"Woodstock" Crew On Difficulties Of Capturing Rock's Big Event

We're only two months away from the 40th anniversary of the original Woodstock Festival, and to celebrate Warner Bros. is reissuing Michael Wadleigh's documentary Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music as an newly remastered Ultimate Collector's Edition with more than three hours of bonus footage and never-before-seen live performances from the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Who and more. The DVD box set, which will be released on June 9th and limited to a run of 140,000 copies, will also feature Wadleigh's four-hour Director's Cut of the film.

Click above to watch an exclusive clip in which producer Eddie Kramer, Wadleigh and more talk about how difficult it was to properly record the performances, with equipment hastily set up and strung together with wires and chewing gum. The audio crew was trapped in an 8x8 tractor-trailer with no sight of the stage and only learned when to record when they heard music playing outside the back of the truck. "After the first act, all communication was in the toilet, because who knew what was going on after that," Kramer says. "It was complete chaos, but we did it."

Other featurettes on the Deluxe edition DVD include interviews with Woodstock organizer Michael Lang, Jefferson Airplane's Grace Slick and director Martin Scorsese. The set also comes with a 60-page commemorative Life Magazine reprint and reproductions of festival memorabilia and the three-day ticket. The awesomely packaged set is available in both standard and Bluray DVD.

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Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

More Song Stories entries »

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