Product: Woodstock Diary 1969: Friday Saturday Sunday (2009)
Rating: 4.0
Some Inaccuracies, But A Nice Addition For A Woostock Fan
First off, let me state that this was originally released in 1994 for the 25th Anniversary along with the 4-CD box set. Like that box set, you got a lot of good previously unreleased performances but a lot of things were misrepresented as well. For starters, Country Joe McDonald, John Sebastian, and Incredible String Band played on Saturday, not Friday (for years Country Joe insisted that he followed second after Ritchie Havens....see what all that LSD can do to ya). The liner notes proclaim that every act that played at the festival is represented on this collection....not true. For Friday, it is missing Sweetwater (who followed Ritchie Havens) and Melanie. Saturday is missing Keef Hartley Band (nobody seems to be sure if they were even filmed), The Grateful Dead, and CCR while Sunday is missing Blood, Sweat, and Tears. Furthermore, Sly and The Family Stone took the stage AFTER Janis, not before. Jefferson Airplane performed early Sunday morning, not on Saturday! Paul Butterfield, Sha Na Na, and Jimi Hendrix all played Monday morning because of delays. Why is this so hard to get right? Even back in 1994, why was it hard to get the correct information before releasing these things?! And it annoys me when footage in spliced into other footage that doesn't belong, such as the blond chick with the glasses we see rocking out to Santana, but instead here, she's supposedly reacting to Bert Sommer singing "Jennifer." However it is obvious that the break-of-dawn footage we always see during the "Going Up The Country" segment of the original Woostock movie was actually filmed during The Who's performance of "My Generation" during those wee hours of Sunday morning. You get to see a portion of Canned Heat doing "Woodstock Boogie," erroneously titled "Leaving This Town" on the DVD case! And you get Joan Baez's beautiful "Sweet Sir Galahad" cut right off in the middle to roll the credits instead! It appears there was little attempt, if any, to remaster this presentation from 1994 and make it a better viewing experience for DVD in 2009. Alongside the performances, the story of the festival is told by those who were involved, Michael Lang, etc. That's entertaining, if a little sad that so much "suit action" had to get involved after the festival was over. So much for peace, love, and brotherhood come that September! So if you love this festival, this is a nice addition to your collection. Just don't expect the remastering job that was done to the recent DVD release of "Woodstock."