THE THEN GENERATION : They <i> Can</i> Still Remember It

You’ve probably seen that TV commercial set at the “Woodstock ‘94” reunion, with John Sebastian asking Country Joe McDonald, “Remember when we did this 25 years ago?”

A hazy, dazy McDonald squints at the scene and replies, flatly: “No.”

The truth is, McDonald does remember, and is happy to talk about it. But many other veterans of the landmark pop festival act as if they’d rather not remember the event.

Attempts to extract reflections from musicians who performed there resulted in flat refusals from representatives of the Grateful Dead, Arlo Guthrie and Richie Havens.

And most of those who agreed to talk did so somewhat reluctantly, concerned that too much is being made of the meaning of the event.

“It’s why we’re talking,” says Sebastian, perturbed that the press only calls when it’s a significant Woodstock anniversary.

Nonetheless, Woodstock had an impact on Sebastian that carries to the present, as is the case for the other performers who agreed to look back.

JOHN SEBASTIAN, 50, former leader of the Lovin’ Spoonful, has lived in Woodstock since 1976 and will be performing as part of the “folkie” anniversary at Bethel--the town where the festival was actually held:

“In the short run it meant a career of outdoor concerts because people came to associate me with that particular posture, outside. I’ve probably, as a result, been rained on more than any living performer.

“The other thing that came out of it was a rather unfortunate tag as a kind of Joe Hippie guy, partially because I was fairly stoned at Woodstock, but also because I was ecstatic. To me, personally, it meant a lot to see a culture that suddenly had a large audience where before we were considered a minority. It certainly was a moment of ecstasy. But at the same time it was just a concert and that’s all it was.”

PAUL KANTNER, 53, co- founder of the Jefferson Airplane, now leading his latest version of Jefferson Starship:

“Woodstock was just one of 150 things we did that year, things just like it, but this one happened to blossom out of control.

“I’m sad that people have nothing to do now other than whine about the past. ‘Why don’t we have a Woodstock?’ Now you’ve got one and it’ll probably be a good show, but to call it Woodstock is like having a war and calling it World War II again. ‘Cool, get out the uniforms and the good old songs.’ It goes with the Millennium approaching.

“Maybe there will be an Altamont reunion too. Really, somebody ought to do it just to be sick.”

JOAN BAEZ, 53, performed at Woodstock, pregnant, while her then-husband David Harris was in jail for draft evasion. She now lives in San Francisco and is working on a new album:

“There’s a generation of people who have a vague notion of me only in relation to Woodstock, and there are others who will always tie me to that because that’s where their lives left off.

“I probably said this five years ago, but my feeling is historic moments live in the present. Marching on Washington, D.C., in 1963, singing for Lech Walesa, the Amnesty International shows I did and Live Aid, these are all spectacular moments for me, so I have no interest in reliving Woodstock.”

COUNTRY JOE McDONALD, 52, the former leader of Country Joe & the Fish, now lives in Berkeley and runs the Rag Baby Records label, which will release his new album, “Carry On,” in the fall:

“Woodstock was really the start of Country Joe McDonald as a solo performer and, at least for that year and a few after that, gave life to my solo career and enabled me to go on. On these anniversaries it’s good for my career again.

“But people took their impression of me from the ‘Fish Cheer’ and the ‘Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die’ song, which I take full credit for, but it made me bigger than life, and that wasn’t my goal. It’s been hard to escape that. I spent most of the ‘70s and ‘80s working with Vietnam veterans, and the liberal community and entertainment industry was aghast that I would talk about being a veteran myself. No one wanted to hear about that.

“But it was very rewarding and interesting, and I wound up singing at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington twice. The song I sang is the title song of my next album, ‘Carry On,’ which sums up how I feel about Woodstock and Vietnam and all that: Just carry on. It ain’t over yet.”

CARLOS SANTANA, 46, fronted his then-unknown band, Santana, in a Latin-tinged rock jam at Woodstock. Santana is now one of the top touring rock bands, with shows at the Greek Theatre Aug. 10, 11 and 12 preceding a slot on the “Woodstock ‘94” festival Aug. 13-14:

“It was the biggest door I ever walked through. No one knew us from Adam before that.

“What Woodstock did to this nation was a spiritual jump start. Everybody was, before that, walking around in kind of a haze, accepting everything the government would tell you. Woodstock was, ‘Look how many freaks there are like us! We can stop the war!’

“And not all of those hippies have sold out. Ben & Jerry are still around; the Grateful Dead is still around. There are still a lot of rainbow warriors doing a lot of consciousness work. How? By questioning authority. It’s the Woodstock Generation; it impacted the fiber and consciousness of America to question things if they’re not right and do something about it.”