Poems from Woodstock by Leonard Brown

Sound Out was a music festival held in 1967 outside Woodstock, NY, on Pan Copeland’s farm. Jocko Moffitt co-produced it with Steve Bishop. The latter cut his teeth booking the Philadelphia Folk Festival and was instrumental in booking acts at Sound Out. Another organizer was Leonard “Leny” Brown, a saxophonist, who arrived at Jocko and Tonny Moffitt’s home in a February snowstorm and slept on their couch during the lead-up to the concert. He recalls that Steve Bishop was constantly phoning band managers and agents. Due to Steve’s efforts, the lineup included such stars of the day as Tim Hardin, Phil Ochs, and Ritchie Havens. Much to the promoters’ surprise, the concert drew thousands and garnered an article in The New York Times. The elation of pulling off the concert soured when Jocko and Steve totted up the box office receipts and realized their take didn’t match the crowd size. They deduced that either festival goers came through the woods, making it a free concert, or the gate manager absconded with the funds. The promoters’ dark mood deepened when Jocko Moffitt was served a ticket by the local police for disturbing the peace and had to pay a $300 fine.

Leonard “Leny” Brown recently wrote a poem memorializing how Sound Out came to be. Below is a brief excerpt:

“Sound Out”

Jocko, Buckley & Me

We’re riding in his van

Smoking a J

In the back roads of Woodstock

Jocko said, “I got an idea, how we can make some money with music.”

We laughed & then he explained

His idea, for a festival, like Monterey

the year before

He asked if we would associate with him

& thus was born “sound out”

Leny grew up in Dearborn, Michigan. After attending university there, he began traveling around the country. In 1967, he hitchhiked to New York City and arrived penniless, with nowhere to stay. He decided to thumb a ride to visit Timothy Leary in Millbrook. Unfortunately, it began to snow furiously, so instead, he hitched a ride to Woodstock. Once here, he fortuitously met Jocko, who took him to his house. Leny stayed with the Moffitts through the festival and received a salary of eight dollars for his work as a festival associate.

One day Leny was sitting in Café Espresso having a sandwich. Leny was grouchy and in a down mood when another fellow came over to sit down.

“Mind if I join you?”

“Fine.” Said Leny and nodded to the adjoining chair. Leny, being sociable, asked, “Who are you?” The fellow gave him a funny look and replied.

“Rick Danko.”

“What do you do?” asked Leny.

“I’m a musician.”

“So am I,” responded Leny. “Are you working?”

“Yes, with Bob Dylan,” Rick replied.

“Are you getting paid?”

“Yes, we’re getting a weekly check.”

Leny became quite friendly with Rick and his fellow bandmate Richard Manuel.

After Sound Out, Leny moved to Pan Copeland’s farm and overwintered in a converted school bus. In the spring, he journeyed to California, looking for work as a musician. His travels eventually took him to Hawaii, where he met a Zen Master, Seceda. By 1969 he returned to Woodstock. Below is a snippet from another poem:

“Woodstock “69”

I remember, I got back to Woodstock

In the summer of “69” from Hawaii

Tonny. Told me I pulled into their driveway

As the first astronaut stepped on the moon

Later I was looking for a job

& I went to Bethel 11 days before the festival to sign up

To pick up garbage; for the minimum wage

In 1973, growing disillusioned with the country’s political climate, he decided to travel abroad. He married a French woman and settled in France to raise a family of three children over the next 40 years. In 2013 he returned to Woodstock for a third time to resolve some lingering Karmic issues. His return came just as the 50^th Anniversary of the Woodstock Festival was starting to pick up steam.

Interestingly, his long-time spiritual advisor told him that the Woodstock Festivals beginning in 1967 and culminating in 1969, could have changed the world if people had had the necessary spiritual knowledge. Further, he said that we need to be aware “for the next time.”Serendipitously, Leny now lives on former Sound Out festival grounds. In a burst of creative energy since his return, he wrote a series of poems entitled Poems from Woodstock that capture a lifetime of musings. The book is available on Amazon under the pen name Brolen. It touches on such 1960s themes as psychedelics, the Vietnam War, the draft, the military-industrial complex, climate change, and the divine dance of life.

Movingly in “Good and Bad,” another poem from the book, he writes:

And you meet the great scorekeeper.

In the sky

He/She will not ask.

If You won or lost

But how…did you play.

The Game

~Weston Blelock