Now I am talking about Woodstock, NY. I was at that dumb thing. I was young, but I did attend that weekend concert with some friends in their van. We did not have the $18 three-day tickets, like most of the people who showed up. The fences and admission booths were long trampled when we got there.
It sucked. I never understood why such a big deal was made of it. Rain, mud, overflowing porta-potties, stoned teenie-boppers, music you could hardly hear. Some of the stoned teenie-bopper girls took off their shirts and danced in the rain while long-haired sociopathic predators prowled all around for a peek, hoping to get stoned and laid in the mud. "Got any grass, man?" Like, really groovy.
We brought our own cooler of food and beer.
We got out of there after 24 hours or so, as I recall. Maybe 36 hours. It was not easy getting out of there on the muddy, rutted dirt road and, at points, you had to drive off the road onto the soggy pastures, but we finally made our escape. People are impressed that I was there, but they are wrong to be. We were just young and foolish, but we recognized a shit show, as they say on Wall St., when we saw one.
Bob Dylan was wise to stay away. Ritchie Havens, as I recall, was pretty good but I do not know why he did Beatles songs. We did not have any pot, but maybe we did. I don't remember, but I never saw the point of it anyway except once. The guys from Sha-Na-Na were my buds from college, so I did not need to hear them. Jimmy Hendrix? I do not recall whether we heard him in the distance. Probably not, but I also heard him live in Bridgeport, CT one time, on the high school football field right behind the jail.
Yes, he was an exciting performer. No doubt about about it.
