Events - Woodstock Rock Scene

More About Woodstock’s
Rock ’n’ Roll Scene

Rock & Woodstock, by Paul Smart
Woodstock's Centennial Anthem, by Paul McMahon

Rock & Woodstock covers the time when the Woodstock Art Colony transitioned into a music mecca during the 1960’s and when such rock icons as Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Paul Butterfield, The Band, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Van Morrison, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones made the scene. Also included are stories about Todd Rungren, Orleans, John Sebastian, REM, the B-52’s and the 10,000 Maniacs.

Smart writes in his introduction that Woodstock is “unlike a place like Nashville, whose central location and long-standing draw on a region’s music make sense of its capital-status for the whole of country music and its recording industry. Woodstock’s gradual growth from a small, out-of-the-stream arts colony to what many now call the nation’s fourth largest recording center is a story of self-creation.

“It happened fast, in historic terms. One can spot the main figures of the scene and…sense the epochal changes that occur with single record releases…with a death here, a move away from town there.”
Paul Smart’s articles have regularly appeared in the Catskill Mountain News, the Woodstock Times, Hudson Valley Magazine, the Albany Times Union, the Kingston Daily Freeman, and nationally in the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Press, the Philadelphia Enquirer and the Hollywood Reporter. In 1998 Rosen Publishing put out his title Everything You Need To Know About Mononucleosis. He is currently working on new books about Johnny Appleseed, a history of Rock Tours, and the launching of new gurus in India.

This book is available online from Purple Mountain Press and Amazon.com

Rock & Woodstock
Written by Paul Smart and Illustrated
by T. P. Moynihan
192 pages, with index, published 1994
ISBN: 0-935796-54-1
Purple Mountain Press

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Woodstock’s Centennial Anthem
By Paul McMahon, Rock ’n’ Roll Therapist
(E-mail: paulmcms@ulster.net)

WHAT IS THE MOST FAMOUS SMALL TOWN IN NEW YORK STATE?
WHAT IS THE MOST FAMOUS SMALL TOWN IN THE UNITED STATES?
WHAT IS THE MOST FAMOUS SMALL TOWN IN THE WORLD?
BECAUSE OF A CONCERT THAT HAPPENED IN THE 60’S …
…60 MILES AWAY
IN THE NAMESAKE OF THE SAVIOR’S BIRTHPLACE
IN THE STRAW IN A PASTURE IN BETHEL
WAS A CONCERT CALLED WOODSTOCK
NAMESAKE OF THE TOWN WITH NO ROOM AT THE INN
THE LOCAL BURGHERS KNEW WHAT TO EXPECT
AND FLEXED THEIR GIANT N.I.M.B.Y. ‘PEC’S
WHICH TODAY ARE STILL USED TO GREAT EFFECTS
AGAINST SHIBBOLETHS LIKE MARRIOTT AND CVS
ALL HAIL MAX YASGUR
THAT WAS THE BIRTH OF THE LOVE GENERATION
THAT WAS ALREADY BORN AND DOING WELL IN WOODSTOCK,
HOME TO SO MANY OF THE GREAT MUSICIANS OF THE 60’S
WHO MIGHT NEVER HAVE BEEN THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE
IF A PATRICIAN GANG OF UTOPIAN AESTHETES HAD NOT
DEEMED WOODSTOCK THE PERFECT SPOT FOR AN ART COLONY A CENTURY AGO.
THIS BROUGHT ARTISTS, SOME OF WHOM SPLIT OFF
TO START OTHER ARTISTS GROUP THINGS
OR THEIR OWN THINGS
AND THE ARTISTS BECAME THOROUGHLY ENTRENCHED
AND STAYED ON THROUGH THE YEARS
THROUGH THE CENTURY,
SURVIVNG ON NOTHING THROUGH THE DEPRESSION,
THE WPA, THE ASHCAN SCHOOL, THE ART STUDENTS LEAGUE
BUILDING LITTLE COTTAGES AND STUDIOS
(SEE THE BIG WINDOWS ALWAYS FACING NORTH? THAT’S FOR THE EVEN NORTH LIGHT PAINTERS PREFER.)
WHICH LATER SERVED TO HOUSE OTHER ARTISTS AND LATER MUSICIANS AND HIPPIES; IMPOVERISHED BUT IDEALISTIC PEOPLE WITH A LUST FOR LIFE;
EXPLORERS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
COMMITTED TO THEIR OWN CREATIVITY.
MAYBE THE HUDSON RIVER SCHOOL ARTISTS OF AN EARLIER CENTURY
SPRINKLED THE MAGIC CREATIVE FAIRY DUST
THAT DREW WHITEHEAD AND COMPANY TO THE CATSKILLS
TO CREATE THE BYRDCLYFFE ART COLONY IN 1902
BUT MAYBE THERE WAS ALREADY SOMETHING VERY SPECIAL
ABOUT WOODSTOCK AND THE MOUNTAINS AROUND HER.
LOCAL LEGEND CLAIMS THE INDIANS TREATED THIS AS A SACRED PLACE;
A PLACE FOR CEREMONIES, BUT NOT A PLACE TO LIVE
BECAUSE THE ‘SPIRIT ENERGY’ WAS TOO STRONG.
IT WOULD DRIVE YOU CRAZY IF YOU STAYED THERE TOO LONG.
WHY THAT’S JUST WHAT ARTISTS AND SAINTS ARE LOOKING FOR!
THE DALAI LAMA RECENTLY EQUATED CREATIVITY WITH SPIRITUALITY.
HE SAID THE ARTIST IS HOLY.
IN THE 70’S THE HEAD OF THE KOGYU TIBETAN BUDDHIST LINEAGE, THE 16TH KARMAPA CAME TO WOODSTOCK AND ESTABLISHED THE LARGEST TIBETAN MONASTERY IN THIS COUNTRY. IT SITS HIGH UP ON MEADS MOUNTAIN ABOVE THE TOWN. JUST DOWN THE ROAD IS THE MAGIC MEADOW, WHERE THE RAINBOW FAMILY HOSTS A BONFIRE GATHERING EACH FULL MOON AND PEOPLE COME FROM MILES AROUND TO BEAT THE DRUMS INTO THE NIGHT. TIBETANS ARE REPUTED TO REGARD THE MAGIC MEADOW AS THE EYE OF THE UNIVERSE. OM EYE GOD!

RIGHT NEXT TO THE MONASTERY IS THE LITTLE HANDMADE CHURCH THAT WAS HOME BASE TO FATHER FRANCIS, ARCHBISHOP OF THE ‘ORTHODOX’ CHRISTIAN CHURCH, THE OBSCURE ORIGINAL SECT OF CHRISTIANITY WHICH TRACES ITS ROOTS TO JOSEPH OF ARIMITHEA AND GLASTONBURY AND PREDATES CATHOLICISM BY CENTURIES. AN OPENMINDED AND ORIGINAL THINKER, FATHER FRANCIS WASN’T FAZED BY THE SEX, DRUGS AND ROCK’N’ROLL OF THE 60’S, AS WERE MOST OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES OF HIS ADVANCED YEARS. HE INTERFACED EASILY WITH THE COUNTERCULTURE’S CHARACTERS AND MUSICIANS. I HEARD HE MARRIED BOB AND SARAH DYLAN IN THAT CHURCH. ACROSS THE STREET LIVES A WOMAN DEVOTED TO THE SPIRIT. SHE WAS APPROACHED IN THE 80’S BY LAKOTA INDIANS WHO TOLD HER SHE HAD SACRED NATIVE SITES ON HER PROPERTY AND STARTED HOLDING SWEAT LODGES THERE. AND EVERY WEEK A TEACHER FROM INDIA TEACHES THE HINDU VEDAS. SEVERAL MILES OUT OF TOWN IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST ZEN BUDDHIST MONASTERIES IN THE US, WHICH DATES BACK AT LEAST TO THE 60’S, BLACK MOUNTAIN VINTAGE I THINK. CLOSER IN IS THE MATAGIRI CENTER DEVOTED TO THE WORK OF SRI AUROBINDO AND STILL CLOSER IS THE WITTENBERG CENTER, WHICH HOSTED MANY NATIVE AMERICAN ELDERS AND SPIRITUAL TEACHERS DURING THE 80’S AND 90’S. THERE ONE CAN SEE A BEAUTIFUL ‘NEO-NEOLITHIC’ SHRINE; AN EGG-SHAPED STONE CHAMBER ABOUT 30 BY 20’ AND HALF BELOW GROUND. THE CLAIRVOYANT AMERICAN MYSTIC HILDA CHARLTON TAUGHT OFTEN IN WOODSTOCK DURING THE 70’S AND DOWN THE ROAD IN PHOENICIA WAS THE PATHWORK CENTER DEVOTED TO THE WORK OF EVA PIERRAKOS WHO TAUGHT A FORM OF MYSTIC PSYCHOLOGY IN THE 70’S AND 80’S. DOWN THE ROAD IN STONE RIDGE AROUND THE TURN OF THE CENTURY WAS THE ABODE OF SRI VIVEKENANDA, AN INDIAN YOGI WHO WAS A STUDENT OF THE BENGALI SAGE RAMAKRISHNA. VIVEKENANDA WAS THE FIRST HINDU TO BRING THE TEACHINGS OF INDIA TO THE WEST.

MY POINT IS THIS:
THE AREA HAS BEEN A MAGNET FOR SPIRITUAL SEEKERS AND CREATIVE PEOPLE FOR OVER A CENTURY. ONE HAS TO WONDER IF THERE IS SOME KIND OF PRE-EXISTING VORTEX OF ENERGY THAT HAS DRAWN THEM ALL HERE. OR IS IT THE A SYNERGISTIC DOMINO EFFECT? EACH GROUP THAT SETTLES HERE MAKES THE AREA MORE ATTRACTIVE FOR THE NEXT. DO THE VIBRATIONS CREATED BY SPIRITUAL AND CREATIVE ACTIVITY CREATE A BEACON FOR SIMILAR INTENTIONS? WHATEVER THE CAUSE, WOODSTOCK IS A POTENT GUMBO OF CREATIVE AND SPIRITUAL JUICES AND IT’S BEEN STEWING FOR OVER A HUNDRED YEARS.

THAT’S IT FOR ME TONIGHT
I’M OUT.
THANKS FOR LISTENING
I AM THE ROCK ’N’ ROLL THERAPIST.

PAUL McMAHON

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