If all the hoopla about the latest Spring and Summer Festival line-ups excites you – ie: Coachella etc – then you have to look back at one of the more significant festivals that happened back in 1967 the summer of Love – and the impressive list of artists that graced the stage for those shows. Celebrating it’s 40th anniversary is the Monterey International Pop Festival – with a 2XCD compilation featuring unreleased tracks from Buffalo Springfield and Simon & Garfunkel among others. – It will also be followed by a VH1 Documentary to air in June. A previous set was released via Rhino Records in the mid 1990s as well as a more complete CD box set from 1997 – featuring even more fabulous Byrds tracks among many others – This new comp looks to be a good collection. Damn where else you gonna get light weights The Association with the ultra cool of the Byrds, The Who, and Hendrix?
Official press release:
On June 5 Razor & Tie and Starbucks Entertainment will co-release MONTEREY INTERNATIONAL POP FESTIVAL, a two-CD retrospective hand-selected from the stellar line-up of performances at the historic 1967 music festival. This unique collection not only features rare early performances from now music legends including Jefferson Airplane, The Who, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Mamas and the Papas and Big Brother & The Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin, but also features previously-unreleased tracks from Simon & Garfunkel and Buffalo Springfield. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the ground-breaking event held in Monterey, California, which launched the careers of many of the artists who performed. The two-CD set will be available simultaneously at Starbucks Company-operated locations in the U.S. and Canada as well as traditional retail. The Monterey International Pop Festival Foundation will benefit from the release of the CD.
Held in 1967 on June 16, 17 and 18,
the Monterey International Pop Festival was the first major rock festival (preceding Woodstock by two years), drawing hundreds of thousands of people together. Almost every aspect of it was a “first,” including the diversity of the lineup which not only blended all ethnicities but crossed several musical boundaries including rock, pop, jazz, soul, R&B, psychedelia, folk and classical music. The festival was also one of the first to pair established stars like Simon & Garfunkel and The Byrds with relative unknowns at the time such as Jimi Hendrix,
Janis Joplin and The Who. All of the participating artists performed gratis, donating their fees to charity, which ultimately resulted in the creation of The Monterey International Pop Festival Foundation (MIPFF), a non-profit charitable and educational organization empowering music-related personal development, creativity and mental and physical health. The festival and original recordings were produced by renowned music producer Lou Adler and The Mamas and The Papas’ John Phillips.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the festival, a series of events will take place over the next few months. These events kicked off with a screening of the film, Monterey Pop, at this year’s South by Southwest conference which was preceded by a panel featuring Lou Adler, Andrew Loog Oldham and The Mamas And The Papas’ Michelle Phillips. In addition, there will be a special exhibit at The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and a Hollywood RockWalk induction ceremony. VH1 is also creating a documentary about the festival to air on the June 16th anniversary
MONTEREY INTERNATIONAL POP FESTIVAL track listing:
DISC ONE:
1. Along Comes Mary – The Association
2. San Franciscan Nights – Eric Burdon & The Animals
3. Homeward Bound – Simon & Garfunkel*
4. Sounds Of Silence – Simon & Garfunkel*
5. Down On Me – Big Brother & The Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin
6. Ball And Chain – Big Brother & The Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin
7. Section 43 – Country Joe & The Fish
8. Born In Chicago – The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
9. Wine – The Electric Flag
10. Bajabula Bonke (Healing Song) – Hugh Masekela
11. Chimes Of Freedom – The Byrds
12. So You Wanna Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star – The Byrds
DISC TWO:
1. Somebody To Love – Jefferson Airplane
2. White Rabbit – Jefferson Airplane
3. Booker-Loo – Booker T. & The M.G.’s
4. Shake – Otis Redding
5. I’ve Been Loving You Too Long – Otis Redding
6. Duhn: Fast Teental (Excerpt) – Ravi Shankar
7. For What It’s Worth – Buffalo Springfield*
8. Summertime Blues – The Who
9. My Generation – The Who
10. The Wind Cries Mary – The Jimi Hendrix Experience
11. Like A Rolling Stone – The Jimi Hendrix Experience
12. Straight Shooter – The Mamas & The Papas
13. San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers) – Scott McKenzie
14. California Dreamin’ – The Mamas & The Papas* previously unreleased
R.E.M. is a band that has meant a lot to me over the years. For a long time, my friends and I could only understand about half of Michael Stipe’s lyrics. However, we were able to simulate all the sounds he was making, and most importantly we knew how those songs made us feel. I couldn’t pick a favorite album between Reckoning, Murmur, Life’s Rich Pageant, Chronic Town, Fables … I’ve played them all more times than I can count. I’m sure a lot of us have.
