Recollected in Tranquility: Woodstock

IN AUGUST 1969 we pulled into Woodstock, feeling about half-past dead. I had to go there and write about three days of love, peace and rock and roll music for The New York Times. My friend, Richard, was with me, and my wife, Catherine and the dog, Marcellus (after Cassius Marcellus Clay). Marcellus was my introduction to rock criticism a few years ago when he made friends with critic Richard Goldstein's dog, Jerome, in Riverside Park. The fact that the two of us have German Shepherds probably says more about the art of criticism than anything Kenneth Tynan has ever put on paper. Anyway, Marcellus was responsible for my considering a career in rock and roll writing, so we felt we should bring him along to this epic.