In the summer of 1969, promoter John Brower thought he had a foolproof plan for a classic concert. Though just 22, he had already promoted successful shows by some seminal rock bands of the day, leading to his creation of the first full-scale pop festival in his native city of Toronto. That two-day event, held in June, starred acts as hot as Sly and the Family Stone, The Band, and Blood, Sweat & Tears. But the artist who wound up stealing the show that day was none other than Chuck Berry, who hadn’t had a hit in years and who was then in his early 40s, a virtual fossil by hippie rock fan standards. None of that mattered, according to Brower. “Chuck was so brilliant that everyone loved him,” he said. “His performance gave me the idea to get all the pioneering acts from the 50s back together to create the ultimate rock ‘n’roll revival show.”
What happened next lurched from one disaster to the next, only to transform, through a series of unforeseen circumstances and hail-Mary passes, into one of the most improbably significant concerts in pop history. “All of the iconic things that wound up happening weren’t anything like what any of us had dreamed of,” Brower said. “What I imagined was a caterpillar. What happened was a butterfly.”
