Monterey Pop

It predated Woodstock.  Maybe even inspired it and several other rock festivals around the country.  The  documentarian D. A. Pennebaker roamed the Monterey County Fairgrounds in 1967 to capture the youth of the day wrapped in blankets, waiting for the acts to take the stage and rally the counter cultural vibe.  The Monterey International Pop Music Festival was a weekend event that brought out tens of thousands.  From what's on view in 1968's MONTEREY POP, it was a peaceful gathering, even with the presence of the California Hell's Angels.  You have seen GIMME SHELTER?

But that's just it.  MONTEREY POP is the original.  The first of several music fests that would prove revolutionary and profitable.  It was more than just the music, though most of it encouraged/reflected the sentiment of those lovely young folks who wore flowers in their hair.  Big Brother and the Holding Company.  Country Joe and the Fish.  Jefferson Airplane.  The Who.  Their primal screams stirred hearts and minds.  Some of them would return for the Woodstock event two years later.  It was bigger.  More things happened.  We hear voice over at the opening of MONTEREY POP about logistical concerns, but Pennebaker shows no incidents, only cheerful concertgoers and fired up performers.  Is this a weakness of the film? WOODSTOCK and GIMME SHELTER reflect angrier days.  The pot boiled over by the latter show, when The Rolling Stones performed at Altamont Freeway.  MONTEREY POP is like the benign father.  A Summer of Love collage that looks past any frustrations.  The ultimate rose colored remembrance.

I wasn't there.  I don't know how it really went down.  The movie is only one hour and twenty minutes long.  Criterion did release a few hours more of performances from artists who were not included in the original cut.  Pennebaker himself does something revolutionary.  He captures solid performances by the aforementioned and also Simon and Garfunkel, The Animals, The Mamas and the Papas.  Otis Redding brings some old school soul to the hippie fest.  Jimi Hendrix electrifies everyone with his rendition of "Wild Thing", then suggestively shoots lighter fluid over and ignites his guitar (after suggestively meeting with the Marshall stack behind him).  Perhaps most impressive is Ravi Shankar's positively hypnotic climactic performance of "Dhun".  The audience is framed in stunned silence.   The sitar is worked over like little I've ever seen.