No, I wasn’t there. I’m not that old! 😉

What can I say? It happened and there was a lot of good music, a lot of questionable sanitation, and not a lot of chaos. Let’s just sum it up with my favorite tributes to the show:

Slappy the Squirrel asks…

And here’s the band Slappy and Skippy refer to in the bit (not The Band – they play later on):

Sure, there were plenty of other great acts there: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, CSNY, The Band, Joan Baez, Richie Havens, Arlo Guthrie, Sly and the Family Stone, The Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead and many, many others. It was groundbreaking (in more ways than one, because the damage inflicted on Max Yasgur’s land made it non-arable for years and forced him to sell the property a few years after Woodstock).

It brought forth wonderful music festivals for future generations (e.g. Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Coachella, and the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, to name but a few) and kept still others alive (e.g. Newport Folk Festival, Philadelphia Folk Festival). And it spawned anniversary shows that were of dubious merit, but still rang true for many (at least the one in 1994 – I can’t say that the 1999 or 2004 gigs were nearly as well-received).

So this weekend, why not spin up some good tunes and think of everywhere music has gone since the summer of 1969.