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"In fact, that's what filmmaking is about, making the best stuff count for what you leave out." - D.A. Pennebaker, from the accompanying booklet

On a beautiful June weekend in 1967, at the height of the Summer of Love, the first and only Monterey International Pop Festival roared forward––capturing a decade’s spirit and ushering in a new era of rock and roll. Monterey would launch the careers of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Otis Redding, but they were just a few among a wildly diverse cast including Simon and Garfunkel, The Mamas and the Papas, The Who, The Byrds, Hugh Masekela, and the extraordinary Ravi Shankar. With his characteristic vérité style, D.A. Pennebaker captured it all, immortalizing those moments that have become legend: Pete Townshend destroying his guitar; Jimi Hendrix burning his. The Criterion Collection is proud to present the most comprehensive document of the Monterey International Pop Festival ever produced, featuring all three films of the Festival––Monterey Pop, Jimi Plays Monterey, and Shake! Otis at Monterey––along with nearly every complete performance filmed by Pennebaker and his crew

Disc Extras

1. audio interviews with John Phillips, Derek Taylor, Cass Elliot, David Crosby and others
2. photo essay and stills gallery
3. Monterey Pop festival program
4. radio spots

Disc One is home to the main feature, Monterey Pop, divided into 20 chapters, most of which serve as song markers. There is a full-length commentary with filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker and festival co-producer Lou Adler. (The former remarks up front that John Phillips was meant to participate on the track with them, but neglected to show up.) They discuss varying aspects of the original event, from conception to the resulting impact of the festival as well as Pennebaker's film, with a balance of scene-specific comments that makes for an enjoyable listen.

A 7-part interview (with as many chapter stops) has Pennebaker and Adler, this time on camera for a 29m:21s discussion focused on their own career histories. Adler goes first, queried by his companion, and shares background information about various acts he's worked with over the years. Of interest is his recounting of a meeting at Cass Elliot's house with Paul McCartney in which the validation of rock music as an artform was discussed, and that their first concept was to document the festival for ABC television. (The execs took one look at the Hendrix footage and basically said, Keep the film, good luck to you.) The filmmaker takes his turn, prompted by Adler, covering his history with Dylan's Dont Look Back and how he and his crew came aboard for the project, with further details about the challenges facing his team.

The Scrapbook link leads to a choice of two additional sections, the first of which reproduces the documenting photography of that weekend by Elaine Mayes for Billboard Magazine. This section has a manual browse photo gallery (itself broken down in categories), which includes useful intertitles that remarkably supply the name of the band as well as the individual(s) about to be shown in the following still. (Note that using the skip button of your remote runs through the intertitles of band names; the forward and back buttons move you screen by screen. Convenient, if you are not a fan of, say, The Paupers.). Deadheads should enjoy a pre-beard Jerry Garcia captured in action. An auto-run photo essay (12m:14s) with commentary by Mayes is segmented by six chapters. The photographer offers her experience at Monterey from a unique perspective and discusses the technical aspects of a documentary photo assignment. A Mayes text bio is also included. The second presents the original program, with a myriad of images, and briefs by the likes of Derek Taylor (pressman for The Beatles), Bob Shelton (New York music critic famous for an article that broke out the young Bob Dylan's career) and Jann Wenner, now legendary founder of Rolling Stone magazine. There is a note from Peter Tork who claims the absence of The Monkees is due to their being in England that weekend, however both Tork and Mickey Dolenz are seen in attendance in various footage elsewhere in the collection. Especially interesting is an entry by Leonard Bernstein in favor of Pop music and its subculture and a fascinating collection of quotes gathered by Ralph J. Gleason (San Francisco jazz critic and co-founder of Rolling Stone).

There is a section of excerpted audio interviews recorded in intervening years with John Phillips (broken down in 10 segments), Cass Elliot (5), David Crosby (5) and Derek Taylor (16). Elliot's audio is low quality but seems to have been boosted for optimum clarity, a shame because her comments are perhaps the most interesting of the set. Everyone has high praise for Janis Joplin, especially Elliot, who proclaims her the star of the festival. Crosby has some keen observations about Jimi Hendrix and Taylor shares more organizational details. While there is no "play all" function, within the individual speakers, choosing the first one will play all of that contributor's clips in sequence.

There is a full-frame, harsh-sounding theatrical trailer that helps one to appreciate the restoration effort made on behalf of the main feature. Five radio spots feature Hendrix, Joplin (2), Redding and The Mamas and The Papas and sound even rougher than the trailer as they tout its "four-track stereo sound."

The final section of the supplements (on the first disc) covers the remix in text with a bio for Eddie Kramer, responsible for this and many other legendary performance soundtracks.

From the main menu, there is information available about the Monterey International Pop Festival Foundation.

Disc Two

Branching from Jimi Plays Monterey there is an interview with Pete Townsend. The lead guitarist of The Who provides some reminiscences of the festival and tells his side of the infamous argument between The Who and Hendrix about who would play first on the festival's stage.

This short feature carries a commentary track provided by musical historian Charles Shaar Murray, who offers some good anecdotal tales early on, but gets a little bit cheerleader-ish as he settles in to watching the film. He does provide some interesting information about Hendrix, the man and the artist.

Additional audio excerpts from Murray's track are divided into 8 sections. Murray redeems his previous commentary as he explores in more detail various aspects of Hendrix's life and career with some fascinating reflections on this star and the world in which he moved.

This feature has 12 chapter stops.

Shake! Otis at Monterey

In a video interview, Redding's manager, Phil Walden, discusses his own attraction to rhythm and blues back in his teens that prompted him to began booking acts around his hometown of Macon, Georgia. He met a young Otis Redding with whom he shared an affinity, and Walden became the singer's manager until Redding's untimely death. Recorded earlier this year, Walden provides some fascinating insights into Otis Redding, his life and career. He also tells interesting anecdotes about the music world of that era.

Two commentaries by music historian Peter Guralnick accompany this short. The first is a song-by-song appreciation of Redding's concert set; in the second Guralnick describes the artist's career. Each track provides interesting aspects of this artist who died too young.

A sufficient 5 chapter stops divide this film.

Disc Three

The collection's third part is a bonus disc of outtakes, longer (01h:52m:24s) and in some ways better than the feature itself. Here, one of the onstage cameras has an errant, crisscrossing hair that lingers throughout many of the segments, especially on clips from the second day. A few of the guest announcers make a showing, unlike the body of the film where just about all things extraneous to the music have been omitted. Highlights here are better picks for Simon & Garfunkel and Jefferson Airplane; what might be the first time David Crosby and Stephen Stills performed together; several great blues performances; and more great tunes by The Who as well as The Mamas & The Papas. These additional performances (in 1.33:1 aspect ratio and in stereo, unless otherwise noted) consist of:

The Association, Along Comes Mary
Simon & Garfunkel, Homeward Bound; Sounds of Silence
Country Joe & The Fish, Not-So-Sweet Martha Lorraine
Al Kooper, (I Heard Her Say) Wake Me Shake Me
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Driftin' Blues
Quicksilver Messenger Service, All I Ever Wanted To Do
The Electric Flag, Drinkin' Wine
The Byrds, Chimes of Freedom; He Was a Friend of Mine; Hey Joe
Laura Nyro, Wedding Bell Blues; Poverty Train
Jefferson Airplane, Somebody to Love
The Blues Project, Flute Thing
Big Brother and the Holding Company, Combination of the Two (5.1 remix)
Buffalo Springfield, For What It's Worth
The Who, Substitute, Summertime Blues, A Quick One While He's Away (5.1 remix)
The Mamas & The Papas, Straight Shooter, Somebody Groovy, San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair); I Call Your Name; Monday, Monday; Dancing in the Street

This disc finishes off with footage (10m:32s) from the backrooms of the festival where Tiny Tim plays a few songs for a circle of friends.

The accompanying booklet is well done, but perhaps the least interesting entry in the collection. Criterion has reprinted articles by Michael Lydon (Newsweek), Jann Wenner (Rolling Stone), Barney Huskyns (rocksbackpages.com) and Armond White.

This is yet another astounding package from the fine crew at Criterion (and Home Vision) that captures just the right support material with which to enhance this essential release.