the rix mix

Reading about the Atlantic City Pop Festival, held August 1, 2, 3 1969 at Atlantic City Racetrack. Not much has been written about it. I have slight memory of this event having happened. I don't recall hearing about it in advance, although I was in a rock band & two weeks later was in the crowd at Woodstock. There wasn't much promotion for it in North Jersey. Had I known, I probably would have tried to talk my bandmates into going there instead of to a pasture in Bethel NY. Maybe I did know & just regret not going. Atlantic City had some of the best Woodstock acts: Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Creedence. Santana, Joe Cocker. Plus other performers I really liked; Procol Harum, Mothers of Invention (wow!), Byrds, Booker T. & the M.G.s, B.B. King. Admission was $6 each day, $15 for all three. There were few serious incidents aside from traffic jams. The promoters even turned a profit. It was not a continuous event; the racetrack was cleared out every night. Since there were plenty of cheap motels & campgrounds within 20 miles, it'd have been possible to eat, shower & sleep in relative comfort & safety. Maybe not.

But Woodstock had all the buzz, the media attention, we went there, & my memories of that legendary occasion are on the balance less than pleasant. I remember the second day & night pretty clearly; it had the best music. Sunday afternoon's thunderstorm made us throw in the smelly blanket & leave, exhausted, dirty & hungry. My clothes were in such bad shape that I changed into some sort of shaman robe someone gave me, which was fine until we pulled into a rest area on the Thruway & I realized I looked like I was in drag.

After Woodstock, I never again went camping except for a few nights I slept outside during a trip around America in 1976. Although I had long hair, I disavowed all association with either hippies or the student hippie wannabees that made up most of the crowd at Woodstock. No matter how stoned I got, I was never the kind of person who'd screw in public & celebrate my liberation by sliding naked though disgusting mud wallows; or admire anyone who did. Maybe I missed something. I doubt it. The discomfort & bad sanitation were turnoffs enough. I was just a songwriter, & given my late-adolescence anger, angst & alienation I was tilting toward proto-punk.

Millions now claim they were at Woodstock & I can't prove I was there, so it makes no difference what I say. But if I'd gone to the forgotten festival at Atlantic City Racetrack with a total 3 day attendance of about 100,000, that would be something to brag about. Like seeing the Flea Circus & Amazing Diving Horse on the Steel Pier.

Labels: music