As the joke goes, if you remember Woodstock, you weren’t there.
But for Federal Way resident Gary Goldstein, the experience was unforgettable: A peaceful gathering at the height of the hippie movement, smack dab in the golden age of rock ‘n’ roll.
Forty years ago this weekend, Goldstein joined more than 500,000 concertgoers in one of popular culture’s most seminal moments. Goldstein, who was 19 at the time, set up camp at Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, N.Y., to hear the hottest musical acts of 1969.
His recollection of the weekend is tame compared to the legends that define Woodstock in the public consciousness. Goldstein actually bought tickets at $6 per day for the three-day festival, which ended up being a free event. He was never caught in the massive traffic that closed the New York State Thruway. He left as the rain rolled in during Joe Cocker’s set — and before Jimi Hendrix took the stage at sunrise with a feedback-drenched rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
“That was a decision that could live in infamy,” he said of missing Hendrix.
In the summer of 1969, Goldstein had just finished his freshman year of college. The self-professed music nut salivated over each week’s new Top 40 songs as well as every new single by The Beatles. When buying tickets with his brother for that summer’s concerts, Goldstein knew Woodstock would be a big deal. He had yet to see Janis Joplin or the newly-formed Crosby, Stills and Nash. Johnny Winter and the Grateful Dead were also on his list.
“I was, of course, anxious to see Hendrix,” said Goldstein, now 59.
However, Goldstein missed the virtuoso guitarist’s set. He had a job with a hospital’s grounds crew in his native suburban New Jersey, and he was expected to work that Monday.
“We thought it would end late Sunday,” he said, adding that when the rain came, he thought the festival was through. “We really believed that would be the end of it. The rain seemed so intense.”
Instead, performances lasted until sunrise Monday, with Hendrix closing the show.
Goldstein’s favorite moment came from Sly and the Family Stone around 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning.
“The crowd was absolutely frantic. No one slept for Sly and the Family Stone,” he said, recalling everyone jumping in the air, throwing fists toward the sky while the band sang “I Want to Take You Higher.”
“No one else had that kind of energy going,” Goldstein said of that performance.
Goldstein sat about halfway back from the stage, although “you could always worm your way up pretty close to the stage,” he said. “They had a marvelous sound system.”
Goldstein and company realized they were part of something special when Arlo Guthrie told the crowd about the traffic and closed freeways. Woodstock was also the first time Goldstein saw people smoking marijuana openly, an experience that altered his views on the drug’s reputation. Goldstein said he left the festival without inhaling, and also steered clear of psychedelic drugs like the infamous “brown acid.”
“I was still of the mindset that drugs were evil personified,” Goldstein said. “My buddies and I were beer drinkers.”
Violence was notably absent from the festival. The “worst” things he saw were concertgoers who overindulged and some topless women, he said.
“I never saw a policeman once we parked the car. It was such a peaceful thing,” he said.
Of the musical acts, he also enjoyed Jefferson Airplane’s set. From a distance, he snapped a photo of a tiny Grace Slick taking the stage in a white buckskin jacket. He saw scuffling during The Who’s set, later learning that guitarist Pete Townshend had booted protestor Abbie Hoffman off the stage. Santana, a relatively unknown band at the time, rocked an afternoon set that would have been even more powerful had they played at night, Goldstein said.
Creedence Clearwater Revival sounded just like their records, and the Grateful Dead “were just OK,” he said, adding that the 65-minute set did not do justice to the Dead’s expansive and unpredictable live performances.
Aside from missing Hendrix, Goldstein has one other Woodstock regret: “I never took a picture of me.”
Performers at Woodstock 1969
Friday, Aug. 15
• Richie Havens
• Sweetwater
• The Incredible String Band
• Bert Sommer
• Tim Hardin
• Ravi Shankar
• Arlo Guthrie
• Joan Baez
Saturday, Aug. 16
• Quill
• Keef Hartley Band
• Country Joe McDonald
• John Sebastian
• Santana
• Canned Heat
• Grateful Dead
• Creedence Clearwater Revival
• Janis Joplin with The Kozmic Blues Band
• Sly and the Family Stone
• The Who
• Jefferson Airplane
Sunday, Aug. 17, to Monday, Aug. 18
• Joe Cocker
• Country Joe and the Fish
• Ten Years After
• The Band
• Blood, Sweat and Tears
• Crosby, Stills and Nash (with Neil Young)
• Paul Butterfield Blues Band
• Sha-Na-Na
• Jimi Hendrix
