• The Ultimate Collector’s Edition (3 discs total)
• The Director’s Cut version of just the movie (2 discs) – 225 minutes compared to 184 for original
• The VHS tape called The Lost Performances

In the Ultimate Collectors Edition you’ve got the Director’s Cut for the regular movie (2 discs). This comes on regular 2-disc version too. And then you’ve also got the Extras disc with a bunch more performances by the bands and lots of interviews with promoters and movie crew (and even a Hugh Hefner Playboy After Dark section). And you’ve also got the VHS tape called The Lost Performances with songs that you can’t get on any of the other DVDs.

The Woodstock Crowd

Anyway, I’ve been watching all these and it hit me. Even though some of these performances are great, it’s all the shots of the crowds that really get my attention.That’s where the real “fun” was being had and where the real story of Woodstock was happening.

And most of those shots aren’t necessarily of people watching the music although that’s what most people are there for. There’s also plenty of shots of people just hanging around, or doing yoga, or interviews with people (the one of the guy cleaning out the port-a-san is a classic), or of course the nude swimmers at the pond. These are the real stars of the movie to me.

You can tell these hippies are having fun and sharing something very special. But it’s the interviews with the townpeople and the movie crew and the organizers that are sticking in my mind.

Here’s some examples…

• The guy that jumped on stage with Canned Heat and Bob Hite totally accepted and put his arm around while he sang
• Artie Kornfield and Michael Lang (the promoters) talking about how the vision was working while they were getting rained on. In the middle of the interview a helicopter starts to drop flowers and dry clothes on the crowd. In split screen a couple undresses to make love.
• The Port-A-San man sharing how he is happy to help these kids and has his own kid at the show and one in Vietnam. I great man from the older generation. It had to open all our eyes that the older generation isn’t all bad.
• Max Yasgur addressing the crowd and saying “you’ve proven something to the world… 3 days of fund and music… and nothing but fun and music… and I God bless you for it.”

And on the Extras disc there are so many juicy tidbits like…

• Chip Monck got to be MC because Michael Lang forgot to book anyone. He was notified at 7:00 AM on Friday. Chip was actually in charge of the lights so he had no prior MC experience really. All this time I thought he was a professional announcer.
• The story of how the “brown acid” announcement happened. And how he did his best to soften the tone so it wouldn’t promote bad trips.
• How as the traffic congestion got worse and worse the promoters had to find more and more helicopters to get performers and supplies to the site.
• How big of a negative effect the rain on Saturday had on the logistics and equipment for the festival… but somehow the crowd and the bands and the organizers rose above it.
• Martin Scorsce’s comments about how the experience of the Woodstock music effected all of his subsequent movies. He was a lowly “assistant director” to Michael Wadleigh the film’s “creator.”

Yes, the crowd and the people were the real stars of Woodstock.

I’ve been working my way through all the DVDs and videos of the recorded music at Woodstock. Now I’m just talking about the one’s on video. I haven’t started to check out all the music on vinyl or CDs. That’s my next project.

Anyway I counted…

• 23 actual video performances by 17 different performers on the “Director’s Cut” version now being released. It think there’s a couple here that weren’t on the original movie.
• 18 performances by 13 acts on the “Untold Stories” disc that comes with the Ultimate Collectors Edition
• 16 performances by 15 performers on The Lost Performances VHS tape

Now each of these performances are not repeated on the other tapes or discs. So the performances on the tape are not on any other DVD that I know of. Feel free to correct me on this if I’m wrong.

Which Are The Best Woodstock Performances?

Creedence Clearwater at Woodstock

Of course everyone has their own favorites. And if you’ve only watched the original movie you haven’t come close to seeing all the performances so how could you judge. But the songs I had never heard before were at least as good as the main ones you see in the movie. And if you’ve only seen the original that means there’s about 32 out of 55 performances that you haven’t heard or seen.

I was particulary surprised by Paul Butterfield on the VHS doing Drifting Blues. As a big blues lover I was blown away by just how authentic he was. The quality of his blues was as good as the best you could see today. It was clearly in the same league of a Rod Piazza or Mark Hummel that you would see today. The band was way ahead of it’s time.

And mostly because it was a big high point for me, Creedence Clearwater’s version of Born on the Bayou that got me to jump out of my sleeping bag at 3:00 AM on Saturday night, was great to finally get to hear. That’s on the Untold Stories disc.

Anyway my point is there is much more to hear. If you loved the music on the “old” Woodstock movie, the new stuff is not only just as good, but like seeing Woodstock from another perspective. It’s worth checking out if you get the chance.

Here’s a little taste of what you’ve been missing…

It was late Saturday night. It was the night Janis Joplin and The Grateful Dead played.

Now I’ve never been a big Dead fan but even under these special conditions of being with all these other “freaks” I couldn’t really get into it. After a long day… and now it was about 2:00 AM in the morning… well their endless, noodling jams were just not hitting the spot. To be truthful they were putting me to sleep.

When they finally ended I was pretty much asleep physically and emotionally.

Creedance at Woodstock

Then…

I heard… well… da-da-da-da —- well it’s hard to describe… you’ve got to check out the video (below)… it was those first guitar licks from Born on the Bayou… Creedence Clearwater Revival was bringing us back to life. Everyone in that big, cold, sleepy field jumped out of their sleeping bags and started to dance. It was the perfect antidote to the Grateful Dead. Energy and groove had taken over from spacey noodling… I still remember that moment well.

And that performance never made it to the movie. In fact there was no Creedence Clearwater in the movie… until now.

The new Woodstock 40th Anniversary, Ultimate Collectors Edition has an extra DVD with many unheard performance… and guess what’s on it… yup Born On The Bayou in all it’s glory. Plus two more CCR songs too… I Put A Spell On You and Keep On Chooglin’.

But that one song was worth the price for me!

And there’s lot more songs that you probably haven’t heard. I counted 55 songs available on the 3 videos you can buy. There were only 23 actual performances on the original movie disc/tape. You’re missing out.

Here’s a sample of what you are missing. Of course the actual DVD is much better quality and sound.