Episode #90 | 11.2.21
Woodstock, A Disaster Movie (Pt.1)
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In this episode
Woodstock is remembered as the generation-defining moment when the baby boomers demonstrated to the world the power of peace, love and communalism. In reality, what went down at Old Man Yasgur’s farm in August 1969 involved extortion, deaths, countless overdoses, near-mass electrocution, and a state of emergency. Not to mention a restless crowd that doubled in size seemingly every time festival producer Micheal Lang lifted his head to survey the drug-addled chaos. All he wanted was a new kind of festival—a celebration of utopian hippie idealism. Instead, for three long, lawless days, Lang got much more than he bargained for during one of the messiest moments in American music history.
Sources
Barefoot in Babylon: The Creation of the Woodstock Music Festival 1969, by Bob Spitz
Washington Post: Riots, deaths, sexual assault: Maybe Woodstock was always a nightmare
The Ringer: Peace, Love, and Mass Electrocution: The Myth of the Original Woodstock
SPIN: “Don’t Drink the Brown Water”: Our Live Report From Woodstock ‘99
Rolling Stone: Woodstock ‘99: Rage Against the Latrine
Washington Post: Police Investigate Reports of Rapes at Woodstock
Consequence of Sound: Here’s How Much Each Artist Earned from Playing Woodstock
The Real Woodstock Story: How Woodstock Ventures Was Formed
History: 10 Things You May Not Know About Woodstock
Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music, directed by Michael Wadleigh
Rolling Stone: The Making of the ‘Woodstock’ Documentary
Creating Woodstock, directed by Mick Richards
Disgraceland is a podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. It melds music history, true crime and transgressive fiction. Disgraceland is not journalism. Disgraceland is entertainment. Entertainment inspired by true events. However, certain scenes, characters and names are sometimes fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
Music
Score by Jake Brennan.
Mixed and Engineered by Sean Cahalin.
Disgraceland theme song, "Crenshaw Space Boogie" written and produced by Jake Brennan. Performed by Jake Brennan, Bryce Kanzer, Jay Cannava and Evan Kenney. Mixed and engineered by Adam Taylor.
*illustrations by Avi Spivak @avispivak