The entertainment industry seems to have been experiencing some strong 1960s nostalgia lately, what with Hair rocking Broadway since March and the Beatles finally going digital (though we still wait for the long overdue iTunes release). However, the biggest throwback to this psychedelic era is currently the media-wide commemoration of Woodstock, the legendary three-day festival of peace and music that celebrated its fortieth anniversary this August.
Woodstock was the peak of the hippie counterculture that now defines the late 60’s. The festival hoped to spread a message of peace and love through the music it offered, with such acts such as the Who, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and the Grateful Dead scheduled to play. It was thought to be just another event, but overnight it became legendary, drawing a crowd of 500,000 to upstate New York and gaining a pivotal place in the fabric of American culture.
If such a renowned status was not cemented forty years ago, it certainly was this summer, as Woodstock fever overtook entertainment. Interviews with grizzled hippies fondly remembering (or in some cases, not remembering) their festival experiences appeared in most major publications.
Woodstock, the Oscar-winning documentary of the festival, was re-released with honor in all its four-hour splendor. A six-disc collection of music from the event was also released, still barely a sampling of what the festival had to offer. And if you still required live fulfillment, a “Heroes of Woodstock” tour traveled America, bringing the music of Big Brother and the Holding Company, Canned Heat, and Jefferson Airplane along with other Woodstock acts to the masses.
Yes, the bands were older and grayer, with many in their third or fourth reincarnations, but the songs and their messages were still the same. Most recently, the new film Taking Woodstock shed light on the event’s production, explaining how the guys in charge gained access to the Bethel, New York location. Such projects were win-win situations, allowing for both reminiscing and discovery.
So what does this mean today? Other than those young adults convinced they were born in the wrong decade (they do exist), many presently do not give Woodstock much thought. However, maybe we should.
When looking at the bare bones nature of the festival, similarities between the two eras become strikingly apparent. Woodstock represented a generation coming together for a message they believed in.
Sound familiar? We saw through the election last year just how passionate our generation can be and that passion has only grown since.
We might be able to learn something from the hippies that started it all, or at least now have a better understanding of their fight. Who knows, maybe we’ll even follow in their footsteps and become legendary ourselves.
Word is there’s a Woodstock musical in the works. Fiftieth anniversary, anyone?
