The truth is, nothing really happened at woodstock 40 years ago.

[RadiationTherapy]

Nothing that pertains to the people who weren't there. I have heard about this festival my entire life and how it was some pinnacle; some holier-than-all musical experience. It was an event where thousands of humans got together and felt a bond. There was magic, counterculture, and music that cast a shadow over all musicians of future decades. It could never be duplicated; it could never be surpassed; it was barely describable - if you weren't there then you couldn't know! I used to propagate the myth myself out of ignorance and false idol worship as a 'hippie' in the 1990s. Now that I am older, I see it for what it is: a pining of an aging generation for their glory days.

I understand it all too well now as I move through my 30's. I look back at the times and people in my 20's and I KNOW that what I experienced in the summer of 1998 was magical; it was a time when god walked on the earth and with my friends and moments during that unforgettable summer. I am even writing a book about it.

The mythology of woodstock lives on through those who attended or wished they had, but it will be quickly forgotten as the boomers age and die; there is nothing significant about it to warrant a mention in history.

[Skittles]

1. lol, you're in your 30's?

:rofl:

[RadiationTherapy]

4. Yeah! How old are you?

[Skittles]

7. ha ha ha

:rofl:

[RadiationTherapy]

14. Whhhoo! Haahahaha! Ha. *sigh* a...ha.

[timeforpeace]

46. You're more right than you know. The people who were there, in their lucid moments, hated it. That

was the predominant reporting theme at the time. The squallor, the violence, the rapes, the lack of clean water and toilets and food, it went on and on. Only now do they old geezers claim it was nirvana. They lie.

[G_j]

58. no

but why are you spreading lies?
:shrug:

[Hassin Bin Sober]

203. "That was the predominant reporting theme at the time"

LOL. Of course it was.

Sucker.

[SingaporeExpat]

273. wow.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

266. My first thought, too -

And, yeah, I'm laughing that hard, as well.

Amazing how much someone knows about something he knows nothing about, but who freely - and he gets points for this - used to mouth all the stories as if he believed in them. See, he was aching to be cool and now he's still aching to be cool, but he's in his thirties, so he's taken a different tack.

Thirties.

Younger than Woodstock...............................

[krispos42]

2. Boy, sure am glad I'm not a GD mod anymore

:popcorn:

[Skittles]

5. it's more entertaining than insulting

:rofl:

[krispos42]

9. After the blowup over the NASA probe crashing into the Moon...

... I take nothing for granted!

:beer:

[polichick]

3. Sour grapes. :)

[RadiationTherapy]

6. Of course! How could anyone NOT be jealous of going to woodstock in 1969!?

That's abthurd!

[graywarrior]

12. It'th dithpicable!

[RadiationTherapy]

16. Thuperthilious even!

[graywarrior]

27. Thoopercallafragalllithiouth exthpiealidothouthly blubberouth

:crazy: :silly: :freak:

[polichick]

21. You're acting like an ignorant fool. It's stupid to diss an event you know nothing about...

Bonnaroo is another great event ~ you don't have to diss one to enjoy another.

[RadiationTherapy]

23. It's not a 'diss' is it? It is clarifying woodstock as a memory and not a historical event.

[G_j]

29. dude

it was, quite literally, an historical event.

:think:

[orleans]

114. someone hasn't been doing their homework...

"Thirty-two acts performed during the sometimes rainy weekend in front of nearly half a million concertgoers. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest moments in popular music history and was listed on Rolling Stone's 50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock and Roll.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock_Festival

[billh58]

127. The documentary film

Woodstock received the Academy Award for Documentary Feature. The film has been deemed culturally significant by the United States Library of Congress. In 1994, Woodstock: The Director's Cut was released and expanded to include Janis Joplin as well as additional performances by Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, and Canned Heat not seen in the original version of the film. In 2009, the 40th Anniversary of the festival, it has been again released on DVD. This release marks first time it has been available in high definition on Blu-ray disc.

From the same Wikipedia article.

[PVnRT]

204. Well, if Rolling Stone says so, it must be true

:eyes:

[orleans]

143. i think post 127 was for you

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6313931&mesg_id=6316328

[Cetacea]

172. Ah, but it was a historical event, and in many areas.

Besides, when Life magazine devotes an entire issue to someting it's officially historical.:smoke:

[liberalmuse]

8. How sad.

You know absolutely nothing about Woodstock or that time, so what gives you the right, presumptuousness and the extreme arrogance to diss it? You weren't on the planet at that time, so you are clueless as to the vibe and beauty and turbulence of that era. I was 6 and was absolutely amazed at the things I saw in those days. One didn't even have to be there. All one needs is a viable soul to understand what went on during that time. Kids half your age understand and marvel at what happened at Woodstock, and some of them feel that they missed something quite profound. Again, how sad for you. There was a point in time where we were on the right path, and just a couple years later we started to veer, and a decade later, we were completely taken on an opposite path by Reagan and those of his ilk. I think perhaps you belong to them.

[RadiationTherapy]

11. Yes, but even more blasphemously, I don't give a shit about it.

It is absolutely meaningless. It was an event that was the end of what is commonly affiliated with the event itself. It was the end of free love; the end of revolution; the end of non-materialism; the end of appreciating the natural human form. Everyone went home that August and got feverishly busy living the 70s and 80s. Good times.

[liberalmuse]

32. If you don't give a shit about it, why spew your poison?

WTF is the point? You fucking well know there are many people on DU who revere what much of the '60's stood for. What kind of person are you? There's more to life than materialism, hedonism and selfishness. Much more.

Edited because I did the same to the poster as I was accusing them of doing.

[ElboRuum]

50. Because we are now HELD BACK by the same things that once moved us forward.

[valerief]

41. It was a media diversion from the war. Something for the media to romanticize. nt

[shanti]

67. the 70's and 80's were "good times"??

hoo boy....was that because YOU were born then? :rofl:

[anigbrowl]

253. Do you often have trouble with irony?

Because it sailed right over your head in this case.

[Cetacea]

176. You left out Kent State.

Students being killed by our own National Guard during peaceful protests sort of kinda created a chilling affect. Woodstock wasn't the end of anything. It was the beginning of huge music festivals, benefit concerts (with ssome help from George Harrison) and so forth.

[zonkers]

212. I was a baby at the time but it was a watershed event whether you get it or not.

[sudopod]

237. Which is why you posted a thread about it

and followed it around for several hours.

What's your beef?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

267. Oh, but you do - you clearly do care about it -

of all the things you might have posted, why this?

Clearly it's under your skin.

But maybe it's something else, and you're just spewing.

If think Woodstock was an end, you know even less about it than I thought. Mostly, you know how to spell it correctly.

You don't know very much, but you're very angry, and that's an unfortunate combination. It's not easy being you, it seems.

I wish you good luck........................

[RadiationTherapy]

274. "You don't know very much, but you're very angry, and that's an unfortunate combination.

It's not easy being you, it seems."

Aaaannnnnnd you wish me good luck. Is this you being sincere?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

280. Yes, I do -

I simply described what I saw in your posts. Anger and confusion.

How could I not wish you good luck, with a burden like that?

That you would be so cynical is just affirmation of how I perceive you.

It's unfortunate.

And, yes, I do wish you luck................

[RadiationTherapy]

284. How can I ever penetrate the veils of compliments that shroud the fang and venom?

The meticulous double-entendres; the knowing, mature jabs. The evolved tall-stander smirking down at a chimp in the mud.

hoo-hoo-ha-ha.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

287. That's your anger -

I'm sorry that's where you are. It's what I saw, what I commented on. I suspect your impatience with the whole Woodstock phenomenon is probably just a vehicle for some things that are troubling you very greatly.

You've made up your mind, and you've been quite rude about it. That's unfortunate. But, given what I see in you, I forgive you.

I hope life treats you gently, and even though you won't believe I mean that, its genuineness is in no way dependent on what you believe....................................

[RadiationTherapy]

291. Ok. Thanks!

[Erin Elizabeth]

276. I don't know.

I got sick of hearing about it my whole life. I can see where someone's coming from with this. It's 60s Fatigue. Woodstock Fatigue. We weren't even there, but by God, we got to hear about how amazing and incredible it was our entire lives. Well, I think that's great. It seemed pretty awesome. But really, the amount of time and attention that's been given to that event is astounding. It's as if nothing else happened that year.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

282. Unless you're physically surrounded

by people chattering about Woodstock, and have no way of leaving where you are - if you're locked in and forced to listen to people talk about Woodstock, get your twinky little head out of your own self-absorbed butt and don't listen. Don't read about it. Ignore these threads.

Jesus, you're bitching because people are talking about something that mattered greatly to them?

When did you start thinking you were the center of the universe?

You're not................................

[Erin Elizabeth]

285. Ha! I'm not talking about right this MOMENT

(talk about self-absorbed)! I'm talking about my entire life. The kids who grew up in the 70s heard about the 60s and how awesome and amazing the baby boomer generation was all. the. goddamned. time. It was what we grew up with. This huge reverence, this look people would get with vacant smiles and glazed over eyes, and the whole patting your head condescension of "you wouldn't know, you poor child, you missed the most amazing thing ON EARTH! Maybe you can understand...some day....but you probably won't because it'll never happen again! It only happened because of US!"

You would think Jesus himself was walking around performing massive-scale miracles at Woodstock. No, at every event boomers attended in the 60s, LOL.

One thing the boomers are very good at is marketing.

Hey people can talk about it all they want. That's my point--they've been crowing about it for 40 years. I'm in this thread because I agree with some facets of the OP.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

288. Uh-huh -

all those words to defend your anger that people value something?

It's a shame you're unable to grasp the fact that you do not dictate what others cherish. It's also pretty funny, since your post is all over the place, trying to prove how little you care.

All those words, meaning nothing. The Illusion of Central Position clouds your thinking. And, honestly, it's an illusion.

If you don't care, don't look.

I hope, though, that you have something in your life, something you can share with your generation, that will be as precious to you as Woodstock is to those people you so blithely dismiss. It would be a shame if you were condemned to live a life of bitching at what others have when you have nothing like it for yourself, and it would be downright sad if you were to go through life without any kind of seminal experience that brought you together with your peers.................................

[Erin Elizabeth]

289. You're not even coherent.

I don't go around "bitching" about Woodstock or the 60s. This is the internet and this is a thread on a discussion board on the internet. It's not my entire life. You're having issues, it seems, with understanding this.

I don't care if people got something wonderful out of Woodstock. I say good for them. And I'm sure lots of people DID get good things out of it!

I'm expressing the opinion that a lot of us who grew up in the shadow of the boomers and the 60s had to hear about it ALL the time and have a major case of 60s fatigue.

How does my expressing that take AWAY anyone's joy in an event 40 years ago?

You crack me up.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

290. Do I hear something?

You're sounding a whole different tune from your first post.

You seem to go backwards a whole lot faster than you go forward, which isn't surprising.

And I'm sorry for confusing you. I didn't realize that complex sentences would throw you so. My apologies.

I think it's great that you are now so tolerant and loving and happy. I am delighted that you've seen the light and no longer feel the need to dump on an event that you find ever so boring. Your new stance is a lot more appealing than that whiney thing you first posted.

Good girl...................

[Erin Elizabeth]

314. Yuck, you're just an ugly person, aren't you?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

315. I am?

But, but, but, didn't I offer you a ?

Maybe you'd rather dance?



No? Still cranky?

Well, maybe you need some



And if none of that does it for you, and you're still grouchy, how about some

?

And if none of that perks you up, well, then, you're just going to have to go on your way, being all grouchy and cranky, but at least I tried...................

[verges]

292. And the 60s generation had to hear about

that WWII thingy. And the 40s generation had to hear about the Jazz age. etc. Every generation has it's watersheds. And, the 60s was the most turbulent decade of the twentieth century. Woodstock was an important part of that confusing tapestry that is the 1960s. An honest to God historic event that affected a great many people and changed American music. Was all that readily knowable then? Probably not. A little hindsight sometimes gives a different perspective; it takes time to see how an event can change things. Especially if change wasn't really intended as was the case with Woodstock.

[hfojvt]

39. a couple years later

Woodstock was in August of 1969. Nixon took office in March of 1969. What right path were we on? The path that lead to his landslide re-election in 1972?

Hippies sorta ruled the culture in the 1970s. I think I grew up hippie since I was 8 in 1970, and that is why I have always been anti-war. It is part of my childhood upbringing, but the hippie movement really got snuffed out with McGovern's huge loss and then Carter's nomination.

[quiller4]

78. Thank you.

[Greyhound]

105. Pity him, due to an accident of birth he has only the Raygun era for memories of his "better days".

I see this sad perspective all the time in those of that time. They are another lost generation and many are turning prematurely bitter.

On the brighter side, the kids in their 20s today are a lot sharper and far more resilient.

[coyotespaw]

154. Hey, I take exception to that...

I'm in my 30's; and while I'm prematurely bitter, it is more due to the fact that my generation has no defining moments like Woodstock, the moon landing, Watergate, etc. We got Gordon Gekko, Alex P. Keaton, and the constant threat of nuclear annihilation to grow up with. The best of us, however, grew past those influences to realize that while the generations before us had better moments; that it's up to us to try to provide better moments for our children.

[Greyhound]

200. LOL! i believe I can relate to that.

My whole life has been seeing the really cool stuff they have and being just too young to get it or enjoy it myself. I am forever grateful to be old enough to have seen and enjoyed, however briefly, the ease of freedom and tolerance that existed before the tight-asses took over and screwed this nation up.

[Thickasabrick]

138. Beautiful response. Perhaps a bit harsh on the "grasshopper"

but what I find sad is that the generations since have not found a unifying vision that brought them together like ours did. I think the draft had a definite hand in unifying the anti-war protests and the shared experience of witnessing the deaths of 3 of our greatest leaders accelerated that bonding.

The beauty of the music born of that time, the unified protests that eventually shifted the balance of opinion and ended the war, the beginning of the "green" movement and organics - not bad for a bunch of baby boomers.

Peace.

:hippie:

[PVnRT]

205. Wow, you were six at the time?

Yes, I bet you have perfectly lucid memories of everything that happened when you were six, unlike virtually everyone else on the planet.

I love how you boomer and boomer-worshippers seem to think anyone who dares question the hippies, Woodstock or counter-culture must be a buttoned-up Reaganite. Get a life.

[Erin Elizabeth]

277. Yes, how sad for me that my parent's attempts at

conception didn't work for three years and I was born in 1970 and missed The Most Amazing Time on Earth.

Do you even hear how that sounds? How condescending that is? And yet you're talking about vibes and beauty and such, but oh poor things who didn't get to be six year olds just wowed by it all and only have their poor pathetic memories of the 70s and being told about Woodstock all their lives.

Give me a break.

[latebloomer]

10. Not exactly

because it WAS a blissful coming together, a transcendental loving experience which seemed to bring out the best in everyone there.

People experienced it that way at the time, not just in retrospect.

'Course, the drugs helped :D

And none of this means that magic is not still alive today.

[RadiationTherapy]

13. But that DOES exist today. There are wonderful people attending beautiful festivals and having

their own magic and moments. Drugs too!

Thank you for expressing that the magic of woodstock is not something that is isolated to that event or era; it is a human condition of all times and places.

Peace!!

[kimmerspixelated]

49. I think you already really know that it was magical

and majorly different than any other festival.

#1. THERE WAS A LOT OF FRIGGIN FOLKS THERE!(Half a MILLION)

#2. There was a miraculous level of non-violent happenings... with that many people if held today, there's no way,far too many kids these daze are on some kind of psych drugs they take on a daily basis...I rest my case...and even if they weren't, there is a level of general rudeness that completely boggles my mind that seems to be the norm these days! Woodstock today would be chaos, maybe not totally, but nonetheless...

#3. Many if not most of the musicians playing there, became Rock icons, and one that couldn't make it-due to the immense traffic jam-Joni Mitchell-instead wrote a song about it, and it became one of CSNY's biggest hit!

# The times WERE different then....Trust me on this...although in 69 I was only 13, I could still feel the "hippie love or magic" by the time I was 14 and 15. The early 70's still held that gleam!

I hope this clears things.

Good luck on your research! I am envious of your undertaking. A very cool subject!

[fishwax]

82. well, there were bigger crowds before and have been bigger crowds since

and without chaos or violence ...

#1. THERE WAS A LOT OF FRIGGIN FOLKS THERE!(Half a MILLION)

#2. There was a miraculous level of non-violent happenings... with that many people if held today, there's no way,far too many kids these daze are on some kind of psych drugs they take on a daily basis...I rest my case...and even if they weren't, there is a level of general rudeness that completely boggles my mind that seems to be the norm these days! Woodstock today would be chaos, maybe not totally, but nonetheless...

[ContinentalOp]

98. Big crowds are gross.

Monterey Pop seems like it was way more magical, and yes there are still similar events that are equally magical. You just have to know where to look ;)

[ContinentalOp]

101. Some perspective on those numbers though...

Baby boomers = 76 million people. Gen X = ~20 million people. So an equivalent Gen X event would have had only $160,000 people just based on demographics alone.

[Blue_In_AK]

88. Of course there are wonderful festivals now,

but Woodstock was one of the first of its kind. And, truly -- no offense to the younger folk -- you would have to be "of a certain age" to understand the time period and the impact of Woodstock and the music of the time. I was 22, and I was not there, but I did go to Altamont -- which if Woodstock was God visiting the earth, Altamont was Sympathy for the Devil. So much changed in just a few months.

[ContinentalOp]

97. See, I think it would be much cooler to say you were at Altamont!

Plus you got to see the Stones, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Ike & Tina, who else?

[Blue_In_AK]

103. Jefferson Airplane, CSN, Santana, others that I can't remember now.

We were sitting so far back in the crowd that basically everyone sounded like a cheap transistor radio. We couldn't really see what was going on up front, but we knew there was some trouble even early in the day. The vibe just didn't feel right. I remember Grace Slick trying to tell everyone to calm down and stop fighting. Hells Angels were zooming around everywhere being intimidating. We didn't hear about the death until the ride home when we heard about it on the radio.

The Stones were good, but I've never been able to figure out why in the world they would want the Angels as security. The tension was everywhere.

[ContinentalOp]

119. See, that's the problem with these big festivals.

At least now they have better sound systems and big video screens, but then why not just stay home and watch the video?

[Blue_In_AK]

130. It was for the experience.

But first ...

Are You Experienced?
Have you ever been experienced?
Well, I have.

:hippie:

[ContinentalOp]

132. Yeah, I know. I was mostly referring to these modern big stadium shows with the video monitors.

It feels dumb to be sitting in a grassy field a mile away from the stage watching a TV.

[Blue_In_AK]

140. Oh, I misunderstood you at first.

I agree, if the whole thing is going to be broadcast live or whatever, there's really no point in going.

[CANDO]

281. Hell, I watched the 25th Anniversary Woodstaock on pay per view!

It was in '94 and that was some cool shit to take in. Late at night, I was blaring the sound on my stereo system, which was connected to the TV, and I finally heard the pounding on the front door. It was the cops telling me I was keeping the neighbors awake. I drove up past the site for that festival a day after it was over. I drive freight trucks for a living. Just happened to be going to Albany that trip. They had it in a few farm fields next to the NY State Throughway a few miles south of Albany. They opened the place up to traffic by cutting down fencing, allowing traffic to directly access the highway. The mud was caked on the highway and you swore you were on a dirt farm road for a half mile!

[Warren DeMontague]

15. So why start a thread about it?

It's like me with Michael Jackson.. I hate to see anyone die, but beyond that, I really am not wound up one way or another in the thing.

I mean, really, if you genuinely don't care then... stop caring.

[RadiationTherapy]

I do care! I want people to understand that the magic they felt there is universal

not something that "was" and is "gone" or "unattainable" to anyone else.

[Warren DeMontague]

26. I don't know, your OP sounded sort of complain-y. I agree with you, though

I saw some Dead shows that I suspect put Woodstock to shame (where they played like crap and almost got electrocuted) ... but anyone who cares to pay attention, knows that.

OTOH Anyone who is fixated on their 'glory days' to the extent that they need to believe that they were present in the one singular place and time that the universe meant anything... hell, let 'em.

[MrMickeysMom]

117. Ahh... Now I begin to understand your point

I wondered going down this thread what could possibly move you to start this it as you did.

In a way, you're right. It's a memory... and before we baby boomers get too much older, we better start asking ourselves, why did "a half a million people who came together for 3 days of fun and music and had nothing but fun and music" for the most tend to not take this to the next level? Right around that time, Jim Garrison was opening up the JFK investigation and challenging the powers that were at a very high level of government. We have forgotten that Ronald Raygun was a laughing stock for ever running as president, and I don't think a hell of a lot of people broke records for showing up at the polls. Now, we get all gushy on the 40th anniversary? What happened between there and now?

Good fucking question.

It could happen again.

[mitchum]

17. But you're wrong...because they, and not you, dominate the contemporary cultural narrative...

and that's all that counts, man!

I hope you know that I completely agree with you.

[RadiationTherapy]

19. That is the perfect reply. Thank you for introducing me to the term

'contemporary cultural narrative'.

[mitchum]

33. They are well aware of what they do...

you are just not supposed to point it out.
Think of yourself as the boy in the crowd remarking upon the emperor's fine new clothing :)

[G_j]

96. nevermind

=

[omega minimo]

155. Oh please

The OP's "cultural narrative" here is ignorant and flawed. Some overreaction to something somebody said about something, he got worked up and had to argue against it, write a book even.

Nothing to do with reality.

[Warren DeMontague]

28. Actually, the people who dominate the "contemporary cultural narrative" are into Hannah Montana.

Sorry, we're all ---boomers, Gen X'ers, all of us--- dinosaurs.

[devilgrrl]

18. The Monterey Pop Festival in the summer of 1967 looked way more fun....

Woodstock came next and the incident at the Altamont Speedway ended it.

[RadiationTherapy]

22. Hendrix's Monterey performance blows woodstock out of the water.

[devilgrrl]

139. Janis was awesome too. Everyone looked like they were having way too much fun.

If I had a time machine, The Monterey Pop Fest would be one of the things I'd want to see.

Early pre-Fab four Beatles would be another. :-)

[DevonRex]

208. Yeah. By Woodstock I couldn't even tell if Janis was singing a tune anymore.

And I love Janis. So for me to say that means she wasn't in top form.

[ContinentalOp]

30. Absolutely! Monterey looks like it was a very special event. I would have loved to be there.

I think I would even choose Altamont as 2nd place. I'm not sure I actually would have liked to go to Woodstock. It seems kind of gross. Too many people, too much mud, a lot of crappy acts, etc. If I had a time machine I would skip Woodstock but instead see all of those great bands in smaller clubs.

edit: oops, I forgot about Newport. I definitely would go see Dylan going electric too.

[Blue_In_AK]

89. I was there at Altamont,

and you are correct. That was also the summer of Charlie Manson.

[dana_b]

126. The Who right before Hendrix

damn!! why was I only 2 y.o.?! WHY?!

[Avalux]

20. I agree. For those who experienced the very first Lollapalooza -

much the same can be said. This music festival was important to me because I experienced it. To my children, Warped Tour is their Woodstock. The point is that it's a generational thing and each generation has theirs:

Inspired by events produced by Bill Graham, Perry Farrell, along with Ted Gardener, Marc Geiger, and Don Muller, conceived of the festival in 1990 as a farewell tour for his band Jane's Addiction.<4> Unlike previous music festivals such as Woodstock, A Gathering of the Tribes, or the US Festival, which were one-time events held in one venue, Lollapalooza was a touring show—a modern-day Chautauqua—that travelled across the United States and Canada. Instead of drawing music enthusiasts from around the country to one spot, Lollapalooza came to them—bringing West Coast and East Coast underground culture to cities in the heartland. Because of this, many more people saw and participated in Lollapalooza than any previous music festival.
Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor during the 1991 Lollapalooza festival.

The inaugural 1991 lineup was daringly eclectic, drawing in headliners from post-punk such as Siouxsie & the Banshees to rap such as Ice-T as well as industrial music such as Nine Inch Nails. Crossing popular music's rigidly-drawn genre lines gave the festival an air of independence from mainstream rock. Another key concept behind Lollapalooza was the inclusion of non-musical features. Performers like the Jim Rose Circus Side Show, an alternative freak show, and the Shaolin monks stretched the boundaries of traditional rock culture. There was a tent for display of art pieces, virtual reality games, and information tables for political and environmental non-profit groups. Lollapalooza's charter was not just a super-star rock jam—it was a cultural festival, albeit for the newly-formed 1990s counterculture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lollapalooza

[creeksneakers2]

43. What was the larger meaning of it?

Will that music still be played often 40 years from now?

[Avalux]

47. It was a gathering of the counterculture of the time -

not any different than Woodstock and anyone who tries to tell me Woodstock was some spiritual transcendence is full of it. It was a sex and drug fest; nothng but a giant party. Isn't it a bit ironic the music is shoved down our throats in commercials to promote everything from drugs to cars? Who is making those decisions?

I could give a shit if NIN, Jane's Addiction, Smashing Pumpkins, etc. are played 40 years from now. In fact, I DON'T want that music in commercials selling shit (some of it is already though). All that matters is that it's still meaningful to me.

[ContinentalOp]

91. LOL, music to be played 40 years from now?

You mean like Sweetwater, Bert Sommer, Melanie, Quill, Keef Hartley Band, or Sha-Na-Na? Stuff like that? ;)

[RandomKoolzip]

213. Zing....great response!

[mitchum]

248. Nicely done

[Indenturedebtor]

156. The first Lolapalooza was awesome!

And Woodstock changed nothing but the music scene.

[knowbody0]

24. I sense you are jealous

no need. we boinked everybody just for the sake of transcending, now you cannot boink anybody without fear of death. you are of a different time, no draft. you cannot imagine our amazing collective spirit.

[ElboRuum]

53. You sense... poorly. n/t

[Odin2005]

107. That's BECAUSE you guys boinked everyone. Promiscuity spreads STDs

OOPS!!! :eyes:

[Indenturedebtor]

158. An amazing collective sprit that rallied behind dismantling nearly all the progressive work

that had been fought for by previous generations.

Dismantle the unions, the schools, underfund SS and Medicare, let our transportation infrastructure go to shit, "flattened" the world, got rid of the pension, suppressed wages, let healthcare go to total crap, squandered our international reputation, and on and on and on.

Many here fought against these things, but if Woodstock and hippies really changed things then what did they change?

They didn't invent Progressivism for god's sake! If anything they squandered it in a fit of hedonism and self-righteousness.

The proof is in the pudding, and I'm sick and effin tired of hippy/woodstock worship.

[RadiationTherapy]

185. I have a great difficulty with the issues you bring up as well.

That is why I think it is about celebrating memories; there is no tangible, beneficial legacy to what happened at woodstock. The entire hippie movement can't be completely dismissed as we do not know how bad things would be now without it.

[Indenturedebtor]

254. It's true but we can't say that they're definitively better either

Hell 95% of the ideas in the Hippie movement weren't new.

If anyone should be thanked it's India. There were communes in Israel over 100 years before, the Native Americans may not have been the first but many tribes held conservation to be a key belief for hundreds if not thousands of years prior... and on and on and on.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

268. Exactly -

we did it first, and they keep trying to imitate, emulate, catch up.

They can't, so they play their little game of "Your Woodstock wasn't so hot" and "There have been lots of events bigger than Woodstock" and "You're all old and stuck in your glory days."

Some folks fail to understand that lots of things are good, including Woodstock, and loving one event doesn't mean the others aren't equally as significant to those people.

Not a zero-sum game, folks.

But, you know there wasn't a condom anywhere within a hundred miles of Woodstock, and today, you're risking death if you don't wrap that rascal.

We win on that one.

And the ones who came after will have their own idea of what "collective spirit" is, which is just fine...............................

[Zix]

270. Well, how do you know that?

That bit about not being able to imagine the collective spirit?

Why do you want your experiences to be more important than other peoples'?

[demosincebirth]

25. I remember it and saying, whats the big deal? Stomping around in the

mud for two days doesn't appeal to me, either.

[timeforpeace]

48. Exactly. THose who were there were saying the same thing AT THE TIME.

[ContinentalOp]

94. I can't imagine that anyone who lived in San Francisco and saw all of these bands at the Fillmore...

...Avalon, or Winterland would have given a shit about seeing them in some huge muddy field with a bunch of midwestern kids. :P

[EFerrari]

31. Woodstock envy.

:)

[KittyWampus]

34. I experienced "multiple Woodstocks" including several generations of Grateful Dead fans

AND punk rock venues.

[onenote]

299. no you didn't . no festifval since has had the diversity of music that woodstock had

That is what made it unique -- several hundred music fans gathering together to listen to and enjoy music ranging from the Who and Jimi to Ravi Shankar and Melanie. From the Butterfield Blues Band to Sha Na Na. From Mountain to John Sebastian. IF you've had an experience like that, it was in your dreams.

For heavens sake -- do you know who was onstage immediately before Hendrix? It was Sha Na Na.

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

Try finding a concert billing like that today.

[ContinentalOp]

35. I disagree about its historical importance.

Woodstock will always be a relevant part of our cultural history, and the history of popular music because it was the defining moment where corporate America realized that there was a goldmine to be made in the youth counterculture industry. It marks the shift away from underground music, small clubs and small labels and toward the bloated corporate stadium rock of the '70s and '80s.

Woodstock was directly responsible for our current cultural era where no youth movement can stay underground for more than 5 minutes before becoming commercially exploited and burned out. Many of our current complaints about the corporate media and advertising in our culture can be directly traced back to that defining moment.

[mitchum]

37. Good point about Woodstock's significance to the commodification of cool

[ContinentalOp]

90. Yep, commodification of cool. That's the term I was looking for.

Naomi Klein, No Logo & all that.

[mitchum]

135. I think Thomas Frank coined the term...

and it is perfect
as was your analysis

[omega minimo]

157. The analysis is flawed and incomplete. And it was Thomas Frank.

[misanthrope]

62. And we have a winner!!**nm

**

[Odin2005]

110. +1.

Us Millennials, on the whole have given up on culture and have been focusing on technology instead. People my age interest in music are generally mixing and matching styles already made, not making anything fundamentally new, pop culture is burnt out, boring, formulaic, dead, and has been since 1994.

[ContinentalOp]

122. Actually, I have to disagree with you there...

in terms of millennials not making anything new or pop culture being boring, formulaic or dead. I think the music this decade was way better than the last for example. And the death of the music industry may actually be allowing an underground to flourish somewhat again. Plus the millennials are a big generation so they have that whole power in numbers thing that the boomers had and gen x didn't.

[Odin2005]

128. I hope you are right!

:hi:

[Indenturedebtor]

159. Nope :P Raves are still alive and well in some parts of the country

And they feature lots of people, better drugs, and much much much better dancing :P

[scarletwoman]

226. Yours is the most salient post on this thread.

I didn't make it to Woodstock -- I was 19, had a ride lined up with a group of fellow hippies, but certain exigent family circumstances waylaid my plans. (I felt no need to rebel against my family in those days, since my parents were already among the most enlightened liberal/socialist thinkers of anyone I knew.)

I do remember well, though, that the co-option of the counter-culture as a sales gimmick for corporate America began in earnest shortly thereafter -- the "commodification of cool" as someone said upthread. No sincere endeavor of spontaneous cultural expression was left unexploited and twisted into a profit-making enterprise by the forces of the status quo.

That's when those of us who were sincerely committed to holding onto our core philosophical values of enlightened humanism, true personal freedom, non-violence, and rejection of materialism and consumerism went more deeply underground. Meanwhile, the pretend "hippies" and wannabees -- spurred on by the shallowness and commericialization of the mass media -- dressed the part to be cool, and got high with no more thought given to the exploration of the deeper layers of their consciousness than those of the teenage binge drinkers of today.

Woodstock was the peak experience of a truly genuine and innocent hedonism, afterwards commercial exploitation took over.

sw

[omega minimo]

233. Salient Green is People

Your post makes the point in a manner that the other one did not. The other was perhaps too "salient" and clumsily definitive, a learned version rather than a lived one, leaving too much out, drawing lines too firmly in black and white.

Especially this is jarring: "Woodstock was directly responsible for our current cultural era where no youth movement can stay underground for more than 5 minutes before becoming commercially exploited and burned out."

Well sorta kinda and No. Not true on both counts.

"Many of our current complaints about the corporate media and advertising in our culture can be directly traced back to that defining moment."

Yes they can, and beyond it into the past and since then, into the future. That comment as support for "Woodstock was directly responsible...." -- they are both arguable points.

I appreciate your post, appreciating that one, because you brought life into the cut and dry overgeneralizations.


:toast:

[Yunomi]

36. The summer of 1998?

Was that when X was still legal? I can't remember...

[geckosfeet]

38. A bit off course if you ask me. Thanks for the lecture though.

Ok - right about the mythology living on part, and the 'there was magic, counterculture, and music that cast a shadow over all musicians of future decades' part.

I would go further and say that the late 50's and 60's was an era of civil rights and women's rights and liberal politics coming to the fore and being driven by a generation. It was an event whose ripples are felt still. It's not the 'hippies' fault that the ball was dropped.

It was also the era of Korea. And Viet Nam - a truly stupid war.

But my sense now is that something vaguely similar has happened with the election of Barack Obama and the democratic majorities in congress and the senate. We have a chance to make dreams become reality.

BTW - travel to Woodstock NY and ask people about the event.

[Hansel]

60. I would agree with the election of Barack Obama being vaguely similar

People who were not alive at the time can not appreciate the massive cultural changes that took place. We lived in an era of blind faith in authoritarianism. No one in the majority culture (whites) questioned authority, especially not the police or the government. We all had blind faith that if the government did it, it was good and right. Girls did not question men or speak out of turn. Boys and men did not wear long hair. Blacks and other minorities were tolerated as long as they knew their place. We did not say the word pregnancy on TV.

This is the time that Republicans have been trying their darnedest to bring us back to. They hated the hippies or hippy-wanta=bes like they hate Liberals now. Liberals = hippies to them.

I think the article below sums it up somewhat, but you have to have a strong understanding of the time, its culture, and the government in order to totally appreciate it. And you have to have an appreciation of how important the music was in terms of questioning authority and the government especially as it related to war.

http://sixties-l.blogspot.com/2009/04/forty-years-later-significance-of.html

"The anniversary is an occasion to look back on the connection between rock music and the counterculture of the 1960s," said Steve Waksman, associate professor of music and American studies. "But it's also an opportunity to think about the ways in which rock music, or any form of music, can create a sense of collective purpose."

snip

"The late cultural critic Ellen Willis described Woodstock as the culmination of a dream of mass freedom that had arisen in the years after World War II and was connected to rock and roll. Mass freedom meant that people believed they could best achieve their fullest freedom in the context of a group, rather than isolated, as individuals."

snip

"It was tied to youth, above all, but it was tied to a particular image of youth as a part of the population who could transform the existing cultural and political order, could potentially create the basis for a culture in which peace was valued over war, in which pleasure was valued over productivity, and in which rules and conventions were not to be followed if they were found to be corrupt."

Edit to add: Woodstock is really a symbol of the Liberal movement in my opinion. It is why it is so hard to believe that Arlo Guthrie is a registered Republican. A party that is the antithesis of what Woodstock stood for.

[latebloomer]

68. Arlo is a registered Republican?

I can't believe it!

Surely he didn't support Bush?!?

on edit- I just googled and he is indeed a registered Repub, but his views sound like those of a libertarian.

[G_j]

77. that caused me to Google also

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/magazine/26fob-q4-t.html?_r=2&ref=magazine

yep, truly weird

[ContinentalOp]

95. W...T...F!

That is truly a headscratcher. I never would have guessed that of him.

[mitchum]

136. I remember when he crossed a picket line at a theater several years ago...

yeah, WOODY GUTHRIE'S SON CROSSED A PICKET LINE
I guess that's why Dad liked the Zimmerman kid best

[Cetacea]

197. Wow. n/t

[LWolf]

75. I grew up listening to him;

I met him awhile back. It's in the archives of my journal somewhere. He came to do a fund raising concert for our local community radio station. He chatted, he sang, and hung out to talk some more when it was over and most were heading home. He is not an icon of Republican values, lol.

Here's what he has to say about it:

<snip>

“Over the last eight years,” he explained, “that’s where the fight has been. The fight is not between the Republicans and Democrats; it’s within the Republican Party as to what does it mean to be American these days. I think that’s where the more intriguing fight is going on, so I thought that’s where I need to be.”

http://www.jimnewsom.com/PFW2008/020508-ArloGuthrie.html

[omega minimo]

160. First post in the thread that points out what the OP has missed completely.

:thumbsup:

[RadiationTherapy]

186. I like that assessment. I am very open to the idea that it was a historical culmination

of anti-authoritarianism. It had not occurred to me and taps in to my deep dislike of hierarchies and authority.

Thanks again for an interesting angle.

[scarletwoman]

238. Wow! "Mass freedom meant that people believed they could best achieve their fullest freedom

in the context of a group, rather than isolated, as individuals."

That is a stunningly cogent quote! Exactly what it was about!

:hippie:
sw

[LiberalAndProud]

40. Oh dear

:rofl:

[blondeatlast]

42. The iroooooneeeee--it hurts!!!

It doesn't really matter--so you are writing a book and starting a thread about it.

:rofl:

[omega minimo]

162. Check this out:

OP's profile:

Hobby: "music, graphic design, videos, art" -- How interesting that someone so into the arts, would have such a skewed view of such a creative and dynamic time..........

Comment "I don't mind being pretentious as long as it is on purpose."

[RadiationTherapy]

187. I love creation and don't see what your connection there is.

As far as perspectives and skewed views, you know better than others on this board what it is like to see things differently from the dominant paradigm.

[lamp_shade]

44. What the hell happened in 1998? That was like... last week.

[rug]

51. This was the top 5 for the year.

1. Too Close, Next
2. The Boy Is Mine, Brandy and Monica
3. You're Still The One, Shania Twain
4. Truly Madly Deeply, Savage Garden
5. How Do I Live, LeAnn Rimes

http://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1998.htm

:rofl:

[lamp_shade]

54. O Wow!

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

93. C'mon, dude

By then, everyone was downloading the good shit, not buying it!

[ContinentalOp]

129. That was the year I graduated from college and maybe you can't quite understand if you weren't there

but let me tell you, as someone who was there first hand at the time. WORST YEAR IN MUSIC FOR THE LAST 100 YEARS. The whole mid-to-late '90s pretty much blew.

[Mythsaje]

151. Actually, I disagree...

We had a massive influx of singer-songwriters who, though they didn't do anything earthshaking, managed to capture the past 50 yars or so in music quite handily. American music TODAY pretty much blows, but there was all sorts of interesting stuff going on back then.

The early nineties? I'd agree with you there. They sucked.

[RadiationTherapy]

188. Those were MY top 5 too!

Because, I only like the music that is on the charts! Whatever the top 100 is, that's MY top 100!!

[BlooInBloo]

45. Actually, nothing of importance happened before I was born.

[ContinentalOp]

100. What an absolutely ridiculous statement.

You're forgetting your conception.

[BlueJazz]

52. The Idea that the Musicians at Woodstock were "above the Cut" is one of the most...

... ridiculous misconceptions ever perpetrated.
The event was special and wonderful....the Music? Just So-So..not bad..not good.

[LiberalAndProud]

120. I don't think Hendrix' performance will ever be duplicated.

And Janis Joplin shined.

But my mom loves Tommy Dorsey, so maybe I can understand the tenor of your OP.

[BlueJazz]

125. There were good highlights in the music...Hendrix andJanis being 2 of them.

But overall just regular stuff.
..as for Dorsey,,,mmm...rather smulzy...I prefer hard core jazz.
Having said that though...I like just about anything as long as it's skilled playing.. :)

[Cetacea]

195. Santana, The Who, etc...

[Kaleko]

55. The truth is, a mass awakening happened at Woodstock 40 years ago,

and everyone interprets that 'turning of the wheel' somewhat differently.

But we are still stardust, we are still golden, and we are STILL trying to get ourselves back to the garden, each in our own way.

Dig it, man. Repercussions are echoing through the virtual galaxies, ok?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

269. Here's the joke -

ready?

Forty years on, people are still talking about it.

If it didn't matter, no one would be talking about it.

It still arouses passions of all kind, and that's what it was all about - passion

As a work of art, Woodstock continues to prevail.

But the unbelievably wordy and boring comments about it in this thread are so strange.

True disconnect.

Still talking about it, though..............

[NoPasaran]

56. Nothing at all happened because Woodstock itself didn't happen

The government faked it all, using the same soundstage they had used for the moon landing a month earlier.

[RagAss]

70. Absolutely....it was done with 11 people, mirrors and Richie Havens !

I know. I worked on the production. It was all done in an abandoned warehouse in Fresno !

:rofl:

[LWolf]

57. Those of us who lived at the time

have experienced the evolution of culture, of values, of politics, of social norms, of attitudes over the decades since.

We are probably more qualified to evaluate Woodstock than those who weren't born yet.

FWIW, I did not attend. I was only 9 years old.

I did get to see the many photos, and here the stories, my mother's adult friends brought back. I did grow up listening to those who attended, and those performed there. The music was sourced in the yearning for change, in the energy of grassroots efforts to "be the change." Sex, drugs, and rock and roll were simply ways of expressing the evolution of freedom.

Woodstock was obviously, at the age of 9, not part of my "glory days." My youth was shorter than most, and it was about survival, not glory. For me, that time represents my values: peace, love, understanding, cooperation, care for one another, CIVIL RIGHTS. Values that the nation left behind with the election of Ronald Reagan. Values that I don't see well represented in those experiencing their "glory days" today.

I do see a determined effort to discredit that period in time by those who either weren't there, or were the opposition at the time. It's a shame, since the culture of corruption, corporatism, fascism, and authoritarianism that currently rules "glory days" for this generation is sadly lacking much of substance to build a life around.

[Sparkly]

59. Oh, SO well said!!! Thank you.

I was about to post a reply but yours said it all for me.

Thank you!

[LWolf]

71. You are welcome, of course! nt

[BlooInBloo]

65. Well done. You made this thread worthwhile.

[LWolf]

72. Thanks. nt

[Cetacea]

191. Great post. Thank you. nt

[Tangerine LaBamba]

272. Amen -

and well done......................

[MichaelHarris]

61. The truth is

nothing is really happening today. You're talking about a generation that stopped a war, young men and women who died on college campuses protesting an evil government. The truth is, this generation thinks it can effect change from a keyboard and monitor. The results are in the lack of change today. Before you attack a generation you should look at what your own is really doing. Are they actually doing anything with that keyboard?

[Hansel]

63. Amen.

You've got 80 year old misinformed morons who care more about exercising democracy than youth in this country who are whining about getting "single payer" on the keyboards.

If the youth of the 60s wanted single payer, they would have been out in the streets. Not sitting around in their pajamas pounding keyboards to bitch about all of the angry fools at the town halls and about spineless politicians. Maybe the politicians are spineless because they don't have anyone backing them up in a visible way.

[RadiationTherapy]

189. Riiiiigght. And the boomers get to sit back because they already have theirs, right?

In the 60's...Why in the 1960's, we would have...and kids these days don't know...

blah blah blah.

Laurel sitters, the lot of ya.

[ContinentalOp]

123. Nothing is really happening today eh? The keyboard and monitor aren't effecting any change?

So the music industry and newspaper industry are just going out of business all by themselves? A site like Kiva just as one example is probably effecting the world for the better in a way that '60s radicals could have only dreamed of.

[MichaelHarris]

137. Then by all means

stay seated at the keyboard while the real activists march for change.

[ContinentalOp]

141. It's pretty hilarious that you use marching as your example of real activism.

What has marching ever really accomplished?

[MichaelHarris]

145. You ask that seriously?

I'm ashamed I even discussed this with you

[BlooInBloo]

147. I'm not entirely sure why you dignified that idiotic remark with an answer.

[MichaelHarris]

148. it

actually hurt my head answering it, I won't do it again.

[BlooInBloo]

150. May as well commemorate Teh Stupid....

[ContinentalOp]

152. Wow, didn't think that really needed the sarcasm smiley but thanks for the vote of confidence guys.

[BlooInBloo]

153. You're welcome.

[MichaelHarris]

165. ya know Bloo

I'm an older college student and I actually had a younger college professor say just about the same thing recently. Basically saying the protests of one generation (mine) did very little and shouldn't be glorified after all these years. She would love this thread just to bash the oldies. It's sad really, I don't even have ear hair yet.

[BlooInBloo]

170. Obviously not a history prof.

[Raschel]

223. A lot of people today say the same. Don't give the problem any attention. Ignore it and it will

go away.

[MichaelHarris]

163. it's your

ass that you hung out there.

[ContinentalOp]

219. Yeah, it sounds pretty stupid huh?

Kind of like the assertion that change can't happen from behind a keyboard and a monitor.

[MichaelHarris]

264. you shut down any

college admin buildings from that keyboard? How about ROTC buildings? Do you think those kids in the trees on the California campus have Twitter in the trees?

Do we still have troops in harms way? That Tweeting is working wonders isn't it?

[MichaelHarris]

161. hahahahahahahah

absolutely perfect!

[BlooInBloo]

167. I considered mashing it up with Springsteen lyrics, but chose to stay more faithful to the original.

[MichaelHarris]

173. I'm so glad we left the younger generation

Disco to deal with.

[BlooInBloo]

174. Heh. Well I'm sort of a slut with these things. I like it all up to about 3-5 years ago....

Except country, of course.

And Johnny Cash isn't country. Because Johnny Cash is awesome.

But I'm perfectly happy switching from ABBA to Marilyn Manson to Creedence to Guns and Roses to NWA to Movits, in as many songs.

[MichaelHarris]

184. I'm so with you Bloo

Sweet mother of God, make those pants stop!

[Raschel]

221. Those guys protesting in the background - are they Freepers and Birthers?

[cherokeeprogressive]

149. Oh hell. I thought you were asking about the 36" step every second that allowed military commanders

to estimate how far their troops could travel in a given time.

Never mind.

[MineralMan]

294. You forgot your sarcasm smiley...

[bettyellen]

199. so industries going out of business is some sort of accomplishment now?

it;s the natural evolution of technolog and not some acheivement.
and if you think Kiva is the stuff of modern people's wildest dreams.. unthinkable 40 years ago, you need to get some schooling.
Seriously sad ass pov. Ugh. Im sad for your ignorance.

[ContinentalOp]

220. I'm just objecting to the idea that no change can happen from behind a keyboard and a monitor.

There are some utterly world changing things going on at the moment thanks to the internet, for better or worse. Thinking that there's no power to be had from "behind a keyboard and a monitor" is like saying that marching never accomplished anything.

[bettyellen]

293. i get it, but really with the advent of cell phones and mobile internet and DVD players

people in general have become extremely... disconected and distracted and only paying half attention to reality in many cases. If they weren;t sent a link, it;s off the radar.
As great as the gadgets are, some people are wasting half their lives staring at "content", and for me that's the real reason kids today can't understand or couldn;t experience Woodstock. The thought of actually being in the moment, experiencing things with a community is way out of fashion now- to the point where youth are hostile about it. I don;t think they know what they've given up.

[endarkenment]

296. oh today these kids passively video police abuse

and put it up on tele-tubby or whatever

The idea that 150 people could easily defend a victim from the cops just never enters their heads. Too real worldy for them.

[Cetacea]

301. Correct. n/t

[Paladin]

64. When God Walked The Earth In The Magical Summer Of 1998....

....He came down for the specific purpose of laughing at your pretentious ass, junior. He'd finally regained his composure after all these years, and then you decided to initiate this monumentally pompous hippie-trashing thread at DU---He's laughing at you again, and He has lots of company. He's apprehensive about that book you're planning, though; turns out that even the Lord Of Hosts can laugh Himself to death if He's not careful......

[RadiationTherapy]

85. Perhaps; but then I still got to hear god laugh.

It was truly a magical time for me; I am having a blast writing and remembering.

[shanti]

66. ok....

:eyes: believe what you want, truth be damned.

[NashVegas]

69. nevermind all that

Look, you have your Woodstock: it's called "the internet."

[Tangerine LaBamba]

279. Best. Post. In.This. Whole.Thread.

Perhaps the best response to those who are compelled to try to trash Woodstock, the ones who don't know what it meant or what it was.

The Absolute BEST!!

Genius!

[southernyankeebelle]

73. I lived during that time period - I was glad I never attended Woodstock -

these people were not the kind of people I would have hung out with. Believe it or not, not everyone was into drugs and sex and rock and roll. I had fun don't get me wrong. I smoked but not drugs or I didn't drink either. My friends and I loved to dance and we went dancing and to the movies. We never got in trouble. I never missed going back. I wish I could have my health when I was younger but I wouldn't want to go back in time. Everyone has to move forward. That is life. Now there is Bonaroo here in Manchester, Tn. I live close but even if you gave me a free ticket I wouldn't go. Now I will go to the Bean Winery in Manchester and get the Bonaroo wine. Its really good.

[DevonRex]

74. You haven't the foggiest notion what you're talking about. Did you ever get drafted?

Did you ever march with MLK? Did you watch JFK get shot? Did you watch RFK get shot? Did you watch the riots during the Chicago convention?

Did you get to hear real protest music AS IT WAS BEING WRITTEN AND PERFORMED LIVE?

No. You have a bunch of substandard 80s and 90s music as the soundtrack to your mundane existence. And YOU tell US that nothing happened at Woodstock?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[RadiationTherapy]

87. Those events did not happen at woodstock.

What do you mean?

[DevonRex]

209. I mean that the people there were involved before, during and after that event

in so many changes, some horrific, some wonderful, some ordinary. Many who were there had already been drafted and done their tour of duty in Nam. Many were making Woodstock their last hurrah before going to basic training. Of the women there, how many had had boyfriends, brothers, fiances, even fathers, drafted and killed in Vietnam? Many. It is no coincidence that feminism really took root with these women. They couldn't be sure if they would even HAVE a husband so they decided it was time to be able to achieve as much as they could in education and work life so they could support themselves and their children. For most it was simple principle. For others it was principle born of downright necessity.

Everyone at Woodstock had all seen assassinations and just how much bravery it took to be on the side of civil rights at that time. They were all accused of being dirty hippies who couldn't be trusted and who would rob you if they got the chance just to pay for their drugs. Every time a protest got violent it was blamed on them, not on the cops or the right wing idiots.

So, at Woodstock nothing bad happened. Just rain and mud and music and peace. Which proved the right wingers totally wrong. And that means that something wonderful happened, something magnificent, something worthy of awe.

[Indenturedebtor]

168. Did you come of age to the flaming shitstorm that your generation left of America?

Biggest most powerful generation in American history and instead of powerfully driving us all progressively forward you all continued your selfish hedonism and pillaged our future.

As someone who did grow up in the slow decline that the Boomer generation gleefully created: I really don't understand where the self-satisfaction and self righteous BS comes from...

And by the way, I don't see any hippies marching with MLK,I see a bunch of determined black southerners who are anything but teenagers. Watching RFK and JFK get shot doesn't make you a better person, watching the Moon Landing that your parents put in motion doesn't make you an astronaut, and watching riots doesn't make you a rioter.

But reveling in that glorious summer of 69 where everyone discovered hedonism and played a lot of lipservice to a "great awakening" while older and more challenged people did effect some actual change... have fun with that.

And thank most of your fellow Woodstock attendees for this flat hot world.

[tammywammy]

183. +1 n/t

[RadiationTherapy]

190. Double-plus 1!

[omega minimo]

236. Orwellian, much?

:thumbsdown: :thumbsdown:

[RadiationTherapy]

243. Obviously.

[omega minimo]

258. So you mean the opposite of good when you use it. Maybe just use -1

[DevonRex]

207. Sorry, but I was WAY too young for Woodstock. So you're barking up the wrong tree there.

[Erin Elizabeth]

278. Oh my GOD this 39 year old thanks you from the bottom of her

heart.

Yeah, I got to be a teenager during the 34,000 years Reagan was president. AWESOME times, man! Awesome! That was when all those nekkid baby boomers living it up at Woodstock were in their 40s and running the place. Sure, my dad with his peace and love hippie shirt he'd drag out and show me and his eyes all glazed over talking about how awesome things were and how great things were gonna be, then he'd rah rah Reagan and his stupid awful plans.

Turned out well, that.

[zbdent]

76. I can't believe that many people fell for the illusion ...

I mean, the plot by aliens was supposed to give a hallucination to just the small group of people they lifted from that field ... how were we to know it would spread to the point that the entire world believes that half a million people showed up and held a massive rock festival?

oops ... I wasn't supposed to let that get out ...

[Deja Q]

79. I've only seen pics. People playing in the mud except they're not toddlers.

In theory...

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

80. I was born the year after Woodstock.

I guess my generation's Woodstock would be "Live Aid."

From Wikipedia:

At the very beginning of the televised portion of the Philadelphia concert, Joan Baez announced to the assembled crowd (and the viewing audience) that "this is your Woodstock, and it's long overdue", before leading the crowd in "Amazing Grace" (paired with a couple of verses of "We Are the World").

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

106. When I was in high school, I really got into the music of the 1960s.

Beatles, Dylan, Hendrix...you just can't beat 'em.

Apparently, this current generation is re-discovering the Boomer's music like I did when I was in high school:


The kids are all right! And they love the ’60s- msnbc.com

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32322322/ns/entertainment-music/

[TexasObserver]

81. Another "I hate mommy and daddy's generation" thread?!

I recall a number of other threads by you which all have the same theme: Boomers suck!!

Grow up and stop obsessing about your parents' generation.

[Skittles]

83. it is indeed pathetic and tiresome

[TexasObserver]

84. It was the Golden Age of Good Times and Promiscuity!

After birth control pills.

After the sexual revolution.

Before the drug war.

Before Herpes.

Before HIV.


Come on everyone! We're getting high and having unprotected sex with people we just met!!


Who wouldn't be jealous of that?!

[Skittles]

104. back when DEA was the first three letters in the word DEAL

I was a bit young but I do remember :hi:

[Indenturedebtor]

178. You might be all right... but Mommy and Daddy broke the fucking country

And Mommy and Daddy are now reveling in their Medicare while they tell the rest of us to fuck off and die. Most of the people I know in my age group are pissed as hell at the mess that Mommy and Daddy left for us.

Mommy and Daddy are still voting for death and hate, while they dance around telling everyone that Woodstock somehow makes them more enlightened and loving.

[TexasObserver]

225. Anyone who blames their parents for anything isn't fully grown yet.

[Indenturedebtor]

255. HAH! I don't blame my "parents" for my choices but I blame them for theirs

Anyone who denies personally painful but obvious cause and effect relationships lacks intellectual honesty and emotional maturity.

[RadiationTherapy]

192. I have many issues with the consumerist generation that HAPPENED to precede me,

HAPPENED to be my parents generation, and HAPPENED to have consumed and wasted several generations worth of resources. You can oversimplify my issues into unaddressed anger at my parents, but it would be naive to ignore the hypocrisy of the boomers and the constant back-patting and ass-sitting that generation has reveled in these past 40 years.

[TexasObserver]

227. You're IN the most consumerist generation!

The country has never been more consumerist than it is now. Your generation demands an endless supply of shiny objects to keep your short attention spans. You don't need a cellphone, you need a toy.

If you want to blame your parents for anything, blame them for not requiring you to be more honest and informed.

[RadiationTherapy]

231. Yeah! and all those non-biodegradable diapers I shat in too!

I don't tout my generation as non-consumerist.

[mitchum]

249. Who is selling them that shit?

And who has convinced them that their lives are incomplete without it?

[Odin2005]

222. The Boomers needs to quit obsessing over themselves.

That only the Boomers have their own DU group for their generation proves my point.

[TexasObserver]

228. Your generation could get its own DU group, but that would take effort.

Are your parents stopping you from asking for a DU group for whatever group you think you belong to?

Damn those boomers!!


If you want a forum for, say, Still Living at Home but over 18, ask the admins if you can have one.

[DefenseLawyer]

86. It is the same experience for the thousands that were actually there

as it is for the millions of boomers who claim that they were there?

[Name removed]

92. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[G_j]

99. recognizing an anniversary

40 years is a long time

but people find they need to piss on it

[Odin2005]

102. Woodstock is the most overrated cultural event in the 20th Century.

Listen to good music, smoke weed, and have sex? I know people who do that at parties every Friday. Big whoop. :shrug: Nothing bad about it, but this crapS about giving it some BS "spiritual" justification stinks of Boomers still fighting the prudishness of their parents in their minds, it's kind of pathetic, actually.

[rug]

108. Smoking a joint in Minnesota on a Friday night is not quite the same.

[Odin2005]

112. Yep, no mud, shitty hot weather, and idiots who took the brown acid.

[TexasObserver]

109. Half a million people. Several days. An iconic event.

Your first memories are of the 1990s. You seem to have a lot anger at your parents' generation, which I suppose is to be expected of one who still lives at home with their parents and goes to school as a "full time" student.

You really know nothing about Woodstock, the nation at that moment in time, or why it was considered a huge event even then.

Fast forward 40 years, and you'll be telling some audacious young whipper snapper that he really had to be there for the first African American elected to be president. He'll say "oh, big deal!" And you'll stew about it.

[Odin2005]

116. I never said it wasnt a big event, I just said it was overrated.

From my perspective as someone born after the era, the events of 1968 and the Moon landing were far more important that Woodstock. Obama's election is far more comparable to 1968 than to Woodstock.

And for the record, I don't live with my parents (both Boomers, Dad was born in '53 and Mom was born in '58), nor am I resentful of them. It's just that my memories of Boomers in my life have been mostly negative, hypocritical culture warriors screaming BS on the TV and calling each other evil. My earliest political memories were of Gingrich's crap, for example.

[omega minimo]

175. "Obama's election is far more comparable to 1968 than to Woodstock."

:wow:



"It's just that my memories of Boomers in my life have been mostly negative, hypocritical culture warriors screaming BS on the TV and calling each other evil. My earliest political memories were of Gingrich's crap, for example."

:wow:

[Odin2005]

218. What? I'm just pointing out that other generations didn't see the Boomers in such a positive light.

In my childhood the prominent Boomers were the screaming hypocrites. That is not the say the generation was on the whole bad or that there were not good Boomers. All I'm saying is that the Boomers need to get over the "we are the crown of creation and the world revolves around us" shtick.

[omega minimo]

230. Your opinions are SO misinformed, Odin, rather than battle here, why don't you listen and learn

about reality from people who were there? "Prominent Boomers" = "Newt Gingrich"? :crazy:

This whole chauvinism toward All Things Boomer, as reflected in this OP and thread, appear's based on being misinformed and (your word) "arrogant" and completely irrational or objective about actual events.

:hi:

[Odin2005]

245. Please don;t misunderstand me, I'm NOT bashing you guys.

I just get annoyed at the self-congratulatory behavior, as if us younger generations never contributed anything of value and are just a bunch of narcissists and slackers according to some Boomers. And ConDem's assholish belittling my volunteering at a rape and abuse crisis center set me off. :cry:

[omega minimo]

256. Please don't include me in "you guys." I hear your concerns yet the fights stem from cliched thinkin

that gets ridiculous, perhaps on both "sides" and esp. for those who are talking about something they can't possibly know.

I'm sorry someone was being a jerk. I'd love to see some more listening from younger folks to those older folks making good points. And Boomers don't need to be overgeneralizing about Gen XYZ either.... except some generalizations go both ways.

It's back to the crazy idea that DU is a place where we have common ground and common cause and can learn from others, who we might never meet in a millennium otherwise. :thumbsup:

[Odin2005]

260. Point taken!

:hi:

[Garbo 2004]

265. You mean vast generalizations denigrating an entire generation, as if it's a monolithic

entity is unfair?

Yes, it is.

Boomers shared a generation, not an ideology, qualities of character or political affiliation.

[ContinentalOp]

124. So a rock festival is equivalent to the first African American president?

Don't you see how you're kind of playing into the O.P.'s negative stereotypes there?

[Indenturedebtor]

180. I'll only stew about it if Obama makes some real change

That's the point... Woodstock had some really groovy vibes man, but then what?

Why the "HOLY HOLY WAS THE MUDDY MUDDY"?

[Greyhound]

115. You just don't get it and you can't because you have no reference to base it on.

There cannot be another "Woodstock" for a variety of reasons, but the most significant is that we have lost the freedom that allowed such an event to occur.

You can only base your opinions on your experience and you have never been free.

You'll just have to accept that it was an experience beyond what is possible today.

BTW, it was my parent's thing, I was barely alive when it happened but I have seen the loss of liberty as it happened.

[Odin2005]

118. Wow, what an arrogant pronouncement.

"There cannot be another "Woodstock" for a variety of reasons, but the most significant is that we have lost the freedom that allowed such an event to occur."

What crap, What about Live Earth? What "freedom" no longer exists that prevents such a large musical event from happening again?

"You'll just have to accept that it was an experience beyond what is possible today."

I don't "just accept" things without good reason. It is typical for Boomers to act like arrogant know-it-alls, in my experience.

[omega minimo]

179. "What "freedom" no longer exists that prevents such a large musical event from happening again?"

:wow:

[Cetacea]

193. Tazers, for one. Freedom isn't free!!! 100292902028

[PVnRT]

202. Why don't you answer the question instead of posting a snarky smilie?

Probably because you can't.

[Odin2005]

214. It's a serious question.

:shrug:

[omega minimo]

235. You can't think of anything about freedom in society that's different now from then

or how a comparable gathering of people and bands would be handled now?

[Odin2005]

244. A few security people for safety is anti-freedom?

That's the only difference I would see between a huge rock concert between then and now, oh, and no people getting in without paying for tickets. :hi:

[omega minimo]

257. Oh come on. PICTURE IT. Picture security then and now. The fact you take it for granted is PROOF

of how different it is. It's a DIFFERENT WORLD. :banghead:

[Greyhound]

201. See, your very statement demonstrates that you don't have any frame of reference to

understand how far things have fallen apart (and you apparently missed the part about me being a part of the neXt generation).

Woodstock from my perspective represents the culmination of a societal tolerance that simply no longer exists in America. It has been downhill from then at an ever increasing pace. All you see was the filth, the drugs, etc. per your reply. Your attitude literally screams a lack of understanding and intolerance.

All the shit today is the reaction to that milieu. A small percentage of that generation rejected the crass commercialism and intolerance that was still becoming and permeates society today. Woodstock was not simply half a million people being in the same place to listen to the music (none of which could happen today), it was a coming together. Or so I'm told.

You point to Live Earth and it serves very well as an example, just look at the "security presence" used in the U.S. events.

[Odin2005]

216. Sad that you have fallen for the Boomer hagiography.

Societal tolerance? In 1969 you could still get lynched in many places if you were a black man dating a white woman. Homosexuality was considered a mental illness. The fight for women's equality had just then started to take off, and women and girls still weren't allowed to wear pants in many places. People with developmental disabilities and severe mental illnesses were thrown into soul-crushing state institutions.

There period many have been "transcendent" for upper-middle class white teens and 20-somethings, but for a lot of other people it was a nasty time.

[Greyhound]

224. It was a nasty time and the minority of the Boomers rejected it.

Never mind, you don't and probably never will get it. As I said, you have no frame of reference from which to understand. All you've ever known is the backlash.

[omega minimo]

169. .

:eyes:

[Toasterlad]

111. How Foolish You Are. You Don't Have to Attend an Event for it to Be Important.

I wasn't at Woodstock. I also wasn't at the moon landing. But both events are touchstones of my youth that still resonate with me today, even if I can barely remember hearing of them at the time. How sad for you that you don't understand the impact that Woodstock had on history...and those who were there, and those who weren't.

[crazy_vanilla]

113. Woodstock is of no interest to me

Who cares what happened!

[billh58]

121. It's an oldie, but

if you remember Woodstock, you most likely weren't there.

No one really gives a rat's ass if younger people "remember" Woodstock, because that wasn't the object of the exercise. Woodstock was about what was happening on those four days to the people that WERE there, and the lasting impression it made on the participants AND the performers.

Peace...;-)

[Hippo_Tron]

131. I'm not sad that I missed out on woodstock but I am sad that I missed out on that era

There was a kind of freedom in the late 60's and early 70's that I know I will never experience in my young adult life.

[DevonRex]

210. Hear hear! I was too young to experience it, too, except the way a

kid can look at something with wonder. And I didn't realize until I was old enough that the chance would never happen again.

[Jennicut]

133. I am 33 and a Gen Xer but always loved the music of the late 60's. Woodstock ruled.

It had great music and it was a huge youth movement. Nothing at all happened like that in 1998 (the year before I graduated college). And many people don't understand that the youth at Woodstock was not all of the young people of that generation. My parents were the right age but never went and were not interested and grew up to be conservatives. But for the young people that DID go it was huge because of the fact that no violence broke out, no fighting, no rioting. People shared and helped each other out. Compare that to the crap that went down in "Woodstock" in 1999. For that reason alone it was a big experience. And please, stop making Gen X sound so lame. I love the music I grew up with (Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, etc.) but I love the music from other eras as well. The Doors are one of my favorite bands and what can I say about Hendrix? And my brother got me into Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Here is a quote from wikipedia that I love:

After the concert Max Yasgur, who owned the site of the event, saw it as a victory of peace and love. He spoke of how nearly half a million people filled with possibilities of disaster, riot, looting, and catastrophe spent the three days with music and peace on their minds. He states that "if we join them, we can turn those adversities that are the problems of America today into a hope for a brighter and more peaceful future..."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock_Festival

[RadiationTherapy]

194. I love many of the 60s artists too.

I never said a comparable event happened in 1998; I was saying that I understand what it is like to experience a thing personally that impacts you so deeply that you remember it for the rest of your life.

[dana_b]

215. I understood what you meant

and for some reason it got twisted to mean that you thought everthing in '98 was better than Woodstock.

We all (hopefully) experience that kind of magic and for people to belittle others' experiences is ridiculous. This whole thread has become a fight between the generations because I think some people felt that you were dissing their rememberances/experiences of Woodstock which, to them, was a very big deal. It's been a very big deal for 40 years now. So then they jumped on your experiences. sigh.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

242. Here, here, Jennicut.

Max Yasgur, I was surprised to learn, was actually a Republican.

Indeed, Max – son of Sam and Bella Yasgur of Maplewood – ended up fighting for the rights of people with whom he shared little in common, including matters of opinion. Yet he championed the hippies’ right to assemble, speak and perform on any topic pertinent to them.

“He was a conservative Republican farmer who fought like hell for these kids to have the right to express what they felt and believed,” said Sam. “He fought for them, and they knew it.”

In so doing, the name of Max Yasgur became synonymous with Woodstock, with peace, with tolerance – even appearing only semi-tongue-in-cheek on bumper stickers nationwide: “Max Yasgur for President.”

http://www.sc-democrat.com/archives/2004/news/09September/14/awards.htm

[donheld]

134. 100% disagree

[pilar007]

142. Another perspective...if I may

People were just sick of the uptight oppressive 50's and early 60's, assasinations,VietNam, the draft,students being shot by military...here...in the US. I mean, c'mon, The Beatles were considered obscene and an abomination by many when they arrived earlier in the decade. Talk about uptight. Elvis's pelvis wasn't allowed to be shown on the Ed Sullivan show. So yeah, Woodstock was a big deal because it proved, even just for 3 days, people can get along and not be hung up on shit and enjoy themselves in bad or precarious conditions and the promoters did not make money...unlike Monterey Pop. Don't get me wrong...those concerts are great too. It was in the news and it was on covers of magizines...unlike other concerts. Ya had to be of that time and realize how liberating and mind opening certain events were. You know the scene in Forrest Gump were Jenny is playing the guitar on Sunset Blvd and some guy comes along and asks if anyone want to drive up to San Fransisco and she just jumps in the car and goes with him?...well I've lived it. Big Sur was the place to go and yes, play in the mud...naked. One would walk on Sunset Blvd and a passerby would pass you a joint! As a Mexican American, born in ELA, raised by strict grandparents... I am glad my formative years were in the 60's. I am glad I learned to question authority and see Jimi Hendricks and the Doors and many many others who are no longer with us. I'd probably be teaching catachism and not appreciate DU. I believe Woodstock is just another representation of what was positive about a decade of much ugliness. Let it be. All ya need is love man. Don't hate on the boomers...enough stress

[ContinentalOp]

144. Have any good stories about the Strip?

Ever see Love, The Seeds, Mothers, or any of those bands?

[Fumesucker]

146. If you can remember Woodstock..

You weren't there. :evilgrin:

[Morning Dew]

164. Hey kid, get off my lawn.

p.s. - We boomers didn't intend to be born in such large numbers, we wanted to infiltrate, not dominate. It wasn't a plot.





OK, it was a plot, just not the one you think it was.

[MichaelHarris]

166. Us hippies got the last laugh,

we left them with Disco to deal with. It took them 15 years to get away from that.

[Name removed]

171. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[BlooInBloo]

181. Rodney Dangerfield called. He wants his Over The Top back....

Come on. I think the OP is fucking stupid too; but likening him to a murderer? Come on.

[omega minimo]

182. I didn't and you know that. Don't add to teh stupid.

[RadiationTherapy]

196. Really? The original post and/or poster is 'fucking stupid'?

There is no relevance or information to be gleaned from it? It lacks value in any way?

[omega minimo]

241. Nice job, BiB.

Really outdid yourself this time. Your intentional misrepresentation helped get my post deleted. Your false claims will be also.

Was it too close to the truth for you? Too relevant to the unnecessary battle here? I don't believe you really misunderstood it, at all.

:hi:

[BlooInBloo]

247. It wasn't me, no matter how much you care to make shit up about it. Alerting posts...

isn't really my thing.

You're more than welcome to continue whining, however.

[omega minimo]

259. Didn't say you did. See if you read more carefully, you won't misinterpret as frequently.

What I said was: "Your intentional misrepresentation helped get my post deleted."

[WillieW]

177. Speak for yourself. It was awesome!!

[Cetacea]

198. I suppose you had to have been there... n/t

[zinziber officinale]

206. The irony is that you say that

as you listen to Dylan, The Who, etc. I know so many people younger than I who listen to classic rock over the latest band out there now. There is just no comparison. It was a renaissance. And the "in" thing was LOVE and spiritual development, not bling or violence.:puke:

[cliffordu]

211. Nothing happened because YOU weren't there, cupcake.

[WillieW]

240. Oh, yes I was there.

[alcibiades_mystery]

217. It will be considered a historical event roughly equal to the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893

That is, specialists in the era will pour over it in great detail, seeking to make sense of its significance. Others will largely forget it. Maybe somebody will write a book 100 years from now on Manson/Woodstock similar to The Devil in the White City, and people will read it. It's no doubt true that Woodstock will fade quickly from public memory upon the waning of the baby boomer generation. My kids - a four month old and a three year old - will probably get a vague sense of it, but without the whole gushing nostalgia trip that the boomers have put on it for our post-boomer generation. Very soon, few people will care about it, or see its importance to that generation.

I wouldn't pay much attention to the Sixties gnosticism your getting as responses. Every generation thinks you "just had to be there," mistaking - as always - experiential for historical knowledge.

[Raschel]

229. Every generation thinks you "just had to be there,"

That's true. I respect the stories of WWI and WWII veterans, I know that I will never know what it was like for that generation.

There was the gangster era and prohibition, I'll never know what it was like to experience that era.

In the sixties our country went through great and many changes, from civil rights, to the moon landing, to three assasinations. We lived through a great cultural revolution, feminism - from women wearing hats and gloves to burning their bras, little girls being allowed to wear pants to school, sex-education, Black is beautiful, from Ozzie and Harriet who could not be seen in the same bed, to Laugh-In.

Even the Beatles went from the Beatle Cut, ties and I wanna hold your hand, to long hair and there's gonna be a revolution. WTH?

I was young at the time, but I could sense that things were changing drastically. It was alot for a child to digest.

Woodstock encapsulates that time of historical significance and will always be associated with the greatness of that decade.

We boomers have seen a lot and now we are able to be here for the country's first Black president.

[mitchum]

251. Once again, you provide penetrating insight

That is a very good analogy.
Well done.

[d_b]

232. lol @ summer of 98

that's good shit right there.

[Texasgal]

234. What's up with the anger?

Some people thought woodstock was magical... you don't. Okay... so what? Why the anger?

[Rex]

239. Wrong.

Looks like you need to take a history course before you go blabbering on about it. :eyes:

[MzNov]

246. I suppose if everyone sat there in the mud Twittering

you would have been more interested.

Boy are you a self-centered child.

Woodstock and the entire 60's movement will always be a part of history, just because it's not yours doesn't mean it did not mean something to the development of this country.

Ugh.

[ElboRuum]

305. You forgot "and get off my lawn!"

The OP scores with goal scored by opposing player. Q.E.D.

[Orsino]

250. I heard it was all faked on a soundstage in Arizona. n/t

[freddie mertz]

252. One day, you too will be "old", my friend...

And as you "age and die," what will you and your so-called generation "pine" for?

I can't think of a single thing.

Meanwhile, I can't shake the impression that I just wassted a few of the seconds I have left to a witless, mean-spirited provocation from nowhere.




:( :hippie: :patriot:

[superduperfarleft]

261. Fucking recommend.

The music sucked and I hate hippies.

[alcibiades_mystery]

262. The hippies won't come back, you say

Mellow out or you will pay!
Mellow out or you will paaaay!

California. Uber alles!
California uber alles.
Uber alles. California!
Uber alles Cal-i-foooornia...

:-)

[Cetacea]

302. Do you hate people who are pro-womens rights?

i don't see how you can hate hippies and be a democrat.

[superduperfarleft]

303. It's easy.

When they claim that they got civil rights legislation passed, it makes me hate them, because it was actually black people fighting and dying for their rights, not whitebred weekend warriors from the suburbs who came to the ghetto to buy weed.

When they claim that they did so much for gay rights, it makes me hate them, because it was actually GLBT people fighting and dying for their rights, not whitebred weekend warriors from the suburbs who may have held a few signs once in a while.

When they claim that they "ended a war," it makes me hate them, because not only did it take ten fucking years for them to get around to it, the only reason half of those people cared was because it was their skin on the line, not because they actually cared about the Vietnamese people we were brutalizing.

You can have your white people in stupid clothes smoking up, listening to shitty music, and rolling around in the mud, and I'll keep the Black Panthers, SDS/Weather Underground, and Mattachine, thanks.

[RadiationTherapy]

309. Goddammit; I hate that I didn't notice this before.

I wonder what memories of woodstock minorities of the time have? Was it a significant event to non-whites?

[superduperfarleft]

311. The fact that it took so long for any of the hippies to ask is telling.

:thumbsup:

[livetohike]

263. I wasn't there, but we had a cause, actually several causes

and it was nice to know that half a million kids like me believed in stopping the war and cleaning up the planet. What moved us? Knowing friends who died in Nam for instance.

It hasn't happened since then.

[Erin Elizabeth]

271. I was born in 1970, so I've heard about it my whole life.

And a lot of us who were teenagers in the 80s got pretty sick of hearing about how awesome and incredible and wonderful and magical and AMAZING Woodstock was!

Now that I'm older (pushing 40--pushing it REAL hard) and have had some respite from all the 60s fatigue of earlier years, I can appreciate what it was for a lot of people.

But I think it's been one of those things that's been oversold and overhyped quite a bit. I do think the Baby Boomers are used to everything they do being reported, examined, re-examined, discussed, discussed, discussed, one hour news specials, three hour news specials, etc.

I feel like I grew up in the shadow of the 60s. But whatever, time marches on.

[Erin Elizabeth]

275. I did want to say----

I think there are just a few times when people collectively feel an unabashed unironic emotion and actually have the opportunity to express it en masse.

That's very rare.

I was watching a special about it on The History Channel and when they showed this woman who still goes around in her day-glo painted bus with "hippies" on top playing music (tamborines, etc), I sort of.....cringed. It felt fake. Forced.


It was an emotional thing, I think. And it was there and gone.

AND something like that COULD happen again except that we're still living so much in the shadow of that HUGE ICONIC event that I fear it can't. It's like nothing can get out from under that shadow. Maybe in another 40 years, when the baby boomers are gone.

[rapturedbyrobots]

283. faux pas

you can't bad mouth the hippies around here. white boomers from the 60s are the most self-absorbed people alive today. and they definitely don't like it when you point that out.

oops. sorry guys.

[Erin Elizabeth]

286. Thank you.

Abso-fucking-lutely they are.

[endarkenment]

295. May your visit here be enjoyed by all of us.

veggie or meat?

[Romulox]

300. I have over 8000 posts, and I tend to agree with him.

:hi:

[endarkenment]

306. And at 8000+ go ahead and tell half od DU to fuck off and die

At 46 posts, mind your manners.

[superduperfarleft]

304. Do I have enough posts yet to say that I agree with him? n/t

[brendan120678]

308. Nope, sorry....

Post count doesn't matter.
You need a donor star to criticize the hippies!

;-)

[superduperfarleft]

312. Well since they all became bankers and investment advisors...

maybe one of them can loan me a buck or two. ;)

[Romulox]

297. Look at Jefferson Airplane, a perfect emblem of both Woodstock and selling out.

[brendan120678]

298. I think that I more or less agree with you....

Check out this column by the Philly Inquirer's Dick Polman. I don't agre with everything he has to say, but it is fairly insightful:

Brace yourselves for yet another round of Woodstock overload. Next weekend marks the 40th anniversary of that mythical music mudfest, so naturally we’re getting eight new books, a new TV documentary, a new Hollywood movie, and a newly remastered DVD of the old documentary, which will enable aging baby boomers to mourn their lost youth in high definition.

(snip)

The truth, omitted from the 1970 documentary, is that hundreds of kids ingested bad acid and required medical treatment in the “freakout tent,” that the Grateful Dead were almost electrocuted on stage during a downpour, that stoned musicians traveling in helicopters vomited on the crowd, that two festival organizers wound up suing the other two (there were 80 lawsuits in all), and that many of the people in attendance remain confused about what they actually witnessed vs. what they saw in the documentary.

(snip)

Nobody in the ‘70 documentary talked about Manson, or about the violent radicals applauding his work. Indeed, all political content was deliberately excised from the film — which means that most boomers, having only seen the film, have come to believe that Woodstock was a totally apolitical event. In truth, there were constant tensions between the organizers, who wanted simply to stage a music party, and activists, who wanted to galvanize the crowd for various political purposes.

(snip)

That was quite a heavy load — this notion that Woodstock was supposed to be more than a party, that it was supposed to define how a generation felt about itself, to crystallize its political and cultural potential. Looking back 40 years, Woodstock has managed only to inflate boomers’ expectations of themselves and, sadly, to amplify many of life’s inevitable disappointments.

Whole article here: http://rocnow.com/article/opinion-syndicated-columns/2009908140362

[RadiationTherapy]

307. "Looking back 40 years, Woodstock has managed only to inflate boomers’ expectations of themselves

and, sadly, to amplify many of life’s inevitable disappointments."

This is a good write up.

[sonofspy777]

310. wrongo

Sorry you're incorrect. What Woodstock proved to us whether or not we attended
was that we were not alone in our feelings about the VietNam war our country and our lives.
It encouraged us to continue protesting and it was really us who brought an end to the war.

[superduperfarleft]

313. "it was really us who brought an end to the war."

Rolling on the fucking floor laughing.

You guys really have an high opinion of yourselves that is completely undeserved.