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Roots of the 1969 Woodstock Festival: The Backstory to "Woodstock"

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The historic concert in 1969 was billed as the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, yet it took place 70 miles south of the town of Woodstock in the hamlet of White Lake, near Bethel, NY. Today, the story behind the peaceful assembly and its massive appeal are still compelling. Why did the town of Woodstock become a creative and spiritual center and how did that legacy influence the intention behind the event at Yasgur's Farm?

The Roots of the 1969 Woodstock Festival by Weston & Julia Blelock includes the transcript of a panel discussion that occurred one year before the 40th anniversary of the concert. The group included Michael Lang, who co-produced the "Aquarian Exposition" at Bethel in 1969, along with artists, photographers (Elliot Landy was there), writers and local townspeople (even the bartender from the old Sled Hill Café). They fielded questions posed by the authors that help us understand how this little town in the Catskill Mountains helped inspire "3 Days of Peace & Music" the likes of which had never been seen before and probably will never be seen again.

This book provides a concise history of the environment and circumstances which attracted and nurtured the arts at Woodstock for over two centuries.

A glass factory in nearby Bristol (now Shady) opened in 1809 and operated into the middle of that century. The greenish blue glass is still found in streams. A barn on a hill above the town that serves as a performance space today is part of Byrdcliffe, a utopian Arts and Crafts colony that was established in 1902. A few years later, the rustic Maverick Art Colony was founded nearby. Annual Maverick festivals financed construction of a music hall and other projects until 1931, and their productions were themed, offering discounts for those who came in appropriate costumes. It was like Mardi Gras, and thousands came. A wooden ship was built during the summer of 1924 only to be burned in one night for the sake of the performance - everyone was dressed as pirates.

During the 60's, folk/rock happenings called "Sound Outs" were held in Pan Copeland's field outside of town. Among the many interesting images in the Blelocks' book is a $50 check made out in August 1969 to Van Morrison for performing at a Sound Out. Other musicians who would leave an indelible mark on music and the culture were also attracted to Woodstock. Michael Lang was influenced by the idea of the Maverick and Sound Out music festivals when he arrived there after producing the Miami Pop Festival on a Florida racetrack.

After the astonishing phenomenon at White Lake, Albert Grossman built a recording studio in Bearsville. Local Woodstockers, including Gail Varsi, founded a program ("FAMILY of Woodstock") to provide for the young seekers who continue to step off the bus, possessing nothing but a vague notion. The local constabulary had been dealing with free thinkers for generations, but soon the politics would change with the times.

With 115 images, many of which I'd never seen before, a picture of the town before the big bang emerges. There was a time when even Bob Dylan, who owned a house at Byrdcliffe and then on Ohayo Mountain Road, could move freely about - before his motorcycle crash there in 1966 and before sightseers, fans, psychos, and political activists began staring at him in his yard and climbing through his windows.

My personal relationship to Woodstock lends immediacy to this book's message. There is a very old house in the woods near where I live and the tin roof is still on it, though the walls are nearly gone. I wonder, sometimes, who lived there and I know they ate breakfast and went out in the world and came home to a dark house sometimes, but I am even more curious about what came before Max Yasgur, Michael Lang, and Pan Copeland. When I am lost in reverie, Woodstock sings to me.

I was born in Brooklyn in the last half of the 1950's, too late to understand the concert at the time. A few years later, when it began to make sense, I became a regular visitor, and now I bring my wife and 8 year old son along. I've been back to Brooklyn, but it isn't there anymore (at least, not the way I remember it); on the other hand, Woodstock is as sweet today as it is in my memory.

This place has a special vibe that resonates in me. The smell of scented candles in the stores, the taste of stone ground pancakes eaten on a patio beside a brook that glitters between the leaf shade, the artistic and organic sensibility you find here, and the ubiquitous magical touches define cool in my book. Today, the town is more upscale - and less funky - but it's still a sacred place to me, and it's not like anywhere else, either. The historic concert took place somewhere else, but this is the center.

As a younger man, I ambled along Tinker Street on a crisp autumn day in the morning sun with the whole day ahead of me and my whole life, too. The chill was backing off and a few early risers like me were opening their shops, buying fresh bread, and sipping herbal teas with honey. I chatted with the woman who owns the candle shop while she lit the one that has burned every day since that August weekend. Like a candelabra cactus from a dream, it stands taller than me and drips fragrant colors, encasing the mementoes, trinkets, and shrines that have been added along the way to commemorate events and celebrate the lives of people who have passed. It is a time capsule, or a core sample, back into near history - my history.

The countryside is lush in summer. Just up from town off MacDaniel Road is the Magic Meadow, filled with flowers and light. A bit further, from a trailhead that is at the base of Overlook Mountain and across from the Tibetan Buddhist temple, I've hiked up to the ruins of a mountain house that burned down first in 1875 and then again in 1923. The walk to the top is steep, but the view of the Hudson Valley is sublime. Back in town, the farmers' market, tea shop, cafes, galleries, bookstores, and boutiques provide everything one might need, or wish for.

The cottage we always rent is on the millstream, and it's an easy stroll into town. The stream has shallow pools populated with tiny fish you can pet if you are gentle and move slowly. Early each morning, a young couple bakes fresh pastries for the people who are staying in the cottages. Time slows down for me there.

Years ago, I was walking through the countryside as the trees' long shadows became overwhelmed by dusk. I spied a young couple and their friend leaving an old country house and they were carrying chairs. Then, they brought out a card table, a pitcher of lemonade, and their instruments: two guitars and a flute. She wore a long summer dress that caught the breeze. The friends chatted in low tones, chuckling after a bird called out to them. I watched as they set up in the front yard with only yellow lamplight from the house to see by. I edged closer and listened to them play their music, wishing I lived there too. I stayed there a long time, listening. I am still wistful about that.

Woodstock is one of the things I miss about New York because it is a milestone on the one true path. I have veered, somewhat, from my own path as I acquired other commitments, and it is sometimes difficult to reconcile such things, but it is not so difficult to explain how the heart knows when it is home.

The ideals responsible for the concert's success as a peaceful statement and joyful expression have their roots in the shadow of Overlook, a mountain sacred to the Iroquois, just west of the Hudson River in upstate New York. The spirit that transcends place but is present there in abundance is a touchstone for many of us and we know who we are - we are the Woodstock Nation. This book by Weston and Julia Blelock, more than any other I've read, addresses an essential question, and I am happy to recommend it to students of the era and fellow seekers.

I commend Wes and Julia for asking the right questions while it's still possible to document firsthand accounts. Why and how did the momentous concert happen as it did? The answers are worth knowing.

Roots of Woodstock is the transcript of a 2008 panel discussion of Woodstock the concert but mainly the town of Woodstock which many people don't realize was about 70 miles from the concert and originally the planned site of the concert. Of course the highlight of the panel is Michael Lang, the promoter and creative force of Woodstock although admittedly, he remains appropriately understated and does not dominate the panel.

But this panel is really a celebration of the town of Woodstock: it's bohemian mix of residents with its conservative members, its history dating back to the 1920s of a counter culture, and the 1960s flavor that included local residents Bob Dylan and the band. The panel is a great cross section and gives a real feel for the city. This book completes a great backstory to a generational cultural event. This is a very quick read with half the book being pictures of the history of the Woodstock and its counterculture culture. Perfect read for those interested in the town or the concert.

If you are like me, you will be surprised to learn that there was a Woodstock before there was "Woodstock." Decades before the massive music event now known to history as "Woodstock", there was a thriving artist's colony in the actual town of Woodstock, where ironically the festival was not held. Among artists and writers of all types, it was known as a retreat/workshop for folk musicians, including some very famous ones. The most well known is probably Bob Dylan. In 1964, he wrote material for his albums "Another Side of Bob Dylan" and "Bringing It All Back Home" in a studio above the "Espresso" coffee shop in Woodstock.
The initial planning for what became the Woodstock mega-concert was a natural extension of the art and music festivals that had been held in Woodstock throughout the twentieth century. This book is derived from a panel symposium/retrospective held in 2008, where some of the people that planned the Woodstock event rehashed the history of the town, some of the artistic events that had already been held there and where they planned to go as they solidified the idea of a mega rock concert. It is not a history of the concert itself, very little is mentioned about what actually happened.
If you are curious about the roots of Woodstock and how that region of the country had been a haven for artists for almost a century, then this is a book that you must read. Those artistic roots run very deep, far deeper than I had ever realized.

For those familiar with the significance of the WOODSTOCK SOUND-OUTS that took place from 1965 to 1968 this book is a wealth of referential information. For those not familiar with them, this book is a great academic tool to learn how the WOODSTOCK MUSIC AND ART FAIR, while located in Bethel-White Lake was called WOODSTOCK in the first place. While much of this is common knowledge now the author, Weston Blelock...
does a wonderful job in putting it all together and in one place. I attended the Soundout on Labor Day, 1968 and saw acts such as: CAT MOTHER AND THE ALL-NIGHT NEWSBOYS (a legendary rock band of the late 60's), THE COLWELL-WINFIELD BLUES BAND, HEDGE & DONNA, DANNY KALB OF THE BLUES PROJECT, and many others. For years I would tell people that THE Woodstock Festival had its roots...and that it did not spring fully formed in August of 1969. I also attended the seminar the book is based on that was held at the Colony Cafe in Woodstock on August 9th 2008. In fact, my wife and I are in one of the audience photographs contained in the book. Finally, I can add that "credit" to being in the audience photo at Central Park in NYC on the BLUES PROJECT REUNION LP COVER ;-).

What really brought it home for me...was that Mike Lang validated the significance of the SOUNDOUTS AND THAT IS SOMETHING THAT WAS LACKING FOR SO LONG.

TO ROCK HISTORIANS THIS BOOK IS A MUST...TO FANS OF GOOD MUSIC...THIS BOOK IS A MUST...TO ME THIS BOOK HAS BEEN A LONG TIME COMING...

Vince DeLucia

Roots of the 1969 Woodstock Festival: The Backstory to "Woodstock" brings together all the diverse aspects that culminated in the creation of the event that defined and changed a generation. The story unfolds in the voices of those who experienced the events leading up to the Woodstock Festival and the illustrations enhance the sense of time and place. "Roots" is entertaining and informative.

Roots of the 1969 Woodstock Festival: The Backstory to "Woodstock" preserves the original text of a panel symposium and contemporary Sound-Out that took place in Woodstock, New York in 2008 in order to chronicle and examine the events leading up to the unforgettable Woodstock mega-concert that is now an indelible part of American history. A transcript of the panel's discussion is presented verbatim, along with a listing of important figures referred to during the communication. The second half of Roots of the 1969 Woodstock Festival is a black-and-white photographic essay of images, people, places, and moments leading up to the unforgettable event of Woodstock. A thoughtful, profusely illustrated preserve of American history, highly recommended for lay readers and serious students of the Woodstock event alike.