The inside story of Woodstock

Published 7:38 pm Sunday, July 18, 2010

Former headshop owner Michael Lang had scant promotional experience when he dreamed up Woodstock as a massive festival different from anything before it. As “The Road to Woodstock” ($29.99), released 40 years later makes clear, it’s a wonder that Woodstock even happened at all.

Lang and his partners were kicked out of the initial concert site at the last minute, sending Lang scrambling through nearby Sullivan County to look for an emergency replacement. He found a gently sloping hay field owned by dairy farmer Max Yasgur who, luckily for Lang, was a friendly sort eager to accept these long-haired kids.

This is an oft-told tale, but Lang keeps it interesting with insider’s tidbits. The original plan was to have off-duty New York cops wear pith helmets and provide security before the police commissioner forbade it.

Richie Havens didn’t want to open the concert — his enduring claim to fame — because he feared the crowd would throw beer cans at him. Lang not only failed to land Bob Dylan, but also Roy Rogers. He wanted the cowboy crooner to sing “Happy Trails” at the end of the concert (yes, he would have followed Jimi Hendrix’s “The Star-Spangled Banner.”)

Lang, who wrote the book with Holly George-Warren, comes off in this book as a pleasant hippie hustler, unflappable in the face of looming disasters. His narrative is broken up throughout the book with brief testimonies from other people involved with Woodstock.

The best part of the book is Lang’s blow-by-blow account of watching all his carefully laid plans go south in spectacular fashion over the weekend of the concert. There were too many people, too few roads, too much rain, no fence, no ticket takers. It could have been an unmitigated disaster, but Lang and his 400,000-plus guests decided to roll with it, assuring Woodstock a spot in history.