Various
Woodstock – Back To The Garden: The Definitive Anniversary Archive RHINO
Expanded, remastered, repackaged… and repriced.
There’s never been any doubt that the 1969 Woodstock festival boasted a now-unimaginable stellar line-up of popular festival bands of the time, outdoing all other events for sheer scale and mythology thanks to its movie and briefly magical optimism.
Regardless of the nostalgic media furore over the festival’s 50th anniversary, anybody interested in tasting what happened there will have already invested heavily, including the original film and soundtracks, individual set releases, offshoot films and 2009’s Woodstock 40 Years On box set. But with today’s music industry surviving on extravagant repackaging of its past, the festival’s half-century is ripe for further milking, thanks to modern restoration technology.
The behemoth 38-disc version of comes in a plywood-and-canvas box, is limited to 1,969 copies, and includes every complete set from the festival, along with (mainly) Chip Monck’s announcement narrative, the movie on Blu-ray, Michael Lang’s book, replica memorabilia and more; 433 tracks (20 previously unreleased) lasting 36 hours, and is available presents 42 tracks on three CDs or five LPs). Anyone who spent 18 quid on the six-CD 40th set might hesitate before splashing £145 on this latest incarnation, which adds four discs’ worth of extra tracks and announcements but often repeats whole chunks, including The Band’s five, Creedence’s three and Sly’s 22-minute medley.
