August 18, 2025 • 39 mins
The legendary music and art festival known as Woodstock that occurred in 1969 was 3 days of peace and music that drew a staggering crowd of more than 460,000 people! Boston Globe reporter Steve Kurkjian experienced and covered the iconic festival. While Bradley was not in attendance for the 1969 festival, he did attend Woodstock 99, which attempted to emulate the original 1969 Woodstock festival. How did music culture change in the 30 years that passed between the two festivals and how did the festivals differ? Did you attend either festival and if so, what was your experience like? Steve and Bradley swapped festival stories!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's night Side with Dan Ray on WBS, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
That's right Nightside with Dan Ray, Bradley and Jay in
for Dan. Tonight with Steve Kirkchen, longtime Globe reporter and
one of the people at the well. He's someone who
covered Woodstock number one, and I must be clear. I
guess I can't say that I covered, And Steve pointed
this out being an exacting person, I did not actually
(00:27):
cover as a journalist. We'll talk down and I was
there and I was interviewing guests. You covered those who performed.
It was not yes performed. It was not my calling
to up to report on the goings on. I was
simply an interviewer and an observer. So there are certain
(00:50):
things that I did not pay attention to this Steve, I.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Think I said I said earlier that I did not.
I was not there to cover the music. I never
back down to the bandstand. Uh. Only I only interviewed
one promoter h on the first night, Micha Lang, who
told me that the band would the show would go on.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
And uh.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Then when I was asked by my shitty out of
the late Jack Thomas, to find out what what happens
next I went that morning of the last performance. UH
found someone and he said, well, where are you from?
My tome from Boston. He said, well, maybe we'll come
to the Cape. Well how about Provincetown. We'll do something
(01:36):
in Provencetown dunes and Uh. That made a great headline
the next morning. But all the town fathers of UH
and and and others who controlled the province sound what
upper arms and UH the fella said, well, I was
just sort of talking formally to the globe, befoorter. I
(01:57):
wasn't really planning anything. So that never happened except for
that one head turn.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
This hour with Steve, we're gonna talk about maybe the
first Woodstock a little more and concentrate even more on
Woodstock ninety nine. And then Steve and I and maybe
you at six, one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty
will offer some opinions on what went wrong and Woodstock
ninety nine, what went right at Woodstock won, and what
(02:23):
happened to our society. I feel like these two events
are snapshots of our society that really focus a bright
spotlight on the good and the bad and the in between.
And I have some theories. By the way, you mentioned
that you your favorite Krosby Stilts, Nash and Young. Was
(02:45):
that your favorite?
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Hey?
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah, they were really growing up in my in my mind,
and Neil Young was starting on his own and I
was picking up everything I could on his. But they
played I think it was late Saturday night and there
you know, they're so harmonic, and the sound system well terrific,
was not up to what it could have been, and
(03:08):
their harmony was not. They closed, I think closed down
Saturday night and it wasn't It wasn't as pleasant.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
What was your vantage point where you're out there in
the lawn with the kids.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
There was no lawn by this stid. Yeah, just just
find my way, bring my sleeping bag, find my way
and hang out my mark and knives. I think passed
a couple of times and hung out, Hi you doing?
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Hi?
Speaker 3 (03:32):
You doing? Do you have any cigarettes left?
Speaker 4 (03:34):
No?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Do you have no?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
And and uh.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Where you off to?
Speaker 3 (03:39):
One afternoon, I walked into the town of Monticello. I
had gotten and met one of the editors of the paper,
and he allowed me to see what their strings, who
are throughout the audience were filing, because I wanted to
make sure I didn't miss anything that was major you know,
some something happened or somebody and uh, and they were covering.
(04:02):
They had people everywhere. And I walked into town, I
was thumbed into town and read their wire and credited them,
and then uh and walked back. So I missed a
lot of the rainstorm that engulfed the the the the
(04:22):
show UH saddly Saturday afternoon.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And that was that was since you hadn't planned to cover,
Did you have a press pass? And if you did,
did you get access to watch it from specially good
areas if you want?
Speaker 3 (04:36):
No, there's nothing like that.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
It was.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
It's all.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
I didn't meet another reporter except for that one at Monticello.
There was if you could make your way down towards
the bands, uh, to the performance stage, all the better.
But there was no need. I wasn't there to cover
the music. I knew the music was going to be terrific,
but I could hear it at the back of the
three hundred thousand, as I could hear it.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Before we go to dawn in New Hampshire. What was
your opinion impression, not only it taste wise, but culturally
of the music at the second one that you saw
in the Netflix special Train wreck in Stock ninety nine.
What is your impression? Yeah, yeah, well without a contributing factor.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Yeah, well, when you see that and you see we
didn't have wash pits. We people take care of each
other at the center in front of the performance before
the bands, and there was nothing like a marsh pit.
But the marsh pit at ninety nine was as angry
(05:43):
as as assault of as you'd see in a you know,
in a in an NFL football when your team has lost.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
In any other situation, these people would all go to jail.
I'm gonna have to be honest with everybody. I know,
as a person that spent a lot of time in
the world of rock, I never got the marsh pit.
Never got it. Uh maybe it's because they wear glasses
and I didn't want to get them broken. I know
there's enough pain in life without going and getting voluntarily
(06:19):
whacked in the face. And I know that initially the
purpose was not to hurt each other, So there were
rules in the early marsh pits, but but those rules
all went away in places like What's Douck That was just.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
For those people.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Why do I need to go and get really beat up?
It's just it's beyond me. If anybody has an explanation
on that one, let me know.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I think one of the better issue questions to you
do address of address Bradley would be would there be
another one? Oh?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
You know, Okay, there's two questions. Would there be another one?
And would you Steve or would I Bradley want another one? Myself?
Speaker 3 (07:05):
If I could put together another one.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
I would want another one. I would want to see
where society is that. Now, did we learn a lesson
from that one? Would it be better? Or it would
it not? Would it somehow degrade into a conservative versus
uh liberal event?
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Well, as the years have gone by, the light in
going to and not covering but going to attending the
farm maid one day concerts that that they raise money
for the independent farmers and that uh you know, I
went last year at Saratoga. Again it's one day. I'm
(07:51):
in the press area. Uh it's not as rigorous, but
those in the back, uh you know, it's just is
teeming with people. And this for a sense of violence
or anger. But again it's Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp,
Neil Young and and whom am I missing? Well, they're
(08:18):
pretty melodic people and they're not.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
You know they're trying to generate good will.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah, they're trying to generate good will. It's whom they're bringing.
But kids.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
You have a a festival full of very angry, young,
tough performers, whatever race, It doesn't matter who are screaming.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Out against the the bonds of society and not have
kids acting up. I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
It might depend on how you scream at them to
change society. How you how the band is trying to
get you to do it. If they're saying tear everything down,
they got a problem. If we're saying, yeah, yeah, let's
create create change through positive means, maybe that's another thing.
John Keane in New Hampshire, Hi, John, how you're on
(09:11):
WBC Bradley jke Bradley, Steve Kirchen.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Steve Bradley. What's happening guys?
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Oh good? Tell you man?
Speaker 4 (09:20):
All right, all right, Bradley, do you remember me? I
was on your show in twenty nineteen with my book
Pilgrims of Woodstock.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I gotta be honest if I lied. If I lied
to you, you could say, uh huh, I was never
on your show and I'd be busted. So I.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Never.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
I could never conjure up. I could never conjure up
a lie like that.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
And this is a reason like this I've learned because
I've been busted. Policy truth is always the best policy.
But I do remember there was someone with a big,
beautiful coffee table book.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Yeah, I gave you one. In fact, you bought a
jacket off me at Todd Farm that's unrelated to Woodstock,
but a nice wool vermuch anyway, I know. Oddly enough,
my mother called me and said, John, they're talking about
Woodstock on the radio. And then I'm obliged to call
because I happened to be the only gen xer within
a three hundred mile radius that happens to be a
(10:15):
scholar on the subject. Just because I've been sort of
pushed into this world of Woodstock, I would like to
relay one thing to you, gentlemen, thank you for talking
about such an important topic. Is that Woodstock has some
really deep rooted New England roots, aside from the people
that went there, which were mostly college aged New England people.
(10:39):
The sound system of Woodstock came out of Medford mess
by a man created by a man named Bill Hanley,
who is known as the father of festival sound. And
I'm not here to plug books, but I am here
to plug his innovations and his history because it's so
profound and so prolific, and you would never know. And
(11:00):
I grew up in Somerville, and you'd never know as
a rock and roll kid. Listen to WBCN. That just
the stones throw from where I lived in Summerville. The
sound systems for some of the biggest festivals, concerts, venues
still from the film Maurice to Bob Dylan going Electric
all the Way to Woodstock came out of Medford, mass
You mean incredible story.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
He put in the system at Newport Folk Festival.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Yeah. Bill Hanley is with the sound engineer for Newport
from nineteen fifty nine till nineteen sixty seven.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
That has a great interview.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Actually I had him on one time as a guest.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Maybe maybe it did. Maybe I could.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I guarantee you I did, And he.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Put the equipment in for Woodstock of sixty Woodstock sixty nine.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Woodstock sixty nine is a Bill Hanley sound system. I wrote.
I wrote a book called The Last Seat in the House,
The Story Hanley sound It's with the University Press of Mississippi.
And I cover his the entirety of his career and
also the sort of the entirety of the development of
concerts sounds in sound systems from the nineteen fifties through
(12:15):
the early seventies, which is, you know, sort of an
amazing thing.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
I mean, it does the Sun records fame of a
local story as far as a local story is.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Concerned, Don Kane, you said you were a scholar, Don Kane,
so you know, answer my question? What kind of what
do we learn from the just the difference between Woodstock
one and how people acted and how the promoters acted,
and what we learned from Woodstock three same way promoters
treatment of the people and vice versa. What do we
(12:48):
learn like where do we go along? I have my theory.
I might as well share it now you can. Actually, no,
I have to break and so I'm not gonna I'm
gonna hold you because we need to hear your answer.
Next time. W BZ.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
It's Night Side with Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 6 (13:09):
How are you out there? Are you out? Are you okay?
Speaker 5 (13:15):
You're not?
Speaker 6 (13:17):
Yeah, you're staying stone and you've got enough water and
you've got a place to sleep and everything.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
What does that mean?
Speaker 6 (13:33):
Because you know, because we ought to all of us.
You know, I don't mean to be preachy, but we
ought to remember and that means promoters too, that music's
for grooving, man, and music's not for putting yourself through
bad changes.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
You know.
Speaker 6 (13:47):
I mean, you don't have to go take anybody man
just to like music, you know what I mean?
Speaker 5 (13:53):
You don't.
Speaker 6 (13:53):
So if you're getting more than you deserve, you know
what to do about it?
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Man?
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Well there you go. Uh Woodstock, that's the first Woodstock
and that's the vibe. And a little later on I'm
going to really drill down into the vibe in the
second one and try to figure out which what happened.
And we have a self professed Woodstock scholar Don Kane
in New Hampshire. Maybe you can give us some insight.
(14:21):
You must have thought about this, mister, mister Woodstock Don
What do you think?
Speaker 4 (14:28):
JOHJM. Kine Kanny And I don't you know when I
say self professed, Well, it's nothing that I really set
out to do. I just ended up. It just ended
up happening. And I'm and I'm quite and I'm quite
interested interested in the subject as well. It's an interesting topic. Well,
to answer your question with regard to the promote the
(14:49):
way promotion sort of evolved with youth culture. These ideas
and these philosophies go way back. They go back before Woodstock,
They go all the way to the Beatles, and they
go to Elvis Presley. Promotion and promoting popular music figures
(15:10):
is not a new idea. Woodstock proved that you could
get you could get a four hundred and fifty thousand
kids in one area, and promoters eyes lit up with
with you know, money, money, money, money, money. You can
gather these kids into one area, you can sell them things.
And then after even though Woodstock failed in that way
(15:32):
because money was lost, other promoters mimic Woodstock. Mimics occurred
after that festival, and you had a lot of failed festivals.
Some were successful, Watkins Glenn was fairly successful. That happened
thereafter and then and then by nineteen seventy three, they
really got messy. Court injunction after court injunction. Many towns
(15:55):
did not want you know, the not in my backyard
sort of philosophy. They didn't want hippies sort of encroaching
on their property, and it got out of control for
a lot of small conservative towns. Then the festivals go
inside of stadiums. But what was And I've interviewed Michael
Lane when Mike, you know, rest in peace. Michael Lang,
(16:16):
when I interviewed him several times, he said, you the
marketing to youth culture was born out of that Woodstock festival.
Now we flash forward to ninety nine and even to
fifty the ghosts of Woodstock on hunt the Woodstock festivals
of those later years. Ninety nine, my view on ninety
(16:40):
nine is somewhat controversial because you have a new era
of a new generation of kids listening to a new
generation of music. That music is a reflection of the
times that music is being played at the festival, because
it is the music.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Of the day, the day. I have to stick that
in there.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
What is it say, Well, what it says about the
times to me is because I am a nineties era,
eighties era kid then, and I think it had a
lot to do with with sort of a sort of
a vibe in the music that was very male dominated.
(17:21):
You had an era of new metal coming out, heavier music,
grunge which was very very male driven. That was a
very male driven festival.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
And what was going on in society that supported that,
that made those bands successful.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Well, I think I think they were. I think there
was a lot of money being uh tossed around. I mean,
these were big, These are bands making a lot of dough.
But I would like to say a couple of things.
The environmental situation of that area where they had Woodstock
ninety nine was on an air Force base. I mean
that that's not a pleasant bucolic Setting.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Back to the fact that there's a lot of money
being made by the very agro bands. There are also
other bands like Bush, plenty of those out there. Why
didn't the culture is support that those bands? Or maybe
the culture did and maybe those for some reason promoters
decided they want the agro bands. Again, I asked a question,
(18:21):
what about society at the time, What about the side
at the time made those bands like Corn the Biscuit
rise to the top?
Speaker 4 (18:30):
Well, you you asked the promoters those those questions. They
they why they designed those lineups. I mean, but but
you can also ask the question, what were the alternatives?
Were you going to have Ryl Crow and David Crosby
get up on stage to a bunch of college aged
young young people. That's that's that was indicative of the times,
(18:52):
that demographic for that was buying culture of that music,
for sure.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Yeah, I'm asking what what it was that was in
the other the times that made those artists you say,
not appropriate, but that's cool.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
That's that's a good question. That's a good question for
future analysis. For sure.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Absolutely, I love your insight. I want to get back
to Steve because he has a limited time, but thank
you so much. Do you have anything to add not.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
On that sociological line, I won't do one of those
talk about the community that accepted uh and then praised
the festival.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Uh. You know, and.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Along the Hudson h of New York and eastern New
York State, upstate, the the people who were weary were
we were so fearful and angry at maxi Askar, the
farmer who who had at least as field for the
(20:01):
rock and roll festival. And you know, if there was
one hero to come out of wood Start sixty nine,
it was not any of this high priced talent that
went on to make millions in the music industry. It
was Max Yasgar, who was a man I remember being
(20:22):
very old, but he's probably half my age now. But
he welcomed these said he had kids himself and he
was going to be welcoming to these kids. And he
spoke to the crowd a Sunday, probably Sunday afternoon, and
said how proud he was for having given rented at
(20:44):
least his fields to them to have their concert, because
they had held up and made him proud by their
being so orderly, peaceful and appreciative of his property. It
must have looked a lot different when they left the
(21:06):
next by the next week, but that was a tallowed ground.
Now max Yasgar's field there there is a festival grounds
in a performance center there that has the best groups
rock groups that are on the charts appearing and it
(21:31):
is a terrific, terrific place. And looking back on it
in sixty nine, you know, like I said to Jim Stack,
why would they anybody try to shut this down? This
is only kids enjoying rock and roll. That's a great,
great testament.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Steve Kirchen, I really appreciate you bringing your perspective to this,
and it's a great excuse just to hang around with you.
The thanks all right, you have to go correct, that's
what you tell me, So very good, Thank you, very much, Sarah.
I'll walk you out and I'm going to dial down
in the last half hour here on my experience, because
(22:10):
no one really knows what my experience was, and I
think some of you may be impressed. We'll get to
Margie and the Catskills too. Can you hang in there,
Margie Hope. So it's WBZ.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
It's night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Hello, my friend's brother Jay for Dan. I want to
alert you to a new way to be involved with Nightside.
It's really cool. Check this out. It's called a talkback
feature on the iHeartRadio app. What you do is you
download the app free iHeartRadio app, and while you're listening
(22:47):
to Nightside Live on WBZ News Radio ten thirty, you
tap the red microphone talkback button that you'll see there
on the top right of the screen, top right corner,
and you can send us a personalized audio message and
(23:07):
we might play it during Nightside, might play it back
during Nightside. It's quite a thing. It's that simple. Even
if you don't do it right away and you're not
moved to use it to call in or to leave
a message in, I should say, why don't you kind
of do a dry run right now and get if
you don't have the app, look at the app, see
(23:29):
where the button is, and just know that when you
press that button, you can leave a message and it
might get played on WBZ on Nightside's. I think that's genius.
All right. We've been talking with longtime Globe reporter Steve
Kirchin and getting his no nonsense views of which talk
(23:54):
one and observations cultural observations related to it, And I'm
going to start trilling down on the Woodstock ninety nine,
which unless you were there, you have no idea what
the hell it was, but I will make you understand
them if you I would love to get your thoughts
on what happened between sixty nine when the message was, Hey,
(24:19):
we just got to get along. This is a this
is an uncomfortable event, a whole lot of people here
that we didn't expect. There's not enough food, there's not
enough infrastructure, there's not enough water, it's not enough everything.
But we're going to get along. And then thirty years
later issue you go to an unmitigated disaster, like a
(24:44):
life threatening disaster that said to the world, Wow, our
culture has really taken a nose diive. We can't. We
can't even get along for three days. And I'll point
some fingers. But first we go to Margie and the
catskills Margie. Hello, Sky, Hi Margie. What's going on?
Speaker 7 (25:10):
Well? I turned in a little late. How many people
that were at the sixty nine concert have be spoken
to tonight?
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Have we spoken to tonight?
Speaker 7 (25:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Probably one? Well, okay, but you know, it's pretty well documented,
and I've watched the documentation a lot.
Speaker 7 (25:31):
I think the major theme has totally been missed by
most people. We moved to Woodstock in sixty eight. I
still remember Michael Lang hanging in the doorway saying, I'm
going to have a concert here in Woodstock and we
all said, oh, no, he'll never do it.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
What do away?
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Was this?
Speaker 7 (25:52):
What? Oh? Right in the middle of wood Stock?
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Okay?
Speaker 7 (25:55):
And he would it? Was he Fortunately, he hooked up
with some trust fund babies, so they put up the
actual money. Woodstock said, no way, or you're going to
bring ten thousand people into town. So he went up
in a helicopter and that's how they found macke Maxiager's field.
(26:17):
To see that field today, it's very different looking than
how it looked in sixty nine, a lot of trees
have grown in. It's not as extensive. But the one
difference I think between the original and the copies was
the purpose of My husband and I were in our
thirty so we think we were the oldest people here,
(26:39):
and we brought my ten year old daughter, who had
the time of her life. But we went. We didn't
know what bands were going to play. This was an
anti war demonstration. It wasn't against the military, it wasn't
against the soldiers. It was pro peace. Bring everybody home,
(27:01):
and in fact that was the driving force behind it.
No one sold t shirts, there was no suit, there
was not one souvenir stan. But the reason that I
really called was to point out the difference between today's
concert and sixty nine. We drove down on a Friday afternoon.
(27:22):
My husband worked half a day at IBM, so he's
got a crew cup, my daughter's wearing what she thinks
is cool for a ten year old, and I'm the
hippie wearing a dashiki. We realized the traffic was enormous,
but my husband managed to park a mile away, so
we started walking. Now there's no iPhones, there's no Instagrams,
(27:47):
there's nothing. We had absolutely no idea what we're going
to see. We got to the top of that hill,
so half a million people and we were off strang
and I'm sorry today with all the communication, you're never
gonna have a surprise like that again.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Wow, that's true. That's something to think about. There was
nobody saying, nobody texting selfies of themselves or anything. What
gives you the sense it was a Vietnam protest because
I don't remember seeing a lot of artists on the
stage talking about Vietnam or a lot of the people.
Speaker 7 (28:30):
Oh my boy, do you remember Country Joe and the Fish.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Oh yeah, okay, all right, good point there you go.
Speaker 7 (28:37):
Okay, oh thing, See this is the thing. Later on,
my husband went over the one in Saugerties, took a
few quick picks, and came back. The one in Saugerties
turned into a college beer festival, so the other one
seemed to be more focused on the music and festival.
There wasn't a driving force. We showed up up to
(29:00):
see if anybody else felt like we did. There was
no mass communication between us. So when you saw, hey,
these people feel like we do, and imagine letting your
ten year old, roam free all day, count the trees.
Here's the blanket, no violence, just it was absolutely beautiful.
(29:21):
No food, wavy gravy came passed out, free food, but
I loved it. There was not one souvenirs stand, none
of the commercial aspects. It really was unique.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Well, boy, I'm so glad you called because you paint
a very concise picture of it and it's great. Thank
you so much. Anything else do you ask?
Speaker 7 (29:45):
No, I'll just close. Very briefly. My husband, being an
ibm or, as he sat there, said I think I'm
the only employed person here. Being an ibm OR, he
had a flashlight. So when we were going act to
sleep in our sixty three Plymouth Valiant, we started walking,
(30:05):
he with a flashlight, and all of a sudden we
heard behind us like fifty people following his flashlight. And
of course by then it was raining and were walking
along and this guy yells, hey, dude, hey dude, and
my husband said what he said, I just dropped my contact.
Do you think it can find them? And that was
(30:28):
our memory.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
That's fantastic. Oh, by the way, for the record, my
mother had a sixty three Plymouth Valiant and it really
I think it's a sixth cylinder and had some gid
it had some giddy up in it.
Speaker 7 (30:39):
It was the best car I've ever owned in my
whole life.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Well, Margie, you're tremendous and you know, keep in touch.
Speaker 7 (30:47):
Okay, thank you, Bye bye.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
I love Margie. So it's let's see nine forty six.
I'm just figuring out how much time i have. Okay,
I'm going to go to the too. I got about
fifteen minutes after this super brief break to let you
know my experience. It'll be fast and furious, concise and
details coming up on wb Z.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Bradley J.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
For Dan.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
I'm gonna finish up and give you some details on
the comparison between which stuck sixty nine and ninety nine
and what it says. But I knew do need to
detail what ninety nine was like before I get to that,
So here we go. I covered this for WBCN and
some other national one or two other national entities. I
(31:39):
don't remember which ones they were, and I was not
a journalist. I shouldn't have said cover. My job was
to interview artists, so I got there Tuesday. I was
there from the get go. It didn't start till what Friday.
I got there Tuesday, and as press I had this
pass to the twenty four hour Food ten, which is
pretty cool. Let's face it. They treated the press and
(32:02):
the artists very well. The concert go is not at all.
They sat in the tent in the blasting heat, although
it was in a tent, thankfully, and prepared fifty five
oh interviews because that was my job to interview people,
and there were rumors that we were going to get
seven interviews each. There were personalities from all over the
(32:24):
world on the radio and they're going to have to
split them up, particularly the United States DJs if you will.
But I knew that things don't go as planned, so
I prepared fifty interviews most of the bands there, and
as it turns out, some of the interviews other interviewers
didn't work out very well, so I would I did
(32:45):
twenty one for the three days. I did the first one,
and then since the other people weren't available or weren't
chosen for whatever reason, they said can you do this interview?
I go, yeah. I just happened to be prepared, so
it really paid off, like preparation pays off. I got
to tell you, teach your kids that. And my environment
(33:08):
was so beautiful, especially compared to the poor people out there.
I was in the air conditioned MTV ten. They had
an air conditioner that had a duct that was probably
ninety excuse me, a foot and a half in diameter,
maybe two feet in diameter, blasting freezing cold air in
(33:29):
this very in an otherwise very hot environment. It was
set up to look good on MTV, so it was,
you know, well appointed. And I will say there was
a keg of beer. I see cold keg, a giant
full keg of beer. So my three days went like this.
I'd interview someone's Alanas, Marris set or a Willie Nelson
(33:51):
and it was also on TV, so I had to
rig up a thing so my you know, I couldn't
look at questions. Really, I had to memorize them because
it was on video, maybe for the pay per view,
I don't know, but those videos still exist. And so
I'd interview one artist and then have a beer, a small,
(34:15):
icy cold beer. Then they say, how about Elvis Costello? Yep,
bring them on Costello. A little beer, a little little
nip you know, just a freshen up between artists, and
that was seven a day for three days, and then
at night it was they had the DJs and you know,
(34:35):
the people working for the show in military barracks, and
I don't know if you call them Barack's housing. The
thing is they were riddled with mold, a real bad
black mold. At least my building was. I couldn't stop sneezing,
horrific sneezing the terrier body apart, so that was tremendously unpleasant.
(35:00):
And all these DJs from all over the country were
kind of in a row in this housing, so that
was kind of fun. We'd sit outside and gear chat
about our experiences. And then at the end of the
third night walking back and started getting dark, and I'd
watched the sort of mid frenzy level stuff happen on
(35:23):
Saturday night, and I didn't I want I'll admit I
did not go in the crowd. I had no reason
to go in the crowd. Why I get myself beat up.
It was tremendously unpleasant in there, And if I was
a reporter, I would have gone in there just to
report to you what it was like. But I was
not a reporter. I was just my job was to
interview these people, and I was glad of it. And
(35:43):
then as the night fell, you could field things start
to fall apart, people get a little crazier, and as
I mentioned, there was a rumor that's I think they
may have had this rumor that somebody's going to play
to keep people till the end, but they or maybe
there was a genuine thing and it just didn't pan out.
But when folks found out that that was it, like
(36:07):
lights out, go home, that was kind of a turning point.
And I do remember a couple of things about it
that were pretty disgusting. I remember on the on the
promoter side and the vendor side. I do remember, and
it shows in the video that water and maybe food,
(36:29):
but water for sure was confiscated as you went in.
How inhumane is that on an air Force base with
very little with I didn't don't remember any shade, but
then I had to have been some It's going to
be a brutal, dangerous, hot weekend. We're going to confiscate
your water. What does that say about how things had changed?
(36:52):
Right there? Instead of peace, love and music, we're going
to confiscate your water. Also the promoters had outsourced the
vending and as a result, I guess or as a
result perhaps they didn't have any control over the prices,
(37:14):
which also was a mistake. And this you'd gotten too
a time when you'd gone through post Reagan. Great is good,
Gordon Gecko. Bottom line justifies anything, and this was now
what the rewards reaped from that kind of mindset or
culture mindset. And another factor the bands. Instead of the
(37:40):
bands what they played, the bands, what they represented, and
a lot of what some of the bands said they
could have calmed the crowd down, some of them chose
to and raise the crowd, rile them up. Pretty irresponsible.
And I know it's rock and roll. Rock and roll
is not about was reponsibility, but there comes a point
(38:02):
when it is. So this factor taking your water away
and charging lots of money for a little bottle of water.
I don't have the figures. Watch the watch train Wreck
Woodstock ninety nine to get the numbers. Pizza, outrageous prices, facilities,
(38:23):
bathroom facilities, porta parties just overflowing and leaking. Then you
had the people that were going and a lot of
what I saw was entitled bros and titled pros. It's
way different than their their generation to parents had taught them.
(38:46):
It seemed to be entitled bros to do whatever they want.
The next thing, it's fifty eight ten, right, you guys
can put this all together. But the next thing was,
this was a generation searching for an identity. Original Woodstock
had one, we want one too, and one wasn't really forthcoming.
(39:07):
So at the confluence of all those things, at the
end it might have popped in your mind, Okay, here's
our identity, and so be it. That is the identity,
that is a snapshot of our culture, and it is
a sad, sad thing. WBZ News Radio ten thirty
It's night Side with Dan Ray on WBS, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
That's right Nightside with Dan Ray, Bradley and Jay in
for Dan. Tonight with Steve Kirkchen, longtime Globe reporter and
one of the people at the well. He's someone who
covered Woodstock number one, and I must be clear. I
guess I can't say that I covered, And Steve pointed
this out being an exacting person, I did not actually
(00:27):
cover as a journalist. We'll talk down and I was
there and I was interviewing guests. You covered those who performed.
It was not yes performed. It was not my calling
to up to report on the goings on. I was
simply an interviewer and an observer. So there are certain
(00:50):
things that I did not pay attention to this Steve, I.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Think I said I said earlier that I did not.
I was not there to cover the music. I never
back down to the bandstand. Uh. Only I only interviewed
one promoter h on the first night, Micha Lang, who
told me that the band would the show would go on.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
And uh.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Then when I was asked by my shitty out of
the late Jack Thomas, to find out what what happens
next I went that morning of the last performance. UH
found someone and he said, well, where are you from?
My tome from Boston. He said, well, maybe we'll come
to the Cape. Well how about Provincetown. We'll do something
(01:36):
in Provencetown dunes and Uh. That made a great headline
the next morning. But all the town fathers of UH
and and and others who controlled the province sound what
upper arms and UH the fella said, well, I was
just sort of talking formally to the globe, befoorter. I
(01:57):
wasn't really planning anything. So that never happened except for
that one head turn.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
This hour with Steve, we're gonna talk about maybe the
first Woodstock a little more and concentrate even more on
Woodstock ninety nine. And then Steve and I and maybe
you at six, one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty
will offer some opinions on what went wrong and Woodstock
ninety nine, what went right at Woodstock won, and what
(02:23):
happened to our society. I feel like these two events
are snapshots of our society that really focus a bright
spotlight on the good and the bad and the in between.
And I have some theories. By the way, you mentioned
that you your favorite Krosby Stilts, Nash and Young. Was
(02:45):
that your favorite?
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Hey?
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah, they were really growing up in my in my mind,
and Neil Young was starting on his own and I
was picking up everything I could on his. But they
played I think it was late Saturday night and there
you know, they're so harmonic, and the sound system well terrific,
was not up to what it could have been, and
(03:08):
their harmony was not. They closed, I think closed down
Saturday night and it wasn't It wasn't as pleasant.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
What was your vantage point where you're out there in
the lawn with the kids.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
There was no lawn by this stid. Yeah, just just
find my way, bring my sleeping bag, find my way
and hang out my mark and knives. I think passed
a couple of times and hung out, Hi you doing?
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Hi?
Speaker 3 (03:32):
You doing? Do you have any cigarettes left?
Speaker 4 (03:34):
No?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Do you have no?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
And and uh.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Where you off to?
Speaker 3 (03:39):
One afternoon, I walked into the town of Monticello. I
had gotten and met one of the editors of the paper,
and he allowed me to see what their strings, who
are throughout the audience were filing, because I wanted to
make sure I didn't miss anything that was major you know,
some something happened or somebody and uh, and they were covering.
(04:02):
They had people everywhere. And I walked into town, I
was thumbed into town and read their wire and credited them,
and then uh and walked back. So I missed a
lot of the rainstorm that engulfed the the the the
(04:22):
show UH saddly Saturday afternoon.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And that was that was since you hadn't planned to cover,
Did you have a press pass? And if you did,
did you get access to watch it from specially good
areas if you want?
Speaker 3 (04:36):
No, there's nothing like that.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
It was.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
It's all.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
I didn't meet another reporter except for that one at Monticello.
There was if you could make your way down towards
the bands, uh, to the performance stage, all the better.
But there was no need. I wasn't there to cover
the music. I knew the music was going to be terrific,
but I could hear it at the back of the
three hundred thousand, as I could hear it.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Before we go to dawn in New Hampshire. What was
your opinion impression, not only it taste wise, but culturally
of the music at the second one that you saw
in the Netflix special Train wreck in Stock ninety nine.
What is your impression? Yeah, yeah, well without a contributing factor.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Yeah, well, when you see that and you see we
didn't have wash pits. We people take care of each
other at the center in front of the performance before
the bands, and there was nothing like a marsh pit.
But the marsh pit at ninety nine was as angry
(05:43):
as as assault of as you'd see in a you know,
in a in an NFL football when your team has lost.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
In any other situation, these people would all go to jail.
I'm gonna have to be honest with everybody. I know,
as a person that spent a lot of time in
the world of rock, I never got the marsh pit.
Never got it. Uh maybe it's because they wear glasses
and I didn't want to get them broken. I know
there's enough pain in life without going and getting voluntarily
(06:19):
whacked in the face. And I know that initially the
purpose was not to hurt each other, So there were
rules in the early marsh pits, but but those rules
all went away in places like What's Douck That was just.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
For those people.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Why do I need to go and get really beat up?
It's just it's beyond me. If anybody has an explanation
on that one, let me know.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I think one of the better issue questions to you
do address of address Bradley would be would there be
another one? Oh?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
You know, Okay, there's two questions. Would there be another one?
And would you Steve or would I Bradley want another one? Myself?
Speaker 3 (07:05):
If I could put together another one.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
I would want another one. I would want to see
where society is that. Now, did we learn a lesson
from that one? Would it be better? Or it would
it not? Would it somehow degrade into a conservative versus
uh liberal event?
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Well, as the years have gone by, the light in
going to and not covering but going to attending the
farm maid one day concerts that that they raise money
for the independent farmers and that uh you know, I
went last year at Saratoga. Again it's one day. I'm
(07:51):
in the press area. Uh it's not as rigorous, but
those in the back, uh you know, it's just is
teeming with people. And this for a sense of violence
or anger. But again it's Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp,
Neil Young and and whom am I missing? Well, they're
(08:18):
pretty melodic people and they're not.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
You know they're trying to generate good will.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah, they're trying to generate good will. It's whom they're bringing.
But kids.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
You have a a festival full of very angry, young,
tough performers, whatever race, It doesn't matter who are screaming.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Out against the the bonds of society and not have
kids acting up. I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
It might depend on how you scream at them to
change society. How you how the band is trying to
get you to do it. If they're saying tear everything down,
they got a problem. If we're saying, yeah, yeah, let's
create create change through positive means, maybe that's another thing.
John Keane in New Hampshire, Hi, John, how you're on
(09:11):
WBC Bradley jke Bradley, Steve Kirchen.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Steve Bradley. What's happening guys?
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Oh good? Tell you man?
Speaker 4 (09:20):
All right, all right, Bradley, do you remember me? I
was on your show in twenty nineteen with my book
Pilgrims of Woodstock.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I gotta be honest if I lied. If I lied
to you, you could say, uh huh, I was never
on your show and I'd be busted. So I.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Never.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
I could never conjure up. I could never conjure up
a lie like that.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
And this is a reason like this I've learned because
I've been busted. Policy truth is always the best policy.
But I do remember there was someone with a big,
beautiful coffee table book.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Yeah, I gave you one. In fact, you bought a
jacket off me at Todd Farm that's unrelated to Woodstock,
but a nice wool vermuch anyway, I know. Oddly enough,
my mother called me and said, John, they're talking about
Woodstock on the radio. And then I'm obliged to call
because I happened to be the only gen xer within
a three hundred mile radius that happens to be a
(10:15):
scholar on the subject. Just because I've been sort of
pushed into this world of Woodstock, I would like to
relay one thing to you, gentlemen, thank you for talking
about such an important topic. Is that Woodstock has some
really deep rooted New England roots, aside from the people
that went there, which were mostly college aged New England people.
(10:39):
The sound system of Woodstock came out of Medford mess
by a man created by a man named Bill Hanley,
who is known as the father of festival sound. And
I'm not here to plug books, but I am here
to plug his innovations and his history because it's so
profound and so prolific, and you would never know. And
(11:00):
I grew up in Somerville, and you'd never know as
a rock and roll kid. Listen to WBCN. That just
the stones throw from where I lived in Summerville. The
sound systems for some of the biggest festivals, concerts, venues
still from the film Maurice to Bob Dylan going Electric
all the Way to Woodstock came out of Medford, mass
You mean incredible story.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
He put in the system at Newport Folk Festival.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Yeah. Bill Hanley is with the sound engineer for Newport
from nineteen fifty nine till nineteen sixty seven.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
That has a great interview.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Actually I had him on one time as a guest.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Maybe maybe it did. Maybe I could.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I guarantee you I did, And he.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Put the equipment in for Woodstock of sixty Woodstock sixty nine.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Woodstock sixty nine is a Bill Hanley sound system. I wrote.
I wrote a book called The Last Seat in the House,
The Story Hanley sound It's with the University Press of Mississippi.
And I cover his the entirety of his career and
also the sort of the entirety of the development of
concerts sounds in sound systems from the nineteen fifties through
(12:15):
the early seventies, which is, you know, sort of an
amazing thing.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
I mean, it does the Sun records fame of a
local story as far as a local story is.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Concerned, Don Kane, you said you were a scholar, Don Kane,
so you know, answer my question? What kind of what
do we learn from the just the difference between Woodstock
one and how people acted and how the promoters acted,
and what we learned from Woodstock three same way promoters
treatment of the people and vice versa. What do we
(12:48):
learn like where do we go along? I have my theory.
I might as well share it now you can. Actually, no,
I have to break and so I'm not gonna I'm
gonna hold you because we need to hear your answer.
Next time. W BZ.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
It's Night Side with Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 6 (13:09):
How are you out there? Are you out? Are you okay?
Speaker 5 (13:15):
You're not?
Speaker 6 (13:17):
Yeah, you're staying stone and you've got enough water and
you've got a place to sleep and everything.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
What does that mean?
Speaker 6 (13:33):
Because you know, because we ought to all of us.
You know, I don't mean to be preachy, but we
ought to remember and that means promoters too, that music's
for grooving, man, and music's not for putting yourself through
bad changes.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
You know.
Speaker 6 (13:47):
I mean, you don't have to go take anybody man
just to like music, you know what I mean?
Speaker 5 (13:53):
You don't.
Speaker 6 (13:53):
So if you're getting more than you deserve, you know
what to do about it?
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Man?
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Well there you go. Uh Woodstock, that's the first Woodstock
and that's the vibe. And a little later on I'm
going to really drill down into the vibe in the
second one and try to figure out which what happened.
And we have a self professed Woodstock scholar Don Kane
in New Hampshire. Maybe you can give us some insight.
(14:21):
You must have thought about this, mister, mister Woodstock Don
What do you think?
Speaker 4 (14:28):
JOHJM. Kine Kanny And I don't you know when I
say self professed, Well, it's nothing that I really set
out to do. I just ended up. It just ended
up happening. And I'm and I'm quite and I'm quite
interested interested in the subject as well. It's an interesting topic. Well,
to answer your question with regard to the promote the
(14:49):
way promotion sort of evolved with youth culture. These ideas
and these philosophies go way back. They go back before Woodstock,
They go all the way to the Beatles, and they
go to Elvis Presley. Promotion and promoting popular music figures
(15:10):
is not a new idea. Woodstock proved that you could
get you could get a four hundred and fifty thousand
kids in one area, and promoters eyes lit up with
with you know, money, money, money, money, money. You can
gather these kids into one area, you can sell them things.
And then after even though Woodstock failed in that way
(15:32):
because money was lost, other promoters mimic Woodstock. Mimics occurred
after that festival, and you had a lot of failed festivals.
Some were successful, Watkins Glenn was fairly successful. That happened
thereafter and then and then by nineteen seventy three, they
really got messy. Court injunction after court injunction. Many towns
(15:55):
did not want you know, the not in my backyard
sort of philosophy. They didn't want hippies sort of encroaching
on their property, and it got out of control for
a lot of small conservative towns. Then the festivals go
inside of stadiums. But what was And I've interviewed Michael
Lane when Mike, you know, rest in peace. Michael Lang,
(16:16):
when I interviewed him several times, he said, you the
marketing to youth culture was born out of that Woodstock festival.
Now we flash forward to ninety nine and even to
fifty the ghosts of Woodstock on hunt the Woodstock festivals
of those later years. Ninety nine, my view on ninety
(16:40):
nine is somewhat controversial because you have a new era
of a new generation of kids listening to a new
generation of music. That music is a reflection of the
times that music is being played at the festival, because
it is the music.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Of the day, the day. I have to stick that
in there.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
What is it say, Well, what it says about the
times to me is because I am a nineties era,
eighties era kid then, and I think it had a
lot to do with with sort of a sort of
a vibe in the music that was very male dominated.
(17:21):
You had an era of new metal coming out, heavier music,
grunge which was very very male driven. That was a
very male driven festival.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
And what was going on in society that supported that,
that made those bands successful.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Well, I think I think they were. I think there
was a lot of money being uh tossed around. I mean,
these were big, These are bands making a lot of dough.
But I would like to say a couple of things.
The environmental situation of that area where they had Woodstock
ninety nine was on an air Force base. I mean
that that's not a pleasant bucolic Setting.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Back to the fact that there's a lot of money
being made by the very agro bands. There are also
other bands like Bush, plenty of those out there. Why
didn't the culture is support that those bands? Or maybe
the culture did and maybe those for some reason promoters
decided they want the agro bands. Again, I asked a question,
(18:21):
what about society at the time, What about the side
at the time made those bands like Corn the Biscuit
rise to the top?
Speaker 4 (18:30):
Well, you you asked the promoters those those questions. They
they why they designed those lineups. I mean, but but
you can also ask the question, what were the alternatives?
Were you going to have Ryl Crow and David Crosby
get up on stage to a bunch of college aged
young young people. That's that's that was indicative of the times,
(18:52):
that demographic for that was buying culture of that music,
for sure.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Yeah, I'm asking what what it was that was in
the other the times that made those artists you say,
not appropriate, but that's cool.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
That's that's a good question. That's a good question for
future analysis. For sure.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Absolutely, I love your insight. I want to get back
to Steve because he has a limited time, but thank
you so much. Do you have anything to add not.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
On that sociological line, I won't do one of those
talk about the community that accepted uh and then praised
the festival.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Uh. You know, and.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Along the Hudson h of New York and eastern New
York State, upstate, the the people who were weary were
we were so fearful and angry at maxi Askar, the
farmer who who had at least as field for the
(20:01):
rock and roll festival. And you know, if there was
one hero to come out of wood Start sixty nine,
it was not any of this high priced talent that
went on to make millions in the music industry. It
was Max Yasgar, who was a man I remember being
(20:22):
very old, but he's probably half my age now. But
he welcomed these said he had kids himself and he
was going to be welcoming to these kids. And he
spoke to the crowd a Sunday, probably Sunday afternoon, and
said how proud he was for having given rented at
(20:44):
least his fields to them to have their concert, because
they had held up and made him proud by their
being so orderly, peaceful and appreciative of his property. It
must have looked a lot different when they left the
(21:06):
next by the next week, but that was a tallowed ground.
Now max Yasgar's field there there is a festival grounds
in a performance center there that has the best groups
rock groups that are on the charts appearing and it
(21:31):
is a terrific, terrific place. And looking back on it
in sixty nine, you know, like I said to Jim Stack,
why would they anybody try to shut this down? This
is only kids enjoying rock and roll. That's a great,
great testament.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Steve Kirchen, I really appreciate you bringing your perspective to this,
and it's a great excuse just to hang around with you.
The thanks all right, you have to go correct, that's
what you tell me, So very good, Thank you, very much, Sarah.
I'll walk you out and I'm going to dial down
in the last half hour here on my experience, because
(22:10):
no one really knows what my experience was, and I
think some of you may be impressed. We'll get to
Margie and the Catskills too. Can you hang in there,
Margie Hope. So it's WBZ.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
It's night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Hello, my friend's brother Jay for Dan. I want to
alert you to a new way to be involved with Nightside.
It's really cool. Check this out. It's called a talkback
feature on the iHeartRadio app. What you do is you
download the app free iHeartRadio app, and while you're listening
(22:47):
to Nightside Live on WBZ News Radio ten thirty, you
tap the red microphone talkback button that you'll see there
on the top right of the screen, top right corner,
and you can send us a personalized audio message and
(23:07):
we might play it during Nightside, might play it back
during Nightside. It's quite a thing. It's that simple. Even
if you don't do it right away and you're not
moved to use it to call in or to leave
a message in, I should say, why don't you kind
of do a dry run right now and get if
you don't have the app, look at the app, see
(23:29):
where the button is, and just know that when you
press that button, you can leave a message and it
might get played on WBZ on Nightside's. I think that's genius.
All right. We've been talking with longtime Globe reporter Steve
Kirchin and getting his no nonsense views of which talk
(23:54):
one and observations cultural observations related to it, And I'm
going to start trilling down on the Woodstock ninety nine,
which unless you were there, you have no idea what
the hell it was, but I will make you understand
them if you I would love to get your thoughts
on what happened between sixty nine when the message was, Hey,
(24:19):
we just got to get along. This is a this
is an uncomfortable event, a whole lot of people here
that we didn't expect. There's not enough food, there's not
enough infrastructure, there's not enough water, it's not enough everything.
But we're going to get along. And then thirty years
later issue you go to an unmitigated disaster, like a
(24:44):
life threatening disaster that said to the world, Wow, our
culture has really taken a nose diive. We can't. We
can't even get along for three days. And I'll point
some fingers. But first we go to Margie and the
catskills Margie. Hello, Sky, Hi Margie. What's going on?
Speaker 7 (25:10):
Well? I turned in a little late. How many people
that were at the sixty nine concert have be spoken
to tonight?
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Have we spoken to tonight?
Speaker 7 (25:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Probably one? Well, okay, but you know, it's pretty well documented,
and I've watched the documentation a lot.
Speaker 7 (25:31):
I think the major theme has totally been missed by
most people. We moved to Woodstock in sixty eight. I
still remember Michael Lang hanging in the doorway saying, I'm
going to have a concert here in Woodstock and we
all said, oh, no, he'll never do it.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
What do away?
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Was this?
Speaker 7 (25:52):
What? Oh? Right in the middle of wood Stock?
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Okay?
Speaker 7 (25:55):
And he would it? Was he Fortunately, he hooked up
with some trust fund babies, so they put up the
actual money. Woodstock said, no way, or you're going to
bring ten thousand people into town. So he went up
in a helicopter and that's how they found macke Maxiager's field.
(26:17):
To see that field today, it's very different looking than
how it looked in sixty nine, a lot of trees
have grown in. It's not as extensive. But the one
difference I think between the original and the copies was
the purpose of My husband and I were in our
thirty so we think we were the oldest people here,
(26:39):
and we brought my ten year old daughter, who had
the time of her life. But we went. We didn't
know what bands were going to play. This was an
anti war demonstration. It wasn't against the military, it wasn't
against the soldiers. It was pro peace. Bring everybody home,
(27:01):
and in fact that was the driving force behind it.
No one sold t shirts, there was no suit, there
was not one souvenir stan. But the reason that I
really called was to point out the difference between today's
concert and sixty nine. We drove down on a Friday afternoon.
(27:22):
My husband worked half a day at IBM, so he's
got a crew cup, my daughter's wearing what she thinks
is cool for a ten year old, and I'm the
hippie wearing a dashiki. We realized the traffic was enormous,
but my husband managed to park a mile away, so
we started walking. Now there's no iPhones, there's no Instagrams,
(27:47):
there's nothing. We had absolutely no idea what we're going
to see. We got to the top of that hill,
so half a million people and we were off strang
and I'm sorry today with all the communication, you're never
gonna have a surprise like that again.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Wow, that's true. That's something to think about. There was
nobody saying, nobody texting selfies of themselves or anything. What
gives you the sense it was a Vietnam protest because
I don't remember seeing a lot of artists on the
stage talking about Vietnam or a lot of the people.
Speaker 7 (28:30):
Oh my boy, do you remember Country Joe and the Fish.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Oh yeah, okay, all right, good point there you go.
Speaker 7 (28:37):
Okay, oh thing, See this is the thing. Later on,
my husband went over the one in Saugerties, took a
few quick picks, and came back. The one in Saugerties
turned into a college beer festival, so the other one
seemed to be more focused on the music and festival.
There wasn't a driving force. We showed up up to
(29:00):
see if anybody else felt like we did. There was
no mass communication between us. So when you saw, hey,
these people feel like we do, and imagine letting your
ten year old, roam free all day, count the trees.
Here's the blanket, no violence, just it was absolutely beautiful.
(29:21):
No food, wavy gravy came passed out, free food, but
I loved it. There was not one souvenirs stand, none
of the commercial aspects. It really was unique.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Well, boy, I'm so glad you called because you paint
a very concise picture of it and it's great. Thank
you so much. Anything else do you ask?
Speaker 7 (29:45):
No, I'll just close. Very briefly. My husband, being an
ibm or, as he sat there, said I think I'm
the only employed person here. Being an ibm OR, he
had a flashlight. So when we were going act to
sleep in our sixty three Plymouth Valiant, we started walking,
(30:05):
he with a flashlight, and all of a sudden we
heard behind us like fifty people following his flashlight. And
of course by then it was raining and were walking
along and this guy yells, hey, dude, hey dude, and
my husband said what he said, I just dropped my contact.
Do you think it can find them? And that was
(30:28):
our memory.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
That's fantastic. Oh, by the way, for the record, my
mother had a sixty three Plymouth Valiant and it really
I think it's a sixth cylinder and had some gid
it had some giddy up in it.
Speaker 7 (30:39):
It was the best car I've ever owned in my
whole life.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Well, Margie, you're tremendous and you know, keep in touch.
Speaker 7 (30:47):
Okay, thank you, Bye bye.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
I love Margie. So it's let's see nine forty six.
I'm just figuring out how much time i have. Okay,
I'm going to go to the too. I got about
fifteen minutes after this super brief break to let you
know my experience. It'll be fast and furious, concise and
details coming up on wb Z.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Bradley J.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
For Dan.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
I'm gonna finish up and give you some details on
the comparison between which stuck sixty nine and ninety nine
and what it says. But I knew do need to
detail what ninety nine was like before I get to that,
So here we go. I covered this for WBCN and
some other national one or two other national entities. I
(31:39):
don't remember which ones they were, and I was not
a journalist. I shouldn't have said cover. My job was
to interview artists, so I got there Tuesday. I was
there from the get go. It didn't start till what Friday.
I got there Tuesday, and as press I had this
pass to the twenty four hour Food ten, which is
pretty cool. Let's face it. They treated the press and
(32:02):
the artists very well. The concert go is not at all.
They sat in the tent in the blasting heat, although
it was in a tent, thankfully, and prepared fifty five
oh interviews because that was my job to interview people,
and there were rumors that we were going to get
seven interviews each. There were personalities from all over the
(32:24):
world on the radio and they're going to have to
split them up, particularly the United States DJs if you will.
But I knew that things don't go as planned, so
I prepared fifty interviews most of the bands there, and
as it turns out, some of the interviews other interviewers
didn't work out very well, so I would I did
(32:45):
twenty one for the three days. I did the first one,
and then since the other people weren't available or weren't
chosen for whatever reason, they said can you do this interview?
I go, yeah. I just happened to be prepared, so
it really paid off, like preparation pays off. I got
to tell you, teach your kids that. And my environment
(33:08):
was so beautiful, especially compared to the poor people out there.
I was in the air conditioned MTV ten. They had
an air conditioner that had a duct that was probably
ninety excuse me, a foot and a half in diameter,
maybe two feet in diameter, blasting freezing cold air in
(33:29):
this very in an otherwise very hot environment. It was
set up to look good on MTV, so it was,
you know, well appointed. And I will say there was
a keg of beer. I see cold keg, a giant
full keg of beer. So my three days went like this.
I'd interview someone's Alanas, Marris set or a Willie Nelson
(33:51):
and it was also on TV, so I had to
rig up a thing so my you know, I couldn't
look at questions. Really, I had to memorize them because
it was on video, maybe for the pay per view,
I don't know, but those videos still exist. And so
I'd interview one artist and then have a beer, a small,
(34:15):
icy cold beer. Then they say, how about Elvis Costello? Yep,
bring them on Costello. A little beer, a little little
nip you know, just a freshen up between artists, and
that was seven a day for three days, and then
at night it was they had the DJs and you know,
(34:35):
the people working for the show in military barracks, and
I don't know if you call them Barack's housing. The
thing is they were riddled with mold, a real bad
black mold. At least my building was. I couldn't stop sneezing,
horrific sneezing the terrier body apart, so that was tremendously unpleasant.
(35:00):
And all these DJs from all over the country were
kind of in a row in this housing, so that
was kind of fun. We'd sit outside and gear chat
about our experiences. And then at the end of the
third night walking back and started getting dark, and I'd
watched the sort of mid frenzy level stuff happen on
(35:23):
Saturday night, and I didn't I want I'll admit I
did not go in the crowd. I had no reason
to go in the crowd. Why I get myself beat up.
It was tremendously unpleasant in there, And if I was
a reporter, I would have gone in there just to
report to you what it was like. But I was
not a reporter. I was just my job was to
interview these people, and I was glad of it. And
(35:43):
then as the night fell, you could field things start
to fall apart, people get a little crazier, and as
I mentioned, there was a rumor that's I think they
may have had this rumor that somebody's going to play
to keep people till the end, but they or maybe
there was a genuine thing and it just didn't pan out.
But when folks found out that that was it, like
(36:07):
lights out, go home, that was kind of a turning point.
And I do remember a couple of things about it
that were pretty disgusting. I remember on the on the
promoter side and the vendor side. I do remember, and
it shows in the video that water and maybe food,
(36:29):
but water for sure was confiscated as you went in.
How inhumane is that on an air Force base with
very little with I didn't don't remember any shade, but
then I had to have been some It's going to
be a brutal, dangerous, hot weekend. We're going to confiscate
your water. What does that say about how things had changed?
(36:52):
Right there? Instead of peace, love and music, we're going
to confiscate your water. Also the promoters had outsourced the
vending and as a result, I guess or as a
result perhaps they didn't have any control over the prices,
(37:14):
which also was a mistake. And this you'd gotten too
a time when you'd gone through post Reagan. Great is good,
Gordon Gecko. Bottom line justifies anything, and this was now
what the rewards reaped from that kind of mindset or
culture mindset. And another factor the bands. Instead of the
(37:40):
bands what they played, the bands, what they represented, and
a lot of what some of the bands said they
could have calmed the crowd down, some of them chose
to and raise the crowd, rile them up. Pretty irresponsible.
And I know it's rock and roll. Rock and roll
is not about was reponsibility, but there comes a point
(38:02):
when it is. So this factor taking your water away
and charging lots of money for a little bottle of water.
I don't have the figures. Watch the watch train Wreck
Woodstock ninety nine to get the numbers. Pizza, outrageous prices, facilities,
(38:23):
bathroom facilities, porta parties just overflowing and leaking. Then you
had the people that were going and a lot of
what I saw was entitled bros and titled pros. It's
way different than their their generation to parents had taught them.
(38:46):
It seemed to be entitled bros to do whatever they want.
The next thing, it's fifty eight ten, right, you guys
can put this all together. But the next thing was,
this was a generation searching for an identity. Original Woodstock
had one, we want one too, and one wasn't really forthcoming.
(39:07):
So at the confluence of all those things, at the
end it might have popped in your mind, Okay, here's
our identity, and so be it. That is the identity,
that is a snapshot of our culture, and it is
a sad, sad thing. WBZ News Radio ten thirty
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