Forrest Gump

 

Woodstock

I'm going on down to Yasgur’s farm
I'm gonna join in a rock and roll band
I'm going to camp out on the land
I'm gonna try and get my soul free

Joni Mitchell did not go to Yasgur’s farm, and neither did I

Joni Michell wrote the definitive song about Woodstock. She was supposed to perform at Woodstock but the closest she got to Woodstock was flying over the festival. Her staff would not let her land or perform due to the crowd. I had a similar reason for not going.

I was at the Newport Jazz festival in July of 1969, just weeks before Woodstock. Because of Lee Giguere, we even had backstage passes ( Lee’s father worked for Pepsi, and Pepsi supplied the backstage areas). The Newport Jazz festival program that year included Jazz and Rock. As part of the program on Friday evening I saw Blind Faith ( newly formed with Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood), Ten Year’s After, Jeff Beck, Jethro Tull, Blood Sweat and Tears, etc. The show on the next evening was going to be headlined by Led Zepplin and James Brown. The problem was that the crowd surged through the fence during our show, our show was stopped, it was announced at the time that all subsequent shows were cancelled.  I left and never returned.  (Ultimately, the shows were NOT canceled). But because of the fact it was temporarily cancelled, I decided that Woodstock would have similar problems as well, so why go to Yasgur’s farm. Boy was I wrong. It was NOT cancelled! My tickets might never have been collected, but the music played on.  Forrest Gump was not the only one who lived through historical events without even realizing it.