Midway through, McDonald stoked
the audience to an even higher pitch.
“Listen, people, I don’t know how
you expect to ever stop the war if you
can’t sing any better than that. There’s
about 300,000 of you f---ers out there; I
want you to start singin’! Come on!
“And it’s one, two, three... ”
Following Country Joe’s perfor-
mance, Wavy Gravy made one of his
periodic between-set announcements,
this one to address reports of bad acid
circulating through the festival. “It’s
not poison,” the affable entertainer
assured the masses through the mic.
“It’s just poorly manufactured.”
AFTER WOODSTOCK: Still very active at
77, Country Joe has made more than 30
albums and written hundreds of songs.
McDonald ran into a legal squabble
in 2003 when the daughter of the late,
great jazz trombonist Kid Ory sued
him for copyright infringement over
the “One, two, three” chorus of his
“Rag,” the melody of which derives
from Ory’s 1926 classic, “Muskrat
Ramble.” The court ruled that Ory had
waited too long—three decades—with-
out bringing suit.Santana
2–2:45 PM
With that, Santana was finally all pres-
ent and accounted for and ready to
take the stage. Mexican-born founder
Carlos Santana, 22, had moved to San
Francisco as a young teen. Distinctive
for its Latin-infused rock sound, his
group had made some waves around
the Bay Area and was about to release
its debut album. They had a big-time
ally in promoter Bill Graham, power-
house owner of San Francisco’s leg-
endary Fillmore Auditorium. Little
known when they took the Woodstock
stage, they were instant stars by the
time they walked off, thanks to an
eight-song set that lit up the festi-
val. It started with “Waiting,” fol-
lowed by the slow and hypnotic “Evil
Ways,” “You Just Don’t Care,” “Savor,”
“Jingo,” “Persuasion,” and then “Soul
Sacrifice”—which, as featured in theONE OF THE BREAKOUT ACTS
at Woodstock was Santana,
led by its namesake, guitarist
extraordinaire Carlos Santana
(above, at right, with the
group). Perhaps no other
artists benefited more from the
exposure at the festival than
this band, especially when
the Woodstock documentary
hit the screen. The film made
an instant star of drummer
Michael Shrieve (opposite),
whose electrifying solo jolted
the adoring crowd.50 LIFE WOODSTOCK