WOODSTOCK REMEMBERED

ARLO GUTHRIE
Journal: Rolling Stone
Date: 1989

I was in awe of the immensity of what was happening. It was much more than a big concert. We were aware that it was a historic event in progress, which was rare. I think that people who were there and even people who weren't there knew it instantly, and that's what was so exciting.

There were people being killed in the streets of the U.S. by the police and the National Guard. It was dangerous for large groups of people who looked like we did to get together in those days. Maybe we were a little innocent or naive about who we were and what we were doing, but it certainly wasn't just a fun thing to do. The fact that there were people smoking dope became an insignificant thing to the police, who were much more worried about other things, and that was more closely aligned to how we thought it should be. In that sense, we found ourselves victorious for a moment, and that little victory became symbolic to people around the world.

The Woodstock movie came out the same year as Alice's Restaurant. There are a lot of people that weren't born at that time, and Alice's Restaurant doesn't mean anything to them.

But the fact that I was at Woodstock is significant to them. It won't happen again. They tried immediately after Woodstock. Promoters said, "My God, we could make it pay." But it never worked out. Altamont was what happened.

I've heard a lot of people over the years saying that Woodstock wasn't important, that people were blowing it out of proportion, but something must have happened, or we wouldn't still be talking about it twenty years later. You may see the Woodstock label on blue jeans or soap, but no one can take it away from us. It can't be marketed away.