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April 6, 2009
Closing Bell: Woodstock 40th Anniversary at Prospect Park?
Yes, this could really happen. NY Daily News reports that Michael Lang, who helped put on the famous 1969 festival, is hoping to put on a Woodstock 40th anniversary concert in Prospect Park's Long Meadow this summer. However, he needs to find $8 million to $10 million to pay for it by the end of the month. The event would be billed as a throwback to the original with bands like Crosby, Stills and Nash and Dave Matthews Band (different from the '99 fiasco). Do you think this is a good idea? Would you go?
Photo by FlySi.
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Comments
Who is TCulver?? Anyway, welcome.
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at April 6, 2009 4:05 PM
I'll be there, manning the Lipitor booth.
Posted by: benson at April 6, 2009 4:06 PM
"Who is TCulver?? Anyway, welcome."
Who is TCulver?????????????????? Dave you F********** Idiot T Culver has been putting up post for over a year now!!!
OMFG I hope this doesn't happen...
The What
Someday this war is gonna end...
Posted by: Return of The What at April 6, 2009 4:08 PM
Sorry, I guess I had not noticed all your previous posts.
Having grown up in that era its just sad that many of those musicians from Woodstock are no longer with us.
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at April 6, 2009 4:08 PM
I haven't been to a concert in many years but I've seen some video clips of some revival concerts given by groups from the sixties and the crowd is mainly in their 50s and 60s and just sit there in chairs.
I guess this is the dusking of the Age of Aquarius.
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at April 6, 2009 4:11 PM
quote:
Having grown up in that era its just sad that many of those musicians from Woodstock are no longer with us.
um wouldnt janis joplin and others like her be like 100+ years old?!?
sounds like it could be fun. id go. should be free tho.
*rob*
Posted by: PitbullNYC at April 6, 2009 4:12 PM
According to her history, What, she's been posting since January.
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at April 6, 2009 4:12 PM
Janis was born in 1943, so 12 years older than me....67. If Tina can still do it, Janis could too if she were here!!!!
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at April 6, 2009 4:14 PM
Opps...that'd make her 66. I'm only 53. Dementia has set in.
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at April 6, 2009 4:16 PM
Back on topic, $8-10MM is a lot to raise in a month. Sounds implausible; although some of those original musicians could write a check for that. Secondly, how's he going to round eveybody up so quickly to play in the summer. Thirdly, does that $8-10 MM cover resodding the meadow???
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at April 6, 2009 4:18 PM
Seeing as how I make my living photographing concerts I say bring it on! Doesn't sound too likely in this climate though.
Posted by: wasder at April 6, 2009 4:22 PM
I would def. go. Love the music from that era, but I'd probably be the youngest on there :-)
Janis Joplin rules!!!
Posted by: bayridgegirl at April 6, 2009 4:23 PM
devil in the details...
expecting 150,000
need to raise $10,000,000
thats $66 per head to have the concert.
boondoggle alert.
Posted by: bkn4life at April 6, 2009 4:24 PM
should be:
...the youngest 'one' there.
Posted by: bayridgegirl at April 6, 2009 4:24 PM
Doing lines of denture adhesive powder (on a fully unfurled Depends®) makes for a very unsettling image. . .
Posted by: Gallstoner at April 6, 2009 4:25 PM
jester...he wasn't even born then.
And the reason the 30th anniversary party which actually was at Woodstock was such a flop was because it was full of crap like Metallica and got that kind of heavy metal crowd and there was a fair amount of violence.
I think you're just too young to remember classic CSNY. "Southern Man??"
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at April 6, 2009 4:27 PM
150,000 people is a lot tho. it would totally make the park more run down and raggedy than already is.
*rob*
Posted by: PitbullNYC at April 6, 2009 4:32 PM
"And the reason the 30th anniversary party which actually was at Woodstock was such a flop was because it was full of crap like Metallica and got that kind of heavy metal crowd and there was a fair amount of violence."
It was on a retired air force base in Rome NY. I stood on the stage for the whole thing and almost lost my life (only minor exaggeration) dodging all manner of thrown projectiles. Worst experience I ever had shooting concerts. Madness all around--badly run, terrible location, hideous line up, angry attendees. What a nightmare...
Posted by: wasder at April 6, 2009 4:32 PM
DIBS - who's the "he" refer to?
I love Neil Young, CSN not so much. "Expecting to Fly" - one of the saddest songs I know. I also love the guitar parts in "Down by the River". "Southern Man" I think was offered to Lyrnyrd Skynryd first.
Posted by: infinitejester at April 6, 2009 4:33 PM
Wasn't that terrible 1999 festival where there were torched cars and rioting because it was so poorly run that there was no water for the concert goers?
Ugh. All I remember from reading about 1999 was violence and some girls getting raped.
Michael Lang needs to let go of the past.
Posted by: ennuiater at April 6, 2009 4:33 PM
If Vox Pop can get $64,000 in a few weeks to save a coffee shop, I don't see why all of Brooklyn couldn't raise $8-10 million for this. I'd rather have the Long Meadow be preserved, thank you...
Posted by: sixyearsandcounting at April 6, 2009 4:36 PM
Southern Man was definitely NOT offered to Lynyrd Skynyrd, though they did write Sweet Home Alabama partly as a rebuttal.
Posted by: wasder at April 6, 2009 4:36 PM
The Iron & Wine guy. Beam is his name??? Born in 1974.
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at April 6, 2009 4:36 PM
They'll never do it. The lawns will ruined.
Posted by: mopar at April 6, 2009 4:37 PM
...wouldn't pay 50 cents to see david crosby if he was in cobble hill park
Posted by: bklyn14 at April 6, 2009 4:38 PM
25 year reunion in 1994 was held near woodstock ny, right off the thruway exit at saugerties. This I know because it was the only job I ever got fired from........
Posted by: jp2 at April 6, 2009 4:40 PM
wasder, you're right - why did I think that?? Oh well.
Posted by: infinitejester at April 6, 2009 4:41 PM
Well, those songs are very linked infinite...
There is that line in SHA "I hope Neil Young will remember, southern man don't need him around anyhow."
Posted by: wasder at April 6, 2009 4:44 PM
DIBS - he's the best lyricist!
Posted by: infinitejester at April 6, 2009 4:44 PM
ennuiater is about right. the rioting was because they were price gouging for bottled water, food, etc
Posted by: bowl of dicks at April 6, 2009 4:44 PM
This would definitely be a fantastic weekend for me to be in some other city.
Posted by: cwbuecheler at April 6, 2009 4:45 PM
Unless they have a "Kick a hippy in the Kidneys" booth, I think I will pass.
Posted by: Xander Crews at April 6, 2009 4:47 PM
Lame bands. Bad idea. Bring on Public Enemy.
Posted by: buttermilk channel at April 6, 2009 4:47 PM
wasder, there's also the highhat "tsssssspp!" at the end of every line in "SHA" - I love that.
Posted by: infinitejester at April 6, 2009 4:50 PM
This nostalgia is kinda silly. You can never reproduce what was, even if they all the original musicians were still alive.
Do a concert, make it full of young bands and young people, not a bunch of sixty year olds (and I'm 54).
Posted by: denton at April 6, 2009 4:51 PM
But he didn't write any songs in the 60s or 70s and that's what this is about.
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at April 6, 2009 4:51 PM
Get Ratdog to headline:
"Jack Straw from Wichita!
Cut his buddy down!"
OK, gotta go, hunger pangs making me silly.
Posted by: infinitejester at April 6, 2009 4:51 PM
There should be a booth for dunking hipsters.
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at April 6, 2009 4:52 PM
I think NYPD could handle a real concert. I'm not sure that I'm ready for Prospect Park to become overrun w/ hippies drawn by jam bands.
On the "plus" side, sha-na-na is still around and ready to go.
Posted by: slick at April 6, 2009 4:54 PM
"But he didn't write any songs in the 60s or 70s and that's what this is about."
Oh I totally disagree man...although maybe the Stones could play. Who is cooler than Mick Jagger? NOBODY!
Posted by: infinitejester at April 6, 2009 4:56 PM
I do a fantastic "Somebody To Love" from JA at Karaoke.
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at April 6, 2009 4:59 PM
Then lets just have a concert and see if the Stones will play. I will agree that nobody is cooler than Mick, except sometimes Keith.
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at April 6, 2009 5:01 PM
I'm laying 2:1 it can't happen on that scale. Put up your jelly beans.
Posted by: Iknow at April 6, 2009 5:13 PM
It won't happen, i agree.
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at April 6, 2009 5:18 PM
Only bands from Brooklyn. Brook-stock.
That and the hipster dunking someone mentioned above.
Posted by: Johnny at April 6, 2009 5:21 PM
Hi DIBS. I have been here at Brownstoner since last September. Thanks for your welcome!
-Theresa
Posted by: TCulver at April 6, 2009 5:30 PM
That weekend sounds like a great opportunity to get out of the city.
Posted by: dalton at April 6, 2009 5:32 PM
It is the height of Boomer pomposity to fancy that the original muck-up would be worth resuscitating, rather than moving on and doing a concert featuring the best of what defines the Brooklyn music scene now. Any geriatric survivors of the first "Woodstock" are ready for Marty's Coney Island golden-age concerts, not a mega-moment in Prospect Park! For more of my vicious bile ladled onto My Generation, see ayearinthepark.typepad.com.
Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at April 6, 2009 5:40 PM
dirty stinky hippies
Posted by: pfa at April 6, 2009 5:42 PM
Hippies? We don't need no stinking hippies.
Posted by: buttermilk channel at April 6, 2009 6:34 PM
TERRIBLE IDEA! SAY NO TO WOODSTOCK IN PROSPECT PARK!!
Sorry to be a wet blanket but the original rock acts are long gone and the Woodstock reunions have been disasters.
The Brooklyn Summer stage concerts are wonderful and that's enough for me (and our beloved park).
Posted by: lifeofreilly at April 6, 2009 7:16 PM
I'd only go if they brought back Wavy Gravy and the Village People.
How many remember the Village People played the original Woodstock. It's in the film, a total WTF moment??!!
Posted by: Brooklynnative at April 6, 2009 9:25 PM
A cultural milestone like Woodstock is diminished when people contrive to recreate it, and considering the state we are in as a planet, now is not the time for empty gestures and wasting resources.
Think of all the things that could be done to support music, throughout the country, with $8-10 million, things that wouldn't involve destroying an already fragile Long Meadow in a city that has precious little green space as it is.
Posted by: nosyparker67 at April 7, 2009 9:57 AM
DIBS: "I think you're just too young to remember classic CSNY. "Southern Man??""
Southern Man was Neil Young... no CSN in sight
Posted by: GHB at April 7, 2009 10:36 AM
Are Country Joe & the Fish still alive?
"What are Fighting For" is still relevant today
Posted by: cggirl at April 7, 2009 1:28 PM
Using the "Woodstock" name is just a sad attempt to make $... I was living in the Hudson Valley when they had the first W-stock "reunion," and it was a disgusting mess. The field was a swamp of mud, abandoned camping supplies, muddy clothes, and bottles of urine. Took them ages to clean up the field. I think it's fine to think about expanding programming and concerts in the park, but grasping at an event like this seems kind of pathetic. And I agree that the Prospect Park Alliance would probably think carefully about the damage to the grass and etc., although some people don't care about that kind of thing. They had Dylan last summer. Why not stage a series of smaller concerts? Easier and less expensive to manage. Michael Lang just needs to go away. Hasn't he made enough money?
Posted by: meerkatz at April 7, 2009 2:23 PM
And p.s. no, I don't think I would go. I would probably leave town, like someone else suggested. :)
Posted by: meerkatz at April 7, 2009 2:24 PM
Guess what....this is kind of idiotic to have the anniversary concert in Brooklyn. There is a state of the art facility on the exact location of the Woodstock event of 1969. THIS IS WHERE IT SHOULD BE!!
http://www.bethelwoodscenter.org/
Posted by: tomgee at April 7, 2009 3:08 PM
I'm amazed at how many negative comments are posted here. I must be missing something.
Also, to whoever thought that nobody from the original Woodstock is still alive, you're mistaken. We still have a handful of musicians going strong -
Crosby, Stills, Nash
Neil Young
Santana
Richie Havens
Country Joe
John Sebastian
Arlo Guthrie
Joan Baez
Most members of the Dead - (Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzman, Donna Jean Godcheaux)
John Fogerty (who still puts on a great show without Creedence)
Pete Townshend & Roger Daltry
Joe Cocker
Levon Helm (also puts on a great show without "The Band")
Johnny Winter
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
That seems like a pretty solid group of artists to me.
Insert negative feedback below-----
Posted by: mflatow at April 7, 2009 4:32 PM
Ritchie Havens is my Great Uncle. He was the first artist to take the stage. He is still performing (A LOT :-)
Posted by: brooklynisis at April 7, 2009 4:53 PM
Ritchie Havens is da bomb.
Posted by: Park Dope at April 8, 2009 8:12 AM
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