The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was created in 1983 and the museum opened in 1993. It’s located in Cleveland, Ohio where disc jockey Alan Freed is credited with popularizing the term “Rock and Roll”, and where the first rock and roll concert was held.
The museum documents the entire history of rock and roll, not just the inductees who are honored in a special exhibit inside the museum.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame states their goal is to honor the bands and artists that have “influence and significance to the development and perpetuation of rock and roll”. Artists and bands become eligible for induction 25 years after the release of their first record. A nominating committee selects each year, and ballots are sent to a team of experts. Nominees who receive the most votes and at least 50% are selected. Additional categories exist for non performers, early influences, and sidemen. The annual induction ceremony is held each Spring in New York City.
There has been a lot of controversies over the inductees, with some complaining that entire genres have been left out. Most notable is Chubby Checker who has staged several good natured protests, but it’s been noted that there have also been very few or no nominees from doo-wop, progressive, or hard-rock bands.
The first group of honorees were inducted in 1986. They included:
🎵 The Brill Building: The Hit Factory of Rock’s Golden Age
We’ve covered a lot of heroes on the Golden Age of Rock—guitar gods, soul sisters, counterculture prophets, musical rebels, and even the vans they rode in. But today, let’s talk about an unlikely hero: a building. Yep, just a building. Eleven stories tall. Bricks and windows. But oh, what a building it was.
Welcome to the Brill Building, located at 1619 Broadway at 49th Street, right off Times Square. Built in the 1930s, it looked like your standard midtown Manhattan office tower. But behind those unassuming doors was the very heartbeat of pop songwriting in the 1950s and early ’60s—the launchpad of rock and roll’s mainstream takeover.
🧵From Haberdashery to Hit Factory
The Brill building
The name “Brill” actually came from a haberdashery (that’s a fancy old-school name for a men’s clothing shop) that occupied the ground floor. The Brill family liked the location so much, they bought the whole building. But it wasn’t bespoke suits that made the Brill Building famous—it was tailored pop hits, stitched together by teams of young songwriters, composers, and lyricists with a deadline and a dream.
In its heyday, the Brill Building was like a musical beehive: hundreds of music businesses packed into one structure. Publishers, promoters, record labels, studios—you could write a song, arrange it, record a demo, pitch it, and maybe even get it played on the radio, all without leaving the building.
🎹 The Cubicle Symphony
Singer-songwriter Carole King described the scene best:
“Every day we squeezed into our respective cubby holes with just enough room for a piano, a bench, and maybe a chair for the lyricist if you were lucky. You’d sit there and write and you could hear someone in the next cubby hole composing a song exactly like yours. The pressure in the Brill Building was really terrific—because Donny (Kirshner) would play one songwriter against another. He’d say: ‘We need a new smash hit’—and we’d all go back and write a song and the next day we’d each audition for Bobby Vee’s producer.”
This was songwriting with the intensity of a newsroom and the soul of Tin Pan Alley. Some called it a song factory. But what a factory it was—a conveyor belt of genius.
🎼 Meet the Hitmakers
The Brill Building was home to a jaw-dropping lineup of songwriting talent. We’re talking about the people behind the curtain who gave us some of rock and pop’s most unforgettable tunes:
Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller – They gave us “Hound Dog” and “Yakety Yak.”
Carole King & Gerry Goffin – “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” anyone?
Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil – Masters of emotional pop, like “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.”
Doc Pomus & Mort Shuman – Penned classics like “Save the Last Dance for Me.”
Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich – Wrote hits like “Be My Baby.”
Neil Sedaka, Paul Anka, Bobby Darin, Gene Pitney, and Neil Diamond all worked or passed through.
Hal David & Burt Bacharach – The dream team behind timeless love songs.
And that’s not even counting a young Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Carly Simon, and James Taylor who orbited through in the years that followed.
🧠 The Brill Building Sound
The Brill Building wasn’t just a place—it was a sound. Catchy, radio-friendly, emotionally direct, and often written from a woman’s point of view (a rarity at the time). It was the sound of young love, heartbreak, hope, and dancing down the boardwalk with a transistor radio.
It was also a little bit of rebellion wrapped in a 3-minute pop song. Before the Beatles landed or Dylan plugged in, the Brill Building was quietly changing the landscape of music by blending rock’s energy with professional polish.
💻 Brill Goes Digital (Sort Of)
The Brill Building’s golden era faded with the British Invasion, but its legacy didn’t end. In fact, it lives on. There’s even a Brill Building page on Facebook, because what better way to update a mid-century hit factory than with social media?
And the songs? They’re everywhere. Movies, commercials, wedding playlists—those Brill-crafted hooks refuse to fade.
🏆 A Legacy Set in Stone (and Sheet Music)
The Brill Building may be made of brick and mortar, but it’s built on chords and choruses. Its impact on rock and roll and pop music is hard to overstate. It was the creative hub where dozens of hits were born, and where a generation of songwriters learned how to make people dance, cry, and fall in love, three minutes at a time.
So next time you hear a tune that makes you tap your toe or sing into your hairbrush, take a moment to thank the Brill Building. The walls may not sing, but they sure remember.
🎶 “You lost that lovin’ feelin’… Now it’s gone, gone, gone… woah-oh-oh…” 🎶
Payola wasn’t new to the music industry when Rock and Roll arrived. Several factors seemed to come together at the same time, leading to a blowup that radically changed the course of Rock and Roll.
The term Payola is a contraction of the words pay and Victrola, a popular brand of record player. Sometimes called Pay To Play It’s the illegal practice of record companies paying money for the playing of records. This made a record appear more popular that it might have been, giving the artist more exposure, a better rating on the charts, and influencing other radio stations that might be on the lookout for the next hot record. It’s not as common or outright now as it was in the past, or maybe it’s just hidden better. The law prevents record companies from paying directly, but still allows payments through intermediaries.
At most radio stations now, a music director or manager selects the songs to be played and, frequently, the order and time where they will be played. It was mentioned earlier that the Payola scandal arose due to several factors that came together at the same time. Consider these cultural changes:
Rock was new, popular with the kids, and generally disliked by their parents.
The two large music licensing companies, ASCAP and BMI were at odds. They were always competitive, but ASCAP had a slow start in the Rock and Roll business and possibly saw a way to get even with rival BMI. One can only guess that they saw Rock and Roll as a passing fad!
Technology was giving power to the independent radio stations. Radio was previously confined to the home where family standards controlled the dial. Introduction of personal radios, clock radios, and the portable transistor radio gave teens their own dial to control.
By the late 50s, the post-war baby boomers were a sizeable economic force, and advertisers found that Top 40 radio was a good way to target them, leading to a boom in independent stations.
The inexpensive, newly introduced 45 rpm single allowed teens to purchase popular hits on a limited budget. Also, consider that the Payola scandal came along at a time that elected officials were just learning how to get free publicity from holding high profile hearings. This was the time of the McCarthy Hearings, and the Payola inquiries were carried out by the same commission that was working on the television game show investigations.
The Payola Congressional Hearings
Twenty-five witnesses were called, the most famous being Alan Freed and Dick Clark, and the list included other notables such as Les Paul, Bobby Darin, and Murray the K. Ironically, at the time, Payola wasn’t actually against the law, although Alan Freed was eventually convicted on 2 counts of commercial bribery.
Much has been written about the difference between Freed and Clark. Alan Freed resisted testifying on principle, claiming that he never played a record he didn’t actually consider worthwhile, no matter what was given to him. His attitude didn’t play well with the industry, and he was essentially blackballed, ending his DJ career. Freed died a few years later, broke, alcoholic, and depressed in 1965.
Dick Clark, on the other hand, testified freely and even brought a statistician with him to prove that payola had not affected the sales of records with which he was affiliated. He had sold his music related interests before the hearings.
His testimony included “I have not done anything that I think I should be ashamed of or that is illegal or immoral,” Mr. Clark said, “and I hope to eventually convince you of this. I believe in my heart that I have never taken payola”. At another point in the hearing, Representative Steven B. Derounian quipped “You say you did not get any payola, but you got an awful lot of royola”.
Others caught in the fray include Les Paul and Bobby Darin, both charged with paying to perform on Freed’s ABC television show, and DJs Joe Niagara (WIBG, Philadelphia), Tom Clay (WJBK, Detroit), Murray “The K” Kaufman (WINS, New York), Arnie “Woo Woo Ginsberg WMEX, Boston), and Stan Richards (WILD, Boston).
🎙️ Wolfman Jack: The Howlin’ Voice of Rock and Roll
Wolfman Jack
In the golden age of rock and roll, there were plenty of legends with guitars and microphones—but none quite like the man behind the radio mic, growling through the static with a voice like gravel wrapped in velvet: Wolfman Jack.
He wasn’t just a DJ. He was a myth with a mixing board, a howlin’ high priest of the teenage airwaves. With his raspy laugh, manic energy, and deep love of the music, Wolfman didn’t just spin records—he spun magic.
🐺 Meet the Wolfman
Born Robert Weston Smith in 1938 in Brooklyn, New York, he had a pretty typical upbringing for a kid of the era. But inside that quiet boy was a wild streak—and a dream. From the first time he heard a blues record crackle through a radio speaker, he was hooked.
Like many teens of the 1950s, Smith was mesmerized by rhythm and blues, and he quickly gravitated toward radio personalities who sounded larger than life. He eventually enrolled in broadcasting school, landed a few early gigs, and then rebranded himself with a persona that was part voodoo shaman, part rock and roll ringmaster.
Thus, Wolfman Jack was born.
📡 Border Blaster Legend
Wolfman Jack found fame on the “border blaster” stations—powerful AM radio towers located just across the Mexican border. These stations weren’t bound by U.S. regulations, which meant they could crank the signal to 250,000 watts or more, enough to bounce his howl all across North America.
Late at night, kids from Kansas to Canada would huddle next to their radios, spinning the dial until they landed on that unmistakable voice. The Wolfman would growl, howl, cackle, and preach the gospel of rock, R&B, doo-wop, and soul.
He played artists most stations ignored—black musicians, regional acts, deep-cut B-sides—and he made them sound like the coolest thing on Earth. And he didn’t stop at music. His shows were part circus, part sermon, part comedy routine, and all rebellion.
🎧 “This is the Wolfman comin’ at ya, baby! Diggin’ deep in the vault to spin somethin’ you ain’t heard but you’ll never forget!”
🎥 American Graffiti & Mainstream Fame
In 1973, Wolfman Jack made the leap from radio hero to big screen icon in George Lucas’s American Graffiti. Playing a fictionalized version of himself, he became the voice of the night, guiding the characters—and the audience—through one unforgettable evening of youth, romance, and rock and roll.
Suddenly, everyone knew what teens in the know already did: Wolfman Jack wasn’t just a DJ. He was a symbol. He represented the freedom of the night, the thrill of discovery, and the bond between a generation and its music.
After American Graffiti, he appeared on TV, co-hosted music countdown shows, and even showed up on The Midnight Special. But no matter the screen, it was always the voice that stole the show.
🔊 More Than Just a Howl
What made Wolfman Jack different wasn’t just the theatrics (though they were spectacular). It was his heart. He loved the music. He respected the artists. He wasn’t afraid to cross the color line during a time when many broadcasters still did.
He helped introduce white audiences to black music. He played gospel cuts next to garage rock and treated every artist—from James Brown to The Beach Boys—as worthy of the same enthusiasm. He was the connective tissue between scenes, sounds, and people.
🎶 Lasting Legacy
Wolfman Jack passed away in 1995, but his legend never stopped howling. He’s been inducted into multiple halls of fame, and his recordings still circulate among collectors and fans. His voice is sampled, mimicked, and remembered in songs, films, and TV shows.
And every time you hear a gravel-voiced DJ with a little extra personality, you’re hearing an echo of the Wolfman.
🐾 Final Howl
Wolfman Jack wasn’t just part of the Golden Age of Rock—he helped create it. He was the underground railroad of rhythm, the howling heartbeat of a restless generation, and the man who turned radio into an instrument of rebellion, joy, and connection.
So next time you’re out late, windows down, radio on, and the perfect song hits just right—give a little growl. Somewhere, the Wolfman is smiling.
🎙️ “Goodnight baby… and don’t forget to brush your teeth!”
Don Steele, often promoted as “The Real Don Steele” to distinguish himself from another DJ with the same name, was one of the most popular disc jockeys in the United States, from the mid 60s until his retirement in the 90s.
Steele first fame came as a DJ on Los Angeles radio station KHJ with the “top-40 Boss Radio format” in the 60s. He also appeared on TV in his own programs called Boss City and The Real Don Steele TV Show, a show which ran from 1965 to 1975 on KHJ-TV channel 9 in Los Angeles. When FM stereo radio gained popularity in the 1970s, Steele made the switch and continued his popularity.
In a 1995 interview, his description of Boss Radio was, “Look, you take the Motown sound and the British Invasion and you throw in Elvis and Roy Orbison, and you have a music mix that’s hard to beat at any time or any place”.
Murray the K worked as a promoter and producer through the 50’s, but he caught his big break in 1958 when he signed on with WINS in New York to do the all-night show. This was just as WINS’s star disk jockey, Alan Freed, was indicted for tax evasion and forced off the air. Freed’s spot was briefly occupied by Cousin Bruce, Bruce Morrow, but Murray was quickly moved into the time period and remained there for the next seven years.
When he left WINS, his next stop was at WOR-FM where. As program director and primetime evening DJ, he created the first FM rock station, setting the pattern for countless other stations that followed, including WNEW-FM and WCBS-FM.
Kaufman reached his peak of popularity in the mid 60s when, as the top-rated radio host in America’s largest market, he became an early supporter of The Beatles. Later, Murray was referred to as the “Fifth Beatle,” by George Harrison during a train ride from New York to the Beatles’ first U.S. concert in Washington, D. C. Their friendship was renewed when they came to NYC in February, 1964 and met again. He was invited to the set of A Hard Day’s Night in England and made several treks to England during 1964, giving WINS listeners more Beatle exclusives.
Following Alan Freed’s lead, Murray produced several concerts each year. Those shows featured the top performers of the era and introduced new acts, such as Dionne Warwick, Wayne Newton, Bobby Vinton (who was the leader of the house band when he asked for a chance to perform as a singer), The Lovin’ Spoonful, Cream, and The Who. Murray the K left WINS in the mid-60s when they switched formats, and worked at stations in Toronto and Washington D.C. before returning to New York to team with Don Imus and Wolfman Jack on WNBC.
Gather ’round everybody, for you’re about to hear,
The show that’s gonna make you, grin from ear to ear,
It’s Arnie Ginsberg, on the Night Train Show.
He plays the old and new, the swinging and the blue,
He plays all the records, especially for you,
It’s Arnie Ginsberg, on the Night Train Show
Hey, Arnie Woo Woo Ginsburg was good, he wasn’t a great up in the same class as some of the others here, but he was my disk jockey growing up in greater Boston. Every major market had a DJ like Arnie, he was hyper, fast talking, and knew his music inside and out.
Every night, we’d crank up WMEX on our radio tubes and listen to his bells, horns, whistles, and “Adventure Car Hop is the place to go for food that’s really great”….and if you said “Woo Woo” when you ordered, you’d get 2 burgers for the price of one!
Mixed in with his chatter was top 20 music, and if you wanted in on the buzz the next day, you had to listen to Arnie at night.
🎙️ Alan Freed: The Man Who Gave Rock and Roll Its Name (and Its First Party)
When we talk about the birth of Rock and Roll, most people name-check Elvis, Chuck Berry, or Little Richard—and rightfully so. But behind the scenes, spinning the records and packing the dance floors, was a man who didn’t sing a note but still helped launch a musical revolution: Alan Freed.
You could say Alan Freed was rock’s ultimate hype man—a disc jockey, promoter, and music evangelist who believed in the power of rhythm and blues to bring people together. And while he didn’t invent the music, he gave it a name, a platform, and—crucially—an audience that crossed racial lines in an era when America was still deeply segregated.
📻 From Cleveland With Rhythm: The Birth of “The Moondog”
In the early 1950s, Freed was working at WJW in Cleveland, where he launched a late-night radio show under the name “Moondog” (yes, like the eccentric Viking street performer from New York—long story).
But here’s the twist: instead of spinning the usual crooner tunes or pop standards, Freed played African-American rhythm and blues records—music that mainstream (read: white) stations usually ignored. And he didn’t just play it, he sold it. Loudly.
“Here’s a new kind of music,” he’d say. “We call it… rock and roll.”
He wasn’t the first to use the phrase (it had been floating around in R&B lyrics since the ’30s), but Freed popularized it—and, more importantly, rebranded R&B for a mass audience, giving it a name that felt exciting, edgy, and just a little dangerous.
🎉 The Moondog Coronation Ball: Rock’s First Party (Sort Of)
On March 21, 1952, Freed threw what’s now considered the first rock and roll concert: The Moondog Coronation Ball. It was held at the Cleveland Arena and was supposed to host around 10,000 fans. More than 20,000 showed up.
The result? Absolute chaos. People climbed through windows, security was overwhelmed, and the fire department shut the whole thing down halfway through the first act.
But even though it was a logistical disaster, it was a cultural milestone. For the first time, a racially mixed audience had gathered to dance to music that wasn’t labeled “race records”—and that was revolutionary.
Freed’s radio success in Cleveland took him to New York City, where he transformed WINS 1010 AM into a rock and roll powerhouse. His late-night shows blasted across the Eastern Seaboard, pulling in legions of teenage fans and sending record sales through the roof.
He even started recording programs for Radio Luxembourg, whose reach extended into Eastern Europe. Imagine a young John Lennon in Liverpool, hunched over a crackly radio, soaking in the sound of American rock by way of a guy in New York. That’s musical globalization before it had a name.
🎬 Lights, Camera, Rock!
Freed didn’t stop at radio. In the mid-1950s, he jumped into the movies, starring as himself in a series of rock-themed films like:
🎞️ Rock Around the Clock (1956)
🎞️ Rock, Rock, Rock! (1956)
🎞️ Mr. Rock and Roll (1957)
These movies featured artists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and The Platters, introducing their music to white teen audiences across America.
He even hosted “The Big Beat” on ABC—the first national TV show dedicated to rock and roll. But when African-American singer Frankie Lymon danced with a white girl on screen, the backlash was swift, and the show was cancelled. Welcome to 1950s America.
💸 Payola: The Party Ends
Just when it seemed like Alan Freed had brought rock to the mountaintop, the storm clouds rolled in. In the late ’50s, the Payola Scandal hit the music industry like a thunderclap. DJs across the country were investigated for allegedly taking money or gifts to play certain records.
Freed wasn’t the only one caught up in the mess—but he became one of the most high-profile casualties. He was accused not only of taking bribes but also of claiming songwriting credits on records he didn’t write in order to earn royalties. One notable example? Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene.”
Freed eventually pleaded guilty to commercial bribery, received a fine and a suspended sentence—but the damage was done. Major stations dropped him, concert promoters backed away, and Freed’s career never fully recovered.
💔 The Final Chapter
Alan Freed died in 1965 at just 43 years old—his name still under a cloud, his contributions to music not yet fully appreciated. But time has a funny way of setting the record straight.
In 1978, the film American Hot Wax told a fictionalized version of Freed’s story, capturing the wild energy of those early days.
In 1986, Freed was part of the very first class inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame—which, fittingly, was built in Cleveland. He was later honored by the Radio Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame as well.
🏆 Alan Freed’s Legacy
Alan Freed didn’t write songs or front a band, but he helped build the stage they all stood on. He was a passionate promoter of integration through music, a believer in the power of rhythm and rebellion, and a key figure in launching rock and roll from its R&B roots to global superstardom.
He may not have had a guitar, but Freed helped tune the world in.
Probably the best known of the early disk jockeys, in the early 50s Dick Clark was a DJ at WFIL in Philadelphia where he filled in for the host Bob Horn on Bob Horn’s Bandstand at the station’s television affiliate. By 1956, Clark had taken over as the full time host. The show was picked up by ABC and went national on August 5, as American Bandstand. American Bandstand was shown daily until 1963, then weekly until 1989.
American Bandstand featured real kids dancing to Top 40 rock music, sometimes with lip-synched performances by the artists themselves. It is joked that Dick Clark taught the generation how to dance, the girls watched the show and learned the newest dance steps, then they taught the boys (sometimes unwillingly!).
Clark got caught on the fringes of the Payola scandal in 1959 as the U. S. Senate investigated the practice of music producing companies paying broadcasting companies to favor their product. Clark, who had business intersts in music publishing, was investigated and testified before Congress in 1960. Clark was not charged with any illegal activities but he was required by ABC to divest his publishing and recording interests.
He later went on to be involved in a number of other television series and specials as producer and performer including Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, The $10,000 Pyramid (later $20, 000, $25,000, $50,000, and $100,000), TV Bloopers & Practical Jokes, American Dreams, and The Other Half. In 1973, Clark created and produced the American Music Awards show. Originally intended as competition for the Grammy Awards, in some years it gained a bigger audience than the Grammys due to being more in touch with popular trends.
I guess it’s time now. When I first wrote the material that ended up on this website, the Woodstock concert was considered the beginning of the time after The Golden Age of Rock. Now, time has blurred a bit, and I’m adding it to the site. So here’s the story of the greatest concert of all time.
The Promoters
Woodstock started with four young men with money but little experience as promoters. John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfeld, and Mike Lang originally planned to build a recording studio and artist’s village. The Woodstock area was already home to several famous musicians and seemed like a good choice.
Their plans included a rock concert to generate publicity and finance the studio. Their original location was an industrial park in Wallkill, on the other side of Poughkeepsie, and about 50 miles south of Woodstock. But the people of Wallkill weren’t happy with the idea of stoned concert-goers invading their town and passed an ordinance that banned it less than two months from the concert date.
Tickets had already been sold, and the promoters were in a bind. Their savior was Max Yasgur, a dairy farmer in Woodstock who offered 600 hundred acres of his fields in Bethel for a reported $75,000. That was a lot of money in 1969 when a full-size Chevy only sold for $2,650. Max made out ok; it was the equivalent of over half a million dollars today.
The Move to Bethel
The move to Bethel saved the concert, but the promoters didn’t have time to reorganize all of the support and vendors that the concert needed for their planned 50,000 people. As the concert dare approached, the anticipated attendance grew to 200,000, and their plans collapsed. When some 500,000 showed up, they were overwhelmed.
The rest is history. Half a million concert goers showed up. Many more of us baby boomers wished we were there. Probably ten times as many as were actually there claimed to have been there. The weather was lousy; it rained; everything was mud. The poor planning meant very few toilets and almost no food vendors. Yet, the concert lived up to it’s billing as 3 days of Peace and Music.
The press had a field day, reporting on the mud, drugs, beer, nudity, and sex. Us rock fan baby boomers loved it; our parents looked at it in shock.
The Bands
Woodstock Poster
Many of the top bands were there, and we heard several of rock’s most memorable performances.
The Who were about an hour into their Rock Opera “Tommy” and had just finished “Pinball Wizard” when left activist Abbie Hoffman jumped on to the stage and started shouting. Pete Townshend grabbed the mic shouting “F* off, F* off my F*ing stage,” “the next f*ing person that walks across this stage is gonna get f*ing killed!”. Looking back at it, maybe Abbie Hoffman made a poor choice in interrupting a bunch of rockers that liked to end their performances by smashing their guitars.
Carlos Santana went to Woodstock as a relatively unknown. He left as a guitar legend. His drummer, Michael Shrieve, put out a drum solo that is still considered one of the best of all time.
Jimi Hendrix closed the show and lit up the stage with what is remembered as one of the greatest performances ever. His Star-Spangled Banner was a one-person symphony, stretching his guitar strings and notes in amazing ways. Remember, this was the height of the Vietnam War, just playing The Star-Spangled Banner was controversial.
The Aftermath
Two people died at the concert, one from a drug overdose and one that was run over by a tractor while sleeping in a field, and it was reported that there were two births.
When it was all over, the farm owner Max Yasgur said to the crowd at Woodstock on August 15, 1969: “This is the largest group of people ever assembled in one place, and I think you people have proven something to the world: that a half a million kids can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music and I God Bless You for it!”
The Woodstock concert film was released the following year, and Woodstock became synonymous with flower power, the hippie culture, and peace protests common to the 70s. The concert site and surrounding land was purchased in 1997 and has become the Bethel Center for the Arts. It opened on July 1, 2006, with the New York Philharmonic playing (quite a difference, huh!).
The four young men who started it all ended up almost a million dollars in debt and burdened with dozens of lawsuits. Income from royalties and the movie took care of some of it, but they still ended up deep in a hole. Yet, we have to thank them. They may not have done a good job of running the concert, but they gave us some of the greatest times that rock and roll have ever seen.
The End of An Era
It was probably a combination of the times and the bands of Woodstock that built the festival into the mega festival of all time. The Golden Age of Rock had been growing since the mid-50s, had already captured most of the baby boomer generation, and was still growing. Woodstock’s success was a signal that the Rock revolution was coming to an end. It was a hard-fought battle pitting the older generations against the baby boomers. As it wrapped up, it was clear that rock won and we look at the lead into the Woodstock festival as the end of The Golden Age of Rock.
Woodstock celebrated the victory. Many of the best bands were all there and they were pure rock and roll. All of Rock’s flavored were present …everything from folk-rock to acid rock. And the crowd was heavy-duty into all of it.
[ays_quiz id=’4′]
Woodstock Lineup
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Richie Havens
Country Joe McDonald
John Sebastian
Sweetwater
Bert Sommer
Tim Hardin
Ravi Shankar
Melanie
Arlo Guthrie
Joan Baez
Quill
Keef Hartley
Santana
The Incredible String Band
Canned Heat
Credence Clearwater Revival
The Grateful Dead
Janis Joplin
Sly and The Family Stone
The Who
The Jefferson Airplane
Joe Cocker
Max Yasgur
Country Joe and The Fish
Swami Satchidananda
Ten Years After
The Band
Blood Sweat and Tears
Johnny Winter
Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Sha-Na-Na
Jimi Hendrix
