Candles in the Rain Trivia Quiz

Answer: Aquarian

In astrology, an astrological age runs for approximately 2,150 years. Its measurement is supposed to equate to the average time it takes for the vernal equinox to move from one constellation onto the next. At the time of this writing we may or may not be in the "Age of Aquarius". The doubt exists because astrologers cannot agree, and their debates have produced claims that this Age either started as far back as 1447 AD or it hasn't arrived yet and will not until 3597 AD. There are also a range of other dates in between that are also claimed to its starting point. Of one thing I have little doubt is that the science behind the procession of the equinoxes would have been totally lost on the multitudes that descended on the town of Bethel in New York in August of 1969.

In modern culture the term, "Age of Aquarius" rose to popularity with the advent of the 1967 musical "Hair" and that insistent line from its opening number "this is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius". From that point it became representative of the hippie culture and the New Age movements that were prevalent in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Woodstock, in its own way, came to exemplify the major characteristics and symbols of the hippie movement, most notably its messages of peace, love and understanding. In one magical weekend it became a movement that developed the ability to possibly change society, the psyche of man/woman and the concepts of injustice that were attached to them.

Aquarians are noted dreamers and what started out as a pipe-dream could so easily have become a nightmare when hundreds of thousands more people than had been planned for descended on Max Yasgur's farm that summer. It didn't. The event created its own vibe. It was a vibe that was built on spontaneity and it is a vibe that almost every concert event since has struggled to re-capture.

Answer: Joni Mitchell

Mitchell was scheduled to appear on the "Dick Cavett Show" that weekend and was convinced by her manager that the appearance on the television show would be of greater benefit to her career than the festival. Joni ended up watching the event on TV and felt like "the kid who had missed out". She witnessed so many young people looking to the performers on the stage, not just for entertainment, but for leadership. And, in the midst of all this, she claimed, she was witnessing a modern miracle - a swarm of people co-operating and in tune with one another that it laid a foundation for "tremendous optimism".

Though Mitchell had shied away from religion years before, the uplifting nature of this event had called to her and she turned to God within her lyrics and allowed his presence to be her guide. Her narration opens with her meeting "a child of God" and she closes each verse with the need to "get back to the garden". The track culminates with Mitchell describing a movement that was "half a million strong".

The song "Woodstock" appears on Mitchell's third album, "Ladies of the Canyon" (1970), it was the B-side of her hit single "Big Yellow Taxi" from the same year and would become a hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young who, ironically, were at the festival.

Answer: Creedence Clearwater Revival

Creedence Clearwater Revival's (CCR) star was on the rise at the start of 1969. Their album "Bayou Country", which spawned the number two hit (US Billboard Hot 100) "Proud Mary", had been released in January of that year and "Green River", boosted by the single "Bad Moon Rising", would consolidate that impetus.

Up until the point CCR signed (April of 1969) the promoters were having a difficult time signing the major acts. CCR, reportedly paid $10,000 for their performance, virtually opened the floodgates with their signature. In the words of their drummer, Doug Clifford "Once Creedence signed, everyone else jumped in line and all the other big acts came on". The 3:00 am time slot then seemed like a slap in the face and it, along with their exclusion from the subsequent film, did leave a bitter taste with some of the band members.

John Fogerty, however, was a little more pragmatic and showed his professional colours with his recollection of the performance; "We were ready to rock out and we waited and waited and finally it was our turn ... there were a half million people asleep. These people were out. It was sort of like a painting of a Dante scene, just bodies from hell, all intertwined and asleep, covered with mud.
And this is the moment I will never forget as long as I live: A quarter mile away in the darkness, on the other edge of this bowl, there was some guy flicking his Bic, and in the night I hear, 'Don't worry about it, John. We're with you.' I played the rest of the show for that guy".

Answer: False

The promoters originally planned to host the event in Wallkill, New York, some seventy miles away from Max Yasgur's farm, but their plans were stalled when it was shouted down by the local residents. In their initial application to the Town Board of Wallkill they advised that the event would attract no more than 50,000 people. The Board promptly passed a law that special permits would need to be approved for any gathering of more than 5,000 people within the town limits. Needless to say, the promoters were denied the permit. They appealed, but the Appeals Board banned the concert on July 15. This was exactly one month short of the planned concert date.

The ban, however, served a purpose; it provided the festival with a degree of notoriety that advertising couldn't buy. The publicity was a boon but it still didn't give them a venue. A realtor introduced them to Max Yasgur and a deal was struck. The clock, however, was against them and they were running out of time to set up the fences and payment booths that would enable them to make a profit. Punters turned up in droves as early as the Wednesday morning before the event and those without tickets simply walked through the holes in the incomplete fences. Left with few options, the promoters turned the festival into a free event. It nearly bankrupted them and it was only their ownership of the film and recording rights that would provide them with the means to clear their debts, some eight years after the show.

Answer: Joan Baez

As a folk singer, Joan Baez was held in high esteem. An anti-war activist, she was often spoken of as the female equivalent of Bob Dylan. Scheduled as the final act on that hectic Friday evening, she finally appeared on stage at 1:00 am on Saturday morning bearing her son Gabriel, who would be born in December of that year. Her serene set, which opened appropriately with "Oh Happy Day", was performed in drizzling rain and was the perfect tonic for what had been a chaotic opening day. Her third number that morning, "I Shall Be Released", bore more than a semblance of irony as Joan followed it with a story of how the Federal Marshalls had come and arrested her husband, David Harris, for refusing to obey his draft orders.

Baez closed her set with, first, an a capella version of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and then, a sweet rendition of her signature tune "We Shall Overcome". As she left the stage the heavens opened up and the rains poured down.

Answer: False

Despite the staggering number of people that attended Woodstock during that second weekend in August of 1969, the regular bouts of rain, the shortage of food and proper water facilities and the close quarters into which the audience were gathered, violence was non-existent. Woodstock actually lived up to its name as a true festival of music and peace.

However, two deaths were recorded during the event though some sources indicated there may have been a third. Of the two confirmed one died of an overdose of insulin and the second, a seventeen year old boy, was accidentally run over by a tractor while he was asleep in his sleeping bag.

There were rumours of numerous women giving birth at the festival and, whilst there were eight miscarriages recorded, there were no official births recorded at the site.

Answer: Gypsy Sun and Rainbow

This band has also come to be known as Rainbows or, the more common, Band of Gypsies. This short-lived group came together after the break-up of The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Woodstock was the first of only four public engagements for them. After being incorrectly introduced to the crowd as "The Experience" the band, made up of Mitch Mitchell on drums, Billy Cox (bass) and Larry Lee on rhythm guitar, supported by Juma Sultan and Jerry Valez on percussion and congas, finally made it onto the stage 8:30 am on the Monday morning.

This was more than nine hours after the scheduled close of the event. The real tragedy is that a crowd, which had peaked at an estimated 400,000 people, had reduced to a mere 30,000 to witness one of the most memorable sets of the weekend.

Hendrix, wearing his now iconic blue-beaded white leather jacket with fringe, produced a two hour set that included his psychedelic rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner", which segued into "Purple Haze", perfectly capturing the mood of the weekend.

Answer: John Sebastian

Santana, a relatively unknown band at the time, had just completed an extraordinarily powerful set at 2:45 pm on the Saturday, with their instrumental number "Soul Sacrifice" being rated a festival highlight by many. The act set to follow, the Keef Hartley Band, had been delayed and were almost two hours away from being stage ready. Seeking to fill up some of this gap, de-facto emcee, "Chip" Monck, spotted his friend Sebastian in the crowd and tried to encourage him on stage. Sebastian initially resisted, but succumbed to Monck's insistence, borrowed a guitar from his mate Tim Hardin ("a very serviceable Harmony Sovereign") and took to the stage.

His initial set of four songs included three tracks from a "possible" solo album and he wound it up with the Lovin' Spoonful hit "Darlin' Be Home Soon". The set was greeted with great enthusiasm by the appreciative crowd and when they encouraged him to return for an encore he obliged them with the Spoonful's 1969 single "Younger Generation".

Prior to this appearance Sebastian had been toying with the idea of stepping out from the shadow of Spoonful. This performance and the response he'd received made his mind up and, six months later, he released his self-titled solo album.

Answer: The Who

The Who started their performance at 5:00 am on the Sunday with the majority of the songs in the set coming from their recently released rock opera "Tommy". They had just completed their tenth song, "Pinball Wizard", and, while guitarist Pete Townshend was busy tuning his guitar for the next number, "Do You Think it's Alright", Hoffman managed to jump up onto the stage and hijack the microphone with the aim of raising a protest over the imprisonment of White Panther Party leader John Sinclair. He managed to deliver "I think this is a pile of (expletive)! While John Sinclair rots in prison..." At this point, a riled up Townshend hit Hoffman with his guitar and gave him an expletive laden exit from the stage.

The band had been scheduled to be the penultimate act on the Saturday evening but numerous delays to the programming had seen them relegated to a much later time slot. However, from adversity, sometimes magic happens. The Who were kicking into the grand finale of "Tommy", the song "See Me, Feel Me", when dawn began to break, creating an amazing backdrop to such an atmospheric number. To the small group of sleep-deprived fans that were still rocking with the band at this point, The Who closed out their set with a rousing medley that featured their 1965 hit "My Generation" and an unreleased song called "Naked Eye", before Townshend's ritual smashing of his guitar.

Answer: Lay Down

The rain played a significant hand during the 1969 Woodstock Festival. It managed to cause numerous delays to acts, extended the concert beyond its planned length by almost twelve hours, turned Yasgur's fields into creeks of mud and provided the inspiration for at least two powerful songs.

John Fogerty, of Creedence Clearwater Revival, confessed during a performance at the Arizona State Fair in 2012, that he was moved to write "Who'll Stop the Rain" after witnessing festival goers huddling together or dancing naked during persistent rain.

Likewise, Melanie, who'd been asked to perform a short set at 11:00 pm on the Friday night, after the Incredible String Band had refused to play in the rain, had a similar lightbulb moment. She indicated that when the rain had backed off during her set many people had decided to light candles as a means to signify to friends that everything was bright (in other words, OK). She was so moved by the image before her that she penned the song "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain), which included the line that captured one of the essential moods of the festival... "we all sang songs of peace".

Creedence's "Who'll Stop the Rain" would reach number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 charts in January of 1970 and Melanie's "Lay Down" would peak at number six on the same charts, two months later.