Monterey Pop (BD)

As a three-day rock festival held from June 16 to June 18, 1967, at Monterey, California, the one and only “Monterey Pop festival” presented artists who performed for the first time at this grand event. Not only did the festival introduce various performers who would later become quite famous, it also created a unique template for future rock shows. Moreover, the festival unified its performers and audiences in  a common cause--music. This concert film by director D.A. Penebaker rightly captures the idea that music has no racial, genre, and regional boundaries.


Criterion has now released the two-disc “Monterey Pop Collection,” combining the “Monterey Pop” and “Jimi plays Monterey & Shake! Otis at Monterey” films. The two discs are also available separately.


Monterey Pop (Spine #168)
“Monterey Pop” runs 79 minutes and showcases performances by Canned Heat, Simon & Garfunkel, Ravi Shankar, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, The Mama and The Papas, Otis Redding, and many more.  One of the striking attributes of the film, which is evident from the very beginning, is its emotional content in depicting the performances.  Filmmaker Penebaker passionately and meticulously crafted each shot to perfection. The long and short-range shots are mixed appropriately and create a dramatic impression on a viewer. In fact, the close-ups capture the actual moments of the performances very well. However, due to the limitations of how cameras were arranged for filming the show, we mostly get profile shots that at times can be distracting. This is mainly noticeable in the performance by Ravi Shanker in which we can hardly see the instruments or the tabla master performing along with Ravi Shanker.


There are a couple of truly memorable performances in this show. As revealed in the extras, there was a flipping of a coin between Jimi Hendrix and The Who on which performers would do the last performance before Ravi Shanker’s “Rama Bhimpalasi.”  Hendrix won the toss, and he put a brilliant performance on “Wild Thing.”  In this performance, Hendrix for the first time in the U.S. used pyrotechnics on the stage. He was so emotionally focused on the performance that he burnt his guitar. While his guitar was burning, he started doing air actions indicative of how he would play a guitar and then flame it.  It was as though he were summoning someone from the sky to burn his guitar. The crowd was stunned as they hadn’t seen anything like this before.  Of course, before all this happened, Pete Townshend from The Who at the end of the performance of “My Generation” broke his guitar just as Jimi did for the first time in the U.S. The iconic images of Jimi burning his guitar and Pete Townshend breaking his are forever imprinted in the rock history.


The most unexpected yet breathless performance comes from the sitar maestro Ravi Shanker in “Rama Bhimpalasi.”  It’s an eighteen-minute epic that mesmerized the audience with its simplicity. With no guitar smashing or pyrotechnics, Ravi Shanker played sitar with dexterity. He just made it look simple. Like Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and Ottis Redding, Ravi Shanker was also unknown to the Western world. During the time when the hippie culture was at its peak, the performance touched audiences on a spiritual level. At the end of the performance, Ravi got a standing ovation from the crowd. The crowd knew that they had seen something truly memorable.


Lastly, Ottis Redding gives an electric performance of “Shake.”  It was soul singing at its best that made the crowd sing and hum to the tune.


Here are the songs featured in order of appearance:
"Combination of the Two" by Big Brother and the Holding Company
"San Francisco" by Scott McKenzie
"Creeque Alley" and "California Dreamin'" by the Mamas and the Papas
"Rollin' and Tumblin'" by Canned Heat
"59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" By Simon and Garfunkel
"Bajabula Bonke (Healing Song)" by Hugh Masekela
"High Flyin' Bird" and "Today" by Jefferson Airplane
"Ball and Chain" by Big Brother and the Holding Company
"Paint it Black" by The Animals
"My Generation" by The Who
"Section 43" by Country Joe and the Fish
"Shake" and "I've Been Loving you too Long" by Otis Redding
"Wild Thing" by Jimi Hendrix
"Got a Feelin'" by the Mamas and the Papas
"Raga Bhimpalasi" by Ravi Shankar
Jimi plays Monterey & Shake! Otis at Monterey (Spine #169) Here’s the set list for the “Jimi Plays Monterey” disc, in order of actual performances:
“Can You See Me?”
“Purple Haze”
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”
“Monterey”
“Killing Floor”
“Foxy Lady”
“Like a Rolling Stone”
“Rock Me Baby”
“Hey Joe”
“The Wind Cries Mary”
“Wild Thing”


Ottis Redding’s performances on this disc:
“Shake”
“Respect”
“I’ve Been Loving You So Long”
“(I can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
“Try a Little Tenderness”


Video: Criterion appears to have used the old 2002 masters for this BD release. The video is encoded in an AVC format that averages 35 Mpbs. Right from the onset, the video has a fair amount of grain, which is representative of how concert footage looked in the 1960s and the early 70s.  However, the grain is present more during the night performances and is less during the day shots. This documentary concert was shot on a 16 mm film in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The color accuracy is better in HD, and in some shots the colors seem to pop out. The texture of the dresses is better defined. Since a majority of the concert is shot during the night, the blacks are deeper and more accurate.


Audio: For this release, Criterion has provided three audio streams:
1) Regular uncompressed monaural
2) Remastered uncompressed monaural
3) Remastered DTS-HD MA 5.1


I played the concert in the newly remastered 5.1 DTS HD MA, supervised by legendary recording engineer Eddie Kramer. Immediately, I noticed the difference by switching from the mono option to the 5.1 option. The new remastered DTS-HD MA has more concert-like qualities. The dynamic range is expanded, and we hear a full surround sound in almost all the performances. You can hear Jimi Hendrix play his guitar with the subwoofer kicking in to give heavy bass to the performance.


Extras on “Monterey Pop (Spine #168)”:
Audio commentary by Festival producer Lou Adler and Pennebaker:  In this segment Adler and Pennebaker discusses their perspective on shooting the film. They also share the fact that the light show was done for the first time in a rock concert. It is an informative commentary that gives tit-bits on rock stars during the Sixties era.


Video interview with Adler and Pennebaker:  We get insights on how this project was financed. Adler talks about how they wanted to make an artistic movie about a rock show.


Audio interviews with festival producer John Phillips, festival publicist Derek Taylor, and performers Cass Elliot and David Crosby


Photo-essay by photographer Elaine Mayes


Also included on the disc are Original theatrical trailer and radio spots.


Monterey Pop Festival scrapbook


Plus: A booklet featuring essays by critics Michael Lydon, Barney Hoskyns, and Armond White


Extras on “Jimi plays Monterey & Shake! Otis at Monterey (Spine #169)”:
Two audio commentaries by music critic and historian Peter Guralnick:  The first is on Otis Redding’s Monterey performance, song-by-song; the second is on Redding before and after Monterey


Interview with Phil Walden, Redding’s manager from 1959 to 1967:  In this featurette, Walden talks about race issue in the South and how black artists faced tough times during the 1950s and 60s.


A booklet features an essay by music critic David Fricke


Final Thoughts:
“Monterey Pop Festival” along with “Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music” are quintessential rock shows that defined the rock genre and influenced performances for the future generation of rock stars.  Later, unknown rock stars like Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and “The Who” became some of the biggest-name stars and performers of all time.  Hats off to Criterion for releasing this important event on Blu-ray. With a slew of extras and great audio and visual qualities, fans who bought “Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music” should not hesitate to pick up this immaculate release from Criterion.