Performances
What actually happened on stage over three days and two nights. Richie Havens opening and improvising Freedom because nobody else had arrived, Joe Cocker, Santana's breakout, Sly and the Family Stone at three in the morning, The Who at dawn, and Hendrix playing to the last thirty thousand on Monday.
Part of Woodstock
94 moments in this segment.
- - Jimi Hendrix, 1967. PERIOD PORTRAIT, NOT TAKEN AT WOODSTOCK. Jimi Hendrix photographed in Stockholm on 24 May 1967, two years before he closed Woodstock on the Monday morning with 'The Star-Spangled Banner'.
- - Crosby, Stills & Nash. PERIOD PORTRAIT, NOT TAKEN AT WOODSTOCK. A publicity photograph of Crosby, Stills & Nash, who played their second-ever live show at Woodstock, later reprinted in the Indonesian magazine Aktuil.
- - Sly and the Family Stone, 1968. PERIOD PORTRAIT, NOT TAKEN AT WOODSTOCK. An Epic Records publicity photograph from 1968 of Sly and the Family Stone, whose pre-dawn Woodstock set is often called the festival's peak.
- - Janis Joplin on television, 1969. PERIOD PORTRAIT, NOT TAKEN AT WOODSTOCK. An ABC Television publicity still from a 1969 broadcast with Tom Jones.
- - Ravi Shankar at Woodstock. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH of Ravi Shankar, who played through the Friday-night rain, taken by Mark Goff.
- - Santana, 1969 press photo. PERIOD PORTRAIT, NOT TAKEN AT WOODSTOCK. A 1969 Columbia Records press photograph of Santana, whose Woodstock set that August made the then-unsigned band famous.
- - The Grateful Dead, July 1969. PERIOD PHOTOGRAPH, NOT TAKEN AT WOODSTOCK. The Grateful Dead at the Kinetic Playground in Chicago on 5 July 1969, six weeks before their rain-plagued Woodstock set.
- - Melanie - Complete Woodstock Set. Melanie Safka was an unknown 22-year-old booked at short notice. The candles the crowd lit during her set inspired 'Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)'.
- - Bert Sommer - Complete Woodstock Set. Sommer's set, which included a cover of 'America' that reportedly earned the festival's first standing ovation, was left out of the film and album entirely.
- - Ravi Shankar - Raga Manj Khamaj. The long raga from Shankar's rain-soaked Friday-night set, as issued on the 'Live at the Woodstock Festival' album.
- - Tim Hardin - If I Were a Carpenter. Hardin's best-known song, performed in his Friday-night set. He was in poor shape and this was the only number that made the official releases.
- - Melanie - Beautiful People. Melanie's signature song from her late-Friday set at Woodstock.
- - Sweetwater - Complete Woodstock Set (Audio). The full audio of Sweetwater's Friday-evening set. The band's career was cut short when singer Nancy Nevins was badly injured in a car crash months later.
- - Richie Havens - Freedom. The improvised closing number of Havens' opening set, built on the spiritual 'Motherless Child'. Footage from the Woodstock film.
- - Bert Sommer - Jennifer. Sommer's own song, performed in his Friday-evening set. Rare surviving footage of a performer almost entirely omitted from the Woodstock film.
- - Richie Havens - Complete Woodstock Set. Havens opened the festival at about 5pm on the Friday and stretched his set to fill time, improvising 'Freedom' at the end. Full 44-minute set with intro and stage raps.
- - Richie Havens opens the festival. Richie Havens performing on the Woodstock stage. A genuine photograph of the 1969 festival, one of the few free-licensed images of the event.
- - Ravi Shankar - Complete Woodstock Set (Audio). Shankar played through the rain with Alla Rakha on tabla. He later said he found the mud and the crowd frightening.
- - Melanie - Mr. Tambourine Man. Melanie's Dylan cover from her Woodstock set.
- - John Sebastian - Complete Woodstock Set (Audio). Full audio of Sebastian's unplanned solo set, including his raps to the crowd.
- - Grateful Dead - Complete Woodstock Set. A famously troubled set: the stage was sinking, the rig was electrifying the band, and equipment failures dogged 'Dark Star' and a marathon 'Turn On Your Love Light'.
- - Joan Baez and Jeffrey Shurtleff - One Day at a Time. Baez performed with Jeffrey Shurtleff and dedicated part of her set to her husband David Harris, then imprisoned for draft resistance.
- - Canned Heat - Complete Woodstock Set. Canned Heat's Saturday set included 'Going Up the Country', the flute-led song that became the Woodstock film's theme.
- - Arlo Guthrie - Complete Woodstock Set. Guthrie's set, opening with 'Coming into Los Angeles' and including his famous stage announcement that the New York State Thruway was closed.
- - Quill - Complete Woodstock Set (Audio). The Boston band Quill opened the Saturday bill. They had been hired to play warm-up shows in the area beforehand and were cut from the film and album.
- - John Sebastian - Darling Be Home Soon. The Lovin' Spoonful song, sung by Sebastian in the unscheduled solo set he was pulled on stage to play.
- - Santana - Evil Ways. Santana's early set-opener at Woodstock, months before the studio version became a hit.
- - Joan Baez - Joe Hill. Baez, six months pregnant, closed the first day with this labour ballad about the executed union organiser.
- - Country Joe McDonald - Solo Woodstock Set (Audio). McDonald was pushed on stage solo on the Saturday afternoon to fill a gap, and led the crowd through the 'Fish Cheer' and the 'Fixin'-to-Die Rag'.
- - Quill - Waiting for You. Footage of Quill, the band that opened the Saturday and was then written out of the Woodstock story.
- - Keef Hartley Band - Complete Woodstock Set (Audio). The British blues-rock band's set survives only as audio; they were excluded from the film and album by their label.
- - Joan Baez - Oh Happy Day. Baez leading the crowd through the gospel song in the small hours of the festival's second morning.
- - Santana - Persuasion. Another number from Santana's Saturday-afternoon breakthrough set.
- - Quill open the second day. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH of the Boston band Quill, who opened the Saturday programme; shot through binoculars, hence the softness.
- - Quill at Woodstock. Surviving footage of Quill's Saturday-afternoon opening set with stage announcements.
- - Joan Baez - I Shall Be Released. Baez's reading of the Dylan song, from footage of her Woodstock set.
- - The Incredible String Band at Woodstock. The Scottish folk group had refused to play in the Friday rain and were moved to Saturday, where their gentle set landed awkwardly between rock bands.
- - Santana - Complete Woodstock Set. Santana were almost unknown and had not yet released an album. Their set, closing with 'Soul Sacrifice', made them famous overnight.
- - John Sebastian at Woodstock. Sebastian was in the audience, not on the bill; he was pulled on stage to fill time while the rain-soaked equipment was dealt with.
- - Arlo Guthrie at Woodstock (Complete Audio). Full audio of Guthrie's set with the stage announcements around it.
- - Mountain on Saturday night. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH of Mountain, with Leslie West, performing at Woodstock on the Saturday night.
- - Cocker's set, second frame. A second frame of Joe Cocker and the Grease Band performing. A genuine photograph of the 1969 festival.
- - Joe Cocker - Complete Woodstock Set. Cocker and the Grease Band played the Sunday afternoon, closing with the Beatles cover that made him a star in America. A thunderstorm broke shortly after they finished.
- - Ten Years After - I'm Going Home. The official audio of the set-closing rockabilly medley, one of the most celebrated moments in the Woodstock film.
- - Country Joe and the Fish - Complete Woodstock Set. The full-band set on the Sunday evening, distinct from McDonald's solo appearance the day before.
- - Sly and the Family Stone - I Want to Take You Higher. The official audio of the song that became the band's Woodstock signature, performed in the small hours to a crowd Sly got on its feet.
- - Jefferson Airplane - Volunteers. The Airplane's call-to-arms, played to a crowd in full morning sunlight.
- - The Band - Complete Woodstock Set. The Band lived in Woodstock, the town, and played a restrained set that ran from 'Chest Fever' to 'The Weight'.
- - Sly and the Family Stone - Complete Woodstock Set. Sly's pre-dawn set, and in particular 'I Want to Take You Higher', is widely regarded as the moment that woke the whole festival up.
- - Creedence Clearwater Revival - Suzie Q. From CCR's 'Live at Woodstock' album, released officially in 2019, fifty years after the band's set was left off every earlier release.
- - Joe Cocker at Woodstock. Surviving footage of Cocker's Sunday-afternoon set.
- - Creedence Clearwater Revival - Complete Woodstock Set. CCR followed the Grateful Dead and went on to a crowd largely asleep. John Fogerty blocked their footage from the film for decades.
- - Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit. Slick's Alice in Wonderland song, from the Airplane's dawn set.
- - Janis Joplin - Complete Woodstock Set. Joplin, with the Kozmic Blues Band, waited ten hours to go on and was unhappy with the result; she blocked her performance from the film.
- - Ten Years After - Complete Woodstock Set. Alvin Lee's band closed with 'I'm Going Home', the performance that made them famous in America.
- - The Who - Summertime Blues. The Eddie Cochran cover from The Who's dawn set, re-edited to the correct camera angles.
- - Joe Cocker - With a Little Help From My Friends. The official upload of Cocker's Woodstock performance of the Beatles song, the set-closer that made his reputation.
- - Joe Cocker - Something's Coming On. A song from Cocker's Woodstock set that appeared only on the 'Untold Stories' release.
- - The Who - Sparks, Pinball Wizard and See Me Feel Me. Black and white footage of the 'Tommy' sequence, ending with 'See Me Feel Me' as the sun came up over the crowd.
- - The Who at Woodstock - All Officially Released Footage. A compilation of everything from The Who's set that was officially released, including the Abbie Hoffman incident.
- - The Who, then Jefferson Airplane. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH taken during the long Saturday-into-Sunday programme at Woodstock, when The Who played before dawn and Jefferson Airplane followed at sunrise.
- - The Who - Complete Woodstock Concert (Remastered). The Who played most of 'Tommy' at dawn. Mid-set Pete Townshend knocked Abbie Hoffman off the stage when he tried to seize the microphone.
- - Creedence Clearwater Revival - Keep on Chooglin'. The closing number of CCR's Woodstock set, from the official 2019 album release.
- - Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising. CCR's then-current hit, from the official 'Live at Woodstock' release.
- - Joe Cocker and the Grease Band. Joe Cocker with the Grease Band on stage on the Sunday. A genuine photograph of the 1969 festival.
- - Joe Cocker seen through binoculars. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH of Joe Cocker's Sunday set, shot from deep in the crowd through a pair of binoculars.
- - Ten Years After - Woodstock '69 (Full Set, Official). The band's complete Woodstock set as issued by Chrysalis Records, their own label.
- - Jefferson Airplane - Somebody to Love. Grace Slick fronting the band's hit at the end of the festival's long second night.
- - Jefferson Airplane - Complete Woodstock Concert. The Airplane closed the second day well after sunrise; Grace Slick greeted the crowd with 'good morning, people'. Restored from the best available sources.
- - The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Complete Woodstock Set. Butterfield's horn-driven blues band played to a thinning, exhausted crowd in the Monday dawn.
- - Jimi Hendrix - Complete Woodstock Set. Hendrix closed the festival on the Monday morning to a crowd reduced to about 30,000, playing a two-hour set that included 'The Star-Spangled Banner' and 'Purple Haze'.
- - Jimi Hendrix - Live at Woodstock, Part One. The first part of Hendrix's closing set, from his own estate's official channel.
- - Jimi Hendrix - The Star-Spangled Banner. The unaccompanied instrumental national anthem, played into 'Purple Haze', to the few thousand still on the field on the Monday morning.
- - Sha Na Na - At the Hop. The doo-wop group's set-piece, played half an hour before Hendrix closed the festival.
- - Johnny Winter - Complete Woodstock Set. Winter's blues set, with his brother Edgar joining him, was omitted from the film and only officially released decades later.
- - Jimi Hendrix - Live at Woodstock, Part Three. The closing stretch of the set, including 'The Star-Spangled Banner' and 'Purple Haze'.
- - Jimi Hendrix - Live at Woodstock, Part Two. The middle of Hendrix's Monday-morning set, released officially by Experience Hendrix.
- - Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - Complete Woodstock Set (Audio). Only their second live show. Stephen Stills told the crowd 'we're scared shitless' before opening with 'Suite: Judy Blue Eyes'.
- - Blood, Sweat and Tears - Complete Woodstock Recording. The surviving complete recording of the band's after-midnight set.
- - Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, with Stage Announcements. Played from the original 1970 Woodstock triple LP, including the stage announcements about feeding the crowd that preceded the song.
- - Jimi Hendrix - Spanish Castle Magic. From Hendrix's closing set with the Gypsy Sun and Rainbows band, including Larry Lee on second guitar.
- - Sha Na Na - Complete Woodstock Set (Audio). The doo-wop revival group, then Columbia University students, played a 30-minute greaser set immediately before Hendrix closed the festival.
- - Jimi Hendrix - Izabella. A then-unreleased song from Hendrix's Woodstock set. The description credits the official Experience Hendrix release with the 18 August date.
- - Sha Na Na - Book of Love. Another number from Sha Na Na's early-Monday-morning set.
- - Janis Joplin performing, 1969. PERIOD PORTRAIT, NOT TAKEN AT WOODSTOCK. An ABC Television publicity montage of Janis Joplin from October 1969, two months after her Woodstock set with the Kozmic Blues Band.
- - Ten Years After, 1970. PERIOD PORTRAIT, NOT TAKEN AT WOODSTOCK. A Deram/London Records trade-press photograph of Ten Years After from May 1970; Alvin Lee's 'I'm Going Home' at Woodstock became one of the film's set pieces.
- - Jefferson Airplane, c. 1970. PERIOD PORTRAIT, NOT TAKEN AT WOODSTOCK. An RCA Records publicity photograph of Jefferson Airplane from around 1970; the band played Woodstock at sunrise on the Sunday.
- - Country Joe McDonald, 1970. PERIOD PHOTOGRAPH, NOT TAKEN AT WOODSTOCK. Country Joe McDonald at the Kralingen Music Festival in Rotterdam on 27 June 1970; his 'Fish Cheer' solo set was a Woodstock landmark.
- - Canned Heat, 1970. PERIOD PORTRAIT, NOT TAKEN AT WOODSTOCK. A Liberty Records publicity photograph of Canned Heat from August 1970; the band played Woodstock on the Saturday.
- - John Sebastian, 1971. PERIOD PORTRAIT, NOT TAKEN AT WOODSTOCK. A 1971 publicity photograph of John Sebastian, who was pulled onto the Woodstock stage unbilled during the Friday rain delay.
- - Richie Havens in Hamburg, 1972. PERIOD PHOTOGRAPH, NOT TAKEN AT WOODSTOCK. Richie Havens performing in Hamburg in May 1972, three years after opening the festival.
- - Richie Havens, 1973. PERIOD PORTRAIT, NOT TAKEN AT WOODSTOCK. A management portrait of Richie Havens from October 1973.
- - Arlo Guthrie, 1976. PERIOD PORTRAIT, NOT TAKEN AT WOODSTOCK. A Reprise Records portrait of Arlo Guthrie from 1976; he played Woodstock on the opening Friday night.
- - Carlos Santana fifty years on. Santana, an unknown when he played Woodstock in 1969, reflects on what the festival meant and what it left behind.
