The daunting Woodstock 50 – Back to the Garden – The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive box set debuts August 2, exactly two weeks before the Woodstock festival revival was said to take place. Limited to 1969 units, the 38-disc box set is completely remastered, spanning the original festival top to bottom. All 433 tracks are catalogued between Friday’s opening set of Richie Havens to Jimi Hendrix, spilling into Monday morning.
More than half of the total runtime debuts unheard releases. The 267 song homage captures names like Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, The Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Sly and the Family Stone and many greats for the first time.
Each box comes loaded with a guitar strap, Director’s cut Blu-Ray, prints, writings and other memorabilia. A coffee table book, Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music, fuses visuals with sound and are accompanied by Lang’s insights and memories to 1969.
The collection is a time-capsule weaved with personality; notably from a replica diary written by an inspired attendee. Stage-banter sucks you into different angles in time – retrospective in particular lights of the festival experience, and flat out rock and roll. The expansive archive captures festival blurbs from random attendees taped by sound recordist Charles Groesbeek, and backstage audio. Its mass will be organized neatly, day to day. From an analytical measure or for the pure Woodstock-junkie, this box set is remarkable. Experience it day by day as if it were 1969. Price of admission: $799.98
The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive can be preordered here.
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