Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music

Posted on June 8, 2009
Filed Under Culture, Films, Main, Music, Politics | Leave a Comment

woodstock_2.jpgHey ex-Hippies: It’s time to set your soul free again (“We are stardust, we are golden”). This year marks yet another benchmark for aging hipsters: the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. Though I was unable to attend the event ( I did, however, attend a few other benchmark musical events, including the first L.A. concerts of Pink Floyd, the Newport Rock Festival in Costa Mesa in August 1968, and the Last Days of Fillmore West in July 1971), I, like so many of my peers, just marveled at the news of the wonderful event. And the 1970 movie “Woodstock,” by Michael Wadleigh, summed up all the best aspects of the rock generation — to that point in time.

But the last year of the decade already was sounding the death knell for the 60s “revolution” (which we thought would go on forever): The virtual dismantling of SDS by the Weather Underground faction in late 1969, the debacle of the Altamont Free Concert in December, and even the breakup of The Beatles (late 1969 to early 1970)  … with the decade being “finished off” by the Kent State Shootings on May 4, 1970. The idea of the 60s struggled on through the 1970s, seeing the end of the Vietnam War, a punk rock movement to offset the corporatization of rock ‘n’ roll, and a blossoming of grass roots art and theatre. The dream officially ended with the rise of Ronald Reaganism in 1980.

But hey, the 1960s did shine brightly for awhile, and Woodstock was one of it’s great beacons.

So today we celebrate Woodstock with the release of “Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music,” a director’s cut of that seminal film. Herewith is the press release from Warner Home Video:

 Woodstock: The Director’s Cut:

40th Anniversary

Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music — the four-hour director’s cut of the 1970 Oscar-winning documentary about the landmark music event that featured some of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll performers in history — will be released June 9 in a spectacular new limited, numbered Blu-ray and DVD Ultimate Collector’s Edition.  With two extra hours of rare performance footage — some of it newly-discovered, some only seen in part and some never seen at all — the set is destined to make its own history.

Today, four decades later, Woodstock still resonates deeply with those who attended and those who wished they had. Director Michael Wadleigh notes, “Based on the vast e-mails and calls I’ve received, many from young people, it’s very evident that people still relate so much to the film and view the ‘60s as an age when anything and everything was possible, mostly good. Many hope for a new Woodstock generation since what people loved back then was spontaneity, originality, innocence and honesty — even in superstars; that’s why Woodstock, with its open and natural philosophy, has become timeless.”

The two extra hours of rare performance footage features 18 new performances as never before seen from 13 groups, including Joan Baez, Country Joe McDonald, Santana, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Canned Heat, Joe Cocker and five (Paul Butterfield, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Grateful Dead, Johnny Winter and Mountain) who played at Woodstock but never appeared in any film version.

A third hour of bonus material also in the set includes a featurette gallery (“Woodstock: From festival to Feature“) showcasing interviews with Martin Scorsese, producer Michael Lang, director Michael Wadleigh, Hugh Hefner, Eddie Kramer (the concert’s original chief on-site engineer and producer-engineer for Jimi Hendrix) and others who chronicle the making of the festival and the film. Included are such segments as “3 Days in a Truck,” “No Rain! No Rain!” and “Living Up to Idealism.”

The discs will be packaged in a unique giftbox, numbered as part of a limited run with an array of collectibles that include a 60+ page reprint of a Life magazine commemorative issue, a lucite lenticular display of vintage festival photos, festival memorabilia and an iron-on patch with the classic dove and guitar Woodstock emblem.

VH1 Rock Docs and History have joined forces in a unique television collaboration to co-produce the definitive two-hour documentary, “Woodstock: 40 Years Later” (working title), which will premiere this August on VH1, History and VH1 Classic. Directed by two-time Academy Award winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple and executive produced by Michael Lang, the original festival organizer, the film examines Woodstock from the perspectives of not only the musicians who graced the stage, but the fans, concert promoters and countless others. The film will also take an important look at Woodstock’s legacy through the eyes of today’s musicians and activists examining why Woodstock and all it symbolizes is still relevant in today’s culture.

Woodstock Ultimate Collectors Edition: Band Roster

Arlo Guthrie
Canned Heat
Country Joe & the Fish
Country Joe McDonald
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Crosby, Stills, Nash
Grateful Dead
Janis Joplin
Jefferson Airplane
Jimi Hendrix
Joan Baez
Joe Cocker
John Sebastian
Johnny Winter
Mountain
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Richie Havens
Santana
Sha-Na-Na
Sly & The Family Stone
Ten Years After
The Who


Full Description of 18 Bonus Performances

Full Description of “Woodstock: From Festival to Feature”

For more Woodstock info:

 Woodstock.com

1969 Woodstock Festival & Concert

Woodstock on DVD

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