Saturday, August 15, 2009

Woodstock, 40 years later

Was I there at the time? Yes, if you're willing to count being a pre-teen in the back seat of my parents' car, caught in the very outskirts of the miles-and-miles-wide traffic jam as we drove to or fro a vacation site.

Woodstock's little secret (not that my knowledge of this comes from back then) is that most of the music wasn't very good. It was a year or two too late - too grandiose and self-infatuated by that point in the evolution of rock music. And though there still were some very good things to come in the immediate offing, the already badly needed rescue by punk rock / new wave remained seven years in the future.

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