Monterey Pop at 40
Trolling South by Southwest 2007
Reviewed by Margaret Moser, Fri., March 23, 2007
SXSW PANELS
Monterey Pop at 40
Austin Convention Center, Saturday, March 17
Monterey Pop boasts one of the most enduring images in rock & roll: Jimi Hendrix kneeling, dousing his Strat with lighter fluid, and setting it afire. Bands today still try to top that. That's one of the many things 1967's peace-and-love fest in Monterey, Calif., can take credit for. At the well-attended Saturday panel moderated expertly by onetime Creem editor/writer Jaan Uhelszki, festival producer Lou Adler, performer/festival go-to girl Michelle Phillips, and Andrew Loog Oldham autopsied its inception and execution. Phillips likened the atmosphere to "a renaissance fair," while Adler quipped that Monterey was about music, and Woodstock was about weather. The discussion deflated myths such as Laura Nyro's supposed booing and confirmed that the Grateful Dead paid themselves by lifting amplifiers. No question that Monterey Pop broke hallowed ground for all festivals since (including SXSW) with exacting standards, crowd control, media attention, recorded music between sets, and other innovations, but not much has changed for bands trying to make money, Oldham contended. "The road is the only way," he insisted.
