Woodstock Directors Cut for Blu-Ray

I do not believe the new "Woodstock Diaires" has been remastered. I assisted the Pennebaker crew on this in 1994. They edited the show on Standard Def on the D2 format, and it has not been re-transfered. My understanding is that it was not released in the US, because "Woodstock" director Michael Wadleigh was not pleased with it.

 

To clarify things using common language, the "Woodstock Diary" DVD is remastered as it takes another MPEG-2 encoding, with an higher bitrate, that can significantly improve the overall quality compared to the previous edition. But it's still based on the same video transfer and master from 1994, which means some limitations still subsist.

 

Sorry if this is a dumb question but what exactly is the 'Woodstock Diary'? Is it just an alternate documentary to the movie 'Woodstock'?

 

It was a 3-hour special made to coincide with the 25th anniversary 15 years ago, made for UK-audiences I believe and made available everywhere else but the UK. It features songs that weren't in the original film, songs on the soundtrack albums (I and II) that didn't have a visual counterpart (i.e. Paul Butterfield's "Everything's Gonna Be Alright", Canned Heat's "Going Up The Country"), and songs that were in the film but are edited differently to show footage that hadn't be seen before in those angles. Sometimes you'll see a footage of one section of a song that may have been shown as a split screen or three-images, but most of the time it's alternate angles. It's all full screen, although some songs (like Santana's "Soul Sacrifice") are shortened/edited, even more than some of the edits in the original movie. I haven't seen it in awhile, but I think a section of Ten Years After's "I'm Going Home" on the soundtrack but not in the movie is used for one of the Diary editions.

 

Is there a difference between that 'Director Cut' and the
Woodstock Diaries' ?
Last night I saw that alternative version of that old Woodstock movie on german TC ( (WDR 3). It wasn't that nice and catchy as the Hollywod movie by Martin Scorsese, but thy added some cool trax, esp Canned Heat got stuff cookin' - that bass player in action on the cover is from that set I guess - HOT, sizzling hot !!!
Plus extra long Hendrix and a never ending version of Ten Years After - Going Home, plus the moment when the fence broke down with Hugh from the hog farm making jokes about it. lots of hog farm action.. they were pros at getting people on bad acip trip enjoying themselves again within 30 minutes and then use them as 'docors' to get other Acid victims away from those "Horror" Trips...

 

Thanks for the description, Johmbolaya. Sounds like it might be worthwhile to order.

 

Yes, this is correct. The program itself isn't changed. It's a new MPEG 2 DVD mastering though. Believe me:the 2002 Uk DVD had severely degraded picture quality versus the Japanese Laserdisc releases.

 

So this Bluray set has been out for weeks now, how do you guys like it???

 

VH1 had a nice 2 hour documentary - Woodstock, Now & Then. I believe this same documentary will be playing on the History Channel tonight, Monday, August 17. I was 20 at the time of the original Woodstock concert but there were some things in the documentary I did not know about.

 

Gee now it 16x9 ?? dosn't sound too good ,wish I bought the Japanese dvds
I have the UK dvd and it isn't too good,I have the Japanese Lasers which look
fine
as for more Woodstock footage,that new Doc "Woodstock Now and then,didn't
have much,a brief clip of Arlo doing amazing Grace,too bad it wasn't a full clip

 

"Sorry if this is a dumb question but what exactly is the 'Woodstock Diary'? Is it just an alternate documentary to the movie 'Woodstock'?"

This was a excellent showtime series of three shows usiing mostly footage shot at the event,put together with some new footage.
For some reason they were able to get a lot of Bands and artists that didn't make it
into the Directors Cut (or even this new Blue Ray set)
Theres plenty of great stuff ,another Havens song(great)Tim Harden,Burt Summers
another tune from Arlo,a short Incredible String band clip,Johney Winter(now on new Set)
more form Airplane,CSNY,Paul Butterfield,and even the Band

 

Someone was nice enough to send me the Extras DVD from the box set, and it may be a cliche term but I'll use it: HOLY SMOKES! The shots of The Who performing "My Generation" as the sun comes up to the side is incredible, and to be able to see alternate angles of Pete Townshend not only thrashing his guitar but, as someone stated in another thread, see the guitar revived and given to a stage-hand, just great stuff.

The Canned Heat footage is incredible too, I welcomed their addition into the Director's Cut, but I hadn't realized until now how their performanced seemed to have changed from the afternoon and into the night. Their performance of "On The Road Again" was long yet beautiful.

Same for Grateful Dead. Keep in mind I've been a casual fan of theirs, probably listened to a boot of their Woodstock set once and don't remember much. When they popped on I had no idea who it was at first, but then thought "wait, that's Bob Weir. That's Mickey Hart, but who are the rest of these guys." I also loved how Jerry Garcia was not the emphasis of this edit, and I'm watching this as they get knee deep in a jam and they're not getting out. I loved it, looked at my DVD player and it said the performance was 37 minutes long.

What was upsetting was watching Mountain not because of how it looked or what they played, but the fact that apparently their performance of "Long Red" was not filmed. Only two songs were filmed at Woodstock, and yet I'm seeing some incredible footage of the drummer, especially right behind him, and I'm hearing the drums in the two tracks on the DVD. I realize Mountain were nothing in August 1969, but footage of the "Long Red" into would have been perfect. Selfishness aside, the clarity of Mountain's performance compared to what's on the Woodstock Diaries is obvious, you got to see a bit more colors and texture than the red and blue ridden footage seen elsewhere.

Watching the extra DVD, it felt more like a concert film with a proper intro and outro, and of course it adds to the director's cut, so that would be a nice 6 hour edit of the film if one would make a custom version, probably a good 8 hour version if you combine footage from The Lost Performances, Woodstock Diaries, and Hendrix's set.

I have not watched the documentary that is on it, which touches on the film crew and what they did, I'll watch that later on today.

 

I just happenned to watch that last night, & unfortunately, it's not that great. I was expecting more. The problem is, each clip is only 2 to 4 minutes long, & by the time you think the interviewees are just going to delve a little deeper into the subject at hand, it's over. And all they basically said over & over for an hour and 15 minutes is just how "totally awesome" Woodstock was, & how socially important it was. Yeah, ........ I knew that already.

It does have it's moments, but they are far & few between. One interesting thing that I learned is when Wadleigh said that, with absolute certainty, that not every song from every act was caught on film. This has been a debate for years, & I'll take the man on his word.
I always believed that to be the case, but it's nice to know for sure.

Other than that, honestly, I didn't learn a thing that I hadn't already known.

 

There was a photo I had seen, I think in the Now & Then Documentary, where someone wrote on a piece of paper "Shoot Only Songs 2 & 4" or something along those lines. Plus, after reading Dale Bell's book, when the film crew were told to simply capture anything, I don't think they had any idea on what the final project would be or could become. Monterey Pop was a prototype but I think Wadleigh wanted it to look more than a simple highlight reel. Most of the people involved were already doing documentaries so the project was taken on in that fashion, so we're lucky we have as much footage as we do.

 

Thanks, PNeski. Fortunately I pre-ordered it before Amazon increased the price.

 

You know, I noticed that price increase this morning. However, there appears to be 2 versions of this available, both on 9/22. One listing shows a pictire, the other doesn't.
One is $18 & the other is $13 or $14. Does anyone know what the difference is between these two? Or is it a mistake on Amazon?

 

Well if you believe the clowns at Amazon the first one:

"Woodstock Diary 1969:Friday Saturday (2009)"

only has the first two days and the second one:

"Woodstock Diary 1969:Friday Saturday Sunday (1994)"

has all three days and thus cost $4 more. I wish Amazon could get something right just once.

 

I don't know. I'd guess this is a mistake. They're both listed as 180 minutes long.

 

Yeah, you always have to take what those clowns say with several grains of sand.

Funny thing is, both say that they run 180 minutes ........ who knows.
I suppose I'll just not take any chances & order the $18 one.
I've been waiting for this for a long, long time.

 

Concerning this re-issue of the original Woodstock soundtrack by Rhino.
About this list of the bonus tracks on a bonus CD. First, this release is not exclusive to Target as I've seen it on Amazon too.

Second, if you are planning on buying the 6 CD set then don't bother buying this set too. All the bonus tracks except 3 are on the 6 CD set:
Tim Hardin: Misty Roses
Jefferson Airplane: White Rabbit
Jimi Hendrix: Izabella

White Rabbit has already been released on the Woodstock Diary CD.
Izabella is on either of the Jimi Hendrix Woodstock CDs.

So it looks like Misty Roses is the only track that hasn't been released already, unless someone knows different.

 

Or perhaps order both and see which one they cancel?

 

Here's the U.S. version, coming out on Sept. 22nd...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...t_shr?_encoding=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance

 

I picked up the Director's Cut with the bonus DVD the other day and have really enjoyed it so far.

I watched most of the bonus disc last night and was very impressed with the content as well as the video and audio quality. The bonus material from The Who (full length "We're Not Gonna Take It", "My Generation" and Pete's SG bash, toss and subsequent retrieval are worth the price of admission.

It's great to see the alternate angles and the higher resolution images. The DVD/Blu Ray production crew did a wonderful job with this new set.

A quick question about The Grateful Dead's set. On the bonus disc, we get to see and hear the full length "Turn On Your Love Light." Who is the guy at the beginning doing the rap about the water reservoirs? When Pigpen starts to sing, this guy is still on one of the mics and then seems to drift to the back behind Phil Lesh for the rest of the tune.

 

Here's the scoop from a Merry Prankster...


Me and the Gleef

by Ken Babbs

My rap and the gleef's rap are both on the sound tapes from the scene, but the new DVD starts with the gleef talking, I've already quit, before the first camera got rolling, so he gets a great closeup, out in front of everthing, coverage, his moments in history.

The release this year of the three disc set of the Woodstock movie has brought to the fore a misunderstanding that for forty years has been part of Grateful Dead lore.
I've been asked many times, why was I such a gleef up on the stage at Woodstock and I always reply, "That wasn't me, that was some other gleef."
Now, for the first time everyone can see who the gleef is that was talking over the microphone when the Grateful Dead started to play.
A tremendous thunderstorm had just roared through, tearing the canvas top off the stage, covering the floor with six inches of water and shorting out all the electrical power: the lights, the musicians' amplifiers and the PA system.
I was onstage at the time, leaning on the organ, talking to Pigpen while the techs attempted to make sense out of chaos. Finally one microphone, in the middle of the stage, close to the edge, was working.
Pigpen, as he always did when the Dead were messing around, not yet ready to play, said, "Tell them a story, Babbs," knowing once they heard my voice booming out of the loudspeakers, they would immediately come forward and take over.
I told the audience how all of us, forty people and four buses, stopped at Yellowstone on the way out and bathed in the hot waters, just like the people of old, for it was a sacred place, where everyone came in peace, all beefs and differences put aside, and now, I said, Woodstock has emerged with the same spirit, and you can take that spirit of unity with you out into your daily lives.
I backed off the mike, the band began to play Lovelight, then another voice came out over the loudspeakers.
This is where the Dead portion of the DVD begins, after I've quit talking, so I'm not in the DVD. I am on the audio tape, however. Cosmic editing. I didn't make the cut. One camera starts filming and the sequence begins with the gleef on the stage, no one knows who he is, he arrived from no one knows where.
Dark piercing eyes. Black Prince Valiant haircut. Closecut beard shaping his mouth. He's on the center mike, telling everyone there is a third coast, it is on a huge lake in the middle of the country, it has a magnificent beach, and while he's babbling, with a single spot lighting his face in a beautiful camera closeup, Michal Lang is saying off camera, "wWho is that guy, get him out of there," so I lit up a joint, walked up to the gleef and handed it to him.
He took a big hit, passed it to me, his back was to the edge of the stage, I gave him a little nudge and he disappeared into the unkown from which he came.
The Dead tore into a fantastic 38 minute Lovelight with all the stage lights gradually coming on and all three cameras working, a tremendous addition to the Woodstock DVD.
Well, forty years before the DVD came out, the audio tape of the dead playing was already circulating through Deaddom, and the listeners, unable to see what was going on, assumed that I was the gleef, and ever since, Deadheads have been asking me, why were you spouting that lame phoney baloney stuff over the mike at Woodstock?
I no longer have to defend myself. The DVD has vindicated me. Everyone can see for themselves that it was some other gleef. I no longer think of him as a gleef. He has a name and I remember him now with fond affection: Third Coast.
--

I imagine Pete Townshend would have killed the man for being on his stage.

 

Thanks for this info!
I asked this very question when the DVD first came out and was ignored (now I know why, NO ONE KNEW who this guy was/is)