Thomas Edward Harkin's Woodstock FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Fabled Garden cuts through the lofty rhetoric and mythology surrounding the legendary festival. Rather than waxing philosophical about whether or not the Woodstock Music & Art Fair was the defining moment of the 1960s as so many have done before, Harkins places the focus on the music, solo artists, and bands who performed.
Thirty-two acts took to the stage in Bethel, New York that weekend, and the book gives the performers and the music their due consideration. Who were they? Where did they come from? What songs did they play? What happened to them afterward? How did the festival impact their careers? Those are the questions explored in these pages. Further, the book attempts to restore the chronological arc of the festival from concept to concert to its aftermath and enduring legacy.
Drawing on his experiences as a media scholar, Harkins ponders how the album releases and Michael Wadleigh's Academy Award-winning 1970 film Woodstock helped shape the narrative of the festival and in the bargain distort people's memories of the actual event.