“We must be in heaven, man.”
Woodstocker, 1969
Gadfly is older than the Hippies.
Gadfly completely missed the Sixties we talk of as “the Sixties” while in college and graduate school.
The only marijuana Gadfly has had in the house (that we know of, anyway — boys, ‘fess up!) has been in the last three weeks, and that of the medical variety. True.
So it’s no surprise that Gadfly never got to Woodstock, that “three days of peace and music” creating a sense of community much different than that which Gadfly tries to foster in these pages.
On the Ohio Turnpike 50 years ago this week, Ken Kesey’s old schoolbusload of Merry Pranksters tooling to Woodstock passed the Gadfly old Volkswagenbusload of squashed children and Salvation Army belongings on the way to Bethlehem.
The middle-seat of that bus of revered memory served as our living room sofa for a year.
Gadfly was no merry prankster in 1969.
But sometimes life grants you something close to a second chance.
Gadfly moonlighted this afternoon at the SteelStacks showing of the Woodstock movie — all 3hrs. and 45mins. of it.
It was like being in heaven, man.
And the Anthem, however performed, and whether acknowledged with palmed heart or on bended knee, never fails to inspire.
Ed, I posted Jimi Hendrix’s rendition on my FB page last week. I’ve photographed and heard some of the greatest guitarists ever in rock, and in my opinion this is the greatest single song ever played on the electric guitar. Hendrix coaxes sounds out of his guitar that had never been heard before and only B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck even come close. Dana
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