Woodstock Quotes

“Fifteen years ago, the cultural critic Greil Marcus wrote of Jimi's performance of our national anthem as "his great NO to the war, to racism, to whatever you or he might think of and want gone. But then that discord shattered, and for more than four and a half long, complex minutes Hendrix pursued each invisible crack in a vessel that had once been whole, feeling out and exploring and testing himself and his music against anguish, rage, fear, hate, love offered, and love refused. When he finished, he had created an anthem that could never be summed up and that would never come to rest. In the end it was a great YES, both a threat and a beckoning, an invitation to America to match its danger, glamour, and freedom."
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In late 1969, Jimi Hendrix wrote a poem celebrating Woodstock, saying with words what his music had in August: "500,000 halos outshined the mud and history. We washed and drank in God's tears of joy. And for once, and for everyone, the truth was not still a mystery.”
― Michael Lang, The Road to Woodstock

“What we have in mind is breakfast in bed for 400,000”
― Wavy Gravy

“Monsters,' she said., 'of course my brain has them.' As long as they stayed in there, everything would be all right. Wouldn't it?”
― Gwenda Bond, Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds

“Too much shit has been written about Gypsies, mostly by American women who’ve never even talked to a Gypsy, let alone spent time in their company, but whose claim to fame is that their parents were at Woodstock.”
― Karl Wiggins, Wrong Planet - Searching for your Tribe

“500,000 halos outshined the mud and history. We washed and drank in God's tears of joy,
And for once…and for everyone…the truth was not a mystery.
Love called to all…music is magic.
As we passed over and beyond the walls of Nay,
Hand in hand as we lived and made real the dreams of peaceful men—
We came together…danced with the pearls of rainy weather,
Riding the waves of music and space…music is magic…magic is life…
Love as never loved before…
Harmony to son and daughter…man and wife…”
― Jimi Hendrix, Cherokee Mist: The Lost Writings

“I should have been conceived during Woodstock; it’s in my blood: that burning desire to turn an absolute on its head and see what’s underneath. I’m as random as I can be and as responsible as I should be. Attempting to fuse the two makes for interesting days.”
― Chila Woychik, On Being a Rat and Other Observations

“Even then, even though hippies were unaware, Peace, Love, and Music was a brand, preying on our nostalgia for an experience few who worship it ever had.”
― Thomm Quackenbush, Holidays with Bigfoot

“To understand Woodstock was impossible if you weren't there. Our national culture has drifted, progressed and regressed to suit the age. Chronologically handicapped, I grok this was a sacred experience forever locked away.”
― Thomm Quackenbush, Holidays with Bigfoot

“Woodstock was a shiny bead we focus on to compactify disparate threads into one luminous moment.”
― Thomm Quackenbush, Holidays with Bigfoot

“Despite the promises of utopian hedonism, many youth and middle-aged adults quickly enticed by these did not escape from their addictions easily, if at all. And, to the shock of their fans, the lives of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and numerous other acid trippin' rock musicians also ended quickly like the closing blues beats from one of their most popular songs. Even Max Yasgur himself died just 19 months after the Woodstock Festival of a heart attack at the age of 53.”
― Philip Alajajian, The 1960's Social Movements - Pathways to the Final Apostasy

“We were ready to rock out and we waited and waited and finally it was our turn ... there were a half million people asleep. These people were out. It was sort of like a painting of a Dante scene, just bodies from hell, all intertwined and asleep, covered with mud. And this is the moment I will never forget as long as I live: A quarter mile away in the darkness, on the other edge of this bowl, there was some guy flicking his Bic, and in the night I hear, "Don't worry about it, John. We're with you." I played the rest of the show for that guy.

—John Fogerty recalling Creedence Clearwater Revival's 3:30 a.m. start time at Woodstock.”
― Hank Bordowitz, Bad Moon Rising: The Unofficial History of Creedence Clearwater Revival

“Over the years, the Ompah Stomp developed a reputation of being a wild party. Maybe it was the setting, in a remote rural area, that led people to believe that it was a bit like a country music Woodstock, brimming with sex and drugs.”
― Arlene Stafford-Wilson, Lanark County Calling: All Roads Lead Home

“If Woodstock happened today, you would be invited on social media. Websites would livestream it. Rolling Stone would not cover it. You would read “The 5 Craziest Parts of Woodstock (Number 4 Will SHOCK You).” Instead of lighters, we would hold up cell phones, so we could record the moment instead of inhabiting it.”
― Thomm Quackenbush, Holidays with Bigfoot

“That was part of the true point of Woodstock. It could have happened anywhere at any time. If the squares didn't abide the vibes, hundreds of thousands of the unwashed masses could flood in to devastate your town.”
― Thomm Quackenbush, Holidays with Bigfoot

“The closest my generation will ever come to the spirit of the original Woodstock was September 12th, 2001. For a few weeks, we believed that we were integral members of the brotherhood of Man. It didn't matter who our neighbors were (aside from a few isolated cases of the paranoia-induced beatings of Sikh children). We wanted to make sure they were holding up so that we could feel that they wanted to know the same about us. We needed a national tragedy beyond our reckoning to shake us loose from the mundane, a trip far more heinous than anything the infamous brown acid would have given us. Woodstock existed for people on the brink of seeing what life meant. September 12th was in acknowledgment for how that life could end, and the almost guilty thrill that we made it through.”
― Thomm Quackenbush, Holidays with Bigfoot

“I have started listening to Bob Dylan. Andy Animal comes from the same town as him. Woodstock. I understand Bob Dylan because I understand Andy Animal.  The river cleanses us. Fireside warms us. I will protect you. I understand you. Andy Animal. I understand you. I will be your protector and you will be mine. Horror eliminates when your eyes enter my mind. I will feed you. I will protect you. I will take care of you. Andy Animal. Take me to Stewart’s.”
― Ms. Andy Animal