The Gospel According To Woodstock - Blessed Are The Peacemakers

Max Yasgur on stage at Woodstock 1969 praising the 500,000 "kids" for being able to peacefully gather in one place to have, as he put it, "Three days of fun and music, and have nothing but fun and music, and I God bless you for it".

This is a line up of anti-war songs that were preformed during the three days of Woodstock:

-Richie Havens sang Handsome Johnny, a folk song about young men being perpetually sent off to fight war after war.

-Country Joe McDonald preformed I Feel Like I'm Fixing To Die, a ragtime song filled with sarcasm highlighting the absurdity of the Vietnam War.

-Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young performed Wooden Ships, a rock song about survivors from opposite sides of a war meeting each other while navigating the horror and destruction left behind.

-Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young sang a cappella Find The Cost Of Freedom, a song about the ultimate price of war.

Perhaps the most memorable anti-war song from that list was Country Joe McDonald's I Feel Like I'm Fixing To Die Rag, which clearly expressed the feelings of the Woodstock Generation about the Vietnam War. So here is a video clip, minus his infamous "Fish Cheer"...

"Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." ~Jesus (Matthew 5:9)

Peace, Love, and Light!
Kevin (Cloud)

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The Gospel According To Woodstock - What God Hath Joined Together, Let No Man Put Asunder

The famous photograph of Nick and Bobbi Ercoline taken by Burk Uzzle at Woodstock in 1969.

This image of young love became the iconic cover of the original Woodstock album and movie poster.

Nick and Bobbie had met just a few months earlier and decided that since Woodstock was so close to where they lived that they just couldn't miss the event.

According to Burk Uzzle it was Sunday morning August 17, 1969, while 500,000 sleepy concert goers were waking up to Jefferson Airplane on stage at Woodstock, that he photographed this now famous embrace of a young couple in love.

More than forty years later Nick and Bobbi, both in their early 60's now, are still together. They married two summers after Woodstock, and they still live less than an hour's drive from the original concert site in upstate New York.

"All because two people fell in love"
~Quote on the wall of Nick and Bobbie's home just above their iconic Woodstock photo

"What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."
~Jesus (Mark 10:9)

Peace, Love, and Light!
Kevin (Cloud)

Sad update:

Barbara “Bobbi” Ercoline passed away on March 18, 2023 at her home in Orange County, New York of leukemia at the age of 73. Bobbie was surrounded by family and  her husband of 54 years, Nick.

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The Gospel According To Woodstock - Amazing Grace

Apparently, even in the midst of all the self indulgent sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll the Gospel could be found at the Woodstock Music & Art Fair in August of 1969.

Back then spirituality was everywhere, and references to Jesus were very common in music on the Billboard Top Ten List, so I shouldn't have been surprised to find this outtake of Arlo Guthrie singing Amazing Grace at Woodstock.

I love this song and I love Arlo, so what a truly great find it is. Arlo began his Woodstock set with Coming into Los Angeles (a song about smuggling marijuana) and ended with Amazing Grace, an interesting juxtaposition. Too bad it was never released before, we only got to see and hear Arlo sing about drug smuggling.

 If the link above doesn't work try the following. It's not from Woodstock but it's still awesome.

"There's always a little bit of heaven in a disaster area."
~Wavy Gravy (Hugh Romney) Woodstock 1969

Peace, Love, and Light!
Kevin (Cloud)

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The Gospel According To Woodstock - We Are Stardust

Section of Galaxy Cluster MACS J0416.1-2403 - Photo Credit NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute

In August 1969 the Woodstock Music and Art Fair took place on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, NY with over half a million people in attendance.

I always loved Joni Mitchell's song about Woodstock, but it wasn't until my faith journey took me off of the Young Earth path and on to the Old Earth path that I fully appreciated the line "We are stardust". You can read a little about that part of my faith journey in an older post of mine titled I'm Losing (And Finding) My Religion - Again.

In fact, I didn't even remember until today that she wrote the line "We are billion year old carbon". I think that I blocked it out of my mind all of these years because it didn't fit with my previous Young Earth perspective.

The knowledge that everything on this planet; every plant and animal, every human being, and even every rock contains the remnants of a star that exploded somewhere in the universe - that knowledge excites me.

The basic elements that were created during the Big Bang and then added to by super novas became the building blocks of our solar system. Every molecule of iron in my blood, every calcium atom in my bones came from a star... we are quite literally made of stardust, billion(s) year old carbon.

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,
till thou shalt return to the ground;
for out of it wast thou taken:
for dust thou art,
and to dust shalt thou return. 
(Genesis 3:19)

Here is a video of Joni Mitchell singing her song Woodstock...



 
Peace, Love, and Light!
Kevin (Cloud)

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(Originally posted 08/01/2011, updated 08/17/2019)