Woodstock 1969

Woodstock 1969

Hey there. Not too long ago, I went on a quest that took me far past the Woodstock soundtrack and movie. It started off with me receiving a copy of The Who's Woodstock show. It had the entire   Abbie Hoffman incident and was a soundboard copy of this historical show. Then one summer day in 2000, I was sitting on the beach with friends when I realized that no one had tried to collect all of Woodstock. To put whatever is out there back together and listen to it once again in the order in which it took place!

If nothing else, collecting Woodstock exposed me to so much music that I otherwise would never have heard. Bands that I listen to and collect because of this Woodstock quest include Richie Havens (start off with his first cd, Mixed Bag), Sweetwater (Cycles will impress you), Arlo Guthrie (he wrote Alice's Restaurant - listen to it!), Country Joe & The Fish (hint: you can get a free autograph on his website!), John Sebastian (he did the Welcome Back, Kotter song if you remember John Travolta from the 70's!), Santana, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and Jimi Hendrix.

I found many sources of information on the Internet but no one who'd put it all back together. There's no way to know exactly how many songs were played at Woodstock, but most sources agree on 210 songs (or 233 if you include the Blackstead Tapes). That works as a benchmark. I had the two cd Woodstock soundtrack and The Who's Woodstock show to start with. Then came Jimi Hendrix Live At Woodstock, which has 14 of his 16 song set, and Ravi Shankar at Woodstock.

Some sets are easy to complete - CCR, Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, The Who, Sly & The Family Stone are all out there and when you find them, you find the complete Woodstock set of that band. Not so for others! Santana played four songs at Woodstock. You need to buy two Santana official cds - one of which is a double cd - to get Santana's complete Woodstock set. Luckily, both of those cds kickass!...