Michael Lang, Eccentric Uncle of the Woodstock Generation (original) (raw)

Michael Lang, center, at the Woodstock festival in Bethel, N.Y., in August 1969 with Steve Cohen, left, and Rocky Williams of the event’s production team. Automotive Affairs Editor Larry Allen commented: “Real male bodies! Not Justin Bieber!” Photo by Elliott Landy / The New York Times.

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On the new Planet Waves FM, I pay homage to Michael Lang, one of the founders of the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair, who I knew from both journalism assignments and bumping into him in Woodstock (the actual town) and Kingston. Lang died in New York City on Saturday, Jan. 8 of a rare form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Here is the original press report in Variety, which I have confirmed through other sources.

Read my prior coverage of the various Woodstock festivals:

In Search of the Ghost of Woodstock from AS WE ARE, 1994 is reported from on the ground during preparation for the 25th anniversary concert in Saugerties, New York.

Flashpoints: The Continuation of Burning Man from 1999 includes coverage of the Woodstock 1999 30th anniversary festival held on a retired Air Force AWAC base. Our man on the ground was Mikio Kennedy, Grateful Dead artist and my March 10 brother.

They Were Barefoot in Babylon from 2020, my most “controversial” article about covid so far, relating to the Hong Kong flu which was supposedly a big deal in summer 1969.

Friday’s edition will include an edition of The Branching of the Road, from the Teacher’s Manual of A Course in Miracles. Here is the section I will be covering.

Noon chart for Michael Lang, and the commencement of the Woodstock festival to the right. I asked Michael several times for his birth time, and each time he said he did not know it. It is not published by any authoritative source or biography, so a noon chart is what we have to work with. The festival chart is for when Richie Havens took the stage, one hour past the scheduled time. Source is Bob Spitz’ book Barefoot in Babylon. Click chart for larger version.

Mike Lang at the festival site, August 1969. Photo by Henry Diltz.

Michael Lang is shown at the Winston Farm in Saugerties, N.Y., site of the Woodstock ’94 concert, in early August 1994, about two weeks before the festival. The concert’s North Stage is being built in the background. (Daily Freeman File Photo)