{"id":2447525,"date":"2019-08-14T07:00:09","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T13:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=866677"},"modified":"2019-08-14T07:00:09","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T13:00:09","slug":"joan-baez-looks-back-at-woodstock-it-was-the-eye-of-the-hurricane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/music-news\/joan-baez-looks-back-at-woodstock-it-was-the-eye-of-the-hurricane\/","title":{"rendered":"Joan Baez Looks Back at Woodstock: \u2018It Was the Eye of the Hurricane\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Joan Baez<\/a> took the stage of Woodstock<\/a> a little before 1 a.m. on the first evening, following sets by Ravi Shankar, Melanie Safka<\/a>, and Arlo Guthrie. She was six months pregnant and missing her husband David Harris, who was in a Texas prison for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War. \u201cThis is an organizing song,\u201d she told the audience before playing \u201cJoe Hill. \u201cAnd I was happy to find out that after David had been in jail for two and a half weeks, he already had a very, very good hunger strike going with 42 federal prisoners, none of who were draft people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ten years ago, Baez spoke to Rolling Stone<\/em> to share her experiences at Woodstock for an interview that has never been published until now. She talked about traveling to the festival on a helicopter with Janis Joplin, avoiding all the food backstage for fear it had been laced with LSD (much of it was), and why the magic to the weekend was impossible to replicate despite many attempts over the years.<\/p>\n

Thanks for talking. I know this is a well-worn subject.
<\/strong>Well, it\u2019s a never-ending one.<\/p>\n

How did you get to the festival since the roads were so jammed up?
<\/strong>On a helicopter. As I remember, I was given the last room in a hotel\/motel somewhere because everyone else was sleeping in the lobby and so forth. As I remember, I got up in the morning and at some point there was a helicopter landing right outside my window. That part is true. And then I ended up making these gestures at the pilot and he did them back like ,\u201dCome on, get in!\u201d I ended up with my mother, my manager, Janis Joplin and I don\u2019t know who else in that helicopter.<\/p>\n

What do you remember seeing out the window as you flew in?
<\/strong>I remember flying over and it looked like ants with everyone heading over to one spot. I was thinking, \u201cJesus Christ!\u201d I think we were the last or close to the last flight that got in before the rainstorm started up in a big way. It was pretty extraordinary.<\/p>\n