A week earlier was possibly the first big rock festival -- a three day concert at the mountain theatre on Mt Tam (Mill Valley / Marin). It didn't get the press Monterey did, possibly because there was no feature film made of it. It was intimate, in a great setting -- a stone ampatheatre on a great spring weekend on Mt Tam. You could just walk up to the stage if you wanted, or sit on the steep set seats with a perfect view. Though tickets were originally sold, the promoters just gave up as throngs walked in from all corners.
Lots of great bands: Doors, Airplane Canned Heat; Jim Kweskin Jug Band; Moby Grape; Jefferson Airplane; The Byrds; The Loading Zone; Tim Buckley; Hugh Masakela; Steve Miller Blues Band; Country Joe and the Fish; Smokey Robinson and the Miracles; Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band; Sons of Champlin; Tim Hardin; The road to the theatre was so jammed, the bands couldn't get in. So the Hells Angels rode them up mountain weaving through the cars. http://www.sanfranciscoaudio.com/MtTamalpaisMagicMountain.html http://tightrope-ride.blogspot.com/2007/06/doors_16.html --- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Fun stories, Rick. And fun times. It's nice to be able > to look back on them and laugh at ourselves. > > I was never a musician myself. But back in college me > and a bunch of friends promoted rock concerts and light > shows around Southern California. We never made any real > money, but we got to hire (and better yet, party down > with) bands like Quicksilver Messenger Service, the > Grateful Dead, the Doors, Buffalo Springfield, and > others. Your story of trying to figure out what was > wrong with the amps while stoned was like my stories > of trying to run a concert while similarly impaired. :-) > > We never got to hire or work with Jimi Hendrix, but > because it was a small community of rock promoters at > that time and everybody knew each other, we got to get > into every other promoter's concerts for free, so I > got to see a lot of bands and hear a lot of music. > That's how I wound up working on the crew at Monterey; > Lou Adler needed bodies to help out with the first- > ever rock festival, and so he called all the other > promoters in California and asked them if they'd be > willing to help out. We didn't get paid, but we got > passes that got us backstage and into any of the > concerts when we weren't working, and again we got > to party down with the bands. > > I can thus tell you from personal experience that > although The Who were the biggest name band there, > the Grateful Dead had the best parties. And that Otis > Redding was the nicest guy there. And that Brian Jones > was possibly the most stoned individual I have ever > encountered on planet Earth; he was so out there I > began to wonder if he was really *from* planet Earth. > And that Janis Joplin was very sexy but had bad breath. > But then again, I probably did as well, because I was > crashed in a camper with six or seven other people, > with nary a toothbrush or a bar of soap among us. :-) > > Ah, the Summer Of Love. Better in memory than in > actuality in some ways. And in other ways, maybe not. > We weren't jaded then; life looked like it was going > to be one long adventure. And for some of us, it > turned out to be just that. As the Grateful Dead > sang so sweetly: > > Sometimes the light's all shining on me > Other times I can barely see > Lately it occurs to me > What a long, strange trip it's been > > > Quicksilver at Monterey: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqVVnExlX9c > > Buffalo Springfield: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFUFWVbPy5k > > Janis: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGJynZNr7rk > > Ravi Shankar, part 1: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3lRkHX_1zA > > Ravi Shankar, part 2: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxEj_QRsdgE > > Simon and Garfunkel: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqVhsGCotsQ > > The Grateful Dead: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axAfNjgdey4 > > Jefferson Airplane: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWESLfWIEd4 > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZZ-3TC6D_w > > Pete Townshend on "Who plays first": > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoK1LAugWnw > > The Who: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0duLjwVdJqE > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHfEeKvK44M > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYyuS-FFh58 > > Canned Heat: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEOUWQ1Qm5I > > Otis Redding: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZQwCwbWGfI > > The Byrds: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAGylaoBt6M > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noswW9LtXGU > > The Animals: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULdHgO3eDzQ > > The Mamas & Papas: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g0cRRak-i8 > > Jimi: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz01umFhxTo >
