OK, this album by itself isn't seminal, but the event it records most definitely was, so therefore I am claiming that the album fits.
Anyway, it is my column so I can break the rules whenever I feel like it.
Jimi Hendrix was pretty much unknown in the USA at the time of the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, outside of a few hip music fans, some fellow musicians and the black music "Chitlin' Circuit".
Hendrix and The Experience had become the darlings of the London scene in 1966 and early 1967, followed by more general European success but they had failed to break into the American market.
Monterey would change that forever.
Hendrix was recommended to the organisers by Paul McCartney and his performance at the Festival became legendary, mainly through D.A Pennebaker's film Monterey Pop when fans were able to see the climax of the performance where Hendrix sets fire to his guitar while performing The Troggs' hit Wild Thing.
I think it is highly likely that without this career defining moment in 1967, we might not have had what may well be the ultimate iconic moment of the 1960s counter-culture, Hendrix playing the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock.
Indeed, without Monterey itself, would we have even had Woodstock in the first place?
If Hendrix hadn't broken America, what would modern rock music have missed? I leave the judgement up to others and present the evidence of greatness actually happening.
So, here in all its glory is the 1967 live show, as released in 2007 on the album Live at Monterey
Introduction by Brian Jones
Killing Floor
Foxy Lady
Like A Rolling Stone
Rock Me Baby
Hey Joe
Can You See Me
The Wind Cries Mary
Purple Haze
Wild Thing
2 comments:
Ah, one of my biggest extravagances ever was paying through the nose for an export edition of Jimi's complete Monterey performance on DVD. It was almost incidental that it came with the original film as well.
Seminal moment, then. Thanks for this series Carole. I am really enjoying it.
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