Woodstock, in their own words

We've been sharing a lot of Woodstock-related videos and links with you lately, in celebration of the July publication of our 40th Anniversary Edition of Woodstock: The Oral History. You may have noticed that we're not the only ones celebrating 1969 at the moment. This being the 40th anniversary, there are books on Woodstock popping up all over the place, along with new websites, concerts, movies, etc. What makes our book stand out in this crowd of tie-dyed nostalgia sweeping the nation? For one thing, ours provides the definitive oral history of the concert—from its planning stages through the event itself and beyond. Joel Makower interviewed a wide array of people to put together this book: producers, musicians, film crew, security, concessions workers, agents, locals, and even the Merry Pranksters. The following are just a few of the people who were there that contributed their amazing stories to the book: Wavy Gravy, Michael Lang, Miriam Yasgur (who, along with her husband Max, owned the land on which the festival was held), David Crosby, Chip Monck, Richie Havens, and the late Abbie Hoffman. This Anniversary Edition contains first-hand accounts that have not been diluted by time or, um, anything else, for that matter. The stories were still fresh in the minds of those who lived them when Joel did the work for this book, and it shows, like in the following account, where Wavy Gravy describes the moment where hippies were first introduced to granola:

When I announced breakfast in bed, we were introducing hippies to granola, really for the first time. But we didn’t make it exactly right. I think the oats weren’t toasted enough, but still, what we tried to do was go around with Dixie cups full of granola and so that wasn’t just some rant that I was running. We were actually going for it.

Hippies + granola have gone in hand in hand for so long that we never imagined there was a time when they hadn't. Mind blowing.

So pre-order a copy of Woodstock today and enjoy the most realistic history of the mega-concert, from before the time that memories were either lost of embellished. This is Woodstock, raw and honest.