Woodstock Revisited

* This is the happiest weekend of my life (Aug. 12-14). Why? I don’t have to worry about any children of mine being at Woodstock.

I’m a liberal guy. Why can’t Woodstock last for a whole year--that’s a lot of morons off the streets. No! Wait! Tell them they can only go home if they read one book, “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” so they will know how this world is going to end up. For the Romans, it started with a radical change in the music. Ah, screw it, maybe it’s too late. We are all gonna end up in those portable toilets Woodstock rented. Long live Perry Como.

FRANK RAY PERILL

West Hollywood

* Thanks to Bob Guccione Jr. (Commentary, Aug. 14) for reminding us of progressive radio with no playlists and progressive rock. However, as an ex-Jerseyan who listened to the legendary WNEW-FM, I must correct the record and offer my two cents:

Allison Steele started her show at 10 p.m., not at midnight. She did read her poetry each night to start her show, but she immediately went into the music. I never recall her talking--let alone for “15 minutes”--before playing her first song!

Jonathan Schwartz, whom Guccione rightly calls “FM’s preeminent philosopher,” did indeed play Frank Sinatra and King Crimson (as well as his--and my--favorite band, Gentle Giant). Jonathan knew the Sinatra music because his dad, Arthur, was one of our greatest songwriters of that era. The Southern California stations should air Jonathan’s New York weekend morning show, which plays the best of that era’s music. We can finally show Angelenos the wit and wisdom of New York, not the bad Lenny Bruce impressions offered by Howard Stern.

One final thought: Guccione is on to something about corporate rock and Woodstock. If he goes back to Frank Zappa’s album (now CD) “We’re Only in It for the Money” (1968), he’d hear Zappa say the corporate takeover of rock had already begun. Woodstock was, in fact, the birth pangs of “the me decade,” not the climax of the ‘60s youth movement.

MITCHELL J. FREEDMAN

El Toro

* Twenty-five years ago I was a child and my parents wouldn’t let me run away to Woodstock; 25 years later I’m a parent and my children won’t let me run away . . .

HEIDI (SUNSHINE) SNIVELY

Manhattan Beach