Chapter 6

Day-3 of Woodstock

Sunday, August 17, 1969

Over the years, I (as Ralf) had tried to collect as many complete sets performed at Woodstock as I could. I hated the way Michael and Wadleigh mixed up the chronological order of the songs in the film and 3-record set. To me, it did a disservice to the historical significance of the Festival. They got away it with though. All of us kids craved to hear and see what everyone had been talking about ever since Woodstock had happened. Michael would trickle out new records every so often, but by 2019, most of the Festival music was still not released. In Ralf’s time for almost $1,000, they were going to put out a complete set. It would be almost 100 CDs too. I was considering buying it, but I had died as Ralf, before I made up my mind on it.

Eventually, I was able to get complete sets of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Sly & the Family Stone, Johnny Winter, Joe Cocker, Jefferson Airplane and Santana. When I got the set lists for the other performers, I substituted other versions of those songs to complete my own version of Woodstock music. I had it in 3 playlists, divided up by day. As Pug, I was determined to correct a lot of the half-assed way Woodstock was presented to the public. There would be plenty of money and I thought so why not give those craving the music much more! I would bring out at least one Complete Set per year. First would be Jimi, then Janis, Santana, Rolling Stones, etc.

OK, now, back to the show! Plenty of naked Hippies too!

My new good friend, Joe Cocker opened day three at noon on Sunday, Aug 17, 1969. Even though I love him dearly, like the Airplane, some of his songs leave a lot to be desired. But his narration onstage aof his time at Lowe’s is classic. It really puts you there with him. His version of Let’s All Get Stoned is classic.

Next up was Country Joe & the Fish . I love their Rock & Soul Music. They also did an Electric Version of Fixing To Die Rag, with kazoos.

Ten Years After, with Alvin Lee with his lightning fast guitar and lead vocals, then performed. Alvin contorted his face as much as Jon “Chuckie” Gruden does but damn, he could play that gee-tar. I’m Coming Home brought him fame, but just about all his songs were great heavy English blues.

Next comes some of my swap-out of performers. When the Turntable Stage rotated, Led Zeppelin blasted away with a 25-Minute version of Dazed & Confused. They were another surprise, as were most of those performers theat I added. That would become another part of Woodstock lore. Led Zep went on to play for a Hour and ten minutes. The played Heartbreaker, Living Loving Maid, Moby Dick and a 23-Minute version of Whole Lotta Love. They blew everyone away. I took a picture of the cool arrangement of Jimmy Page’s guitars that were set up onstage. The set included his double-neck Gibson guitar, with a 12-String on top and a 6-String below it.

After Led Zep’s amazing Show, when the turntable rotated again, Jim Morrison & The Doors appeared! They also played for just over an hour. Morrison. in his skin-tight-black-leather pants, was pure perfection. As the lyricist for The Doors, he really put his all into the songs. Morrison collapsed during The End, and sang the rest of the song prone on the stage. He remained there until the turntable rotated again.

Jim popped right up though. Talk about an awesome way to end their set! I gotta save some of these guys, who are gonna Flame-Out soon, I thought. Jim would die in Paris in 1971.

The Band played next. They were an amazing group of musicians and most of them could play multiple instruments. The members were Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Levon Helm and Richard Manuel. They were known for being Bob Dylan’s backup band. Coincidentally. they were all hanging out in the real Woodstock, NY.