Check out the Woodstock Wiki for more info on the Woodstock Festival!
Hey there. Not too long ago, I went on a quest that took me far past the Woodstock soundtrack and movie. It started off
with me receiving a copy of The Who's Woodstock show. It had the entire Abbie Hoffman
incident and was a soundboard copy of this historical show. Then one summer day in 2000, I
was sitting on the beach with friends when I realized that no one had tried to collect all
of Woodstock. To put whatever is out there back together and listen to it once again in the
order in which it took place!
If nothing else, collecting Woodstock exposed me to so much music that I otherwise would never
have heard. Bands that I listen to and collect because of this Woodstock quest include
Richie Havens (start off with his first cd, Mixed Bag), Sweetwater (Cycles will impress you), Arlo Guthrie
(he wrote Alice's Restaurant - listen to it!), Country Joe & The Fish
(hint: you can get a free autograph on his website!), John Sebastian (he did the Welcome Back,
Kotter song if you remember John Travolta from the 70's!), Santana, Janis Joplin,
Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and Jimi Hendrix.
I found many sources of information on the Internet but no one who'd put it all back together.
There's no way to know exactly how many songs were played at Woodstock, but most sources agree
on 210 songs (or 233 if you include the Blackstead Tapes). That works as a benchmark. I had the two cd Woodstock soundtrack and The Who's Woodstock
show to start with. Then came Jimi Hendrix Live At Woodstock, which has 14
of his 16 song set, and Ravi Shankar at Woodstock.
Some sets are easy to complete - CCR, Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, The Who, Sly & The Family Stone
are all out there and when you find them, you find the complete Woodstock set of that band. Not
so for others! Santana played four songs at Woodstock. You need to buy two Santana official cds -
one of which is a double cd - to get Santana's complete Woodstock set. Luckily, both of those
cds kickass! Sha-Na-Na's nine songs are derived from four different sources. Arlo Guthrie played three
songs at Woodstock. The first two - Coming Into Los Angeles and Walking Down The Line - are on the
Woodstock box set. The third, Amazing Grace, is only available on video so it means copying
it from vhs to cd! And some sets, like that of Sweetwater, may be impossible to obtain. Only
one of Sweetwater's eight songs has been released. Sweetwater's set alone would add almost 4%
to any Woodstock collection!
In the summer of 2002, I hit 70%. I'll never forget the day I reassembled
Woodstock and listened to it as a homemade 14 cd box set. Was this the first time someone
had listened to the three days of Woodstock like this? I listened to it
a few times with friends over the next few weeks. Some days I'll wake up
and decide, let's listen to Woodstock Complete today and tomorrow. If your place is
full of 60's and 70's posters and memorabilia, its
not hard to do!
Do you believe it took
till 2002 for this to happen?
kenny@sahr.com
www.sahr.com