Woodstock: Half a Million Strong

Today marks the final edition of our Woodstock ’69 coverage and what better way to round things up than with this shot of Jim and yet another gorgeous mystery blonde (noted only as “Sally” on the print which was uncovered and graciously provided to us by Aaron Zych at Morrison Gallery).  This shot was taken by musician and extraordinary music photographer in his own right, Henry Diltz.

Henry was working for Michael Lang, one of the Woodstock promoters, and had been in Bethel documenting the festival preparation for weeks before the magical musical madness ensued.

He was lovely enough to give me some time on the phone the other day to share the story behind this shot and other recollections of Jim at Woodstock: “That’s Jim with Sally Mann.  I knew Sally from when she used to hang out down in LA and I was in the Modern Folk Quarter at The Trip club on Sunset Blvd.  She was a teenybopper back then.

“I’m pretty sure this shot was taken the second day before the Airplane played.  I remember the stage was huge, like the deck of an aircraft carrier, made of these brand new white, wooden planks.  There was Jim with all those cameras around his neck.  I was based in LA and had seen him around at other festivals and gigs, he was a constant presence and just seemed to always be there, but I honestly can’t remember where or when I met Jim ... and then there he was at Woodstock.

“He was really excited to show me this lens he had, we both were shooting Nikons (Jim was using Nikons for his color work at the time) and he had this huge 500m lens that only went to f8 wide open.  He knew it would be a perfect lens for me as I was shooting Ektachrome 64.  He handed it to me, said, “Here, try it out!”  I put it on my Nikon.  The Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe McDonald, Bill Graham … everybody was just hanging out around the stage before their sets.

“I took a few shots with it of the musicians and folks here and there, hanging around, but then we both had to get back to work, there was just so much going on, so many photos to shoot!  But that’s when I took the shot of Jim and Sally Mann, just hanging out off the side of the stage at Woodstock.”

Here’s another shot of Jim at Woodstock, plus some lovely thoughts by Henry posted after Jim’s passing early last year.  Henry is a class act.

Why Jim Didn’t Shoot Jimi at Woodstock

Talking with Henry triggered another Jim at Woodstock memory for me, ironically about photos that don’t exist.  Henry recalled: “I had a hotel room a few miles down the road where I was staying, and I drove a station wagon and parked on the grounds behind the stage.  But after the crowds showed up, there was no way to get out to the hotel.

“I remember by Sunday I was totally exhausted and decided to grab a few hours of sleep in my station wagon, and then I suddenly woke up Monday morning and ran out to the stage when I heard festival MC Chip Monck’s voice announcing Jimi Hendrix.  I thought Jim had already left.”

But Jim was still there, sort of.  Jim told me that he was awake for three days and three nights straight.  His spirit was still willing but that his mind and his body had finally decided to call it a day.  No amount of “artificial stimulation” could keep him going.  Also, Jim was driving a Triumph Spitfire at Woodstock (as we showed in this earlier car-related blog), and thus he didn’t have the luxury of grabbing a power nap in the back of a station wagon like Henry.  Instead, Jim literally passed out flat on his back on the side of the stage.

If you watch the “Woodstock” movie, you can see that the crowd is seriously thinned by then, down from a half a million to around 180,000, when Hendrix finally made his way onto the stage as the last act that Monday morning.  But that doesn’t stop Jimi from seriously kicking ass for two hours (reportedly the longest set of his career). And where was Jim?

“I was practically in a coma from exhaustion and somebody threw a tarp over me.  I missed Jimi’s whole set,” he recalled.  I still remember the frustration in Jim's eyes when he told me about it, how he then had to drag his dejected, reeking, exhausted, unwashed self back to his motel that he hadn’t seen in four days; he ordered a glass of orange juice, ran a scalding hot bath, got in the tub and slept there for hours and hours, never touching the orange juice.

Jim pretended he was pissed he slept through Jimi because of all the money he could have made, but I know it's because he missed the incendiary set and Jimi's evocative version of "The Star-Spangled Banner."  Even decades later, with thousands of hero shots to his credit, Jim was still fixated on the one that got away.