Religion Was Being Born/Down in Monterey: DA Pennebaker's Monterey Pop (1968)

 

The Monterey International Pop Music Festival of June 1967 has been somewhat eclipsed in the collective memory banks by the other big rock festivals of that decade: the "biblical, epical" scene of Woodstock so thoroughly documented in Michael Wadleigh's brilliant movie of the same name, the apocalyptically grim vibes and tragedy of the Altamont Free Concert, and so on.  But Monterey was the precursor of all the big rock festivals, a truly seminal event that captured the countercultural wave in it's first full, giddy ascent.  Monterey introduced Jimi Hendrix, the Who, Ravi Shankar, Laura Nyro, and Janis Joplin to a wider US audience for the first time.  Hendrix' set famously culminated in the destruction of his guitar by fire, in a performance at first blatantly sexualized and then solemnly religious; Columbia Records immediately signed Janis Joplin on the basis of her performance with Big Brother and the Holding Company.  At the behest of George Harrison, Ravi Shankar played before a western audience for the first time, and Hugh Masekela and Otis Redding also got to do their thing before a larger, whiter crowd than ever before.  Woodstock was on a much larger and more confrontational scale, but for many, Monterey easily trumps its iconic bigger brother in terms of music and performance.

A movie of the Monterey festival was shot by verite wizard DA Pennebaker.  Pennebaker had already impressed Jean-Luc Godard with his documentary of the 1960 Wisconsin Primary between John F Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey, and created an intimate and surreal portrait of Bob Dylan in the maelstrom of his growing fame and lionization in Dont Look Back.  Pennebaker described his approach towards filmaking as "records of moments", "half soap operas", and "semi-musical reality things".   It hardly needs to be said that Pennebaker could shot the shit out of a concert, and that's exactly what he did here.  I recently discovered a full upload of Monterey Pop on youtube, and was knocked out by almost all the performances.  I'm going to link to the film on youtube below, but as a teaser, here's Eric Burdon and the Animals' propulsive and catchy celebration of the event in song:

You can watch Monterey Pop on youtube here.  Get it while it's hot - it mightn't be there forever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monterey_Pop

Afro-Britannia: Eric Burdon's War and Ginger Baker's Air Force.

Eric Burdon and Ginger Baker established their reputations during the British beat invasion of the 60s.  In the early 70s, both artists started to explore African-influenced funk as a new departure from the North American blues-based rock and psychedelic explorations which had dominated the previous decade.  Perhaps they were ahead of their time in this regard; neither project enjoyed the success of their iconic 60s groups, or are as well-remembered today.  This post takes a brief look at this interesting and forgotten strand of British beat music history.  Burdon, of course, is best known as the vocalist with the Animals.  Having been impressed all my life with the intensity of his performance of House of the Rising Sun without ever actually seeing what the group looked like, it somehow made it all the more impressive to discover that those awesome vocals were coming out of the mouth of an unremarkable guy who looked barely out of his school uniform: 

In 1969, Burdon hooked up with an eclectic, multi-racial Californian funk band called War.  The group developed a fearsome reputation as a live act, and enjoyed moderate success throughout the 70s.  I've only ever been marginally aware of Burdon's recordings with War, but this clip of them in Copenhagen in 1971 is just astonishing: 

Ginger Baker, meanwhile, will always be primarily associated with Cream (a band I personally can't stand.)  Also in '69, Baker formed a jazz/funk fusion group called (rather awkwardly) Ginger Baker's Air Force.  Although boasting more white faces than War (Steve Winwood was a member), you can definitely hear a strong African influence - Baker moved to Lagos in 1970 and befriended the great Fela Kuti.  Air Force was a very short lived project, yielding only two albums in 1970, but they piss from on high on Cream if you ask me: 

I discovered Air Force through the funny, fascinating, and depressing documentary Beware of Mr. Baker

Kraftwerk - Ruck Zuck Live 1970.

Amazing footage and truly intense flute from the earlier prog incarnation of Kraftwerk:

Can - Dizzy Dizzy (Live.)

Great clip of Can performing from 1977; don't know anything about the circumstances, other than that the audience are sedate to an almost surrealistic degree.

"CALL IT ANYTHIN' ": Miles Davis Plays Mutant Jazz at the Isle of Wight.

On Saturday the 29th of August, 1970, following performances by Joni Mitchell and a crowd-pleasing turn by the eccentric falsetto-crooner Tiny Tim, Miles Davis took the stage at the Isle of Wight and delivered about 40 minutes of undiluted heavyosity to the 600,000 strong crowd. When a square later inquired what the name of the piece was, the legend has it that Davis curtly replied "call it anythin". Like much of Davis' fusion period output, the music is harsh and trying at times, but it is also a bracing, fascinating, scintillating live performance, with hypnotically committed contributions from the band, and a typically commanding, intimidatingly cool presence from their iconic leader. It is the largest audience a jazz musician has ever played to, and the footage is shot my Murray Learner: