The five best Woodstock performances

Yesterday's article has inspired me to write about some of my favorite Woodstock performances -- a tedious task considering so many great artists were at the festival. Honestly, this list could've easily been "The 20 best Woodstock performances," but luckily for all of us, I've decided to focus on the five performances that I think made Woodstock a once-in-a-lifetime concert.

As always, please send me your thoughts or objections. I welcome all feedback.

5. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Not a bad place to play your second gig. CSN&Y arrived in Bethel, New York a day after playing their debut show in Chicago and proceeded to blow away the Woodstock audience with an intimate acoustic set featuring some seriously intricate vocal harmonies. The video below is the group's performance of "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes." Please also note that Neil Young didn't want to be in the Woodstock film, which is why you can't see him in the video (he's there, though).

4. Santana

The group Santana was really just a baby when it played Woodstock (their debut album came out in August 1969), but their performance at the festival sounded more like a carnivorous beast than Latin rock child's play. While Carlos Santana's super hallucinogen-enhanced guitar leads and Greg Rolie's pre-Journey organ inflections may have both taken a backseat to 20-year-old Michael Shrieve's ridiculous drum solo on the song "Soul Sacrifice," there's no debating that the entire band was in superb form during Saturday set at Woodstock -- a performance which made major waves in the world of rock and roll.

3. Ten Years After

Not so much a great performance as it was a good performance with one killer song, Ten Years After guitarist Alvin Lee really let the crowd have it with "I'm Going Home" -- a ripping blues guitar clinic ripe with one blistering lead after another. This kind of guitar playing would be considered pretty quick even by today's standards, so it probably sounded like spaceships landing to people back in 1969.

2. Jimi Hendrix

I know, I know, you're thinking, "What? How is Hendrix number two on this list?" There's no debating Jimi was the perfect closing performer at Woodstock: his "Star-Spangled Banner" performance is one of the greatest live guitar moments ever, and he even had the best outfit of any of the Woodstock performers (you gotta love the white fringe and red headband).

All things considered, I just think one particular group's Woodstock set really sealed the deal as the concert's best performance...

1. The Who

Everything's about The Who's Woodstock performance was fantastic. The band's 4 a.m. set was played almost completely awash in blue and red stage lights, adding a dramatic flair to songs like "Pinball Wizard" and "I Can't Explain." The wardrobe was great, with Daltrey in excessive fringe and Townshend wearing his infamous Union Jack coveralls. The instruments sounded terrific -- especially Keith Moon's spastic-yet-explosive drums and John Entwistle's low-end thunder. And the songs -- all 25 of them -- were absolute classics. Here's a clip of them playing the end of "We're Not Gonna Take It."

In my opinion, this is about as good as it gets for live music.

If anyone hasn't read my other article regarding Woodstock, you can check it out here.