Various

Related Content

• Tonight: Psych-Soul Outfit Harry and the Hit Men Perform the 1967 Stax Revue Concert Live
  February 3, 2012
• Today Is Jimi Hendrix Day in S.F.: Here Are Six Great Hendrix Songs
  September 13, 2011
• Sept. 13 Is Officially Jimi Hendrix-Winterland Day in San Francisco
  September 2, 2011
• Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and Lows from the Last Week in S.F. Music
  September 21, 2011
• Group Doueh: Show Preview
  June 29, 2011

More About

• Ravi Shankar
• Monterey Pop Festival
• Woodstock
• Lollapalooza
• Music Festivals

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Before Lollapalooza, even before Woodstock and Isle of Wight, there was the Monterey International Pop Festival. Over a few days in June 1967, diverse performers from America, Britain, India, and Africa strutted their stuff in the Sunshine State, and the two-CD set Monterey International Pop Festival chronicles this groundbreaking event. If one considers the musical scope, it's hard to imagine something similar occurring these days. The event hosted R&B (Otis Redding, Booker T. & the MGs), cheery harmony-pop (the Mamas & the Papas), blues (Butterfield Blues Band), rebellious, drug-fueled hippie rock (Jefferson Airplane), and world music (Ravi Shankar, Hugh Masekela). Before you born-after-1985 readers dis your parents' soundtrack, be advised — some of these performances are revelatory, both then and now. On "My Generation," the Who evince the same smash-it-up glee as the Damned or the early Butthole Surfers. The excerpt from sitar master Shankar's performance exemplifies his continuing influence on rock, jazz, and minimalist/trance music. The impassioned sets by Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix put them on America's pop-culture map. Alas, all was not golden — the Byrds show how sloppy they could be live and the Animals sound sadly dated. By and large, though, MIPF shouldn't be embraced by nostalgics only.