Links by George

Favorite Records./Musicians (1-50)

Jimi Hendrix: Electric Ladyland
Beatles: Sgt. Peppers
Beatles: White Album
Led Zeppelin: 1
Rolling Stones: Let it Bleed
Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon
Rolling Stones: Exile on Main Street
Led Zeppelin: 2
Beatles: Revolver
Jimi Hendrix: Are You Experienced
Grateful Dead: Live '72
Cream: Disraeli Gears
Beatles: Abbey Road
Big Brother/Janis: Cheap Thrills
Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers
Jeff Beck/Rod Steward: Faith
Jimi Hendrix: Axis Bold As Love
Grateful Dead: Anthem to the Sun
Miles Davis: Bitches Brew
Traffic: first one
Doors: first one
Rolling Stones: Satanic Majesties
Ten Years After: Cricklewood Green
Spirit: The Family That Plays Together
Cream: Wheels of Fire
Stepenwolf: first one
Jefferson Airplane: After Bathing at Baxters
Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour
Traffic: Dear Mr. Fantasy
Greatful Dead: Aoxoxo..
Animals: Love Is
Pink Floyd: Ungamunga
Miles Davis: In a Silent Way
Tim Buckley: Blue Melody
Tim Leary/Jimi Hendrix: You Can Be Anyone
Jefferson Airplane: Surrealistic Pillow
Doors: Soft Parade
Joe Cocker: first one
Ravi Shankar: Monterey
Rolling Stones: Beggars Banquet
George Harrison: All Things Must Pass
Doors: Strange Days
Jimi Hendrix: Cry of Love
Weather Report: I Sing the Body Electric
Doors: Waiting for the Sun
John Coltrane: My Favorite Things
Grateful Dead: first
Zappa: Hot Rats
Traffic: Low Spark of High Heel Boys
Jethro Tull: Aqualung

Favorite Records/Musicians (50-100)

Tim Buckley: Greetings From LA
Allman Brothers: Live At the Filmore
Mahavishnu Orchestra: Birds of Fire
John Mclaughlin: Love, Devotion and Surrender
Santana: first
Pink Floyd: BBC
Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy
Jimi Hendrix: Band of Gypsys
Miles Davis: Bitches Brew Sessions/Another Bitches Brew
Grateful Dead: (live from the 80's)
Crosby Stills Nash and Young: deja vu
Bob Dylan: Subterenean Homesick Blues
Tim Buckley: Happy Sad
Weather Report: second
Santana/McLauglin: Love, Devotion and Surrender
Bob Dylan: Hwy 61 Revisited
Derek and the Dominoes: Layla
David Crosby: If I Could Remember My Name
Mahavishnu Orchestra
Jimi Hendrix: Rainbow Bridge
Led Zeppelin: III
Pink Floyd: Shine on You Crazy Diamond
Miles Davis: Live-Evil
Grateful Dead: live 90's
Beatles: Rubber Soul
Miles Davis: Sketches of Spain
Jimi Hendrix: Cry of Love
Moody Blues: In Search of the Lost Chord
Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour
John Mclauglin: My Goal's Beyond
Santana: Welcome
Country Joe: Electric Music
Pink Floyd: Pompei
Moody Blues: Tomorrow
Who: Tommy
Stevie Wonder: Talking Book
Jimi Hendrix: Midnight Lightning
Frank Zappa: Us and Them
Quicksilver: first one
Spirit: Fresh Garbage
Mothers of Invention: Only in it for the Money
Joe Cocker: Mad Dogs and Englishman
Bob Dylan: Another Side Of
Cream: Fresh
Yes: first
Who: Live at Leeds
Rolling Stones: High Tides
Tim Buckley: Safronia
King Crimson: Court of Crimson King

Favorite Records/Musicians(100-150)

Paul Butterfield-East West
Jean Luc Ponty: Enigmatic Voyage
Miles Davis: Seven Steps
Shawn Philips: Faces
Byrds: Notorious Bird Brothers
Steppenwolf: Monster
Raphael; Music to Disapear In 2
Buffalo Springfield: Retrospect
Neil Young: first
Beatles: Let it Be
Pink Floyd: Meddle
Neil Young: Everybody Knows this is Nowhere
Allman Brothers: Eat a Peach
Frank Zappa: Apostrophe
Gong
Miles Davis: Big Fun
Neil Young: Zuma
Miles Davis: Kind of Blue
Doors: Morrison Hotel
Soft Machine-first
Grand Funk Railroad: Closer to Home
Jefferson Starship: Blows Against the Empire
John Luc Ponty: Tales of...
Blind Faith
Neil Young: Harvest
Jefferson Airplane: Volunteers
Eric Burdon and War
Rolling Stones: Between the Buttons
Jefferson Airplane: Bless Its Pointed Little Head
Cream: Goodbye
Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here
Who: Who's Next
Quicksilver: first
Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young: 4 Way Street
Tim Buckley: Happy/Sad
Lauro Nyro: Christmas and the Beads of Sweat
Spirit: Ice
Shawn Phillips: Colaboration
Rolling Stones: Only Rock and Roll
Mahavishnu Orchestra: Inner Mounting Flame
Pink Floyd: Animals
Traffic: Last Exit
Stevie Wonder: Talking Book
Pink Floyd: Obscured by Clouds
Jean Luc Ponty: Cosmic Messenger
Steve Stills: first
Bob Marley: Exodus
Pink Floyd: Saucer Full of Secrets
Traffic: Shoot Out at the Fantasy Farm
It's A Beautiful Day: first
Pete Townsend: Who Came First
Mothers of Invention: Freak Out
Doors: LA Woman

Favorite Books/Authors

Albert Hofmann
Aldous Huxley
Atlas Shrugged
Avant Garde magazine
Bernard Jensen
Carl Jung
Clark Heinrich-Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy
Erich Fromm
Evergreen Review magazine
Fact magazine
Fate magazine
Frank Herbert-Dune
Franz Kafka
Fyodor Dostoevsky
George Orwell
Gogol
Gordon Wasson-Soma
Henry Miller
Herman Hesse
Howard Zinn-People's History
Jack Kerouac
John Steinbeck
Journey to Ixland
Ken Kesey
Krishnamurti
Kurt Vonnegut
Leo Tolstoy
Mad Magazine
Manly Hall
Nikos Katzantzakis
Osho-Rajneesh
Paul Krassner
Phillip Dick
Psychedelic Review
R.D. Laing
Ralph Metzner-Maps of Consciousness
Ram Das-Be Here Now
Richard Brautigan
Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Heinlein-Stranger In a Strange Land
Rollo May
Rudolph Steiner
Rumi
Sri Aurobindo
Tennessee Williams
Terence Mckenna
The Magus -John Fowles
The Realist-Paul Krassner
Timothy Leary
Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
William Buroughs

Favorite movies

1984
2001
8 and a half-Felini
Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai
After The Fox
Altered States
Amarcord
America, America
American Splendor
Americathon
Animal House
Apocalyspse Now (redux)
Atlantic City
Bananas
Baraka
Barfly
Baron Von Munchausen
Being There
Ben Hur
Big Fish
Big Luboski
Big Sleep
Birdman of Alcatraz
Black Orpheus
Bladerunner
Blueberry
Blues Brothers
Boom
Brazil
Buffalo Bill and the Indians
Burn
Buster Keaton (all)
Candy
Cape Fear
Casablanca
Cat On a Hot Tin Roof
Charlie Chaplin (all)
Cheech and Chong (all)
Cleopatra
Clockwork Orange
Cries and Whispers
Dark City
Day the Fish Came Out
Dead Man
Deer Hunter
Dick Tracy
Doctor Strangelove
Dusk To Dawn
East of Eden
Easy Rider
El Topo
Empire of the Ants
Enter the Dragon
Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex
Evil Dead
Exodus
Exorcist
Experiment at Petaluma
Fairy Tale Theatre (w/Shelley Duvall)
Falling Down
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Fidler on the Roof
Fists of Fury
Fitzgeraldo
From Freedom to Fascism
Gargoyles
Gone With the Wind
Holy Mountain
Husbands
If
Indiana Jones (all)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
James Bond (all)
Jim Jarmusch
Joe Cocker-Mad Dogs and Englishmen
Jumangi
Kafka
Kingpin
Last Detail
Last Waltz
Latcho Drum
Laurence of Arabia
Little Shop of Horrors
Lord of the Rings
Lost Highway
Magic Christian
Magical Mystery Tour
Marathon Man
Marx Brothers (all)
Matrix
Meetings With Remarkable men
Metropolis
Michael Nesmith's Elephant Parts
Midnight Cowboy
Missouri Breaks
Monterey Pop Festival
Monty Python (all)
Mother Goose Rock and Roll Rhymes
Music Man
Naked Lunch
Never Ending Story
Never on Sunday
Night of the Living Dead
No Direction Home-Dylan
North by Northwest
Nosferatu
Notorious
O Brother Where Art Thou
Oh Lucky Man
On the Beach
On the Waterfront
One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest
Papilon
Pat Garett and Billy the Kid
Pink Floyd-Pompei
Pink Floyd-The Wall
Planet of the Apes
Popeye (w/Robin Williams)
Porgy and Bess
Pulp Fiction
Race With The Devil
Rainbow Bridge
Reds
Repo Man
Riders on the Storm
Roma-Felini
Rosemary's Baby
Running Man
Satyricon
Shampoo
Skidoo
Sleeper
Song Remains the Same-Led Zeppelin
South Pacific
Spartacus
Spellbound
Star Wars
Steppenwolf
Straight To Hell
Strawberry Statement
Streetcar Named Desire
Suddenly Last Summer
Sweet Birth of Youth
Swept Away (original)
Tempest
Ten Comandments
The 39 Steps
The Birds
The Boys From Brazil
The Devils
The Gods Must Be Crazy
The Graduate
The Grand Boufet
The Grateful Dead Movie
The Groove Tube
The Holy Mountain
The Hustler
The Jerk
The Man Who Fell To Earth
The Party
The Producers
The Sleeper
The Village
They Live
They Shoot Horses Don't They
Things to Come
Tideland
Time Bandits
Tommy
Total Recall
Toxic Avenger
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Truman Show
Ugly American
Under Milkwood
Until the End of the World
Vertigo
Videodrome
Wanderers
War on Democracy-Pilger
Warriors
What's New Pussycat
Wicker Man (original)
Wild Palms
Wonderwall
Yellow Submarine
Young Frankenstein
Zachariah
Zeitgeist
Zorba the Greek

MUSIC VIDEOS for JUNE

The Byrds perform "Eight Miles High," September 23, 1970

http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/the-byrds/video/eight-miles-high_2146595923.html?utm_source=NL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20120611video

Country Joe McDonald: I'm On the Road Again. Winterland (San Francisco, CA) Oct 27, 1973

http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/country-joe-mcdonald/video/im-on-the-road-again_-237301751.html?utm_source=NL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20120613video

Grateful Dead, 4/24/78 - HD/HQ-Werewolves of London ☮

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SmOgVIc9t8&feature=share&mid=51922

Grateful Dead - 10-25-89 Miami Arena - Miami, Florida Set I Pt.3/3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlURLsFXb40

Grateful Dead - Orpheum Theater SF CA 7-12-76 Soundcheck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GALKTTeQd8

Jefferson Airplane (Live Fillmore Auditorium 1966)-It's No Secret -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWxaW7WxUL4&feature=share&mid=51

Jefferson Airplane-Somebody To Love/White Rabbit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1cfTMdjkYM&feature=share&mid=5176590

Jefferson Airplane with David Crosby-Somebody To Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LosNpeN3ETE&feature=share&mid=5127016

Jerry Garcia's Greatest Video Moments (LoloYodel)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpgH31c8t3g

Jerry Garcia & Bob Weir (acoustic)-Masterpiece - 12-17-1987 - Warfield Thea., SF. (1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF6wKT4_n2g

John Cipollina with the Dead...the finale

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkZ5JX4FYoU&feature=related

John Cipoliina & Bob Weir w/ MERL SAUNDERS & FRIENDS - Haight 85-That Pleases Me -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awHQLZKAU_Q&feature=share&mid=51

John Hartford - Gentle on my mind 1977

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_87xfuaHDE&feature=related

Joni Mitchell - Furry Sings The Blues

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwC_EzY5Uvk&feature=youtu.be&mid=5102

Julie Driscoll - Break It Up (1968)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77Ee1FCJ1vg

Julie Driscoll - Road to Cairo (Live 1969)

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

Julie Driscoll - Season Of The Witch (1968)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpizS9h-1Xk

KC & The Sunshine Band - That's The Way (I Like It) [HQ with lyrics]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3svW8PM_jc&feature=related

Led Zeppelin-In the Light

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWSCAm6qVHU

Led Zeppelin-Ramble On -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3HemKGDavw&feature=share&mid=51

Led Zeppelin - You Shook Me - Beat Club 3/27/69

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mMeglC-hcM&feature=share&mid=50

Lee Michaels - Stormy Monday at the Fillmore East from 3-20-1970

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX7lwOQ84jk&mid=5102

Long John Baldry Band, featuring Kathi McDonald

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwcKFWbuIuQ&feature=player_detailpage&mid=5125

Marianne Faithfull - As Tears Go By (1965)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhPPJ5dolxU&mid=50

Marianne Faithfull - Crazy Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pisIqsHwbTY&feature=related

Marianne Faithfull This Time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgO0hpxN9Ns&feature=related

MARIANNE FAITHFULL-WORKING CLASS HERO -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlnl3CGG56M&feature=related

Miles Davis - Berkshire Music Center, Tanglewood, Lenox, MA 08-18-70

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS9XHkrhv-o&feature=related

Quicksilver Messenger Service:Fresh Air Winterland (San Francisco, CA) Dec 28, 1975

http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/quicksilver-messenger-service/video/fresh-air_2146595475.html?utm_source=NL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20120614video

Music favorites 151-250

Beatles: Yellow Submarine
Miles Davis: On the Corner
Spirit: 12 Dreams of Doctor Sardanacus
Santana: Lotus
Frank Zappa: Sheik Your Booty
Electric Flag: first
Jim Morrison: American Prayer
Flo and Eddy
Gordon Lightfoot: first
Leon Russel: first
Neil Young: Harvest
John Lennon: Imagine
Rolling Stones: Only Rock and Roll
Stills/Kooper/Bloomfield: Super Session
Blood, Sweat and Tears: Child is Father of the Man
Gong 2
Leonard Cohen-first
Peter Tosh: Wanted
Grateful Dead: Mars Hotel
Bob Dylan: New Morning
John Mayall: Turning Point
Rolling Stones: Get Your Yayas
Jethro Tull: Living in the Past
Santana: Caravansari
Sun Ra
Mothers/Zappa: Absolutely Free
Traffic: At the Cantina
Canned Heat: double album
Genesis: Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Jethro Tull: Benefit
Yardbirds: Shapes of Things
Richie Havens: Something Else Again
Herbie Hancock: Crossings
Tim Buckley: live
Frank Zappa: Shut Up and Play Your Guitar
AC/DC
Brian Auger/Oblivian Express: Closer to It
Steven Stills: Manasas
Pink Floyd: The Wall
Led Zeppelin: 4
Yes: Close to the Edge
Emerson, Lake and Palmer: Works
Pharoah Sanders: The Creator Has a Master Plan
Spirit: 1984
Rolling Stones: Got Live if You Want It
Mothers/Zappa: Joe's Garage
Byrds: 8 Miles High
Ten Years After: Space in Time
Ray Charles: Best Of
King Crimson: In the Wake of Poseidon
Love: Forever Changes
Leonard Cohen: recent w/ tower of song, everybody knows
Gong: 3
Fiddler On the Roof: soundtrack
Rolling Stones: Black and Blue
Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks
Dean Martin
Rolling Stones: Voodoo Lounge
John Lennon: Starting Over
Shawn Phillips: with "moonshine"
Jimmy Cliff: Harder They Come
Michael Jackson: Off the Wall
Pink Floyd: Relics
Neil Young: Rust Never Sleeps
Dylan: Basement Tapes
Kinks
Quicksilver: Shady Grove
Herbie Mann
Vanilla Fudge
Donovan: Hurdy Gurdy Man
Zappa: with "your are what you is"
Tim Buckley: Starsailor
Dave Mason
Emerson, Lake, Palmer: Trilogy
Pink Floyd: Atom Heart Mother
South Pacific: Soundtrack
George Harrison: Wonderwall Music
John Coltrane: Om
Zappa: with "montana"
David Bowie: Station to Station
Zorba the Greek: soundtrack
Tim Buckley: Look at the Fool
Bangaladesh: Concert for soundtrack
Frank Sinatra: Strangers in the Night
Steve Miller: 5
Soft Machine: 2
Rod Stewart
Johnny Cash
Rolling Stones: Between the Buttons
Shawn Philips: Second Contribution
Mothers/Zappa: Chunga's Revenge
Woodie Guthrie
Last Waltz: soundtrack
Steely Dan: Asia
Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of Life
Van Morrison: first
Faces
Dylan: Blond On Blond
Rolling Stones: Goats Head Soup
Bee Gees: Odessa

Favorite music 251-400

Wayne Shorter
Yusef Lateef
Thelonius Monk
Roland Kirk
Richie Havens-1984
Orff: Carmina Baruna
Santana: Carnival
Joni Mitchell: first
Fleetwood Mac: Band Played On
Mountain: first
Mothers/Zappa: Uncle Meat
Uriah Heep: Look at Yourself
Zappa/Mothers: In NY
Rolling Stones: Bridges to Babylon
Emersons Old Time Custard Sucking Band
Roy Buchanan
Santana: Carnival
Soft Machine: 3
Genesis: Trick of the Tail
Van Morrison: Into the Mystic
Popeye: soundtrack
Billie Holiday
Simon and Garfunkel
Elton John: first
Donovan: Barabajagal/Atlantis
Buddy Guy
Goose Creek Symphony
Apaloosa
Atomic Rooster
Mike Nesmith:Elephant Parts
Ten Years After: Watt
Tangerine Dream
Seals and Croft
Nazz Nazz
Animals: Never the Twain
Johnny Winter: Progressive Blues Experiment
Lynn County
Nusrat Latef Ali Khan
King Crimson: Red
Uriah Heep: The Wizard
Traffic: Where the Eagle Flies
Paul Butterfield: In My Own Dream
Savoy Brown Blues Band: Hellbound Train
Ali Farka Toure
Fat Mattress
Love: First Start
Scott Huckabay
Fugs
Police
Tina Turner: Private Dancer
Bob Marley: Uprising
Joan Baez
Hair: soundtrack
Robert Plant: first
Phil Ochs
George Harrison: Electronic Music
John Lee Hooker
Howard Wales/Jerry Garcia
Eric Burden/War: Black Man's Burden
Love: De Capo
Bo Didley
Bob Dylan: Blond on Blond
Nina Simone
Doc Watson
Marvin Gaye: What's Going On
Isaac Hayes: Hot Buttered Soul
Ringo Starr: Beucoups of the Blues
Donovan: From a Flower to a Garden
Humble Pie: live
James Taylor
John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers
Bob Dylan-John Wesley Harding
Muddy Waters
Al Green
Eric Clapton: first
Miles Davis: any other
ZZTop: Eliminator
Stevie Ray Vaughn: Texas Flood
Trinity
Mothers/Zappa: Rueben and the Jets
Alice Coltrane: Satchidananda
Moody Blues: To Our Childrens' Children
Velvet Underground
Madona
Chamber Brothers
Tsaikovsky: Pathetique
Beatles: Help
Mothers/Zappa: Just Another Band from LA
Paul McCartney: first
Chick Corea: Return To Forever
Iasos
Mothers/Zappa: 200 Motels
Mandrake Memorial
Talking Heads
U2
India Bakti
Sophia
Bonnie Raitt
Pavarati: best of
Babe Ruth
Eno/Fripp: My Life in the Bush
Free: Fire and Water
Raphael: Music To Disappear
John Lennon: Mind Games
Shakti: with John McLauglin
George Deuter
Franz Lizst: Hungarian Rhapsodies
HP Lovecraft
Robert Plant: with Strange Sensations
Beatles: Yesterday and Today
Harry Nilson: Shmilson
Mothers/Zappa: Burnt Weenie Sandwich
Creedence Clearwater Revival: first
Youngbloods
Traffic: As the Eagle Flies
Daniel Paul
Amboy Dukes
Michael Jackson: Thriller
Sweetwater
Devo
Ozark Mountain Daredevils
Pagan Love Cult
Cold Blood
Manos Hadjidakis
Johan Sabastian Bach
Pentangle
Moby Grape
George Gershwin: best of
Family
Fred Neil
Modern Jazz Quartet
Led Kotke
Hot Tuna: best of
Who: By Numbers
Blood, Sweat, Tears: second w/spinning wheel
Roberta Flack: First Take
Tim Hardin: best
Spirit: Captain Kopter
Zephyr
Creedence: Born on the Bayoo
Elton John: second w/burn down the mission
Grand Funk: In Time
Bad Company
Plastic Ono Band
Travelling Wilburies
Cactus
Fevertree
Kate Bush
Al Jereaou
Bella Fleck
Hamsa Lela
Captain Beefheart

MY WOODSTOCK REFLECTIONS

In Joni Mitchel’s lyrical homage to Woodstock, her words "and we’ve got to get ourselves back in the garden" do not mean falling into a static dead letter pile of unvital statistics, but an actual and eternal metaphor for freedom and true humanism. An awakened human whose mandala is enriched and nourished by the textures of art, music, spirit, love and passion. "Drugs, Sex, and Rock and Roll" were and are the anthem that needs not be distorted by the historic revisionists that want to eliminate the message of the 60's. For us that have stayed sober to its meaning, we know that the flag we wave stands for the same traditional values that have represented the finest aspects of all higher cultures throughout thousands of years of time including Indian, Pagan, Greek, and the many, many Goddess and other earth friendly indigenous tribes and individuals.
Woodstock is our tribe and the Aquarian Festival our own Mecca. A pilgrimage that continues with how we chose to act, react, think, and feel.
At the time of the concert I was 17 and living in North Carolina. Along with 3 other friends we drove up just in time to be stuck in the mammoth traffic jam surrounding the site, but excited with the energy to walk the several miles to Max Yasgar’s farm among the other growing numbers of brothers and sisters heading for our magnificent family reunion. The first realization of different realities ahead was the crowd telepathy which prevailed on such a grand level. People were showing huge empathy with each other as well as in sharing whatever they could for accommodation. As we crossed the line designating the concert to be free, a fresh breath of responsibility shed off the veil of commodity exchange based relationships and in return there manifested true love and respect for each other and the community that we were a part of.
As to my adventures at the concert, what experiences I do recall are similar to many other testimonies. Totally impressed by the bass player to Mountain, learning how to spell the "F" word by Country Joe, sleeping through most of the Dead set (even though many of the younger fans now would welcome stoning me alive for it), but waking up to see the Who drill their way through Tommy, Sly Stone’s family exuberance, and Grace Slick make us all feel at home with her greeting of "Good Morning People." I shared the heroic experience of most in being able to stay awake for the 3 days of magic to witness the amazing finale of Jimi playing as the crowds slowly headed onward.
A couple of months ago I went up to Wavy Gravy at a rock poster exhibition in San Francisco where I thanked him for turning my life around in so many ways. During an especially tortuous moment at the festival when the storms had ravaged our energies and the whispers of Nixon’s helicopters dropping poisoned candy bars as tainted "care packages", the Hog Farm Commune was serving free food at its makeshift kitchen area. It was the first time I experienced granola and a health food attitude that opened up a better way of living for me. Other excursions into the forest behind the concert area were even more examples of political, spiritual, and artistic groups setting up information booths, educational outreaches, workshops, etc.
Another part of the full experience of Woodstock not covered too well in the movie was the way the Yasgar family took advantage of the plight of the masses caught in the storm. Max’s speech about how great the crowd of young people was, is quite inspirational and sincere. But as soon as the area was washed out by the rains, his wife was setting up a water hose to fill up people’s containers with tap water at 50 cents a bottle. Good old Yankee ingenuity.
At one point I felt illuminated to share the idea that we could pass around a huge box and if everyone there donated whatever money they could spare, we could have enough millions of dollars to buy the adjacent land and create our own "Woodstock Nation". I dropped the idea after a few tokes and the reaction of enough people that I approached who told me that it was a silly notion since "the whole world would soon be like Woodstock". Who in their right minds indeed would not want to live a life of peace, love, and happiness?
So that brings me full circle in asking myself what did happen. Why did CSNY mean so much when they said "almost cut my hair" and "teach your children well?" Not wanting to violate the rights we learned to free ____expression, I do not wish to condemn or judge anyone else in my opinion. Perhaps my perceptions are painted by my own life strokes and do not fit into the script of other paths in life. What I do know though is that I felt a commitment and sacred trust with the many that had gathered at Woodstock to never compromise the values that we were sharing that day. For me it has been a wonderful journey of being as true to the lifestyle then as today. Okay so my beard is now white and I can’t see the song titles on the cds too clearly, but I sure am glad to be listening still to Jimi Hendrix, Ritchie Havens and the rest of the troubadours of truth. And what is even more delightful is sharing the music with my children as well. Just like a work of art in a museum, a masterpiece remains timeless and is appreciated forever. Those days and the music the Muses inspired were not just shallow entertainment of the moment to fade among the fads of time, but to be respected and enjoyed as true blessings from above.
Just as with the "Woodstock" movie that we have seen several times, what a joy last night to watch the "Song Remains The Same" with our daughters and to be air guitaring and head shaking as vigorously as ever. Unfortunenly a dark cloud came across too many of the people that at that time were at Woodstock or were influenced by it. Concern for others and the planet became a passing fad. Fear of not being able to pay credit card bills for useless junk rather than live out of the system, home school the children, still sit on the back fence of the farm playing music and singing with friends. Fear of this and fear of that have turned too many of our generation into today’s sheeple. I feel that if one still has a breath left, they can look in the mirror then close your eyes and remember what it felt to be alive at Woodstock. Take a stand. Don’t be a hippy-crite but a "born again hippie" my friend. It’s your one and only life so do it right for your sakes and for your children’s. Sit down and tell them the truth about those times. Tell them about how mushrooms can lead to inspiration as well as delicious pasta sauce. How good it feels to give and share rather than drop bombs and steal. Tell them what they can gain by hearing those interesting musical clues in the good songs we know so well. Tell them why it’s fine to let your hair drop freely down your back, wear old clothes and live close to nature and not be trapped by the 9-5 rat race. Oral tradition is an important need to be passed down through the generations. All you need to know was and is right there in Woodstock. I would cherish the opportunity to relive every moment of those days and feel it to be as true to who I am then as to who I am now.
Awhile back I had the honor to meet Swami Satchidananda, the Indian holy man who demonstrated to the crowd on stage between a set change how to do yogic breathing. I jokingly told him that I had thought him to be a rock musician at the concert. Whereupon this saintly old man picked up a couple of rocks from the ground and kept banging them together while hopping around and singing "it’s true I was and am a rock musician still". And indeed the Spirit does live on.
Peace, Love, and Justice
George Douvris