I was born too late...

...there, I said it.  I was born a couple of decades too late.  I'm convinced of this, and have been for years - in fact I wouldn't be surprised at all to find out someday that I am actually reincarnated from someone who lived back then (if ya believe anything like that - hey, my mind's open!).  I really do feel like I would have been right at home in the 60s, with all of the turmoil and change going on.  I guess it's a lot like what's going on right now, only with much better music back then.

I just finished reading "The Road To Woodstock" by Michael Lang, the guy who actually put together the original "3 days of peace, love, and music".  It was just wonderful to see how everything just kinda came together and gave all who attended a general sense of community, and just helping out your fellow man.  It really was a beautiful thing!  He told a story about Max Yasgur (the owner of the farm on which the "Woodstock Music and Arts Fair" was held) getting on stage and speaking to the literally hundreds of thousands of people there, saying,"...I think you people have proven something to the world: that a half a million kids can get together and have three days of fun and music - and have nothing but fun and music!  And I God bless you for it!"  He later told a reporter,"If the generation gap is to be closed, the older people have to do more than we've done."  He was a really special man.

As far as the music went, what more could you really ask for?  Richie Havens, Ravi Shankar, Arlo Guthrie, Country Joe and the Fish, Santana (who were still unknown) Canned Heat, Mountain, Grateful Dead (in, admittedly, their worst performance ever) Creedence Clearwater Revival, Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (in their second ever performance) and, of course, Jimi Hendrix, doing the inimitable "Star Spangled Banner" - one that to this day just gives me chills!  So filled with emotion!

It's really too bad we can't have a bit of that feeling again in this day and age - I know they tried to recreate the phenomenon in '94 and '99 - man, was that one a horrible disaster - rapes, fires, $5 bottles of water, just all sorts of corporate greed and violence - the exact opposite of the original festival!

Anyway, tonight's stroke was inspired by the outfit worn by John Sebastian, from the Lovin' Spoonful on stage at Woodstock.  Gotta love that tie-dye fashion!  He says he still gets crap about that outfit to this day!  Oh, well - gotta go - PEACE!