Leslie Fishbein
Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis
Institute for High School Teachers
Workshop on The Culture of the Sixties
November 18, 2016
WOODSTOCK II (1970) QUESTION SHEET
1. What are the influences on Country Joe and the Fish's music? What do they celebrate?
2. What does the presence of Arlo Guthrie, son of legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie, reflect
about the changing status of folk music as represented at Woodstock? How would you
compare Arlo Guthrie’s performance with that of another notable folk singer, Joan Baez?
3. What does the closing of the New York State Thruway seem to symbolize to both Guthrie
and those who flocked to Woodstock?
4. How does the performance of Crosby, Stills, and Nash differ in tone and substance from that
of the earlier performers? What is distinctive about "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes"? How do
Crosby, Stills, and Nash try to enlist audience sympathy?
5. What are the musical influences on Ten Years After’s performance of "Going Home"?
6. What do we learn about the youth in the audience from their explanations of the act of
calling home?
7. How well did the people at Woodstock respond to emergency conditions when the site of the
festival was declared a disaster area?
8. In what sense does Woodstock become a city? What are the symbolic events that render it a
city in the imagination of those attending the festival?
9. How did those attending react to the stress of overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions and
facilities?
10. How much genuine concern was there for those who were experiencing heavy trips or who
were physically lost at Woodstock?
11. What is John B. Sebastian's demeanor while addressing the audience? What does
"Rainbows All Over You Blues" reveal about his attitude toward children? How were
young children treated at Woodstock? What is the significance of the final dialogue
between father and child in his song?
12. What is the significance of the initial chant with which Country Joe seeks to energize the
Woodstock crowd? Why is "I- Feel-Like-I'm-Fixing-to-Die-Rag" the only song in the film
accompanied by a bouncing ball with lyrics on screen? How essential is crowd participation
to Country Joe and the Fish’s performance? How does that relate to their role in the
Berkeley student rebellion?
13. How does the local couple repairing their car feel about the youth incursion into Bethel? Do
the farmer and his wife have legitimate objections to the Woodstock crowd?
14. What was the balance between profit and loss for local area residents?
15. What is the significance of the dialogue between the local man, father of a nineteen-year-old
son on the West Coast, who sought to feed the crowd and the man who objected to the
youth life style at Woodstock?
16. What role does nudity play at Woodstock?
17. Are the local residents uniformly hostile to the presence of drugs and nudity?
18. How does Santana's performance of "Soul Sacrifice" differ from the earlier songs
performed? Why is the blonde young woman featured on the split screen?
Leslie Fishbein
Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis
Institute for High School Teachers
Workshop on The Culture of the Sixties
November 18, 2016
WOODSTOCK II (1970) QUESTION SHEET
19. How do Sly and the Family Stone set the tone for their performance of "I Want to Take You
Higher"? How does Sly seek to interact with the audience?
20. How do the Hog Farm, the Merry Pranksters, and others seek to provide food for those
stranded without food at the festival? How well organized is the effort?
21. Why is the man who cleans out the Portosans so sympathetic to festival youth?
22. What is the significance of the dialogue between the filmmakers and the hippie who emerges
from the Portosan?
23. How does Max Yasgur, the farmer on whose farm the festival took place, react to the
audience? What does he see as the ultimate significance of the festival? Why is he one of
the few figures captured as a still on film? In what pose is he captured?
24. Why does Woodstock II end with a performance of Jimi Hendrix's “Purple Haze"? Why is
Hendrix shot from below? What is the significance of his use of "The Star Spangled
Banner"as a musical theme?
25. Why is Hendrix's performance intercut with scenes of the abandonment of the festival by the
audience?
26. What is the interpretive effect of the film's conclusion?
27. How does the film's view of the Woodstock Nation compare with that of Abbie Hoffman in
Woodstock: A Talk/Rock Album?