Michael Murphy's Blog, page 9

Another Goodbye Emily excerpt Friday

While preparing a new blog about Woodstock, I’m also continuing blog hopping Fridays with another excerpt from my return to Woodstock novel, Goodbye Emily. You can read more than a dozen brief excerpts from some great books by clicking on this link:

Early in the novel, sixty-year-old Water (Sparky) Ellington begins to drean about his experiences at Woodstock. When he relives meeting Emily, his doorbell jolts him awake.

***

Emily’s image vanished as the doorbell rang.

No! I bolted upright in bed and pain shot through my body. Lady scrambled to the front door and barked at the intruder.

I gathered my bearings, steadied myself and eased both legs over the side of the bed. I struggled to rise. A lower back spasm yanked me back onto the mattress. The effects from the altercation at The Library added to my normal morning aches and pains. I clamped my eyes shut from the most painful hurt, the loss of Emily’s image when she first told me her name.

I arched my spine and stretched. My joints cracked like dice rattling in a Yahtzee cup.

***

If you’re interested in what others are saying about the novel, take a look at the Goodbye Emily website. The novel is available for Kindle, Nook and most ebook devices and at a book store near you. If you’d like to order Goodbye Emily, click on the Where Can I order Goodbye Emily tab above.

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Media Coverage of Woodstock

Initial media coverage of Woodstock focused on the negative, the traffic and shortages of food and sanitation. New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller called festival organizer John Roberts and told him he was thinking of ordering 10,000 National Guard troops to the festival. Roberts was successful in persuading Rockefeller not to do this. Sullivan County declared a state of emergency.

While the news media were reporting all bad news about the festival, those attending were waited in long lines at the pay phones and called their friends and family. During those phone calls attendees  were told about the news reports and they rebutted those reports with stories of fun, and love and cooperation.  That resulted in people calling their local TV stations to report that the news coverage was wrong, and the media (driven by local media) began to change their tune.

Life Magazine covered the festival with vivid pictures of the event. But most memories were captured, not by the media, but by the 1970 documentary Woodstock.

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Boomer Lit Friday Goodbye Emily Excerpt

I checked the passenger side mirror. The cop who ordered me to stop climbed into his patrol car, but at least a dozen people blocked him from pursuing us for the moment.

We faced a stalled line of cars half a block long. I glanced back at the officer and didn’t hesitate. I drove onto the sidewalk and smashed into a trash can, crunching the metal like a cheap beer can. Vegetables and garbage flew into the air, but I kept going. A drink container landed on our hood and brown soda splattered the windshield.

“Wahoo,” Buck shouted. “That’s what I’m talking about!”

Soda slid across the cracked windshield. I turned on the wipers, pushed the washer fluid button, but only managed to smear the brown liquid over the glass. I could barely see out.

Ahead, Starbucks customers at outdoor tables scattered like chickens in a storm. I spotted a gap in traffic and bounced off the sidewalk into slow-moving traffic.

“Hold on.”

Excerpt from Goodbye Emily.

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Goodbye Emily update

I will continue to post about the greatest cultural event of the twentieth century, Woodstock, but from time to time will post about issues that take me back to the sixties, like my fierce support for Vietnam vets.

And, since I wrote a Woodstock novel about three baby boomers reliving their roadtrip to Woodstock, each Friday, I will be joining a group of Boomer Lit authors who’ve also written baby boomer novels, by posting brief excerpts of Goodbye Emily.

One final roadtrip

I’ve also updated the reviews that are coming in on the Goodbye Emily Reviews tab above. The novel has only been out a few weeks and I’m thrilled that 19 readers have posted reviews on Amazon, all rated Goodbye Emily as 5 stars.

My next Woodstock post will update current tours of Woodstock performers, so stop back soon.

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To All Vietnam Vets

The recent review of my Woodstock novel, Goodbye Emily, by Vietnam Vet David Wilson means a lot to me. Some of my old friends have names on that black marble wall in Washington, so I’ll pause in my discussion of Woodstock to talk about something that means a lot to me.

Vietnam vets deserve our thanks.

People who weren’t around then might find it difficult to appreciate how the country treated soldiers who returned home from the Vietnam War. To say poorly is a gross understatement. In previous wars, returning soldiers were treated to parades and accolades. At the end of World War I, Doughboys returned hom to ticker-tape parades, marching bands, speeches and the good will of all Americans. Soldiers returned home from World War II and Korea were treated as heroes.

Today’s generation of veterans return to the most pro-veteran environment in decades. Many corporations actively recruit and employ veterans, and the post-9/11 G.I. Bill provides benefits for higher education and vocational training to help veterans make a successful transition.

That wasn’t what happened to Vietnam veterans. Many people transferred their dissatisfaction with the Vietnam war to our soldiers, most of which were draftees, like my character Buck Jamison in Goodbye Emily. The country owes these Vietnam vets an apology for the way they were treated. Since I was around back then, so do I, but apologies aren’t enough. We should reach out to ensure they receive services they deserve and clearly earned through their efforts and sacrifices.

From me to all Vietnam vets, a belated thank you for your service to your country.

 

 

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Woodstock Cleanup

When Woodstock ended, festival organizers figured they were$1.3-million in debt. The three-day even lasted almost four. Expenses were more than 300% over budget and most attendees were let in without having paid for a ticket.

Woodstock Cleanup

It took $100,000 and several days to clean up the site. Workers bulldozed tons of trash and debris into a pit and burned it. But even the cleanup embraced the peace, love and spirit of Woodstock.

“When the festival was over, and all this trouble came down-the dead boy-the pillaring in the press, the lost money-the Yasgur’s were steadfast friends. They didn’t call and say, ‘You didn’t clean up this acre, or that acre.’ They called up and said, “Look, anything we could do to help, we’d love to help.’” John Roberts, Woodstock producer.

One person at the festival died when a tractor drove over him. Five thousand attendees required medical care, approximately 800 were drug overdoses, which Wavy Gravy and The Hog Farm took care of.

Much went wrong with the festival. Some of the problems, shortages of food, rain and mud were chronicled earlier in this blog. I asked many who attended the festival whether they’d do it again and none of them said no.

 

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Vietnam Veterans of America review of Goodbye Emily

Honored by David Wilson’s review of Goodbye Emily on Vietnam Veterans of America Books in Brief.

“Goodbye Emily is a powerful trip back in time, and also forward to the possibility of new lives. I recommend it to those who look for some hope near the end of the line.” You can read the Vietnam vet’s entire review. http://vvabooks.wordpress.com.

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Woodstock the movie

Music lovers were lucky when the documentary Woodstock was released a year after the festival. Organizers made plenty of mistakes with the festival, but arranging to film the event wasn’t one of them.

The legendary documentary is considered one of the best documentaries ever. A young film editor named Martin Scorsese, Thelma Spoonaker and director Michael Wadleigh used innovative techniques including wide-screen and split screen techniques and stereo sound to recreate the experience of the festival in all its peace-loving, mud-splattered glory.

The 2 and 3 panel split screen technique was an innovation born of necessity on the part of the film makers. With so much footage shot, and the studio’s unwillingness

to expand the length of the released movies running time, it was decided that a

way must be found to maximize the amount of footage that could be used. Because

of the wide-screen aspect of the release, they realized the multi-panel

format could be used most effectively to not only include as much film footage

as possible, but to also have concert footage AND crowd reaction shots together

on the same screen.

Unlike the festival, the movie was a commercial success. It was also a critical success earning an Academy Award for best documentary and earning Spoonaker, a nomination for film editing.

Various reissues have added footage not included in the original, so if you haven’t seen Woodstock in a while, you might want to give it a second look.

************************

Michael Murphy’s Woodstock novel, Goodbye Emily, is now available on Kindle, Nook, most other e-book formats and at a bookstore near you.

 

 

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Richie Havens birthday!

Happy birthday, Richie Havens!  Woodstock fans and those who’ve been following the blog know what a pivital role he played in day one.  Freedom…freedom…

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Who else missed Woodstock and regretted it?

My favorite snub of Woodstock was by one of the top female singer/songwriters of the sixties, Joni Mitchell, who skipped Woodstock to appear on the Dick Cavett Show. She went on to write the classic song Woodstock, made famous by Crosby, Stills Nash and Young.

Joni Mitchell

CSN&Y almost didn’t make Woodstock. The helicopter that Graham Nash and the group’s bassist, Greg Reeves was 25 feet off the ground when the tail rotor failed. The helicopter began to spin and the hard landing was almost a crash. They were nearly killed when the helicopter missed some high tension power lines and was forced to make a hard landing.

The Who almost refused to perform. The group was facing financial troubles and only agreed to go on when festival organizers paid them in cash.

Jethro Tull was invited to perform at Woodstock. However, lead singer Ian Anderson didn’t want to perform in front of, as he termed them, “a bunch of unwashed hippies”.

Procol Harum was invited to play the festival, but they refused citing two reasons. The first was that they were at the end of a long tour and the other was that Robin Trower’s wife was about to give birth to her first child back in England.

The Byrds were invited but they refused citing their distaste for large festivals following a violent incident at the Atlanta Pop Festival a month earlier.

My favorite sixties group, The Mamas and the Papas were invited, but John Phillips who was a board member of the Monterey Pop Festival, declined because the festival, unlike Monterey, was a profit-making venture, or was supposed to achieve a profit.

The Moody Blues declined an invitation because the group had already been booked to play a show in Paris at around the same time the festival was to take place. Years later the band admitted that they regretted not accepting the invite.

Tommy James and The Shondells were invited the perform, but declined when told the festival would be on a farm. Later on they regretted not playing the festival.

Paul Revere and the Raiders was invited and turned down the invitation.

The duo of Zager and Evans, who had a huge hit in ’69 with the song “In the Year 2525″, were invited to perform but refused.

Hope you’re enjoying the look back at Woodstock. Goodbye Emily, provides another look back at the special three days in August of 1969. Peter Faur who attended Woodstock said this about the novel, “I was somewhat skeptical about what the novel, Goodbye Emily would turn out to be, but now that I’ve read it, I’m  a fan! Michael has really captured the feel of Woodstock – the chaos, the mud, the dope, and the community spirit  (OK, the peace and love) that held everything together for the weekend. As I was reading the book, I could  visualize everything Michael wrote about, and I easily recalled the shortages of food, shelter and Porta Potties. I  remember being caked in mud, much like Michael’s characters. The description of the setting was pitch perfect.”

 

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