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Festivals, Jimi Hendrix, Music et al, Music of the 60s

Hendrix Sets Monterey Afire

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Hendrix Sets Monterey Afire

June 18, 1967
from Monterey movie trailer: Mike Bloomfield followed by Eric Burdon’s song.
Hendrix Sets Monterey Afire

Day 3

June 18, 1967. It was day 3 of The Monterey International Pop Festival. The first day had included Simon and Garfunkel, Eric Burdon and the Animals. The second day included future Woodstock performers Canned Heat, Country Joe and the Fish, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company, and the Butterfield Blues Band (I wonder how much those bands being part of Monterey influenced Woodstock Ventures to include them two years later?).

The third and final day’s lineup included Big Brother again because the organizers really wanted Janis in the film they were making and had finally convinced the band to let them film their performance. Other future Woodstockers were The Who, Ravi Shankar, the Grateful Dead.

Hendrix Sets Monterey Afire

No bells

Few if anyone realized what they would witness that evening. The crowd may have seen the name Jimi Hendrix Experience listed, but like someone today seeing the name The Paupers,  the name rang no bells.

Hendrix’s stateside story had been one as a sessions musician and briefly in Greenwich Village fronting his own group. His fortuitous move to England under the wing of Chas Chandler unlocked the door to success. The Beatles were also instrumental: Jimi Hendrix Plays Sgt Pepper.

Hendrix Sets Monterey Afire

9 song set

Hendrix played nine songs that night. Four his own, five (*) covers:

  1. Killing Floor*
  2. Foxy Lady
  3. Like a Rolling Stone*
  4. Rock Me Baby*
  5. Hey Joe*
  6. Can You See Me
  7. The Wind Cries Mary
  8. Purple Haze
  9. Wild Thing*
Hendrix Sets Monterey Afire

Hey Joe

Selecting one of those songs, “Hey Joe,” one sees encapsulated what left the crowd lost in amazement. Had they ever witnessed another performance anything like this?

The outfit, the hair, the upside down guitar, gum-chewing, the swagger, how those fingers moved, how that tongue stuck out and wiggled, those teeth played the guitar, behind the back, how that guitar became a phallus, and by the way, the Mitch Mitchell‘s demonic drumming and Noel Redding’s bass playing pulling us into this maelstrom.

Here is the video of “Hey Joe.”

         Hendrix Sets Monterey Afire

Climax

And if that weren’t enough, the set closes with destruction. We’d seen The Who smash things up. Some of us already knew about that so it was cool, but no surprise, but setting a guitar of fire? Who is this and where am I?

Pictures

While Hendrix was lucky enough (as were the other performers) to have his performance well-filmed and recorded, there were other still photographers there, too.

Ed Caraeff was only 17 when he took his iconic photo of Jimi Hendrix setting his guitar on fire at the 1967 Monterey International Pop Music Festival.

In Caraeff’s book, “Burning Desire: The Jimi Hendrix Experience Through the Lens of Ed Caraeff,” the he brought together never-before-seen images from the two years he spent shooting Hendrix’s performances.

Hendrix Sets Monterey Afire
Today in history

Fantasy Fair Festival

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Fantasy Fair Festival

June 10 – 11, 1967
Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre in Marin County, California
For the benefit of the Hunter’s Point Child Care Center
The Sons of Champlin, “Freedom” Recorded Live: 8/16/1968, San Francisco, CA

Whether the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in 1969 was the greatest festival ever held is open to debate. Perhaps.

Whether it was the most important festival ever held?

Likely.

Woodstock not the first

It certainly wasn’t the first rock festival. 

Indoor multi-day rock events began in the 50s, but it wasn’t until the late 60s that the multi-day outdoor rock festival, featuring more than just a series short sets by musicians playing their big hits, happened.

Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival

Usually the Monterey International Pop Music Festival gets the nod for being the first of the later type, but the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival occurred a week before. The line-up for the KFRC-sponsored event looks pretty good, too.

Day 1 (Saturday 10 June)

  • The Charlatans
  • Mount Rushmore
  • Rodger Collins
  • Dionne Warwick
  • The Doors
  • The Lamp of Childhood
  • Canned Heat
  • Jim Kweskin Jug Band
  • Spanky and Our Gang
  • Blackburn & Snow
  • The Sparrow
  • Every Mother’s Son
  • Kaleidoscope
  • The Chocolate Watchband
  • The Mojo Men
  • The Merry-Go-Round
  Day 2 (Sunday 11 June)

  • Sons of Champlin
  • Jefferson Airplane
  • The Byrds w/ Hugh Masekela
  • P. F. Sloan
  • Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band
  • The Seeds
  • The Grass Roots
  • The Loading Zone
  • Tim Buckley
  • Every Mother’s Son
  • Steve Miller Blues Band
  • Country Joe and the Fish
  • The 5th Dimension
  • The Lamp of Childhood
  • The Mystery Trend
  • Penny Nichols
  • The Merry-Go-Round
  • New Salvation Army Band

While I will admit ignorance of many of the names themselves and of those bands whose names I do recognize that I am not familiar with any of their particular songs of their

A few are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I’ve underlined those who would play at Woodstock.

Fantasy Fair Festival

Little documentation

Unfortunately for the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival (and like so many other festivals), no worthwhile recordings of the music or the event apparently exist. There is a silent blurry hand-held camera film of the Doors performing (whose name does not appear on the poster), but little else.

There is an interesting connection between the Fantasy Fair and Woodstock. Mel Lawrence was Fantasy’s co-producer and he became Woodstock’s operation manager.

Fantasy Fair Festival
Mel Lawrence

Charitable festival

You will also have noticed that the event was for the benefit of the Hunter’s Point Child Care Center, thus preceding George Harrison and Ravi Shankar’s Concert for Bangladesh by four years.

The Hells Angels “volunteered” to be security and with some reluctance the organizers approved their “request.” Fortunately, their presence worked out OK and without any incident. You can see some of their bikes parked in the following picture:

Fantasy Fair Magic Mountain Music Festival
Photo by Henry Diltz

Here is a link to a 2014 Rolling Stone magazine article on the event. RS interviewed many of the attendees, performers, and organizers

Drew Willis

Drew Willis via Facebook:  I still have the flyer, map, that was given out. Lists all of the performers with a layout of the surrounding attractions up there on Tam.

Fantasy Fair Festival

Anniversary, Blues, Festivals

WC Handy Memorial Concert

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WC Handy Memorial Concert

or the official full name…
The Fourth Annual Memphis Country Blues Festival
and the
First Annual WC Handy Memorial Concert

1969 festival #12

Mississippi Fred McDowell – “Goin’ Down to the River”

WC Handy Memorial Concert

WC Handy Memorial Concert

Memphis Sequicentennial Inc

The poster reads: The Memphis Sesquicentennial Inc. in conjunction with The Memphis Country Blues Society proudly presents The Fourth Annual Memphis Country Blues Festival and First Annual W.C. Handy Memorial Concert The Festival will officially begin Friday June 6 and Saturday June 7, 1969 with three daytime concerts and two evening concerts all in the Overton Park Shell, culminating with the W.C. Handy Memorial Concert in the Mid-South Coliseum on Sunday June 8th. Tickets for the Shell concerts will be available at time of performance only Tickets for the W.C. Handy concert will be on advance sale at many Memphis locations ($2.50 to $5.00) Claude Mabel (artist?)

WC Handy Memorial Concert

Some line-up!

Those who played at this comparatively unknown 1969 festival were:   Johnny Winter, Canned Heat, Backwards Sam Firk, Bukka White, Carla and Rufus Thomas, Insect Trust, Fred McDowell & Johnny Woods, Nathan Beauregard, Sun Smith and the Beale Street Five, Elder Lonnie McIntorsch, Sleepy John Estes, Blues Band, Lum Guffin, The World Greatest Jazz Band, Albert King, The Bar-Kays with Toni Mason, Jo-Ann Kelley, Furry Lewis, Slim Harpo, Rev. Robert Wilkins, John Fahey, Southern Fife and Drum Corps, Booker T. and the MGs, Moloch, Casietta George, Sid Selvidge, Soldiers of the Cross, Robert Pete Williams, Rev. Ishmon Bracey, and Wild Child Butler.

Just as white teenagers had inadvertently discovered so-called race music in the early 50s by way of Elvis and other white artists covering black artists’ songs (albeit often “sanitized” to white standards), many white teenagers had wandered into the Delta blues.

WC Handy Memorial Concert

Father of the Blues

WC Handy is called the Father of the Blues because it was his style of the Blues that became the dominant one in America. It happened in Memphis, Tennessee. Specifically on Beale Street. He did all this in the first part of the 20th century.

As festivals became a way to present lots of music to lots of listeners,  it was natural that a blues-themed festival would happen. The first Memphis Country Blues Festival was in 1966 and in 1969 it’s fourth time was combined with the First WC Handy Memorial Concert.

WC Handy Memorial Concert

Woodstock not

Two names that would appear throughout the summer and particularly at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair were Canned Heat, featuring the vocals of Bob Bear Hite and the guitars of Alan Blind Owl Wilson and Harvey Mandel and Johnny Winter. Both were not just blues enthusiasts, but men who studied the history of the blues.

In other words, this festival featured those who had discovered the blues and those who had helped invent it. And while many of the name are far from household names, their contribution to the art is still important.

WC Handy Memorial Concert

 Speckled Bird not impressed

The Great Speckled Bird was an alternative newspaper based in Atlanta, Georgia. had some less than flattering things to say about the way the festival was managed, especially the time when National Educational Television was recording for a future show. “…the TV crew…had no understanding (much less love) of the music and certainly none for the medium of television. Emcee Rufus Thomas had to read insipidly ‘humorous’ announcement before each ‘act’ ; musicians had to stop…so that ‘sound levels’…could be met.” The article continued, “What could have been a groovy, informal recording of the sights and sounds of country blues and electric rock performances…all was lost in a third-rate stage show.”

The presence of uniformed police did not add to the vibe. The article also pointed out that the older musicians were given short shrift sets compared to younger bands who sets organizers allowed to go on much longer.

One young performer that the Bird felt was OK was John D Loudermilk. Many of us know his…

The purpose of the WC  Handy component was to raise scholarship money.

WC Handy Memorial Concert

Next 1969 festival: Cambridge Free Festival