Stevie speaks on Woodstock Museum film

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http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/a...805290323/1005

Get a sneak peek at the new Woodstock museum

Colorful exhibits tell story of iconic 1969 show

A museum built on the site of the 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair that marks one of the world's most famous concerts is much more than a building that displays artifacts.


The interior of the Museum at Bethel Woods explodes with vibrant, almost fluorescent colors that conjure the rockets' red glare immortalized in Jimi Hendrix's infamous, improvised version of the "Star-Spangled Banner" at the Woodstock concert.

The museum is made up of a 6,278-square-foot exhibit gallery, a 132-seat theater, an events gallery, a shop, a 1,000-seat outdoor terrace stage and more, all of which revolve around a majestic building reminiscent of an Adirondack mountain lodge.

Memorabilia from the concert - the jumpsuit worn by master of ceremonies Wavy Gravy, the keyboard used by the band Sha Na Na and correspondence about concert security that law enforcement officials exchanged prior to the first note being played, to name a few - offers new angles on a historical event debated, discussed, dissected and analyzed over and over again for decades.

Video footage - of the 1960s space program, President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. - broadcast on large walls and immense screens places the concert into a societal, political and cultural context that underscores the meaning of this event beyond the music.

The not-for-profit Gerry Foundation, which is based in Sullivan County and which built Bethel Woods Center for the Arts on the original concert site, offered a sneak peek of its new museum to the press Wednesday. On hand to celebrate were musician Richie Havens, who opened the concert; John Sebastian, who played at the concert and lives in the Town of Woodstock; and Vernon Reid, who did not play Woodstock but fronted the band Living Colour.

This historical repository dazzles the senses, covers new ground on an old issue and provides an opportunity to indulge in nostalgia while avoiding clichés.

The Museum at Bethel Woods opens Monday. On display are seven high-definition monitors, 15 interactive touch-screen computers, more than 300 objects and photographs and more than 2,000 pieces of music and film, as well as photographs, included in the films and interactive exhibits.

Alan Gerry, the cable television magnate who built Bethel Woods, sees the museum as he viewed a 15,000-seat concert pavilion he opened two years ago on the same property - as an economic engine to help a region of the state that was once flush with tourism.

"We think the addition of the museum to the performing arts center is going to be the catalyst to keep this place open 12 months a year," Gerry said during opening remarks Wednesday. "It's going to attract more tourism and that was the whole idea in the beginning, trying to do something to resurrect our community - to put it back on the map."

The museum's exhibits take visitors on a journey through the music of the 1960s, explain who played the Woodstock concert, who didn't play and why. There is an actual school bus painted in psychedelic colors and art, with a film about cross-country journeys to the Woodstock concert projected onto the windshield. And there is a Volkswagen Bug.

Exhibits also probe the baby boomer generation, civil rights, war and peace and other issues.

A centerpiece of the museum that underscores why hundreds of thousands traveled to Bethel in August 1969 is a 21-minute film featuring incredible performances from the concert, including rare footage. Scenes showing the Grateful Dead performing Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried" have rarely been shown; and former Dead bass player Phil Lesh offers a hilarious description - taped in recent years - of how helicopter pilot radio transmissions were broadcast through his amplifier during the Dead's famously awful set at Woodstock.

During the film, Fleetwood Mac vocalist Stevie Nicks talks about Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker talks about arriving at the concert and performing right away and Sly Stone discusses how he was in awe of performing on the same bill as Hendrix and Joplin.

Speaking to the point of the Woodstock spirit - the music and the era - were Havens and Sebastian, who participated in a panel discussion with Reid and DJ Dennis Elsas.

Sebastian told a hilarious story of attending Woodstock - after the breakup of The Lovin' Spoonful - as a member of the audience and then being asked to perform.

Havens talked of arriving at the stage by helicopter because traffic had shut down all the roads. He said he was asked to play first because his ensemble - guitar, percussion and vocals - needed the least equipment to get under way.

Reid spoke of Hendrix as a trailblazer - as both a musician, playing his unique style of electric guitar and as a black man, commanding such a prominent role in popular culture decades ago.

Reid, who referred to his fellow panelists as "Mr. Havens" and "Mr. Sebastian," seemed to capture the spirit of the day and the spirit of the museum, both of which, of course, are driven by the spirit of Woodstock.

"To me," Reid said, "Woodstock is a triumph of improvisation over planning."

Reach John W. Barry at [email protected] or 845-437-4822.