WOODSTOCK AT 50
89
RAVI SHANKAR
The Indian sitar player who
influenced the Beatles
had to play his 40-min.
set in a deluge. But the
weather didn’t bother
Shankar, who died at 92 in
2012, as much as the drug
use then associated with
music. “The music to us
is religion,” he stressed.
“The quickest way to
reach godliness
is through music.”
SLY AND THE
FAMILY STONE
When the funk-rock
pioneers sang “I Want to
Take You Higher,” the
crowd responded in kind.
“Onstage you could only
see the first few thousand.
But when we stopped
playing, we could hear
them. It was the loudest
roar we’d ever heard in our
lives!” said bassist Larry
Graham. “It made us
realize we could tap into a
higher musical zone than
we had ever done before.”