Yeah, Woodstock - the gathering - is 50 years old. That fact is hard to miss if for no other reason than a proposed 50th repeat has been cancelled. But even the Charles M. Schultz Museum in Santa Rosa offers an exhibition (click on the image above) since the bird is also old.
Many times confusion about the generations surrounds the 60's. Woodstock in 1969 really was a generational hand-off.
From Wikipedia: "Baby boomers (also known as boomers) are the demographic cohort following the Silent Generation and preceding Generation X. The Baby Boom generation is most often defined as those individuals born between 1946 and 1964."
For reasons that defy history, the preceding generation, born 1928 to 1945, is called the Silent Generation.
While there were some performers at Woodstock who were Boomers, a quick look tells us most were Silents such as:
NAME - BIRTH DATEA 2016 post here discussed this. I'll repeat it.
Richard Pierce "Richie" Havens - 1/21/1941
James Timothy Hardin - 12/23/1941
Joan Baez - 1/9/1941
Joseph Allen "Country Joe" McDonald - 1/1/1942
John Benson Sebastian - 3/17/1944
Keith "Keef" Hartley - 4/8/1944
Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson - 7/4/1943
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia - 8/1/1942
Tom Fogerty - 11/9/1941
John Fogerty - 5/28/1945
Doug Clifford - 4/24/1945
Stu Cook - 4/25/1945
Janis Lyn Joplin - 1/19/1943
Sly Stone - 3/15/1943
Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend - 5/19/1945
Roger Harry Daltrey - 3/1/1944
Grace Barnett Wing Slick - 10/30/1939
Paul Lorin Kantner - 3/17/1941
John Robert (Joe) Cocker - 5/20/1944
Joseph Allen "Country Joe" McDonald - 1/1/1942
Alvin Lee - 12/19/1944
Richard Clare Danko - 12/29/1943
John Dawson (Johnny) Winter III - 2/23/1944
David Clayton-Thomas - 9/13/1941
David Van Cortlandt Crosby - 8/14/1941
Stephen Arthur Stills - 1/3/1945
Graham William Nash - 2/2/1942
Neil Percival Young - 11/12/1945
Paul Vaughn Butterfield - 12/17/1942
Jimi Hendrix - 11/27/1942
I was born one year too early for me to be a post–World War II Baby Boomer according to the standard definition. So most of my life I felt confused about whether I was a Baby Boomer or a member of the Silent Generation.
The Silent Generation. Hmmm. Where did that term come from???
In 1951, a Time magazine article was written in which the children of the generation were described as unimaginative, withdrawn, unadventurous, and cautious. Time magazine used the name "Silent Generation" to refer to these individuals. The name has been there ever since.
Yeah, but no. I think there something grossly wrong with that.
I my opinion a 20th Century Golden Generation consists of those born between 1936-1945.To name a very few of the many unimaginative, withdrawn, unadventurous, and cautious Golden Generation who are excluded from the Baby Boom Generation:
Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, both born in 1941, are of the Golden Generation. It was Baez who sang "We Shall Overcome" at the 1963 March on Washington and and in December 1964, led six hundred people in an antiwar demonstration in San Francisco. Dylan released "Blowin' in the Wind" in 1963 and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" in 1964. Muhammad Ali may have become the most famous Vietnam draft resister when in April 28, 1967, he refused the draft. They were not Boomers. These were revolutionaries, not silent observers. Now it appears someone has to protect the revolution.
The Silent Generation. Hmmm. Where did that term come from???
In 1951, a Time magazine article was written in which the children of the generation were described as unimaginative, withdrawn, unadventurous, and cautious. Time magazine used the name "Silent Generation" to refer to these individuals. The name has been there ever since.
Yeah, but no. I think there something grossly wrong with that.
I my opinion a 20th Century Golden Generation consists of those born between 1936-1945.To name a very few of the many unimaginative, withdrawn, unadventurous, and cautious Golden Generation who are excluded from the Baby Boom Generation:
The Beatles (born 1940-1943), Pope Francis (1936), Janis Joplin (1943), Al Pacino (1940), Madeleine Albright (1937), Wilt Chamberlain (1936), Patrick Stewart (1940), Bob Dylan (1941), Jimi Hendrix (1942), Tina Turner (1939), Abbie Hoffman (1936), Grace Slick (1939), Jerry Garcia (1942), Jerry Brown (1938), Antonin Scalia (1936), George Carlin (1937), Robert De Niro (1943), Joan Baez (1941), Arthur Ashe (1943), Lily Tomlin (1939), Dionne Warwick (1940), Ted Turner (1938), Ann-Margret (1941), Jane Fonda (1937), Nora Ephron (1941), Hunter S. Thompson (1937), Simon and Garfunkle (both 1941), Anne Rice (1941), John Irving (1942), Barbra Streisand (1942), Stephen Hawking (1942), Alice Walker (1944), Cheech & Chong (1946 and 1938), Erik Clapton (1945) Colin Powell (1937), Joyce Carol Oates (1938), Penny Marshall (1943), Joe Namath (1943), Muhammad Ali (1942), Diana Ross (1944), Diane Sawyer (1945), Jim Morrison (1943), and The Rolling Stones (1936-43).Generational confusion about the '60's Revolution both in politics and in culture exists because of the mislabeled Silent Generation. In 1963 the members of Golden Generation were ages 18-27. The oldest Baby Boomers were 17, the youngest weren't born yet.
Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, both born in 1941, are of the Golden Generation. It was Baez who sang "We Shall Overcome" at the 1963 March on Washington and and in December 1964, led six hundred people in an antiwar demonstration in San Francisco. Dylan released "Blowin' in the Wind" in 1963 and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" in 1964. Muhammad Ali may have become the most famous Vietnam draft resister when in April 28, 1967, he refused the draft. They were not Boomers. These were revolutionaries, not silent observers. Now it appears someone has to protect the revolution.
Asserting this does nothing to help the Millennials and the generations that follow who face Climate Change. For the most part, we Silents ran out of energy by 1969 and dropped the ball by failing to recognize what Al Gore was telling us in the late 1970's. In 2014 Silent activism leader Joan Baez, reflecting too many of us, said:
“I’ve never been an optimist, not since I was 15. I’m a realist, which I think is much closer to pessimism than optimism. This world is f**king falling apart, and I don’t think it even matters who’s quibbling with who.
“Global warming’s going to get us and that’s going to be it. That’s something I don’t want to say around young people, but what I can say is, ‘Little victories and big defeats,’ because if we recognise what it is we’re up against we can still function and be decent and compassionate and do for others. Maybe that’s the best that can happen right now.”
“Global warming’s going to get us and that’s going to be it. That’s something I don’t want to say around young people, but what I can say is, ‘Little victories and big defeats,’ because if we recognise what it is we’re up against we can still function and be decent and compassionate and do for others. Maybe that’s the best that can happen right now.”
But by 2017 Baez appeared in the Pathway to Paris Concert for Climate Action and this year in an interview she noted: "We have to depend on the young – they unite about climate change. We adults don’t know how to deal with it."
Obviously, handing off the political revolutionary responsibility to the next generation in 1969 - essentially actually becoming "silent" - was a mistake. Or was it? We didn't win much in the '60's other than to create something called a "hippie" culture.
Except maybe the 1964 Civil Rights Act?
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