Blu-Ray Review: Music History Chronicled in ‘The Complete Monterey Pop Festival’

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CHICAGO – The Criterion Collection recently released a timeless document of one of the most important events in music history, The Monterey Pop Festival of 1967. Not only does this legendary fest include some seminal visuals, including Jimi Hendrix lighting his guitar on fire and Pete Townshend smashing his, but it captures a nation on the cusp of something amazing, not just musically but socially.

Blu-Ray Rating: 4.5/5.0

At the height of the Summer of Love, during a June weekend in 1967, history was made at the Monterey International Pop Festival near San Francisco, arguably the epicenter of the counter-culture movement in the late ’60s. Monterey launched the careers of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Otis Redding, but they were just a few of the acts who performed that weekend, one that saw The Mamas and the Papas introduce Simon and Garfunkel, and The Who, The Byrds, Hugh Masekela, Ravi Shankar, and more take the stage.

The Complete Monterey Pop Festival was released on Blu-Ray on September 22nd, 2009.
Photo credit: The Criterion Collection

One of the best documentarians that ever lived, D.A. Pennebaker, brought his verite style to “Monterey Pop,” now available in a gorgeous Blu-Ray box set from The Criterion Collection and a must-own for music documentary fans. This is easily the most comprehensive document of what happened on that incredible weekend with hours of special features, outtake performances, and a whole separate Blu-Ray disc with complete sets by Hendrix and Redding. Every complete performance filmed by Pennebaker and his crew is included.

The Complete Monterey Pop Festival was released on Blu-Ray on September 22nd, 2009. Photo credit: The Criterion Collection

What’s most startling about “Monterey Pop” four decades down the road is the incredible diversity on hand. With the actual film, Pennebaker rarely includes more than one song per artist, trying to keep the focus on the variety of the people on-stage and off at “Monterey Pop”.

The film itself is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio and includes a perfect 5.1 audio track by legendary recording engineer Eddie Kramer, presented in Dolby Digital and DTS-HD Master Audio. It includes performances by The Mamas and the Papas, Canned Heat, Simon and Garfunkel, Hugh Masekela, Eric Burdon and the Animals, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane, The Who, Country Joe and the Fish, Otis Redding With Booker T. and the MG’s and The Mar-Keys, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Ravi Shankar.

The highlight of the special features is easily “The Outtake Performances,” two hours of songs not included in “Monterey Pop,” including most of the bands listed above any more. Highlights include an amazing two-fer of “Homeward Bound” and “The Sounds of Silence” from a very young Simon and Garfunkel, “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield, “He Was a Friend of Mine” by The Byrds, “Somebody to Love” by Jefferson Airplane, “Substitute” by The Who, and many, many more.

The film also includes audio commentaries by Pennebaker and festival producer Lou Adler, and music critics and historians Charles Shaar Murray and Peter Guralnick, video interviews with Adler and Pennebaker, Pete Townshend, and Phil Walden, Otis Redding’s manager from 1959 to 1967, audio interviews with festival producer John Phillips, festival publicist Derek Taylor, and performers Cass Elliot and David Crosby, photo-essay by photographer Elaine Mayes, original theatrical trailers and radio spots, Monterey Pop Festival scrapbook, and booklets featuring essays by critics Michael Lydon, Barney Hoskyns, Armond White, and David Fricke.

An entire separate Blu-Ray disc includes “Jimi Plays Monterey & Shake! Otis at Monterey”. The Hendrix set runs 49 minutes and includes hits like “Purple Haze,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Foxy Lady,” “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Hey Joe,” “The Wind Cries Mary,” and “Wild Thing”. Redding only runs just under 20 minutes but rocks with “Shake,” “Respect,” “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” “Satisfaction,” and “Try a Little Tenderness”.

Even the Hendrix and Redding sets include special features with commentaries, trailer, essays, and more.

Clearly, the Criterion version of “Monterey Pop” is as exhaustive and complete as any music or movie fan could possibly ask for. If you consider yourself one or the other or both, pick it up and see for yourself.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com