WOODSTOCK 50TH ANNIVERSARY: NEW BOOK OFFERS FRONT ROW SEAT

The year was 1969. The Vietnam War was in full swing. Richard Nixon was in the White House and Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon. And revolution was in the air. In that backdrop, 500,000 young people gathered on a mid-August weekend in upstate New York for the promise of three days of peace and music. What they experienced at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was something far greater.

Celebrating “the greatest peaceful event in history,” Woodstock 50th Anniversary: Back to Yasgur’s Farm (Krause Publications) offers a dazzling and compelling front-row seat to the most important concert in rock history, an implausible happening filled with trials and triumphs that defined a generation.

Author and Woodstock attendee Mike Greenblatt brilliantly captures the power of music’s greatest performers such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Santana, and the Who, while sharing stories both personal and audacious from the crowd of a half million strong who embraced not only the music but each other.

The book features a Foreword by Country Joe McDonald, whose rousing solo acoustic version of “The Fish Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag” was one of the most memorable performances at Woodstock.

Readers will enjoy interviews with such rock icons as Graham Nash, Carlos Santana, Joe Cocker, Richie Havens, Country Joe McDonald, Edgar Winter, members of Jefferson Airplane, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Sly & The Family Stone, Canned Heat, Sha Na Na, co-host Chip Monck, fans and countless others. In addition, all 32 performances at the festival are showcased.

Equal parts circus and surreal, Woodstock 50th Anniversary: Back to Yasgur’s Farm tells a transcendent tale of a musical and mythical moment in time.

For more information contact author Mike Greenblatt: Mikeg101@ptd.net

WOODSTOCK: A TURNING POINT IN WORLD CULTURE & MUSIC

Woodstock: A Turning Point in the World Culture and MusicWoodstock Music & Art Fair was the last hurrah of the hip movement.A triumph of counter-culture, it rocked on, and the ripples of it are still felt to this day. For a live event that went on for only three days (or rather four, due to complications), it left a lasting impact on pop culture and people’s perception of live events.

Where was Woodstock? Woodstock festival didn’t actually take place in Woodstock, surprise-surprise! The site of the original festival was in White Lake, New York. As you can imagine, this small commune received worldwide fame for being ground zero.

What was it all about?
It was about giving a middle finger to the establishment, man! It was a festival in name, but an experience in nature.

Before Woodstock came around, rock concerts and festivals have only gathered audiences of up to 50 thousand people. By some rough estimates, nearly half-a-million people were in attendance. People from all walks of life were there, even exemplary students had changed their mantra from https://eduzaurus.com/type-my-essay” to “Pass the weed, man.”

Surprisingly, there was no entry fee. Everyone could come and enjoy some psychedelic tunes free of charge.

Tickets and Complications 
A rumor suggests that ticket booths were not in place before the concert. That left organizers in a precarious spot and they had to drop the idea of paid admissions to the venue.

There were a lot of problems with organization and planning too. The event itself was bound for failure since it was full of mishaps and miscalculations: constant delays, equipment failures, catering disruptions, mobile toilets malfunctioning, and the weather constantly being a nuisance.

This entire thing was the perfect storm of disasters, and it was glorious.

Bands
It was about rocking out, dudes!

The Woodstock lineup included headlining juggernauts like Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, The Who, Janis Joplin and Creedence Clearwater Revival. The entire roster, on the whole, was also very impressive.

Plenty more were asked to perform, but they either declined, or there were difficulties with communication. A lot of famous groups never showed up on stage: Frank Zappa and his band never graced the crowd with their blend of experimental rock and The Moody Blues never performed their heartfelt ballads.

Live Coverage
A limited number of reporters were actually permitted to the area. And those who were emphasized heavily on the poor organization and lack of amenities.

The coverage slightly changed its tune and became more positive near the tail-end of the fest. Partly due to many people complaining about misleading reports.

Legacy
There were a few festival revivals in the form of anniversary tours and concerts – in 1979, 1989, 1994, 1999 and the ill-fated 2009 attempt.

The original‘69 event spawned a number of three-day copycats like Coachella Valley Music and Art Festival, Bonnaroo Music Festival, Lollapalooza and a few student-friendly alternatives.

Woodstock also became the subject of a three-hour Oscar-winning documentary released in 1970 with the same title.

It was an organizational phenomenon in a time of carefree indulgence. Woodstock signified an end of an era. It’s great that Coachella is here to pick up the slack. At least now, in a slightly different way, we may experience what Woodstock may have felt like back then.

STEALING DYLAN FROM WOODSTOCK: COOL NEW BOOK!

Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970

“I think the great gathering of youth in America and the Isle of Wight might have just been a pop concert to some people but they were a lot more than that. They were youth getting together and forming a ‘new church’, as it were, and saying, We Believe in God, we believe in hope and truth, and here we are, 200,000 of us – all together in peace.”John Lennon

In 1969, the world was rocked by the announcement that Bob Dylan would come out of retirement to perform at a tiny, unknown UK event: the Isle of Wight Festival.After a three year withdrawal from live performances following a motorcycle injury, the ‘voice of a generation’ was back.

What followed was the event of a lifetime; over 150,000 Dylan fans flocked to the island, blocking roads, overloading ferries and starting the greatest party the Isle of Wight had ever seen.

Celebrities including John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Ringo Starr, Elton John, Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Keith Richards, George Harrison, Pattie Boyd, Jane Fonda and cricket star Bob Willis joined the massive crowds.

For the first time, festival founder Ray Foulk tells the behind-the-scenes story of how three young brothers stole the world’s biggest music star from the infamous Woodstock Festival (placed in Dylan’s backyard to coax the legend to come out and play), and launched one of the UK’s biggest music events.

Through a collection of the author’s personal memoirs, as well as never-before-seen photographs and surprising backstage anecdotes about rock’s biggest legends, Stealing Dylan from Woodstock recreates the pivotal summer of ’69 when festival culture began.

Ray Foulk was born in Derbyshire in 1945. After leaving school at 16, he went on with his brother to found the Isle of Wight Festival at the age of 23. Following the festival’s incredible popularity, Ray went on to become a successful music promoter, opening Wembley Stadium as a music venue for the first time, and staging major concerts around London.

Later on, Ray became interested in social planning after being head-hunted by the developing city of Milton Keynes and was responsible for introducing the ideas of revolutionary architect Buckminster Fuller- an interest that led Ray to read architecture at Cambridge University. He now lives and works in Oxford.

Caroline Foulk, Ray’s daughter, was born on the Isle of Wight in 1966. Passionate about the festivals that shaped her childhood, Caroline aided her father with research for the book. A former teacher and an established researcher and writer, Caroline lives in Oxford with her husband and three children.

CELEBRATING WOODSTOCK NEW COFFEE TABLE BOOK BY BARON WOLMAN

WOODSTOCK

By Baron Wolman

with Michael Lang, Carlos Santana & Dagon James

ABOUT BARON WOLMAN:

Baron Wolman was the first-ever photographer for Rolling Stone magazine. During his three year tenure at the magazine he captured some of the biggest names in music. Since leaving Rolling Stone in 1970 he has focused on such diverse subjects as authors, fashionistas, professional sports, airplanes and bridges. A qualified pilot, he has also published several widely-praised collections of aerial photography and continues to exhibit his work around the world today. “You can’t plan for a career like mine,” he says. “Yes, I chose to be a professional photographer but my tour of duty with Rolling Stone was a fortunate accident, a gift from the photo gods.”

New special Limited Artist’s Edition available in an elegant custom slipcase with gold embossing. These collectors books include a signed and numbered 8x10 silver gelatin photograph of Baron’s iconic Woodstock Cows image and a very rare original Woodstock admission ticket. Only 250 signed and numbered copies of this edition will ever be produced.

LONDON ― Just in time for holiday shopping, Baron Wolman – Rolling Stone magazine’s original chief photographer during its first three years (1967-70) – is releasing for collectors a limited “Artist” edition of his new coffee table book WOODSTOCK ( UK ’s Reel Art Press).

A two-time Amazon #1 Best Seller on two separate Arts & Photography lists, the new 192-page volume is the perfect holiday gift for music fans, whether they wish they could have attended the 3-Day Festival in person or they were actually there. Filled with photos and text, including a forward by Woodstock great, Carlos Santana, an interview with Michael Lang, the creator of Woodstock and official Woodstock photographer Baron Wolman, WOODSTOCK is illustrated throughout with some of the most memorable images of the festival, ranging from the iconic to the rare never-before-seen. Included in the book are several pages of Baron’s complete set of contact sheets from the Festival. “It is a rare and fascinating treat when photographers allow us to see their contact sheets” added book contributor Dave Brolan, “what is remarkable about this selection of contact sheets is that almost every frame is as good as the next, and we get to see Woodstock exactly as Baron saw it, every single unbelievable moment….”

The special Baron Wolman’s Limited Author edition of WOODSTOCK includes the widely-praised hard cover coffee table book nestled in an elegant custom slipcase with gold embossing. Only 250 copies of Baron Wolman’s Limited Author Edition have been or will ever be produced. In addition, the book will contain on Baron Wolman hand signed numbered edition 8x10 silver gelatin print of Baron’s iconic “Woodstock Cows” photograph plus a very rare original Woodstock admission ticket. Baron comments, “I really believe that this is the most beautifully produced photograph book in which my pictures have ever been published….and that’s saying a lot.”

Baron onstage at Woodstock with Carlos Santana
Photo by Bill Graham

“In unexpected ways, Woodstock became more than a concert for all of us….It was three miraculous days that I somehow knew were both a promise and an anomaly,” Baron says.

The images in this book bring readers back to that forever mythical moment in Rock n’ Roll music history. Baron was more interested in the crowd than in the performers, his photographs are hugely evocative and offer an insight into this legendary event that is rarely seen. Baron comments, “The thing to remember about the 1960s, even near the end in ’69 was that everything was totally different, the behavior was new and unexpected. Plus, the 1960s were simply wildly photogenic in every way imaginable…the changes that were taking place in the heads of the people were visually manifested. I mean, how could you not take pictures?”

Copies of the Baron Wolman’s Limited Author Edition of WOODSTOCK are available for online purchase at www.CelebratingWoodstock.com and are $350 with free shipping, while supplies last. The standard retail edition of the book is available at area bookstore or amazon.com.

Woodstock makes it easy to see why Wolman’s photographs became Rolling Stone’s graphic centerpiece during the three years they were published regularly in the magazine. Over 40 years later, those same photographs, picture memories of the ‘60s, are now widely exhibited and collected. Speaking about Woodstock in particular, Baron comments, “I ended up spending most of my time out in the wild with the crowd because what was happening out there was just too interesting not to explore.”