Dance to the music

More than 30 acts performed, and a few had career-defining moments. Because the concert ran into Monday morning, many missed Jimi Hendrix’s iconic set.

Ted Neumann: “It was just one (act) after another. Just talking to each other in the field and saying, ‘Well, it can’t get any better than that.’ And then the next thing seemed even better . ... When Jefferson Airplane came on, it was sunrise, essentially, and hearing Grace Slick say, “Good morning, people!”

John Fogerty waited a while with Creedence Clearwater Revival to go on after the Grateful Dead, who finished around midnight: “It was just pitch black. I couldn’t see anything except a couple rows right here, I think, where the stage lights were spilling over. And the people there, it looked like one of those paintings of the souls in Dante’s Inferno. They’re all intertwined, and they’re all naked, and they’re all asleep,

muddy . ... They’re not moving and, you know, we’re rocking out . ... And finally I begin to realize that’s why I’m not hearing a big response from the darkness: They’re all asleep, a half a million. The Grateful Dead had put half a million people to sleep!”

Jorma Kaukonen: “Carlos Santana’s performance was an eye opener because we’d never seen anything like that. I remember that to this day as being one of the great live shows of all time.”

Henry Diltz: “I had my rented station wagon parked behind the stage ... I woke up Monday morning to ..., “Ladies and gentlemen, Jimi Hendrix” ... I leapt out of the back of that car and ran up on stage . ... When he played the Star-Spangled Banner ... I remember my first thought was, ‘Why is he playing that? That’s the song of the government that we hate for trying to send us off to war . ... That’s their song. No, wait a minute. That’s our song. He’s reclaiming it for us.’ ... In that quiet of the dawn, it went out from these huge speakers, and it echoed against the bare hillside because many people had left. It just reverberated in the air. It was so riveting and so amazing everyone was standing there with their mouths open.”