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Old rockers remember Woodstock
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The annual Freedom Jam that's popular with music lovers won't take place today for security reasons. So let's console ourselves with memories of the mother of all jams whose anniversary falls today
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PHOTO: MURALI KUMAR K.
THE SHOW MUST GO ON The organisers of Freedom Jam are trying to hold the event later this month
It may be mere coincidence that the anniversary of the Woodstock festival falls on our Independence Day. It is also the day when a Woodstock-inspired local event, Freedom Jam, happens. Not this year, though. It has been postponed for security reasons.
Gopal Navale of Guruskool, founder of Freedom Jam, had this to say: "As you know in our independent country, we really do not have the independence to celebrate Independence with independent music. The police refused permission for August 15."
Summer of '69
I-Day can, however, be an occasion to look back on the summer of '69 and reflect on its relevance to our times. What began as a hippie movement in the U.S. culminated in an epochal, never-to-happen-again event, one that would come to be known as the Age of Aquarius — a new-age movement seen as the harbinger of a future shift in human values. The site was a 600-acre dairy farm in Bethel Town, Sullivan County, New York, that belonged to Max Yasgur. The music began Friday afternoon August 15 and continued until mid-morning Monday August 18.
"I came upon a child of god/ He was walking along the road/ And I asked him, where are you going/ And this he told me/ I'm going on down to Yasgur's farm/ I'm going to join in a rock 'n' roll band/ I'm going to camp out on the land/ I'm going to try and get my soul free."
American folk-rock group Crosby, Stills and Nash immortalised these words of Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell in their Woodstock performance — the song "Woodstock", commemorating the spirit of the three-day festival attended by over 500,000 `Children of God'.
Woodstock '69 came about during one of the most tumultuous times in American history, and lived up to its billing: Three days of Peace and Music. The festival grounded the hippie movement's founding principles of peace and duty towards humanity and reaffirmed its endeavour to liberate the people from the clutches of blind conformism. The Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco (one of the most famous intersections of the mid-'60s, and the hub of the Flower-Power movement) bustled with a newfound hope.
Gopal Navale relives his experience of the '69 event from the Indian perspective: "We were lucky to go to Madras to see Woodstock, the movie, in a theatre called Blue Diamond/Sapphire on Mount Road. We literally spent days in the movie hall soaking in the mood of the concert — which showcased the attitude of free love, free music... The hippie dream and an awesome line-up of greats on stage: Ritchie Havens to Jimi Hendrix. It was a time when Nehru jackets, chillums and Gurus were in fashion."
The blending of folk, rock, and jazz styles resulted in a virtual renaissance of music, the value of which was not measured in terms of money. Most people identify Woodstock '69 with Jimi Hendrix's ultimate finale. The unorthodox and volcanic version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" portrayed the violence and destruction of the Vietnam War.
Konarak on Hendrix
Konarak Reddy, distinguished Bangalore guitarist on the world circuit, says: "Jimi Hendrix, for me personally, was revolutionary as far as sound was concerned. He broke the concept and structure of modern commercial music and the style of playing guitar of that time." The mood of the rebellion, growing racial unrest and angst of a generation, were embedded in his unique improvisation.
Konarak talks of Woodstock's influence on Indian youth: "I feel the power of youth of that time (circa '60's), and the freedom of expression that it represented, made a huge impact on the young people of India. As a nation, our systems of learning and of culture were previously based solely on respecting and following in the footsteps of our elders. Woodstock, and the anti-establishment movement it was part of, was a turning point for the urban youth of India."
Indian presence
And of the Indian presence in the Summer of '69: "As far as Ravi Shankar and Swami Satchidananda go, I feel in 1969 they were still selling the concept of India and Indian culture to the West. They were not so sure and confident of themselves in a global context at that time, so our presence at Woodstock was, to my mind, effete."
As we celebrate Woodstock's 37th anniversary, we remember the festival for its contemporary ideals and the `Spirit of Freedom' that it stood for — and still stands for. As for the local Freedom Jam, Navale says they're trying for permission to hold it at Palace Grounds on August 27. "We are waiting for the myriad permissions to come through."
Rather ironic, that: we need permission to be free!
Bharadwaj m.v.
Woodstock trivia
John Roberts (26) and Joel Rosenman (24), two venture capitalists along with the Vice-President of Capitol Records, Arthur Kornfeld (25), and event-producer Michael Lang (24), both free-spirited hippies in their own right, constituted the Woodstock Ventures Inc.
Arnold Skolnick was the artist who designed the Woodstock symbol: the dove (actually a catbird) perched on the guitar.
Michael Wadleigh, a documentary filmmaker, directed the Woodstock movie with the help of Martin Scorsese. The movie won the Best Documentary Film award in 1970 and helped Woodstock gain its cultural significance in pop culture and made it a profitable venture.
In 1984, Wayne Saward, a welder, built a small gravestone-like memorial commemorating Woodstock '69. People visiting this shrine in solidarity, and reminiscing with the founding principles of the counter-culture movement, are a common sight to this day.
Charles M. Schultz, creator of the Peanuts cartoon strip, introduced a bird Woodstock in 1970 in remembrance of the Woodstock '69 festival.
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