50th Anniversary: 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival: Performance-By-Performance

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by WilliamWes, Jun 1, 2017.

  1. beccabear67

    beccabear67 Musical omnivore.

    Location:
    Victoria, Canada
    The Association and Simon & Garfunkel were far from squaresville in my opinion... with songs like Windy and Along Comes Mary, or Sounds Of Silence and I Am A Rock...

    This was Canned Heat's debut to a wider crowd outside the Ash Grove and such... Al Wilson is in fine form on slide and Bob ('The Bear') shoutin' it out with confidence! Would so love to have seen or met either of them! :love:
     
    Last edited: Jun 8, 2017
  2. beccabear67

    beccabear67 Musical omnivore.

    Location:
    Victoria, Canada
    I have a lot of early 1967 live Canned Heat I'm still sorting out, some is from the Ash Grove, some seems to be somewhere else, not sure if I could tell from any of that if Frank Cook does any lead vocal without drumming but I'll be keeping the question in mind when I listen to it all soon. It's really hard to find much in the way of photos of the early pre-Fito line-ups.
     
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  3. Coaltrain

    Coaltrain Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bangkok, Thailand
    I attended the Saturday afternoon show. Janis was wearing the "chic trouser suit" to which you refer. I have always thought the film showed the Saturday p.m. performance. I believe I recall that there were daytime camera shots, but I might be wrong about that. As I get older, my memories fade and become memories of memories that might have morphed over the years. I do remember clearly that she was electrifyingly dynamic, great energy contrasting with the tenderness when she sang with quiet intensity. Certainly, it was the highlight of the weekend for me.
     
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  4. qm1ceveb

    qm1ceveb Forum fanatic

    Location:
    Fort lauderdale
    Who are those people in the second picture? Isn't that Elvin Bishop on the right?
     
  5. qm1ceveb

    qm1ceveb Forum fanatic

    Location:
    Fort lauderdale
    Canned Heat is one of the highlights of the original film. What a line-up! The best version of Rollin' and Tumblin' (and I am a BIG Cream fan). Cook got his 3 minutes of fame, certainly!
     
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  6. RiRiIII

    RiRiIII Forum Resident

    Location:
    Athens, Greece
    Agreed. As is their Woodstock appearance (from the director's cut).
     
  7. chicofishhead

    chicofishhead Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chico, California

    The LP-size book that came with the Monterey Pop 4 CD box set has some photos from Big Brother where you can see that Sam Andrew is dressed different than he is in the movie. The picture on this page also appears to be from Saturday: Monterey Pop Festival 50th Anniversary | The History of Rock and Roll Radio Show This one too: Big Brother and the Holding Company Pictures | MetroLyrics James Gurley is also dressed differently but I think Peter Albin wore the same thing (as did Janis).
     
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  8. chicofishhead

    chicofishhead Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chico, California
    They wanted to play, and their manager told them the day before that there was a cancelation and that they would be added to the bill, so they drove up and arrived in the early morning only to find that they weren't scheduled after all. They proceeded to set up on a free stage and performed a bit of music which just angered some bikers who were trying to sleep.
     
  9. Emberglow

    Emberglow Senior Member

    Location:
    Waterford, Ireland
    My copy of the Monterey Pop 4CD is the UK release by Castle and it has a minimal CD-sized 24-page booklet with none of that.
     
  10. RiRiIII

    RiRiIII Forum Resident

    Location:
    Athens, Greece
    The big box was released in 1993 IIRC.
     
  11. Emberglow

    Emberglow Senior Member

    Location:
    Waterford, Ireland
    The Castle 4CD is licensed from Rhino (and Monterey International Pop Festival Foundation) and it has credits for 1992 and 1997
     
  12. WilliamWes

    WilliamWes Likes to sing along but he knows not what it means Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York

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    BIG BROTHER & THE HOLDING COMPANY
    (introduced by Chet Helms)


    1 Down on Me (A)
    2 Combination of the Two (A)
    3 Harry (n/a)
    4 Roadblock (B)
    5 Ball 'n' Chain (A+)


    One of the bands most benefitting from the Monterey stage, the SF band had been hot on the scene and were hearing their single “Down on Me” on local radio when they got to call for the festival. Janis is legendary here and all her vocals are at the top of the rock food chain-male or female. “Ball n’ Chain” is an all-time great live performance, singlehandedly making her a star, Hall-of-Famer, and all-time rock great. The band notsomuch in any of that! “Down on Me”’s solo is totally sloppy though they’re tighter on the verses and a great lead guitar licks are spread around. “Combination of the Two” finally shows the band at their best and though it’s still sloppy, the dynamics of the song turn to dy-manics. Those dynamics display plenty of creativity and really flesh the song out in a fine way. There’s a mediocre drum solo in the more average “Roadblock” but it gets wiped from memory by “Ball and Chain”. One of the great performances of the festival, it’s a bit sloppy instrumentally but it doesn’t matter. It’s an all-time moment in rock history and secured Joplin’s fame along with the band. Of course Joplin would overshadow them here and mostly everywhere after until she left for a solo career that way successful for the short time she was alive. “Ball and Chain” is definitely my favorite moment of her career and one of my favs from the festival.

    Big Brother & the Holding Company (Full available set)
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2017
  13. WilliamWes

    WilliamWes Likes to sing along but he knows not what it means Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York
    I've always wondered to about pics of both Big Brother performances but I've never seen her in a different outfit at Monterey. Just this one:

    [​IMG]
     
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  14. Emberglow

    Emberglow Senior Member

    Location:
    Waterford, Ireland
    Tracks 1 to 4 were released on the Monterey Pop 4CD box (together with the Sunday evening performance of 'Ball and Chain'), tracks 4 & 5 appeared on the Janis 3CD box. I'm sure track 5 is also on the Essential Janis Joplin CDs
     
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  15. Emberglow

    Emberglow Senior Member

    Location:
    Waterford, Ireland
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2017
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  16. WilliamWes

    WilliamWes Likes to sing along but he knows not what it means Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York
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    COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH

    1 Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine (A)
    2 I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag (B+)
    3 The Bomb Song (Please Don’t Drop That H-Bomb On Me) (C+)
    4 Section 43 (A)


    This group was another that benefitted heavily from Monterey and were considered one of the hippest San Fran bands around. Country Joe & the Fish are fantastic at this concert between the joint psychedelia and hard rock of “Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine” which has more punch than on record, the dark forest mystery of the ever-so-scary “Section 43” and a couple of songs that put their political views on full display. The sing-a-long “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag” is a fun moment, though it’s different than the later Woodstock version and has some annoying ‘waka-do’s. The Woodstock version is probably the better live version because of they interrupt the chorus. The blues rock “The Bomb Song”, like the rag, features the band saying the lyrics first so the crowd will sing-along, before breaking into a long acapella intro. While the sing-a-longs work well live, something like “The Bomb Song” wouldn’t be easy to hear on repeat. But Country Joe knows how to work up an audience and he’s another with fantastic charisma. Another funny moment comes when he introduces “Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine” as a current single "skyrocketing up and down the charts.” Loves these one-liners! Their album debut released in May of that year featured 3 of the 4 leaving out “The Bomb Song”, and it has so much of the great psych we hear in the set. Though The Doors debut and Forever Changes by Love are mentioned as darker 1967 albums, we can probably include Electric Mind For the Music and Body as well.

    Country Joe & the Fish- Section 43
     
  17. WilliamWes

    WilliamWes Likes to sing along but he knows not what it means Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York
    And Country Joe & the Fish- Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine

     
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  18. Nick Dunning

    Nick Dunning Forum Resident



    Section 43. Love this to bits.
     
  19. Emberglow

    Emberglow Senior Member

    Location:
    Waterford, Ireland
    Barry Melton of The Fish and Henry Vestine of Canned Heat both had great buzzin' guitar tones back in 1967
     
  20. Nick Dunning

    Nick Dunning Forum Resident



    More complete Fish set.
     
  21. Folknik

    Folknik Forum Resident

    I have that album. It's mostly a ragged but right set with Mama Cass doing some witty intros. Just before the last verse of "Monday Monday", the bass player hits a bum note and throws Cass and Michelle way off key. A cringe-worthy moment that at least proves it was live and not doctored up in the studio.
     
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  22. Folknik

    Folknik Forum Resident

    Not sure if this is accurate, but I read somewhere that Rivers' Monterey set included the Beatles' "Help", performed not just once, but twice.
     
  23. pool_of_tears

    pool_of_tears Searching For Simplicity

    Location:
    Midwest
    Pigboy Crabshaw ;)
     
  24. Brother Maynard

    Brother Maynard Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dallas, TX
    Cool description!
     
  25. Hardy Melville

    Hardy Melville Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    Not to digress, and in general I consider Fender to be The Evil Empire, but their Dual Showman amp/cab, as well as the Twin Reverb, were the amps used by most West Coast bands of the period (Blue Cheer I think were the first to use Marshalls, which of course is an English company). As you allude to the irony as far as Fender was concerned was that their amps sounded better if a Gibson was played through them. This was the combo by then used by guitarists from Bloomfield to Big Brother's Andrews and Gurley to the great John Cipollina to Jorma Kaukonen and, usually Garcia (although Jerry also frequently played a Stratocaster) and always Weir after he switched from his Rick. Robbie Krieger used Fender Twin Reverbs in the studio, but would often tour with a different amp, the Acoustic. In general though the West Coast bands other than Blue Cheer did not play Marshalls (who other than BC did?). I am not sure whether by then The Who, who were instrumental in developing and spreading the word on Marshall stacks, were using Marshalls exclusively in England, but as noted here they were actually using Vox amps, not Fenders. But in general there would have been no real reason to complain about the Fender amps.

    It is my recollection from a mag I do not have access to right now, and I can't find a link on the net, either, but despite those caveats I recall that soon after Cream would go on their extended tour of the US with Marshalls, which eventually crapped out on them, and so while on the West Coast they picked up Fender Dual Showmans, which they finished the tour with, and there were no problems or complaints. WHen they got back to England, though, they did turn back to Marshalls. But I digress.

    The point being that while it is fine to prefer Marshalls if one so chooses, it's not like the Fender Dual Showman was a bad amp. It was equally loud and provided plenty of sustain and crunch at full volume. It seems instead that The Who were somewhat unhappy with the Vox's, not Fenders.
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2017

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