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Reading Woodstock organizer Michael Lang's The Road to Woodstock, got to Chapter 9 and thought, They could have really used some of the mechanics where I work, to get ready for that event -- welders -- millwrights -- people who know what C-clamps are. ...


------------- [excerpt] ------------ We finally realized that Steve Cohen had overdesigned the stage roof.  For two weeks, the weather had prevented us from putting all the pieces of the puzzle together.  The wooden trusses turned out to be way too heavy for our purposes.  We never got them properly covered with canvas to make them rainproof.


The roof was meant to have cross trusses where the lights would hang.  But we couldn't get the cross trusses up, so Chip would eventually light the whole show with twelve Super Troupers from the towers.  "We have 650,000 watts sitting under the stage rusting!" Chip would remind us.


We rented two massive cranes for a thousand dollars a day to assist in the construction of the stage and towers.  The cranes became trapped next to the stage because the wooden fence encircling the stage, and other construction, prevented us from getting them out before people started arriving.


CHIP MONCK:  What we needed was a real heavy-duty rigger with a full company behind him, and production direction that was exceptionally solid, and grown-up and heavy-duty contractors.  But we didn't have them, and everybody said,


"Don't worry, it'll happen."


We didn't have a contractor.


We should have done it as though we were constructing a building.  There should have been a site supervisor, there should have been an ironworker, a couple of welders.  The design was terrific, and it had layers and layers of canvas that were almost like fish scales.  It would have been beautiful.


We should have had a complete crew that was nothing but staging.  We had only four guys who were doing scaffolding.  It was a big mistake.  You can't do things like that on a dime.  We were all fairly overcome by the size of the thing. ...


MICHAEL LANG:  ...We kept experiencing a drop in water pressure -- we had fourteen miles of water pipes that began springing leaks once people arrived.  Chris had brilliantly placed plastic cases with vintage army crank phones at locations along the pipeline, so that when a leak was found, a call could be made from the spot and the crew could more quickly fix the problem....----------- [end excerpt]


{Google, type "crosby stills nash and young suite judy blue eyes Woodstock"  >  You Tube}








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