40 Years since 3 Days

The 40th anniversary of the Woodstock festival is upon us, and I wonder, is it possible to be nostalgic for something you didn't experience?

As with most things music related, I became interested in Woodstock as a young teen. Back then, I saw the world through rose colored glasses (or so says my mother), and the idea of three days of peace, love and music was an idea I could totally get behind. I'd like to think I would have been a hippie, but with better hygiene. I thought spending three days with like-minded people, listening to great rock and roll would be an incredible thing to do. Even to this day, I can't get over the list of acts that performed - I mean, really, the Who and Jimi Hendrix on the same bill? Mind blowing! I read lots of first person accounts from people who were at the festival and saw the movie. Woodstock became the stuff of myths and legend for me, and for lots of other people (including those who said they were there, but actually weren't - you know who you are).

So it saddened me when I read an article in the newspaper recently that stated that today's generation feels that the legacy of Woodstock is overblown and overstated. They don't think it has the cultural significance that others (like me) think it does. Really?

The summer of 1969 saw our country at war. Young men were dying needlessly in a country that really didn't want our help. The Cold War was still in full swing. Three visionary leaders had been assassinated. The Civil Rights movement was demanding attention and change. A man walked on the moon. The sexual revolution and drug counter-culture were gearing up. In all this turmoil, 400,000 people came together to celebrate harmony, togetherness, peace. That's not culturally significant? Really?

In the years that followed, there have been musical festivals promoting change, equality and vision. They were important at the time, and made a difference to the causes they had been formed for. But somehow, possibly excluding Live Aid, I can't see someone bragging, or fake bragging as the case may be, "I was at G8 or insert name here."

Woodstock is more today than it was back then. It's not just a music festival. It marked the end of an era. Three Days of Peace, Love and Music doesn't mean the same now as it did then. It doesn't carry the same weight. It was a moment in time that can never happen again, because the world is not the same. And that's not overblown or overstated.