Woodstock Music & Art Fair, '69: Beyond Woodstock: Music, Film, and More

The story of the aerial combat battle of WWII, in which the Royal Air Force held off the German Luftwaffe.

"A practically perfect screen equivalent to the quiet joys to be found in almost any of Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts comic strips."

"Butch Cassidy's winking awareness of its own cinematic nature (from the opening "silent movie" train robbery to the famous closing freeze frame) and witty banter give the story a degree of charm and exuberance."

"...not only emblematic of independent American cinema, but, released in 1969, is the definitive statement on the death of the 60s."

"The whole archaic big musical circus here surrounds a Happening -- Barbra Streisand -- and it's all worth seeing in order to see her."

"To watch Midnight Cowboy is to find one of the great rewards of the movie, two of the finest performances ever seen, and a city made new every time you watch it."

"... something very special and eccentric and funny."

"Irresistible 1969 Hal Wallis-Henry Hathaway Western that won John Wayne his long overdue Oscar as a rip-snorting federal marshal who meets his match..."

"The hard action, bracing wit and mournful grace of Peckinpah's cowboy classic shames every new movie around."

When the low-budget biker movie Easy Rider shocked Hollywood with its success in 1969, a new Hollywood era was born.

Style. Beauty. Passion. Vision. These are just a few of the words often used to describe the films of the single most celebrated director in Italy, and one of the most important directors the world has ever known -- Federico Fellini.

"... a sweeping account of the 1960s, told decade by decade. Author Frye Gaillard was a Vanderbilt college student in the very early 1960s, and his experiences there informed his lifetime as a journalist. This new work is his first comprehensive account reflecting on those transformative years."

"... a collection of work by photographer Jim Marshall, who created iconic images of rock 'n' roll stars, jazz greats, and civil rights leaders. This career-spanning volume showcases hundreds of photographs evoking the sights and sounds of the 1960s and 1970s."

"Long before the landmark music festival usurped the name, Woodstock-the tiny Catskills town where Bob Dylan holed up after his infamous 1966 motorcycle accident-was already a key location in the '60s rock landscape. In Small Town Talk, Barney Hoskyns re-creates Woodstock's community of brilliant dysfunctional musicians, scheming dealers, and opportunistic hippie capitalists drawn to the area by Dylan and his sidekicks from the Band... This is a richly absorbing study of a vital music scene in a revolutionary time and place."

A trained scientist writes a technical narrative, centering on various scientific issues, which recounts a 5-day major space-age crisis.

Perhaps the most beloved of John Fowles's internationally bestselling works, The French Lieutenant's Woman is a feat of seductive storytelling that effectively invents anew the Victorian novel.

Since its release in 1969, The Godfather has made an indelible mark on American crime fiction. From the mind of master storyteller Mario Puzo, it traces the Corleone family, whose brilliant and brutal portrayal illuminated the violent and seductive allure of power in American society. A tale of family and loyalty, law and order, obedience and rebellion, it has stood the test of time as the definitive novel of the Mafia underworld.

Kurt Vonnegut's masterpiece, "a desperate, painfully honest attempt to confront the monstrous crimes of the twentieth century,"... is one of the world's great antiwar books.

"...Abbey Road stands apart from the rest of the Beatles' catalog, an album that gains considerable strength from its lush, enveloping production -- a recording so luxuriant, it glosses over aesthetic differences between the group's main three songwriters..."

"For many years, this double-LP was one of the most popular albums in Pink Floyd's pre-Dark Side of the Moon output, containing a live LP and a studio LP for the price of one."

"...an excellent summary of his hit singles. And, as these songs prove, Donovan and producer Mickie Most could craft irresistible folk-rock and psychedelic pop singles."

"Hair was both celebratory and anticlimactic at the same time. Heralded by many at the time as being a rejuvenation for musical theater, it was also supposed to "speak" for the youth... However, if you take the score out of this context and listen to it simply as a snippet of some prevalent beliefs of the time, or simply as a fictional work, it is really quite wonderful."

"This is truly the album that made the world sit up and take notice of B.B. King..."

"The group's definitive album, and one of the most daring debut albums ever recorded by anybody. At the time, it blew all of the progressive/psychedelic competition out of the running..."

"Establishing much of the territory Kottke was to explore throughout his career, this release was also one of his most popular..."

"While Led Zeppelin II doesn't have the eclecticism of the group's debut, it's arguably more influential. After all, nearly every one of the hundreds of Zeppelin imitators used this record, with its lack of dynamics and its pummeling riffs, as a blueprint."

"...oozing with bright, splashy creative flourishes in two seemingly contradictory directions that somehow come together as a valid whole"

"This was also the last of the group's big "studio" sound productions, built up in layer upon layer of overdubbed instruments -- the sound is very lush and rich, but proved impossible to re-create properly on-stage, and after this they would restrict themselves to recording songs that the five of them could play in concert."

"...one of the greatest white soul albums (and one of the greatest soul albums) ever cut, with brief but considerable forays into country, pop, and blues as well. Presley sounds rejuvenated artistically throughout the dozen cuts off the original album, and he's supported by the best playing and backup singing of his entire recording history."

"...this extends the rock and blues feel of Beggars Banquet into slightly harder-rocking, more demonically sexual territory."

"The idea of taking England's reigning female soul queen to the home of the music she had mastered was an inspired one..."

The Stooges "didn't really sound like anyone else around when their first album hit the streets in 1969. It's hard to say if [they] were capable of making anything more sophisticated than this, but if they were, they weren't letting on, and the best moments of this record document the blithering inarticulate fury of the post-adolescent id."

"Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere was breathtakingly different when it appeared in May 1969, both for Young and for rock in general, and it reversed his commercial fortunes, becoming a moderate hit... A year and a half after its release, it became a gold album, and it has since gone platinum. And it set a musical pattern Young and his many musical descendants have followed ever since..."

"Hot Rats still sizzles; few albums originating on the rock side of jazz-rock fusion flowed so freely between both sides of the equation, or achieved such unwavering excitement and energy."

A documentary on the Rolling Stones' 1969 tour of the United States, including a performance at Madison Square Garden and a free concert at the Altamont Speedway in California where violence broke out between fans and Hell's Angels who were providing security.

In this breathtaking cultural history filled with exclusive, never-before-revealed details, celebrated rock journalist Joel Selvin tells the definitive story of the Rolling Stones' infamous Altamont concert, the disastrous historic event that marked the end of the idealistic 1960s.

Gonzo journalist and literary roustabout Hunter S. Thompson flies with the angels--Hell's Angels, that is--in this short work of nonfiction... As illuminating now as when originally published in 1967, Hell's Angels is a gripping portrait, and the best account we have of the truth behind an American legend.

In his acclaimed debut as a filmmaker, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson presents a powerful and transporting documentary, part music film, part historical record, created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture, and fashion. Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, just one hundred miles south of Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). The footage was largely forgotten, until now. This documentary shines a light on the importance of history to our spiritual well-being and stands as a testament to the healing power of music during times of unrest, both past, and present.

"... presents, to quote the directive of Howard University's WHUR, 360 degrees of the Black experience."