Newsweek

Highlights (and Lowlights) of Woodstock at 50

The Woodstock 3-Day festival is one of the most significant events in the history of popular culture. With the 50th anniversary of Woodstock upon the horizon, Hank Gilman and Peter Carbonara explore highs and lows of counterculture phenomenon.
CUL_Woodstock_01
CUL_Woodstock_01

Woodstock, as you may have already heard to an excessive degree by now, defined in some ways the entire baby boom generation. You know, three days of peace, love and understanding and all that jazz.

The truth is this: There were some 400,000 people who actually attended the event over three days in August 1969. But most of us experienced it through the documentary—and the soundtrack—that came out about six months after the event.

The music was all-in-all pretty great, and a lot of acts from Joe Cocker to The Who to Sly and the Family Stone to Santana and, of course, Jimi Hendrix, had star turns.

The documentary itself? If you're as jaded and cynical as we are, the answer is "meh"; better at the time, in other words. There's only so much you can take of watching people rolling

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