[5 articles] Farrrrr out, man
http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/columnists/bruce_kirkland/2009/06/14/9791696-sun.html By BRUCE KIRKLAND, SUN MEDIA Last Updated: 14th June 2009 NEW YORK -- The restoration of 40-year-old film footage is an extremely delicate matter, especially when the Woodstock Music and Art Fair is involved. Like the near-tornados that turned Max Yasgur's dairy farm into a quagmire in 1969, a storm is brewing today about the new Woodstock DVDs. Purist fans object to changes in picture and sound. But it should be all peace and love, brother. The changes are subtle, necessary and rare, according to restoration expert Kurt Galvao and sound engineer Eddie Kramer, famed for his Jimi Hendrix albums. Galvao produced Untold Stories, the remarkable collection of 148 minutes of extra concert footage featured on both the new DVD and Blu-ray sets, Woodstock: 40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition. They greatly enhance the effect of re-visiting the film itself, offered here in the 224-minute director's cut of 1994. That cut allowed director Michael Wadleigh to restore footage Warner Bros. forced him to cut before the film was released in 1970. Kramer, meanwhile, was in charge of recording songs at Woodstock and he mixed the restoration of the film and masterminded the music in Untold Stories. Galvao tells Sun Media that their focus was simple: "Keeping the integrity of the picture and put out a quality product." On the picture side, the controversy is digital noise reduction. Some restorations are so extreme that images, stripped of dirt and other imperfections, look too perfect, too fake. "Sometimes you get too clean, where you start losing grain, so it doesn't look like it was meant to be back there," says Galvao. "So you actually add grain back in." Faded colour is another problem. "We had to pump colour back in, as much colour as we could without making it look cartoonish. It was a balance, it was a dance, so it all plays." Kramer says of the music restoration: "That's exactly the same process that we would go through." He captured seven tracks of audio at Woodstock while holed up in his production truck, where he also slept. The eighth track was reserved for synching with film footage. Some songs had no bass lines recorded. "I managed to find the bass line looking at every single channel and finding that each channel had a little bit of leakage of the bass," Kramer says. "I had to find ways to combine some of those leakages to make a bass track that didn't exist (on its own)." He calls that "an archeological dig" in a sound studio. "The imperial mission" was to maintain integrity of the original music, he says. "We never wanted to take away from it. It is classic material. It is an historical piece. We never wanted to make it something other than what it really was. Even with all the cleaning, even with all the mixing, we never tried to make it look and sound like it wasn't. I could have 'fixed' every drum beat but that would be counter-intuitive and it would be phony." With a rare exception. With Santana's Evil Ways, the original track was unusable because Carlos Santana's guitar was horribly out of tune for half the song. Kramer re-recorded Santana, on his original guitar and with the original amp. That was layered in the track for Untold Stories. "You make the decision: How do you save this? Well, you get Carlos and you save a track that would never have seen the light of day. I think it is legitimate to go in and fix something with the original artists, when you have them." But "very little" of that fixing was done, Galvao and Kramer both say. Woodstock is still pure. -- [email protected] -------- Bring 'Woodstock' home http://www.timesonline.com/articles/2009/06/10/entertainment/doc4a203a556e64d791786400.txt By Lou Gaul, Calkins Media Film Critic Published: Tuesday, June 9, 2009 Video viewers may feel like wearing flowers in their hair while watching "Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music: The Director's Cut 40th Anniversary Two-Disc Special Edition" (Warner; $24.99, DVD; June 9), which was digitally remastered from original elements. Officially titled The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, the legendary 1969 concert, held at Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, N.Y., attracted a half-million people and 32 artists. They included Crosby, Stills and Nash, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, Joe Cocker, Johnny Winter, Richie Havens, Santana, Sly & the Family Stone and The Who. The event captured the mood of the youth movement during a time of political unrest due to the Vietnam War. "Woodstock was more than just a concert," David Crosby says in the production notes for this new disc release. "It was an event. It was a time for our generation to speak up and let everyone know we had a voice. "Whether you were there (at the concert) or are discovering the film for the first time, it still holds up 40 years later and now will speak to a whole new generation." Directed by Michael Wadleigh and edited by Martin Scorsese, "Woodstock" won the Academy Award for best documentary (1970) due to the way the filmmaker captured events on and off stage during the rain-soaked weekend from Aug. 15 to 18. Those who want to be immersed in the event might consider "Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music: The Director's Cut The Ultimate Collector's Edition" (Warner; $59.99, DVD; $69.99, Blu-ray Disc; June 9). The triple-disc set is filled with more than three hours of extras, including 18 bonus performances by musicians. They include Joan Baez ("One Day at a Time"), Santana ("Evil Ways"), Canned Heat ("On the Road Again"), the Grateful Dead ("Turn on Your Love Light"), The Who ("My Generation"), Paul Butterfield ("Morning Sunrise"), Creedence Clearwater Revival ("Born on the Bayou"), Joe Cocker ("Something's Coming On"), Mountain ("Southbound Train") and Country Joe McDonald ("Flying High"). The "Ultimate" version, which provides comments from Wadleigh and Scorsese, also contains a documentary ("Woodstock: From Festival to Feature") featuring interviews with attendees at the three-day event. -------- 'Woodstock: Music From the Original Soundtrack and More' and 'Woodstock 2' http://www.kentucky.com/lexgo/music/story/831440.html By Walter Tunis Contributing Music Writer 06/18/2009 Woodstock the event, the myth, the hype, all of it celebrates its 40th anniversary in two months. But what fueled the landmark cultural gathering was its music. And it all began with these two albums. Sure, Woodstock was set against the social inferno of 1969 the draft, the Vietnam War and a generation that wanted nothing to do with either. But as a time capsule of often astounding rock, folk and soul, it remains invaluable. The Woodstock "soundtrack" the live album Woodstock: Music From the Original Soundtrack and More designed to accompany Michael Wadleigh's Oscar-winning documentary of the three-plus-day outdoor concert was a No. 1 hit when it was released in 1970. It also cracked the Top 20 of the R&B album charts, thanks largely to a career-defining pop-funk medley by Sly and the Family Stone. Other acts might have had agendas. Stone's was simply to groove. From the instant he kicks into Dance to the Music, Woodstock loosens its collar and becomes a party. The original Woodstock also introduced numerous artists to the pop mainstream, from Joe Cocker to Richie Havens to Crosby, Stills and Nash. But none took fuller advantage of Woodstock as a stepping-stone event than Santana. Through nearly 12 minutes of Soul Sacrifice which, in its remastered state on this new edition, sounds positively tribal the band tossed percussive soul, jam-savvy rock, a monster guitarist in Carlos Santana and heavy psychedelia together and managed to redesign the role of Latin music in progressive pop in the process. And then there was Hendrix. As the finale act, Jimi Hendrix played Monday morning and reinvented The Star-Spangled Banner as a respectful but frightening guitar rampage. What exists on Woodstock 2, released in early 1971, was an initial listen to the remaining 120 hours of tapes recorded at the festival. With the exception of Mountain, a wonderfully noisy riot, and Melanie, a hippie folkie delivering a coarse, flat set, it simply expands on artists introduced on the first Woodstock album. But there are numerous delights here, including one of the first serious looks at Hendrix's deglamorized band Gypsy Sun and Rainbows (the performance has since been released in near-entirety by Hendrix's estate), a fortuitous set that matched Crosby, Stills and Nash with Neil Young, and the ultra trippy Jefferson Airplane tune Saturday Afternoon which, as it turned out, was played during the band's set on Sunday morning. Woodstock 2 has few highlights to match Sly Stone, Santana or even The Who's thunderous Tommy finale from the first record. But it also has none of the former's gaffes. Nearly 40 years later, one is still hard-pressed to explain how a '50s revival act like Sha Na Na made its way onto the first Woodstock singing At the Hop. Wasn't that part of what everyone was rebelling against? In the coming months, albums will surface that unearth the complete Woodstock sets by Santana, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter and Sly and the Family Stone. And on Aug. 18, during the actual anniversary, comes a six-disc box set to chronicle most of the acts omitted from for whatever reasons the initial Woodstock albums. Among them: The Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Incredible String Band. But the journey started here, with two albums that captured the music and dubious magic of Woodstock in all of in muddy, fascinating and topical glory. -------- A trip back to 1969 in America http://www.witneygazette.co.uk/news/4438848.A_trip_back_to_1969_in_America/ Monday 15th June 2009 HIPPIES, beaded necklaces and tie-dyed T-shirts helped transport thousands of people back to the 1960s at Woodstock Carnival. Up to 3,000 people flocked to the hippie-themed event in Woodstock on Saturday to celebrate the town's namesake the 1969 Woodstock music festival. Residents embraced their eponymous link with the festival, which was held about 50 miles away from the town of Woodstock in New York State 40 years ago. Organiser, Julie Symcox, said: "The theme was Woodstock 40 years on because it was 40 years since the big festival in America. We decorated the stage with big plastic guitars and flowers." Ms Symcox, a chemistry teacher at Marlborough School, said the event also included about 35 stalls and a parade through the town centre as well as a music stage, jugglers and stilt walkers. The Woodstock music festival took place in August 1969, and became a symbol of the hippie era. It was also a milestone in the history of rock culture, with some of the greatest musicians of the 1960s performing including Janis Joplin, Santana, Jefferson Airplane, The Who and Jimi Hendrix. Referring to this weekend's carnival, Ms Symcox added: "It was a very pleasant local event that draws quite a lot of people." The carnival, which has been running for about 20 years, also raises money for local charities and is completely funded by local sponsorship. -------- Woodstock hits 40 with a bloated special edition DVD http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=809396&category=ALBANY By TOM KEYSER, Staff writer First published in print: Friday, June 12, 2009 Who can forget the Port-O-San man ... or the warning about the "brown acid" ... or Arlo Guthrie's giddy pronouncement: "The New York State Thruway is closed, man!"?They're back, along with a whole lot more, in the newly released "40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition" of the film "Woodstock," the Academy-award-winning documentary about the August 1969 festival in Bethel, Sullivan County. Warner Home Video has reissued the 224-minute director's cut on Blu-ray and DVD, remastered with 5.1 surround sound. This is the third installment of the documentary, following the original release in 1970 of the 184-minute film and the 25th-anniversary release on DVD in 1994 with 40 minutes added. The box set adds even more, including 18 previously unreleased performances by 13 artists. Five never appeared in any film version (Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Grateful Dead, Mountain and Johnny Winter). Also, the box set includes recent interviews with the director Michael Wadleigh, concert producer Michael Lang, stage emcee Chris Monck, musicians and others involved with the festival. "I don't think any of the musicians there expected it to be anything," says Leo Lyons, the bass player in Ten Years After. "And the audience turned up not expecting anything. I think that's why people find it fascinating." An estimated 400,000 to 500,000 young people turned up, and Woodstock became the defining moment of the '60s generation and its embrace of hope, love, music and, in many cases, drugs. That's largely because the documentary and soundtrack, featuring The Who, Jimi Hendrix and other musical icons of the time, kept the memory alive. Now, this 40th-anniversary edition presents it with enhanced sound and clearer images. Still, you'll need a big appetite to digest it all -- and a lot of time. The three discs contain about seven hours of material, and the limited-edition, numbered box set includes a 60-plus-page reprint of a "Life" magazine commemorative issue as well as photos and festival memorabilia. Much of the music-making and film-making is self-indulgent, which is probably appropriate because many of the attitudes of the time were, too. And much of the music is ragged; it's hard to tell who was higher -- the musicians or the spectators. "A lot of freaks!" Guthrie says into the microphone. "I don't know if you, I don't know, uh, like how many of you can dig how many people there are, man. Like I was rapping to the fuzz, right? Can you dig it? Man, there's supposed to be a million and a half people here by tonight. Can you dig that? The New York State Thruway is closed, man! Yeah, it's far out." It was magical, too. At least the scenes that survive on film seem magical as we watch from the comfort of our living rooms. Those at Woodstock got stuck in traffic, lost, soaked, filthy, hungry, exhausted, stranded and, in some cases, freaked out. However, as the event is remembered, the good vibe prevailed. After the organizers declared it a free festival (because they hadn't planned adequately and set up enough ticket booths), Lang and Artie Kornfeld, two of the producers, were interviewed on the edge of the stage. In the film this takes place on the left half of the screen. Pressed by the interviewer, Kornfeld says: "Financially this is a disaster." "But you look so happy," the interviewer says. "Look what you've got there, man," Lang says. "You couldn't buy that for anything." All through the interview, on the right side of the screen, a couple makes love. That split-screen technique runs throughout the film. Sometimes it's three images across -- musicians in frenetic performance, hippies in dazed dialogue, townspeople alternately praising and condemning the event. "It never should have happened," one says, snarling into the camera. "Fifteen-year-old kids sleeping in a field. They're all high on pot." Those 15-year-old kids, now 55, can buy this box set and hear, for the first time, the 18 new performances, including three songs by Creedence Clearwater Revival, two each by Canned Heat, Mountain and The Who, and one each by nine performers; the Grateful Dead performs "Turn on Your Love Light." And baby boomers approaching retirement can listen as those affiliated with Woodstock, in interviews released for the first time, look back four decades "Over the years, there's a real sour-grapes attitude toward Woodstock, toward the time, toward the sensibility," says Penny Stallings, who was assistant to the head of operations. "It's easy to make fun of, because it was kind of the last time when a group so large, a demographic so large, could be so sincere and uncynical about what they were doing." Tom Keyser can be reached at 454-5448 or by e-mail at [email protected]. The boxed set "Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music -- The Director's Cut -- 40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition" Includes numbered gift box, reprint of "Life" magazine commemorative issue, photos, memorabilia, iron-on patch and three DVDs (two of the 224-minute director's cut of the film, and one of interviews and 18 bonus performances from Joan Baez, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Canned Heat, Joe Cocker, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe McDonald, Mountain, Santana, Sha Na Na, Who and Johnny Winter). List prices: Blu-ray edition, $69.99; DVD, $59.98; two-DVD director's cut, film only, $24.98 . --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sixties-L" group. 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