13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
4.5 stars.... Excellent coffee table book on Woodstock, July 25, 2009
This review is from: Woodstock: Three Days That Rocked the World (Hardcover)
The 40th anniversary of Woodstock is upon us in exactly 3 weeks, and the market is being flooded with Woodstock related books of all kinds.
"Woodstock: Three Days That Rocked The World" (288 pages) is a coffee table book edited by Mike Evans and Paul Kingsbury. It is a pure delight to read from start to finish. The book is organized chronologically (rather than, say, thematically), a major plus. Every single artist that played at Woodstock gets profiled and interviewed and on top of that, We get the time of when they came on stage (e.g., Paul Butterfield Blues Band came on Sunday night into Monday morning at 5 am) and every single set list is included as well. Some artists only payed a couple of songs. It is surprising to me how many bands or artists played Woodstsock which I barely recognize (Tim Hardin, the Keefer Hartley Band, etc.), and how many of them were strictly acoustic. The other thing that is so different from the big festivals of today like Bonnaroo is that there was only one stage.
The artists relay many funny stories about their experience at Woodstock, some new, others not. About to be helicoptered from her hotel to the stage area, Melanie retells how "my mother and I started walking towards this helicopter, and someone says 'Wait, who's she?', and I said 'It's my mother' and they say, 'No, only bands and managers'--and I didn't even have the sense to say 'She's my manager'. I just said 'Goodbye, Mom' and I felt aweful about leaving her behind but I had no choice." Haha! Or how John Sebastian is unexpectedly asked to jump in and play a set and hence has to borrow Tim Hardin's guitar. And on and on.
The visuals in this book are just a marvel to look at. Some of these pictures are now iconic, but there are lots of others that are equally interesting and entertaining. In all, I can't say enough how impressed I was with this book. It's like you were there, really (except for the soundtrack of it all, which of course you can find on many newly released reissues from many bands that played the festival).
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful book, but..., July 9, 2009
This review is from: Woodstock: Three Days That Rocked the World (Hardcover)
This coffeetable book celebrating the 40th anniversary of this Woodstock has lots of great photos and choice interview quotes from the artists and organizers. The main reason I snatched this up was because of the inclusion of setlists for each of the acts who played at the festival, which as far as I know, has never been compiled in one place. I was a bit disappointed that these were incomplete. For example, the Jefferson Airplane section omitted "3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds," "...Pooneil," and "Wooden Ships"; Tim Hardin's "Simple Song of Freedom", Melanie's "Momma Momma", Country Joe and the Fish's "Summer Dresses" and "Silver & Gold" - I'm sure I missed a few others. The sad part is that I knew of most of these selections because they will be included in the upcoming Woodstock 6-CD boxed set. The Jefferson Airplane set was just released in its entirety and has way more songs than those listed in the book. Figured they'd do a better job on the research end... but still it's a worthy souvenir.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I thoroughly enjoyed this pic book, July 28, 2009
This review is from: Woodstock: Three Days That Rocked the World (Hardcover)
Logically organized, with surrounding events put into context, this product of the new Bethel museum is a must-see for anyone interested in the history of this epic event. Great pix, of course, but the text is good, too. I never realized that Michael Lang staged a Woodstock warmup at a racetrack just north of Miami. Woodstock seemed to come out of nowhere. Also, the festival's theme song, and that of a generation, practically, was written by Joni Mitchell based on observations conveyed to her by Graham Nash and David Crosby after the fact. Joni spent Woodstock ensconcsed in David Geffen's luxury apartment on NYC's Central Park West because she was afraid to miss her date on the Dick Cavett show the day after the festival ended. It's a great song anyway. The pictures of many Woodstock attendees now look quite contemporary. Styles have come around again!
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