WEBVTT - Woodstock Pt. 2: A Disaster Movie (Rewind) 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:17.000 Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. The story about Woodstock, 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:21.120 the real story, the death, the destruction, the downright disaster 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:24.319 movie that the three days supposed festival of peace, love 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:28.320 and communalism really was is so complex that we needed 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:31.520 two episodes to properly tell it. If you're just getting 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:33.879 hip to this now, I suggest you hip pause and 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:36.720 go back to the last episode of Disgraceland, Part one 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:39.760 of the Woodstock Story, where we discuss the violent rock 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:44.000 and roll festival foundations of Woodstock, the hypocritical hippie extortion 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:46.479 that allowed the show to go on, the cunning and 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:49.960 confidence of producer Michael Lang, the surge of hundreds of 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:53.159 thousands of fans, the near immediate declaration of disaster by 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:55.760 the State of New York, and the ominous signs of 0:00:55.840 --> 0:01:00.320 death and destruction on the horizon. In this episode, into 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:03.920 the deaths of two concertgoers, bad acid, near chaos, and 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:08.320 near death on an unimaginable scale. Woodstock's legacy and great 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:11.399 music the Who, Joe Cocker and Jimmy Hendricks name a few, 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:15.120 again great music, Unlike that music. I played few at 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:18.399 the top of the show that wasn't great music that 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:21.840 was a preset loop from my melotron called swatch out 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:26.080 MK one. I played you that loop because I can't 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:29.200 afford the rights in the year twenty five twenty five 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:32.399 by Zager and Evans. And why would I play you 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:36.120 that specific slice of futuro cheese? Could I afford it? 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:40.440 Because that was the number one song in America on 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:44.200 the morning of August eighteenth, nineteen sixty nine, And that 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:47.200 was the day Jimmy Hendrix took the stage at Woodstock, 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:51.000 turning in an electrifying performance that would seal Woodstock as 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:55.760 the culture defining moment that it was. On this episode 0:01:56.040 --> 0:02:00.680 brown Acid, bad vibes, death, destruction, in the master movie 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:20.840 that was Woodstock. I'm Jake Brennan in this his Disgraceland 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:34.480 August fifteenth, nineteen sixty nine, Woodstock Aquarian Exposition, Bethel, New 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:38.560 York Yasger's firm peace and Love were not going to 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:44.120 save them. Smith and Wesson were Max Yasker, owner of 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:47.800 the thriving and pastoral dairy farm, Michael Lang and Woodstock 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:51.480 Ventures were hosting their three day music festival. On was 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:55.080 hiding in his farm stands office. He his son and 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:57.400 one of the workers on his dairy farm were fully 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:00.960 armed shotguns with enough shells to keep a small army 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:04.560 held at bay until hopefully this god forsaken festival mess 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:06.960 he'd gotten him and his family in two blew over. 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:10.280 They were coming to take his land, take his home, 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:13.680 using the chaos of the festival as covered a pillage, 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:16.240 and God help him rape the land and the life 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:19.240 he'd spent thirty three years building since taking over the 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:22.600 farm from his father. They were modern day vikings, set 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:25.920 to maraud and kill his family, steal the valuables in 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:28.720 cash he had on site, and make off into the night. 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:32.800 Like the low down bandits they were. Max Yasgar wasn't 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:35.800 going down without a fight. As soon as the call 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:38.840 came that a carpetbagging set of MC outlaws were making 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:41.160 their way with their bikes through the backed up festival 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:44.960 traffic to Max's home to conduct a violent raid. Max 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:47.880 went to work. He barricaded himself in with all the 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:50.360 firepower he could find in his office, with his son 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:53.200 and a local employee to beat back the violent bikers. 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:58.120 It made for a sleepless, if on eventful night, and 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:01.360 the Motorcycle Club raiders never rid It must have been 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:03.760 a prank call, a false warning, one of the many 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:06.480 forms of local harassment Max and his family had to 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:10.240 endure since agreeing to host the festival, and back at 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:15.960 the festival site, things weren't any less tense. Bad LSD 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:20.880 was making the rounds. Kids were suffering drug induced psychotic episodes. 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:24.880 So far was under control, but if word didn't spread 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:28.880 fast and not take the brown acid, then mass psychosis 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:32.159 for hundreds of thousands of teenagers and ensuing riots lay 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:36.520 on the horizon. Improbably Hugh Romney and his hippie hog 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:40.120 Farmers were enlisted to help solve this very dangerous problem. 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:43.080 A mud stained hippie kid stumbled into the hog farm 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:46.279 of special medical tent, the tent known as Big Pink 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.600 On Cots all around were fellow acid had psychonauts, bad 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:54.440 trippers way in outer space, some limp and catatonic, some 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:58.400 crazed and mumbling in tongues. Hog Farmers treated them as 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:00.839 only they knew how as they were expected to do, 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:03.680 as was their job, part of the reason Michael Lang 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:06.560 had hired them, and they applied cold water to the 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:09.880 heads the kids on bad acid, for others, for the 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:11.839 ones freaking the fuck out, for the ones caught in 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:14.800 some terrible time loop or a psychic pattern they couldn't break. 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:18.359 For the ones screaming and thrashing around, the hog farmers 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:22.400 provided extra attention. They held them gently and talcked them down. 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:25.320 And the mud stained kid was in a bad way. 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:30.400 He kept mumbling Miami Beach, nineteen ninety four. Joyce, Miami Beach, 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:34.599 nineteen ninety four. Choyce, Miami Beach, nineteen ninety four. Joyce. 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:38.200 He was caught in one of those bad loops, trapped 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:41.960 inside of himself, a carnival horror show of fears and regret, 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:45.880 visions of the future and not good ones. Hugh Romney, 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:48.240 head hog farmer, could see it in the kid's eyes 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:52.279 Miami Beach, nineteen ninety four. Choice. Rodney grabbed the boy 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:55.840 gently with both hands by his cheeks. Tune into your 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:59.760 third eye, man, Rodney advised him. And Romney asked his 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:02.880 where he came from, and brought the muddy tripper down 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:05.279 to earth, led him do a cot, told him to 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:08.599 sit awhile, and then when he was well, Romney pointed 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:12.400 to the next lost soul wandering through the door. See him. 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:15.560 He pointed at the new patient who just wandered in himself, 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:18.960 blitzed on acid in a bad way. Romney then looked 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:21.760 at the mud stained boy he'd successfully talked down from 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:25.280 the bad trip and applied the finishing touch he gave 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:28.760 the bad tripper purpose, gave him a distraction, gave him 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:31.440 a reason to believe in himself, and to take control 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:35.120 of a situation. Romney told the boy he was now okay. 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:37.800 He nodded again to the new patient who just wandered 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:40.760 into the medical tent, and told the mud stained boy quote, 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:45.200 now you're the doctor, take over. That was how things 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:47.960 worked in the Big Pink. The medical Tent was a 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:51.440 peace and love psychedelics mass unit, but it wasn't all bad. 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:55.520 To assist bass player Rick Danko of the band, a 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:58.479 dude who knew all about another Big Pink came through 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:01.719 and posted up with an acoustic tar. He strummed and 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:04.120 sang softly to help chill out the kids who were 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:07.120 having a tough time on their trips. It was a 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:10.360 moment of genuine goodwill, like many others from that weekend, 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:13.920 that were necessary to help offset the destruction taking place. 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:19.480 Words spread of the various disasters, most were untrue, Abby 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:22.720 Hoffman spiked the water supply with brown acid. Richard Nixon 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:25.360 called him the National Guard. The Hell's Angels have taken 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:29.679 Yasker's wife hostage, but some were true, like the story 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:32.080 about the young concertgoer who went to bed on that 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:34.720 first night of the festival in his sleeping bag and 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:37.400 awoke to the sound of a tractor inches from his 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:41.360 body that then proceeded to roll right over him, crushing him, 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:44.240 and they airlifted him by helicopter to the local hospital. 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:47.160 He died of his wounds before the chopper even landed. 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:50.720 He was seventeen years old. His name was Ray Mizick. 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:53.640 He was from Trenton, New Jersey. And then there was 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:57.600 the constant buzz about overdoses, not just bad trips from 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:01.320 acid from LSD, but also from heroin, opium, cocaine, mandricks 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:04.520 all manner of late sixties narcotics that contributed to more 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:08.880 than three thousand drug related incidents and overdoses, three most 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:12.160 seriously resulted in near death and whisked off by helicopter 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:16.840 to area hospitals where they were revived. So steady was 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:19.320 the air traffic from the concert to the area hospitals 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:22.680 and clinics that SOS messages concerning the drug wounded or 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:26.560 eventually coordinated through the United States Aerospace Command Headquarters in 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:30.920 Colorado Springs via the Pentagon, which eventually authorized US Army 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:34.280 Air Force Task Force pilots to run rescue missions in 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:38.079 and out of Woodstock with Huey helicopters, the same exact 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:41.560 kind of helicopters used to airlift the wounded out of Vietnam. 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:45.319 The drugged out and otherwise wounded Woodstock concert goers were 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:48.040 flown to an emergency medical facility set up by the 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:51.280 US government in nearby Monochello, New York, for treatment and 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:54.880 then dispatched to local facilities for further care if necessary. 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:58.720 But one Woodstock attendee was not so lucky, an eighteen 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:02.079 year old marinem on leave taking in the peace and 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:05.000 Love and a jack of illicit heroine that killed him. 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:10.160 His name was Richard Beller. He was from Holbrook, Long Island. Death, Drugs, 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:17.240 Destruction and great music Sly and the family. Stone went 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:20.640 on Wayley at three point thirty am and turned in 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:23.079 what to that point it was the best performance of 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:26.800 the concert thus far, laying waste nearly all the performers 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:30.400 who preceded them. Sly Stone was a soul assassin and 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:33.040 the land of stoned hippies. He and his band worked 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:35.600 the crowd into a delirious state with their high energy, 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:38.600 dirty funk. Everyday people danced to the music I Want 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:42.800 to Take You Higher, all infectious bangers, seemingly composed to move, 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:45.600 shaken and thraw half a million people in one sitting 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:49.120 as they just had. Steam was coming off of Slyzafro. 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:52.600 The Mammoth crowd demanded two encores, and when the band 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:55.719 left the stage at four twenty am, sly Stone had 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:58.400 one message for Pete Townsend about to go on next 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:01.640 with the Who, and the message was this follow that 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:07.200 motherfucker Pete Townsend was too annoyed to care. It was 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:10.640 late and this festival was a fucking disaster and they 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:12.840 sure as hell weren't getting paid enough for this bullshit. 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:15.920 It must be real. What this was was bullshit. This 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:18.440 wasn't a movement, This wasn't about peace and love. This 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:21.200 wasn't about a new way. This was about music for money, 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:24.200 and poorly planned at that. This was a new mob 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:26.720 trying to usurp the old mob. Meet the new boss, 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:29.080 same as the old boss. This was tie die in 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:31.400 place of starch suits. This was a new pig and 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:35.079 a new silk tie Paisley instead of pinstripes. Either way, 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:36.840 it was a lie. Might as well just call it 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:41.679 what it was, capitalism, but worse capitalism without efficiency going 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:46.040 on at five am? What the fuck was that about? 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:50.280 The Who's storm through their set with maximum power, maximum 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:53.440 rock and roll, maximum rhythm, maximum blues, maximum R and B. 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:57.520 Everything was maxed, whose volume, whose energy, to whose attitude? 0:10:57.520 --> 0:10:59.760 And the thinly veiled contempt Pete Townsend had for this 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:03.120 whole fu gazy affair. The English guitarist was a tightly 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:06.480 wound ball of fairly containable violence, doing his best to 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:08.400 blow up the stage right there in front of half 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:11.959 a million confused and frightened hippies. This was not passive, 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:14.319 This was not placid. This was nothing like the previous 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:17.439 Woodstock performers. This wasn't Arlo Guthrie or Joe Bias or 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:20.640 Country Joe in the fucking Fish Country Joe. Pete Townsend 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:24.760 heard he named his son Joseph after Joseph Stalin Americans. 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:30.360 The fuck was wrong with these people, But Pete wanted 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:32.080 to get the gig over with and get the hell 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:35.800 out of there, Pete stewed while he Tunedes Gibson SG. 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:39.160 Let's get this bullshit over with, he thought. In the 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:42.360 wings at the side of the stage, cly Stone wired 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:44.839 out of his mind from either the set he'd just performed, 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:47.560 or from the white lightning acid being passed around the 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:51.000 ho Chi Minh trail, or both. Sly was there with 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:53.760 Gray Slick from Jefferson Airplane, who is set to take 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:58.280 the stage even later than the Who, And of course 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.520 there was that dude who wouldn't shut the fuck up, 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:05.559 the big guy with the big hair and the bigger mouth, 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:11.319 talking white panther jive, non stop Sinclair, this yippy, that steal, 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:17.520 this concert, smoked, this revolution, Brothers, Sisters, Pigs, police, blah 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:22.400 blah blah blah blah, Abbie Hoffman. He reminded Pete of 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:27.000 a less talented, less attractive, less interesting Lenny Bruce. He 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:29.680 thought about how this guy's stick would play back in London. 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:33.240 Not even Princess Margaret would fuck this guy. Why did 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:37.000 the Americans pay him any mind? Whatever, it didn't matter 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:41.560 who was ready, The set was about to start. Finally, 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:44.520 Roger looked at Pete and he nodded. Shot a look 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:47.240 at John, then peered over to Keith behind the kit, 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:52.360 and then Abby Hoffman rushed the stage. He grabbed Pete's mike. 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:56.800 Four thousand of our brothers and sisters are being persecuted 0:12:56.880 --> 0:13:00.160 for no more than we're doing on this hill. It's 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:03.600 only fair that we help out. We are the Woodstock Nation, 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:08.760 We are one. What the fuck was this? Someone cut 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:12.800 the mic thankfully. Hoffman, pissed, kicked the mic stand over. 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:15.839 That did it? Fuck this guy? Pete grabbed the neck 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:18.520 of his guitar, swung it back like a tennis racket, 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:22.640 and swatted it flat into Hoffman's hairy grill. Hoffman, dazed, 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:24.880 stumbled for a step or two toward the front of 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:28.160 the stage before falling over into the crowd. He was 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:30.600 absorbed by the audience, who, a day and a half 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:33.400 into the festival, were too sleep deprived and blitzed on 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:36.319 acid to comprehend the violence that had just taken place 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:40.760 at this fugazy festival of peace. Pete wasted no time. 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:44.000 He looked again to Keith behind the kit, who quickly 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:49.640 counted the band off and into the racous set. The 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:54.000 Who's set, violent and unnatural as it was, was nothing 0:13:54.000 --> 0:14:00.240 compared to the potential threat brewing for more natural causes. 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:23.760 English singer Joe Cocker in his backup group The Grease Band, 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:26.960 took the stage round two pm on Sunday afternoon to 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:29.960 open the day's festivities with his brand of blue eyed 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:33.160 epileptic soul and enthralled the audience who had never seen 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:37.000 anything like him before. The Grease Band had been touring 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:40.040 the US since spring, but it was as impressive an 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:42.840 American debut as he could have hoped for, and little 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:44.960 did the singer know at the time would go on 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:49.080 to become an iconic performance. But when his performance was done, 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:52.400 Joe Cocker felt it in the air, the coming rain. 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:56.000 The clouds moved in out of nowhere, and the temperature 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:59.040 took a slight, sudden drop, and the audience began to 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:02.520 stir uncomfortable, and Joe Cocker grabbed a bottle of something 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:05.400 hard and split in search of a roof in four walls. 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:08.880 Black clouds draped over the half a million concert goers 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.720 and gobbled up the pink afternoon sky in an instant, 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:15.720 and the crowd gasped on mass. No one had planned 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:20.600 for this for rain if festival producer Michael Lang was nervous. 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:23.800 He didn't show it. He suppressed a slight grin. Perhaps 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:26.120 he was amused that it was learned the unexpected rain 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:28.840 being thrown their way was courtesy of a storm moving 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:32.000 up the coast called Hurricane Michael. But this was no 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:35.560 time to be amused. A smart stage hand screamed at 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:39.440 everybody and nobody in particular, Hit the power. A small 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:42.040 battalion of backstage roadies took to the stage with the 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:46.280 quickness and began covering everything with slipcovers, power cables in particular, 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:50.160 and they all shared the same look on their faces, fear. 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:54.840 Another voice rang out from backstage, Kill the fucking power man, 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:58.840 Kill the power. Nobody was volunteering for the job. And 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:01.880 the wind picked up and bill in Diaskar's natural amphitheater, 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:04.320 lifting as much random trash as it could along the 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:07.000 way and sending an airborne and the strength of the 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:10.960 wind was sudden and intense. The clouds grew even more black. 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:16.480 The vibe was beyond ominous straight fear. Hanging above festival organizers' 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:20.640 heads the massive one hundred foot sound towers, huge metal 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:23.800 and plywood constructions holding the speakers that were used to 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:27.400 blast sound from the stage. They slowly creaked as they 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:32.040 swayed and the wind pressed, the towers lurched, thunder rumbled 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:35.000 in the distance, the clouds got even darker. Kids on 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:37.880 the crowd braced themselves for a torrent from the heavens, 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:41.480 and the towers bent a little more. Most festival organizers 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:43.520 feared the worst and tried to play it cool, and 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:49.400 one did not kill the fucking power. Power was needed 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:52.240 at the moment, because there up in one of the towers. 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:54.840 Some kids sat high above the crowd, taking in the show, 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:58.600 oblivious to the twin hazards of lightning and wind and 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:01.320 breaking with the hippie edicts. Then let live. One smart 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:04.000 woodstock organizer jumped on the mic and got into it 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:06.680 with the crowd. Do you please get away from the towers, 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:10.119 Please clear away before someone gets hurt. And the wind 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:13.440 picked up again, and the towers, all of them, swayed 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:16.120 a little more and more kids were situated on them 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:19.240 than before. How had this happened? The wind picked up again, 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:21.080 and when it did, the towers near the gave way 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:23.840 they bent even further. If they fell all the way, 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:27.560 it would be certain mass destruction. Hey, get off those towers. 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:30.760 Get off those towers, and the kids and the towers 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:35.120 ignored the voice, the idiocy on the mic. The organizer 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:38.080 pressed for calm, let's keep it nice and cool. Just 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:41.160 sit down and be cool. Thunder then interrupted his plea 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:45.520 with a loud crack. He continued, afterward, looks like we're 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:47.280 gonna get a little bit of rain, so you better 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:49.520 cover up. If it does, we should have a slight 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:52.439 power problem. Just cool it out. We'll sit here with you. 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:56.720 You'll be okay. Just then, Thunder exploded in the sky, 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:59.160 as if to mock the comments coming from the stage. 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:03.640 And that's when the organizer felt it. The stage the slip. 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:06.959 The whole stage had shifted under his feet. The massive 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:10.760 stages foundation was slipping, and forget the towers, the stage 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:13.280 was about to go down in front a massive kids 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:17.040 were oblivious to what was about to happen, the stage shifting, sliding, 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:20.160 potentially crashing down on top of them. The stage sholted 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:23.960 forward in a quick burst and then stopped. The sky 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:26.600 cracked open again with a massive thunderclap, and then the 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:34.119 rain poured down. Kids in the crowd immediately started to rejoice, 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:37.400 dancing in the rain, sliding in the mud, feeding off 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:40.120 of the chaotic energy in the most peaceful way possible. 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:44.040 It was borderline miraculous. But how long could it last? 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:47.359 How long before the kids got tired, got cold, and 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:52.320 bolted for the exit. Backstage A volunteers sprinted for her boss, 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:55.200 looking for direction. How are they going to call the crowd? 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:57.159 How are they going to keep them still in the 0:18:57.240 --> 0:18:59.520 rain and not stampeding each other? In an effort to 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:02.600 head some for dry land, she made it past the 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:06.360 backstage wall of dead instrument cases. Her boss was nowhere. 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:09.679 She ran through the small makeshift artists VIP area, no 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:12.760 boss around, toward where the crew served them sells, mushy 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:15.760 food and warm drinks, and still no boss. Back toward 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.720 the festival command center's trailer. There in there he must 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:21.159 be in there. In the trailer. She ran toward it, 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:24.160 in and around darting staff. She reached the trailer, put 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:26.400 her foot in the first metal step, and was blasted 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:28.639 up and back and away from the trailer and onto 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:34.040 her ass from the electric surge. Her boss opened the 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:36.680 door at the moment took in the scene, barely noticing 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:39.600 his felt volunteer. She shouted to him, don't step on 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:42.199 the stairs, you'll get shocked. And he leaped over the 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:44.959 three stairs and down to the ground, and the ground 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:48.840 was softened. Trampled grass, long since reduced to dirt, was 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:52.679 now transforming into mud, and the mud was splashing away 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:56.160 and under it. The festival's main power feed cable was emerging. 0:19:56.640 --> 0:19:59.200 As more and more people trounced over it. The more 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:02.160 the main power came, insulation wore away, and the more 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:04.680 the insulation wore away from the cable, the more it's 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:07.879 electrical surge escaped. And the more water the flooded the 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:10.320 area around the cable, the more likely the chance for 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:14.000 the electricity to travel. At that moment, it became very 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:17.440 clear that five hundred thousand people were connected by more 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:21.000 than peace, love and music. They were now connected by 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:25.440 the heavens, by rain and by water, the perfect conduit 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:32.560 for mass electrocution. We'll be right back after this word 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:40.120 word word. This was it the last straw. No one 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:43.439 planned for the rain, and Michael Lane couldn't really flash 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:46.879 a quickstone smile to stop the rain, nor could he 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:49.720 stop the stage from slipping. And he couldn't stop those 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:53.280 towers from swaying and toppling over and He especially couldn't 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:56.560 stop electricity from escaping the main power feed cable and 0:20:56.640 --> 0:21:00.480 transferring itself through the wet festival grounds, in effect barbecuing 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:03.080 the half a million kids he'd assembled on old Man 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:08.040 Yasker's farm. It was all beyond his control. Planning and 0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:10.800 producing this festival had been his life over the past 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:14.359 several months. His entire identity was now tied to it. 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:16.720 It's a glorious thing if he looked at it through 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:20.000 the right lens. Half a million kids getting along on 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:23.000 their own, a new generation doing it their own way, 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:26.879 the biggest cultural gathering in American history, most likely in 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:30.400 so far. Despite the many close calls in constant stress, 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:34.160 there was little incident. Sure, two kids had already died, 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:37.040 but that would quickly be forgotten. With the right message, 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:39.840 the rain would stop, the kids would settle into their 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:42.520 own groove. Michael knew it, and this ride he'd been 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:45.240 on with Woodstock from a dream to a reality, then 0:21:45.320 --> 0:21:47.600 to having the location ripped out from under him at 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:50.639 the last minute, to finding Yasker's farm, just setting the 0:21:50.680 --> 0:21:54.040 show up in under thirty days, to the extortion from Hoffman, 0:21:54.119 --> 0:21:56.320 from the cops, from the grateful dead refusing to go 0:21:56.400 --> 0:22:00.000 on unless they're paid in advance in cash. To Jimmy Hendrick, 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:02.560 so at this moment was still threatening to not perform 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:06.080 to the massive financial debucle that this entire event had 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:08.960 turned out to be. All of it, all, the problems 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:11.480 would find a way of working themselves out, and the 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:14.120 glory on the other end of this thing was immeasurable. 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:16.720 Michael would be the guy. Michael Lang would be the 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:18.600 one who did something no one else had done, and 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:21.320 that would be worth every ounce of energy he'd put 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:25.280 into this thing. His business partners, John Roberts and Joel 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:28.119 Rossaman did not have the same utopian view of their 0:22:28.160 --> 0:22:31.520 shared venture with Michael Lang. Forget about the hassles and 0:22:31.560 --> 0:22:35.320 the massive financial loss, they were concerned with something much darker. 0:22:35.760 --> 0:22:39.000 If someone didn't get the situation with the electricity sorted out, 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:43.119 they'd be seen as far worse than financially failed festival producers. 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:50.440 Six pm Sunday night security, along with the festival organizers 0:22:50.440 --> 0:22:53.920 who were huddled around the main feeder cable backstage. Their 0:22:53.960 --> 0:22:57.920 worse fears, it seemed, were becoming real. The cable's insulation 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:00.919 had been nearly completely worn away. It was only a 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:04.399 matter of time, some argued, before the electricity surge beyond 0:23:04.400 --> 0:23:06.439 the cable and was carried by the water over the 0:23:06.480 --> 0:23:10.280 festival grounds to blast the crowd. The kids in the 0:23:10.280 --> 0:23:14.680 crowd were jammed together, soaking wet. Mass electrocution was most 0:23:14.720 --> 0:23:17.680 certainly an option if the cable failed and the potential 0:23:17.720 --> 0:23:22.240 destruction and loss of human life was incalculable. The options 0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:25.560 were this cut the power and the festival prematurely, with 0:23:25.560 --> 0:23:28.320 at least eight of the weekend's promised performers yet to play, 0:23:28.560 --> 0:23:31.720 including top drawing acts like Crosbie Stills, Nashing Young and 0:23:31.800 --> 0:23:35.600 Jimmy Hendrix, in risk total mayhem, a full blown riot 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:39.520 by the upset crowd of five hundred thousand, or waited 0:23:39.560 --> 0:23:42.720 out do nothing and hope that the main feeder cable 0:23:42.760 --> 0:23:45.560 would not free any further and remain intact enough to 0:23:45.560 --> 0:23:49.880 contain the electricity. The fear from Michael Lang's partners John 0:23:49.960 --> 0:23:53.760 Roberts and Joel Rossaman was so intense that Roberts actually 0:23:53.800 --> 0:23:57.760 began to whimper and Rosamond dared not speak. The two, 0:23:57.880 --> 0:24:01.160