Woodstock, Day 4. August 18, 1969

By the early morning hours of the forth day of Woodstock, the crowd was tiring of the event and began to leave at first light.  Still, some remarkable acts played as the crowed dwindled.

Oddly enough, Roy Rogers was originally thought of to play the final number, which was to be Happy Trails, but he declined.

Johnny Winter.  I don't think very many remember the young Winter as performing at Woodstock, but he did, along with his brother Edgar.

Blood Sweat & Tears, who went on at 1:30 a.m.

Crosby Still, Nash & Young.  I've never cared for this band in any sense, and their Woodstock performance is no exception.

Paul Butterfield Blues Band. This band had been a blues band at one time but no longer was. Still, they opened with the blues number Born Under A Bad Sign which was most famously performed by Eric Clapton, who did not play at Woodstock.

Sha Na Na. This 50s revival band went on at 7:30 a.m.  It's odd to think of them even playing at Woodstock and its particularly odd if its considered that their hyped up nostalgic performance was revising music that was only a decade old.  Almost nothing about their performance seems to fit the era in which they were performing.  They preformed twelve songs in 30 fast minutes.

Jimi Hendrix.  Hendrix was the closing act as he insisted on the position, which unfortunately put his epic performance at the point at which the crowd had very much dispersed.  He played for two hours, playing nineteen songs, much longer than the few songs that are generally shown when Woodstock is recalled, and started off with his rendition of The Star Spangled Banner, one of fifty times he was recorded playing the national anthem.  A lot of his songs were played back to back with no interruption between them whatsoever.  His last song, Hey Joe, was played as an encore.

Hendrix had sought this position as it was the position of honor in a performance, the best band gong last.  He may well have deserved that honor in spite of the diminished crowd.  His rendition of
The Star Spangled Banner ended one of the newscasts nightly news that day, as I can recall watching it and asking my father what the event was.  The performance was genuinely epic, which is all the more amazing as Hendrix had been at Woodstock the entire time up until his performance and had not slept at all.