| "Woodstock" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Side B of the Canadian single | ||||
| Single byJoni Mitchell | ||||
| from the albumLadies of the Canyon | ||||
| A-side | "Big Yellow Taxi" | |||
| Released | April 1970 | |||
| Recorded | 1970 | |||
| Studio | A&M,Hollywood | |||
| Genre | Folk rock[1] | |||
| Length | 5:25 | |||
| Label | Reprise | |||
| Songwriter | Joni Mitchell | |||
| Producer | Joni Mitchell | |||
| Joni Mitchell singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Official audio | ||||
| "Woodstock" by Joni Mitchell onYouTube | ||||
"Woodstock" is a song written by Canadian-American singer-songwriterJoni Mitchell. At least four versions of the song were released in 1970. Mitchell's own version was first performed live in 1969 and appeared in April 1970 on her albumLadies of the Canyon and as the B-side to her single "Big Yellow Taxi". A version byCrosby, Stills, Nash & Young appeared on their albumDéjà Vu in March 1970 and became a staple ofclassic rock radio and the best-known version of the song in the United States. A third version, by the British bandMatthews Southern Comfort, became the best-known version in the United Kingdom and was the highest charting version of the song in the UK, reaching the top of the Singles Chart in 1970. A fourth version by studio projectthe Assembled Multitude also became a chart hit.
The song's lyrics refer to the four-dayWoodstock Music and Arts Festival held in August 1969, and tell the story of a concert-goer on a trek toMax Yasgur's farm in New York State to join in the "song and celebration". Mitchell, who was unable to perform at the festival herself, was inspired to write the song after she heard an account of it from her then-boyfriendGraham Nash, who had performed at the festival. Mitchell'santhemic song and the festival it commemorated became symbolic of thecounterculture of the 1960s.
Joni Mitchell's lyrics were based on the description of theWoodstock Music and Art Festival she was given by her then-boyfriend,Graham Nash. She had not been able to go to the festival herself because a manager had told her that it would be more advantageous for her to appear onThe Dick Cavett Show. She composed the song in a hotel room in New York City as she watched televised reports of the festival. "The deprivation of not being able to go provided me with an intense angle on Woodstock", she told an interviewer afterwards.[2]David Crosby, interviewed for the documentaryJoni Mitchell: Woman of Heart and Mind, said Mitchell had captured in her song the feeling and importance of the Woodstock festival better than anyone who had actually been there.[3]
The lyrics tell the story of a spiritual journey toMax Yasgur's farm, where the festival was held, and make use of sacred imagery, comparing the festival site with theGarden of Eden ("and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden"). The saga commences with the narrator's encounter of a fellow traveler ("Well, I came upon a child of God, he was walking along the road") and concludes with their arrival at their destination ("by the time we got to Woodstock, we were half a million strong").There is also reference to the "mutual assured destruction" ideology of the Cold War ("bombers riding shotgun in the sky..."), contrasted with the peaceful intent of the festival goers ("...turning into butterflies above our nation").[4][5]
Mitchell performed "Woodstock" seated at a piano at the1969 Big Sur Folk Festival, one month after Woodstock, prior to its release on any album. Her solo performance can be seen in the festival concert filmCelebration at Big Sur, released in 1971. (Mitchell had not yet developed her distaste for large festival gigs.[6]) "Woodstock" was released on Mitchell's third album,Ladies of the Canyon in April 1970, and served as theB-side for the album's single, "Big Yellow Taxi". She re-recorded "Woodstock" for her two live albums,Miles of Aisles andShadows and Light. The original track was included on the 1996 compilationHits and featured a stark and haunting arrangement of solo vocal,multi-tracked backing vocals andtremoloedWurlitzer electric piano, all performed by Mitchell.[citation needed]
| "Woodstock" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 One of side-A labels of the US single | ||||
| Single byCrosby, Stills, Nash & Young | ||||
| from the albumDéjà Vu | ||||
| B-side | "Helpless" | |||
| Released | March 1970 | |||
| Recorded | 5 November 1969 | |||
| Studio | Wally Heider Studio C, San Francisco Studio III, Los Angeles | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:54 | |||
| Label | Atlantic | |||
| Songwriter | Joni Mitchell | |||
| Producers | Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young | |||
| Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Audio sample | ||||
| Official audio | ||||
| "Woodstock" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young onYouTube | ||||
At about the same time thatLadies of the Canyon appeared,Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's upbeatrock arrangement of "Woodstock" was released as the lead single from their 1970Déjà Vu album. The CSNY version opened with a lead guitarriff played byNeil Young,[citation needed] who also played the solo.Stephen Stills sang the lead vocal, with backing harmonies fromDavid Crosby,Graham Nash, and Young. The Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young version of "Woodstock" was also notable for its stop-time instrument patterns, just prior to the "We are stardust, we are golden..." chorus.[4]
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young had learned the song from Mitchell, who was Nash's girlfriend at the time, but the band's version introduced major changes in tone.Jimi Hendrix was involved early in the song's development, and a recording taped on 30 September 1969, half a year before the album came out, with Hendrix playing bass and overdubbing guitar, was released in 2018 on the albumBoth Sides of the Sky. Sound engineerEddie Kramer stated that with Jimi was "... helping the song along, it sounds like Crosby, Stills & Hendrix".[7] The final version had Stephen Stills singing a slightly rearranged version of Mitchell's lyrics which put the line "we are billion year old carbon", which only appeared in her final chorus, into each of the first three choruses. That line was replaced with "we are caught in the devil's bargain" in the last chorus, which was also in Mitchell's final chorus.
"Woodstock" was one of the fewDéjà Vu tracks on which Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young all performed their parts in the same session. The original lead vocal by Stephen Stills was later partly replaced with a vocal recorded by Stills, who recalled: "I replaced one and a half verses that were excruciatingly out of tune." Neil Young disagreed, saying that "the track was magic. Then later on [Crosby, Stills & Nash] were in the studio nitpicking [with the result that] Stephen erased the vocal and put another one on that wasn't nearly as good."[8]
The Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young version of "Woodstock" peaked at #11 on theBillboard Hot 100 in May 1970 and #3 in Canada.[9] A different recording of "Woodstock" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young was played under the closing credits of the documentary filmWoodstock released March 1970.[citation needed]
Cash Box said that "C, S, N & Y steam along with a splendid song by Joni Mitchell" and "the foursome offer some much more solid undercurrents in the instrumental end."[10]
Additional musicians
| "Woodstock" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 One of side-A labels of the US single | ||||
| Single byMatthews Southern Comfort | ||||
| from the albumLater That Same Year | ||||
| B-side |
| |||
| Released | 24 July 1970 (UK) November 1970 (US) | |||
| Recorded | 1970 | |||
| Genre | Folk rock,psychedelic rock | |||
| Length | 4:26 | |||
| Label | Uni | |||
| Songwriter | Joni Mitchell | |||
| Producer | Iain Matthews | |||
| Matthews Southern Comfort UK singles chronology | ||||
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| Matthews Southern Comfort US singles chronology | ||||
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"Woodstock" became an international hit in 1970 and 1971 thanks to a recording byMatthews Southern Comfort. The group performed "Woodstock" in the UK'sLive in Concert program, broadcast byBBC Radio 1 on 28 June 1970. Front manIain Matthews recalled later that the group had prepared three songs for the session but the BBC needed one more, and he had suggested an impromptu cover of "Woodstock", having heardJoni Mitchell's version on herLadies of the Canyon album earlier that week.[11] There was a positive response to the song after the broadcast and the BBC contacted Matthews's label,Uni Records. According to Matthews, the label "had no idea what the [BBC] were talking about and contacted my management, who asked me about it. Uni suggested that we record the song and add it to the newly recorded Matthews Southern Comfort album,Later That Same Year. I declined to mess with the completed album, but agreed to have them release the song as a single."[11]
Matthews said his band's BBC Radio performance of "Woodstock" echoed the original, but for the studio recording of the song, made atMorgan Sound in Willesden Green, London, the band radically changed the arrangement.[12] Matthews later admitted to unease when he eventually met Joni Mitchell because he had changed the melody of the song ("... I couldn't reach [her] high notes"[12]) but Mitchell said she preferred his arrangement.[12] Matthews Southern Comfort bassist Andy Leigh recalled, "We took [the song] apart and reassembled it and we knew we had something. We were an album band. We didn't do singles." (Uni had issued one single off each of the first two of the three Matthews Southern Comfort albums, but neither charted.) "But we knew this [track] ... was something special."[13]
MCA Records, Uni's parent company, agreed to release Matthews Southern Comfort's version of "Woodstock" only if the Crosby Stills Nash & Young version failed to chart in the United Kingdom. When that proved to be the case, Leigh said MCA "reluctantly released ours because of that agreement, but they wouldn't spend a penny on promotion ... But our managers, who were excellent, hired a PR, a song-plugger.Tony Blackburn, who had the breakfast show on Radio 1, played 'Woodstock' and kept playing it and other DJs started doing the same."[13] Matthews recalled that once Blackburn had made "Woodstock" by Matthews Southern Comfort his record of the week, "it began to sell 30,000 copies a day, eventually going from #10 to #1 in a week."[11]
Issued on 24 July 1970, "Woodstock" debuted on the UK Top 50 on 26 September 1970 and reached #1 on 31 October 1970, remaining there for two additional weeks. It was a #2 hit in Ireland and had widespread success in Europe, charting in Austria (#15), Denmark (#9), Finland (#23), Germany (#27), the Netherlands (#17), Norway (#2), Poland (#2), and Sweden (#2). In early 1971 the track also reached #3 in South Africa, #4 in New Zealand[14] and was a minor hit in Australia (#55).
In November 1970, "Woodstock" by Matthews Southern Comfort had its US single release on the group's regular US label,Decca Records, another MCA affiliate. Initially the single's US release had only a marginal impact, spending six weeks on the 101–150 singles chart inRecord World in December 1970 – January 1971 and then dropping off, having peaked at #110.[15] But after its January 1971 single release in Canada, where a 30%Canadian Content radio airplay quota was being phased in, the track received airplay, at least partially because of its Canadian author,[16] and assisted by airplay on Canadian radio stations with US listeners, notablyCKLW, theWindsor ON station credited with the track's Canadian "breakout",[17] "Woodstock" gained newfound US interest, debuting on theBillboard Hot 100 of 6 March 1971 at #83 and rising to a #23 Hot 100 that May. In Canada "Woodstock" reached a #5 peak on theRPM 100 singles chart.[18]
By the time of the North American success of Matthews Southern Comfort's "Woodstock", the band was no more. An October 1970 shake-up at MCA Records (UK) had resulted in the band splitting with MCA , causing the cancellation of a US tour that was set to begin that November, the month of "Woodstock's" US single release.[19] In December 1970 Matthews abruptly quit the band. He later attributed his departure to the demands that came with the band's success with "Woodstock". He said, "It created all this peripheral stuff that took up my time. What would've been time learning to be a songwriter, became time spent doing interviews, photographs, tours and appearances;"[20] "It all came to a head after a dreadful soundcheck at Birmingham town hall. I left the building, walked down to the station, got on a train home and locked my door for a week."[21] Matthews' debut solo albumIf You Saw Thro' My Eyes was released onVertigo Records on 1 May 1971.[22] His former band co-members had threeHarvest Records album releases as Southern Comfort before disbanding in 1972.[23]
In the UK, "Woodstock" was the final single release by Matthews Southern Comfort, who had released two previous non-charting UK singles, and "Woodstock" remained Matthews' sole UK charting single. (Although previously a member ofFairport Convention, he had not featured on their one charting single, "Si tu dois partir", and he did not rank in the UK charts as a solo artist). In other territories, two further tracks were issued as singles from the third and final Matthews Southern Comfort album,Later That Same Year, which outside the UK included "Woodstock" : "Mare, Take Me Home" and "Tell Me Why", both of which made theBillboard Hot 100 at respectively #96 and #98, while "Mare, Take Me Home" peaked at #86 in Canada Matthews Southern Comfort had a total of four US single releases, having had one non-charting US single, "Colorado Springs Eternal", in April 1970. Iain Matthews – as Ian Matthews – as a solo act placed three singles on theBillboard Hot 100 and also the Canadian charts, one of which, the November 1978 release "Shake It", became a major hit, reaching aBillboard Hot 100 peak of #13 in April 1979, and reaching #6 in Canada.
Despite his difficulties with the success of "Woodstock" in 1970, Matthews said in 2017, "Any kind of success in this business takes me by surprise. 'Woodstock' was the first and most exciting. It's still opening new doors to this day."[24]
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
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