• I was on the film crew at this '72 festival (erroneously listed as '70 some places). It was the third-largest such event at that time.
• Mom made sure the tie-died marijuana leaf T-shirt I bought at the fest never made it back out of the wash. (Har-rumph!)
• Art by Carl Lundgren, who was one of the two primary Grande Ballroom (Detroit) artists (the other being Gary Grimshaw).
  
  
  
  

 

Interesting comments.

I have found it interesting to read about Abbie Hoffman in particular. The whole fiasco surrounding the Chicago 7 case and Abbie's attempts to derail the Woodstock festival are disturbing. Michael Lang and the other organizers made a conscious effort to make Woodstock apolitical. The "nothing but peace and love" part was not just a slogan. Lang wanted politics to stay out of the three day event. He wanted everyone to just come together and enjoy each other and the music, and actually put this issue to a vote with Hoffman's Movement prior to the event. Despite this, Hoffman (while tripping on acid) demanded to commandeer the microphone at Woodstock (as you state in your post) to talk about Sinclair's jailing.

When reading about these times, it seems like some of the counterculture "movement" were quite immature and did not know what the hell they were doing. I guess you could say that about any generation or any movement though, right?

I definitely applaud the "movers and shakers" of the 60s for moving our cultural thought forward and for expanding how we see ourselves and the world. That is something that has lasted to this day.  

Interesting thoughts, Steeler. I'm of two minds (not all that unusual).

I had been doing a lot research for my blog (which I suspended a couple of weeks ago) about music and the '60s countercultural movement in which many us took part. Part of my writing included a look back at my brief involvement with MC5 manager and White Panther Party founder, John Sinclair, with whom I had recently been corresponding again. (JS being in the Michigan State Penitentiary at the time of Woodstock, you'll recall Abbie Hoffman attempting to take control of Pete Townshend's mic to state John's case before the crowd. For this, Townshend overreacted by bashing Hoffman's head with his guitar.) While I certainly thought it was very cool for "the 5" to play in my high school gym (with Sinclair handing out cinnamon sticks), my later reading and reflection about those days has led me to have second thoughts regarding promotion of those days as being "groovy." Let me explain why.

If you'll remember back to the bad taste his visit to San Francisco left in George Harrison's mouth, I find myself leaning in that direction after a couple of program viewings:

• The first was a PBS American Experience episode, Summer of Love, chronicling that very brief window of time. This helped me understand what Harrison may have been feeling during his visit.


• Next up was a trailer for an upcoming film about Detroit's Grande Ballroom, in which Ted Nugent single-handedly spoils the image I had long held in my head in relation to the concerts I saw there.


• The last was my recent viewing of Gimme Shelter, culminating in the free concert at Altamont where the Hells Angels were brought in as "security" and ultimately killed a man in front of the stage. Both Mick Jagger and Grace Slick made what I felt were embarassing attempts to get things back under control.