SF organizers.] I will perform. A show is being planned for Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Plans are afoot for a Woodstock festival in Norway on June 10-13. I will be playing with the "Heroes Of Woodstock" package at Bethel during one of those days, although it's not really an anniversary event. There will be a new DVD and Blu-Ray release from Warner Brothers, a six-disc CD package by Rhino, and a TV documentary on VH-1. Ang Lee's film Taking Woodstock will be released on the August 14 anniversary. See the trailer. Read an interview with the director. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland will celebrate the anniversary with a new exhibit running from July 3 to November 29. Simon and Shuster will publish Back to the Garden by Pete Fornatale, for which I wrote a foreword. Promoter Mike Lang has written The Road to Woodstock (Ecco, 2009). The Shadowbox Cabaret in Columbus, Ohio is producing an original musical about Woodstock. Director Steve Guyer is taking the plum roles of Country Joe and Max Yasgur. "When I was in Ohio on November 15 I was lucky to see Back to the Garden, a musical performance by Shadowbox. This excellent musical brings to the stage the entire Woodstock Music Festival in a entertaining way I would not have thought possible. And it is an honor to have someone play me and sing "I Feel Like I'm Fixing To Die." This show belongs on Broadway! Shadowbox is bringing it back by popular demand starting February 7, 2010. I suggest you all go and see it." --Joe LINKS Michael Carabello of Santana, Paul Kantner of the Airplane, and I reminisce about Woodstock in the San Francisco Chronicle. Find out who was born at Woodstock and who's going to get married there. Thomas Overbeck has a webcomic about a time traveller named Cassie who visits Woodstock. Read Sing Out editor Irwin Silber's old-left take on Woodstock. Look at my original Woodstock page. Look at "Wildman" Dave Diamond's Woodstock page. Woodstock Set List DAY ONE: FRIDAY, AUGUST 15 Richie Havens From The Prison/Get Together/From The Prison I’m a Stranger Here High Flying Bird I Can’t Make It Anymore With a Little Help From My Friends Handsome Johnny Strawberry Fields Forever Freedom Sweetwater Motherless Child Look Out For Pete’s Sake What’s Wrong Crystal Spider Two Worlds Why Oh Why Let The Sunshine In Oh Happy Day Day Song Bert Sommer Jennifer The Road to Travel I Wondered Where You’d Be She’s Gone Things Are Going My Way And When It’s Over Jeanette America A Note That Read Smile Tim Hardin How Can We Hang On to a Dream Susan If I Were A Carpenter Reason To Believe You Upset The Grace Of Living When You Lie Speak Like a Child Snow White Lady Blue On My Ceiling Sing a Song of Freedom Misty Roses Ravi Shankar Raga Puriya-Danashri/Gat in Sawaritai Tabla Solo In Jhaptal Raga Manj Kmahaj Melanie Close To It All Momma Momma Beautiful People Animal Crackers Mr. Tambourine Man Tuning My Guitar Birthday Of The Sun Arlo Guthrie Coming Into Los Angeles Wheel of Fortune Walking Down The Line Exodus Oh Mary, Don’t You Weep Every Hand in the Land Amazing Grace Joan Baez Oh Happy Day Last Thing On My Mind Joe Hill Sweet Sir Galahad Hickory Wind Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man One Day at aTime Why Was I Tempted to Roam Let Me Wrap You in My Warm and Tender Love Swing Low Sweet Chariot We Shall Overcome DAY TWO: SATURDAY, AUGUST 16 Quill They Live The Life That’s How I Eat Driftin’ Waiting For You Country Joe McDonald Janis Donovan’s Reef Heartaches By The Number Ring Of Fire Tennessee Stud Rocking All Around The World Flying High I Seen A Rocket Fish Cheer/I Feel Like I’m Fixing To Die Rag Santana Waiting Evil Ways You Just Don’t Care Savor Jingo Persuasion Soul Sacrifice Fried Neckbones John Sebastian How Have You Been Rainbows All Over Your Blues I Had a Dream Darlin Be Home Soon Younger Generation Keef Hartley Band Spanish Fly She’s Gone Too Much Thinkin’ Believe in You Halfbreed Medley Incredible String Band The Letter Gather ‘Round This Moment Come With Me When You Find Out Who You Are Canned Heat I’m Her Man Going Up The Country A Change Is Gonna Come/Leaving This Town I Know My Baby Woodstock Boogie On The Road Again Mountain Blood Of The Sun Stormy Monday Theme From An Imaginary Western Long Red For Yasgur’s Farm Beside The Sea Waiting To Take You Away Dreams Of Milk & Honey Southbound Train The Grateful Dead Saint Stephen Mama Tried Dark Star High Time Turn On Your Lovelight Creedence Clearwater Revival Born On The Bayou Green River Ninety-Nine And A Half Bootleg Commotion Proud Mary I Put A Spell On You Night Time Is The Right Time Keep On Chooglin’ Susie Q Janis Joplin Raise Your Hand As Good As You’ve Been To This World To Love Somebody Summertime Try Just A Little Bit Harder Cosmic Blues I Can’t Turn You Loose Work Me Lord Piece Of My Heart Ball & Chain Sly & The Family Stone M’Lady Sing A Simple Song You Can Make It If You Try Everyday People Dance To The Music Music Lover I Want To Take You Higher Love City Stand The Who Heaven & Hell I Can’t Explain It’s A Boy 1921 Amazing Journey Sparks Eyesight To The Blind Christmas Tommy Can You Hear Me? Acid Queen Pinball Wizard Do You Think It’s Alright Fiddle About There’s A Doctor I’ve Found Go To The Mirror Boy Smash The Mirror I’m Free Tommy’s Holiday Camp We’re Not Gonna Take It See Me, Feel Me Listening To You Summertime Blues Shakin’ All Over My Generation Naked Eye Jefferson Airplane The Other Side Of This Life Somebody To Love 3/5ths of a Mile in 10 Seconds Won’t You Try/Saturday Afternoon Eskimo Blue Day Plastic Fantastic Lover Wooden Ships Uncle Sam’s Blues Volunteers The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil Come Back Baby White Rabbit The House At Pooneil Corners DAY THREE: SUNDAY, AUGUST 17 The Grease Band Jam 40,000 Headmen Joe Cocker & The Grease Band Dear Landlord Something’s Coming On Do I Still Figure In Your Life Feelin’ Alright Just Like A Woman Let’s Get Stoned I Don’t Need No Doctor I Shall Be Released Hitchcock Railway Something To Say With A Little Help From My Friends Country Joe & The Fish Rock & Soul Music /Love Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine Sing Sing Sing Summer Dresses She's A Friend, She's A Lover, She's A Woman, She's A Wife Silver & Gold Maria The Love Machine I’m A Nut Crystal Blues Rock & Soul Music The Fish Cheer /I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag Ten Years After Spoonful Good Morning Little Schoolgirl Hobbit I Just Can’t Keep From Crying Sometimes Help Me I’m Going Home The Band Chest Fever Don’t Do It Tears Of Rage We Can Talk About It Now Long Black Veil Don’t You Tell Henry Ain’t No More Cane This Wheel’s On Fire I Shall Be Released The Weight Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever Johnny Winter Talk To Your Daughter/Six Feet In The Ground Leland Mississippi Blues Mean Town Blues Mean Mistreater I Can’t Stand It Tobacco Road Tell The Truth Johnny B. Goode Blood Sweat & Tears More And More Just One Smile Something’s Coming On More Than You’ll Ever Know Spinning Wheel Sometimes In Winter Smiling Phases God Bless The Child And When I Die You’ve Made Me So Very Happy Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Suite: Judy Blue Eyes Blackbird Helplessly Hoping Guinevere Marrakesh Express Four and Twenty Mr. Soul I’m Wonderin’ You Don’t Have To Cry Pre-Road Downs Long Time Gone Bluebird Revisited Sea Of Madness Wooden Ships Find The Cost Of Freedom 49 Bye-Byes Paul Butterfield Blues Band Born Under A Bad Sign No Amount Of Loving Driftin’ And Driftin’ Morning Sunrise All In A Day Love March Everything’s Gonna Be Alright Sha Na Na Get A Job Come Go With Me Silhouettes Teen Angel Her Latest Flame Wipeout Who Wrote The Book Of Love Little Darling At The Hop Duke Of Earl Jimi Hendrix Message To Love Hear My Train A Comin’ Spanish Castle Magic Red House Mastermind Lover Man Foxy Lady Jam Back At The House Izabella Gypsy Woman Fire Voodoo Child The Star Spangled Banner Purple Haze Woodstock improvisation Villanova Junction Hey Joe

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