The Complete Monterey Pop Festival

I've wanted to check out Criterion's Complete Monterey Pop Festival set for a while, but didn't want to rent each disc one at a time. So, I finally got ahold of it and I can say that it's well-worth your time and money. It's as close to definitive as you can get, as a document not only of 3 days of music, but of a time and place in history.

Monterey Pop (1968)

Monterey Pop is the main feature, released in 1968, containing the entire festival, scaled down to a 79-minute feature. Naturally, when you condense something down this much, a lot is lost. Though, through a great job of editing and some good musical decisions, documentary master D.A. Pennebaker has managed to get across the overall message and feelings behind the festival. Yes, Monterey Pop is an examination of the 'hippie' movement and culture in itself. But, more than that, it's simply a celebration of music, and of life itself.

It's kicked off with a montage of footage showing the setting up of the festival and all the folks arriving, wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, to the sounds of Scott McKenzie's "San Fransisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)". Some more prep footage follows after this, with many 'executives' setting up the artistic aspects of the festival. After this, the Mamas and the Papas take the stage and belt out a couple great tunes, "Creeque Alley" and the legendary "California Dreamin'". I'm not a huge Mamas and Papas fan, but they pretty much set the tone for the festival, and put forth a great performance. Canned Heat keeps things going with "Rollin' and Tumblin'," a nice, down-home, bluesy comp. At the end of the first night, Simon and Garfunkel finish things off with "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy)". They always put on a good, relaxing show, so it gives you a pleasant breather.

Hugh Maskela performs "Bajabula Bonke (Healing Song)" which I wasn't too impressed with, but it's not too bad. After that, fan favorites Jefferson Airplane belt out "High Flyin' Bird" and definitely pull out all the stops. They slow it down after that, and Grace Slick shows off her chops by singing "Today". After this comes one of the highlights of the show, Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin playing "Ball and Chain". If you've never seen Joplin perform (and even if you have), you're in for one hell of a treat. After the intro, once Joplin starts to sing, the camera doesn't move off of her, and for good reason.

Eric Burdon and the Animals perform an interesting rendition of the Rolling Stones' "Paint it Black" along the backdrop of some psychedelic imagery. Although I much prefer the Stones' version, it's a great inclusion. After this, another high point in the show, as The Who comes out firing on all cylinders, pounding out an awesome rendition of "My Generation". One of their most legendary performances, culminating in the destruction of many instruments. Country Joe and the Fish pull out some blues-inspired psychedelia with "Section 43" to some nice footage of the crowd. Then, Otis Redding takes the stage and whips out a double shot of "Shake!" and "I've Been Living You Too Long". Then, Hendrix follows up with an amazing performance of "Wild Thing". Their respective sets are captured in full on disc 2, as well.

The Mamas and the Papas show up once more to slow things down with "Got a Feeling". Finally, Ravi Shankar ends it all with a beautiful, 15-minute long performance of "Raga Bhimpalasi". This is the definitive moment of the show, because, not only does it transcend popular music in general, but it offers a good chance to see a lot of the crowd and really soak up the atmosphere. Like I said, more than anything, this is truly a celebration of music.

Jimi Plays Monterey and Shake! Otis at Monterey (1986)

Disc 2 is, admittedly, my personal favorite. It's my favorite because not only are these two of the best performances ever, not just of the show, but it's pure, undiluted performance. These are two complete performances from Monterey, and they're amazing to watch.

Jimi Hendrix has always been one of my favorite artists of all times, and this is one of his greatest performances. It starts off with a man splashing paint against a brick wall in what seems to be a random fashion to Jimi's "Can You See Me?" After a while, you recognize shapes and realize that he's doing a great job of painting the famous silhouette of Jimi's face. It's a great moment, and an awesome way to start out this 49-minute show.

Everything comes together here, for a brilliant performance featuring "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", "Monterey", "Killing Floor", "Foxy Lady", "Like a Rolling Stone" (which is just awesome), "Rock Me Baby", "Hey Joe" and "The Wind Cries Mary". It's all topped off beautifully with "Wild Thing", which can also be seen in the main feature. The end of this shows Jimi's famous act of lighting his guitar in fire onstage, in an act of sexuality, protest, and ultimately, beauty.

Shake! Otis at Monterey is another defining moment of the festival. It's great to see Otis, a black soul singer, able to reach out so successfully to the hippie crowd out there. Due in no small part to his incredibly charismatic performances, he keeps anyone watching enthralled with his renditions of "Shake!", "Respect", "I've Been Loving You Too Long", "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "Try a Little Tenderness". Truly an incredible, electric performance, that no true music fan should miss.

The third and final disc is a treasure trove of Monterey Pop. It features 30 performances from the festival, from many different artists. All 'outtakes' from the film, the quality varies depending on your own personal tastes, I suppose. There are some great ones here, like Simon and Garfunkel, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and The Who. On the other hand, there are some less-than-impressive performances here as well. However, including this much of a range of stuff on the disc just shows how committed Criterion was to showing as much of the whole festival as they could.

As you'd expect, everything in the set is incredible. The audio is stunning in quality. I listened to the DTS tracks, and they were beautifully restored, and all sounded very full and rich. There were a couple songs in which the bass is almost obnoxiously loud, but those moments are few and far between. The outtakes are presented in 2.0 stereo (2 have 5.1 remixes), and all sound pretty good. The video has been restored pretty well, but due to the fact that it was such a huge undertaking, the quality of the original film suffers quite a bit. There are plenty of hairs and other forms of damage on the original print, but Criterion did the best they could with the source elements, and the image is still very watchable.

Being a 3-disc set, the extras are quite extensive. I haven't had a chance to go through all of them yet, but there's a lot here, as you'd expect. A commentary by Pennebaker and Festival Producer Lou Adler, plenty of interviews with many folks involved, and a few promotional materials for good measure. On disc 2, there's an audio commentary on Jimi by music critic Charles Shaar Murray and a great video excerpt from an interview with Pete Townshend of The Who, who fought with Jimi over who should play first. Otis contains two commentaries by music critic Peter Guralnick with one covering Monterey and the other discussing Otis himself. There's also an interview with Redding's former manager here. Disc 3 in itself is a great extra, so kudos for it even existing. There's also a thick 62 page book with no less than 5 essays all about the festival, which are all great. They can also be read at Criterion's site. The packaging is gorgeous, replicating the style of the original 60's-style posters.

It's another great set from Criterion, worthy of any real music fan's purchase.