The definitive oral history of the Woodstock rock festival.
“The definitive study of the mega-concert.” — Rolling Stone
“Woodstock comes alive here, even if the music itself seems almost incidental to the backstage dramas.” — Publishers Weekly
Woodstock is the definitive, electrifying account of the rock festival that shook the world and defined a generation.
In 1969 four young men—two budding entrepreneurs who really wanted to write sitcoms, a former head shop proprietor turned rock band manager, and a record company executive who smoked hash in his office—had a dream: to produce the greatest rock concert ever held. Little did they know how enormous a reality their dream would become.
Woodstock is the fascinating story of how it all came together—and almost fell apart—told exclusively in the voices of the men and women who made it happen. It shares the adventures of a ragtag bunch of businessmen and bohemians, of hippies, hucksters, handymen, and hangers-on, working against all odds to unite a generation for one wild, glorious weekend in August 1969. You’ll get behind-the-scenes stories from such people as David Crosby, Abbie Hoffman, Miriam Yasgur (who, along with her husband, Max, owned the land on which the festival was held), Richie Havens, Wavy Gravy, Paul Kantner, Chip Monck, and a host of others.
This special 40th anniversary edition features a new foreword by Michael Lang and Joel Rosenman, two of the original coproducers of Woodstock, as well as updated information on the people who made the music festival happen.
“[Makower’s] 1989 classic gets its own 20-years-after revival with this new edition, loaded with black-and-white photos and 1969 headlines that bring it all back home.” — Chronogram
“…an excellent, often spellbinding account in the words of those involved, from doctors and cops to shopkeepers and neighbors to festival organizers and musicians. Makower, a veteran writer, spent a year interviewing 75 participants, and since the year was 1988, the recollections are fresher than those collected four decades after the fact.” — Miami Herald
“The new edition includes new forewords by co-producers Michael Lang and Joel Rosenman, but it’s Makower’s original interviews that are the real reason to celebrate the fact that this book is back in print again.” — Nippertown
“This incredibly in-depth recounting … tells a fascinating story.” — School Library Journal
Joel Makower is Executive Editor of GreenBiz.com and a veteran writer and speaker on green business and clean technology. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including Strategies for the Green Economy: OpportunitiesandChallenges in the New World of Business and The Green Consumer.
Michael Lang, one of the original coproducers of the Woodstock festival, continues to be a force in the music industry and is the author of The Road to Woodstock
A graduate of Yale Law School, Joel Rosenman is also one of the original coproducers of the Woodstock festival. He is the coauthor (with John Roberts and Robert Pilpel) of Young Men With Unlimited Capital: The Story of Woodstock. Today he works as an investor.
