Chapter 2: Woodstock Prep

Monday, Aug 4, 1969

We landed in the wee hours of the morning. After renting a Ford LTD from Hertz we drove north on the New York Thruway. I smiled to myself knowing that was to be the highway that would soon become a parking lot during Woodstock. Due to huge traffic jams, people just abandoned their cars and walked the rest of the way to the festival site.

We were headed to a shit-hole of a resort called the El Monaco Motel. It was run by a guy named Elliot Tiber. He had contacted Michael (Lang) when he heard that the town of Wallkill had canceled the permits for the festival. Michael thought Tiber was a bigger bullshitter than he himself was. In spite of that, he had agreed to let Tiber help. Tiber later wrote Taking Woodstock, about his role in it, but Michael disputed a lot of Tiber’s so-called facts. Hah! Soon, I’d find out which facts were correct!

Tiber had been putting on little music shows behind the resort, but only about fifty people would attend. When he showed Michael his tiny site, Michael was flabbergasted. Michael was expecting 100,000 to show up!

Tiber did save the day though, because he introduced Michael to a farmer named Max Yasgar. Max had the largest dairy farm in the area, including a hay field of forty acres. He would let Michael use it for the festival for $50,000. (A few years later, the same 40 Acres would be sold for the exact same amount, $50,000!)

Max loved to thumb his nose at the Bethel Town Fathers. During a town hall meeting, over objections to the possible festival, Max would say to his neighbors,

“So the only objection to having a festival here is to keep ‘Longhairs’ out of town? Well, you can all go pound salt up your ass, because come August 15th, we’re going to have a festival!”

He stormed out of the room, and the rest would become rock history.

Michael greeted us warmly when we arrived, having known me for years. He was glad I was okay after my recent injury. Michael and his crew had taken over Tiber’s resort, with people stashed everywhere, even in closets. Michael put us up in his room on the pullout couch. That was fine with Ali and me. We were happy to just be involved. The place was like a 3-ring circus though. There were drugs and naked women everywhere.

Michael was pretty stressed out. The concert stage was taking way too long to build. Bands were talking of backing out. To top it off, his three partners were now getting cold feet. They wanted out in the worst way. Since he and his partners were two million bucks in the hole, Michael thought he would be paying off the losses for the rest of his life. He was scared shitless that he’d be remembered as the loser who put on Woodstock. Still, he was determined to continue.

On the way up to see Michael, I had talked to Ali about a plan that was forming in my mind. As Ralf, I remembered that Michael had struggled to secure the money to pay for the filming of the festival. I knew it had been only one week before the festival that he got the money he needed. I was hoping that hadn’t happened yet. I wanted to ask Michael to let me invest my money to film and record the event.

After thinking about it, Ali said Michael would probably jump at my offer, but she didn’t want me to throw my money away. She said Michael was kind of a Smoke and Mirrors guy and I should be careful.

I just smiled. I knew better. The film and album were what would soon save his bacon. The shitty thing is that others got most of the profits. Although it would finally cost $600,000 to get the film into theaters, it would only cost $100,000 to film it. Of course, I knew that Michael would soon receive the 100 grand from Warner Brothers. The following April of 1970, when the movie came out, Warner’s part of the films’ profits helped save the studio.

Well, I planned on beating them to the punch! Hell, Michael had been turned down by everyone until Warners put up the money. Why couldn’t I be the big winner, instead? I’d be happy to share more of the profits with Michael and the bands than what Warners did.

After we all settled down in our room, Ali, Michael, Ticia and I talked long into the night. Ticia was Michael’s assistant. She and Ali hit it off right away. Both were super smart and had their shit together.

I eventually mentioned to Michael that it would be great if he could film and record the festival. He groaned, telling me that he was striking out getting anyone to pony up any more money. He’d be lucky if the gig went off as planned, let alone trying to film and record it. I held my breath as I said,

“What would you say if I’d agree to pay, not only for the film and sound recordings, but also cover any new costs too? But I would need to get fifty percent of any profits.”

Michael laughed, asking if I had that kind of bread? He said that it would cost $100,000 just for the bands, and another $100k to film it. I told him that I thought I had enough money. I’d call his dad in the morning to go over my parent’s estate. I’d let Michael know ASAP if I could help him out.

Michael talked more about his three partners. They really wanted out, since they were only in it for the money. They were Trust Fund Kids, and they had lost interest in pumping any more money into the money pit called Woodstock!

I knew that if this worked out, I could delay paying off the debt until the millions flowed in the following March. That’s when, Woodstock: 3 Days Of Peace and Music would have its premier. It would be an instant sensation, too. The film would have profits of over $50,000,000. So, my 50% of the profits would be over 25 Mil! And, I was only putting up 100 Grand for the film and another 100 Grand for the bands. The three-record set, that came out one month after the film, would bring in even more money.

I asked what it would take for him to part ways with his three partners and let me be his new Money Man? Michael thought that if I could pay each of them fifty thousand, they would run as fast as they could, to get back to their normal investments. He said that it seemed like very little to pay but he thought that they just wanted to save face. They would eat the two mil as just a bad investment, too. I thought sweet, that works for me!

We agreed I’d buy them out, providing my talk with his dad turned out okay. So, that’s another 150 grand, making my total commitment 350 grand so far.

We finally crashed, getting a few hours of sleep.

Tuesday, Aug 5, 1969,

The next morning Ali called her dad at 7am. She wanted to catch him before he left on his daily commute to Wall Street. She talked to him for a minute and handed the phone to me.

Roger Lang had a booming, commanding voice. He was glad I called and asked when we could meet. He said that there were some legal issues he’d love to settle. I told him we could meet him tomorrow afternoon at his office, if that was okay. He said that would be great.

After my call, Ali and I went with Michael to the festival grounds. It was a beehive of activity. The whole area was beautiful. It was a large field that sloped up on 3 sides, almost a bowl. But I knew it would soon turn into a Field of Mud when the rains came. And, I know that they were coming! I couldn’t change that.

When I saw them building the 40-foot wooden turntable stage, I remembered that the turntable had quit working. The heavy sound stage equipment had overwhelmed it. So, I asked Michael if they could beef it up. He said that he’d wondered about that, himself. We went over to talk to Jay Drevers, the stage construction foreman. Michael asked him what it would take to make it sturdier. We needed a guarantee that it would work. He told us he’d have to install larger motors, but that would be an extra $5,000.

The turntable would turn the center part of the stage. It would allow a band to perform on one side, while another band set up on the other side, out of the view of the crowd. Then, when it was time to switch bands, they just rotated the whole shebang. That was supposed to save time between sets, but during the festival, it didn’t work. Instead, there were tons of delays due to each band having to wait to set up until the previous band ended their performance. That was in addition to numerous stoppages due to the coming rain.

I whispered to Michael that I’d pay the 5 grand. Michael told the foreman to do it. I also asked that they do whatever it took to weatherproof the stage and other equipment. They didn’t know it was coming but I wanted to avoid Jerry Garcia being shocked by his guitar, when he performed. The stage was covered, but a lot of water got onto cables and other equipment. It caused the Grateful Dead to hate their performance. They weren’t even shown in the film.

The foreman just said, “Five grand more for that.”

I just nodded my head, causing Jay to smile and walk off. It seemed to me that everything was 5 grand to Jay. Hell, I knew I could cover another 10 grand easily! My agreeing to pay seemed to calm Michael down. Good, he’d trust me even more now, I thought.

Ali and I had dinner with Michael. We agreed to stay in touch. I sure hoped that my coming meeting with their dad worked out. This was really a long shot that seemed about to happen. We spent the night with Michael again.

Wednesday, Aug 6, 1969

Ali and I were off to Manhattan! I’d been here three times as Ralf and had loved it. The energy of New Yorkers, the food, music etc. It sure was a blast traveling with Ali, too. She sat right against me, as the LTD had bench seats. Most cars did in 1969. On the drive, I asked her question after question. It was amazing what she knew. Also, I liked that she seemed to catch on to my ideas right away.

The traffic of NYC in 1969 was every bit as bad as it was when I visited as Ralf. Fuckin way more smog though! Getting rid of leaded gas would soon help with that.

Ali’s dad worked in an old building near Wall Street, called the Woolworth Building. It was really classy. We were shown into her dad’s office. Roger got right to it, telling me my parents had left me a tidy nest egg. It was mostly invested in Sears and US Steel stock, along with some insurance policies that rounded out the estate. Since I had been a minor at my parent’s deaths, Roger had legal authority. Up to now he had watched over everything and had made all of the decisions.

Now that I was 18 years old, he felt it was time for me to know what my inheritance consisted of. Since I had called the day before, he had gotten an up-to-date accounting. He said that, if I wanted, now would be a good time to sell the stocks. He felt the market was going to take a pretty big dip soon.

I gave him the okay because I knew that over the next few years, both Sears and US Steal would go down. The good news was that both were still going strong. So, their stock prices were still pretty high. He said he’d know exactly how much I had by the next afternoon, but it should be over $1,500,000. Wow! I was stunned.

Ali said, “Holy shit!”

Her dad said, “Ditto.”

He cautioned me about carelessly spending my money, but said he would help me in any venture that I wanted to invest in. He had some good contacts. All I had to do was ask.

I told him that I was going to be Michael’s new partner for the Woodstock Festival and I was buying out his three partners for $50,000 each. I also told him about the other costs. I saw a quick shudder Roger had before he caught himself. It seemed Michael’s family didn’t trust his judgement much. Oh well, I knew that this time it was a Sure Thing!

I said I also needed to make sure I had plenty of money in my checking account to cover some heavy expenses soon. He suggested that he open a business account for me. I could go to any First National City Bank branch to finalize it, but he would set it up. (First National City Bank was later to become Citibank, then Citicorp and finally Citigroup) I told him that Ali and I were headed to the Lowe’s Midtown Motor Inn, on 8th Ave and 49th St. He said to go to the First National branch that was just around the corner from the there. They would issue me some temporary checks, as well as a Mastercharge card. Both could be issued to me on the spot. Also, he would call to have the three cashier’s checks issued there too. That would help, but I’m sure gonna miss ATM’s, Debit Cards, Smart Phones, CD’s, DVD’s and lots of other tech innovations.

I called Michael after my meeting with his dad. Even though I didn’t know my exact net worth yet, I knew I could easily cover the costs we had discussed. He was elated, telling me that I was his hero. He promised that he wouldn’t let me down. I think he was even a little choked up. Michael then told me that he had talked to his three partners and all had agreed to walk away if I paid them the $50,000 each.

I said, “Great, I want that done before any profits come our way.”

Michael just said, “Sure, profits, sure.”

I said I had already discussed it with his dad, and that I would bring the cashier’s checks for his soon-to-be-ex partners. If he needed any other funds, I would cover those from now on through his dad.

Michael laughed, saying his dad must be having a cow over my being involved with him. He said that his dad didn’t trust him, and that’s why he hadn’t gone to him for money this time. In the past he’d borrowed from his dad to get started in Miami and that hadn’t worked out.

After our meeting, we got a room at the Lowe’s, since that was where Michael suggested we stay. It was where many artists would stay before Woodstock. Joe Cocker even talked about it during his set at the festival. Maybe we could run into him, I thought. The Lowe’s had its own parking lot, so we had a place for the LTD. Speaking of the LTD - it was a whale! It had sloppy handling, wallowed in turns and sucked up gas. Oh well, gas was cheap where I was now.

We were hungry, so we walked up 7th Ave, from 49th to 56th St, to an old classic called Carnegie Deli. It was around the corner from Carnegie Hall, thus the name. I’d eaten there as Ralf and loved it. They had huge corned beef sandwiches, that were so lean that they melted in your mouth. Also, they had the best rye bread, best mustard, best pickles, best German potato salad, etc.

Afterward, we walked the five blocks back to our room. We enjoyed the sights, sounds and smells of the Theatre District and Times Square. However, we didn’t stick around, because in those days, it was kinda dangerous after dark in Times Square. It was full of drugs, hookers and porn. It wouldn’t be cleaned up for years.

Once back in our room, we watched TV for a couple of hours. First was The Beverly Hillbillies at 9:00 pm and then at 9:30, we watched Green Acres. At 10 pm it was The Jonathan Winters Show. All three were on CBS. It was really weird to watch those old classics. Now I know how Marty McFly felt in Back To The Future!

Thursday, Aug 7, 1969,

The next morning, I was up early. I couldn’t wait to call Michael. I had been thinking of another aspect of Woodstock that I could improve on. Whereas most of the bands became famous after performing at Woodstock, a few remained unknowns. Other bands that could have performed didn’t, for various reasons. And I already knew what those lame-ass excuses were! I thought, why not swap out those bands? I had a list of those I wanted to invite and another list of those I wanted to un-invite.

When we talked, Michael said to take my best shot, because he was done with all of them. He gave me the contact numbers of those bands who had turned him down so far. I knew what was going to happen when so many of the festival-goers arrived early. The fences would be torn down. I would suggest that we have those bands that we replaced play on the day before the festival. They could perform on a small stage as the audience arrived. That way they would still get exposure. Also, I’d honor the fees they were promised. We could film and record them too, It would be a great dress rehearsal for our crews.