"Woodstock" is a song written by Canadian-American singer-songwriter Joni 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 album Ladies of the Canyon and as the B-side to her single "Big Yellow Taxi". A version by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young appeared on their album Déjà Vu in March 1970 and became a staple of classic rock radio and the best-known version of the song in the United States. A third version, by the British band Matthews 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 project the Assembled Multitude also became a chart hit.
The song's lyrics refer to the four-day Woodstock Music and Arts Festival held in August 1969, and tell the story of a concert-goer on a trek to Max 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-boyfriend Graham Nash, who had performed at the festival. Mitchell's song and the festival it commemorated became symbolic of the counterculture of the 1960s.
Lyrics Joni Mitchell's lyrics were based on the description of the Woodstock 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 on The 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.William Ruhlmann, "Joni Mitchell: From Blue to Indigo", Goldmine (1995) republished in Stacey Luftig, ed., The Joni Mitchell Companion: Four Decades of Commentary New York: Schirmer Books, pp. 37–38. Also available online at the Joni Mitchell Library David Crosby, interviewed for the documentary Joni 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.
The lyrics tell the story of a spiritual journey to Max Yasgur's farm, where the festival was held, and make use of sacred imagery, comparing the festival site with the Garden 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").
Releases and versions Joni Mitchell Mitchell performed "Woodstock" seated at a piano at the 1969 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 film Celebration at Big Sur, released in 1971. (Mitchell had not yet developed her distaste for large festival gigs.Ruhlmann, in Luftig, ed., p. 37; Phil Sutcliffe, "Joni Mitchell (interview)", Q, May 1988, republished in Lustig, ed., pp. 141–142.) "Woodstock" was released on Mitchell's third album, Ladies of the Canyon in April 1970, and served as the B-side for the album's single, "Big Yellow Taxi". She re-recorded "Woodstock" for her two live albums, Miles of Aisles and Shadows and Light. The original track was included on the 1996 compilation Hits and featured a stark and haunting arrangement of solo vocal, multi-tracked backing vocals and tremoloed Wurlitzer electric piano, all performed by Mitchell.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
At about the same time that Ladies of the Canyon appeared, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's upbeat rock arrangement of "Woodstock" was released as the lead single from their 1970 Déjà Vu album. The CSNY version opened with a lead guitar riff played by Neil Young, who also played the solo. Stephen Stills sang the lead vocal, with backing harmonies from David 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.
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 album Both Sides of the Sky. Sound engineer Eddie Kramer stated that with Jimi was "... helping the song along, it sounds like Crosby, Stills & Hendrix".Jimi Hendrix - Both Sides Of The Sky - Radio Special - Broadcast on 11/03/2018 (posted to YouTube on 11 April 2018) 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 few Déjà 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."
The Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young version of "Woodstock" peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1970 and #3 in Canada. A different recording of "Woodstock" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young was played under the closing credits of the documentary film Woodstock released March 1970.
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."
Personnel David Crosby – harmony vocals, electric rhythm guitar Stephen Stills – lead vocals, organ Graham Nash – harmony vocals, piano Neil Young – harmony vocals, electric lead guitar
Additional musicians Greg Reeves – bass guitar Dallas Taylor – drums
Matthews Southern Comfort
"Woodstock" became an international hit in 1970 and 1971 thanks to a recording by Matthews Southern Comfort. The group performed "Woodstock" in the UK's Live in Concert program, broadcast by BBC Radio 1 on 28 June 1970. Front man Iain 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 heard Joni Mitchell's version on her Ladies of the Canyon album earlier that week. 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 (ultimately appearing on its US edition and subsequent re-issues). I declined to mess with the completed album, but agreed to have them release the song as a single."
Matthews said his band's BBC Radio performance of "Woodstock" echoed the original, but for the studio recording of the song, made at Morgan Sound in Willesden Green, London, the band radically changed the arrangement. 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") but Mitchell said she preferred his arrangement. 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."
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." 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."
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 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 in Record World in December 1970 – January 1971 and then dropping off, having peaked at #110.Record World Vol 25 #1233 (23 January 1971) p. 47 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,Windsor Star 3 April 1971 "Pop" by John Laycock p.41 and assisted by airplay on Canadian radio stations with US listeners, notably CKLW, the Windsor ON station credited with the track's Canadian "breakout",Billboard Vol 83 #13 (27 March 1971) p. 53 "Woodstock" gained newfound US interest, debuting on the Billboard 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 the RPM 100 singles chart.