Episode Three is Live!
Listen Now to The Woodstock Episodes Part 3
With "Woodstock Nation" Founding Member Carol Green &
the Legendary Richie Havens!
Welcome to "talkin' 'bout Our Generation," the podcast by, for, and about Baby Boomers. We launched on the 50th Anniversary of Woodstock with Part 1 of "The Woodstock Episodes."
We’re delighted to bring you our next installment of “The Woodstock Episodes!" This time we talk with Carol Green, a founding member of "The Woodstock Nation," as well as bringing you a rare interview with the amazing, soulful, Richie Havens.
As we continue with "The Woodstock Episodes," we hope to weave in listener perspectives and memories. We include a couple of those this week. There are instructions on how you can share an audio file with us on the website "Share" page.
Carol Green touches on that topic and many others in her conversation with Julian, and shares her unique insight to that surge of positive energy that swept the nation in the summer of '69. It's a very uplifting perspective, which has profound implications for this challenging time we are living through right now.
We are also thrilled to be able to bring you a rare interview with the late Richie Havens, with an amusing retelling of how he unwittingly came to be the opening act at Woodstock, and how much that event shaped the rest of his life. We're very grateful to Jonathan Thompson of the Freedom Forum, the historical group that produced a program called “Speaking Freely” which had Richie as a guest. We are hoping to work more with Jonathan and the Freedom Forum, a great resource for topics of interest to our generation.
There are many surprises in this conversation.
At the time Woodstock was happening in the Summer of 1969, thousands of our young men were fighting in Vietnam. The stereotype was that Woodstock folks were “Peacenik Hippies” who hated soldiers, when in fact nothing could be further from the truth, as Carol observes in this episode.
People were protesting the Vietnam War because they believed it was unwarranted and unjust, and were fighting to bring the troops home. Many of those young men knew that and took solace in the music of Woodstock.
Few people know that Jimi Hendrix, for example, had served in the Air Force. His stunning rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner, injecting the sounds of war with the song penned by Francis Scott Key (as Photographer/Philosopher Henry Diltz observed in Episode Two), as symbolic of how Woodstock was both a demonstration of solidarity with those serving and an expression of a new sort of patriotism, which refused to accept the government line, demanding an end to the senseless loss of so many young lives.
We'll be talking about Vietnam in upcoming episodes, and we'll be bringing you more engaging and uplifting conversations with the Woodstock creators, continuing the theme of what that event and the "Woodstock Spirit" means today. In the coming weeks and months, we'll be moving on to more topics that we think matter to you, and we welcome your suggestions for future episodes.
We truly believe this is a timely and important conversation. So many of us are struggling with a sense of isolation, uncertainty, and a loss of that communal spirit that used to sustain us. You may be feeling doubts about exactly what our lives added up to, with the world in such turmoil. What is our legacy? Where did it all go wrong, or did it? What can we do to restore the positive energy of our youth?
Our goal with talkin' 'bout Our Generation is to share those feelings and help revitalize that spirit. We DID achieve some pretty positive things, and made real contributions, and we just need reminding. Now more than ever, we need to connect and support one another. That's what this conversation is all about. So please join us and share the link with your friends. Also, please subscribe to our mailing list, to be notified of upcoming episodes.
This is your conversation, too!
We encourage you to take part -- share an audio recording of your requests for episode subjects, comments, and suggestions, including your "Woodstock Moments:" where were you in August 1969? How did Woodstock affect you? We will try and include your comments in the podcast. Check out the Share! page with guidance on how to do a short recording using your phone to get involved.
Please join us, and take part in this fun, fascinating, and important conversation. And if you like what we are truing to do, and you're able, please consider becoming a Patron.
We are so grateful that you are part of the growing talkin' 'bout Our Generation family. And if you haven't tuned in yet, please join us!
Stay Safe, Stay Healthy, and stay in touch!
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