My Woodstock memories include Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Alla Rakha delivering nirvana and The Band from Canada unleashing their iconic song `The Weight’ as over 500,000 people gathered at the history-making concert
This year is the 50th anniversary of the counter culture movement’s globally renowned concert simply known as Woodstock! Just say Woodstock to any baby boomer in Canada, their face light up and Woodstock memories come flooding back.
My own Woodstock memories are filled with performances of some of the top bands of the 60s from around the world, including The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Band, Ravi Shankar, Santana, Ten Years After and a multitude of others. It took place at Bethel in New York State in the US from Aug 15-18 in 1969.
Few know that in keeping with the times, the festival organizers flew in Sri Swami Satchidananda of India to open it by addressing the 500,000 people there to spread vibes of peace, love and harmony. His words: “Music is a celestial sound and it is the sound that controls the whole universe,” became the mantra of the times. Many people say that the relatively peaceful atmosphere that prevailed at Woodstock was due to his opening address and getting everybody to chant “Hari Om”.
The atmosphere was so peaceful that it prompted Max Yasgur, owner of the grounds where Woodstock took place, to exclaim : “A half million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music, and I, God bless you for it!”
My Woodstock memories also include the second Indian influence: that of Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Alla Rakha entrancing the crowd on the opening day, August 15, with their music that transported the crowd to nirvana. The performance unfortunately was cut short by a heavy downpour.
Another Indian element which till date is not well known is The Who’s scorching performance in the wee hours of the morning of songs from their recently released double album, the rock opera “Tommy”, inspired by Meher Baba, whom Pete Townsend, the guitarist of The Who, had chosen to be his guru. The Messiah, Tommy, in the album is based on him.
Meher Baba, a Parsi, is well known for coining the phrase “Don’t worry be happy”, which was much later immortalized by Bobby McFerrin in his song of the same name.
There were many other Indian elements at the festival but let us now switch to the Canadian influences.
The theme song “Woodstock” performed by Crosby, Stills and Nash at Woodstock was actually written by Canada’s gift to the world, Joni Mitchell, who incidentally wasn’t at the festival.
Blood, Sweat and Tears, one of the bands who performed there, was comprised of Canadians and made everyone “so very happy” with their songs.
Another group simply known as The Band had all Canadian musicians with the exception of the drummer, Levon Helm, who was American. Their song “The Weight” has gone down in history as one of the best compositions ever and its well renowned lyrics “Feeling just ‘bout half past dead” subsequently became the famous answer to the daily greeting “Hey how you doin’?”
Of course, who can forget the iconic performance of Janis Joplin, whose backup band had Canadians John Till and Brad Campbell in its line-up.
The Canadian components of Woodstock have led to a spate of Woodstock inspired festivals all over Ontario this year. In June, Canadian guitarist John Till, who was part of Janis Joplin’s full tilt boogie band, performed at a festival in Stratford with Chuckee Zehr standing in for Janis. The crowd went wild. Lance Anderson and his group The Last Waltz did songs from The Band.
This past weekend the Kitchener Blues Festival also held a stunning tribute to Woodstock. Coming up this weekend, The Ex, the humongous annual event at the CNE grounds, will also commemorate Woodstock on Aug 17-18, two actual days of the festival in ’69. There are many more slated to be held this weekend including one at Woodstock, Ontario.
India too held its own Woodstock in 1971 at Malavli near Mumbai where many local bands performed including Nandu Bhende (Mumbai Maharaja of rock),Remo Fernandes and Darryl Mendonsa (brother of Loy Mendonsa of Shankar, Loy and Ehsaan fame).
Needless to say, many university campuses in the US held their versions of Woodstock post 1969.
Woodstock was THE music festival at the height of the Vietnam war and the hippie movement. A 3 LP album was released first followed by a movie that won the academy award for best documentary. In 1996, Woodstock was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”
Following the global success of both the album and the movie, another LP was released and since then many albums have surfaced.
Yes folks, much has been written, sung, painted, photographed and filmed in celebration of the most memorable rock festival of all time, that gave rise to musicians who stretched their imaginations and prowess to reach grounds that previous musicians didn’t even know existed.
The Woodstock memories are still fresh in mind.
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