Billed as “3 Days of Peace & Music” at Max Yasgur’s 600-acre farm in Bethel, New York, Woodstock began August 15, 1969 and lasted until the morning of August 18 with performances by some of the era’s biggest and best musicians: Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Sly & the Family Stone, Ravi Shankar, and many others. The festival spawned an Oscar®-winning documentary, a No. 1 soundtrack, a song by Joni Mitchell, countless books, tributes, and other music festivals.
WLIW21 celebrates the 40th anniversary of the legendary Woodstock festival — the pinnacle of hippie counterculture and, arguably, the greatest popular music event ever — with a new three-hour special, premiering Wednesday, August 12 at 8 p.m. Woodstock Remembered features a look back at this music milestone through new interviews with people who attended the landmark event: fans like Colleen Plimpton, who was famously photographed by Newsweek exiting the festival covered in mud with her boyfriend; Woodstock Revisited author Susan Reynolds; and Louis Salvatore Denaro, a 7-year-old with his parents on the way to a Catskills weekend retreat suddenly surrounded by hippies and chaos! Preview video now! These memories and notable concert performances from Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Levon Helm (The Band), Arlo Guthrie, Richie Havens, John Sebastian, and others, capture the spirit of Woodstock at 40.
Official Woodstock staff photographer Henry Diltz will be live in the WLIW21 studio during the broadcast with his unique perspective on the festival. Arriving in Bethel two weeks before the festival, Diltz was perched on the stage during the entire three-day festival, around the clock, and captured some of the most iconic images of the rock n’ roll era. He only took occasional quick naps in a rented station wagon parked behind the stage. Diltz will share his photographs and memories from the festival, including one of the most profound moments of his life: Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner” festival finale.
Rock and roll all night or set your DVR for:
Levon Helm’s Ramble at the Ryman
Since 2004, Levon Helm has hosted evenings of music at his home studio in Woodstock, New York that have come to be known as “The Midnight Ramble.” In September 2008, Levon Helm took the show on the road to the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville with special guests, including Buddy Miller and Sheryl Crow. Check out “The Weight”:
The Who at Kilburn 1977
Late night Wednesday, August 12 at 1 a.m. and Saturday, August 15 at 2:30 a.m.
The Kids Are Alright filmmaker Jeff Stein captured The Who’s legendary 1977 concert at Kilburn, which turned out to be Keith Moon’s penultimate performance—and remained unreleased until 2008. Check out “Can’t Explain” and “Substitute”:
Fillmore: The Last Days
Late night Wednesday, August 12 at 2:30 a.m. and Saturday, August 15 at 4 a.m.
In 1971, to insure the Fillmore West was sent off in a blaze of glory, Bill Graham scheduled five nights of concerts from notable San Francisco Sound acts that got their start at the storied concert hall. Performances include Grateful Dead, Santana, Jefferson Airplane, and Quicksilver Messenger Service. Check out this preview featuring Lamb and Cold Blood:
[...] the pinnacle of hippie counterculture and, arguably, the greatest popular music event ever — with Woodstock Remembered. The new three-hour special features a look back at the music milestone through new interviews with [...]
I believe Sweetwater was the first performer at Woodstock. They arrived, performed and left before Richie Havens arrived, according to another TV show about Woodstock whose name I don’t remember.
The Woodstock Festival took place in Bethel, NY – not in Rye,NY as you have it advertised on Cable TV ……. who came up with that? Makes no sense, so please change it.
I was born in 1950 and I can tell you, the late 60’s was a time like no other. I had just graduated from high school and it seemed everything in the world was revolving around music… so there was no way I was going to miss Woodstock. My sister said she’d pay for my tickets if I gave her and her girlfriend a ride. The three of us left Suffolk County, Long Island, Friday night about midnight. All the radio stations were saying the New York State Thruway was closed because people just parked their cars and started to walk to get to the concert site, but I wasn’t planning on walking. We took the last Thruway exit before the Woodstock one and drove west. At one point we came to a northbound road that had police “DO NOT CROSS” signs across it. I moved the signs out of the way and we headed north. After a bit we came to a road COMPLETELY filled with people heading west. It was starting to get light out, so we parked. I told my sister and her friend to meet back at the car after the concert was over, and the three of us joined the moving mob of happy faces. When I got to the concert area I wormed myself down to the right side just in front of the stage.
As far as the concert went, it was truly a religious experience. One breathtaking performance after another. I wasn’t into the Who before Woodstock but they were ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. When Sly and the Family Stone came on stage it was like a spaceship landed. There should be a movie of just their set. In fact there should be individual movies of everyone’s set. I stayed until the end. Jimi Hendrix. Probably only three hundred people left.
A few weeks later my picture was on the inside cover of the Life Woodstock Special Issue. Twenty years later that same picture was on the cover of the Life Woodstock Twentieth Anniversary issue. In 1999 I went to the Woodstock reunion in Bethel and met Elliot Landy, the photographer who took the picture. I bought his book Woodstock Vision: The spirit of a generation, and got his autograph.
The real punchline to my Woodstock ‘69 story is, at the end of the concert the only one waiting at my car was my sister. Her friend never showed up. And I never have seen her since.
See you at Woodstock ‘09, Dan Sullivan
The Who indeed appeared in the Woodstock movie. Is your TV special as poorly researched as this web page?
Thank you all for your feedback. Michael, Sweetwater played after Richie Havens. They were scheduled to go on first but due to some problems Richie went on before them. Kasponya, unfortunately we can’t control the descriptions in the listings you see on your cable guide. We notified the company that supplies these listings of the error and hopefully a correction will be made. Roy, we goofed big on The Who. Thanks for pointing that out! We’re making the correction. Hope you all watched the special and enjoyed it.
Please provide the names of the amateurs who put together this program. I happened to watch the Dead’s two-song performance, and I am not a fan of the Dead. However, how is it possible that no one could sync the audio with the video 40 years later so that the mouths moved at the same time that the lyrics were being sung? This should not have been a difficult task. Puh-lease…
[...] all the stories from last night’s Woodstock Remembered broadcast in our Woodstock Stories archive. After you watch, be sure to share your story on the [...]
btw – I believe that performance clip of the Grateful Dead was NOT from the 1969 Woodstock festival. has anyone investiagted its authenticity?
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