Fifty years ago some 400,000 young people converged in a field in upstate for a festival that rocked the world. Jim Shelley ’72 was there. Still is.

By Kelley Freund

n a Saturday afternoon in late “What’s that spell?” but they decide to stick around when the April, the only sound in the Five times Country Joe asked the ques- woman selling tickets mentions a tour will O grassy bowl behind the Bethel tion, and five times the crowd sent its be starting in a few minutes. Woods Center for the Arts in Bethel, New response rumbling back across the field. So here they stand, facing a 10-by-20- York, is the occasional passing car. Some- A young man seated a couple hundred foot photograph pasted on the back wall times one stops, and a few people get out yards from the stage, headed into his that depicts thousands of people watch- to walk up a short slope, stare down at sophomore year at the University of Notre ing a sunrise. And as their guide starts his the field and read a plaque. But 50 years Dame, felt his ears pound with each word, spiel by announcing how much time they ago, on the weekend of August 15, 1969, as the exhalation of almost half a million can expect to spend wandering through the scene was different. For one thing, rock music fans moved the air and carried the 1960s, two volunteers near the en- it was muddier, but most important was the obscenity over the hills of Sullivan trance exchange glances and snicker. For the noise. Voices sang, drums pounded, County. Those gathered for The Wood- the group is standing in front of Jim Shel- guitars riffed (and one was smashed), ap- stock Music and Art Fair had something to ley ’72, and Shelley’s tours never last just plause roared, laughter rolled. And on that say, and they wanted the world to know it. 45 minutes. Saturday afternoon, a man named Country “Well, come on, all you big strong men. “When I was here back in 1969, 50 Joe McDonald came to a stage near the Uncle Sam needs your help again. He’s got years ago . . .” Shelley begins, his voice edge of that field and shouted into a mic. himself in a terrible jam, way down yonder trailing off as he sits down on a bench, “Gimme an F!” in Viet Nam.” feigning surprise. The group laughs. “Fifty The audience shouted back. “F!” The crowd sang along with Coun- years ago — how can that be?” “Gimme a U!” try Joe, quietly at first, then louder and He is wearing the typical tour-guide “U!” louder. getup you would expect to find in a typi- What followed was a brief spelling les- “Put down your books and pick up a cal museum: khaki pants and a blue polo son on one of the most liberating expres- gun. We’re gonna have a whole lotta fun. shirt. But the black Converse sneakers sions of emphasis in the English language. And it’s one, two, three, what are we fight- and beat-to-hell leather bag covered in The weightiness of this particular word ing for? Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn. stickers tell you this afternoon makes it applicable to many situations, The next stop is Viet Nam. And it’s five, six, might not be typical. from elation to pain to frustration. For the seven, open up the pearly gates. Well, there The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts estimated 400,000-plus people sitting in ain’t no time to wonder why. Whoopee, does not bill itself as a Woodstock mu- the grass that day — 400,000 who wanted we’re all gonna die!” seum but as a cultural center and concert to fight against the grain but not in the venue. The building, set back from the top , 400,000 who wanted to be “This is a 45-minute tour.” of the festival hillside, houses an event understood, who wanted to yell, who just The 15 or so people gathered in the lobby space, a conservatory for arts programs wanted to rock — the word meant the of Bethel Woods today have no idea this is and a main exhibit that places Wood- freedom to do that. a running joke among the center’s docents. stock within the context of the 1960s. In In fact, most of the group didn’t even the summer of 2019, musicians ranging Kelley Freund is a freelance writer based in know docent tours were available when from to Nelly are playing in the 7 2 ' Virginia who runs marathons and eats ice they arrived at the site of the infamous 15,000-seat amphitheater. cream in her spare time. She was born 15 Woodstock in sleepy Bethel. They may Shelley began volunteering at the cen- years after Woodstock but loves Creedence

s h e l l e y have expected a self-guided trip through a ter eight years ago, becoming a docent

Clearwater Revival and now, thanks to this story, . in 2014. Before that, no one ever asked j i m world of tie-dye, hippies and rock ’n’ roll,

50 n o t r e d a m e m a g a z i n e S u m m e r 2 0 1 9 51 him about Woodstock — about his favor- ite performance that summer, whether the festival changed his life or if it really closed down the New York State Thruway. No one asked to hear his story. But now, at Bethel Woods, people ask. So for the next “45 minutes,” Shelley will talk about the rise of a youth countercul- ture in the 1960s. He will, for the benefit Like Shelley (below, leading one of his of visitors with children present, come up tours) and his friend, with a surprising number of innovative eu- Tony Tufano, the phemisms to describe the decade’s drug young people came for the music and culture. He will pull a wireless speaker out stayed for the tribal 7 2

of his bag so guests can hear experience that '

and Bob Dylan. And he will share anec- became a symbol of their generation, dotes from his two days at the world’s freedom and peace. s h e l l e y most famous music festival, including the moment he snapped a photo just before j i m took the stage at sun- rise, and how 50 years later it wound up on a museum wall. so when the time came for Jim to pick a Shelley changed his major his sopho- But even as Beatlemania hit in 1964, not only talked about the music, but about (an idea that came to them at 2 a.m. after a college, he said to himself, “Well, that’s more year, and it was around that time music in the U.S. had begun to change — the issues behind it.” game of bumper pool and a few joints), the a sign of something percolating in Ameri- In the summer of 1969, the summer rift in American society was large enough “I ran all the way home just where you apply, I guess.” that he took a job at The Huddle. He came to say I’m sorry. What can He thought he wanted to be an aero- home smelling like a grill, and the singles can society. of Woodstock, Shelley took a job doing to spark immediate controversy around I say? I ran all the way, yay, space engineer, so during his first semes- on the jukebox played over and over in electrical work on construction projects the festival. From Saugerties to Wallkill to yay, yay.” ter he took 21 credits, including courses his head while he tried to sleep, including “But first, are you experi- in , laboring alongside the White Lake, when New Yorkers heard who Shelley was born in 1950 in Cliffside Park, in calculus, chemistry and engineering. He a song by Gordon Lightfoot that still takes enced? Have you ever been same employees who, a year later, would was coming, they wanted no part of the New Jersey, across the Hudson River from was in ROTC for about 10 minutes, joined him back to his burger-flipping days. (His experienced? Well, I have.” wrap pipes in American flags and attack event and booted the organizers out. Harlem, to parents who were also born in the college radio station and eventually reaction this year when Bethel Woods an- It wasn’t only the lyrics that were dif- 1,000 high school and college war protest- “‘We don’t want them here,’” says Shel- Cliffside Park. But his story really doesn’t served as a manager for a few athletic nounced two nights of Lightfoot? “I’m not ferent. The sound was raw. Harder and ers. The entire decade was tumultuous, ley. “That was the feeling for a lot of the begin until he was 9 years old, and it be- teams. He spent way too much time play- going.”) heavier. When Jimi Hendrix and his band and not just because of the Vietnam War. local people.” gins with a “yay, yay, yay.” “Sorry (I Ran ing with his Spirograph. And by December, The important thing was that he got released Are You Experienced in 1967, the Beyond the students burning draft cards Three weeks before the festival, dairy All the Way Home)” by The Impalas was his GPA was 1.95. paid. “The need for money was always album not only showcased Hendrix’s cre- were race riots and political assassina- farmer offered one of his fields the first single Shelley ever bought, and “I was kind of ostrichlike that first se- something I was aware of,” Shelley says. ative guitar playing but combined R&B, tions that added to the tumult, and the in Bethel. Shelley heard about Woodstock from then on, buying music was how he mester,” says Shelley. “I stuck my head un- “My parents would send me some cash blues, pop and rock in a way no one had divide was growing between the conser- while he was home for the summer, and spent his childhood Friday nights — pick- derground and made believe I wasn’t hav- occasionally, but it wasn’t a regular thing. before. vative values of older generations and the the lineup — , , ing up his money from a paper route and ing any issues. ‘If I don’t think about it, it And I needed money to buy records.” “When you first hear Jimi Hendrix, new youth culture that was questioning Baez, the , Creedence Clear- stopping at the local record store or Wool- will go away.’” He got so far behind in cal- Shelley could buy records from the your reaction is, ‘What is that?’” Shelley the world around it. water Revival, , and worth’s on the way home. culus, it became a foreign language to him, bookstore but had to rely on his friends says. “He was not the first one to play The problems of the 1960s greatly in- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were among with chemistry and engineering headed in to play them — his parents wouldn’t let rock ’n’ roll. But no one had ever played it fluenced American music. Motown and the headliners — was too good to pass up. that direction, too. him bring his portable record player to like that. It was a whole shift in music.” R&B grew in popularity as the civil rights So Shelley and his high school friend But he did well in philosophy. He had school because they didn’t want him to That shift took place alongside the movement brought more black artists like Tony Tufano headed over to Village Oldies an A in English, and he loved to write. get distracted. He found other ways to do music industry’s step away from AM ra- Aretha Franklin and Smokey Robinson to to buy tickets for Saturday and Sunday, at “I had ability, I just had to focus it in that, like wandering the tunnels beneath dio and singles. Some teenagers, includ- mainstream airwaves — and to the ears of $7 a show. They were two of about 150,000 where my skills would be,” he says. Flanner Hall, but not all distractions were ing Shelley, began listening to albums. In suburban white kids like Shelley. Mean- people who purchased tickets for the That opportunity came thanks to an bad. He frequented Notre Dame’s movie 1967, when the Federal Communications while, rock ’n’ roll increasingly reflected event — but more than twice that number Intro to Sociology course he took as an and music series, which often included Commission forced radio stations to stop the shift from traditional values toward would make their way to Bethel. simulcasting all of their AM radio content personal freedom and sexual license, l o o m elective during his second semester. art and foreign films. After Woodstock, the b “Growing up, I always had the sense I Midwest Blues Festivals that Notre Dame on FM stations, some began experiment- spawning subgenres like psychedelic and “The New York State

r i a n didn’t quite know what was going on,” he hosted would help him hear how the Brit- ing with this album-oriented rock music. hard rock. The reverse was also true: Thruway is closed, man.” b says. “When I was 11 years old, I thought ish rock groups he loved so much, like One example was New York City’s WNEW- American music added to the tensions, as It wasn’t. But was having, as His father was what was known as a somebody had this book with all the an- The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, were FM, which Shelley listened to from Cliff- musicians like Bob Dylan and Shelley says during our tour, a rather “en- subway alumnus — he didn’t actually swers and somebody was going to give actually playing American music that had side Park. sang about social injustices for a younger hanced” evening. attend Notre Dame but became a fan me that book. And until then, I didn’t traveled to Great Britain and come back “All of a sudden, I’m hearing my mu- generation that was joining the protest. Somehow during the afternoon of the when the football team played Army at know shit. But sociology said, ‘This is how to the . By that time, he’d sic,” he says. “And here’s more of it I don’t By the time music producers Michael festival’s opening day, Friday, August 15, Yankee Stadium in the 1930s and ’40s. things work, this is why things are the way drunk all the Beatle juice he could. “If The know about yet! I was fortunate enough Lang and set out to cre- word got around that New York State When Jim was 10, his older brother, Pat- they are.’ I loved that. And I succeeded in Beatles played it, it was good,” he says. to be in an area where that type of music ate a three-day concert that would fund a Route 17B, which spans Sullivan County rick ’64, ’65M.A., went off to Notre Dame, it, which was very fortunate.” “Period.” was available to me, and where the DJs recording studio in Woodstock, New York and intersects with the Thruway at its

52 n o t r e d a m e m a g a z i n e S u m m e r 2 0 1 9 53 eastern end, was shut down. This much the festival at dawn. For reasons unbeknownst to Shel- was true: People had begun abandoning At 6 a.m., Shelley grabbed his sleeping ley, the way back was clear. He and Tu- their cars and walking the rest of the way bag, a borrowed camera with one roll of fano hitched a ride to the Oldsmobile on to Yasgur’s farm. But as the buzz spread film, a pair of binoculars and some food the roof of another car. Thankfully, the throughout the festival in a massive game money, and then he and Tufano hiked the Oldsmobile started. When they returned of Telephone, 17B became the New York remaining seven and a half miles to Wood- to Cliffside Park, Shelley’s parents yelled State Thruway. stock. Their destination was a muddy field at him for getting the sleeping bag dirty So, in the middle of his set, before that smelled of wet hay and pot. There and told him to wash it himself. He went launching into a cover of Dylan’s “Walkin’ were no ticket-takers, and they saw no to the laundromat, grinned at the “Stop Down the Line,” Guthrie made the an- phones or food stands, but there was the Draft” graffiti sprayed on a wall, and nouncement. Country Joe, who took the stage soon af- looked forward to listening to his new “Man, there’s supposed to be a million ter they found an open spot a couple hun- eight track of Creedence’s “Green River.” and a half people here by tonight. Can you dred yards away. dig that? The New York State Thruway is “What’s that spell?” “The important thing that closed, man. Lot of freaks.” “F—K!” you’ve proven to the world Shelley knows the Thruway wasn’t “If you’re in a classroom and someone is that half a million . . . closed because he was on it. But he says does that, it’s scandalous,” Shelley says. young people can get togeth- the statement, although false, was sym- “But if you’re with 500,000 people at a con- er and have three days of fun bolic. cert and you do that, afterwards, you turn and music and have nothing “At the time, there was a strong sense to Tony and say, ‘This is going to be cool.’” but fun and music. And . . . among many people, me included, that It was. Because they were listening to God bless you for it!” there’s them and there’s us,” he says. music, and it was their music. Santana’s Woodstock was not organized as a politi- “They don’t much like us. They don’t like “Soul Sacrifice” earned a standing ovation. cal event, but it made a statement. By the our music. They don’t like the way we During Canned Heat’s performance of “A time Max Yasgur blessed the crowd on Change Is Gonna Come,” a fan climbed on Sunday, the world had heard that 400,000 stage. Instead of kicking him off, singer people had gathered on a muddy field,

Bob Hite shared a cigarette with him. The with little to no food, water or security, l o o m b Who played all of Tommy at 5 a.m. on Sun- and kept the peace. If that was possible, r i a n

day, then added a seven-minute version anything was. b Shelley in the Bethel, New York, field that of “My Generation” and “The Naked Eye,” For Shelley, Woodstock was a life- Max Yasgur once opened to the raucous 7 2 ’ which ended with Pete Townshend smash- affirming event. “Back home, you had your music festival known as Woodstock. ing his guitar. Shelley stood through the small group of friends who liked this mu- entire set. He danced to Sly and the Family sic or who felt this way about the world,” s h e l l e y

Stone. He yelled at two guys who stepped he says. “But generally speaking, you j i m on a sleeping Tufano. And the vision Shel- didn’t feel there were that many of you. Woods in 2008, he showed the director his mirrors 1969,” he says. “The things peo- a “Woodstock Whisperer.” Traffic was so backed up on State Route 17B that the two-lane became a parking lot. ley will take to the grave is Jefferson Air- So it was a very secure kind of feeling to photographs, one of which stood outside ple were hoping would change 50 years And here we are. plane’s “Plastic Fantastic Lover,” which ac- know there were a lot of us out there.” the entrance for 11 years. ago, many people are still hoping would “This was supposed to be a 45-minute dress. They don’t like the fact that we’re companied Sunday’s sunrise. He snapped It was life-affirming, but Shelley had Shelley began volunteering in 2011, change. Another docent talks about this tour,” Shelley says more than an hour af- against the war. So anything we could do a photo right before walked out other things to focus on, like bringing up and at first, he couldn’t understand how on his tour. He says, ‘we’ve gotten through ter he marveled at where those 50 years to them was cool. The idea that we could on the stage — it was the first time he had his grades. He returned to Notre Dame Woodstock had become so much more a civil war, we got through the 1960s, and have gone. “So if anyone asks, it was 45 have closed a major highway — then, ha! stayed up all night. for his sophomore year. He and his high than a baby boomer event meaningful we’re going to get through this.’ It’s just minutes.” We showed them.” ’s “With a Little Help from school sweetheart, Joyce, were married in only to baby boomers. But one day, he easier said than done when you’re in the No one ever asks about that, but plenty When Shelley and Tufano heard about My Friends” brought the rain on Sunday December 1971, and they moved back to had a conversation with a young German middle of it.” of people seem willing to help Shelley get the traffic heading into Bethel, they de- afternoon, and it was then that Shelley, Cliffside Park the following May so Shelley couple whose parents had been living in Shelley works hard to spread the festi- away with his lie. Some hang around for cided to drive the hour and 45 minutes Tufano and the majority of the crowd de- could begin a graduate program in psy- East Berlin under communist rule when val’s message, and by now his Woodstock another 15 minutes to see photos on his that night in Tufano’s recently retransmis- cided to head out. When Hendrix took the chology at Fairleigh Dickinson University. they heard about Woodstock. reputation has reached beyond Bethel iPad, to take a closer look at his festival sioned Oldsmobile. As they reached the stage early Monday morning and played In January 1973, their first son was born, “It represented so much to them,” says Woods. Leading up to the 50th anniversa- tickets or to ask the Woodstock Whisperer parking lot that was 17B, the transmission his now-famous version of “The Star- and by April 1985, they’d had their sixth Shelley. “And not because of the music, ry, he has been asked for his photographs more questions about the festival. began to slip, and Tufano stopped in front Spangled Banner,” maybe 30,000 people child. Shelley worked as a teacher for 17 but because of this thing that happened and interviewed for books. He Skyped “I’ve started to realize how truly in- of a closed restaurant. Some people in the remained. years before becoming a guidance coun- that never in a million years could happen with group of students from France who terested these people are in the ’60s,” he cars around them said the festival was “That’s why I tell people on my tours to selor and, later, a school administrator. in East Germany. They thought, ‘Maybe wanted his input for a commemorative says. “I always thank people for visiting cancelled. Others said it was still on. look for hippies in the photos,” says Shel- For years, Woodstock was a distant someday we’ll be as free as that?’” event. He gave a talk at his hometown the center and asking questions. Because Shelley turned to his friend. “What do ley. “You’ll only find a few. Hippies would memory, until the couple purchased a va- It then dawned on him what Woodstock library. He also has a website where he up until I started doing this, nobody was you want to do, Tony?” have stayed until Monday, because what cation home in eastern Pennsylvania 25 was — no mere music event, but a symbol shares his Woodstock experience and interested in the story. I didn’t even think I Tufano, the high school valedictorian, else did they have to do? But most people minutes from Bethel, and Shelley passed of freedom and peace. It’s a symbol Shel- puts the activism of the era in context had one. But it turned out I did. It’s a story decided the best thing to do was take a had to go to work or school or return their through the little town once again. Not ley says is still much-needed in 2019. with what preceded it — and what has that fits into a bigger one. And whatever nap in the car, then abandon it to walk to parents’ car.” long before the museum opened at Bethel “Unfortunately, the reality of today followed it. One day, a guest called him part of that I can be, that’s good.” o

54 n o t r e d a m e m a g a z i n e S u m m e r 2 0 1 9 55