September 19, 2025 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Woodstock 1969 has gone down in history as the festival that defined a generation. Nearly half a million people gathered on a quiet New York farm, creating what briefly became the third-largest city in the state. Fears of chaos and violence never came true; instead, it was three days of music, peace, and unexpected harmony. Author Harlan Lebo revisits Woodstock to separate myth from reality and explain why the festival remains one of the most famous music events in American history.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories.
While the Coachella Music Festival brings in as many people
over its few days of runtime, and while Lapalooza does too,
Woodstock is still to this day the most important music
festival in American history. Here to tell the story of
(00:30):
what happened at Woodstock and how it happened is Harlan Lebo,
author of one hundred Days How four events in nineteen
sixty nine shaped American history.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Woodstock has absolutely nothing to do with Woodstock, New York,
at least the concert to me, that was the original
intention with Woodstock is about two hours north of New
York City. The original intention was to have a concert
of probably twenty five to fifty thousand people there. He
turned it down. Two other communities then turned it down,
(01:03):
and then in Bethel, New York, which is about ninety
minutes from New York City. It's in the Catskills, the
promoters found this beautiful pasture land that was essentially a
giant bowl, you know, a hillside leading down to this
bowl at the bottom. It was the perfect setting for
a concert. Max Yasgar released his land to the promoters
(01:24):
and that's where the concert was held Asger is a
dairy farmer, a Republican raised in New York City, so
he's anything but the rural farmer. Yet he strongly believed
that the people who had been rejected by three other
cities to have where they are towns where they wanted
to have their concert, had their right to have their concert. Yes,
(01:49):
he did take fifty thousand dollars for the lease of
the land, but he was also there to support the kids.
He essentially almost opened his home to them when he
found out that people were selling water. It wasn't the promoters.
There was some kids who had brought some water up
and were selling it by the glass. He opened up
his taps and let people fill up their canteens and
glasses from his property. He was quite dedicated to them,
(02:11):
and then, as it turned out later, he died not
too long afterward. But it turned out that he worked
hard to be an intermediary between disenfranchised kids and the
families they had left behind, serving almost as a post
office to try to connect kids back with their families.
So he really was one of the great unsung heroes
of that era.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I believe that this kind of a phenomena as it
I's been called the most symptomatic and symbolic the malaise
which affects our young people today.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
If you look at footage of Woodstock and you think
about who was really there, it wasn't four hundred thousand hippies,
meaning four hundred thousand dropouts who were living off the
land or sponging off other people. They were just mostly
middle class kids. In fact, they were mostly middle class
white kids.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
I went to Stock with my daughter, who is nineteen,
because I wanted to share it with her, and we
were both interested in what was going on in the
psychedelic and kippie and rock music scene.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
This was not about drug use, This was not about
running naked through the woods of upstate New York. What
it was about was people, four hundred thousand people truly
understanding that people can get along together in really, really
tough circumstances, ranging from August heat to August thunderstorms, to mud,
(03:35):
to lack of food, lack of sanitation. Yet, in spite
of all that, many of the four hundred thousand view
this as the pivotal moment in their lives. They were
there to see a great concert, but they came away
from Woodstock with a lot more than the music.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
How have you all been getting along with the townspeople
last couple of weeks?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I really dynamite that tell me were like, we got here.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
I've been here for about a food weeks close to month.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
And the first night we got here, we didn't have
much money, and.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
The police when they already took me and the people
that went.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
My car out to dinner and offered let us stay
in his house.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
I mean, they're just out of sight, you know.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
Everybody on it.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
It was really the first time that I think they
all believed, even after they many of them had been
in peace marches against the war in Vietnam. But I
think it really was the first time that people realized
that they could get together as a society and make
change and find food for people who didn't have it,
or find water for people who didn't have it, or
medical care for those who didn't have it. For those
(04:41):
who brought food, they would pass it around. They certainly
passed around joints too, that's true. But there was a
great feeling of sharing and caring because when the food
stands that were actually selling food ran out of food,
the townspeople who had many of whom have been opposed
to it realized, well, we may have been a posed
of this. But they made thousands and thousands of sandwiches
(05:03):
and brought in food by helicopter and tried to support
the kids who were there as best they could. So
there really was that spirit that we can do this,
we can change the world, we can become part of
a better society if we just all try. And all
of the things that could have been a disaster, the
cloud roads, okay, well we'll walk. The fact we're in
(05:25):
the mud, well we'll just be wet for a while.
The medical care. When medical care became a problem, and
there were clearly a point where it was a serious problem,
the Army at that point volunteered. They brought in both
The Army brought in not only its own medical personnel,
but there was a team of volunteer doctors from New
York City. So anything that could have been a disaster
(05:47):
wound up turning into a miracle. Let's face it. The
promoters didn't exactly weren't exactly forthcoming. Once they got their
concert venue approved, they said that they were probably out
between fifty and one hundred thousand, and it was clear
at that point that they had already sold more than
one hundred and fifty thousand tickets, but the local community
didn't know that, so it really could have gotten completely
(06:09):
out of hand. Woodstock was a city of four hundred
thousand people that made it the third largest city in
New York State at the time, Yet there was essentially
no crime other than drug use if you count that
as crime. There were no murders, no rapes, no assaults,
no robbery.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
Doctor Martin Keeler, a psychiatrist who has done much research
on drug use among young people, most of the marijuana
used in this area is so inert that I really
doubt if the heavy use of drugs marijuana in the
weak form that it was used, really had much to
do with the events.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
That's not saying it was a perfect world or somehow
four hundred thousand kids would create a perfect city, but
the point is that they did. In fact, one report
at the time said, can you imagine putting four hundred
thousand business executive together for three days to see how
they would respond and act? It really truly was an
(07:05):
eye opener most media even today, but most media then
certainly had no idea really how to cover the youth
of America in any way that gave a sense of
understanding to what their issues were all about.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Drabbi Jacob j.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
Heck of the Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
I think if we don't stop this real fast way
going to have a generation of Marl Trippled. I believe
the time has come for us to look ahead and
plan so that we develop a generation of youngsters from
whom we will really be able to be proud.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
And Barney Collier, a reporter for The New York Times,
was on site, was covering the event, and it was
very clear that the people on his editorial desk wanted
him to cover this as a disaster story, and Barney
Collier did not want to cover the story that way
because that was not the story. And that discussion created
a great divide. Supposedly some reporters were willing to resign
(07:58):
over this. There's no that's only anecdotal, but there's no
question that this went up to the executive editor level
on how the story should be covered, to Jim Reston,
who was the executive editor at the time, and he
finally said, look, if Barney sees the story this way,
this is the way we're going to cover it, And
they certainly did cover some of the traffic and the
rain and those things. But understanding American youth as a
(08:21):
social experience really did in many ways start with the
coverage of Woodstock that started later. Look at any newspaper,
even a newspaper as good as The New York Times
in nineteen sixty nine, there's no coverage of young people
and their issues, clothes, styles, music, attitudes, other than, of course,
(08:42):
the caricature of American youth in the nineteen sixties is
either protesting college students occupying college president's offices or hippies
dropping out entirely and living on a commune. And if
you don't want to look at a newspaper, there's no
movies television really that covers anything that's of any relevance
(09:03):
or any great accuracy about American youth. I love the
movie Beach Blanket Bingo, but it's no way reflecting what
American youth were really like. So this really did start
in many ways with Woodstock, where people finally started to
realize that not only do American youth need to be
covered well as a social part of the American experience,
(09:24):
but also frankly as a marketing force in the American experience.
They're buying millions of records. They're buying their own clothes.
They have their own styles makeup, hair, and a lot
of other things and life values as well.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Woodstock the story of the first American musical festival. Here
on our American stories.
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories.
While the Coachella Music Festival brings in as many people
over its few days of runtime, and while Lapalooza does too,
Woodstock is still to this day the most important music
festival in American history. Here to tell the story of
(00:30):
what happened at Woodstock and how it happened is Harlan Lebo,
author of one hundred Days How four events in nineteen
sixty nine shaped American history.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Woodstock has absolutely nothing to do with Woodstock, New York,
at least the concert to me, that was the original
intention with Woodstock is about two hours north of New
York City. The original intention was to have a concert
of probably twenty five to fifty thousand people there. He
turned it down. Two other communities then turned it down,
(01:03):
and then in Bethel, New York, which is about ninety
minutes from New York City. It's in the Catskills, the
promoters found this beautiful pasture land that was essentially a
giant bowl, you know, a hillside leading down to this
bowl at the bottom. It was the perfect setting for
a concert. Max Yasgar released his land to the promoters
(01:24):
and that's where the concert was held Asger is a
dairy farmer, a Republican raised in New York City, so
he's anything but the rural farmer. Yet he strongly believed
that the people who had been rejected by three other
cities to have where they are towns where they wanted
to have their concert, had their right to have their concert. Yes,
(01:49):
he did take fifty thousand dollars for the lease of
the land, but he was also there to support the kids.
He essentially almost opened his home to them when he
found out that people were selling water. It wasn't the promoters.
There was some kids who had brought some water up
and were selling it by the glass. He opened up
his taps and let people fill up their canteens and
glasses from his property. He was quite dedicated to them,
(02:11):
and then, as it turned out later, he died not
too long afterward. But it turned out that he worked
hard to be an intermediary between disenfranchised kids and the
families they had left behind, serving almost as a post
office to try to connect kids back with their families.
So he really was one of the great unsung heroes
of that era.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I believe that this kind of a phenomena as it
I's been called the most symptomatic and symbolic the malaise
which affects our young people today.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
If you look at footage of Woodstock and you think
about who was really there, it wasn't four hundred thousand hippies,
meaning four hundred thousand dropouts who were living off the
land or sponging off other people. They were just mostly
middle class kids. In fact, they were mostly middle class
white kids.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
I went to Stock with my daughter, who is nineteen,
because I wanted to share it with her, and we
were both interested in what was going on in the
psychedelic and kippie and rock music scene.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
This was not about drug use, This was not about
running naked through the woods of upstate New York. What
it was about was people, four hundred thousand people truly
understanding that people can get along together in really, really
tough circumstances, ranging from August heat to August thunderstorms, to mud,
(03:35):
to lack of food, lack of sanitation. Yet, in spite
of all that, many of the four hundred thousand view
this as the pivotal moment in their lives. They were
there to see a great concert, but they came away
from Woodstock with a lot more than the music.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
How have you all been getting along with the townspeople
last couple of weeks?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I really dynamite that tell me were like, we got here.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
I've been here for about a food weeks close to month.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
And the first night we got here, we didn't have
much money, and.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
The police when they already took me and the people
that went.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
My car out to dinner and offered let us stay
in his house.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
I mean, they're just out of sight, you know.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
Everybody on it.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
It was really the first time that I think they
all believed, even after they many of them had been
in peace marches against the war in Vietnam. But I
think it really was the first time that people realized
that they could get together as a society and make
change and find food for people who didn't have it,
or find water for people who didn't have it, or
medical care for those who didn't have it. For those
(04:41):
who brought food, they would pass it around. They certainly
passed around joints too, that's true. But there was a
great feeling of sharing and caring because when the food
stands that were actually selling food ran out of food,
the townspeople who had many of whom have been opposed
to it realized, well, we may have been a posed
of this. But they made thousands and thousands of sandwiches
(05:03):
and brought in food by helicopter and tried to support
the kids who were there as best they could. So
there really was that spirit that we can do this,
we can change the world, we can become part of
a better society if we just all try. And all
of the things that could have been a disaster, the
cloud roads, okay, well we'll walk. The fact we're in
(05:25):
the mud, well we'll just be wet for a while.
The medical care. When medical care became a problem, and
there were clearly a point where it was a serious problem,
the Army at that point volunteered. They brought in both
The Army brought in not only its own medical personnel,
but there was a team of volunteer doctors from New
York City. So anything that could have been a disaster
(05:47):
wound up turning into a miracle. Let's face it. The
promoters didn't exactly weren't exactly forthcoming. Once they got their
concert venue approved, they said that they were probably out
between fifty and one hundred thousand, and it was clear
at that point that they had already sold more than
one hundred and fifty thousand tickets, but the local community
didn't know that, so it really could have gotten completely
(06:09):
out of hand. Woodstock was a city of four hundred
thousand people that made it the third largest city in
New York State at the time, Yet there was essentially
no crime other than drug use if you count that
as crime. There were no murders, no rapes, no assaults,
no robbery.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
Doctor Martin Keeler, a psychiatrist who has done much research
on drug use among young people, most of the marijuana
used in this area is so inert that I really
doubt if the heavy use of drugs marijuana in the
weak form that it was used, really had much to
do with the events.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
That's not saying it was a perfect world or somehow
four hundred thousand kids would create a perfect city, but
the point is that they did. In fact, one report
at the time said, can you imagine putting four hundred
thousand business executive together for three days to see how
they would respond and act? It really truly was an
(07:05):
eye opener most media even today, but most media then
certainly had no idea really how to cover the youth
of America in any way that gave a sense of
understanding to what their issues were all about.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Drabbi Jacob j.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
Heck of the Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
I think if we don't stop this real fast way
going to have a generation of Marl Trippled. I believe
the time has come for us to look ahead and
plan so that we develop a generation of youngsters from
whom we will really be able to be proud.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
And Barney Collier, a reporter for The New York Times,
was on site, was covering the event, and it was
very clear that the people on his editorial desk wanted
him to cover this as a disaster story, and Barney
Collier did not want to cover the story that way
because that was not the story. And that discussion created
a great divide. Supposedly some reporters were willing to resign
(07:58):
over this. There's no that's only anecdotal, but there's no
question that this went up to the executive editor level
on how the story should be covered, to Jim Reston,
who was the executive editor at the time, and he
finally said, look, if Barney sees the story this way,
this is the way we're going to cover it, And
they certainly did cover some of the traffic and the
rain and those things. But understanding American youth as a
(08:21):
social experience really did in many ways start with the
coverage of Woodstock that started later. Look at any newspaper,
even a newspaper as good as The New York Times
in nineteen sixty nine, there's no coverage of young people
and their issues, clothes, styles, music, attitudes, other than, of course,
(08:42):
the caricature of American youth in the nineteen sixties is
either protesting college students occupying college president's offices or hippies
dropping out entirely and living on a commune. And if
you don't want to look at a newspaper, there's no
movies television really that covers anything that's of any relevance
(09:03):
or any great accuracy about American youth. I love the
movie Beach Blanket Bingo, but it's no way reflecting what
American youth were really like. So this really did start
in many ways with Woodstock, where people finally started to
realize that not only do American youth need to be
covered well as a social part of the American experience,
(09:24):
but also frankly as a marketing force in the American experience.
They're buying millions of records. They're buying their own clothes.
They have their own styles makeup, hair, and a lot
of other things and life values as well.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Woodstock the story of the first American musical festival. Here
on our American stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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