The Woodstockers, 20 Years Later--What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been

“I ‘m not going back to Woodstock for a while / Though I love to see that lonesome hippie smile,” sang Neil Young in 1974. But with the 20th anniversary of the love fest approaching, Woodstock is on the minds of many who performed there--if for no other reason than the fact that members of the media have been hounding them for memories.

In fact, several artists groaned when asked to dredge up 20-year-old anecdotes, and two--Young and John Fogerty--declined comment. Still, for many of the 33 acts accounted for, Woodstock was a career highlight, if not peak.

The stats: Seven of the acts are still visible and viable in the rock, pop or folk world, while many of the rest continue as active performers. At least one has been plagued by legal problems, and (sadly) at least three are dead, not counting late members of the Who, Grateful Dead, Canned Heat and the Band.

Or maybe it’s not so sad--considering the downside of the Woodstock legacy, it’s a positive note that so many have survived. JOAN BAEZ

The Bay Area-based singer is about to celebrate her 30th anniversary as a folk performer with a new album (featuring guest appearances by Paul Simon and the Gipsy Kings, among others) and a boxed retrospective of her catalogue from Vanguard Records. Her a cappella rendition of “Amazing Grace” has been a touchstone from Woodstock to more recent gatherings such as the Live Aid and Amnesty International concerts.

“When I think of ‘Amazing Grace,’ I don’t think of Woodstock. I think of Poland, singing it with Lech Walesa, or in India singing it with Mother Teresa. . . . It’s one of my most requested songs, in part because it takes people back to that time, but for others, it brings back a spiritual sense that may have been missing since then.”

THE GRATEFUL DEAD

The quintessential San Francisco “Summer of Love” band and its legion of Deadheads represents an unbroken link to the Woodstock era. The 20 years since has been a “long, strange trip”--during which the Dead has consistently been one of the top touring rock attractions in the world. Two years ago the band’s “In the Dark” album and “Touch of Grey” single became the first Dead entries to make the Top 10.

“The people we played for at Woodstock aren’t the ones who listen to us now, it’s their children,” said drummer Mickey Hart, who is involved with producing records of music from around the world. He has also released “Music to Be Born By,” a recording he designed to assist the childbirth process.

“We saw an enormous amount of music pass before us at Woodstock, which definitely had an effect on the roots music I’m involved with. This was the center of the world for a few days there. . . . Of course, we played terribly. It was horrible. The stage was collapsing and the equipment wasn’t working and it was raining, so every time someone touched their instrument, they got shocked.”

THE JEFFERSON AIRPLANE

Since providing Woodstock’s third day wake-up call with its rallying cry “Volunteers,” the Airplane, already the most commercially successful representative of the San Francisco scene, mutated into the more successful Jefferson Starship, losing original members one by one to the point that the current Starship (without the Jefferson ) includes no one directly tied to the original group. But the Airplane has just re-formed, with original members Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, Marty Balin, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady all on board. An album and tour are planned for late summer.

“Woodstock was the last great burst of innocence in the face of the oncoming ‘70s and war and hard drugs and Nixon and disco,” said singer-guitarist Kantner. “You could fill an entire page with the horrors that came after Woodstock. But people gained a certain audacity and confidence from the strength of numbers there that led to realizing we could deal with Nixon and the environment and end the Vietnam War. When I went to Nicaragua recently, I felt that same spirit there.”

JOE COCKER

The gravel-voiced English soulster went on from Woodstock to his own triumphant “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” tour and film and occasional hits through the ‘70s (“You Are So Beautiful”) and ‘80s (“Up Where We Belong,” a Grammy- and Oscar-winning duet with Jennifer Warnes from the movie “An Officer and a Gentleman”). His new album, “One Night of Sin,” is due from Capitol on Aug. 1.

“I remember when the rains came tumbling down sitting in the back of the trailer with some hippies, smoking, crashing and thinking how little we knew about the audience,” he said. “Where are all those people? They became bankers, clerks, surgeons. I bump into them once in a while and they say they were there. But we just zoomed in and out.”

COUNTRY JOE McDONALD

Country Joe’s time-filling “Fish” cheer and the anti-Vietnam War “Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag”--both captured on film and record--set the San Francisco singer up as a counterculture spokesman. After Woodstock, he remained active, turning up regularly at benefits for a number of political and environmental causes. In the ‘80s he’s been a strong supporter of Vietnam veterans’ issues. He currently operates his own Rag Baby Records company in Berkeley.

“If I had known what the end result of that clip being in the film would have been, I don’t know if I would have done it,” McDonald told The Times in 1986. “I wanted to be known as a sensitive poet, not a leader of obscene cheers and a protest singer.”

RICHIE HAVENS

Havens, who opened Woodstock with his exuberant folk-blues, has organized a special commemoration of the rock fest in the form of a three-day concert in Leningrad on Friday through next Sunday with fellow Woodstock vets John Sebastian, Melanie and Canned Heat. Havens’ gritty voice remains familiar through television commercials he’s sung for Amtrak and the United Way (though he says there’s someone who sounds just like him also doing TV spots).

“There are teen-agers who walk up to me now and say, ‘I saw you on television in “Woodstock” the day before yesterday ,’ ” Havens said. “It wasn’t just the music. It was the people who showed up and the fact that at the time it was necessary for us to show how many of us there were versus the thems in the world.”

CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG

The harmony quartet, which made only its second appearance at Woodstock, recorded one album shortly thereafter (“Deja Vu”) and worked in nearly all possible permutations (Crosby & Nash; Stills & Young; Crosby, Stills & Nash, etc.) before finally reuniting in toto recently for the album “American Dream.” In addition to looking at the Woodstock legacy with the song quoted above, Young again addressed the topic with 1986’s “Hippie Dream”:

The wooden ships are a hippie dream

Capsized in excess if you know what I mean...

Another flower child goes to seed

In an ether-filled room of meat-hooks

It’s so ugly so ugly.

SANTANA

The pre-eminent San Francisco salsa-rock band changed lineups often through the ‘70s, but remained a staple on FM rock radio. Guitarist Carlos Santana also made several successful forays into the jazz and jazz-rock worlds, often inspired by his spiritual mentor, Sri Chinmoy. (Santana at one point added the Indian prefix Devadip to his name.) The group’s 20th anniversary was marked last year with a three-LP retrospective and a concert tour featuring members from several versions of the band.

THE WHO

From rocking Mods of the ‘60s to rock gods of the ‘70s, the Who closed out the latter decade with both tragedy (the death of drummer Keith Moon in 1978; the trampling deaths of 11 fans before a Cincinnati concert in 1979) and triumph (the film version of the ambitious story-album “Quadrophenia” and the bio-pic “The Kids Are Alright”). Pete Townshend has cultivated an alternative career as an author and book editor as well as making solo recordings, Roger Daltrey has continued to act and sing, and both are currently reunited with bassist John Entwistle for a 25th anniversary tour.

THE BAND

The 1976 “The Last Waltz” concert (made into a lauded Martin Scorsese film) was supposed to have been the swan song for the former outfit backing Bob Dylan, but two more albums and tours were forthcoming. In recent years, the Band has continued on the concert circuit, but without primary writer Robbie Robertson, who after a stab at acting returned with a touted solo album in 1987. Singer-pianist Richard Manuel apparently hanged himself in a hotel room while the group was on tour in 1987.

TEN YEARS AFTER

Alvin Lee’s Woodstock solo on “I’m Going Home” was at the time the epitome of guitaristic speed for speed’s sake. Lee is featured as one of several performers on the new “Night of the Guitar” album recorded in the U.K.

SHA NA NA

The gold-lamed oldies-but-goodies group was perhaps the most out-of-place act at the Aquarian love fest--but also the only one to get its own TV series. Main-man Jon (Bowser) Bauman has remained a TV personality, appearing regularly on game and variety shows and of late co-hosting KHJ Channel 9’s “L.A. in the Morning.”

JOHN SEBASTIAN

The former leader of the Lovin’ Spoonful faded into the background after Woodstock, then returned in 1976 with a No. 1 single, “Welcome Back,” the theme from TV’s “Welcome Back Kotter.” After another long stretch, he re-emerged in 1985 as co-writer of the score to the animated children’s flick “The Care Bears Movie” and hosted a Disney Channel children’s special in 1986. Rhino Records has just released a best-of album, and Sebastian--who is participating in Havens’ Woodstock commemorative tour--is reportedly at work on a new album.

MELANIE SAFKA

The quavery-voiced singer’s gospel-inflected “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)”--a Top 10 hit in 1970--was a perfect summary of the Woodstock vibe. She followed that with the sexual metaphor “Brand New Key,” a No. 1 hit in 1971. Save for time off to care for her three children, the Florida resident has toured regularly around the world, and wrote the lyrics to “First Time I Love Forever,” the love theme of the TV series “Beauty and the Beast.” She’s just completed a new album planned for U.S. release this year.

BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS

The first rock band to integrate its own jazzy horn section into the format, BST never repeated the success of its second album, which contained three million-selling singles: “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy,” “Spinning Wheel” and “And When I Die,” all featuring the soulful voice of David Clayton-Thomas. Clayton-Thomas left in 1972, replaced by a series of singers before rejoining in 1974. Various lineups have continued under the name since.

JOHNNY WINTER

The albino Texas bluesman became a favorite on the boogie guitar circuit in the ‘70s, returning to his roots by producing albums for blues great Muddy Waters in the late ‘70s. Winter’s latest album is “The Winter of ‘88,” released by MCA.

TIM HARDIN

The folk singer, best known for writing “If I Were a Carpenter,” died of a drug overdose in December, 1980. A best-of compilation, “Reason to Believe,” was released last year.

CANNED HEAT

The L.A.-based blues ‘n’ boogie band has carried on through the years, but without focal points Al Wilson (the voice behind the hit “Goin’ Up the Country”), who died in 1970, and Bob (the Bear) Hite, who passed away in 1981.

JEFF BECK GROUP

An English group featuring the talents of ex-Yardbirds guitarist Beck, singer Rod Stewart and bassist Ron Wood. Stewart and Wood later joined the Faces, before going on to solo stardom and a slot in the Rolling Stones, respectively. Beck moved into jazz-rock fusion in the mid-’70s, hooked up briefly with Stewart again in 1984, and released his most recent solo album, the rock-oriented “Flash,” in 1985.

ARLO GUTHRIE

Woody’s son, still best known for his whimsical folkie adventure “Alice’s Restaurant” and the movie version of the tale, continues as an active solo performer. He recently performed for the first time in his father’s home town of Okemah, Okla.

RAVI SHANKAR

Recognized as the premiere master of Indian classical music, the sitarist teamed with his student, George Harrison, in putting on 1971’s “Concert for Bangladesh.” In addition to numerous recordings and concert tours, Shankar composed the music for the film “Gandhi.”

SLY & THE FAMILY STONE

Sly Stone’s star kept on the rise following Woodstock (remember his much-hyped wedding at Madison Square Garden?), but erratic behavior and musical quality brought his hit-making days to an end by the mid-’70s. Since then, his resume is notable mostly for several drug-related arrests, and a comeback attempt was cut short in 1987 when the singer was arrested for failure to make child-support payments before the second of a two-night stand at a Los Angeles theater. Nonetheless, Stone (real name: Sylvester Stewart) remains an influential figure in rock and soul music.

INCREDIBLE STRING BAND

Scottish hippie mystics, the ISB continued experimenting with various musical, film and theater presentations into the mid-’70s. Co-leader Robin Williamson now concentrates on Celtic music and mythology, which is the focus of his annual series of Winter Solstice house concerts in Los Angeles.

CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL

At the time of the fest, CCR was the top singles band in the country and was a key link between the AM Top 40 world and the growing power of the FM radio “underground.” After splitting up the group in 1972, leader John Fogerty had some success with a one-man-band country-rock “Blue Ridge Rangers” album, but then disappeared after his 1974 solo album failed to hit. He re-emerged 10 years later with the mega-hit album “Centerfield,” and followed that up two years later with the lesser “Eye of the Zombie,” which he supported with his first post-Creedence concert tour.

MOUNTAIN

This power trio had a reputation for heaviness, musically as well as physically (guitarist Leslie West titled a mid-’70s solo album “The Great Fatsby”). After Mountain broke up, West hooked up with ex-Cream bassist Jack Bruce in the mountainous West, Bruce & Laing. Recently, West has appeared with comedian Sam Kinison performing “Wild Thing.”

BERT SOMER

According to a recent letter printed in the record-collectors journal Goldmine, this folkie, best-known for his song “We’re All Playing in the Same Band,” now performs in small clubs around his hometown of Albany, N.Y.

JIMI HENDRIX

Died of asphyxiation on Sept. 18, 1970, in London, but remains one of the most influential and imitated guitarists in rock.

JANIS JOPLIN

Died of a drug overdose, Oct. 4, 1970. Still revered as one of rock’s most powerful vocalists.

WAVY GRAVY

This counterculture clown who emceed Woodstock is still going strong with his provocative post-Aquarian satire and buffoonery. Last year, Relix Records released “The ‘80s Are Just the ‘60s Twenty Years Later,” a new album featuring a cut titled “Green Acid at Woodstock.”

The Missing

Even extensive inquiries made by the Brooklyn-based Relix magazine--which focuses on music related to the Woodstock generation--turned up little or no information on the fates of the three remaining known Woodstock acts: British blues-rocker Keef Hartley (who was active at least into the mid-’70s with a band called Dog Soldier) and the bands Sweetwater (a San Francisco group that released several albums on Warner Bros.) and Quill (one person who attended Woodstock recalls only that the band included a flute player).