The Woodstock Festival of 1969 has been popularly mythologized as three days of peace, love and free music. But that isn't exactly the case. Some people who were there remember nothing but mud while others mightn't exactly remember anything at all!

In the case of The Who's Pete Townshend, the memory isn't idyllic. He bluntly said he hated it.

According to legend, The Who had to wait longer than they expected before they played. By the time their moment came, they were dosed on LSD and were forced to follow Sly and The Family Stone at 3.30am in the morning.

"Woodstock wasn’t what rock was all about," Townshend has been quoted as saying. "Tommy wasn’t getting to anyone. Sly and the Family Stone had just whipped everyone into a frenzy and then kind of walked off."

But The Who played their Tommy material nonetheless. Interestingly enough, the set is remembered not for Townshend's windmills or Moon's outrageous drumming. It has become a show of legend because Townshend managed to hit one of Amercia's great counter-cultural leaders offstage with his guitar.

Yippie activist Abbie Hoffman invaded the stage during The Who's set to make a statement about a fellow activist - John Sinclair - who was in prison.

The crowd reportedly booed Hoffman as he stated his case. An irritated Townshend hit Hoffman with his guitar and knocked him into the photographers' pit.

Townshend later claimed he didn't know it was Hoffman.

Recommended links:

Abbie Hoffman
http://www.paxacidus.com/otb/otb_hoffman.html

1969 Woodstock Festival & Concert
http://www.woodstock69.com/

Pete Townshend
http://www.thewho.net/pete/

The Who at Woodstock
http://www.woodstock.com/html/biow0043.shtml

Pete's riffs for your ACID library (true!)
http://www.petetownshend.com/pr_display.cfm?id=258&zone=diary