Woodstock 50 - Back To The Garden: The Anniversary Experience Day 1 (Live at Woodstock, Bethel, NY, 8/15/1969)

Album review

Back to Yasgur's Farm (Bethel, NY) on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the gargantuan "Woodstock" that brought together no fewer half a million young people under thirty years, open fields. Apart from some gems coming from both cult figures like Bert Sommer, the appeal of these three days (apocalyptic time regarding the residence conditions) lay in its cumulative impact turning from hippie folk to over amplified psychedelia and rock & roll. This selection comprising 8 discs, entitled 0th Anniversary Experience Day 1, presents nearly the whole progamm of the first day. This overview allows you to get a feel for this historic meeting which became the emblem and last burst of the hippie movement.
The order of the tracks follows the chronology of this Friday August 15, 1969, opening with Richie Havens and his famous improvised and so inspired song Freedom and closing with Joan Baez. Even in this truncated form, the festival appears in all its stage patter and rhythm sometimes slowed by the rantings of John Morris.
The producer Andy Zax says he, sound producer Brian Kehew and mastering engineer Dave Schultz avoided interfering with the tapes as much as possible in order to preserve their authenticity. " We've gotta find a way to fix this. It's this: you can't fix them... That's less grim than it seems, because once you've accepted the idea that there is no way to make these recordings sound slick, you realize that these tapes are the sonic equivalent of heirloom tomatoes – slightly imperfect, but delicious." © Qobuz