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WOODSTOCK: A NEW NATION part 8 Book excerpt from "Aquarius Rising" by Robert Santelli SATURDAY, AUGUST 16 continued: "This is the largest crowd of people ever assembled in the history of the world. But it's so dark out there we can't see you and you can't see each other. So when I say 'three,' I want every one of you to light a match." The emcee paused a few seconds to allow people to locate matches. The countdown began, and when Morris said the magic number, a breathtaking fiery light illuminated the night. The emotion and striking beauty of the scene was deeply touching. Whether this is the origin of the match-lighting ritual that has become so common on the concert circuit is unclear. What was clear, however, was that the moment marked the birth of a nation: the Woodstock Nation. Peter Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon, and John Entwistle took the stage at Woodstock as the sun was rising in the east. They performed brilliantly despite the fact that they had been dosed with acid backstage. (Townshend never forgot the incident and to this day voices his disgust with Woodstock and rock festivals in general.) In the film Woodstock, Michael Wadleigh caught the picturesque Roger Daltrey, stunning in his fringed outfit, as well as guitarist Townshend in perfect stride, and treated the world to an unforgettable split-screen segment of their performance. Wadleigh captured Daltrey's compelling stage presence and Townshend's windmilling guitar antics in poetic harmony. The Who's filmed performance turned out to be one of the movie's climactic moments. The Woodstock crowd was largely apolitical (although they did show their concern over the Vietnam War during the Country Joe and the Fish set). But that did not stop Yippie leader Abbie Hoffman from pirating a microphone during The Who's set in an attempt to incite the crowd with political fervor. Hoffman appealed to the throng that it was wrong to celebrate when John Sinclair, a fellow political radical and manager of the band the MC5, was in jail for possession of two joints. But Hoffman had picked the wrong time to attempt arousal of the crowd. Peter Townshend, angered by the audacity of the radical, struck Hoffman with his guitar in the middle of a song and forced him to leave the stage. It was not the first time Abbie Hoffman and members of the underground had forced a confrontation with the Woodstock image. In the book Young Men with Unlimited Capital, coauthor Joel Rosenman wrote about the first meeting he and John Roberts had with Hoffman some weeks prior to the festival. After receiving threatening phone calls from unidentified underground members, the promoters had agreed to meet with Hoffman, who promised to spike the festival's water supply with LSD if Woodstock Ventures did not donate $10,000 to the Yippie Party. No money was given to the radical group in an official sense, but the promoters did hand over funds to pay for setting up booths at Woodstock for various radical organizations. Hoffman continued his efforts to manipulate the Woodstock hoopla toward a political end after the festival was over. He signed a contract with Random House to write a book on the event and its immediate significance for the counterculture movement in America. In Woodstock Nation: A Talk-Rock Album, he coined the phrase "Woodstock Nation" and prophesied a new spirit and energy for radicalism in the 1970s.
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