Woodstock featured a good man firsts. The following two videos relate two of them involving the British band the Who. This might have been the first public performance of Pete Townshends classic rock opera Tommy. It was an opera about a young boy stricken with hysterical blindness, deafness, and dumbness (mute). Because his affliction was "all in his mind", however, Tommy was able to perform amazing feats that no deaf, dumb, or blind person should be able to even comprehend. This in time lead to him gathering a messianic aura and attendant following, one that eventually led to disaster for he and his followers and, by the end of the opera, a new and authentic spiritual awakening.
The Who performed most of the songs of the opera, in addition to some of their other standard numbers, but the performance was interrupted by, ironically, an individual who sought his own type of messianic following.
Radical Yippie activist Abby Hoffman at one point in the concert jumped on stage and, somehow grabbing a microphone, tried to engage in a bit of rabble rousing for the benefit of John Sinclair, the poet-activist and sometime music manager who was the head of the White Panther Party, and who at this point was in prison, the victim of a set-up wherein he purchased a joint of marijuana from some undercover officers.
This was not the time and the place. Townshend was intent on performing the groups new album Tommy, billed as the first rock opera, which he composed (with the exception of a couple of songs by bassist John Entwhistle and the Sonny Boy Williamson classic "Eyesight To The Blind") and attended Woodstock chiefly to promote.
Hoffman was out of line. Unfortunately, neither he nor the incident in full was captured on film. Following is the song Pinball Wizard. It is at the conclusion of this number that Hoffman makes his move.
The following description is from a comment left on the YouTube page of the following video
The Who's guitarist, Pete Townshend, was adjusting his amp between songs and turned to look at Hoffman over his right shoulder. Townshend ran with his Gibson S.G. and rammed it into Hoffman's upper middle back. Hoffman turned with mouth gaping, back arched with one hand trying to reach the injury as Townshend , disgruntled, put a hand in Hoffman's face and shoved him backwards to stage right. Townshend then said "I can dig it."
Amazingly, Hoffman later denied the incident ever transpired, but fortunately, we have the audio which, while not exactly proving in in every specific detail, at least provides a preponderance of evidence to the effect that the incident did in fact occur, and that Hoffman got exactly what he had coming to him.
As for Townshend, say what you will about the man, but there is a possibility that his actions prevented the show from descending into at least some slight degree of chaos. This was Hoffman's modus operandi-agitation, propaganda and, most especially, the use of abusive and disruptive tactics. Hoffman was, it would seem, actually encouraging attendees of the concert to leave and go to conduct a protest on behalf of Sinclair. Had Townshend not stopped him, given the degree of intoxication prevalent at the event, some might have agreed to do so. Had Townshend or the others not responded as they did, it might have even been seen as an encouragement from them to follow Hoffman, which might have given it even greater impetus.
I just thought it was a sweet irony that an event billed as a festival of peace and love required an act of violence in order to prevent its possible disruption. Thanks to Townshend's act of "wanton violence", the event was saved from being marred by what could have turned into an ugly, potentially violent situation involving fights among the attendees, and/or many leaving and conducting what could have turned into a violent protest, all of which would have provided propaganda fodder for the many at this time who viewed the festival with a suspicious and skeptical eye.
Instead of that, at the music, peace and love festival known as Woodstock occurred a perfect illustration of the fact that, desirable though peace of course is, sometimes it takes acts of violence to make the peace, keep the peace, and secure the peace.
I am sure there are some who will assert that Townshend is deserving of criticism for not engaging in a more "proportional response". Of course I disagree. If anything, he didn't go far enough. He shoved have shoved his guitar up Hoffman's ass. After all, he ended up busting up the damn thing anyway.
3 comments:
Abby Hoffman was the only member of the Chicago 8, who didn't sellout.
I was introduced to him and Jerry Rubin. I was surprised how physically short they were. I expected them to be tall.
That's interesting. You ought to blog about stuff like that. You ought to do more posts in your own words, about your experiences and your own ideas and thoughts. You are a good enough writer to do it.
As for Hoffman and Rubin, well, that explains it. They were overcompensating, probably, like that ugly nosed freak Hayden that married Jane Fonda-and of course he became a Democrat. The idea of a guy like him influencing policy of a major political party makes me feel like I'm breaking out in hives.
Hoffman wrote a cookbook, I think. Some might call that selling out, I guess. I have to admit, the story about him going to the NY Stock Exchange and throwing money on the floor was funny, but otherwise he just strikes me as an obnoxious gas bag. I guess he could have been a nice enough guy in his private life, who knows?
A friend of mine stole Hoffman's book, Steal This Book.
Saw a bit about the concert on the History Charnel last night. One chick talked about Hoffman actually taking charge and organizing some stuff. Of course, he might have just been telling people to do what they were going to do anyway.....
They covered the Hoffman/Townshend meeting and the organizer indicated Hoffman was high and not thinking straight.
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