1969: Joni is scheduled to take part in the "Woodstock Music & Art Fair" in Bethel, NY, but ends up not going. Instead, she spends the day watching news reports of the event on TV in a New York hotel room. A number of explanations for her absence are circulating: 1) David Geffen advises her not to go because of a commitment to appear on Dick Cavett's TV talk show. 2) Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young - also scheduled on the Dick Cavett Show - advise her not to go so that "someone will be on the show" in case they do not return in time. 3) There was a mixup at the airport with the helicopters and Joni got left behind.
Here is Joni's version from the Edmonton Festival Press Conference 1994: "I was the person that didn't get to attend. I just wrote the song which kind of glorified it. I was supposed to play Dick Cavett on Monday morning and it was a national disaster, and I went to the airport with CSN, we played in Chicago the night before, and we were all supposed to go with our manager, Elliot Roberts, and our agent, David Geffen. It was deemed that there was no way in so David [Geffen] and I went to Manhattan, the boys rented a plane and got in and then got out because they showed up at my TV show the next day. That night when I watched it on TV at Geffen's house I was the girl who couldn't go to the party." Contrast that with her introduction to the song Woodstock during a concert just 4 months after the event in 1969: "Everybody knows about Woodstock. I started off to go there... I was playing in Chicago and I was with my manager and another group. We had just finished playing in Chicago and they were on their way to the festival and I was on my way with them except that I had to do a television show the following Monday. So, Sunday afternoon we arrived at the New York airport and there were all sorts of hassles with helicopters and transportation into the festival so I got abandoned there. I got left behind and I felt really terrible. I went back into New York City and turned on my television in my hotel room and watched the little bits of it that they put on the news and felt sorry for myself... and then when I saw the magazine articles and pictures of it and everything I really, really felt sorry for myself because it'll never happen again of course" 1974: Tonight Joni performs the last of five nights in a row at the Universal Amphitheater in Universal City, California. The recordings from these five dates end up as the material for the Miles Of Aisles album, released 3 months later. 1979: Joni perfroms the second of two nights at Alpine Valley in East Troy, Wisconsin. More info: http://www.jmdl.com/articles/docs/790817wna.cfm ---- For the most complete reference to Joni's appearances, consult the Joni Mitchell Chronology of Appearances: http://www.jonimitchell.com/appearances.html
