I thought this post was appropriate for this weekend, 1) because a lot of people I know are at Coachella right now, 2) I just bought my tickets to Outside Lands (TOM PETTY, YOU GUYS), and 3) I'm writing this from the garden of a bed & breakfast in Monterey, CA.
I've been meaning to write a post about Monterey Pop since...well, the beginning of this blog. It is, in my opinion, the greatest music festival in history. A big part of that was the timing: the festival took place at the start of the Summer of Love, not far from San Francisco where the counterculture movement was in full swing. It basically represents all that was good about the 60s, before things started getting messy and disillusioned (see: Woodstock). It was also the major American debut of The Who, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix, which is kind of a big deal.
Basically, if I could travel back in time to any time/place in history, it would be the Monterey Pop Festival. All of my favorite 60s artists were either performers or spectators—with the exception of the Beatles, but they did send along a personal message; see below—and everything went on without a hitch. No drug problems (drugs, mind you, but no problems), no violence, no arrests. I think the most violent part of the weekend was probably The Who and Jimi Hendrix destroying their instruments, haha.
A weird thing I noticed while watching my Monterey Pop DVD recently: I'm starting to look at these old performances and think, "Wow, everyone looks super young!" And then I realize that's because they're younger in these videos than I am now, which is rather startling. I mean, Pete Townshend was 22!
Bebe Pete!!
Michelle Phillips was 23...Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin were 24...Simon & Garfunkel were 25, same age as me. I've idolized these people since I was about 13, and now it's weird to watch them in their prime and realize that they were younger then than I am now. In short, it makes me feel old.
Anyway, at this very moment I'm listening to sea gulls and ocean waves and feeling grateful that we decided to take a spontaneous trip down along the coast. We already visited a record store in Pacific Grove and got some goodies: 3 Prince albums, Lou Reed, The Byrds, and some kind of radio special about Graceland. Tomorrow we're going to the Aquarium and then of course, the Monterey Fairgrounds where history happened in 1967.
