greil marcus on the woodstock festival.
It wasn’t a rebellion, or even rebellious, but rather the citizens of a city doing as they pleased—taking off their clothes, staying up all night—for the pleasure of it. It was a raised finger to no one. Dreams of revolution were replaced by ordinary realities of freedom…. It was 450,000 people trapped in an elevator, making the best of it, and, in some weirdly mythic way, not forgetting, once the elevator came unstuck, to keep in touch. It was a magnificent accident.
— Greil Marcus, “Days Between Stations” column, Interview Magazine, July 1994