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Woodstock Pt. 1: A Disaster Movie · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
0:18
Speaker 1: Woodstock are insane, three days of peace, love, music and
0:24
Speaker 1: two deaths, extortion on stage, maximum rock and roll violence,
0:28
Speaker 1: too many drug overdoses to count, near mass electrocution, and
0:32
Speaker 1: a lot of dumb luck. The iconic music festival is
0:36
Speaker 1: known as the generation defining moment, when the baby Boomers
0:39
Speaker 1: demonstrated to the world the power of peace, love and communalism.
0:44
Speaker 1: But was that really what went down at old Man
0:46
Speaker 1: Yasgar's farm on the third weekend of August in nineteen
0:49
Speaker 1: sixty nine, or were those of us who didn't attend,
0:52
Speaker 1: either because we weren't yet born, were too old, too young,
0:56
Speaker 1: or too preoccupied with the responsibilities of life to just
0:59
Speaker 1: not be interested where we sold a vision of Woodstock
1:02
Speaker 1: that was as mythical and unrealistic as the hippie dream
1:05
Speaker 1: baby Boomers have been peddling ever since. The idealized notion
1:09
Speaker 1: of the vaunted sixties came to be Woodstock the Movie.
1:13
Speaker 1: The documentary film, released a year after the festival in
1:16
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy, quickly established itself as the document of record
1:21
Speaker 1: on Woodstock the event. The movie paints a romanticized picture
1:25
Speaker 1: and has come to define the festival and our collective
1:27
Speaker 1: cultural memory, perhaps more strongly than the recollections of those
1:31
Speaker 1: who are actually there, either as fans, performers, or organizers
1:35
Speaker 1: at the festival. So what actually happened at Woodstock? Was
1:40
Speaker 1: it the hippie utopia depicted in the documentary or in
1:42
Speaker 1: all actuality? Was the real Woodstock more like a disaster movie?
1:47
Speaker 1: One thing's for sure, great music was made at Woodstock.
1:51
Speaker 1: Jimmy Hendrix, The Who, Sly in the Family, Stone Santana,
1:55
Speaker 1: Richie Havens, and Joe Cocker to name a few. Unlike
1:58
Speaker 1: that music, I played few at the time top of
2:00
Speaker 1: the show that wasn't great music. That was a preset
2:03
Speaker 1: loop from my mellotron called Bone Bone Daddy O MK two.
2:08
Speaker 1: I played you that loop because I can't afford the
2:11
Speaker 1: rights to Aquarius Let the Sunshine in by the fifth Dimension.
2:15
Speaker 1: And why would I play you that specific slice of
2:18
Speaker 1: moon in the seventh House Cheese? Could I afford it?
2:21
Speaker 1: Because that was the number one song in America on
2:25
Speaker 1: April nineteenth, nineteen sixty nine, And that was the day
2:28
Speaker 1: Michael Lang and his Woodstock Ventures Company began running its
2:32
Speaker 1: first advertisements promoting a music festival in upstate New York,
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Speaker 1: a festival that would not only define a generation, but
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Speaker 1: go on to influence and shape multiple generations to come.
2:45
Speaker 1: On This a special two part episode Dumb Luck, Hypocritical Hippies,
2:50
Speaker 1: The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius and Woodstock, A
2:53
Speaker 1: disaster movie. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland. All right, man,
3:21
Speaker 1: everybody cool out, put the guns down. Twenty three year
3:25
Speaker 1: old first time concert promoter Michael Lange was in the
3:27
Speaker 1: unenviable position of trying to diffuse the heavily armed, gun
3:31
Speaker 1: drawn tension between a handful of Florida's redneck cops and
3:35
Speaker 1: some blue collar Brinx truck cards, and the cops weren't listening.
3:40
Speaker 1: All four of them had their standard issue pistols drawn,
3:43
Speaker 1: and each had the unmistakable look of eagerness on their faces.
3:46
Speaker 1: They were spoiling for an old fashioned showdown. Nineteen sixty eight, Miami, Florida,
3:54
Speaker 1: only thirty five years removed from prohibition. The two older
3:58
Speaker 1: Brinx truck drivers ex cops themselves, remembered the era of
4:02
Speaker 1: bootlegging and rum running. Fondly beefs were settled easy, just
4:06
Speaker 1: like this in back rooms, with bullets, no grand juries,
4:10
Speaker 1: no hero prosecutors. The Brinks Guards were outnumbered, but equally
4:15
Speaker 1: ready for a shootout. It was the only way. They
4:18
Speaker 1: aimed their guns right back at the redneck cops on
4:21
Speaker 1: the line. Professional pride and thousands of dollars in off
4:25
Speaker 1: duty pay for the Brinks Guards, professional pride in not
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Speaker 1: being held up by some closet KKK wing nuts hiding
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Speaker 1: behind badges, and for the cops off duty pay a
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Speaker 1: lot of it. They were hired by and owed the
4:40
Speaker 1: money from the long haired, dough ied twenty three year
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Speaker 1: old hippie trying to squash this impending massacre. Michael Lang
4:47
Speaker 1: was experienced and little beyond bullshitting his way through life
4:50
Speaker 1: up until that point. It turned out to be the
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Speaker 1: perfect skill for the moment. He told the cops there
4:56
Speaker 1: was no need to be so heavy and they were
4:58
Speaker 1: going to get paid. The cop ops were skeptical in
5:01
Speaker 1: this concert of Michael's, The Gulf Stream Festival, with a
5:04
Speaker 1: lineup that included Jimi Hendrix, the Mothers of Invention, Chuck Berry,
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Speaker 1: John Lee Hooker, and that fucking lunatic Arthur Brown, was
5:11
Speaker 1: a complete and total shit show. Rain it blew in
5:16
Speaker 1: hard for two of the three scheduled festival days. There
5:20
Speaker 1: was no plan for the rain, just cancelation. Kids didn't show,
5:24
Speaker 1: kids didn't fork over their cash. Two days of financial
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Speaker 1: loss for Michael and his festival investors. And the cops
5:31
Speaker 1: were no dummies. They knew the only way they were
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Speaker 1: going to get paid for their services as hired security
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Speaker 1: was to head off the Brinks truck at the pass
5:39
Speaker 1: i e upon arrival to collect what there was of
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Speaker 1: the festival cash from the one day gate as the
5:44
Speaker 1: Brinks guards were bringing said cash to a local bank,
5:47
Speaker 1: whereupon the receipts would be tallied and Michael and his
5:50
Speaker 1: investors would no doubt get paid first, if at all,
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Speaker 1: and determine which performers and vendors were to get paid next,
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Speaker 1: if any. Fuck that the were going to take theirs
6:01
Speaker 1: off the top like politicians before Michael could charm his
6:04
Speaker 1: way out of paying them. And the cops had been
6:07
Speaker 1: putting up with and witnessing Michael's bullshit all weekend, but
6:10
Speaker 1: when the shit hit the fan and this kid shined.
6:14
Speaker 1: Michael Lang was a natural producer. He was blessed with
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Speaker 1: easy charm and innate confidence and was able to smile
6:21
Speaker 1: his way through most any crisis, widening his eyes and
6:24
Speaker 1: grinning through the chaos in a manner that said to
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Speaker 1: everyone around him, be cool. I got this where it
6:31
Speaker 1: came from. Michael didn't know, he always had it. It
6:34
Speaker 1: got him to this point, got his parents back in
6:37
Speaker 1: Brooklyn to buy him his first car and let him
6:39
Speaker 1: skip out on college, and got them to finance his
6:41
Speaker 1: first business endeavor down here in Florida, headshop owner. That
6:46
Speaker 1: was the first thing before this new trip, this new
6:49
Speaker 1: foray into the growing music industry as a festival producer.
6:53
Speaker 1: But the head shop didn't go so well. More trouble
6:56
Speaker 1: with local cops. The sledgehammers came in herd to the
7:00
Speaker 1: little shop's glass, and the redneck cops wielded them mercilessly,
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Speaker 1: bringing the giant hammers down and into everything inside the
7:07
Speaker 1: one of a kind headshop, destroying black light, posted walls,
7:10
Speaker 1: glass water pipes, lava lamps, dream catchers, the latest in
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Speaker 1: fringe fashion and for what Because fuck the hippies and
7:18
Speaker 1: fuck Michael Lang. Who the fuck did this New York
7:23
Speaker 1: transplant thin he was coming down to Dade County and
7:27
Speaker 1: opening up a headshop and doing it loudly. Michael's headshop,
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Speaker 1: called the head Shop, was the first of its kind
7:34
Speaker 1: in Florida, and it was a big fucking deal. Its
7:37
Speaker 1: opening was an occasion, so much so that the local
7:40
Speaker 1: students organized a little happening a live rock band in
7:44
Speaker 1: other festivities. Michael Lang, barely out of high school in Brooklyn,
7:49
Speaker 1: had settled himself thirteen hundred miles away into the asshole
7:52
Speaker 1: of America and become a local celebrity. But again from
7:56
Speaker 1: the local cops perspective, fuck these hippies, Fuck Michael Lay.
8:01
Speaker 1: They destroyed his head shop the night of its grand opening,
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Speaker 1: in full view of all in attendance, and they didn't
8:07
Speaker 1: care who knew about it. They rationalized the violent destruction
8:10
Speaker 1: by claiming Michael didn't have the proper business permit to
8:13
Speaker 1: open such an establishment, and of course he didn't. Afterward, Michael,
8:20
Speaker 1: not one to accept defeat, was determined to snatch his
8:23
Speaker 1: own little piece of this new sixties utopia in a
8:26
Speaker 1: different way. Music festival culture was on the rise in America.
8:31
Speaker 1: Monterey Pop on the West Coast a year earlier in
8:34
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven was a hit. The Grateful Dead were
8:37
Speaker 1: staging beautifully free musical happenings in the middle of their
8:40
Speaker 1: home city of San Francisco to fantastic results, and each
8:45
Speaker 1: year it seemed some artist or another was producing a
8:48
Speaker 1: can't miss much talked about performance at either the Newport
8:52
Speaker 1: Folk or Newport Jazz festivals, from Dylan going electric in
8:56
Speaker 1: sixty five at Folk to Nina Simone mesmerizing at Jazz
9:00
Speaker 1: Fest in sixty seven. It was now nineteen sixty eight.
9:05
Speaker 1: Kids were getting turned on all over and the festival
9:08
Speaker 1: scene was in large part responsible for flicking the switch.
9:12
Speaker 1: Michael couldn't sing, and Michael couldn't play, and Michael couldn't write.
9:16
Speaker 1: But Michael believed. He believed in the moment, He believed
9:20
Speaker 1: in the hippie idealism, he believed in his generation, and
9:23
Speaker 1: he believed that he had what it took to organize
9:26
Speaker 1: and sell a music festival. Why not forget about the headshot,
9:30
Speaker 1: that was small time, that was glory in the greater good,
9:34
Speaker 1: glory in the power of the people. That Michael Lang
9:37
Speaker 1: could be the one who brought the people together through music.
9:40
Speaker 1: That's what the Gulf Stream Festival was all about. He
9:43
Speaker 1: believed in it. So what if it didn't work, He'd
9:46
Speaker 1: live and learn. He believed in himself and used that
9:49
Speaker 1: belief to quell the simmering violence surrounding him at the moment,
9:52
Speaker 1: assuring the cops they were going to get paid right
9:55
Speaker 1: then and there, and assuring the Brinks Guards they weren't
9:57
Speaker 1: subverting their professional duty. Forget what their manifest said. Michael
10:03
Speaker 1: was the producer. He was responsible for the money, and
10:05
Speaker 1: these hardworking cops needed to get paid, especially before that
10:08
Speaker 1: hippie Jimmy Hendrix or that man act violating Chuck Berry.
10:14
Speaker 1: The Brinks guards were made to understand, the cops were
10:17
Speaker 1: made whole, and Michael Lang was about to make an
10:20
Speaker 1: entirely different scene, one where the cops weren't so heavy,
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Speaker 1: one where the arts were better appreciated, one where musicians
10:27
Speaker 1: were flocking you, where a young man like Michael could
10:30
Speaker 1: make something out of nothing, One where that hippie utopia
10:33
Speaker 1: dream wasn't so far out, where it was possible. In
10:37
Speaker 1: that place was Woodstock, New York. Michael Lang took his
11:07
Speaker 1: home turf of New York back like a hurricane. He
11:10
Speaker 1: landed on the coast the island of Manhattan before making
11:13
Speaker 1: his way inland upstate to Woodstock. In Manhattan, as always,
11:18
Speaker 1: he was a man on the make. The first thing
11:21
Speaker 1: Michael Lang needed to make was money. He had a
11:25
Speaker 1: group used Managing Train and they were awful. Didn't matter,
11:29
Speaker 1: they were hip like him, and Michael wormed his way
11:32
Speaker 1: into Capitol Records and somehow found the perfect mark, Artie Kornfeld,
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Speaker 1: Capital's East Coast director of contemporary music. Artie was a
11:41
Speaker 1: bit older than Michael. He came up through the brill
11:44
Speaker 1: building system, penning songs for the Charell's and the Angels
11:47
Speaker 1: co writing a cut with Jan Berry, who would later
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Speaker 1: go on to comprise one half of Jan and Dean
11:52
Speaker 1: and Jan later introduced Artie to genius songwriter beach Boy
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Speaker 1: Brian Wilson. Yet, despite this impressive experience, already Kornfeld, by
12:01
Speaker 1: the time the late sixties rolled around, was decidedly on
12:05
Speaker 1: hip and he was working a plum gig at the
12:07
Speaker 1: music industry's most unhipped label, Capitol Records. Capitol had the
12:12
Speaker 1: Beatles in America on their label, but as far as
12:14
Speaker 1: music industry hipsters were concerned, Capital was Lamesville. Empowered by
12:19
Speaker 1: the steady selling blandness of the four freshmen in the
12:22
Speaker 1: Letterman already may have been on hip, but he made
12:25
Speaker 1: a practice of keeping his ear to the ground for
12:27
Speaker 1: the next big thing. Then one day his secretary buzzed
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Speaker 1: the kid with the next big thing into his office.
12:35
Speaker 1: It was Michael Lang, the tie dyed cherubs, spewing Max
12:40
Speaker 1: hippie dippy bullshit about how already just had to sign
12:43
Speaker 1: the band he managed to train, already listened to the
12:46
Speaker 1: band's demo. It was totally lacking in anything resembling talent,
12:51
Speaker 1: but Michael had something. What it was, Ardy Kornfeld didn't know,
12:54
Speaker 1: but he wanted in on it. He needed it. He
12:57
Speaker 1: was flailing and disinterested in his gig. At Michael offered
13:01
Speaker 1: a view into the future on a haunch that was
13:04
Speaker 1: conflicted at best. Arty agreed to have Capital bank roll
13:08
Speaker 1: the development of Train and cut Michael a check for
13:10
Speaker 1: ten grand. Michael had his money, and as Mark a
13:15
Speaker 1: friendship was struck. Michael had other ideas. Out of sight,
13:19
Speaker 1: Arty was all hears. Michael casually tooked up some grass
13:23
Speaker 1: right there in Artie's office and passed the joint across
13:25
Speaker 1: the desk to his new rabbi. Arty, freaked out by
13:29
Speaker 1: this highly unprofessional move, tried not to appear uptight grabbed
13:33
Speaker 1: the joint and puffed on it like it was part
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Speaker 1: of his daily routine. It wasn't. Michael had his talents
13:38
Speaker 1: in the executive. He leaned back in the chair across
13:41
Speaker 1: from Arty's desk and proceeded to delight the uptight music
13:44
Speaker 1: executive with stories from his recent foray into the music
13:47
Speaker 1: business in Florida. Tales of smugglers and thieves, sledgehammers, slamming
13:52
Speaker 1: cops and Jimmy HENDRICKX on acid and Chuck Barry on fire,
13:56
Speaker 1: speedways and rednecks, Mexican standos with brinkstruck and closeted KKK members,
14:02
Speaker 1: real outlaws, and the result experience. It was a heavy scene.
14:07
Speaker 1: Michael had a better idea. He'd relocated away from Florida,
14:11
Speaker 1: away from Manhattan, upstate to Woodstock, New York. Lardy had
14:16
Speaker 1: never heard of it. Arty's stone face said one thing,
14:19
Speaker 1: tell me more. Bob Dylan was living up there, so
14:22
Speaker 1: as his band, the band Tim Harden too. More musicians
14:26
Speaker 1: were making their way. It was a bucolic retreat for
14:28
Speaker 1: Rock Royalty, a return to nature. Woodstock's wooded natural environment
14:33
Speaker 1: made for a natural escape from the city. Just one
14:35
Speaker 1: hundred miles south it was only a matter of time
14:38
Speaker 1: before the entirety of the East Coast rock elite found
14:40
Speaker 1: their way there. Michael wanted to make it real, formalize it,
14:45
Speaker 1: make a real retreat, an actual place of venue, a lodge,
14:49
Speaker 1: a resort, a fucking utopian paradise, man, where top notch
14:53
Speaker 1: talent could steal away from the pressures of the industry
14:56
Speaker 1: to chill naturally, music would be made. Perhaps there was
14:59
Speaker 1: a way to cat capture that music and to then
15:01
Speaker 1: capitalize on the recordings. Arty took the bait immediately. He
15:06
Speaker 1: was perfectly positioned in his position. A capital to help.
15:09
Speaker 1: He'd steer talent capital and non capital already had connections.
15:13
Speaker 1: He knew Brian Wilson, for fock's sake. But Michael just
15:16
Speaker 1: nodded and smiled far out Sure, okay, man, if you
15:19
Speaker 1: say so. The best cons lead their marks to water,
15:22
Speaker 1: they don't force them to drink. And now Artie was
15:25
Speaker 1: lapping it up like a drunk sailor on leaves, siphoning
15:29
Speaker 1: confidence men's swell from Michael Lang's saloon. If they were
15:32
Speaker 1: going to make this woodstock retreat thing work, they'd need
15:34
Speaker 1: real money. Arty couldn't cover the cost of investing in
15:37
Speaker 1: a retreat with a state of the art recording facility.
15:40
Speaker 1: Capital could but they'd fuck it up. Dig it. Already
15:43
Speaker 1: knew of these dudes in Midtown. They were squares, but
15:46
Speaker 1: they were young, and lay this one on for size. Man.
15:48
Speaker 1: They were actually advertising how much bread they had in
15:51
Speaker 1: the New York Fucking Times right there in print. Check
15:54
Speaker 1: it out. Michael's smile grew wider when Already showed him
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Speaker 1: the classified item from the paper of record, and there
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Speaker 1: it was in print. Michael could hardly believe it. Young
16:05
Speaker 1: men with unlimited capital, these two trust fund squares were
16:10
Speaker 1: so desperate to get in on the sixties counterculture vibes
16:12
Speaker 1: that Michael Lang so effortlessly oozed in that already Kornfeld
16:15
Speaker 1: so desperately wanted to draft off of that they were
16:18
Speaker 1: incredibly soliciting in public ideas that they could capitalize. It
16:23
Speaker 1: was the truth, already assured Michael. They'd already done it
16:25
Speaker 1: with some other lucky fools who convinced the two young
16:28
Speaker 1: squares to invest in their music studio, and it worked.
16:31
Speaker 1: They created Media sound Studios, and at the time it
16:34
Speaker 1: was one of the most successful professional recording studios in Manhattan.
16:38
Speaker 1: Already knew a guy, a lawyer. The lawyer knew the
16:41
Speaker 1: two other guys, the squares with the money, and their
16:43
Speaker 1: names were John Roberts and Joel Rosaman already got his guy,
16:47
Speaker 1: the lawyer, to arrange a meeting between Roberts and Rosaman
16:50
Speaker 1: with Michael and Artie. Roberts and Rosaman were not impressed. Essentially,
16:55
Speaker 1: Michael and Artie's idea was for another music studio. What
16:58
Speaker 1: do they need another music studio? They already had media
17:01
Speaker 1: sound and it was a success, but still as successful
17:05
Speaker 1: as the young entrepreneurs were. Roberts was twenty three in
17:08
Speaker 1: Rosamond twenty six. They were not skilled in the art
17:11
Speaker 1: of saying no. They'd come to their money the old
17:14
Speaker 1: fashioned way. They were born into it. In Rosamond's case,
17:17
Speaker 1: his uncle hooked him up with his successful law firm
17:20
Speaker 1: right out of Yale. For Roberts, the inheritance was very literal.
17:24
Speaker 1: He had come into millions from his grandfather's pharmaceutical fortune
17:27
Speaker 1: at the age of eight, and as such the two
17:30
Speaker 1: possessed none of the merciless instincts necessary to hang on
17:33
Speaker 1: to their money, merciless instincts that experienced businessmen developed at
17:37
Speaker 1: a younger age while making their fortunes on their own.
17:40
Speaker 1: While they had less to lose, Roberts and Rosamond had
17:43
Speaker 1: a lot to lose. Frustrated with the drudgery of the
17:46
Speaker 1: law job, Rosamond had quit to join Roberts in a
17:49
Speaker 1: business venture as investors in what they had no clue.
17:53
Speaker 1: They were brand new at it. Their New York Times
17:55
Speaker 1: classified ad was basically an invitation to creative collaborators, and
18:00
Speaker 1: despite their best intentions, their inexperience would lead both of
18:03
Speaker 1: them to being easily loosened from their purse strings. Nevertheless,
18:07
Speaker 1: fools they weren't. Despite not saying no to a business venture,
18:11
Speaker 1: neither was particularly inspired by. They instead asked Michael and
18:15
Speaker 1: Ardi to produce a budget in a P and L
18:17
Speaker 1: for their idea. Michael Lang, who'd barely graduated from high
18:20
Speaker 1: school and dropped out of NYU, told the Yale Law
18:24
Speaker 1: and You Penn graduates he'd have a full budget back
18:26
Speaker 1: to them in a couple days. They didn't believe them.
18:29
Speaker 1: It wouldn't be the first time. Still, two days later,
18:33
Speaker 1: Michael Lang appeared with numbers, and they told a fantastic story,
18:37
Speaker 1: one of untold riches from the creation of his utopian
18:40
Speaker 1: Woodstock Musicians Retreat again. Robertson Rosamond could hardly believe it,
18:46
Speaker 1: but one line item in Michael's budget caught their eye.
18:49
Speaker 1: There was mention in the budget of a press party,
18:52
Speaker 1: a party to announce the opening of their retreat, A
18:55
Speaker 1: party that the biggest, most impressive musicians on the planet
18:58
Speaker 1: would perform to put woods Stock on the map and
19:01
Speaker 1: to lure in other musicians from beyond the East Coast,
19:04
Speaker 1: musicians from all over the world. They'd of course have
19:08
Speaker 1: the locals. Bob Dylan and the Band performed. Tim Harden too,
19:11
Speaker 1: already pledged to put it in his best effort to
19:13
Speaker 1: convince Dylan's friend, international folk pop star Donovan to fly
19:17
Speaker 1: over from the UK to perform as well. Now, this,
19:21
Speaker 1: this party, this was something Roberts and rosaman could get behind.
19:25
Speaker 1: Forget about an uninspiring music studio. A music festival, now
19:29
Speaker 1: that was something they could get into. Monterey Pop was
19:32
Speaker 1: a hit in Newport Folk despite being small, brought in
19:35
Speaker 1: twenty grand a day. Michael sensed their shift in interest
19:39
Speaker 1: and did what his instincts told him. He followed his gun.
19:42
Speaker 1: Sure the festival could be the thing. The thing could
19:45
Speaker 1: be anything as far as Michael was concerned, as long
19:47
Speaker 1: as there was a thing and that he was situated
19:49
Speaker 1: well to profit from it, Roberts and Rosaman could finance
19:53
Speaker 1: a festival, and they were all in agreement. It was
19:56
Speaker 1: about the festival in Woodstock now, not the retreat. Michael
19:59
Speaker 1: Lang went in for the kill. He briefly shed his
20:02
Speaker 1: hippie dreamer facade and revealed his true self, piping up
20:06
Speaker 1: to his new partners that there was no time to waste.
20:09
Speaker 1: They needed a new budget, a new plan, a lineup,
20:11
Speaker 1: a location of staff, and quick start. He told them emphatically, quote,
20:15
Speaker 1: it's important we get rolling as soon as possible. This
20:17
Speaker 1: thing will sneak up on us before we know it,
20:19
Speaker 1: and time he's going to be real crucial pulling it
20:21
Speaker 1: off before anyone else moves in on our action. Every
20:24
Speaker 1: fucker in creation is going to want a piece for himself,
20:26
Speaker 1: and we're going to be prepared to steamroll over. Woodstock
20:30
Speaker 1: was officially in the works. We'll be right back after this.
20:37
Speaker 1: We're we're we're from the beginning, finding and keeping a
20:47
Speaker 1: location to hold the festival to accommodate what Michael expected
20:50
Speaker 1: to be one hundred thousand concert goers comfortably with clear
20:54
Speaker 1: sight lines and easy access from the highway was an issue.
20:58
Speaker 1: They settled on Wallkill, forty miles south of Woodstock, a
21:02
Speaker 1: small agricultural town, where they leased a farm for their
21:05
Speaker 1: new company, Woodstock Ventures. The farm wasn't ideal, but it
21:09
Speaker 1: would make for an okay outdoor concert venue. When Roberts
21:12
Speaker 1: and Rosamund first gave the zoning board the soft cell
21:15
Speaker 1: on their quote unquote folk festival, things seemed golden. But
21:19
Speaker 1: as soon as their advanced team twenty hippies and growing
21:22
Speaker 1: arrived on site and began major landscaping and construction projects,
21:26
Speaker 1: war was on with the locals. The phone in the
21:29
Speaker 1: barn they were using as an office rang constantly with
21:32
Speaker 1: death threats. We don't want you filthy pigs in Wallkill.
21:35
Speaker 1: If you don't clear out, you're going to die. At
21:38
Speaker 1: heated hours longtown meetings, the crowds from the community shouted
21:42
Speaker 1: threats and insults. The zoning board railroaded the festival with
21:45
Speaker 1: impossible ordinances, and the hippies were all but run out
21:48
Speaker 1: of town with pitchforks with one month to spare before
21:51
Speaker 1: the show they were advertising was to happen on August eighth,
21:54
Speaker 1: ninth and tenth of nineteen sixty nine. They now needed
21:57
Speaker 1: another location. Unbelievably, they found one in Bethel, New York,
22:05
Speaker 1: forty miles from Woodstock, in a slightly different direction, Max
22:08
Speaker 1: Yasgar's dairy Farm by the hamlet of White Lake. Max
22:12
Speaker 1: was a pillar of the community, well known all over
22:15
Speaker 1: the area, who had read in the papers about the
22:17
Speaker 1: festival being run out of Walkell and thought it was
22:20
Speaker 1: a shame. But best of all, he had the perfect land,
22:23
Speaker 1: way better than the Walkill site, sloping fields and meadows
22:27
Speaker 1: that rolled down into a natural amphitheater to where they
22:30
Speaker 1: could set up the stage with a picture perfect lake
22:33
Speaker 1: in the background. Prior to the setting on Yascar's farm
22:36
Speaker 1: for what was being called Woodstock Music and Arts Fair,
22:39
Speaker 1: an aquarian exposition three days of peace and Music, Michael
22:43
Speaker 1: Lang had staffed up. He brought in professionals from the
22:46
Speaker 1: burgeoning live touring rock concert industry to head up operations, lighting, sounds, security, medical,
22:52
Speaker 1: what amounted to a large paid staff and a small
22:55
Speaker 1: army of volunteers, and they all followed Michael's lead. Michael Lang,
23:00
Speaker 1: the now twenty four year old failed festival producer, failed
23:03
Speaker 1: rock manager, failed head shop owner was in charge of
23:06
Speaker 1: what was being planned to be one of the biggest
23:08
Speaker 1: attended three day rock concerts of all time. Michael's confidence
23:13
Speaker 1: led the way, as did his edict of peace and love.
23:18
Speaker 1: This was to be a new kind of festival, one
23:21
Speaker 1: that reinforced Michael's belief in his generation's Hippi utopia, one
23:25
Speaker 1: that made good on the promise of the Summer of Love.
23:28
Speaker 1: One that was about communalism not commercialism, a notion that
23:32
Speaker 1: Michael's business partners and backers of the Woodstock Aquarian Exposition
23:36
Speaker 1: were not made aware of at the onset of their
23:38
Speaker 1: joint venture. To them, and understandably so, because it was
23:42
Speaker 1: their money. Commercialism was the point, and for Michael, making
23:46
Speaker 1: money was once a sincere motivation as well. But as
23:49
Speaker 1: the date of the festival neared in, costs skyrocket at
23:52
Speaker 1: approaching three million dollars, six hundred percent over the originally
23:55
Speaker 1: planned for five hundred thousand dollars total budget that Michael
23:58
Speaker 1: originally sold asters on. It was glory that now consumed Michael.
24:03
Speaker 1: Making money was increasingly proving to be impossible despite advanced
24:07
Speaker 1: ticket sales, and there were just too many challenges, too
24:10
Speaker 1: many holes that continually sprung prior to the show holes
24:13
Speaker 1: that needed to be plugged and could only be plugged
24:16
Speaker 1: by Roberts and Rossaman's Michael's investors. Cash. There was the
24:20
Speaker 1: cost of the artists. Talent. Fees on the whole were massive.
24:23
Speaker 1: They'd already booked Jimmy Hendricks at an absurd fee for
24:26
Speaker 1: the time of eighteen thousand dollars, The Who were somehow
24:30
Speaker 1: duped into taking less than Hendricks for twelve thousand, five
24:32
Speaker 1: hundred dollars. Janis Joplin was signed on to make seventy
24:36
Speaker 1: five hundred, as was the band The Grateful Dead made
24:39
Speaker 1: a mere twenty five hundred. Crosby Stills, Nashing Young five thousand,
24:43
Speaker 1: Robbie Shankar forty five hundred, and of course there were
24:46
Speaker 1: fees for relative unknowns Joe Cocker at one thousand, three
24:49
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy five dollars in Santana had a mere
24:52
Speaker 1: seven hundred and fifty bucks. And the headaches didn't stop
24:55
Speaker 1: with the talent. There were new headaches and new costs
24:57
Speaker 1: associated with each crisis to jour. Leading up to the festival,
25:01
Speaker 1: there was a stage to build from scratch, sound and
25:04
Speaker 1: light towers to construct. They needed to secure the perimeter
25:06
Speaker 1: of Yascar's six hundred acre farm with a fence, the
25:09
Speaker 1: size and scope of which made for a massive, near
25:12
Speaker 1: impossible undertaking. In the end, the patchwork of flimsy chain
25:16
Speaker 1: link was constructed, and there was the matter of concessions.
25:19
Speaker 1: How are they going to feed all the concertgoers and
25:22
Speaker 1: who was going to feed them somehow? It was decided
25:24
Speaker 1: that this task should be outsourced to a group known
25:27
Speaker 1: as the Hog Farm. Headed by a former beat poet
25:29
Speaker 1: and follower of Ken Keise's Mary Prankster's, Hugh Romney. The
25:33
Speaker 1: Hog Farm was an off the grid commune and traveling
25:36
Speaker 1: psychedelic performance art group. They were the farthest out of
25:40
Speaker 1: far out, completely unemployable, not that they wanted jobs, but
25:43
Speaker 1: with specific skills provision of food, but also non aggressive security,
25:49
Speaker 1: medical care, and most of all, how to deal with
25:52
Speaker 1: overdoses and bad acid trips. For Michael Lang's purposes, they
25:56
Speaker 1: were perfect, but their anti capitalist lifestyle didn't prevent them
26:00
Speaker 1: from having expenses. Far from it. At Rodney's first meeting
26:04
Speaker 1: with Woodstock Ventures, he negotiated eight grand in pay for
26:07
Speaker 1: the Hawk Farm and the buses and charter plane necessary
26:10
Speaker 1: to get the hardcore hippies from their New Mexico land
26:12
Speaker 1: to Woodstock alone would triple that bill. The hog Farm
26:16
Speaker 1: weren't the only ones who had their hands out, so
26:19
Speaker 1: too did the notorious Abbie Hoffman in nineteen sixty nine.
26:26
Speaker 1: Abbi Hoffman was a raging bowl of the anti establishment
26:30
Speaker 1: New Left. An avowed anti capitalist, he was a master
26:34
Speaker 1: media prankster and thorn in the mainstream side, but he
26:37
Speaker 1: was most infamous as one of the Chicago Seven, constantly
26:41
Speaker 1: mocking the judge and the court at his blockbuster trial
26:44
Speaker 1: over the riot of the Democratic National Convention in nineteen
26:47
Speaker 1: sixty eight, making him an enemy to conventional Americans everywhere,
26:52
Speaker 1: But to the counterculture, Abbi Hoffman was a hero and
26:55
Speaker 1: his word mattered. Michael Lang needed Abby Hoffman. Hoffman and
27:00
Speaker 1: the same underground papers that Lang needed to promote Woodstock,
27:04
Speaker 1: the radical papers that called businessmen, including concert promoters, capitalist pigs,
27:09
Speaker 1: the Boston Avatar at the Berkeley Bar of the New
27:12
Speaker 1: York Rat. Their readers were part of Michael's audience. But
27:15
Speaker 1: it was going to be a tough sell, just based
27:17
Speaker 1: on the fact that Michael was selling anything, and the
27:20
Speaker 1: papers would have knives drown But the good graces of
27:23
Speaker 1: Abby Hoffman would go a long way to legitimizing Woodstock
27:26
Speaker 1: with the counterculture, and now Abby Hoffman was predictably looking
27:31
Speaker 1: for one thing, a handout. Michael Lang answered the phone
27:35
Speaker 1: at the Woodstock offices in downtown New York. He immediately
27:39
Speaker 1: recognized the voice on the other end of the line.
27:41
Speaker 1: He was dreading this moment. It was Abby Hoffman. He said,
27:45
Speaker 1: du Lang, du Lang, motherfucker. Hello, Michael inquired, you know
27:50
Speaker 1: where this is? Michael, I think I do. Yes, you're
27:53
Speaker 1: the man of begunning for You.
27:54
Speaker 2: Got any idea what I want?
27:56
Speaker 1: Michael, No, Hoffman, I want money, Brandy money of him
28:00
Speaker 1: forell Michael almost laughed out loud at the dive store
28:04
Speaker 1: comic milagantics of the one and only Abby Hoffman. But
28:07
Speaker 1: Michael Lang was too smart to do that. He knew that,
28:10
Speaker 1: despite his ridiculousness, that Abby Hoffman was not to be
28:13
Speaker 1: taken lightly. Michael asked Hoffman why he should give him money,
28:17
Speaker 1: and Hoffman told him it was for the privilege of
28:19
Speaker 1: being able to hold his festival hassle free. Michael and
28:22
Speaker 1: his partners stood to make millions, and Hoffman in the
28:25
Speaker 1: New Left, needed a profit off of set millions. Call
28:28
Speaker 1: it the hippie black hand. Call it mob political economics.
28:31
Speaker 1: Call it charity. Call it the cost of doing business.
28:33
Speaker 1: Call it whatever the hell you wanted. At the end,
28:35
Speaker 1: it was what it was. Extortion by a so called
28:38
Speaker 1: anti capitalist who is now demanding fifty thousand dollars in
28:41
Speaker 1: cash immediately or else comes showtime. Hoffman and his band
28:45
Speaker 1: of radical New leftists would spike the Woodstock festival's water
28:49
Speaker 1: supply with acid. What a guy, What a credit to society?
28:54
Speaker 1: The piece of shit. Hoffman told Michael it was high
28:58
Speaker 1: time you start contributing to the cause, i e. Him
29:01
Speaker 1: and his overdue legal bills from the Chicago seven trial.
29:04
Speaker 1: But Abby Hoffman wasn't a cold hearted businessman. When Michael
29:07
Speaker 1: bucked at the cost, Hoffman told him he could get
29:09
Speaker 1: in on the hippie installment plan, pay month to month.
29:13
Speaker 1: Michael Lang told Abbie Hoffman he paid him ten grand
29:16
Speaker 1: and throw in some free tickets. Abbie Hoffman took the offer,
29:19
Speaker 1: and the extortion of Woodstock was complete. Michael Lang took
29:23
Speaker 1: it in stride. Roberts, Michael's main financier, the man who
29:27
Speaker 1: ultimately paid Abbie Hoffman, took it as a sign of
29:30
Speaker 1: more ominous things to come. This couldn't be happening. Get
29:51
Speaker 1: them out. John Roberts didn't understand why there were thirty
29:54
Speaker 1: five thousand kids without tickets inside the festival grounds one
29:57
Speaker 1: day before the concert had even begun. If the kids
30:00
Speaker 1: weren't forced to leave and then had show time to
30:03
Speaker 1: re enter with the tickets state either already purchased, which
30:06
Speaker 1: very few had, or to buy tickets at the gate.
30:09
Speaker 1: If this very elementary part of the concert planning couldn't
30:12
Speaker 1: be executed, then tens of thousands of dollars would be lost.
30:16
Speaker 1: And at a time when it had become increasingly clear
30:18
Speaker 1: that he and Rosamond were going to lose their shirts financially,
30:22
Speaker 1: it needed every penny they could get to stave off bankruptcy.
30:26
Speaker 1: But Michael told Roberts the kids weren't going anywhere. Michael
30:30
Speaker 1: told Roberts to relax. Michael told Roberts to get in
30:33
Speaker 1: on the groove that was going round, to stop being
30:36
Speaker 1: so uptight, that everything would work out, and they were
30:38
Speaker 1: about to launch something that money couldn't buy, a movement.
30:42
Speaker 1: But that wasn't good enough for John Roberts. Movements didn't
30:45
Speaker 1: pay the bills unless you're Abby Hoffman or part of
30:48
Speaker 1: the extortionist radical Left. In one day, their money problems
30:51
Speaker 1: would be solved. The festival was going to be a hit.
30:54
Speaker 1: They were expecting two hundred and fifty thousand people. Now
30:57
Speaker 1: word was out all over the country. There was a
30:59
Speaker 1: happening going on in upstate New York. Hendrix janis the Dead,
31:03
Speaker 1: the band Dylan was rumored to be making a surprise
31:05
Speaker 1: appearance sly in the family Stone Jefferson airplane. It was
31:08
Speaker 1: all happening. Man get their universal love nature, can you
31:11
Speaker 1: dig it? Lay back and groove. It was going to
31:13
Speaker 1: be all right. Michael Lang and his original partner Alreadie
31:16
Speaker 1: Kornfeld had long since dismissed the notion of profiting from
31:19
Speaker 1: ticket sales. In their bones, they felt like that was
31:22
Speaker 1: not a lost cause. Their covered expenses were too great
31:25
Speaker 1: to overcome. They of course didn't share this with their
31:29
Speaker 1: other partners their investors. They instead turned their eyes to
31:32
Speaker 1: ancillary ways of deriving cash from what was to be
31:35
Speaker 1: a successful festival, from the sale of the film rights
31:38
Speaker 1: and soundtrack, which were up to this point hastily and
31:41
Speaker 1: naively being negotiated. The documentary director Michael Wadley was interested
31:46
Speaker 1: and willing to leave all the profits to Woodstock Ventures
31:49
Speaker 1: if they covered the film's budget, but tired of being
31:51
Speaker 1: hosed on costs everywhere else, Roberts refused. Wadley covered his
31:55
Speaker 1: own budget for his own big chunk of the distribution rights,
31:59
Speaker 1: and by the time and his dozens of film crew
32:01
Speaker 1: descended on site, including a young, relatively unknown Martin Scorsese
32:05
Speaker 1: on the second unit camera crew and in the editing room,
32:08
Speaker 1: it was clear that film rights would be worth major money,
32:11
Speaker 1: but it was too late to renegotiate the deal. Michael
32:14
Speaker 1: had his own plan to make money, though, via what
32:17
Speaker 1: would be a robust drug trade at the festival. His
32:20
Speaker 1: aim was to utilize an old Florida connection to monopolize
32:23
Speaker 1: the sale of drugs at the concert by flooding the
32:26
Speaker 1: market with product and thus ensuring a massive windfall of cash. However,
32:31
Speaker 1: his and his Florida partner's drugs were intercepted off the
32:34
Speaker 1: coast by the National Guard and the scheme never came
32:37
Speaker 1: to be. A freer trading of illicit substances quickly took
32:41
Speaker 1: root at the festival, mainly grass, acid and heroin. Michael's
32:45
Speaker 1: partner already Cornfeld, ever since planning for the festival had begun,
32:49
Speaker 1: used his new anti establishment endeavor as the excuse he
32:53
Speaker 1: needed to go way off the established path with psychedelic experimentation,
32:58
Speaker 1: virtually making himself useless to Michael. Artie was unrecognizable from
33:02
Speaker 1: the executive Michael had met in his buttoned up Capital
33:05
Speaker 1: Records office. These days, Artie was on another planet and
33:10
Speaker 1: at Woodstock on that final day of planning, that day
33:13
Speaker 1: before the show officially started, Neither Arti Kornfelder, Michael Lang,
33:17
Speaker 1: or anyone else for that matter, needed to go far
33:20
Speaker 1: to score. In the woods adjoining the festival grounds, a
33:23
Speaker 1: black market came together quickly and on natural hippie narcotics bazaarre,
33:28
Speaker 1: where one could leisurely stroll and compare prices on grass,
33:31
Speaker 1: dope and LSD. Enterprising drug dealers even had signs led
33:36
Speaker 1: drug store, read one pharmacy now open, read another and
33:39
Speaker 1: we will not be under sold. The signs were painted
33:42
Speaker 1: in Hippi day glow paint and propped up against trees.
33:46
Speaker 1: It was a bridge too far, even for Michael, the
33:49
Speaker 1: festival's producer, had the signs removed, but security allowed the
33:52
Speaker 1: dealers to stay. There was no fending off the dealers.
33:55
Speaker 1: There were just too many of them. It was better
33:57
Speaker 1: to keep them centrally located and somewhat under control. Michael
34:01
Speaker 1: emerged from the pharmacy in the forest. It was late
34:05
Speaker 1: August fourteenth, nineteen sixty nine, the night before the big show.
34:09
Speaker 1: All this planning it was well worth it, Michael could
34:12
Speaker 1: feel it, and there'd never be anything like this attempted before.
34:16
Speaker 1: The buzz on the street was immense, and the underground
34:19
Speaker 1: press had done their job anointing the festival with the
34:22
Speaker 1: hipness it required, and the mainstream press had done its job,
34:26
Speaker 1: swirling up a constant drumbeat of action around the event.
34:28
Speaker 1: In the weeks and days leading up to the show.
34:31
Speaker 1: Kids all over the country were well aware of what
34:33
Speaker 1: was about to go down in Woodstock on that third
34:35
Speaker 1: week in August of nineteen sixty nine, and they were coming.
34:39
Speaker 1: Michael could feel it. Hell, they'd already arrived. There were
34:42
Speaker 1: already thirty five thousand kids here the night before the
34:45
Speaker 1: show even began, and there they were scattered on sleeping
34:48
Speaker 1: bags and makeshift campsites all over Maxiascar's farm, betting down
34:52
Speaker 1: for the night in anticipation of what was to be
34:55
Speaker 1: one of the biggest and most consequential events of their lives,
34:58
Speaker 1: and he, Michael Lang, built this for them. When all
35:03
Speaker 1: was said and done, Who knew what the possibilities would
35:06
Speaker 1: be for him, for his generation. Maybe revolution was possible,
35:10
Speaker 1: or at the very least, a reprioritization of values, and
35:13
Speaker 1: maybe this was the way to do it through spontaneous community,
35:17
Speaker 1: not commercialism. And maybe he, Michael Lang, was just the
35:20
Speaker 1: guy to lead this flock. It was heavy to think about.
35:24
Speaker 1: Michael hit his pillow that night before the show, with
35:26
Speaker 1: adrenaline in hope surging through him. Tomorrow would be a
35:30
Speaker 1: day unlike any other. When he awoke, he was greeted
35:35
Speaker 1: by the one thing of festival producer Dreads, the constant
35:39
Speaker 1: beat of chaos. The crowd of thirty five thousand had
35:44
Speaker 1: nearly doubled to sixty five thousand. The phones and the
35:47
Speaker 1: production trailers rang off the hook. The state cops were
35:50
Speaker 1: choking traffic out on Roude seventeen, issuing indiscriminate stops and
35:54
Speaker 1: searches for drug seizures and seized drugs. They did one
35:58
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty arrests for LSA, marijuana, heroin, amphetamines, and
36:02
Speaker 1: other suspicious substances pipes, bongs, bolts, syringes, spoons, wraps, all
36:06
Speaker 1: manner of drug paraphernalia was caused for arrest. Two troopers
36:10
Speaker 1: stationed themselves like vengeful roaming guards at the beginning of
36:13
Speaker 1: the main road going into the festival site and poached
36:16
Speaker 1: joint toking hippies into cuffs and off to the station.
36:19
Speaker 1: It further stalled traffic. Another local police captain, so concerned
36:23
Speaker 1: with the illicit flow of drugs into the festival site
36:26
Speaker 1: from the caravan of hippies, had his officers literally dig
36:29
Speaker 1: a trench across one of the main dirt access ways.
36:32
Speaker 1: It took less than two hours for all traffic to stop,
36:35
Speaker 1: not to a crawl to a standstill. A concertgoers simply
36:39
Speaker 1: abandoned their cars, grabbed their camping gear and hooked it
36:42
Speaker 1: to Yaskar's farm. There was no denying them. Most were young,
36:45
Speaker 1: most were respectful, but because of the sheer number of them,
36:48
Speaker 1: local wear and tear was unavoidable. As the Peace and
36:51
Speaker 1: Love generation paraded through the small towns surrounding Yaskar's farm
36:54
Speaker 1: by the thousands. They tranced through yards, urinated in public
36:58
Speaker 1: past reef around in the open and some small town
37:01
Speaker 1: locals reacted in horror. Others, however, opened their arms and
37:04
Speaker 1: treated the young men and women with long hair and
37:07
Speaker 1: strange smelling cigarettes with the respect they would their own children.
37:11
Speaker 1: It was a scene unlike anything anyone anywhere had ever witnessed.
37:15
Speaker 1: Back at the festival grounds, quickly sixty five thousand became
37:18
Speaker 1: eighty five thousand. The production team anticipated a need to
37:22
Speaker 1: triple the order for first aid supplies if they could
37:24
Speaker 1: even get them on site in time. The concertgoers were
37:27
Speaker 1: going to have to rely on cold mush and other
37:29
Speaker 1: concoctions from the Hog Farm's free kitchen for food. Such
37:33
Speaker 1: was the lack of traditional food supplies and concessions in
37:36
Speaker 1: the face of what was turning out to be a
37:38
Speaker 1: much bigger crowd than anticipated. As the problems mounted, the
37:42
Speaker 1: word trickled in that there was easily another one hundred
37:44
Speaker 1: thousand kids on foot hoofing it to the concert, with
37:47
Speaker 1: realistic expectations of two hundred and fifty thousand more arriving
37:50
Speaker 1: on the second day. Good news for the festival organizers,
37:54
Speaker 1: but not really. A private police force Michael's head of
37:58
Speaker 1: security had hired was now demanding were in effect extorting
38:02
Speaker 1: festival organizers at the last minute, knowing full well that
38:05
Speaker 1: their financial demands would be met, Because what was Michael
38:07
Speaker 1: Lane going to do not police a quarter million drugged
38:10
Speaker 1: out hippies fucking pay them whatever they want. The extortionist
38:14
Speaker 1: cops were in. Michael heard the violence of the Rolling
38:17
Speaker 1: Stones single from last summer, the street fighting man in
38:20
Speaker 1: his head and made the call, the call he didn't
38:23
Speaker 1: want to make for his own heavies, his own rock
38:26
Speaker 1: and roll ss, black shirted thucks, heavily armed hippie gestapo
38:30
Speaker 1: there to patrol, indiscriminately inconspicuous police. The police, and they
38:35
Speaker 1: were not cheap. Roberts and Rosamond saw a bankruptcy court
38:38
Speaker 1: on the horizon. Michael saw more and more kids streaming
38:41
Speaker 1: into the site from over the hill, and the meager
38:44
Speaker 1: chain laying fence surrounding Yascu's farm was no match for
38:47
Speaker 1: the encroaching mass. It was easily discarded. The kids flooded
38:51
Speaker 1: the site without paying for tickets, and there was no
38:53
Speaker 1: way of ejecting them and collecting their money. Doing so
38:55
Speaker 1: and most certainly led to a riot. It was only
38:58
Speaker 1: one thing to do, declare the show a free festival.
39:03
Speaker 1: Roberts and Rossaman. Michael's investors were sunk. There was nothing
39:08
Speaker 1: they could do. Michael was right, there was no way
39:10
Speaker 1: of turning back the crowd. Any attempt at doing so
39:13
Speaker 1: would lead to more chaos and perhaps even violence, which
39:16
Speaker 1: would make the unwinnable financial situation they were in catastrophic.
39:21
Speaker 1: It's cool, Michael told them, it's all happening. You're about
39:23
Speaker 1: to be part of history. Don't be so uptight. Of course,
39:26
Speaker 1: Roberts and Rossaman didn't see it that way, but there
39:29
Speaker 1: was nothing they could do. So they did what the
39:31
Speaker 1: rest of their team was doing at that moment before
39:33
Speaker 1: the festival began, braced themselves for the next crisis, for
39:37
Speaker 1: the next fire that needed putting out. It came in
39:40
Speaker 1: the form of a telephone call, with hours before showtime
39:45
Speaker 1: and one hundred and seventy five thousand kids now dutifully
39:47
Speaker 1: waiting to be entertained on Max Siascar's farm, with traffic
39:51
Speaker 1: completely stopped for miles around them, and with hundreds of
39:53
Speaker 1: thousands more making their way toward them, with scant medical supplies,
39:57
Speaker 1: compromise security, a small armed Hippi Gaste, but a new
40:00
Speaker 1: age food supply in the form of hog farm, mush
40:03
Speaker 1: and with words spreading like wildfire, not only throughout New
40:06
Speaker 1: York State, but all over the country, that something of mammoth,
40:09
Speaker 1: potentially dangerous proportions was happening in Upstate. The Governor's office
40:14
Speaker 1: called Nelson Rockefeller. State aide informed the Woodstock Ventures employee
40:18
Speaker 1: who answered the phone and the command trailer that the
40:21
Speaker 1: state had officially declared the Woodstock festival site in Bethel
40:25
Speaker 1: and surrounding White Lake area a state of emergency. The
40:29
Speaker 1: governor had activated the National Guard it was prepared to
40:31
Speaker 1: move the troops into the site on word from festival organizers,
40:35
Speaker 1: who on the other end of the line were flabbergasted, shocked.
40:40
Speaker 1: For all the chaos that had quickly engulfed them, it
40:42
Speaker 1: was relative peace, all things considered. Richie Havens had been
40:46
Speaker 1: forced on stage to open the show and was delivering
40:49
Speaker 1: in rapturing the crowd of now nearly two hundred thousand
40:52
Speaker 1: with nothing but his acoustic guitar, his big voice, his
40:55
Speaker 1: heavy heart, in his tremendous soul, stomping his way through
40:58
Speaker 1: an improvised vision of you Topia that alchemized the hearts
41:01
Speaker 1: and minds of thousands into one, if only for a
41:04
Speaker 1: brief moment. Regardless, the moment was real and the moment
41:07
Speaker 1: had an effect, Despite the reports the Governor's Office was
41:10
Speaker 1: getting from the surrounding area. Here at the festival, the
41:14
Speaker 1: cool things were out of sight. No need to send
41:17
Speaker 1: in the fucking National guard man, and the Governor's office
41:20
Speaker 1: thought otherwise. It ignored the hippie tippy mumbo jumbo from
41:22
Speaker 1: the other end of the line, technocratically speaking, just what
41:26
Speaker 1: were festival organizers' plans to help the guard airlift all
41:29
Speaker 1: those kids out of there? Airlift them out of here.
41:32
Speaker 1: No one needed to go anywhere. Everything was cool. Didn't
41:34
Speaker 1: they get it? This was a new day, a new way.
41:37
Speaker 1: Kids were grooving on each other. Peace and love were
41:40
Speaker 1: going to carry the day. There was no violence, no chaos,
41:42
Speaker 1: no need to send in the Guard, and no need
41:44
Speaker 1: to worry, except there was a need to worry outside
41:48
Speaker 1: the festival commands centered trailer. After the Governor's aid had
41:51
Speaker 1: been assured no government assistance was needed. After the call
41:55
Speaker 1: had ended, a festival worker bounded toward the stage to
41:58
Speaker 1: do something she didn't think possible just five minutes earlier.
42:02
Speaker 1: Enjoy herself. Take in the scene, listen to some music.
42:06
Speaker 1: The programming lineup was completely disrupted due to the fact
42:09
Speaker 1: that the arrival of artists was totally thrown off by
42:12
Speaker 1: the surrounding traffic jam. Artists were being helicoptered in and
42:16
Speaker 1: Richie Havens only went on first because somebody saw him
42:18
Speaker 1: chilling out backstage with the guitar and forced him up
42:21
Speaker 1: there before the crowd got restless. Word was Sweetwater was
42:25
Speaker 1: going on next. The festival worker was excited to see
42:28
Speaker 1: Sweetwater perform, but she'd forgotten her smokes. She headed back
42:32
Speaker 1: to the trailer to grab them. When she got to
42:34
Speaker 1: the trailer's metal steps and placed her foot on the
42:37
Speaker 1: first step, she was jolted back onto the ground. Shocked,
42:41
Speaker 1: she tried again another electric shock. She smartly gave up
42:45
Speaker 1: on trying to fight her way through electrocution for a
42:48
Speaker 1: pack of cigarettes. She flagged down the festival's master electrician
42:51
Speaker 1: to let him know about the problem. Some sort of
42:54
Speaker 1: charge being picked up by the metal steps. Were keeping
42:57
Speaker 1: an eye on it, she was informed, and the electrician
42:59
Speaker 1: was of the problem. It seems there was a natural
43:02
Speaker 1: wear to the main electric feeder cable running just below
43:05
Speaker 1: the festival grounds. Every now and then a light surge
43:08
Speaker 1: escaped in an annoying but ultimately unharmful current transferred above ground,
43:13
Speaker 1: in this case to the trailer's metal steps. The electrician
43:17
Speaker 1: told her there was nothing to worry about so long
43:19
Speaker 1: as the ground stayed dry. If the ground were to
43:21
Speaker 1: get wet, swampy, muddy, and that master cable was to
43:24
Speaker 1: fray any further underground, well, the potential for serious destruction
43:28
Speaker 1: was possible, but that was a lot of what ifs. Sure,
43:32
Speaker 1: it was a lot to worry about, but like most things,
43:34
Speaker 1: it wouldstock. It was all being held together on a
43:36
Speaker 1: little wing, a hippie prayer and the power of Michael
43:39
Speaker 1: Lang's infectious confidence. Hey, could be worse, the electrician said,
43:45
Speaker 1: at least it's not going to rain. I'm Jake Brennan
43:50
Speaker 1: in this episode of Disgraceland. Is to be continued. Disgraceland
44:12
Speaker 1: was created by Yours Truly and is produced in partnership
44:15
Speaker 1: with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found
44:18
Speaker 1: on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com. If
44:21
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44:24
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Speaker 2: com slash at this Great flam Pot Rock and Roller.
45:05
Speaker 1: He's a bad, bad man.