Woodstock, the most famous music festival of all time, took place 55 years ago this week, August 15th to the 18th, 1969, in Bethel, New York.
Among the 32 acts on the bill were six from the San Francisco Bay Area -- Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Santana, Country Joe and the Fish, Sly and the Family Stone and Creedence Clearwater Revival, the first act signed for the festival. They were paid $10,000.
Scheduled to go on Saturday night, they didn't take the stage until 12:30 Sunday morning, following a 90-minute five-song set from the Dead. Creedence's Woodstock performance -- not represented in the film or the soundtrack album -- is now available as an album.
The late Woodstock founder and promoter Michael Lang signed just about every act he wanted for the festival, which was held 55 years ago this week in Bethel, New York (August 15th-18th). But there were two he wished would have signed on -- and one was John Lennon.
"He couldn't get into the country because President Nixon was not appreciating his anti-war status. When we lost our site in Wallkill, New York where we'd been working for three months -- we had a month to go to get our festival together and the miracle is a day later we found Max Yasgur and the Bethel site. But, that day, I got a letter from [The Beatles] Apple [Records]. They had offered the Plastic Ono Band, James Taylor and Billy Preston. And I never saw that letter until I wrote my book and I had this box of stuff from the original festival and went through it and there it was. All the Beatles were copied and they would have all been a great addition, but that's life."
Cue Grace Slick! And Joe Cocker!!