On August 15, 1969, around 500,000 people descended upon Bethel, New York for a festival of peace, love, and music known as Woodstock.
An endearing symbol of the 1960s counterculture, the event came together at the last minute through determination and good fortune, giving a collective voice to a younger generation. Rock music legends such as Jimi Hendrix; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; The Who; Janis Joplin; and the Band took the stage on a rainy weekend at Max Yasgur’s dairy farm. Originally around 100,000 people were expected, but the crowd kept arriving, turning the festival into a free event.
Today, half a century later, many of the musicians who performed and the people who made the festival happen have passed away. On the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, we remember them and those magical three days.
Max Yasgur (1919–1973)
After searching for a venue, the four Woodstock promoters finally found a spot in Wallkill, New York, and signed a lease. But the town strongly opposed the festival and banned it just one month before it was to take place, claiming the planned portable bathrooms did not meet code. Panicked, a realtor took the promoters to meet dairy farmer Max Yasgur, who agreed to lease part of his land for $10,000. Despite fierce opposition from area residents, the fest went forward.
Yasgur was an individualist who strongly believed in freedom of expression. Immediately after leasing his land for Woodstock, Yasgur received many phone calls: some were encouraging, others threatened to burn his land. He said at the time, “If the generation gap is to be closed, we older people have to do more than we have done.”
When he heard that local residents were selling water to concert attendees, Yasgur was upset. According to his son Sam, Yasgur told his children, “Take every empty milk bottle from the plant, fill them with water and give them to the kids, and give away all the milk and milk products we had at the dairy.”
Yasgur addressed the Woodstock crowd on Saturday:
“You’ve proven to the world is that a half a million kids — and I call you kids because I have children that are older than you — a half million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music, and God bless you for it!”
Yasgur died from a heart attack a year and a half after selling his farm and moving to Florida.
John P. Roberts (1945–2001)
(Getty Images / AFP / EMMANUEL DUNAND)
Roberts was the nephew of Polydent/Polygrip owner Leonard Block and an heir to that fortune. He and friend Joel Rosenman wanted to create a TV series: in the show, they would be young entrepreneurs with more money than ideas. So, the pair placed an ad in the Wall Street Journal stating they were young men with unlimited capital looking for something to spend it on.
Michael Lang and Artie Kornfeld were among the 5,000 who responded to the ad. Their proposal: build a recording studio in Woodstock, near Bob Dylan’s home, and entice artists to record there.
Roberts and Rosenman suggested an outdoor concert with Dylan and the Band and other nearby musicians. They bankrolled the festival while Lang and Kornfeld worked on event production.
Famously, the concert became “free” when the crowd was much larger than anticipated and the event team did not have time to build a fence and ticket booths.
Roberts and Rosenman lost a great amount of money from Woodstock, but eventually earned a profit from the recording and film rights.
Elliot Tiber (1935–2016)
Tiber definitely played a role in the history of Woodstock but how large a role is in dispute.
Tiber managed his family’s motel in Bethel, New York, and had a permit to put on a chamber music festival on his motel grounds. When he read that the town of Wallkill had pulled the Woodstock festival permit a month before it was scheduled, he offered his permit to Michael Lang and the Woodstock promoters. Since his property was too small, Tiber said he drove Lang to meet with Max Yasgur and helped facilitate the deal.
Lang and Yasgur’s son dispute his account. They say that Tiber put Lang in touch with a realtor, and the realtor drove over with Lang alone to make the deal with Max Yasgur.
Tiber wrote a book about his experience, “Taking Woodstock,” that was turned into a 2009 film directed by Ang Lee.
Richie Havens (1941–2013)
Woodstock brought Havens, an intense and soulful folk singer, new fame as Havens went down in history as the musical performer to open Woodstock.
Late in the afternoon on Friday, August 15, Havens played for over two hours (many performers were stuck traffic). When he ran out of songs, he improvised, coming up with original melodies and lyrics on the spot. One later became his song “Freedom.”
“I’d already played every song I knew and I was stalling, asking for more guitar and mic, trying to think of something else to play — and then it just came to me … The establishment was foolish enough to give us all this freedom and we used it in every way we could.”
After he died, his ashes were scattered from the air over the original site of the Woodstock festival, in a ceremony held August 18, 2013, the 44th anniversary of the festival’s last day.
Sri Swami Satchidananda (1914–2002)
Sri Swami Satchidananda was a spiritual teacher and yogi who moved to America after visiting artist Peter Max in 1966. He opened the Integral Yoga Institute and Yogaville in Virginia, which still educates yogis around the world, and was a spiritual guru to Hollywood celebrities and musicians, including Carole King.
He was called upon to give the opening invocation at Woodstock and (having been stuck in traffic) did so right after Richie Havens’ performance.
“Through the music, we can work wonders.”
Sri Swami Satchidananda
Sweetwater
Sweetwater was scheduled to be the opening band for Woodstock but they were held up by police on their way to the festival. Similar to Jefferson Airplane, the Los Angeles psychedelic rock/folk/fusion band had opened for the Doors and released their self-titled debut album in 1968.
In December 1969, shortly after appearing on “The Red Skelton Show,” singer Nancy Nevins was in a severe auto accident. She suffered a brain injury and permanently damage to one of her vocal cords. She would not record again with the band but did perform with a reunited Sweetwater at Woodstock ’94.
Original band members August Burns, Alan Malarowitz, and Albert Moore have all died.
Bert Sommer (1949–1990)
Sommer has been called “Woodstock’s Forgotten Man.” The folk singer received a standing ovation at Woodstock for his version of Simon & Garfunkel’s “America.” He also played Woolf in the original Broadway production of “Hair” (with his hair featured on the playbill). Sommer died in 1990 after a long battle with a respiratory illness.
Tim Hardin (1941–1980)
Hardin never achieved mainstream success. Full of talent, the folk musician released many albums and wrote popular song “If I Were a Carpenter.” Stage fright and a heroin addiction affected his ability to perform live, though he did perform a set at Woodstock. Hardin died from a heroin overdose at the age of 39.
Ravi Shankar (1920–2012)
Shankar was called the “Sitar maestro,” helping to bring the instrument into rock and roll through his relationship with The Beatles’ George Harrison. Shankar performed at Woodstock though he did not like the venue. He later distanced himself from the hippie scene as he did not appreciate the association of music with drugs, saying that music is like a religion.
Santana
In an era when rock music creativity was peaking, Santana was unique with their blend of rock and Latin music.
Santana was trying to make it in the San Francisco music scene when legendary promoter Bill Graham started championing the band. When asked to help with logistics for Woodstock, Graham agreed — as long as they booked Santana to play the festival. With their debut album yet to be released, the band wowed the crowd, especially with the songs “Soul Sacrifice” and “Evil Ways.”
“And 500,000 people happened to be there. You can see the first ten or twenty thousand; after that, it’s all just hair and teeth. So there was nothing to be afraid of. If I had known what it was all about and what Woodstock ended up meaning, I probably would have been frightened to death.”
Santana keyboardist Gregg Rolie
Bassist David Brown (1947–2000) played with Santana from 1966 until 1971 and again from 1974 until 1976.
Keef Hartley (1944–2011)
The drummer joined Rory Storm and the Hurricanes when Ringo Starr left to join the Beatles. He later started the Keef Hartley Band, blending jazz, blues, and rock. The band’s set at Woodstock is the only one not be included on any official album.
Canned Heat
A group of blues record collectors used to get together at Bob Hite’s house in Topanga Canyon. Then Hite and guitarist and harp player Alan Wilson decided to start their own blues rock band.
Canned Heat became one of the most popular groups of the late 1960s, appearing at the Monterey Pop Festival and Woodstock. The band’s best known songs were “On the Road Again” and “Going Up the Country.” Wilson sang the lead vocal for “Going Up the Country” in a distinctive high-pitched countertenor style. The song has been called “the unofficial anthem of Woodstock.”
Wilson became a member of the “27 Club” when he died from an accidental barbiturate overdose in 1970, two weeks before Jimi Hendrix and four weeks before Janis Joplin. He reportedly had been suffering from depression, though his death was ruled accidental.
Mountain
The hard rock band was relatively unknown when they played Woodstock. It was only their third live performance.
Guitarist and vocalist Leslie West was playing R&B music when he heard the band Cream and was inspired to play a harder blues rock sound. He got together with bassist/vocalist Felix Pappalardi (1939–1983), who had produced Cream, and they formed a band with keyboardist Steve Knight (1935–2013) and drummer N.D. Smart.
Mountain is considered to be one of the pioneers of heavy metal music with Rolling Stone calling the band, “a louder version of Cream.”
Grateful Dead
The legendary Grateful Dead played an hour-and-a-half late night set at Woodstock, finishing around midnight on a flooded stage. They had to end their set early when their amps overloaded during “Turn On Your Love Light.”
Myth has it that the between the rainy weather and drug intake, the band was not at their best. Most fans agree the Dead have played better shows than Woodstock, but that the set was pretty good considering the technical problems.
Jerry Garcia (1942–1995) did not dig the set:
“It’s nice to know you can survive as a band even after blowing the biggest gig of your career.”
Keyboardist Ron “PigPen” McKernan died in 1973.
8 Bands Carrying on Jerry Garcia’s Legacy
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival was the first major band to sign on for the Woodstock Festival. Once they agreed to perform, other big acts joined.
The band members of CCR, whose split in 1972 was not friendly, do not have great memories of their experience at Woodstock. The band took the stage at 12:30 a.m. and played what most people feel was a great set of their swamp rock hits.
But John Fogerty felt their performance was subpar. He did not allow their set to be included in the Woodstock film or on Woodstock record releases.
Bassist Stu Cook did not agree:
“The performances are classic CCR and I’m still amazed by the number of people who don’t even know we were one of the headliners at Woodstock ’69.”
John Sebastian said:
“Creedence Clearwater delivered a set that was every bit as important and delicious as any other performer at Woodstock. I think they may not have had any other serious competition besides Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix. It was so tight and so wonderfully strong, particularly in my psychedelicized state. But Fogerty came off that stage and said, ‘Well, you guys really screwed that one up.'”
Rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty (1941–1990) was John Fogerty’s older brother. They did not get along, and Tom left the band in 1971.
Janis Joplin (1943–1971)
The legendary and charismatic vocalist took the stage at Woodstock at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. Backed by the Kozmic Blues Band, she kept the early morning crowd awake with her fiery blues rock. The audience demanded an encore and received a spirited version of “Ball and Chain.”
Joplin did not like her performance. According to others, she was drunk and high on heroin. Pete Townsend said in his memoir:
“She had been amazing at Monterey, but tonight she wasn’t at her best, due, probably, to the long delay, and probably, too, to the amount of booze and heroin she’d consumed while she waited. But even Janis on an off-night was incredible.”
Joplin became a member of rock’s “27 Club” when she died from a heroin overdose in 1971.
Sly and the Family Stone
Pioneering innovative rock/funk band Sly and the Family Stone put on what many called the best performance at Woodstock.
The band was the first major American music group to have a racially integrated lineup that included men and women. With their unique psychedelic soul sound, the band had hits with “Everyday People” and “Dance to the Music.”
Sly and the Family Stone took the Woodstock stage on Sunday at 3:30 a.m. and had the crowd dancing and jumping. Cynthia Robinson‘s (1944–2015) trumpet was wailing on the song “Higher and Higher.”
“I got to witness the peak of the festival, which was Sly Stone. I don’t think he ever played that good again — steam was literally coming out of his Afro.”
Carlos Santana
The Who
Roger Daltrey, Pete Townsend, John Entwistle (1944–2002), and Keith Moon (1946–1978) took the stage at Woodstock at 5:00 a.m. They played most of their recently released rock opera “Tommy,” hits including “Summertime Blues” and “See Me, Feel Me,” and finished their set as the sun rose.
“We did a two-and-a-half-hour set . . . It made our career. We were a huge cult band, but Woodstock cemented us to the historical map of rock and roll.”
Roger Daltrey
Later, Daltrey and Townsend did not speak highly of Woodstock.
“The worst gig we ever played”
Roger Daltrey
“I thought the whole of America had gone mad.”
Pete Townsend
Abbie Hoffman (1936–1989)
The well known activist and founder of the Youth International Party (the Yippies) inserted himself into Woodstock mythology.
An agitated Hoffman ran on stage during the set by the Who and began yelling at the crowd. While they were having a good time, he said, MC5 manager and White Panther Party founder John Sinclair, was sentenced to 10 years in jail for possession of two joints.
Pete Townsend yelled at Hoffman to get the “F” off the stage. Some say Townsend hit him in the back with his guitar; others say he just pushed him.
Hoffman jumped off the stage and disappeared into the crowd.
Townsend later said
“My response was reflexive rather than considered. What Abbie was saying was politically correct in many ways. The people at Woodstock really were a bunch of hypocrites claiming a cosmic revolution simply because they took over a field, broke down some fences, imbibed bad acid, and then tried to run out without paying the bands. All while John Sinclair rotted in jail after a trumped-up drug bust.”
Jefferson Airplane
The pioneering psychedelic rock band had the unenviable task of following up a blistering set by the Who.
The sun was shining early Sunday morning when the Airplane, including founder Marty Balin (1942–2018) and guitarist Paul Kantner (1941–2016) took the stage after partying for 24 straight hours. They were joined on stage by keyboardist Nicky Hopkins (1944–1994), who had been in the Jeff Beck Group until they broke up right before Woodstock. Before the music started, Grace Slick said to the crowd, “You’ve heard the heavy groups, now welcome to morning maniac music.”
“We’d been up all night and I sang the goddamned songs with my eyes closed, sort of half asleep and half singing. We probably could have played better if we’d been more awake, but part of the charm of rock and roll is that sometimes you’re ragged.”
Grace Slick
The Airplane officially ended Day 2 of Woodstock, though they finished their set on Sunday morning at 9:40 a.m.
Joe Cocker (1944–2014)
Cocker, backed by the Grease Band, was on a tour of the United States when he was booked for a stop at Woodstock.
They were the first act of Day 3, starting at 2:00 p.m. (about four hours after Jefferson Airplane finished Day 2). Their set included “Feelin’ Alright” and “With a Little Help From My Friends.” A heavy thunderstorm right after Cocker’s set stopped Woodstock for a few hours, and Cocker was overheard saying, “Did I do that?”
In addition to Cocker, Grease Band members bassist Alan Spenner (1948–1991) and guitarist Henry McCullough (1943–2016) have passed away.
Ten Years After
The blues hard rock band Ten Years After has had 12 albums reach the Billboard 200. But in 1969 they were much more popular in their home country England than in the United States.
They put on a great performance, especially considering there were technical difficulties from the high humidity, and the band’s fame exploded after their appearance at Woodstock. Their song “I’m Going Home” was featured in the Woodstock movie and official recordings.
Lead singer and lead guitarist Alvin Lee (1944–2013) was called “the fastest guitarist in the West.”
The Band
The Band started out in Canada as the Hawks, the backing band for Ronnie Hawkins. Levon Helm (1940–2012) was the only American in the group that included Richard Manuel (1943–1986), Rick Danko (1943–1999), Garth Hudson, and Robbie Robertson. The Band became Bob Dylan’s backing band in 1965, and recorded with him at his house in Woodstock and at a house they rented in nearby West Saugerties, New York. The house was pink and they called it “Big Pink.” Some of the recordings would become the Band’s first album, the 1968 classic “Music from Big Pink.” The album was a pioneering roots rock masterpiece, combining rock, country, folk, soul, and blues. When “Music from Big Pink” became a success, the Band went on tour, one of their first gigs was at Woodstock.
Johnny Winter (1944–2014)
The Texas-born blues guitar legend released his first album for Columbia Records in April 1969. The self-titled album received great reviews and featured Tommy Shannon on bass. Winter and his band came on stage at Woodstock at midnight on Monday, August 18, and played an electrifying set of blues rock. He was joined by his brother, Edgar Winter, on three songs.
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Blood, Sweat & Tears were one of the pioneers of jazz-rock along with the bands Chicago and Electric Flag. The band combined rock, jazz, soul, blues, and pop, using brass instrumentation along with guitar, bass, and drums. Original member Al Kooper left in early 1968, and he was replaced by the familiar baritone voice of lead singer David Clayton-Thomas. At Woodstock, the band previewed songs from their upcoming self-titled LP, including “Spinning Wheel.” Trumpeter Lew Soloff (1944–2015), featured prominently on that song.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young unbelievably played their second live show ever at Woodstock and they were nervous, according to Stephen Stills.
Crosby, Stills & Nash had a hit with their self-titled debut record, released early in 1969. They needed to go on tour so they asked Neil Young, who had been in the band Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, to join them. Their first live show was in Chicago at the Auditorium Theater two nights before Woodstock.
Rounding out the band outside of the four stars were drummer Dallas Taylor (1948–2015) and bassist Greg Reeves. Crosby, Stills, and Nash played an acoustic set at Woodstock, and then were joined by Young to close with an electric guitar full band set.
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell did not perform at Woodstock (her manager thought it would be better for her to appear on “The Dick Cavett Show” instead). But she heard about the festival from her then boyfriend Graham Nash and from televised news reports she watched from a hotel room in New York City.
“The deprivation of not being able to go provided me with an intense angle on Woodstock.”
Mitchell used that feeling of being left out when she wrote the song “Woodstock” that would become a big hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. David Crosby has said that Mitchell captured the feeling and importance of the Woodstock festival better than anyone who had actually been there. CSNY’s psychedelic hard rock version of the song was an international hit, almost making it to the Top 10 on the Billboard charts (it peaked at No. 11 in May 1970).
Paul Butterfield (1942–1987)
The Chicago native loved the electric blues he heard in his hometown from legends such as Muddy Waters and Otis Rush. As a teenager, Butterfield would go to the city’s blues clubs and jam. He was encouraged by many including Waters.
Butterfield started out playing guitar but later became one of the most renowned harmonica players, or harp as it is typically called in blues music. He formed the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, a pioneering blues rock band, which was signed to Elektra Records. A version of the band woke up the crowd at Woodstock with a 6:00 a.m. performance on Monday morning.
Butterfield struggled with addictions, dying from a heroin overdose in 1987. Drummer Phillip Wilson (1941–1992) and saxophonist Gene Dinwiddie (1936–2002) also have passed away.
Sha Na Na
The 1950s rock and roll nostalgia act is not one you would expect to hear at Woodstock. Their performance at the festival propelled the group to national fame and sparked an interest in the 1950s that carried over to the TV series “Happy Days,” the movie “American Graffiti,” and the musical “Grease.”
Sha Na Na was started by members of a Columbia University a capella group. They split off as the Kingsmen then changed their name to Sha Na Na in 1969 (because a group called the Kingsmen already had a hit with “Louie, Louie”).
Jimi Hendrix saw them perform in New York City and he recommended the band to Woodstock organizers. Original vocalist Frederick “Dennis” Greene, known as “Denny,” who was with the band until 1984, passed away in 2015.
Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970)
Hendrix closed out Woodstock on Monday morning, taking the stage around 8:00 a.m. and performing what is considered one of the best sets of live rock music ever.
Bassist Noel Redding (1945–2003) had recently left the Jimi Hendrix Experience, so Hendrix assembled a new band for Woodstock featuring Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell (1942–2008), rhythm guitarist Larry Lee (1943–2007), and conga players Juma Sultan and Jerry Velez.
Hendrix was scheduled to go on at midnight Sunday but said he would rather do his set on Monday morning. Reports vary, but the original crowd of around 500,000 was considerably smaller by the time Hendrix played. When the band was announced erroneously as the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Hendrix corrected it:
“We decided to change the whole thing around and call it Gypsy Sun and Rainbows.”
The band played a two hour set, the longest at Woodstock.
Hendrix’s amplified feedback driven version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” was one of the most symbolic moments of the 1960s. Music critic Al Aronowitz of the New York Post wrote:
“It was the most electrifying moment of Woodstock, and it was probably the single greatest moment of the sixties.”
Many consider it to be the greatest live performance ever.
Finishing his set with an encore of “Hey Joe,” Hendrix collapsed from exhaustion.
