Jimi Hendrix and a crowd at Woodstock standing in the rain

Henry Diltz/Corbis via Getty Images and Barry Z Levine/Getty Images

Take the Woodstock Quiz

How much do you know about the famous festival?

Edna Gundersen,

AARP

Published August 01, 2019

10 Questions

Take the Woodstock Quiz

[ {
  "question" : "Which was the only act at Woodstock without a record deal?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "The Incredible String Band",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Sha Na Na",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Keef Hartley Band",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Bert Sommer",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Sha Na Na. The 12-man group was the last to be booked and is not listed on the Woodstock poster. Jimi Hendrix caught Sha Na Na in a New York club and lobbied Woodstock producers to add the campy retro-rock act to the bill. Drummer Jocko Marcellino recalls that they were paid $350 and the check bounced. Sha Na Na’s career exploded thanks to the festival, and they’ve released 18 albums with global sales of 20 million copies.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "How many babies were born at Woodstock?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "0",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "1",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "2",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "3",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "0. Two babies were born during Woodstock, but none on the site. William Abruzzi, one of 40-plus doctors at Woodstock mainly treating drug overdoses, told the New York Times at the time that two women gave birth over the course of the festival — one in a car trapped in traffic on Route 17B, and the other in a hospital after the mother was flown by helicopter from the field.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "No acts of violence were reported among the half million attendees at Woodstock, but one occurred on stage during which performance?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Ten Years After",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Canned Heat",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "The Who",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "The Who. After the band’s performance of “Pinball Wizard,” activist Abbie Hoffman rushed the stage, grabbed the microphone and began belittling the show and decrying the imprisonment of White Panther Party leader John Sinclair. Guitarist Pete Townshend cursed Hoffman, ordered him off the stage and struck him on the head with his guitar.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "Bob Dylan, who declined to perform, was at Woodstock in spirit and song. Joan Baez, Joe Cocker, The Band and one other act performed his songs. Who was the fourth?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Tim Hardin",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Arlo Guthrie",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Melanie",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "The Grateful Dead",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Melanie sang “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Baez, Cocker and the Band all played “I Shall Be Released.” In addition, Cocker covered “Just Like a Woman” and the Band did “This Wheel’s on Fire” (cowritten by Rick Danko) and “Tears of Rage” (cowritten by Richard Manuel).",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "Jimi Hendrix was the highest paid Woodstock artist with $18,000 (adjusted for inflation, that would still be a bargain today at $125,604). Who received the second-highest paycheck?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Janis Joplin",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Jefferson Airplane",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Blood, Sweat & Tears",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Joe Cocker",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Blood, Sweat & Tears earned $15,000, double the amounts for The Band, Joplin, the Airplane and Sly and the Family Stone, who each went home with $7,500. The jazz-rock band’s self-titled second album, with “And When I Die,” “God Bless the Child” and “Spinning Wheel,” was blanketing charts and radio in 1969. Cocker got a mere $1,375, compared with $6,000 for Richie Havens and $4,500 for Ravi Shankar.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "Several acts declined to play Woodstock, including the Rolling Stones, Joni Mitchell, Simon & Garfunkel, the Doors and Led Zeppelin. What reason did Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull give for staying away?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "He didn’t like hippies.",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "He feared an outdoor concert would make him an easy target for a sniper.",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "His manager advised against it so he could appear on The Dick Cavett Show instead.",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "The band was already booked that weekend at the Asbury Park Convention Hall.",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Anderson told SongFacts that he didn’t want to go “because I don’t like hippies, and I’m usually rather put off by naked ladies unless the time is right.” Joni Mitchell was dissuaded to perform by manager David Geffen so she’d be rested for an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show the  next day. Led Zeppelin’s manager Peter Grant dismissed Woodstock as a generic festival and instead booked a U.S. tour and the Jersey date. And it was singer Jim Morrison who had the paranoid agoraphobia that kept the Doors from signing on.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "Identify the Woodstock figure who studied real estate law, had only three fingers on his right hand, kept an oxygen tent in his bedroom, and admitted to the gathered masses, “I don’t know how to speak to 20 people at one time, let alone a crowd like this.”",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Ravi Shankar",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Max Yasgur",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Johnny Winter",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Swami Satchidananda",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Max Yasgur, who had 10 farms on 2,000 acres, rented a 600-acre alfalfa field in Bethel to Woodstock organizers for $50,000. Angry residents balked at the notion of anti-war hippies swarming the area, and Yasgur, a Republican who supported the Vietnam War, told the town board, “If I know my American history, tens of thousands of Americans in uniform gave their lives in war after war just so those kids would have the freedom to do exactly what they are doing.” He sold the farm two years later, moved to Florida and died at 53 of a heart attack.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "The Jeff Beck Group, featuring Rod Stewart, was set to play but backed out after acrimoniously breaking up two weeks before Woodstock. Only one other act booked for Bethel didn’t make it to the festival. Who was it?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "The Beau Brummels",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Derek and the Dominos",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "The Moody Blues",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Iron Butterfly",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Iron Butterfly, which scored 1969’s No. 1 album with “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” heard about the traffic nightmare, and the band’s manager sent a telegram demanding instant payment and round-trip helicopter rides from LaGuardia Airport. Woodstock producer John Morris responded: \n“For reasons I can’t go into / Until you are here / Clarifying your situation / Knowing you are having problems / You will have to find / Other transportation / Unless you plan not to come.” The first letter in each line sent the desired message, and the band never arrived.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "Melanie’s performance of which song prompted the first ever mass display of cigarette lighters held aloft at a concert?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "“Birthday of the Sun”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "“Beautiful People”",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "“Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "“Brand New Key”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "“Beautiful People.” The constellation of flickering flames inspired Melanie to write “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain),” which was released seven months after Woodstock. It sold more than 1 million copies in 1970 and reached No. 6 on Billboard’s singles chart.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "Jimi Hendrix was the festival’s last performer, but producer Michael Lang had tried and failed to book another artist to close Woodstock. Who was it?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Neil Diamond",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Roy Rogers",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "The Rolling Stones",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Elvis Presley",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Roy Rogers. Lang wanted the Singing Cowboy to close the festival with his signature sign-off, “Happy Trails.” Rogers’ manager nixed the idea, and years later the star said, “I would have been booed off stage by all those goddamn hippies.”",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
} ]

Quiz Progress

0 Correct

0 Incorrect