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

50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1967
MONTEREY INTERNATIONAL POP FESTIVAL (PERFORMANCE-BY-PERFORMANCE)


Let's get together right now and take a psychedelic trip to Monterey, California!

The Monterey International Pop Music Festival of 1967 was one of the best live performances in rock history and for me personally, it was one of the musical moments that got me 60’s music listening. This event had a ton of importance to rock and the decade’s counterculture, and it’s still remembered well to this day as something tied to the Summer of Love, psychedelia and a career fuse lighter for many of the best artists rock has seen. It will be 50 years young when we hit June 16-June 18th of this year.

This is only the 2nd thread I’ve created. The first I did was a Love (with Arthur Lee) album-by-album thread that I had a lot of fun with. It’s linked on my signature. I wanted to do a second thread on this event because it groups artists that are still well known to this day with artists that were known then and less so now, and some artists that were never really in the spotlight. With plenty of big name artists on the roster, I ask that we go in order, performance-by-performance without jumping ahead with in-depth comments on just the most memorable ones. (Passing comments are fine.) That way we get more thoroughly in-depth about the whole concert and scene. I’ll be doing about 1 or 2 artists a day until June 18th, giving an overview of where they are in their own career, as well as how well they performed live on each of their songs. While many of the tracks are available in audio live, many have never been released and some of the setlists were not accurately recorded. I’ll review everything that’s been released amongst whatever setlists we have.



Monterey International Pop Festival Overview From Wikipedia:

The festival was planned in seven weeks by John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas, record producer Lou Adler, Alan Pariser and publicist Derek Taylor. Monterey and Big Sur had been known as the site for the long-running Monterey Jazz Festival and Big Sur Folk Festival; the promoters saw the Monterey Pop festival as a way to validate rock music as an art form in the way in which jazz and folk were regarded.[16] The organizers succeeded beyond all expectations.

The artists performed for free with all revenue donated to charity, except for Ravi Shankar, who was paid $3,000 for his afternoon-long performance on the sitar. Country Joe and the Fish were paid $5,000 not by the festival itself, but from revenue generated from the D.A. Pennebaker documentary.[17] The artists did however have their flights and accommodation played for. Apart from Shankar, each act was given up to 40 minutes for their performance. Several ended their sets earlier, including The Who, who played for only 25 minutes.

So drive over, run over, walk over, swim over, fly over, camp over, sleep over, but don't pass over when you reach Monterey County Fairgrounds.

Stop...and get a ticket...

 

interesting how the lineup and band schedules changed.

 

On YouTube the profile 67psych has all the songs that I'll be covering on 4 videos that span everything that's been available from the concert. For anything I review, except The Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Mamas and the Papas can be found on this link and the ones that follow it on YouTube.



I love so much of the art from the era...

 

Before we get started on each act, I wanted to know people's thoughts on the artists that did not perform. Wikipedia has a good list with some reasons why. I would have loved all of these acts to perform...

From Wikipedia:
Cancellations and no-shows

Several acts were also notable for their non-appearance.

The Beach Boys, who had been involved in the conception of the event[25] and were at one point scheduled to headline and close the show, failed to perform. This resulted from a number of issues plaguing the group. Carl Wilson was in a feud with officials for his refusal to be drafted into military service during the Vietnam War. The group's new, radical album Smile had recently been aborted, with band leader Brian Wilson in a depressed state and unwilling to perform (he hadn't performed live with the group since late 1964, although he would do so in Honolulu, Hawaii in August 1967). Since Smile had not been released, the group felt their older material would not go over well. The cancellation permanently damaged their reputation and popularity in the US, which would contribute to their replacement albumSmiley Smile charting lower than any other of their previous album releases.

The Beatles were rumored to appear because of the involvement of their press officer Derek Taylor, but they declined, since their music had become too complex to be performed live. Instead, at the instigation of Paul McCartney, the festival booked The Who and the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

The Kinks were invited but could not get a work visa to enter the US because of a dispute with the American Federation of Musicians.

Donovan was refused a visa to enter the United States because of a 1966 drug bust.[25]

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band was also invited to appear but, according to the liner notes for the CD reissue of their album Safe as Milk, the band turned the offer down at the insistence of guitarist Ry Cooder, who felt the group was not ready. However, Cooder has also claimed that at a warm-up show several days before, Beefheart refused to sing and jumped off the stage, leaving the band to play a mostly instrumental set. The guitarist said this was the reason he refused to play.

Dionne Warwick and The Impressions were advertised on some of the early posters for the event, but Warwick dropped out because of a conflict in booking that weekend. She was booked at the Fairmont Hotel; the hotel was reluctant to release her and it was thought that cancelling that appearance would negatively affect her career.

Bob Dylan did receive an invitation, but he declined due to the fact that he was still recovering from his motorcycle accident the previous year. Hendrix paid tribute to him by covering "Like a Rolling Stone".

The Mothers of Invention were invited to perform, but their leader Frank Zappa declined because of his refusal to share the stage with any of the San Francisco bands who he felt were inferior.

Even though the logo for the band Kaleidoscope is seen in the film as a pink sign just below the stage, the band did not perform at the Monterey Festival.

Although The Rolling Stones did not play, guitarist and founder Brian Jones attended and appeared on stage to introduce Hendrix. The group was on the short list of invitees, but was unable to get work visas because of the drug arrests of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

It was long rumored that Love had declined an invitation to Woodstock, but Mojo Magazine later confirmed that it was the Monterey Festival they had rejected.

The promoters also invited several Motown artists to perform and even were going to give the label's artists their own slot. However, Berry Gordy refused to let any of his acts appear, even though Smokey Robinson was on the board of directors.

The Monkees were the biggest-selling musical act in the United States in 1967 and were seriously considered to play, but after weeks of deliberation, John Phillipsand Lou Adler decided not to invite them. However, group members Micky Dolenz (in full American Indian buckskins and headdress) and Peter Tork attended the festival and mingled with musicians backstage. Tork was asked to introduce Buffalo Springfield, his favorite group, for their set. Tork also introduced Lou Rawls and was involved in a bizarre incident where he walked out onstage in the middle of the Grateful Dead's set to try to stop fans from climbing on stage and dancing. Tork also informed the crowd that The Beatles were not at the festival in disguise.

According to Eric Clapton, Cream did not perform because the band's manager wanted to make a bigger splash for their American debut later that year. However, it has since been revealed that the band were not considered by the festival organizers.

The Doors also were not invited, even though they were a successful group by this time. Keyboardist Ray Manzarek later said “We were quite angry wondering why The Association was at the Monterey Pop Festival, and The Doors were not”.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was all over the airwaves and transforming the culture, released 2 weeks earlier.

THE BEATLE MONTEREY INTERNATIONAL POP FESTIVAL BLESSING

 

This thread should be a lot of fun. Thanks for doing it.

 

Donovan must have fixed his visa problem shortly after. he even headlined the cow palace in s.f. that fall. no way he'd miss touring the states in 1967.

the kinks finally made it back to the states in 1969.

 

Beefheart and Love would have been great as we'd now have soundboards of them in their '67 pomp

 

the west coast debut of the genius of LAURA NYRO on opening night rumored to have been an embarrassment yet when i watch the blu-ray it seems fine to me.

 

Yeah that's true. I'm looking at Dionne Warwick and The Impressions in that lineup that wound up not performing. Hendrix was scheduled for Friday night. Anyway the yellow poster in the post that follows has the sequence that occurred, but maybe I'll post it here to be clearer on who we're covering...

MONTEREY LINEUP
Friday, June 16

• The Association
• The Paupers
• Lou Rawls
• Beverly
• Johnny Rivers
• Eric Burdon and The Animals
• Simon & Garfunkel

Saturday, June 17

• Canned Heat
• Big Brother and the Holding Company
• Country Joe and the Fish
• Al Kooper
• The Butterfield Blues Band
• The Electric Flag
• Quicksilver Messenger Service
• Steve Miller Band
• Moby Grape
• Hugh Masekela
• The Byrds
• Laura Nyro
• Jefferson Airplane
• Booker T. & the M.G.'s
• The Mar-Keys
• Otis Redding

Sunday, June 18

• Ravi Shankar
• The Blues Project
• Big Brother and the Holding Company
• The Group With No Name
• Buffalo Springfield (played w/ David Crosby)
• The Who
• Grateful Dead
• The Jimi Hendrix Experience
• Scott McKenzie
• The Mamas & the Papas

 

FRIDAY, JUNE 16TH 1967 (Evening)





THE ASSOCIATION
(Introduced by John Phillips)

1. The Machine (intro)
2. Enter the Young (n/a)
3. Along Comes Mary (B+)
4. Windy (B)

Terry Kirkman - wind instruments, vocals, percussion
Russ Giguere - rhythm guitar, vocals, percussion
Brian Cole - bass, vocals, woodwinds
Ted Bluechel, Jr. - drums, vocals, rhythm guitar, bass
Jim Yester - rhythm guitar, vocals, keyboards
Larry Ramos - lead guitar, vocals

The Association were a curious choice to start this soon to be famous festival. While they were popular and in their prime having two successful albums and a top-ten album Insight Out released the month of Monterey, they were not one of the counterculture leaders. Their performance that kicked off an all-time rock music event, was executed wearing matching suits that must have felt old fashioned in front of the young crowd. When they left the stage and other artists took over in psychedelic garb, it must have felt like a passing of the fashion torch.

Yet The Association still had some street cred because of the single “Along Comes Mary” and the best harmonies of any participant considering the Beach Boys and Beatles were not present. “Enter the Young”, the first real song played at the festival is a perfect way to kick off the event that became linked to the youth and hippie movements. To bad the live recording is not available. With the #1 single “Windy” playing on the airwaves at the time and the lovely and successful “Never My Love” coming next, they were in a prime position to make their mark. The band had a change in the original lineup the month before with co-founder & lead guitarist/vocalist Jules Alexander leaving to study meditation in India, replaced by Larry Ramos.

When really seeing the lyrics of the songs they performed look how relevant they are for the festival:

For Enter the Young:
Here they come, yeah/Some are walking, some are riding/Here they come, yeah/And some are flying, some just gliding
Released after years of being kept in hiding/They're climbing up the ladder rung by rung
Enter the young, yeah

Along Comes Mary:
And then along comes Mary/And does she want to set them free, and let them see reality/From where she got her name
And will they struggle much when told that such a tender touch as hers/Will make them not the same

Even Windy feels like its about a carefree hippie:
Who's bending down to give me a rainbow/Everyone knows it's Windy/Who's tripping down the streets of the city/Smilin' at everybody she sees
And Windy has wings to fly/Above the clouds (above the clouds)

The Association’s polished studio harmonies and sound can’t be matched in live performance, so they try a harder rocking approach and it works out well. After opening with an appropriate number “The Machine” which serves as the band’s intro [bassist Brian Cole narrates], with jokes of the band playing like a ‘machine’ using fake long elaborate names for their instruments, The Association were well received and the crowd sounds enthusiastic about them and what’s to come. Both “Along Comes Mary” and “Windy” rock briskly with slightly ragged harmonies, but their melodies still shine. Jim Yester takes the lead vocal on “Along Comes Mary” while “Windy” is co-sung by Yester, Guigere, Kirkman & Ramos. “Along Comes Mary” disregards its brief brass passages and handclaps but leaves in the fine Terry Kirkman flute solo. On the first line “someone calls to me”, we hear one of the other members calling out which is a nice touch. It feels exciting and "Windy" is just a notch below, but still upbeat, energetic and lively enough to win over the crowd. It’s a good start to the festival.

The Association: The Machine/Along Comes Mary live at Monterey

 

Great thread idea and excellent commentary so far. Amazing seeing the list of "could have beens" - just imagine if the already stellar lineup had been supplemented by the likes of the Beatles, Stones, Dylan, Motown acts, Beach Boys, Kinks, etc. Although their absence in effect may have helped some of the newer bands and artists by not inevitably drawing attention away from them (though one suspects the performances of Hendrix and The Who would have gotten plenty of attention in either case). Also a vivid reminder of how such factors as drug busts and Vietnam draft issues were so in play at the time - but if the bit about Zappa refusing for the reason stated is true, this sounds like the ultimate in undue arrogance.

Regarding the Association, I have to say the "The Machine" intro bit seems horribly dated now (and a touch culturally insensitive with the 'made in Japan' reference), but given their reliance on studio musicians on their records, I'm almost surprised to see them get through their set in one piece. Still, very much lightweights compared to some of the other acts to perform later on...

 

I've got the 'deluxe' DVD set and some of the music on CD and will watch them very soon !

I'd love to have been old enough, and close enough, to attend.

I wonder if Eric Burdon's "Monterey" was the first tribute tune to a festival ? Of course Joni Mitchell paid tribute to Woodstock later....hmmmm. I realize some jazz performers had music referring to say....The Newport (RI) Jazz Festival...but for Pop ? I think Eric may have the first. Love the tune by the way.

Upon further thought...I'm not so sure how many 'Pop' festivals there'd been before the '67 Monterey fest.

 

It's about a carefree hippie tripping on acid. That's exactly what the "tripping" lyric means

 

The opening sounds of High Flyin' Bird still gives me chills and Section 43 blew my mind first time I saw/heard this!
Thanks for starting this thread for the best festival for Pop music

sean

 

no need to look at what wasn't, look at what was
Association were great as well as just about every single act there, even the Mamas Papas sloppiness could not kill the warm vibe. Exceptional.

 

Robert Christgau was there and wrote a great review of the festival with a lot of interesting background on its drama and organization, including the rivalry between the "authentic" SF bands and the "plastic" LA contingent. Plus some critical judgements on one particular performance which are still controversial today

Robert Christgau: Anatomy of a Love Festival

 

Yes, that's a fantastic article because it was written around that time and his memory is a lot clearer then than in other's accounts I've read from years later.

 

For those who have $500 to spend...

Morrison Hotel Gallery | Monterey Pop VIP Experience

In celebration of the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, this one-night exclusive experience includes:

- A screening of the full-length feature film MONTEREY POP fully restored and digitally enhanced presented in the Roxy Hotel's luxurious screening room

- An exclusive meet and greet and Q&A with the film's director D.A. Pennebaker

- A complimentary boxset of the original film from Criterion

- An original / vintage Monterey Pop movie poster printed in 1967

- A set of three 8” x 10” photographic prints of Festival favorites: Otis Redding, The Who, and Jimi Hendrix shot by Henry Diltz and D.A. Pennebaker

- A pre-show cocktail reception at Django's located in the Roxy Hotel.

 

I've been listening to Moby Grape's set after being reminded about it by this thread, sounds great but just a shame they didn't get to play for longer

 

Great thread. Tried to get parental approval to attend, but, just graduated from high school, it was a no sale from Cleveland. I had read the breathless accounts of its planning in WIXY Beat magazine that spring and knew it would be amazing. I look forward to reading all about it here.

 

Thanks guys, great thread. I am looking forward to keeping up with this treasure trove of information.

 

I was checking around for Association threads and I didn't find much. I've always liked The Association since I first heard "Never My Love" on the radio. That's one of my favorite love songs to this day and I became more of a fan once I had the Greatest Hits from 1968 and then moved on to the albums. Insight Out and Birthday are my favorites. They really know how to harmonize on a good melody and I liked their arrangements too with both Bones Howe and Curt Boettcher. Sometimes I think they might be sappy but the melodies are too good for me to care. I did think they dropped once past Birthday. I've heard their late career stuff and it doesn't hit the peaks they once hit. They probably went out at the right time when it was over in 1972 but they were hot during 1967.

 

Never My Love is a fantastic song. You can't overpraise it. The organ solo is outstanding.

 

Birthday was the last Association album produced by Bones Howe, who reportedly had had enough when the group rejected a little song called MacArthur Park for that album after the composer had demoed it for them at the suggestion of Mr. Howe. I agree: they never recovered. Great group. Bones continued making hits with the Fifth Dimension, often written by that composer.

 

THE PAUPERS
(introduced by David Crosby)

Adam Mitchell: vocals, rhythm guitar
Chuck Beal: lead guitar
Denny Gerrard: bass
Skip Prokop: drums, vocals

1. Magic People
2. Think I Care
3. Tudor Impressions
4. Simple Deed
5. Let Me Be
6. Dr. Feelgood (w/bass solo)

The Canadian group The Paupers had a few singles released and a couple of minor Canadian chart hits by the time they hit Monterey. They were also an opening act for Jefferson Airplane earlier in 1967 thanks to their great live reputation and help from Dylan's manager Albert Grossman. As a band that was pretty much forgotten by the end of the decade, their two albums and disbanding by 1968 didn’t seem to make much of a ripple in the rock community. The Magic People 1967 album, released later in November, has some strong material on it despite peaking at #178. The first five songs they played live were from this debut and they're some of the better tracks from the LP. Unfortunately no live tracks have seen the light of day from their appearance. Each band has a hip and credible presenter to introduce them and David Crosby makes his first of a number of appearances during the 3 days/nights. Their rock sound does have a creative edge despite limiting themselves to just their own instruments according to their philosophy. I never heard the second album but what I heard from the first was good enough to understand why they were included at this event.

The album's title track led off the set - "Magic People" was a great lead track for the album and set, though it stalled when it was released later in the summer, it shows they had some tricks up their sleeve. A psychedelic guitar purring leads into a harmony-laden melodic folk-rock piece with a gritty fuzz guitar grinding through the rhythm and a polyrhythmic whizzing feedback psych break. “Think I Care” has an attractive rhythm with more of a rock base, but again the highlight is the break, a slip into a deep cavernous adventure of spooky psych guitar tones contrasting well with the more upbeat meat of the song. “Tudor Impressions” is a beautiful folk-rock song with gentle guitars with a break that reminds of the Beach Boys’ Smile’s creation logic. With a light funk guitar working the rhythm on “Simple Deed”, it stands as one of the lighter songs musically and lyrically but is just average. “Let Me Be” reaches towards acoustic folk with a better melody than the previous song and their set closes with “Dr Feelgood” which includes a bass solo. Aretha Franklin had just released her version of the track on her first 1967 album.

There’s a thread around here calling for artists that were hurt by not appearing in the movie- well “Magic People” would have had plenty of fans and it’s a shame no live track has been issued which would make one think they are no longer available. A band that could have been big like so many from this era, they were overshadowed by too many great bands at once. Still, they will always hold a place amongst some of the best stars once they played Monterey. It’s too bad they were never found out years later and I doubt much discussion will happen in the future here on the forum, but they do deserve some kind of mention. If you have time, check out "Magic People"...

The Paupers- Magic People