Woodstock Revisited: 50 Far Out, Groovy, Peace-Loving, Flashback-Inducing Stories from Those Who Were There

Understand the Woodstock experience better by putting it in its full historical context of what was happening in America from 1964 to 1970. Try Die at the Right Time! A Subjective Cultural History of the American Sixties.

Yes, I was there, and yes, I contributed to this book. I really loved reading the stories of the others who were there, none of whom I knew btw. I loved their memories of the times and the bands, especially the street bands from the old days in the East Village. Susan, the editor, did a fantastic job of weaving together the 50 stories. Who would have thought... all those years ago. It is a really fun book to read!!!

This book lets you get into the heart and minds of some of the people who attended this fair. They contributors all have a different voice and that is one of things that makes the book fascinating. Some loved it, some don't remember it, some got there and left, and some were in the area by accident. If you are from that era or just wish you were, this book will help you understand the times and people a lot better. Thank you, Susan Reynolds for gathering these stories and for all the extra information you have included. It is the first book about Woodstock that I have ever seen that was from the perspective of the people in the mud, not the producers, performers, promoters, etc. You really do need to get and read this book.

This is a distinctly different book about Woodstock that focuses not on grand spectacle, cultural zeitgeist or the birth of new bright superstars, but on the first person stories of the real people whose almost accidental convergence made the event what it was. Parts charming, parts funny, often touching and always interesting this collection of different accounts from individuals who were there reveals not the grand myth that has come to define Woodstock in popular culture, but the "on the ground" reality of how people came together (often on a whim) and their varied experiences. The aggregate of these individual realities paints a far more intimate and pertinent picture of the times, the event, and its effect on those that attended than any other currently available book. In the end Woodstock was not about mud, drugs, sex or music but about the people and their experience; and here is collected a wonderfully intimate and significant selection of stories that reveals just that. This is a must have for anyone with an interst in Woodstock.

Trade size paper edition. There are 234 pages of actual text (not including a forward/introduction) plus an index. Included are a glossary,a list of chronological performers on each of the three days,and some fairly interesting statistics concerning the event. There are no photographs,which might have helped a bit. Of all the books that I've read concerning "The Woodstock Music and Arts Fair",this is one of the better overviews of that "defining moment" in history. I have several books on Woodstock,but none written from this viewpoint,and that's the value of this concise book. While most books about this three day concert focus on the music and the musicians,this book focuses on the people who went there for the music,somehow made it through the three days,and came away somehow changed,-usually for the better. But a few of the authors here couldn't seem to get past the crowds,mud,and everything else-and left soon after their arrival. Their stories,too,help make up a good cross-section of people whose memories of this momentous event continue to still interest us after all these years. The stories are short yet very full of the ideals and feelings that many in this country had at the time. The Vietnam War,the King and Kennedy assassinations,and the riots and political upheavals both at the democratic convention and in major cities across America,all played a part in bringing together people from across this country for "three days of peace and love". And then there are some who just wanted to be a part of it all-nothing deeper. The stories are told in a conversational style prose that only tend to heighten the link between "teller" and reader. I was nineteen years old at the time and remember following what news I could get about this huge event. Nothing like this had occurred before and most people who were tuned in to all the new music happening then were avidly following the event. This concise book brings it all into focus again (no pun intended) for all those who remember ("if you can remember the sixties you weren't there") those times. For all readers who weren't there (or even alive) then,this is a wonderful place to start. By focusing on the people who made up the audience,there is much more insight about this event. There is also,after reading even part-way through this book,a lot of nostalgia in many of these stories. Partly it's people who are now getting on in age remembering those times when they were young and the whole world was in front of them. Partly it's the feeling that,as a generation,they were capable of changing the world (it was after all "the age of Aquarius") for the better. In a number of these stories,the people in them still talk in wonderment about what happened to them,how they were transformed,and how they view the world,even today,a little differently because of Woodstock and the ideals that seemed defined by those times. In these stories the authors tell both the good things and the bad t