Skip this garden

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook (and why wouldn't you?), you've read my comments about the huge number of retrospective histories of the Woodstock Festival that are being published this year in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the event. I had just turned 13 when the huge rock festival was held, but mostly what I remember was the 3-record set of the music that was released a year later; my favorite bits were Sly & the Family Stone doing a fierce medley of "Dance to the Music" and "I Wanna Take You Higher," Jefferson Airplane, with Grace Slick yelling, "Good morning, people!!", doing "Volunteers," Santana's long instrumental "Soul Sacrifice," and, of course, Jimi Hendrix's legendary guitar rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner." Through Crosby, Stills & Nash's "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" is rather ragged, there is some charm in them admitting from that stage to a half-million people that they're "scared shitless."

I do believe that Woodstock was a historically important moment, and you should probably pick up at least one book about it to read this year, but you can skip Back to the Garden: The Story of Woodstock by New York DJ Pete Fornatale. It's a half-assed attempt at an oral history, taken from a variety of sources, and there are some interesting ancedotes presented (any book on Woodstock that doesn't have some fun/weird factor should never have seen the light of day), but with only a handful of photos and only very selective in-depth presentations of some of the artists and their sets, it never finds a footing.

This is especially disappointing because the book is set up chronologically in chapters named after each performer at the festival. I assumed, naturally enough, that at the very least there would be some description of each artist's set and possibly a full set list. In some cases, there is, but in many, there is just not much information at all. The chapters on Sly & The Family Stone, Richie Havens, and Jimi Hendrix, for example, are fairly complete and interesting to read, but many of the lesser lights, such as Sweetwater, Bert Sommer, and Melanie, are dispensed with in very little detail. Even big names like Jefferson Airplane and The Band don't get much space.

The lack of set lists is especially frustrating; did Melanie (pictured) really only do two songs, even though, according to the book, the organizers were desperate for people to play on that confusing first night? A quick visit to Wikipedia gives me full set list information, and both sources say she sang "Beautiful People" but then I'm left with Wiki saying that Melanie did two other songs: "Tuning My Guitar" and "Johnny Boy," and Fornatale says she did "Birthday of the Sun." Frankly, in this case, I'm inclined to trust Wikipedia over the book. The author does note that readers will find contradictions in the accounts of various people about some events over the the three days, and I understand that and appreciate the caveat, but certainly someone in the book could tell us how many songs she did and what they were.

The book is not without its moments of interest, but the overall sloppiness, seemingly in the name of being subjective, is not a positive element. Our library has 6 other Woodstock books that have come in recently, which is about 5 more than I want to read through, but I'm sorry I picked this one to read to the end.