Jimi Plays Monterey

I don't know why it took 19 years for D.A. Pennbaker's and Chris Hegedus' movie to make it from performance on stage to screening at the Toronto Film Festival. I suspect it was because every time they went into the editing booth, they got such a contact high that all they could do was giggle at the fug. Jimi was a monster in the original sense of the word, something you came to gawk at, a creature from some weird planet where the visible spectrum did not include light as we know it - which is the only explanation I can think of for his clothes -- and selective breeding had produced people who came out of the egg brilliant at the guitar, and then spent the next twenty years trying to get competent.

Jimi and his sidemen do a half-hour set. I'm exhausted.

Still one of the most famous rock festivals of all time, Monterey Pop brought together much of the music that was striking chords with young people all over America- some of the talent that had been obscure or small time in the US (Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix), while others were huge smash bands (The Who, Simon & Garfunkel, Mamas and the Papas), not to mention a breakthrough performance for Ravi Shankar. With this accompaniment to the feature film, which was released twenty years or so before this, Hendrix and the Experience brought their sound for the first time after being the cult favorites in the UK. It's not a long concert, but it can certainly be counted as one of his most notorious.

There were allegations, which perhaps could or could not be true (I haven't read any biographies about the concert, but I heard the rumors), that Hendrix was on acid during the set. Whatever he was on or wasn't on, the songs that come through (filmed with superb documentary detail by DA Pennebaker, with assistance from Albert Maysles) are none-the-less mesmerizing. Aside from what has been played over and over to show the insane magnitude of Hendrix (burning his guitar after a crazed rendition of "Wild Thing"), there's also a turn of "Like a Rolling Stone", "Hey Joe", and a beautiful bit with "The Wind Cries Mary". There could've been more in the way of interviews, but as it is, Jimi Plays Monterey is a fine little companion piece to the film.

The generation of the 60s had the privilege to be one of the first in history of music which enjoyed the advance of technology as well as the interest of film makers, who recorded on film many of the major events as well as the sounds and image of the best artists and bands of the time. This is how we have Woodstock on film for example, and the film became associated with the festival and the festival with the film. The Monterey festival one year earlier than Woodstock was another major milestone of the era, and we are so lucky to have it recorded on film quite extensively. Here is the concert of Jimi Hendrix, which is the core of the documentary. We would have liked maybe to hear more about the rest of the career of Hendrix and about the impact he made on other artists, but maybe this would be left to another ultimate film about Hendrix. Here the music plays the major role and the music is really fabulous.

Jim's big break in the U.S was at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. The film is a record of that legendary performance and gives you an excellent idea of both how incredible a musician he was and how much of a showman he could be. Though his concert performance is now over 50 years old, it is still mesmerizing to watch and I would say essential viewing for all Classic Rock fans.

Although I'm not the greatest Hendrix fan in the world. This concert footage IS pretty amazing. We start with an AMAZING painting being done by a street artist of Hendrix, a little background, then finally, his performance at Monterey which proceeded to blow everybody away. His guitar playing is absolutely ridiculous, and it comes down to the finale, where WHOOSH! The guitar is in flames! and BANG! The guitar goes into a million pieces. I actually felt bad for the guitar, because such a piece of history to go to waste (actually, some pieces are in the experience Museum in Seattle). This is a great concert film for anyone, as I really enjoyed it.