The legednary Woodstock concert is now 40(!) years old. The August Media Rants column celebrates the anniversary with a hypothetical conversation between two fictional attendees. Here 'tis:Woodstock at 40
Media Rants
By Tony Palmeri
The legendary Woodstock concert, billed as “three days of peace and music,” attracted a half million people to Max Yasgur’s Bethel, NY farm during the weekend of August 15, 1969. Michael Wadleigh’s Academy Award winning 1970 documentary film remains the best source for those curious about what it must have been like to trip on acid at 3 a.m., in a muddy field surrounded by fellow travelers, listening to The Who jam tunes from “Tommy.”
A favorite scene in Wadleigh’s flick features long lines of hippies waiting for pay phones to become available so they can call mom. The absence of cell phones, laptops, iPods and other toys makes the setting seem prehistoric. On the other hand, the baby boom generation that attended Woodstock have become smitten with technology; I’ll bet that quite a few people who were at the “Aquarian music and art fair” have found kindred spirits on Facebook.
Imagine one of those Facebook conversations. Merecedes “Mercy” Metoxen and Jerry McCann were both 19 years in 1969. She came to Woodstock all the way from Green Bay with a half-dozen friends on a colorful hippie bus decked out with peace and love symbols. He was a New York City boy, a student at Queens College in part to avoid the draft. Jerry and a few buddies hitchhiked to Woodstock and back. We pick up their Facebook dialogue as they reminisce about the concert and its meaning for today.
Mercy: Jerry, did you know that the same guy who directed “Brokeback Mountain” is coming out with a film about Woodstock this month?
Jerry: Yeah, I think it’s called “Taking Woodstock.” To tell you the truth, I gave up listening to anything Woodstock related about 20 years ago. Just can’t handle the way the media gets all nostalgic about it.
Mercy: Or trivializes it.
Jerry: Right. After Woodstock I went and earned two Master’s Degrees and have been teaching in K-12 and community colleges for almost 30 years. You’re an attorney and been in the nonprofit sector for a long time. I didn’t plan my career during that weekend in August of ’69, but I know that the event transformed me in ways that I probably still don’t understand.
Mercy: Look at my situation. Here I was, half Spanish and half native-American. In Green Bay I didn’t feel genuine bonds with anyone, even most of my friends on the bus that weekend. Then we get to Woodstock, and the atmosphere of love and acceptance overwhelmed me. We smoked joints and there was lots of LSD and mescaline around, but the real high was in the relationships and camaraderie.
Jerry: Same with me, an Irish kid from Queens. But ethnicity did not matter very much that weekend. We were all rolling around as equals in the same mud. The whole “identity politics” thing hadn’t developed yet.
Mercy: “Woodstock Nation” was supposed to be our new identity: black and white, man and woman, gay and straight. Everyone united against “The Man” or bullying in general. Some of the musicians there that weekend never sold out on those ideals, especially Richie Havens, Joan Baez, and Country Joe McDonald.
Jerry: You and I met while Richie sang “Handsome Johnny.” Remember that? It’s funny now because the studio version of that song has a line that says something like “what’s the use of singing this song, some of you are not even listening.”
Mercy: The media tend to make it sound like the kids were mesmerized by the musicians. Janis Joplin blew me away in a female power kind of way, but it was difficult to see and hear any of the artists.
Jerry: They assume we were mesmerized by the artists and all became Democrats or Republican sellouts. I regret it now, but I actually voted for Reagan in 1980 after convincing myself that Woodstock values stood a better chance with him.
Mercy: How did you possibly reach that conclusion, especially since Reagan was one of the real bad guys for youth in the 1960s?
Jerry: Artie Kornfeld and Mike Lang, the two major Woodstock promoters, are to this day hard core capitalists and entrepreneurs. I thought Reagan’s “small government” program would be good for capitalism with a human face such as that represented by Woodstock. By 1984 I came to understand that Reagan was a moron who didn’t even grasp the policies coming out of his own administration.
Mercy: Did you know that Kornfeld and Lang both have books coming out to coincide with the 40th anniversary? I think Kornfeld is releasing his memoirs by the title The Pied Piper. Lang’s is called The Road to Woodstock. Every now and then I listen to Kornfeld’s “Spirit of the Woodstock Nation” radio show. But you talk about Reagan; I wonder if Obama is the liberal version of him?
Jerry: Maybe, especially in how good he is on television. He’s got some great lines about change, but it won’t happen unless he’s pushed.
Mercy: Absolutely. What we need to do is get off Facebook and start organizing people the old fashioned way; knock on their doors and get in their faces.
Jerry: We can do it. We are stardust and golden after all.
Media Rants
By Tony Palmeri
The legendary Woodstock concert, billed as “three days of peace and music,” attracted a half million people to Max Yasgur’s Bethel, NY farm during the weekend of August 15, 1969. Michael Wadleigh’s Academy Award winning 1970 documentary film remains the best source for those curious about what it must have been like to trip on acid at 3 a.m., in a muddy field surrounded by fellow travelers, listening to The Who jam tunes from “Tommy.”
A favorite scene in Wadleigh’s flick features long lines of hippies waiting for pay phones to become available so they can call mom. The absence of cell phones, laptops, iPods and other toys makes the setting seem prehistoric. On the other hand, the baby boom generation that attended Woodstock have become smitten with technology; I’ll bet that quite a few people who were at the “Aquarian music and art fair” have found kindred spirits on Facebook.
Imagine one of those Facebook conversations. Merecedes “Mercy” Metoxen and Jerry McCann were both 19 years in 1969. She came to Woodstock all the way from Green Bay with a half-dozen friends on a colorful hippie bus decked out with peace and love symbols. He was a New York City boy, a student at Queens College in part to avoid the draft. Jerry and a few buddies hitchhiked to Woodstock and back. We pick up their Facebook dialogue as they reminisce about the concert and its meaning for today.
Mercy: Jerry, did you know that the same guy who directed “Brokeback Mountain” is coming out with a film about Woodstock this month?
Jerry: Yeah, I think it’s called “Taking Woodstock.” To tell you the truth, I gave up listening to anything Woodstock related about 20 years ago. Just can’t handle the way the media gets all nostalgic about it.
Mercy: Or trivializes it.
Jerry: Right. After Woodstock I went and earned two Master’s Degrees and have been teaching in K-12 and community colleges for almost 30 years. You’re an attorney and been in the nonprofit sector for a long time. I didn’t plan my career during that weekend in August of ’69, but I know that the event transformed me in ways that I probably still don’t understand.
Mercy: Look at my situation. Here I was, half Spanish and half native-American. In Green Bay I didn’t feel genuine bonds with anyone, even most of my friends on the bus that weekend. Then we get to Woodstock, and the atmosphere of love and acceptance overwhelmed me. We smoked joints and there was lots of LSD and mescaline around, but the real high was in the relationships and camaraderie.
Jerry: Same with me, an Irish kid from Queens. But ethnicity did not matter very much that weekend. We were all rolling around as equals in the same mud. The whole “identity politics” thing hadn’t developed yet.
Mercy: “Woodstock Nation” was supposed to be our new identity: black and white, man and woman, gay and straight. Everyone united against “The Man” or bullying in general. Some of the musicians there that weekend never sold out on those ideals, especially Richie Havens, Joan Baez, and Country Joe McDonald.
Jerry: You and I met while Richie sang “Handsome Johnny.” Remember that? It’s funny now because the studio version of that song has a line that says something like “what’s the use of singing this song, some of you are not even listening.”
Mercy: The media tend to make it sound like the kids were mesmerized by the musicians. Janis Joplin blew me away in a female power kind of way, but it was difficult to see and hear any of the artists.
Jerry: They assume we were mesmerized by the artists and all became Democrats or Republican sellouts. I regret it now, but I actually voted for Reagan in 1980 after convincing myself that Woodstock values stood a better chance with him.
Mercy: How did you possibly reach that conclusion, especially since Reagan was one of the real bad guys for youth in the 1960s?
Jerry: Artie Kornfeld and Mike Lang, the two major Woodstock promoters, are to this day hard core capitalists and entrepreneurs. I thought Reagan’s “small government” program would be good for capitalism with a human face such as that represented by Woodstock. By 1984 I came to understand that Reagan was a moron who didn’t even grasp the policies coming out of his own administration.
Mercy: Did you know that Kornfeld and Lang both have books coming out to coincide with the 40th anniversary? I think Kornfeld is releasing his memoirs by the title The Pied Piper. Lang’s is called The Road to Woodstock. Every now and then I listen to Kornfeld’s “Spirit of the Woodstock Nation” radio show. But you talk about Reagan; I wonder if Obama is the liberal version of him?
Jerry: Maybe, especially in how good he is on television. He’s got some great lines about change, but it won’t happen unless he’s pushed.
Mercy: Absolutely. What we need to do is get off Facebook and start organizing people the old fashioned way; knock on their doors and get in their faces.
Jerry: We can do it. We are stardust and golden after all.
1 comment:
Aah the sixties, upper class kids getting high, poor kids getting shot at. Aah the two thousands upper class kids getting high, poor kids getting shot at. you're come a long way baby.
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