YOUNG MEN WITH UNLIMITED CAPITAL. . .

by Joel; John Roberts & Robert Pilpel Rosenman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 23, 1974

Joel and John along with two overgrown and greedy flower children, Michael and Artie (who will probably retaliate with their own version of these events) were the young men with unlimited capital who created Woodstock -- the three-day celebration of music and love which became the symbol of a generation. Five years later they look back on the manic frenzy of this colossal Aquarian hype with a rollicking mixture of cynicism and affection for the misspent cash and the innocent idealism which created the gigantic event that sucked up everything in sight especially John's trust fund which paid for the artists, the sound system, the food concession, the toilets, the helicopters, the walkie-talkies, the medical personnel, the dairy farm which became the festival grounds, the pay-offs to Abbie Hoffman and the Panthers, the sufferance of the hippie -- and marijuana-phobic town fathers of Bethel, N.Y., and the clean-up -- leaving him on the Monday morning after facing his bankers one million $ in the hole. Outsiders, even the media once it got tuned in, saw Woodstock as a Peter Pan fantasy come true. John and Joel saw it from another perspective: a threat of mass electrocution when the insulation in the sound system failed; irate locals who claimed that ""fields had been flattened. . .fodder fouled, fowl barbecued, virgins deflowered, flowers depollinated""; hysterical parents phoning to know if their kids had been trampled; icy calls from the Attorney General's office; no less than 70 damage suits necessitating an almost equal number of lawyers. In short, a better-than-average catastrophe. You can tell even at this remove that it only hurts when they laugh. The fact that everyone agreed that they had staged a ""phenomenon"" wasn't much consolation. It makes for a very funny book but you don't envy them their success.

Pub Date: Oct. 23, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1974

Categories: NONFICTION