Max Yasgur's Farm (1999)

Max B. Yasgur (December 15, 1919 – February 9, 1973) was an American farmer, best known as the owner of the dairy farm in Bethel, New York at which the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was held between August 15 and August 18, 1969.

Personal life and dairy farming[link]

Yasgur was born in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrants Samuel and Bella Yasgur.^[1] He was raised on the family's farm and attended New York University, studying real estate law. By the late 1960s, he was the largest milk producer in Sullivan County, New York.^[2] His farm had 650 cows, mostly Guernseys.^[3]

At the time of the festival in 1969, Yasgur was married and had a son and daughter. His son, Sam Yasgur, was an assistant district attorney in Manhattan at the time of Woodstock.

Woodstock Festival[link]

After area villages Saugerties (located about 40 miles (64 km) from Yasgur's farm) and Wallkill declined to provide a venue for the festival, Yasgur leased one of his farm's fields for a fee that festival sponsors said was $50,000.^[3] Soon afterward he began to receive both threatening and supporting phone calls.^[4] Some of the calls threatened to burn him out. However, the helpful calls outnumbered the threatening ones.^[3] Opposition to the festival began soon after the festival's relocation to Bethel was announced. Signs were erected around town, saying, "Stop Max's Hippie Music Festival. No 150,000 hippies here. Buy no milk."^[5]

Yasgur, a thin man who wore glasses, was 49 at the time of the festival and had a heart condition. He said at the time that he never expected the festival to be quite so big, but that "if the generation gap is to be closed, we older people have to do more than we have done."^[3]

Yasgur quickly established a rapport with the concert-goers, providing food at cost or for free. When he heard that some local residents were reportedly selling water to people coming to the concert, he put up a big sign at his big red barn on New York State Route 17B reading "Free Water." The New York Times reported that Yasgur "slammed a work-hardened fist on the table and demanded of some friends, 'How can anyone ask money for water?'" ^[3] Sam Yasgur recalled that "he told us to take every empty milk bottle from the plant, fill them with water and give them to the kids, and give away all the milk and milk products we had at the dairy." ^[6]

At the time of the concert, friends described Yasgur as an individualist, who was motivated as much by his principles as by the money.^[3] According to Sam Yasgur, his father agreed to rent the field to the festival organizers because it was a very wet year, which curtailed hay production. The income from the rental would offset the cost of purchasing thousands of bales of hay. However, Max Yasgur believed strongly in freedom of expression, and was angered by the hostility of some townspeople toward "anti-war hippies." It became for him a "cause."^[6]

On the third day of the festival just before Joe Cocker's early afternoon set, Yasgur addressed the crowd.

After Woodstock[link]

Many of his neighbors turned against him after the festival, and he was no longer welcome at the town general store, but he never regretted his decision to allow the concert on his farm.^[6] On January 7, 1970, he was sued by his neighbors for area property damage caused by the attendance of the "flower children". However, the damage to his own property was far more extensive and, over a year later, he received a $50,000 settlement to pay for the near-destruction of his dairy farm.^{[citation needed]} He refused to rent out his farm for a 1970 revival of the festival, saying "As far as I know, I'm going back to running a dairy farm." ^[4]

In 1971, Yasgur sold the 600-acre (2.4 km²) farm, and a year and a half later died in Florida of a heart attack at the age of 53.^[4] He was given a full-page obituary in Rolling Stone magazine, one of the few non-musicians to receive such an honor.^{[citation needed]}

In 1997, the site of the concert and 1,400 acres (5.7 km²) surrounding was purchased by Alan Gerry for the purpose of creating the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. In August 2007, the 103-acre (0.42 km²) parcel that contains Yasgur's former homestead was placed on the market for $8 million by its current owner, Roy Howard. The Woodstock site had been the locale of frequent reunions.^[7]

In popular culture[link]

Joni Mitchell's song 'Woodstock' (also covered by Eva Cassidy, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Ian Matthews, Richie Havens and Brooke Fraser) was also referring to 'Yasgur's Farm':

I came upon a child of God

He was walking along the road

And I asked him where are you going

This is what he told me

I'm going on down to Yasgur's farm

I'm going to join in a rock 'n' roll band

I'm going to camp out on the land

I'm going to try an' get my soul free...^[8]

In addition, Mountain (who were also at the festival) recorded a song shortly after the event entitled 'For Yasgur's Farm'.

The Shaw/Blades project with Tommy Shaw (Styx) and Jack Blades (Night Ranger) had a hit song^{[citation needed]}, "My Hallucination" off the "Hallucination" album, that also mentioned the farm: "In Yasgur's Farm a flower grows, where it stops nobody knows, I'm flyin'...."

The band Moon Safari has a song titled Yasgur's Farm on their album Blomljud

Yasgur is portrayed by Eugene Levy in Ang Lee's film Taking Woodstock.

Sam Yasgur wrote a book about his father, Max B. Yasgur: The Woodstock Festival’s Famous Farmer, in August 2009.^[9]

Quotes[link]

See also[link]

• Michael Eavis, the English farmer who has hosted the Glastonbury festival from 1970.

References[link]

• "The Woodstock Story: Max Yasgur"

External links[link]

• Sullivan County Democrat: Those Who Shaped History
• Sam Yasgur website
• Max Yasgur's Grave

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (May 2008)

Essra Mohawk (born Sandra Elayne Hurvitz on 23 April 1948) is an American singer-songwriter who has recorded a dozen albums, many receiving critical acclaim. Her best known songs are "Change of Heart" recorded by Cyndi Lauper and "Stronger Than the Wind," recorded by Tina Turner.

Biography[link]

Mohawk was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her first record, The Boy With The Way, credited to Jamie Carter, was issued on Liberty Records in 1964. As Sandy Hurvitz, she was then discovered by Shadow Morton, who placed her songs with both the Shangri-Las ("I'll Never Learn") and the Vanilla Fudge ("The Spell That Comes After"). While living in New York City in 1967 she met Frank Zappa, who persuaded her to perform for a short time with The Mothers of Invention and then signed her to his production company Bizarre. Her first album Sandy's Album Is Here At Last was released on Verve/Bizarre in December 1968.

In 1969 she was signed by Reprise Records after executive Mo Ostin discovered her singing at a club in New York. The resulting album, Primordial Lovers, was later stated as being "one of the best 25 albums ever made" in Rolling Stone magazine. The album featured contributions from CSN&Y drummer Dallas Taylor and former Rhinoceros members Doug Hastings and Jerry Penrod. Essra nearly joined Rhinoceros in its original line up. While recording the album, she married her producer Frazier Mohawk and from then on was known as Essra Mohawk. "Essra" (S-ra) is an abbreviated form of Sandra.

Her third, self-titled, album came out on Asylum Records in 1974. The next album, Essra, was released on yet another label, Private Stock, in 1976. During that period, she also worked as a session and background singer, for John Mellencamp, Carole King and later she performed with the Jerry Garcia Band, and recorded and arranged background vocals for Kool & the Gang. In 1982 after recording another album in L.A., she worked with McFadden and Whitehead in Philadelphia, penning "Not With Me" for their Capitol album, "Movin' On". She released another solo album, "E-Turn", before Cyndi Lauper had a big hit with her song Change of Heart in 1986. Members of Generation X may recognize her distinctive voice from the Saturday morning TV series Schoolhouse Rock!, as she lent her voice to Interjections! and Sufferin' Till Suffrage in the mid-70's.

She has written songs for other artists including co-writing a song entitled 'Infinite Eyes' with blues artist Keb Mo as well as recording and performing in concert. She 's released 6 more albums since moving to Nashville in 1993. Essra's songs have been aired on the TV series Joan of Arcadia and the soap opera "All My Children". Rhino released a special limited edition of her second and third albums, "Primordial Lovers MM" in 2000. Essra has been a longtime advocate of peace and environmental protection. She is a member of the board of Musicians and Artists for Peace and is their Nashville coordinator.

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• 1968 Sandy’s Album is Here at Last (as Sandy Hurvitz)
• 1970 Primordial Lovers
• 1974 Essra Mohawk
• 1976 Essra
• 1982 Burnin’ Shinnin’ (released unbeknownst to artist)
• 1985 E-Turn
• 1995 Raindance
• 1999 Essie Mae Hawk Meets the KillerGrooveBand
• 2003 You’re Not Alone
• 2006 Love is Still The Answer
• 2007 Revelations of the Secret Diva

Live albums[link]

• 2001 Essra Live at Genghis Cohen

Compilations[link]

• 2005 "Mama Kangaroos: Philly Women Sing Captain Beefheart". Performs "Party of Special Things To Do," backed by the Philadelphia band EDO.

References[link]

• Donovan, Charles. "Essra Mohawk". Allmusic Guide.

External links[link]

• Official website
• 2003 interview