Remembering Woodstock: Robbie Robertson : Rolling Stone

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Robbie Robertson

Over the years, between the news footage and the movie, it's kind of foggy in my mind as to who was doing what with whom and where. There'd be people like Wavy Gravy, who would run in with messages every once in a while. You'd get news flashes from the outside world: "This is the biggest gathering. . . . We are now the biggest city in New York. . . . We are bigger than Brooklyn. . . . The traffic is backed up to the George Washington Bridge." And everybody would go, "Yeeeaaaah!"

After three days of people being hammered by weather and music, it was hard to get a take on the mood. We played a slow, haunting set of mountain music. We played a slow, haunting set of mountain music. We lived up there, near Woodstock, and it seemed kind of appropriate from out point of view. We did songs like "Long Black Veil" and "The Weight," and everything had a bit of reverence to it. Even the faster songs sounded almost religious.

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