Woodstock was made at a time before rock concerts were routinely filmed (although earlier documentaries about the Stones, Bob Dylan, and the Newport Jazz Festival pointed the way). The stars were not performing for the camera. Richie Havens casually stops in the middle of a set to tune his guitar. Sha-Na-Na does a cornball double-time version of “At the Hop” and doesn’t care how it looks. Joan Baez puts down her guitar and sings “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” and nobody worries that it will slow down the show. Night follows day, day follows night, Hugh Romney of the Hog Farm announces, “What we
...more