Woodstock Question

[Ike Bana]

Originally Posted by HarmanKardon

JJIII Is that so? Oh my - what a pity. I confess that I am obviously too far away to register the current sad significance of American Apartheid.

Ike Bana just try to understand that it is the point of view of a European.

HarmanKardon...love, peace and racism? If that's one European's point of view of the Woodstock Music and Art Festival of 1969, then what I understand is that one European's point of view of the Woodstock Music and Art Festival of 1969 is dead wrong.

[MrPots]

Originally Posted by JJIII

I guess you would have to have grown up here in the U.S.A. to understand just how separated the races were and are still. In some ways things are better but we have leaders, both black and white, that gain monetarily from stirring up as much hatred as they can.

Indeed, just two years prior interracial marriage was still illegal in 17 states.

[icenine]

I think you are missing something Haman Kardon


people go to shows that they want to see...most artists at Woodstock appealed mainly to whites....

If the playbill had included more of the soul and R&B artists who were hugely popular at the time more African Americans would have attended.

In other words I do not think there was any overt segregation or racism going on at Woodstock ...on either side.

[Ike Bana]

Originally Posted by HarmanKardon

The language barrier is fucking shitty crap - anyway I can't stay away from this forum entirely... I tried but as you see I failed...




I watched the Woodstock video some zillion times and I always asked myself: Hey where were the black kids in the audience? I mean - how many of them were black? Some 0,1% or so?

Love peace and racism?

In his book "Woodstock: An Encyclopedia of the Music and Art Fair" James Perone cites a study that reported 95% white, 1.5% black, 1% Latino, balance...uh...other. That said...

Anybody who wanted to go through the ordeal required to get there was more than welcome when they got there. And it ended up being free so if you couldn't afford tickets and were able to get there, so nobody can suggest that it was discriminatory toward anybody who might have been financially disadvantaged at the time.

Back in those days we spent most of whatever disposable entertainment money we had at one of the great local Chicago blues clubs, usually the original Kingston Mines club on Lincoln Ave. The musicians were 99% black, the majority of the audience was typically white...but I'm remembering that blacks usually made up at least a quarter of the blues club audiences back then...certainly a higher number than their percentage of the general population.

Love, peace and racism? I'm not sure what this question is actually all about.

[piece-itpete]

My 02, it is getting better. When I was a kid towns were still segregated, and while still partially true here they are far more integrated, on a scale impossible here in the 60s and 70s.

Cultural groups of all kinds tend to flock together.

Pete

[HarmanKardon]

Your posts guys were very helpful, thanks. Now I understand. Thanks Pete for at least one positive remark in connection with the current black & white situation.

[HarmanKardon]

Originally Posted by HarmanKardon

Your posts guys were very helpful, thanks. Now I understand. Thanks Pete for at least one positive remark in connection with the current black & white situation.

Oh my oh my - I opened a "big barrel" (as we say)... So I quote myself: "Now I understand". I already understood without all the following posts!

"Love peace and racism!" - my first attempt in this forum being somehow ironic or even a bit cynical in order to put some more horse powers into my starting post. Please stop to stone me for this remark now.

Finnbow I am living in a small town with 6000 residents, but there are 41 different nationalities. (Perhaps you google "Tief im weltoffenen Schwarzwald taz" and use a qualified translator service) This is rather exceptional but Germany actually became very tolerant in the last decades, and each time when neo nazis attack people here with non-german origin celebrating their fucking xenophobia the public gets furious.

But of course I know what you are trying to say. When "Zappa plays Zappa" performs most people in the audience are intellectual Germans or people from English speaking countries.

Chas thanks for "It was an aberration, not the norm!" This makes things very clear.

[Ike Bana]

Originally Posted by HarmanKardon

Chas thanks for "It was an aberration, not the norm!" This makes things very clear.

HarmanKardon (BTW - one of your turntables, T-45, is among my favorite pieces of vintage audio gear) if you're going to rely on random utterances from Chas as a foundation for your impressions of American culture in the 60's (or American culture any time for that matter) you could be doomed to end up anything but clear.

I still don't know if Chas has formulated his particular opinions on this subject from some personal adult experiences he had in 1969...hell, he may even be one of the 17 million people who say they were at Woodstock that summer. Or perhaps he's a youngster who gets his cultural pinnings from his collection of books by Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter...and when he's interested in some really deep intellectual investigation Pat Buchanan.

Either way HK...I suggest exercising caution in your choice of sources.

[HarmanKardon]

Originally Posted by Ike Bana

HarmanKardon (BTW - one of your turntables, T-45, is among my favorite pieces of vintage audio gear) if you're going to rely on random utterances from Chas as a foundation for your impressions of American culture in the 60's (or American culture any time for that matter) you could be doomed to end up anything but clear.

I still don't know if Chas has formulated his particular opinions on this subject from some personal adult experiences he had in 1969...hell, he may even be one of the 17 million people who say they were at Woodstock that summer. Or perhaps he's a youngster who gets his cultural pinnings from his collection of books by Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter...and when he's interested in some really deep intellectual investigation Pat Buchanan.

Either way HK...I suggest exercising caution in your choice of sources.

Ike I just can tell you that Chas' remark sounds quite reasonable to me. You know... it is very difficult for me to get a correct image sitting in the very very far distance, grown up in the seventies, in a totally different culture and so on and so on...very difficult...

[MikeG22]

Wasn't there a Dave Chappelle skit with John Mayer about how white people love acoustic guitar and black people love drums?