Yes, Woodstock was cooler than anything you whipper snappers will ever do!

[edhopper]

And get off my lawn!!

[liberalmuse]

1. So the pendulum swings all the way to the other side.

It would be cool if we had a rational middle more often.

[TayTay]

82. I never spent a single moment wishing I was at Woodstock

or any other concert ever held. Same for plays, movies in original release, etc.

Life is interesting enough as it is. I don't wish myself into someone else's. Mine is full enough as it is.

[Taverner]

2. Just a concert....

If the Boomers are holding this up as their grand achievement...then they are selling themselves short.

Think of the Chicago 68 DNC. That was heroism.

Think of any of the Vietnam Protests. That was heroism.

Think of Kent State. That was heroism.

Woodstock was just a party - those acts of heroism were REALITY.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

4. Yeah, it was just a party -

but there's never been a party like it since.

THAT's why it's special - that it happened. Itself, it signified nothing except what we did back then each and every day of our lives.

It was great, and I'm sorry successive generations will never have that experience..........

[Teaser]

9. my 8th birthday was better

at least, the music was better.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

10. That's good, hon -

and I trust it's been downhill for you since then?

That's not good...................

[Teaser]

12. Nah, cause then I discovered Pansy Division

.

[aquart]

22. Oh, you poor little thing. Did Yanni perform?

[Teaser]

86. No. Black Flag.

.

[RandomKoolzip]

152. Woooo!LA Punk '79 beats Woodstock Hippie mush '69 any day of the week for me.

[mitchum]

153. Absolutely! (n/t)

[Javaman]

178. My "woodstock" was The Clash at Shay Stadium. :) nt

[PVnRT]

179. Fuck yes

I wish I'd been able to see them live.

[DBoon]

193. Mine was "X" at the Club 88

or maybe Patti Smith on the Radio Ethiopia tour (Santa Monica Civic)

[CountAllVotes]

18. successive generations will never have that

this is true. The freedom that still existed in America when Woodstock happened is no longer part of reality today. Instead we have pistol packing folks showing up at such events and ruining it for just about everyone.

However, it was one hell of a party! :party:

:dem:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

26. That's right -

what parties are people talking about forty years on?

And you're absolutely right about the freedom. It's painful to think about how things are now, compared to how they were then.

It was so much better back then....................................

[CountAllVotes]

30. even with the Vietnam War, etc.

there was still a profound sense of freedom in this country. Today we seem to hear nothing but fear, fear, fear instead of peace and love.

Sad reality today really.

I never thought we'd be here 40 years ago. It seemed bad then but in hindsight it was a fine time to live in.

At least we didn't have a bunch of neocons, skinheads, and the like. Guns were not an acceptable part of the scene back then. If you had one, it was indeed concealed, not bragged about nor openly discussed.

Ah yes, those were the days alright and no, there will never be anything like it again as we have "evolved" beyond it or so they say. :think:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

38. Every time I see the White House

or the Capitol, I am saddened.

Barricades everywhere.

Remember running for a plane and making it just before they wheeled the stairs away?

Hitchhiking?

We had our guns - there were boys who had them, and, yes, when the townies got scary, we turned those boys loose, to their great delight - but they sure did stay hidden and were never talked about.

We were free. We could walk anywhere and be fairly sure we'd be, if not welcomed, at least tolerated. Unless, of course, you were a civil rights worker in the Deep South.

Forty years on, and the music from that time is still the best we've ever heard.................................

[CountAllVotes]

43. yes I remember it all only too well

and I remember cutting school to hitchhike to Berkeley as I lived not far from there. Boy my father/mother would have had a fit had they known we used to do that! But, yes we did! :D

That America we once knew and perhaps did not love enough is gone, gone like the dust in the wind.

As for the music, it has now become the elevator muzak of today (revised). Damn it was great! If it wasn't great, it wouldn't have lived on in its now modified forms.

It was a renaissance of creativity the likes of which will never be seen again I fear, being society seems to stifle creativity today in most forms sadly.

No more arts/crafts in the school much less various forms of musical talent in sheer abundance everywhere.

God, it was indeed great! :D

As for guns, who the hell needed a gun?

Not me. Not my best friend. Not my father.

Not anyone I knew.

[Indenturedebtor]

144. Yeah and how did we get to this sad state exactly?

I'm sure you've been a progressive Dem all along, but most of your compatriots that you're so proud of brought us to this sorry state... that's why the self-righteousness is so damn annoying.

[CountAllVotes]

157. if I had an answer to your question

I'd be the President of the United States. You cannot blame everything that has gone so very wrong on one group of individuals (read that word "individuals"). The Greatest Generation holds probably more responsibility for the way things are right now than any other group IMO. They had the power at the time and many of them are still holding political office in case you have not noticed.

As for politics, I have always been a registered Democrat. I've volunteered, written thousands of letters, made plenty of telephone calls, donated money, time, effort, etc.

Now tell me, what have you done other than bash individuals like myself that you don't know?

:dem:

[Indenturedebtor]

160. I haven't written thousands yet, but work along the same lines

And like I said it's not the DU'ers I think let our country down. But the fact is that the Boomers wield the most power and have for a loooooong time. And the Boomers as a whole are still running around telling everyone what a positive difference they made, when the evidence speaks overwhelmingly to the contrary.

You are not responsible for the actions of your peers, but your peers as a whole have absolutely no cause to be self-righteous about what was accomplished during their tenure.

Looting and pillaging is all that I see.

[Chemisse]

59. It was a special - almost magical - time

Not just Woodstock, the whole time period.

Kids flocked away from their comfie middle class homes to join the counterculture. "Hippies" aggregated in all the major cities, then spread into rural areas like Woodstock, NY.

It was not just about the Vietnam War, although that certainly provided the impetus. We reexamined every societal 'truth' or value or belief, and discarded many of them. That gave us free love, war protests, psychedelic drugs, runaways, believing in peace and love, draft dodging, and a scorn for money and possessions, so valued by our parents' generation.

I am convinced that I became a different kind of person and went a different direction in life because I was able to participate in this movement during my early teen years.

[petronius]

36. People are talking about it 40 years later because all you hippies keep jabbering on

about how much fun you had. Seriously, y'all are getting as tedious as The Greatest Generation^TM.

Sincerely,
Generation X

:P

[Tangerine LaBamba]

39. Ha.............

I feel bad for Generation X. They have no center, and their music is really, really bad.

So are their clothes..................

[Taverner]

51. Um I raise you a Radiohead and a Stone Temple Pilots...

[Tangerine LaBamba]

58. Yeah -

we'll see how they sound twenty years from now.

Ask someone on the street to name one of their top songs. Or the names of the band members.

Then ask them to name a Joe Cocker song. The Who. Janis.

Sorry.

Fail, big time.....................

[Odin2005]

110. Wow, there is that Boomer narcissism, again.

And Bashing the Gen-Xers, as usual. :eyes: At least us Millennials give Generation X the respect it deserves.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

111. Our music is still being played -

in forty years, see what's playing.

Maybe it'll be your music.

And you'll enjoy it, and still think our music was crap. And you'll probably think the youngsters' music blows chunks. It works like that.

So, let's just have fun...........................

[Leopolds Ghost]

167. I think everyone agrees most of the music since the LATE 90s blows chunks.

I date it to the rise of Britney Spears and boy bands.

There are a few shining exceptions but they have all been one-hit wonders.

Then again, nearly everyone agrees early 60s music blew chunks until around 63 or 64 when you got Motown and the British Invasion.

But don't tell me you never listened to Nirvana, Alice in Chains, etc, on the radio

[Leopolds Ghost]

173. Point being, early 90s music certainly blows away anything in the 70s.

[LeftyMom]

168. It's still being played because playing it helps to sell you people shit you don't need.

When most of you guys are retired and your demographic no longer accounts for a disproportionate share of consumer spending, "classic rock" stations will be rarer than hens' teeth.

[Indenturedebtor]

142. No kidding. They fuck up the country and talk shit about the adults who'll have to clean up after

the party. Typical.

[Odin2005]

151. +1

[Leopolds Ghost]

165. Good for you, man! There are kids on youtube who don't even know who Kurt Cobain is.

How can any hippie say Gen X never had a musical hero? heck, most of the hippies I know thought Kurt was cool.

[Liquorice]

94. That's a shame. I'm Gen X, and I think our music is great and our

clothes were pretty cool too. Also, as a teenager, I watched Woodstock on video many times, and I still listen to 60's music.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

96. As I said elsewhere,

there's room for everyone to love what they love. That's very good, that you have such an eclectic taste.

It's not a competition - we of a certain generation love what we did, and I'm sure you love what you did. I just take umbrage when someone stupidly feels the need to trash what we did and claims that what they did is superior. Just because I don't like some of it doesn't mean you don't love it.

It's not a zero-sum game.

There's no superior. There is, however, the test of time, but, while that goes on, I'll just enjoy all of it..........................

[Leopolds Ghost]

169. I think the problem is, many Gen Xers criticised the hippies which has caused bad blood.

But they were criticising their parents from the left, from a disappointed and disillusioned perspective, as "sell-outs". They were still upset and dissatisfied with the way things were going. Which I don't see much of anymore. Gen X were the ones who fought Reagan in the 80s, and the punk movement (which explicitly wanted to be a new counter-culture) and the anti-globalization movement (1999-2001) which basically included punks who WERE hippies. There was a palpable sense growing up that we were dissatisfied with the world our parents left us and that our friends were expected to be skeptical of the media... people complained how difficult it was to advertise to us, until they cracked the code by commercializing electronica/hard rock and creating "car music". However, some folks in the current generation, may not respect or remember what the hippies even wanted, and only regard them as a quaint cultural movement from "back when we were fighting the Communists" (because the personal freedoms of that era are a thing of the past -- even I, a Gen Xer, remember when you could walk into the US Capitol, um, 15 years ago, and I think most Gen Xers are old enough to remember having "nuclear holocaust nightmares" as a kid) and folks now want to roll back to a "new age of personal responsibility" as some have called it... formerly known as: the 50s

Consider this: you can go on Youtube and point out that Hippie icons the Beatles wrote a song about drugs and be roundly attacked by a million teenage Beatles fans who say "stop poisoning my love of the Beatles, their songs had nothing to do with drugs!" and you can go and point out that Gen X AND Hippie crossover icon Tom Petty wrote a song called "Last Dance With Mary Jane" and the same kids will write a million posts claiming the song had NOTHING whatsoever to do with pot and that anyone who thinks it did is a "drug addled hippie". Leaving aside whether drugs are bad, of course, these phenomena display a certain level of cultural blindness and lack of tolerance for difference...

[Odin2005]

108. Green Day? Nirvana? Bad?

You don't know what the heck you old farts are talking about! :eyes:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

109. Nirvana?

Green Day?

Oh, well, as long as you like them, that's all that matters.

Enjoy......................

[Odin2005]

113. They are every much as good as Joplin and Hendrix.

I've recently become interested in a heavy metal band called Disturbed that's really good, with many songs with profound lyrics.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

116. Good - -

It's good to know that what Hendrix and company started 'way back when is being carried on...........................

[Liquorice]

127. Anyone who doesn't know the genius of Nirvana and Green Day has no aesthetic judgment. nt

[Odin2005]

WORD!!!

:hi:

[Leopolds Ghost]

171. And anyhow, Green Day, like Tom Petty, did their best work ten years later

Green Day's best album came out in 2004 and could be considered current music!

And Tom Petty, I just mentioned "Mary Jane's Last Dance", how could any child of the 60s not like that song.

Since Petty (like Johnny Cash) was one of those crossover icons from the 60s and 70s that got embraced by Gen X...

But yeah, Nirvana hit it big right when I came of age... there was a palpable sense of a musical movement forming in the early 90s. Then again, my favorite band is Fugazi... but it was deliberately designed to sound like nothing else... everything since has been labeled something else for fear of sounding anything like the good bands of the early 90s for fear of being labeled copycats. Not much basis for a musical movement.

There's good music out today but it doesn't catch on as such... much of it is commercialized and engineered to appeal to rednecks / valley girls... like the bubblegum pop of the early 60s, only with a harder edge and pointlessly grinding guitar hooks.

[femrap]

42. You're just jealous....

we had sex, drugs and rock n' roll. And 'all you need is love.'

Now the kids just binge drink. Sad.

It's time to mellow out and help your neighbors...at least introduce yourself.

[CountAllVotes]

46. It's time to mellow out and help your neighbors

boy ain't that the truth!

What the hell has happened? :wtf:

[femrap]

191. I don't know....

Out of the 4 responses I got, yours was the only one who understood my message.

Everyone takes everything so personally. I didn't mean that people didn't already help out...just to live more locally and maybe less technologically.

Take care.

[Odin2005]

114. Who says we DON'T help our neighbors?

:wtf:

[femrap]

190. I didn't say

that you did not help them. It was more of a suggestion to Live Locally as much as possible as opposed to Globalism. Whatever.

[Indenturedebtor]

143. Don't assume that you know anything about growing up in the 80's and 90's

Because you didn't.

And while you may not be representative of your generation, the Boomer Government has been about ANYTHING but loving and helping one's neighbor. I don't think you need me to list why that's true.

[femrap]

189. Guess growing up under

Raygun sucked. I was working then...which sucked.

Glad you hate me... and that you know everything. Divide and Conquer....Yippee!

[LeftyMom]

170. Yep, you guys personally invented all those things. No other young people ever had sex or did drugs.

Nor have any since. :eyes:

This is why nobody likes hippies.

[HughBeaumont]

177. I think it's more because . . .

. . . they did all the drugs, had all the sex, experienced all the great bands, got all the great jobs, got the best gains off their investments, got all the good benefits, were able to retire . . . and left US with the BILL.

Oh, and they're smug about it.

The hippie/boomer scorn comes from the fact that most of them never wanted to continue the precedence and standards they had. They just wanted it all to themselves.

[femrap]

187. No, you didn't

have the sex nor drugs we had. Sorry. :eyes:

The Hippies were right...right about the environment, right about Peace, and right about living locally.

But I guess today's youth enjoys globalism, smog and big Wars.

And you call yourself 'Lefty.' Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez.

[LeftyMom]

194. Thank you for the further illustration of what everybody has been saying.

I appreciate the help with explaining why most dried up old hippies are absolutely insufferable.

[femrap]

195. Hey.....are you out there

at the Heritage Foundation getting paid to insult Progressive citizens on DU?

Or are you just a very unhappy mom?

'Dried up old hippies?' Gee, isn't that one of those schnefraude thingies....you know, if you are a mom, you're gonna be dried up someday...well, if you live long enough, that is.

Are you raising intolerant kids? Hey, maybe your kids will become the new 'hippies!!!' That would be a nice piece of Karma. They could live in a commune with solar panels, geothermal, and grow a vast garden. Maybe they'll be kind enough to make you an organic lasagna. And you can waddle around shrieking about insufferable children.

Mother Nature is gonna have the last word on this Planet...and you might just want to know where some self-sustaining 'hippies' live. They might even share some food with you.

Do you drive an SUV?

[LeftyMom]

196. Yep, I'm a Heritage Foundation plant. I drive an SUV. I have never eaten organic food.

Damn near 50,000 posts on DU, innumerable meetups, any number of close personal friends made here, and you finally figured out my secret, probably with your psychic hippie powers or something.

Or, you know, I may just be who those post all say I am, a radical, leftist, vegan, generally weird unschooling mom of one mohawk-rocking kid, four rescued cats and four dozen rescued convict chiclids (long story, that.) Whose house runs on solar, FYI. And who happens to think anybody who refuses to notice that some cool shit has happened in the culture since their heyday, and clings to their notion that they're super special just because of when they were born, is kind of pathetic.

[femrap]

201. Lefty...I lived those same years.

You did not experience the decades of the '60's and '70's. So I don't see how you can stand up and say something that you know nothing about. You weren't there.

And who said we believe we are special...it was simply our experience....the years of our youth.

From the way you talk, no one could possibly be half as cool as you.

I don't like being called pathetic nor insufferable. You have gone on and on about your important and special life of solar, hair-dos, and pets. You must be thinking of Sainthood next.

When I lived in CA during the Raygun and Slick years, I never met people who thought they were as damn important as you. Of course, we were on the Coast.

You know nothing about me...my children, my pets, my home, my life. And I'm going to keep it that way.

You are being ignored for your youthful and unnecessary arrogance....go brag about your Important life somewhere else. I think you're boring.

buh bye.

[Taverner]

50. Huh????

Tour with Phish for a while!

In our generation we had the Grateful Dead.

Both had a counterculture and the spirit of peace and love and happiness that all you old farts drone on about ;)

[Tangerine LaBamba]

60. The Dead -

yeah, well, imagine what great music those guys might have made if they'd ever worked at it and quit drugs.

Phish?

Oh, come on.

Our music changed the world, and your folks are still sliding on our coattails.................

[KittyWampus]

66. Wait, you're touting the music at Woodstock but slamming the Dead? AND you tried playing

the "but will they be playing the songs years from now" card upthread?

What a clown :+ You canceled yourself out.

The Dead was about a lot more than the music, too.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

68. Sure, they were -

try getting someone on the street to hum a Dead tune.

They rendered themselves irrelevant musically when they succumbed to being adored by their fawning Deadheads.

Never got beyond the garage.

And aren't you the enraged one? Well, I'd be calling names, too, if I had nothing else to fall back on.

Epic fail, indeed, but thanks for the laugh, hon.........................

[KittyWampus]

77. Wait, You don't think guy on street knows Truckin' but will know a Joe Cocker tune?

And apparently you have no idea who the band members actually were or what they stood for IN THEIR OWN WORDS.

It's a shame you don't know the history of the Dead.

Have any of the members of The Who ever encouraged their fans to swap music for free, for instance?

Did The Who do a concert for Obama last election?

And for most of the people who loved going to Dead concerts, it was about having safe fun with others around in a spirit of peace.

But apparently Woodstock was about how many people showed up?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

92. Actually, I'm a big fan of Bob Weir,

and when we lived in San Francisco, worked with him on some local charities. Nice guy, incredibly talented, and I love how he's branched out.

You're pushing water up a rope, but I salute your dedication. It's good, it's very good.

Woodstock was about all the music, not just one band, and it was about the crowd, and it was about peace and love and people getting along, taking care of each other, just being happy to hear the music, to make love, to be together, to get high and be happy, to be that community just for a while.

"It's a shame you don't know the history of the Dead," someone wrote that to me, and what was funny about that line was that that person was busy being all competitive and combative and seems to think that one thing can't just be good unless it's better than something else, even though they're completely different entities.

Relax. There's room in history for Woodstock and the Grateful Dead...................................

[Odin2005]

117. You are slamming the GRATEFUL DEAD!?!

What planet are you living on!?! WTF is wrong with you? :crazy:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

123. Tell you what............

I'll ignore your asshole comments, and you'll pull yourself together.

There.

Good luck with that "pulling yourself together" stuff...................

[Telly Savalas]

148. Changed the world?

You guys got Nixon elected twice.

Miles and Trane were much better musicians than anybody at Woodstock, so get over yourself.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

155. Sorry, but your ignorance is on full display -

it's called the Twenty-Sixth Amendment.

And, of course, you know all about CREEP and the second Nixon campaign, I'm sure.

You're seriously trying to compare those two men to the kids at Woodstock.

Honey, get a grip.

Nice try, though.

Epic, truly epic, FAIL................................

[SOS]

156. "You guys"? Nixon beat Humphrey by 0.7% in 1968

Thanks to George Wallace winning five Southern states.
It was the 1964 Civil Rights Act that got Nixon elected.

The people who attended Woodstock didn't vote for Nixon.

[KittyWampus]

65. No shit. I went to several generations of Dead concerts AND various punk rock venues

[KittyWampus]

63. actually, I attended MULTIPLE parties pretty much just like it- but with toilets. Grateful Dead

concerts achieved same rapport as a large group experience but without the mud and lack of sanitation.

And same could also be said about Punk Rock days.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

72. Really?

How come they're not remembered?

I mean, Dead concerts with half a million attendees?

How did I miss that?

Oh, sure, Punk Rock. Definitely the same as Woodstock.

Sure, right, uh-huh, yep, you got it.................................

[KittyWampus]

75. So Woodstock was all about how many people attended? Funny, I thought it was the Ethos.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

93. Honey,

don't ever let anyone tell you that size doesn't matter..............................

[ohheckyeah]

126. Right on.

:smoke:

[DCBob]

35. Then you miss the signficance....

It was a massive display of peace, love, tranquility and music like none other.

[Taverner]

49. I toured with the Dead and Phish for a while

Same thing, different time period.

Nothing new about peace, love and understanding :)

[Oldtimeralso]

164. Grant Park In 1968 was the place to be,

Woodstock was a party, yes with great music, but still a party.

[dana_b]

3. alright grandpa

now pass the joint. ;)

[billyoc]

5. You got to see Sha Na Na, you lucky bastard.

:evilgrin:

[Captain Hilts]

6. Their sequence in the film is fantastically presented and edited. nt

[MindPilot]

7. Sha-Na-Na stole my hubcap!!

I was visiting a Navy buddy who moved to a small town in in Washington state. Sha-na-na happened to be playing at the county fair that night so we went. As part of the act that night, they had someone remove a hub cap from a random car in the parking lot and then called the owner up on stage to retrieve it.

I was too poor to buy new hubcaps and too proud to drive without 'em but for a couple weeks I got to say, "see those finger prints? They are Bowser's! Yeah, THAT Bowser."

[hwmnbn]

8. Back in MY day, we had real MUSIC!!....

not the crazy noise you kids listen to nowadays.

[Teaser]

11. Back in my day we had FUGAZI.

.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

28. Oh, honey -

you can get over that. You will, honestly.

It'll be just like a bad dream................

[RandomKoolzip]

163. You're a condescending blowhard, you know that?

Seriously, if you're trying to present your generation in a good light, you're fucking up miserably. All you're doing is making younger people think you're an asshole. We don't need your condescension, we don't need you calling us "honey" and acting as if you invented the fucking wheel. Just face it: each generation makes good culture and bad culture. There's nothing special about 60s hippie culture - it's just that there were MORe boomers than there were gen xers or punks, so you guys are able to claim that you "changed the world" and look like you mean it, because, well, your numbers say so. But really, all this shit is subjective, and frankly, I'd take seeing Sleater-Kinney perform in some skater kid's living room in 1995, or seeing all 16 members of Midwest Dilemma cast a spell over an audience of 130 Omamha indie-rockers in 2009 (best live show I've ever seen) over Melanie, Sweetwater, joe Cokcer, or even Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young dole out their sanctimonious glop. Sorry, that's how these things work: we all think we've seen a flash, and we all think our flashes are superior to the preceding and succeeding generation's flashes...it's all in the ears, eyes, and guts of the beholder.

So quit being a fucking chump and join the twenty-first century already. If a thirty-year-old tells you she's seen the best rock show ever performed at some club in 1996, and you scoff because, well (sniff), MY generation had WOOOODSTOCK, nyah nyah nyah, all you're doing is the same shit YOUR parents did to YOU back in 1968. And that's not hip at all.

[Leopolds Ghost]

172. Revolution Summer 85 - Fort Reno 1999! "OUR BAND COULD BE YOUR LIFE"

They broke up after 2001 and the collapse of the anti-globalization movement. :-(

Of course, the real reason is they all had families, and kids, and nonprofit record labels to support...

[Leopolds Ghost]

174. Revolution Summer 85 - Fort Reno 1999! "OUR BAND COULD BE YOUR LIFE"

They broke up after 2001 and the collapse of the anti-globalization movement. :-(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJFWirQ3ks

can't ask for more so why unfulfilled
we take apart every thing we build
had it right here, now it's gone
on and on
BREAK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPEqasj1uMI

comes as no surprise - we're destabilized!
no cia
no nsa
no satellite
could map our veins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySxkK0z4tpc

Of course, the real reason is they all had families, and kids, and nonprofit record labels to support...

Yeh right...

They'll Tell You Anything! It's Speculation!

http://www.recidivism.org/music/fugazibtb.mp3

MOVES SO SLOWLY.
GROWS SO SMOOTHLY.
TAKES SO NEATLY.
TAKES COMPLETELY.

IT'S AS IF! THEY BELONG! AND THEY'VE BEEN HERE ALL ALONG!

Check the math here Check in ten years
CLUSTERFUCK! THEORY! Buy them up and shut em down! Then repeat in every town!

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Fugazi_Five_Corporations_mp3/1850816

Your eyes like crashing jets
Fixed in stained glass
But not religious
You should pay rent
in my mind
Say like the french say
bon soir regret
a demain...

[Odin2005]

119. Hey Gramps, I'm on your lawn!

[polichick]

13. LOL

[Curtland1015]

14. I dunno... what about the Jonas Brothers?

Now THERE'S a band with a message!

[femrap]

44. Thanks for the laugh...

that was a good one. They're not thaaaaaaaaat bad, I guess. What is their message, anyway?

[Telly Savalas]

149. I don't know but they certainly pay homage to the great innovaters of the 60s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f1xL5wQ1gQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfuBREMXxts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVNy1Miw18Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsaTElBljOE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0HxpFhRhv8

The 60s paved the way for the Jonas Brothers.

[Umbral]

15. Clean Acid and easily curable venereal disease, it was too easy back in the olden days.

Excuse me for walking on your grass, I was trying to avoid the minefield that is modern life.

[tridim]

16. I think Woodstock was a conspiracy.. Filmed in a studio.

No way they could have pulled that off for real.

[abq e streeter]

17. DAMN ! I knew someone would finally catch on

[Curtland1015]

21. Yes, but to be fair, the government had no choice. They had to beat Russia...

Russia, of course, was the first country to sent a dog out on stage dressed up like one of "The Family Stone". But we beat them in the race to have the full blown smelly, acid fueled hippyfest!

[Leopolds Ghost]

175. The Germans tried to crack the code, with little success. Finally, a team of scientists...

Assembled groups of hippies in small, non-lethal quantities, and used these to reconstruct the Woodstock festival.

[femrap]

47. Just like

the landing on the moon, right? :rofl:

[Canuckistanian]

19. I was at Woodstock in 1970

It sucked. There was hardly anyone there and I was so far away from the bands, I couldn't hear anything.

But the drugs were still good.

[aquart]

24. A year really makes a difference, doesn't it?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

132. MUCH better parking,

but I heard the music wasn't really anything .....................

[rug]

20. I remember my father mocking Woodstock.

[AllentownJake]

23. and saving the world from Hitler was cooler than anything

any of us will do

:patriot:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

27. Read the OP again -

your generation saved the world from Hitler?

Really?

[AllentownJake]

76. No my grandparents did

they were super cool.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

89. Dear, the point of the OP was about

successive generations after Woodstock.

I'm glad your grandparents were super cool..................

[AllentownJake]

161. I know

I was making a point

[Tangerine LaBamba]

162. You failed -

you were just saying something that had nothing to do with anything..............

[AllentownJake]

202. Every generation thinks they'll do something more awesome than their parents

and every generation thinks that they were better than their kids.

[Taitertots]

25. Not interested

Bands I don't like, playing music I don't care to hear, with a social movement I don't support, surrounded by drug addicts, with no amenities.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

37. with a social movement I don't support....?

sense, you don't make it.

[femrap]

48. That figures.....after all you

play golf. Of course you'd hate anything fun!

[Taitertots]

81. I play golf?

I'm not sure why you think that.

Where is the fun? Bands I don't want to hear. Drugs I don't want to take. No where clean to poop. Severe lack of food, water, medical care.

[Telly Savalas]

150. But have the shared experience you can use to tell yourself your better than everybody else.

[femrap]

188. On your hobbies,

you list golf, hunting, fishing....

eta: you like the hermit life, huh? The safe life?

[mitchum]

29. Yeah, nothing says accomplishment like consumption

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

32. I heard that Michael Lang, one of the organizers of the festival,

wanted to have a concert to commemorate the 40th anniversary, but had to cancel because he couldn't get enough corporate sponsorship.

Sort of ironic, considering the spirit of the original festival ("It's a free concert from now on..."). I don't know. Just doesn't seem right.

[dana_b]

53. interestig

I wonder if they were going to try and get some of the same performers. If so, I can understand why he would need it. Groups like The Who and Crosby, Stills and Nash don't play for less than $150/seat.

[onenote]

182. really? then why was the face value on my CSN ticket from last Friday only $45

Playing at Wolf Trap, outside DC. $45 for a pavillion seat, $25 for lawn. And when I saw the Who in November 2008, I could've paid over $150. But I also could have paid as litle as $55 -- and prices were lower in venues in smaller cities.

I'm not defending (or criticizing) the need for corporate sponsorship for concerts. Its a fact of life today.

But one thing about Woodstock that made it unique -- and something that later generations seem unable to emulate -- is that it brought together one audience for a wide diversity of music. There was folk, oldies, soul, blues, british rock, san francisico rock, performers ranging from mega stars like the Who,Dead,Janis, Jimi Mountain to Melanie, Tim Hardin, Ravi Shankar, Blood Sweat and Tears and the Incredible String Band to name just a few.

Here's the full list:

http://www.woodstock69.com/Woodstock_songs.htm

[John Q. Citizen]

31. We used to say I don't care if i never grow old;

Gonna flame gonna burn
gonna take one quick turn
and go out like James Dean.

Well we don't say that anymore
because it's to late to die young.
So we sit around the table
long after supper and the good wine

Singing hey hey, hey hey,
who woulda thunk it?

-Greg Brown

[1776Forever]

33. OK get this - My hubby was in Vietnam & heard from a guy that used to be a NYC disk jokey -

about a "party" in Upstate NY that turned out to end up in Woodstock so he and another guy were going back to the States and they decided that they would go there. He bought a portable Panasonic tape recorder and took it with them and he recorded some of the bands that were there. He says he still has them in a little wooden box that says Woodstock on it. He said that everything was free there and people were taking baths in the ponds and everyone having a huge love-in for about 4 days. His favorite band was Country Joe and the Fish!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaPglpEOBUk

After that he went back to Vietnam and then stayed in for 20 more years and retired as a 1st Sergent. He also went to China with Nixon too. He can tell some great stories for sure!

Hail Hail Rock & Roll!

[Tangerine LaBamba]

40. Those tapes have to be very interesting -

see if he'll do something about preserving them. Those things have a way of falling apart after a time.

Sounds like he's had a hell of a life. The stories have to be amazing.

Hail, Hail, indeed.............................

[jhain]

34. Made my night, edhopper!

Thanks!!

[femrap]

41. Didn't the younguns

try another Woodstock and it ended up w/ violence and fires....refrigerator truck's gas tanks exploding?

That time can not be replicated....well, maybe it'll get better after 2012.

[dana_b]

56. my kid and I watched the VH1 show and

we both were amazed that people just stood there and nodded their heads and gave each other space. We're used to concerts where there isn't breathing room, pushing, shoving, moshing, etc.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

61. Isn't that something?

Those good days are gone forever. Back then, we rushed in to help someone, and some of us never stopped living our lives that way, for which we're all real thankful.

We cared, and we had time, and we listened.

And we had great sex. Without fear of dying............................. :)

[dana_b]

62. yeah, it would be nice

I finally got tired of getting hit, kicked, coming home black and blue - all to listen to music. Now we hang out towards the back and listen.

Thank God some people are still cool and they taught their kids right. Must be the Woodstock crowd! lol

[Tangerine LaBamba]

70. Somewhere,

in one of these subthreads, I get all jumped over by an indignant fan of the Grateful Dead who thinks that the Dead were all that and a bag of chips - perhaps comparable to Woodstock.

Nice peace and love reaction because I think their music sucks, huh? Those are the people you had to deal with at those venues.

Stay in the back, and get out as quickly as possible. Too many rude, intolerant folks who never got it.............................

[dana_b]

78. the Dead

not my cup of tea, which is fine, but I don't think there's ever been a concert of such cultural significance as Woodstock. Not even Live Aid, although I enjoyed a lot of the bands. I don't know why that's so hard to understand.

Oh, we know enough now to take care and watch out for others. That's the part that bothers me the most. People not caring about others.

take care and good luck debating the GD fan!

[Spirochete]

198. So, was the Grateful Dead

the only band at Woodstock you didn't like? To be honest, I haven't yet heard anything that they did at Woodstock, so I'm just curious.

[ohheckyeah]

128. I have some very, very fond memories

of getting stoned and listening to:



Brain Damage
(Waters) 3:50

The lunatic is on the grass.
The lunatic is on the grass.
Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs.
Got to keep the loonies on the path.

The lunatic is in the hall.
The lunatics are in my hall.
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paper boy brings more.

And if the dam breaks open many years too soon
And if there is no room upon the hill
And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.

The lunatic is in my head.
The lunatic is in my head
You raise the blade, you make the change
You re-arrange me 'til I'm sane.
You lock the door
And throw away the key
There's someone in my head but it's not me.

And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
You shout and no one seems to hear.
And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.

"I can't think of anything to say except...
I think it's marvelous! HaHaHa!"

[Tangerine LaBamba]

129. You know what?

I think it's time to munch some of those very wonderful brownies that are in the freezer, crank up the volume, and get lost in Dark Side Of The Moon.

It's been far too long.

Thank you for the reminder......................................

[ohheckyeah]

130. I'm with you in spirit my friend.

Nothing better to get stoned to than Pink Floyd. Others equally as good but none better.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

131. I'm trying to think of who is as good -

but all I can remember is a few weeks ago, when a pal and I, in the restaurant's parking lot, smoked some, and then went in to a Chinese place for lunch.

The music playing was something vaguely Spanish/Japanese/Chinese - we were in a Chinese restaurant without one Asian anywhere; the whole staff was Hispanic, including the chef - and we got all caught up in it. The loop was strange because some guy's voice kept appearing, and then he'd disappear, and we were convinced that the other singers, the girls, had killed him.

We made utter hysterical hyena-howling asses of ourselves.

No one noticed.

Now, what were we talking about?

We used to listen to The Doors in the dark. For some reason, that stuff really set us off, but then there was Blues Project, which also sent us sailing.

And that was in the days of LPs, when you had to get up and turn the record over. Imagine today, with one track set on Repeat, endlessly.............OK, tomorrow it's DEFINITELY brownies and DSOTM.

Wish you were here................. :hi:

[billh58]

133. Moody Blues! n/t

[Tangerine LaBamba]

134. Oh, YES, YES, YES!!!!

Where was my head?

Don't answer that.

Of course!

Is it too late to you to DU?

Thanks very much......................

[billh58]

136. Thanks

for the welcome. This has turned out to be a very nostalgic evening for me, and getting old doesn't seem so unwelcome anymore...;-)

[Tangerine LaBamba]

138. I was thinking that the other day -

how much fun it is to remember those days, and how very nice it is to encounter folks with the same memories, even though they're all different.

Maybe that's the most astonishing part of those times - we all had different experiences, but we all had the same experiences.

No, given what we lived through, we're very lucky, and, looking back in the company of good people reminds me that we were maybe the last really, really lucky generation, in spite of Vietnam and all the other things that weren't so hot.

We were free in a way that no longer exists. I hold on to that freedom every day.

Don't you?

[billh58]

140. Yep.

Although I've been accused of being "out of step" by a few in the corporate world (where I reluctantly gravitated in my latter middle age). To those few detractors, I always smiled my brightest, called them "fascist pigs," and took the money.

Now that I'm retired, I seem to be getting more free with each passing moment...;-)

[Tangerine LaBamba]

141. That's the secret!

You've nailed it.

We all know how "growing up" ends, right?

Well, there are those of us - and clearly, you're one - who have perfected "growing down" as a lifestyle.

How cool that you passed in the corporate world. I did the same thing in the legal profession.

And we both made it out alive - see how that works?

The music's still great, the smoke is thick and rich, the lights flashing and strobing and doing it just right, and we're still here, smiling..

:hi:

[ohheckyeah]

135. I wish I were too

it's dry as hell around here right now. Nothing to be had.

The Doors did it for me as well. We used to listen to War - Slippin into Darkness, 1972. And who can forget -

All my friends know the low rider
The low rider is a little higher
Low rider drives a little slower
Low rider is a real goer
Low rider knows every street yeah!
Low rider is the one to meet yeah!
Low rider don't use no gas now
Low rider don't drive to fast
Take a little trip
Take a little trip
Take a little trip and see
Take a little trip
Take a little trip
Take a little trip with me

I remember the days when hash was more readily available than pot. Now THOSE were the days.

And making a hysterical hyena-howling ass of ones self is great therapy and the proper way to top off a good buzz.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

137. I remember being alone in a beachfront hotel

on the coast of southern Maine. It was dark, I was with a man I'd met a week before, and we were both working for a summer project for college professors in experimental education. It was a great old hotel, and we were quite caught up in each other, me and this man.

Summer of 1968.

We smoked, and the music was on the turntable - The Doors, the album with "Touch Me" on it.

The man had a Ph.D. in American Language and Literature, and he got all fixated on the line "... 'til the stars fall from the sky for you and I."

"It should be 'for you and me,'" he kept saying, agitated that someone wasn't observing basic laws of grammar.

We smoked more and did, you know, other stuff. In the dark. Just candles.

Then he said that he thought the line was perfect just the way it was written.

I married him, but drew the line at letting him have "Touch Me" played at our wedding..................................

[ohheckyeah]

139. What a great story.

LOL - 'Til the stars fall from the sky for you and me' just doesn't quite get it. I love that song and Riders on the Storm.

My husband and I lived together before we got married which was quite a scandal back in those days in a little southern town. We lived out in the country and had parties people still talk about.

I'd say we had a great time and we did but we still do. I can almost get a contact high from some of the music.

[PVnRT]

180. That would be the third Woodstock, organized by the original organizers

Oops.

[femrap]

186. So there was one in '94 and

another in '99?

[GliderGuider]

45. I missed Woodstock, but

I did get to riot in Paris in May of '68, and saw Prague just two weeks before the Russians moved in. The music wasn't as good though.

I think later on I must have got some of the leftover brown acid, cause things just haven't been the same since... :hippie:

[ContinentalOp]

83. May '68? Psh, did Sha-Na-Na play?

Seriously though, that's some real history. Not some boring stadium rock festival.

[liberal N proud]

52. I was 10

[Greybnk48]

54. Damn straight edhopper. I was 20. What a summer that was.

Lived in Ocean City, N.J. My first husband was in the Coast Guard there, Egg Harbor Station, and I worked at Simm's on the boardwalk. I heard about Woodstock on the radio, and my girlfriend and I were going to head up there. But then they began to warn people off because of traffic jams, etc. No one knew what a "happening" it would turn out to be.

[Brigid]

55. Whippersnappers is one word.

:P

[Brigid]

57. Whippersnappers is one word.

:P

[DefenseLawyer]

I'm not sure how many people there are in this country

between the ages of 58 and 68, but I do know they were ALL at Woodstock.

[dana_b]

69. it seems that way, doesn't it??

and half of them are on DU! lol

[KittyWampus]

79. and the same number voted for Kennedy over Nixon.

[dana_b]

85. slim margin n/t

[Tangerine LaBamba]

98. Actually,

the 26th Amendment can be your friend on that one.....................

[Tangerine LaBamba]

97. We weren't -

We were busy on the West Coast, being newly-married, on our honeymoon.

Woodstock paled compared to what we were experiencing..........................

[The Wizard]

64. It was supposed to be held in Woodstock

but was moved to Bethel. I still have my ticket numbered 00953 in a frame with my Honorable Discharge from the Army.
I remember sitting in the mud and watching Army issue Huey helicopters taking out the sick.
It reminded me of where I was a year earlier without the shooting. Got to see Country Joe and John Sebastian among others. I was really high too.
"To dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free"

[Deja Q]

67. Yawn. I time-traveled to 1969, they confiscated my iphone (buggers!), and

realized I didn't go back far enough and was at Altamont... I'd better duck for cover, all that gibber about peace didn't get too far as there was a bit of an incident... silly Hells Angels punks...

[mdmc]

71. We voted Obama!

:)

rec!

[asdjrocky]

73. Were you ever at the Mab in the mid 70's?

[Froward69]

74. yeah the free love was all well and good

so why wont you let me date your daughters, nieces or your wife?

it was great for you, but not something for us younger folk?

[crazy_vanilla]

80. you make me feel so young !!! nt

[-..__...]

84. HEY MAN...

IS THAT FREEDOM ROCK"?!?!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eGWW8KOQio

FWIW...

I'm 53 and was really never into the "Woodstock generation", lifestyle, music or counter culture revolution.

At the time... I was an Irish working class thug, with longer hair than most hippies, wore a zippered leather motorcycle jacket, smoked dime bags of Mexican rag weed, dropped acid, pills, powder and any chemical in between; nightly consumption of quart bottles of Schlitz was routine.

And to top it all off... I grew up and attended school in one of the most liberal communities in Massachusetts.

I'm a child of the 60's, but was never really part of it.

[Johonny]

87. thanks for more angry hate from your generation

I guess you missed the whole spirit of Woodstock thing. My generations been pretty darn cool, so sorry you missed it.

[scheming daemons]

88. The youth of today elected Barack Obama... The Woodstock generation couldn't even beat fucking Nixon

[Condem]

90. Be serious, scheming.

Stop with the stupid shit.

[billh58]

91. Actually, we're

the generation that elected JFK, and mourned his assassination. Nixon was elected in 1969 when some of us were in Viet Nam, or running off to Canada, or getting shot and beaten on college campuses with no help from the "me, me, me" Young Republican generation of the 70s.

In between rock festivals we did, however, manage to help MLK get the Civil Rights movement started, among other things.

[mitchum]

99. If you elected JFK, that meant you had to have been at least 21 in 1960...

and
obviously
not born AFTER 1939
let's add another 9 years....
Wow!
Who knew that so many members of "Woodstock Nation"
had to have been at least 30 years old during the glorious event
Who knew??!!

[billh58]

101. And your point?

I probably have drunk whiskey older than you, bubba...;-)

[mitchum]

103. I was just doing the math...

apparently,
I am also an old man,
if that is how I'm spending
a Saturday night.
Doing math.
:)

[billh58]

104. Sorry about the flame

AND the whiskey remark. Actually, I had already done two tours in Viet Nam when Woodstock went down, and I wasn't there.

I WAS on Maui when Jimi Hendrix held a concert in a cow pasture though...;-)

[mitchum]

105. No need to apologize...

no offense was taken
I was pretty snarky myself

[Homer Wells]

176. For every Bluto Blutarski

There was a Doug Niedermeyer, unfortunately.

:shrug:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

95. Your ignorance is showing, dear heart -

check your Constitution - specifically the 26th Amendment.

July 1971 - that's when it was ratified. That gave the vote to people between the ages of 18 and 20.

See, we of the Woodstock Generation were old enough to get drafted and go to Vietnam to get killed, but we weren't allowed to vote.

Clearly, you didn't know that. Your lack of knowledge is embarrassing. Shame on our education system, shame on you for not knowing such a basic bit of America's history.

You're quite uninformed, aren't you? And you do know the history of Richard Nixon's re-election, don't you?

Thanks for the laugh...........

[Indenturedebtor]

145. Shame on you for letting our school system go to shit

So you could invest more money into an evil globocorp.

How you like them apples? :P

[Tangerine LaBamba]

154. That's good -

it's good that you keep trying, but that rope you're holding onto is all worn thin and starting to pull apart.

You failed. But you tried...................

[Indenturedebtor]

159. Hyperbole :D n/t

[donheld]

100. I was only 9 years old so my mom wouldn't let me go

But damn, I wish is was there.

[Jennicut]

102. Oh the fighting generations....we all did good things and bad things. I was born in '75.

I love my Grandma and love her stories of the Depression. Tough times but boy, did she have interesting stories to tell me. Her friends told me of fighting WWII and how incredibly hard it was on them.
My parents, who did grow up to be conservatives :( still experienced some things I find interesting. My Mom went to an all women's college in the late 60's and all the women had to wear long skirts there, no pants! In college. When I went to college in the late '90's we crawled out of bed in jeans and t-shirts. She had a house mother too. We came and went as we pleased and were given keys to the dorm.
My own kids are now 4 and 5 and I marvel that they never knew cassette tapes and barely know VCR tapes. They think everyone always had computers and the internet (I had a Commodore 64, barely a computer). I watch the neighbor's older kids with cell phones and tell them we didn't have cell phones until I was in college and they were bigger and uglier.
All generations can get along and learn from each other. No need for all the hatred. Different circumstances make people unique, not better or worse.
Heck, my first President that I remember was Ronnie Reagan and I am a liberal and my hatred of the Rethug party started in the early 90's.

[billh58]

106. Ahh

a voice of reaason. Thanks for the reality check, and yes ALL generations have something to contribute to this great nation of ours. Families argue and fight too, but they always stand up for each other. Americans are like that in many ways.

[Jennicut]

115. True. No one generation was perfect or completely awful.

Anyone that thinks that never read a history book. I love history and find it fascinating. The key is nothing was ever black and white and cut and dried, its mostly gray.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

112. Where did your mother go to college?

By the late sixties, dress codes were pretty much gone everywhere, so I'm really curious...................

[Jennicut]

118. Chamberlain Junior College in Boston

But I did get the dates wrong. I went back to her yearbooks and checked the dates. She graduated highschool in 1965 so she went to college in the mid 60's. By the late 60's she was almost married to my Dad. :) I guess the mid 60's still had dress codes.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

122. Whew -

I was thinking maybe my recollection was wrong, but I was at school in New England, and all the girls' colleges were already loosened up - no more curfews, no more dress codes.

Pretty amazing the difference a few years made. Things happened so fast back then. Overwhelming changes.

Thanks for checking.................. :hi:

[Odin2005]

107. The Boomers' "we are better than everyone else and the crown of creation" crap is BS.

The Narcissism is disgusting.

[mitchum]

121. Count yourself lucky, though...

you will at least have a few decades of existence left
after they have all died
and their
Hallelujah Chorus To Themselves
is finally silenced

I hope that cheered you up

[Odin2005]

124. LOL! Thanks!

"Hallelujah Chorus" :rofl:

[Indenturedebtor]

146. A couple of decades to scramble around and try to save a few animals and people

One hell of a hangover they left us with.

The Hallelujah shit makes my eye twitch! Who made this fucking mess?!?!?! Who!?!?!

[L0oniX]

185. It's bad enough to have repuke trolls infesting DU. Now we have the anti boomer trolls here.

[fishwax]

120. oh, I doubt that

but I'm sure it must have been an experience (no adjective necessary or likely sufficient), and I still enjoy the movie ...

[FatDave]

125. I'm an Xer who loves 60's and 70's music.

That being said, I'd rather have been at the 1970 Isle of Wight than Woodstock. Better Who performance, ELP, Jethro Tull, Miles Davis and no Sha Na Na.

[glowing]

147. Really? What defines fun?

[bbernardini]

158. "There can only be one truly great festival a lifetime and it's the US Festival!" - Homer Simpson

Did Woodstock have Oingo Boingo? No? Well, there you go.

:sarcasm:

I'm neither here nor there when it comes to ranking festivals, by the way. I just saw an opportunity to post that quote. :)

[ohheckyeah]

166. People will argue about anything

won't they?

It was a different time and young people were scared and angry. We never knew from day to day which one of our loved ones the draft would take. Loved ones were coming home in caskets by the thousands and 1969 was the height of U.S. troop strength - 11,616 troops were killed in 1969. And thousands more maimed and their lives destroyed - they were our brothers, boyfriends, and sometimes fathers. So, yes, Woodstock was special as it was an oasis in the midst of death and fear and if you didn't live through that time you can't understand. So, maybe the music wasn't better or the event better but it was different because of what was happening in our lives.

I was one of the lucky ones as my brother came home alive but it was a terrifying time. Quite frankly what anybody thinks of our generation and Woodstock is really unimportant because we lived through a time unlike any since then, we know it,and yes, we look back with some nostalgia at something that was desperately needed by a fearful, angry, and hurting generation. And if our nostalgia pisses some people off, well fuck em and the horse they rode in on.

[Javaman]

181. IMO...

The time for a "Woodstock" type happening during the present era came and past with morons* reign of terror.

The one crucial element absent from the stew of insanity was the draft.

If there was a draft during morons* reign of terror, there would have been a modern version of Woodstock like event.

No draft; No outrage. No outrage; No movement.

Don't get me wrong there was still plenty of really pissed off people, myself included, but as long as "someone" else's kid was getting blown to bits, the personal toll on the general public was small.

During the woodstock era, I had a cousin and two close neighbors serving over in Viet Nam. The effect on our family was personal as it was for others in our neighborhood who also had family members serving.

The population of the US in 1969 was roughly 200 million people. The troop levels in Viet Nam was almost 500,000 soldiers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_United_States_Census

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/U.S._Troop_levels_in_Vietnam_War

Today, our population is 305 million and the troops in Iraq and afghanistan are roughly: 100,000 Iraq and 32,000 in Afghanistan. 132,000 soldiers.

There is no draft today, there was a draft then.

.25 percent of the pop served in Viet Nam with the over hanging threat of being drafted.

Today, .04 percent of the population is serving in the middle east with no threat of a draft.

Now, don't get me wrong, I want us out of both countries and have stated many times in the past via my posts, however, given the stats above, people wonder why there is no massive protests on the scale that was seen during the Viet Nam era?

Simple, this war is a war fought through media and propaganda. Hear me out, the same was tried during Viet Nam, but there wasn't 24 hour news filled with corporate shills that "crafted" the news to fit the story. There weren't corporate controlled newspapers that were more concerned with getting ad revenue then putting out a story. Back then, the reported stories are what made people read and buy the papers.

Today, people can tune in or jump on the net to get very bias news to fit their mentality. Back then, all the news was reported whether the white house or the general public liked it or not.

To me, Woodstock, although a concert was a protest. A protest against the prevailing winds of nationalism. Yes, there were drugs, sex and whatever else, but given the fact that these same attendees could also be looking down the business end of a rifle because of the draft, the sense of release, living for the moment, an "carefree" attitude was evident and needed.

Many similarities can be made between today's wars and Viet Nam, but in the end, the stats prove the fact that: less people are directly effected and there is no draft.

There were demonstrations a few years ago, during morons* rule, but were are those protests now? We still have troops in both nations, people are still being blown to bits and the level of soldiers are increasing in Afghanistan. So, were are the protests? Is the difference now is that there was a high functioning moron* as president then, and now we have a president that is intelligent and someone we wanted and wasn't appointed?

That's for a longer post.

To me, Woodstock was necessary. If Woodstock didn't happen, it just would have happened someplace else.

[onenote]

183. what made Woodstock cooler than anything since is the diversity of the music

Musical audiences have become so fragmented in the last 40 years that a line up for a single event like the one for Woodstock is inconceivable. Audiences today can barely tolerate opening acts that aren't well known to them. Yet at Woodstock, an incredible array of performers of a wide variety of musical styles came together and the audience not only tolerated them, they embraced them. For those who only know of the even from the movie or the CD, here is a complete list of the artists that played Woodstock -- I can't imagine anything that has come close to that since or will ever come close again.

http://www.woodstock69.com/Woodstock_songs.htm

[yellowcanine]

184. I graduated from HS in 1969. I was working on a golf course to make money for college.

I was only vaguely aware that there was a music festival going on in NY state. Didn't change my life at all. The Vietnam Moratorium that fall and the shootings at Kent State the following spring had much more of an impact.

[robdogbucky]

192. Great thread

Tangerine, I luv ya, but lighten up. The Dead were great, probably one of the 3 or 4 best bands ever. They had longevity (well over 30 years' worth of packing indoor and outdoor venues in a fashion never seen before) and they had accessibility and love and creativity together with a family they formed of their fans like no other band ever had or has. What other band ever invited fans to come to a show and tape their live performance, for free? They were and are very successful and very popular. The Grateful Dead songbook is very large and very interesting and has stood the test of time. robdogbucky says check it out. Using drug attrition is a cheap shot, as they sure created plenty opf great music while Jerry was on this planet. Eat, drink and see Jerry, that is what I always say. Tangerine is real, she was here in the Bay Area in that era, as she cited, but she never caught the Deadhead vibe. Oh, well. "One man's whiskey is another man's tea," so to quote.

Now, wood-shed of a friend complete, I also have some observations to share. First, what was so significant about that era was the change that was wrought, largely peaceful, was on a scale never seen before. Our entire society was rocked by change on many levels. There were critical factors that made this all possible and probably will not ever be present all at once in one place ever again.

Hats off to the civil rights movement, which combined with television providing instant global village communication in such a visceral immediate way, led this peaceful revolution. Thank history for the likes of Martin Luther King and Father Groppi and other stalwarts of the civil rights movement. A revolution it was and it continues.

It was not just about all the symbolic stuff that everyone knows, the drugs, the free sex, the anti-war movement, embodied in the Woodstock concert, it was about an entire society waking up to the hypocrisy and lunacy of the materialistic hell-bent-for-leather consumer madness of the nuclear family model. Eternally expanding economies based on exploitation of resources could not be sustained. This was one of the biggest revelations.

After the civil rights activists gave everyone a kick in the butt, the beatniks and college students woke up to what was already starting to happen all around them. The military industrial complex, managed and promoted non-stop by the Madison Avenue and Wall St. forces had molded a civilization that had sprung from the ashes of WWII. We were largely unscathed by that conflict and set us up to become the superpower we remain today. Add in the catalyst of LSD and the prairie fire of social unrest on many levels, presto, the magic of the 60's.

Remember the really significant thing here is this was the very first time any society had erupted into change all at once, across the board, ushering sweeping changes that were hard for anyone to grasp at once. It spawned the environmental movement and the back to nature ethic. We had the sexual revolution, for, which for the first time in the modern era, allowed people to question their roles and their own sexuality. Research and experimentation were the order of the day. The women's movement sprung up with vigor, reigniting the liberation of women that was fostered initially by the suffragettes. The anti-war movement garnered a lot of the media attention, as for the first time, a modern government and its military apparatus was openly being challenged by its citizens. And by and large it was done in a peaceful manner. Remember, if you're not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. There was so much going on all at once, and this is the kicker, it was the first time for most of this on such a grand scale. I doubt anything like that will ever happen again. And we caused it, we took the risks, we made change happen. And we had fun and paid the price doing it.

I rest my case, boomers relax, we were there, we know what we experienced, we know how much change we forced. We have never looked back and the materialistic revisionism of the 80s is merely a temporary backlash against so much change having taken place in such a short period of time. Sure, the MIC and the forces of Madison Ave. and Wall St. re-asserted themselves, as they are very powerful forces that most feel we need to keep us strong, safe and prosperous. They are very effective at what they do. What the 60's generation did was to show that it does not have to be that way. Change can happen. We just need to re-dedicate ourselves to fighting that good fight.

Sex and drugs and rock 'n roll, meh, just the window dressing. Just the flashy stuff that the forces of Madison Ave. and Wall St. traditionally can't ignore and love to exploit. The real deal was all the social change.

Peace Out.


robdogbucky

[sonofspy777]

197. It was cooler!

And although I no longer own a lawn I still want you off of it...

[kentauros]

199. It's too bad people's aversion to religious proselytizing

didn't also apply to generational proselytizing.

I don't care! Stop shoving it down my throat!
Build a monument to yourselves. Just don't ask me to bow down to it with the rest of ya ;)

[Evoman]

200. Speaking of which....new woodstock footage never seen before...

http://www.collegeslackers.com/video/woodstock_footage

[ShortnFiery]

203. It draws the same IMO, distasteful "click" mentality that the death of Michael Jackson

or Anna Nicole Smith shares.

Some folks choose to obsess over abstractions and celebrity than to live in the "here and now."

I was around back then albeit only 11 years old. We should have forced the GOP to smoke some weed with us. Maybe then they wouldn't have hopped themselves up on the politics of "greed and hate of the other."

Woodstock? It was intense as people were stuck in a bad situation with few facilities and food. Ask any veteran who went through Boot Camp or Basic School for comparison. It's not much different when people find themselves in a mini-crisis and choose to bind together for the greater good of the whole group.

It was a rainy weekend where large groups of strangers were thrown together. They choose to cooperate and work as a team. Big Fucking Deal? No, it was intense and spiritual to many but not anything close to "a miracle."

It was a nice concert over four days ... many babies were conceived and some bad acid was passed around.

Nothing more - nothing less.

[brendan120678]

204. I don't know...I've had some pretty cool experiences...

that I will never give up for anything.

Like when I was in high school, the summer between Junior and Senior years, I went with some friends to Belize for three weeks. Had a great time, hooked up with this amazingly hot Belizean girl for almost the entire time (who, by the way, was hotter than all of the stuck-up girls back in NY who barely ever bothered to give me the time of day), saw some amazing sights, swam in crystal clear ocean waters, and I did it without any drugs, and very little alcohol.

If I had to choose between doing that again, or doing Woodstock, I'd take Belize.