Why didn’t the Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Doors and Led Zeppelin go to Woodstock?

Why didn’t The Beatles play at Woodstock? Were The Doors invited? Why couldn’t Iron Butterfly perform its 17+ minutes of the lysergic In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida? Why didn’t The Byrds fly to New York? What happened to Led Zeppelin? And Bob Dylan? Where were The Rolling Stones? Without them, the festival made history. With them, just now 50 years, it would have been enormous.

These are the reasons for their absences.

In August 1969, The Rolling Stones were in the process of restructuring. In June, during the recording of “Let it Bleed”, Brian Jones was fired. One month after, died drowning in his pool. He was replaced by Mick Taylor, who made his debut at a concert in Hyde Park, which became a tribute to Jones just two days after his death. They would not give a concert again until November, in Colorado.

At that time, They received the offer to play at Woodstockbut was rejected because Mick jaggerin a parenthesis between the Hyde Park concert and the recording of “Let it Bleed”, traveled to Australia to film the film “Ned Kelly” about the famous thief of the Australian bush. It was a 1970 flop that almost no one remembers and one of the reasons The Rolling Stones didn’t appear at Woodstock.

If there was a precedent for Woodstock, it was the Monterrey Pop Festival in 1967. There they played The Who, Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, The Byrds, Simon & Garfunkel or Jimi Hendrix to create a festival model that would later be repeated throughout the decades. The Doors were not there, nor would they appear at Woodstock. In August 1969, They were in a turbulent time. They had just published The Soft Paradesurely his weakest job and also, Jim Morrison was involved in controversy for his scandalous concert in Miami, for which he would be tried and which caused the cancellation of many of the group’s concerts.

The explanation was given by keyboardist Ray Manzarek in a talk on the group’s official website: “We never played Woodstock because we were stupid and turned it down. We thought it would be a second-class repeat of the Monterrey Pop Festival.” Guitarist Robbie Krieger added some more detail: “We thought that in a place 300 kilometers from New York no one would come to play. we were wrong“. As a curiosity, There was a member of The Doors who was at Woodstock: John Densmore. In one of the shots of Joe Cocker’s performance you can see the drummer of The Doors among the public.

After leaving The Yardbirds, one of England’s most influential groups in the ’60s, guitarist Jeff Beck joined singer Rod Stewart, bassist Ron Wood, drummer Mickey Waller and keyboardist Nicky Hopkins to form the Jeff Beck Group. In June 1969 they had just released Beck-Olatheir second album, and were invited to Woodstock. In fact, They appeared on the bill to play on August 17but they didn’t.

It was always said that they did not attend the meeting because the band had dissolved. However, there is another version. He gave it to Rod Stewart in his autobiography Rod: The autobiography: “We stayed in a hotel at JFK airport with the plan to skip the event and return to London the same night. But a call came. Jeff lost his mind. He had heard about a rumor, which turned out to be false: His wife was having an affair with the gardener. He decided to go home and it was all over.“. In the end, a member of the group was at Woodstock: Nicky Hopkins, who played with Jefferson Airplane.

Ian Anderson’s group had not yet hit the ball. Before the festival, he had released his second album, “Stand Up”, and there were two years left until the release of the renowned “Aqualung”. Even so, were invited to play at Woodstockbut Anderson preferred to stay in the shadows to establish the British group musically.

In an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer, explained that the band was looking for their identity. He considered that It was “early” to play at a festival that I knew was going to become something huge.. At his record company, Chrysalis Recordsthere was Ten Years After, which did play Woodstock and got the worldwide push it needed.

Decades later, Anderson ran into the group at a festival and asked bassist Leo Lyons what they were going to play. “He replied: ‘The same as at Woodstock’. They were still doing the same thing 40 years later. For me, it would have been putting limits on our music to be known only for the songs we had played at the festival. For them it was like a curse because they never stopped being associated with Woodstock. My decision not to play at the festival has been one of the best of my career“.

The name of the British band appeared on the first original poster of the festival, but in the end they didn’t play at Woodstock. By 1969 they had five albums on the market, including the acclaimed “Days of Future Passed” and “On the Threshold of a Dream.”

The reason why they did not complete their presence at the festival was explained in 2016 by Justin Hayward, the band’s guitarist, in an interview with the American publication OnMilwaukee. “Sometimes I wonder if it was a good decision. We were on the list for some of the posters. Ultimately, we decided not to play Woodstock because we had built a solid fan base in Europe. We played in Paris on Woodstock weekend and then at the Isle of Wight festival. Ironically, to Bob Dylan was also asked to play at Woodstock, it was not and also appeared on the Isle of Wight.”

Another of the groups that appeared on the original poster and what he finally didn’t play was Iron Butterfly. The thousands of festival attendees were left without hearing “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”, iconic song of the decade of almost 18 minutes. The cause, a helicopter that never arrived. Michael Lang, the festival’s main promoter, wrote the reasons for Iron Butterfly’s absence in the book “The Road to Woodstock”: “They were booked for Sunday afternoon, but John Morris (production coordinator) told me that their agent He had called at the last minute demanding a helicopter. We were up to our noses with problems and I told him to forget. “We had more important things to deal with.”

Then, Morris, in response to Iron Butterfly’s demands, responded with a telegram containing a hidden message that can be deciphered. Each capital letter at the beginning of each sentence brought together another forceful letter: “For reasons I can’t go into ORntil you are here clarifying your situation Knowing you are having problems ANDyou will have to find EITHERther transportation OR“For reasons I can’t say until you’re here Clarifying your situation Knowing you’re having trouble You’ll have to find Other transportation Unless you plan not to come.

After a motorcycle accident, Bob Dylan took refuge in his house, which was precisely very close to where Woodstock would be held. Since July 1966 he lived in seclusion and was hardly seen in public. In his basement he recorded with The Band and released “John Wesley Harding” and “Nashville Skyline.” Except for an appearance in 1968 at a concert in honor of Woody Guthrie at Carnegie Hall in New York, Dylan did not add more in three years. The organization did not hesitate to invite Dylan, who declined the invitation.

The causes are still not known with certainty. There are two theories: the illness of one of his children or that he could not stand his house being surrounded by hippies.. In the end, he reappeared on August 31 at the Isle of Wight Festival, just two weeks after Woodstock. Of all those absent, he was the closest.

Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin’s manager, received the invitation to play at Woodstock. In the midst of the group’s takeoff, with his first album on the marketwanted to promote the name of its constituents and that they were not overshadowed by anyone. Therefore, he decided to have Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham play at Asbury Park in New Jersey on August 16. Specifically, they gave two passes, at 7:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.

Curiously, Joe Cocker shared the stage with Led Zeppelin, who was headlining. When he finished his concert, went straight to the Woodstock Festival. Grant declined the invitation and Joe Cocker triumphed with an unforgettable performance.

In the midst of the band’s breakdown, The Beatles were invited to the festival. Woodstock came at a bad time for the “Fab Four”, who were immersed in what would be their swan song, “Abbey Road”, which would be released in September 1969 and whose recording was completed on August 20. Before, in January, they offered what would be his last concert in history, the well-known appearance on the Apple Corps rooftop in London. They would never play together in public again..

But, the reason they didn’t go to Woodstock, It was always a mystery and there are several theories about. The first, that John Lennon demanded to play with Plastic Ono Band with Yoko Ono. The second, that John Lennon could not enter the United States due to visa problems for his criticism of Richard Nixon and for an arrest for drug possession in 1968. In the end, The most likely cause was simply that they could no longer stand each other. and their days as The Beatles were numbered.

It had been a while since The Byrds had given their lineup a twist. First, David Crosby, Michael Clarke and Gene Clarke dropped out. In between, with Chris Hilmann and Gram Parsons, they changed their style and They changed psychedelic pop for country-rock which would reach its zenith “Sweetheart of the Rodeo”. Before Woodstock, Hillman and Parsons had already left the group, and, in August 1969, it consisted of McGuinn himself, Clarence White, Gene Parsons and John York.

While on tour in the United States, during a flight, Roger Mcguinn was informed by his manager of the possibility of playing at a festival that was being held in New York. However, there was a rumor that They weren’t paying all the bands and finally decided they wouldn’t come.. “We missed the best festival”York would say years later. The Byrds played on August 11 in Boston and did not do so again until the 31st in New Orleans. In between, they missed Woodstock.

JJLahuerta – EFE Agency. 20 minutes