Woodstock has often been called the coming of age of a generation, but that was a convenient spin. Woodstock was the opportunity that a half-million people took to show the world that they were of age, and quite capable of demonstrating that living in peace, love, and kindness was a model the world should follow, that theirs were the footsteps that could change everything, for the better. Singing in the Rain: The Definitive Story of Woodstock at Fifty is an inside look at the creative energy and performances that formed the legacy of Woodstock.
Citing hundreds of sources, Singing in the Rain provides a delightfully-meticulous rendering of one of the most important events in living history. It can take decades for all the details of a transformational event such as Woodstock to come to the forefront, and it takes a patient, rock-loving investigator to frame it with the same sardonic humor that characterized much of the events of that weekend in August, 1969.
Any student of rock history, anyone interested in popular music, any Woodstock attendee, anyone who has seen the movie will have wondered “what else took place?” from August 15-18, 1969. Readers will be astounded by the chronology of events that shaped the festival. The trials and tribulations the producers and staff faced, the songs that were played during that wonderful weekend, the comments made by lucky fans who attended the festival have been mapped out and presented in this fascinating, critical and historical analysis. This book clarifies what happened before, during, and after a festival that has withstood the test of time, and remains one of the iconic events in our history. The author brings the event back for us in ways we did not consider, demonstrating why Woodstock was the shooting star that remains forever etched in our memories.
Plecki counters the erroneous concepts fostered by mass media, by other Woodstock authors, by statements of musicians who performed and did not perform at Woodstock, by politicians bent on preserving what they viewed to be a “healthier” status quo, and by some of the festival’s producers themselves. This book connects the dots, dispelling fake news from fact, combining first-hand accounts of the festival’s chronology with stories that will delight readers, easing them back into a time before rain delays would have been so micro-managed that they would have been sponsored by the weather channel. It is within this fascinating milieu that the reader will come to understand and appreciate all the music, magic, and hijinks that formed the nonpolitical, political tableau that was Woodstock. Singing in the Rain gives us a very specific, humorous, and heart-warming look at a never-to-be-forgotten era, when, for a brief moment, horizons were unlimited and possibilities were endless—a time when all people, hippies or straight, draft resisters and war veterans, lived for four days in peace and harmony, while being entertained by the best music the rock world has ever witnessed. This is the Woodstock that comes to life when reading Singing in the Rain.
