Monterey Pop

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Monterey Pop

Monterey Pop movie poster
Directed by D.A. Pennebaker
Produced by John Phillips
Lou Adler
Starring The Mamas & the Papas
Canned Heat
Simon and Garfunkel
Hugh Masekela
Jefferson Airplane
Big Brother and the Holding Company
The Animals
The Who
Country Joe and the Fish
Otis Redding
Jimi Hendrix
Ravi Shankar
Editing by Nina Schulman
Distributed by Leacock Pennebaker
Release date(s) December 26, 1968
Running time 79 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Monterey Pop is a 1968 concert film by D.A. Pennebaker that documents the Monterey Pop Festival of 1967. Among Pennebaker's several camera operators were fellow documentarians Richard Leacock and Albert Maysles. The painter Brice Marden has an "assistant camera" credit, and Bob Neuwirth, who figured prominently in Pennebaker's Bob Dylan documentary Dont Look Back, acted as stage manager. Titles for the film were by the illustrator Tomi Ungerer. Featured performers include Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Hugh Masekela, Otis Redding, Ravi Shankar, The Mamas & The Papas, The Who (who destroy their instruments at the end of "My Generation"), and Jimi Hendrix, who set his guitar on fire during "Wild Thing."

Contents

[edit] Performers and songs

Songs featured in the film, in order of appearance:

  1. Big Brother & The Holding Company ("Combination of the Two"*)
  2. Scott McKenzie ("San Francisco"*)
  3. The Mamas & The Papas ("Creeque Alley"* & "California Dreamin'")
  4. Canned Heat ("Rollin' & Tumblin'")
  5. Simon & Garfunkel ("The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin'Groovy)")
  6. Hugh Masekela ("Bajabula Bonke (Healing Song)")
  7. Jefferson Airplane("High Flyin' Bird" & "Today")
  8. Big Brother & The Holding Company ("Ball & Chain")
  9. Eric Burdon & The Animals ("Paint It Black")
  10. The Who ("My Generation")
  11. Country Joe & The Fish ("Section 43")
  12. Otis Redding ("Shake" & "I've Been Loving You Too Long")
  13. Jimi Hendrix ("Wild Thing")
  14. The Mamas & The Papas ("Got a Feelin'")
  15. Ravi Shankar ("Raga Bhimpalasi").

* = heard but not seen

[edit] DVD

Cover of The Complete Monterey Pop Festival DVD box set
Cover of The Complete Monterey Pop Festival DVD box set

In 2002 Monterey Pop was re-released on DVD as part of a Criterion Collection box set, The Complete Monterey Pop Festival, that also includes Pennebaker's short films Jimi Plays Monterey (1986) and Shake! Otis at Monterey (1986), as well as a two hours of outtake performances, including some by bands not seen in the original film.

[edit] Influence

Jean-Luc Godard, the French New Wave director, was so taken by Jefferson Airplane's performance in Monterey Pop that later in 1968 he set out to make a never-finished film called One A.M. (for "One American Movie") in collaboration with Pennebaker and Leacock. Godard shot a sequence of the Airplane, (included on the 2004 "Fly Jefferson Airplane" DVD) , playing at high noon on a business day on the roof of a New York hotel across the street from the Leacock-Pennebaker offices, with the tower of Rockefeller Center in the background. Attracted by the extremely high volume of the music, the police arrived and put an end to the shooting. This incident inspired other bands, notably the Beatles in their Let It Be film, to mount their own rooftop performances.

[edit] External links

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