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

What was wrong with their equipment? Their set from Monterey is probably the most famous one they ever did. By almost unanimous reports, the PA system at Monterey (reportedly the Beach Boys') was excellent for the period.

 

This is a fun listen: REELRADIO - The Don Jennett Collection - Charlie O'Donnell, Casey Kasem, KRLA June 16, 1967
It's great to hear June 16, 1967 in the context of what was happening at the time.
These are two KRLA airchecks. You have to register to hear these, but it's free and TOTALLY worth it!

 

Yeah, that's how people talked back then, including Robert Plant.

It turns out that most people didn't share Christgau's opinion of Jimi Hendrix as "terrible".

 

The amps they used at Monterey were not as powerful as amps they were used to. Townshend's tone is clean and rather dinky with none of the sustain he needs.
An iconic performance, but not one of their best sounding.

 

The 'house' amps at Monterey Pop were 100 watt Fender Dual Showmans. Pete should have played a Gibson through them, as many others did there. You can hear in Big Brother's set that those amps could get plenty loud and overdriven.

 

Well, something wasn't happening that made his tone weak. Keep in mind, he was using Strats a lot at this time.

 

To be fair, those most horrified by Hendrix were the other black performers who already took a dim view of the lack of professionalism among the rock bands (eg. endless tuning up in front of the audience) and saw Hendrix's flamboyence and excess as undermining the respectability they wanted and playing up to a white audience's stereotypes.

 

Thanks, it's good to let me know if I'm off on something, that way we don't get misled by me if I make an error.

I was going to start mentioning the diversity as we go along cause either I mention or was going to mention that a number of festivals would follow this style of rock artists as the base but then adding in other pop, R&B, blues, and folk. So far we have

The Association (pop, folk-rock, rock), The Paupers (rock, folk-rock), Lou Rawls (R&B, jazz, blues, little pop & rock) and Beverley, (folk, folk-rock.)

Christgau argued in the article that almost all of it was folk-rock and that there weren't enough black musicians playing if it was to be a rock festival. But it is called a pop festival. It's hard to stick strictly to one genre when gathering so many artists and I'm glad it was really the Monterey International Pop Rock Folk R&B Festival.

(And yes Christgau writes in a way that can annoy and probably one reason why he ended up being successful. Either way love or hate him, usually it's entertaining. I'm not a big fan of that style normally but it can work I guess.)

 

Reading that article, it’s apparent that over the years Christgau’s writing style has gotten less jivey but no less condescending. I guess one can’t have everything.

I agree that the diversity is part of what made the festival great. The R&B presence (not just Hendrix, but also Otis and Lou Rawls) was a key element. It wasn’t just a new experience for the audience, either; it also gave the Stax players an opportunity to get out in front of a large audience in a way that was very rare for them to that point, the Spring ’67 European trip being an exception.

 

OTIS REDDING!!!

What a performance! backed by Booker T and the MG's!

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  Otis Redding - Live at Monterey Pop Festival (1967)
  dailymotion.com19:00 2 years ago
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Give yourself 19 minutes and bask in this history making performance.

 

One of the cool things about the original Monterey box that came out in the 90s was the huge booklet with all the fantastic on- and offstage photos, and remembrances by several of the participants. Just about all of the performers’ comments re Otis were on the order of “he looked ten feet tall up there.” Jack Casady’s comment: “I was pretty sure I’d just seen God onstage.”

 

Let's try to keep it in order of appearance so if anyone wants to hear or watch the festival they'd be able to read along. But great find Paperback Writer! We'll get to the biggies.

 

Oh someone was asking on another thread about all the Monterey releases:

Complete Monterey Pop Festival [DVD box]
The Complete Monterey Pop Festival (The Criterion Collection)

Original Rhino 4-CD Monterey Pop Festival Box
Monterey Pop - Various

Monterey Pop Festival from 2007 (2-CD)
Monterey International Pop Festival

3. Homeward Bound - Simon & Garfunkel (Prev. Unreleased)
4. Sounds of Silence - Simon & Garfunkel (Prev. Unreleased)
7. For What It's Worth - Buffalo Springfield (Prev. Unreleased)

Ravi Shankar Live at the Monterey Pop Festival (this can be found to download but is a vinyl release from 1967 I think.)
Live At The Monterey International Pop Festival

Jimi Hendrix
Live at Monterey

Jefferson Airplane
Live At The Monterey Festival

Otis and Jimi (Otis has his full show on the Monterey DVD box set and I think audio on one of his own boxes.)
Historic Performances Recorded at the Monterey International Pop Festival, June 16-18, 1967

NEW RELEASE: June 9th
Iconic Performances from the Monterey International Pop Festival

New release looks pathetic- 1 cd - all released previously. Possible cash-in.

 

Great thread ... Thank you much........

 

I think there is a Mamas & Papas at Monterey LP somewhere way OOP.

 

JOHNNY RIVERS
1. Help Me Rhonda
2. Memphis, Tennessee (B-)
3. Mountain of Love
4. Midnight Special
5. Do What You Gotta Do
6. Tunesmith
7. Baby, I Need Your Lovin’
8. Poor Side of Town
9. Secret Agent Man

Personnel from Rewind album (not sure if they were used as his band at Monterey)

Johnny Rivers – vocals
Larry Knechtel – piano
Mike Deasy Sr. – guitar
Joe Osborn – bass guitar

Most likely Jimmy Webb was on piano at Monterey: in a Rolling Stone interview, Webb says he was asked by Rivers to play at Monterey.

Another singer that shows the diversity of the festival, Johnny Rivers brought more star power than psychedelic rock, similar in a way to instrument-less singer Lou Rawls. Both had strong chart showings at this time, but Rivers was a bonafide star by this time. Alan Freed was the one who convinced New Yorker Johnny Ramistella to be called Johnny Rivers before he started his career in 1960. Scanning the setlist, “Memphis, Tennessee”, “Mountain of Love”, “Poor Side of Town” and “Secret Agent Man” were all hits before 1967-some still remembered to this day. With Rivers there, it was guaranteed some hits would be played and from his take on “Memphis Tennessee” (the one available track from the live set) we hear his 50’s influenced rock style sticking close to his recorded version. I’m only familiar with his big hits but I checked out everything here from his albums and he sticks with good ol’ fashioned rock n’ roll, never too raucous or wild but more tasteful like the guitar solo found in his “Midnight Special”. “Do What You Gotta Do” and “Tunesmith” from the Rewind album are closer to Neil Diamond 60’s pop with strings and female backing vocalists similar to Rivers’ hit “Poor Side of Town”. Much of that Lou Adler produced album has Jimmy Webb compositions sung, a highly covered songwriter at the time. The albums Rivers was releasing by now were somewhat strong and not just a couple of singles with a bunch of baloney. Rivers had a good career but is known now most for his 60’s work like we find in this setlist than his later work. But in 1967, he continued his success with more hits including my favorite of his “Baby I Need Your Lovin’”. While I like The Baroques version just as much released that June, and I learned about the excellent song from The Four Tops, I liked this one too. While some may wonder if he fits with these other artists, it was more about getting a wider range of music and Rivers did have a new little goatee and a psychedelic shirt to be hip!
Johnny Rivers- Memphis, Tennessee

 

So why no 50th anniversary Super deluxe Blu-ray audio video set I wonder?

 

I was hoping there would be some kind of release even though there are plenty of releases already out there, but when this single disc was issued with 13 tracks of stuff we already have, it feels disappointing. There are tracks out there yet to be released but unlike Woodstock receiving a 6-disc reissue, this won't have that luxury. [That set is only $33 on Amazon currently.] But at least we have what we have with Monterey. It would have been unfortunate if no video or audio was recorded.

 

Somebody let a Bear loose in Monterey:

'By conservative estimates, Bear Research Group made more than 1.25 million doses of LSD between 1965 and 1967, essentially seeding the entire modern psychedelic movement...By the time he made a special batch called Monterey Purple for the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival -- Owsley Purple was the secret smile on Jimi Hendrix's face that night -- "Owsley" was an underground legend'

For the unrepentant patriarch of LSD, long, strange trip winds back to Bay Area

I don't think its in that article, but he made 14,000 doses of it (in purple capsules,) and allegedly had people handing it out to festival attendees (including Brian Jones) and performers. (Hendrix' Purple Haze allegedly written about the experience.)

Jerry Garcia played a Gibson Les Paul deluxe (with P90s,) giving him a heavy tone much closer to their 'hard rock' 68-69 sound than the Gretsch he was using earlier in 67. Weir sounds pretty wimpy with his Rickenbacker, though he would have been at much lower volume at this stage.
Maybe the Strat was Townshend's issue, he's definitely playing one in the photos?

 

Hendrix played a Strat at Monterey through his usual Marshall stack. By comparison The Who sound weak - their sound had evolved around the Marshall stack, and they didn't have these on this trip - Pete was usually playing Fender guitars at this point in any case, but it was the Marshalls that created the necessary distortion. This was a vital part of the Who sound and it was clearly missing.

 

You'll know better than me but I seem to remember reading that Pete's usual guitars didn't make it through customs or something - but maybe it was their amps that didn't make it through. Although I definitely remember reading about them having to rent equipment for the show

 

ERIC BURDON & THE ANIMALS
(introduced by Chet Helms)

1. San Franciscan Nights (A-)
2. Gin House Blues (B+)
3. Hey Gyp (A-)
4. Paint It Black (A+)

Eric Burdon - vocals
Vic Briggs - guitar, piano, arrangements
John Weider - guitar, violin
Danny McCulloch - bass
Barry Jenkins - drums

Eric Burdon will forever be linked with the Monterey Pop Festival thanks to his own hit “Monterey” released in 1968 about the festival. That account may be the best summary of the event found in a song. As the star of the British Invasion success The Animals, he had a ton of star power and street cred coming in. Huge rock hits like “House of the Rising Sun”, “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place”, “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” and “It’s My Life” cemented The Animals place in the R&R Hall of Fame early and paved their way to Monterey. “Help Me Girl” was just another successful single despite a full Animals lineup change and the group were just coming off of the Eric Is Here LP, and after Monterey, released the Winds of Change LP recorded in March.

On “Paint It Black” with John Weider on electric violin, The Animals journey to frightening psychedelic dark wastelands around the world on a track that brings the East to the West and seemingly everything in-between. Psychedelia, blues, rock, Eastern music, five seconds of rap, and soul in a shaking violently in a mixed bag teetering on the brink of destruction. I love Eric’s voice on all songs, talking bits during songs and in between. His intonations and hippieness is great for the record. The poppy “San Franciscan Nights” from their upcoming album has that great arpeggio guitar riff and peaceful lyrics while “Gin House Blues” is a slow blues with serious drug commentary. “Hey Gyp” works as a funky jamming rave-up dance groove except for the atonal psych guitar cutting the middle. The “New” Animals were a tremendous band that always played well and with so much diversity. Burdon had so many different styles he was trying and they usually pulled off great music-always staying creative within their psychedelia. A great set from The Animals who show so many facets of pop/rock in just 4 selections.

On a more personal note, I’m happy to see Eric Burdon continued for years and is still remembered. I think he has such a strong personality in a cool way and his voice is one of the most distinctive in rock history. At 5’4” his voice just bellows out of his throat, deep powerful and creative in that he would do spoken word recordings along with the usually rock. For me, he’s a vocalist that makes the song more personal and enjoyable and he just seems to connect with what I feel about things and this era that he loves talking about. He's charismatic, man!

Eric Burdon & the Animals- Paint It Black

 

Actually, for Monterey and a few other 1967 shows, the Who were stuck with US-made solid-state Vox Super Beatle amps:
Vox U.S. Thomas Organ Super Beatle amplifiers | Pete Townshend’s Guitar Gear | Whotabs

 

Um... Purple Haze released March 17, 1967, nothing to do with ('Bear') Owsley. Supposedly inspired by a SF story Jimi read.

 

Very interesting. Pete was probably better off playing through the House Fender amps than the Vox Super Beatles.