It is true that they did not have the time to close the site

It is a strong image, that it retains often three days during which young 500,000 found themselves in an unlikely field North of New York, in the municipality of Bethel and not far from the real city of Woodstock. On stage, Jimi Hendrix ends the festival with a very personal version of the "Star Spangled Banner". Armed with his white Fender Stratocaster, he improvises - and destroyed - the American anthem, in which he gives a particular resonance then to other American "boys" are immersed in the war of the Viet Nam, a few thousands of kilometres away.

This image, thousands of spectators of the film, which was derived from the festival, have seen it. You can also rediscover it on YouTube (type "Hendrix plays national anthem"). But in reality, the provision of Hendrix in the early morning of Monday 18, took place before an audience of more than sparse, a few thousands of courageous who held to the end. The vast majority of the others had already abandoned, overcome by fatigue, rain, mud, or various substances (not always of good quality, according to a famous announcement of the organizers). Regardless: this paradox that contributes in its own way to fuel the legend of Woodstock, it celebrates the quarantine (a second edition of the festival took place in 1994, at the quarter-century of the event, and a third in 1999 to celebrate the thirty years). The "Woodstock Music and Art Fair" is "the greatest event in the history of rock", as referred it to the "rolling stone" magazine. Because ever person tried betting crazy together as world, artists and fans, in a space also reduced for so long. And of course because no other festival has left such a mark, music as well as sociological.

A very unequal musical result

Is at the height of the hippie wave. Four men, Michael Lang and Artie Kornfeld, professionals of the music, John Roberts and Joel Rosenman, two financiers, engaged in February 1969 in a giant festival project. After months of Galerius, they fly the site of the event, a field belonging to Max Yasgur, three weeks before the fateful date of Friday, August 15. A camping accommodate occupants 200,000 is quickly installed and quickly mounted stage. But, as soon as Wednesday, 60,000 people have already invested the place. Access roads are quickly saturated and if 100,000 tickets have been sold, organizers will be overwhelmed by tens of thousands of riders. It is true that they did not have the time to close the site... A giant Bazaar that will widely contribute to the woodstockien myth.

Side music, apart from the Beatles, the Stones, the Doors or Dylan, but residing in the city of Woodstock, which is better at the time will scroll on stage. For a very uneven result, fault to technical conditions (the sono is not really at the height), climate (rain is invited) and Narcotics (LSD, among other things, runs very, very freely...). Some artists, totally elsewhere at the time, did realize that after the relative quality of their delivery (the Grateful Dead was, says, catastrophé, Joe Cocker surprised). Janis Joplin was already past the other side and Hendrix remained far too long backstage... It will measure the musical legacy of the event through disks which in fired, all re-edited in the box "Woodstock-40 years On: back to Yasgur's fan" (Rhino), which also contains the speech of welcome on his land of Max Yasgur. It will also lay an ear to the full benefits of Sly and the Family Stone, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter or Santana (all published in Columbia-Legacy). And it will be lenient or admiring, choice subject solos bear endless and skids uncontrolled.

In the end, include especially a great song, "Woodstock", composed by Joni Mitchell... that was not there, but a beautiful version is available on "Deja Vu", the second album by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, who were of the part. "By the time we got to Woodstock, we were half a million strong and everywhere there was song and celebration", they sing. This is the essence.