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Folks, for this week, I thought maybe we would do something that I’ve been talking about doing for quite a while – using this platform to post occasional non-Zappa content (although there is a bit of Frank stuff here anyway, and don’t worry, our usual Frank fun will continue next week). Let’s see how you like this – if you are interested in this sort of thing, maybe we will do more stuff like this.
As some of you know, I’ve written books about more than just Frank Zappa. One of the topics that I am known for writing about is the 1969 Woodstock festival. Woodstock has been a passion of mine for decades. Having been born in 1971, I was a bit too late for the festival. I learned about it sometime in the mid-to-late 1970s, when my brother-in-law, Rick, returned home from his time in the military and handed me a bunch of records that he had bought in Korea. Among these albums was the 1970 soundtrack of Michael Wadleigh’s classic documentary, Woodstock. Even though the album cover looked like it had been bleached in the sun (typical Taiwanese pirate pressing), I listened to the music, and I was instantly transported to that field at Max Yasgur’s Farm in Bethel, New York. It felt instantly familiar. It felt like I had been there. I was about five years old at the time. To this day, I cannot explain how it happened, but this music and this event were clearly waiting to find me.
In the decades since, I have researched Woodstock extensively, and these days, I am privileged to be the host of a podcast called KEEP THE DREAM FLOWING, which is dedicated to preserving the history of the festival. We have interviewed loads of people who either performed at, worked on, or attended the festival. In the event that any of you are interested in such a thing, you can find the podcast here:
https://open.spotify.com/show/64gUskecIQzHKNaMAVXR1g?si=PSiz5rtuR8qk0JE0U3TtvQ&utm_source=copy-link
Older episodes can be found here (these were originally posted to a different podcast server that went away under mysterious circumstances):
https://open.spotify.com/show/6EvTIocDbB9gWaoiGKSjIk?si=ngNY81U4TOiFojv8zJY0nA&utm_source=copy-link
Back in the year 2000, I started work, with my collaborator Kenny Sahr, on a project called Woodstock Complete. This was an audio project whose goal was to gather all of the available Woodstock audio, from official and unofficial sources. Kenny had actually started this before I got involved, but together we released the first edition of the project in 2004. It was updated fairly regularly over the years, but there were still big gaps in the available Woodstock audio, up until 2019 when Rhino Records released Woodstock – Back to the Garden: The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive, a massive, limited edition (1,969 copies) 38-CD box set containing almost all (It is missing exactly one and a half songs) of the performances from the festival. Following this release, I updated Woodstock Complete for the last time (actually, I still update it fairly regularly, but just for minor upgrades). This release was never officially distributed, although other folks have created their own versions of it.
Ahead of the 57th anniversary of the festival, which begins on August 15th, I thought I would share a link to the most recent iteration of Woodstock Complete. While there is no Zappa content here, lots of you may find something to enjoy here. And you never know, Woodstock may become the rabbit hole for some of you that it is for me! There is also a video version of this set, which I will be happy to share if there is enough interest in it. But just as an experiment, here is Woodstock Complete, the 2026 version:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1441nNvGzXws-iz4vO1KUhvcr3ItmWcHL?usp=drive_link
Just to throw some Frank content in here, it might be worth addressing why it was that Frank and the Mothers did not play at Woodstock. Frank himself said in interviews that he turned down an offer to perform at the festival. It is unknown as to whether or not the Mothers were approached to play, but it is not impossible, since they played festivals in Denver and Atlanta in the weeks and months preceding Woodstock. If they had played at Woodstock, it would have been one of the last shows that the band played. That August weekend, the Mothers were in Canada, playing their final shows together. It is very possible that if they had been given the opportunity to play at Woodstock, they may have turned it down simply because they were already booked up north.
So, for those of you who are crazy like myself, and enjoy deep, immersions in a project that it would literally take you days to listen to straight through, please enjoy Woodstock Complete. I’ve done lots of things like this, and if you like this, I can share more stuff along these lines. As always, thank you so much for your support, it means the world to me!
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