Woodstock Music & Art Fair, '69: Woodstock

"...not only a fantastic artistic statement, but also an excellent introduction to the medium of Indian music itself."

"This album stands as an early attempt to teach the curious western listener about the complexity and beauty of Indian music... Give this one a number of listens for the music itself, and maybe a spare just for the history in it."

"...one of Ravi Shankar's best early albums."

"A free-flowing, freewheeling, counter-culture comedy set during the turbulent 60's adapted from Guthrie's musical monologue Alice's Restaurant Massacre. Guthrie portrays the embodiment of America's youth, a young man who sees his life beginning to unravel through psychedelic drug-fueled haze, as he and his friends (and the plot) spin toward an explosive conclusion."

"... her finest moment as a songwriter and one of her finest performances, period."

"Before the arrival of Carlos Santana's eponymous band, the San Francisco rock scene drew the inspiration for its jam-oriented music mainly from blues, rock, and Eastern modalities. Santana added Latin music to the mix, forever changing the course of rock & roll history."

"...make no mistake: this is one of Santana's finest accomplishments."

"... an aural pastiche from numerous sources -- often running simultaneously -- was a radical concept that allowed consumers worldwide to experience a simulated Dead performance firsthand."

"Few recordings have ever represented the essence of an artist in performance as faithfully as Live/Dead."

"Workingman's Dead reflects both the looming darkness of its time, and the endless hope and openness to possibility... "

"It’s easily the masterwork of their studio output, and a strong contender for the best music the band ever made..."

"... one of the greatest pure rock & roll records ever cut."

"...Green River represents the full flower of their classic sound"

"...an album made during stress and chaos, filled with raging rockers, covers, and intense jams"

"...one of the most eagerly anticipated, and one of the most successful, albums of 1968."

"Pearl's power leaves the listener to wonder what else Joplin could have accomplished, but few artists could ask for a better final statement."

"...the music is the message, and while it's dark music, it's not alienating -- it's seductive despair, and that's the scariest thing about it."

"Stand! is the pinnacle of Sly & the Family Stone's early work, a record that represents a culmination of the group's musical vision and accomplishment."

"The album is as perfect a balance between melodic mod pop and powerful instrumentation as the Who (or any other group) would achieve; psychedelic pop was never as jubilant, not to say funny..."

"The full-blown rock opera about a deaf, dumb, and blind boy that launched the band to international superstardom..."

"There is certainly no better record of how this band was a volcano of violence on-stage, teetering on the edge of chaos but never blowing apart."

"...a groundbreaking piece of folk-rock-based psychedelia."

"Controversial at the time, delayed because of fights with the record company over lyrical content and the original title (Volunteers of America), Volunteers was a powerful release that neatly closed out and wrapped up the '60s."

"...20 original tracks spanning the gruff-voiced singer's 30-plus years of recordings."

"...Music from Big Pink came to be regarded as a watershed work in the history of rock, one that introduced new tones and approaches to the constantly evolving genre."

"Winter's debut album for Columbia was also arguably his bluesiest and best."

"... this is the ideal selection of their most accessible material."

"... variety made Déjà Vu a rich musical banquet for the most serious and personal listeners, while mass audiences reveled in the glorious harmonies and the thundering electric guitars"

"...the music that pours from this album is unfiltered...blared, clamored, and let loose, like blues music is supposed to be released."

"One of the most stunning debuts in rock history, and one of the definitive albums of the psychedelic era."

"...a solid collection of great tunes and great interactive playing"

"Jimi Hendrix's third and final album with the original Experience found him taking his funk and psychedelic sounds to the absolute limit. The result was not only one of the best rock albums of the era, but also Hendrix's original musical vision at its absolute apex."