Recording and Filming The Festival
The festival was the subject of an acclaimed documentary movie entitled Monterey Pop by noted documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker. Pennebaker's team used recently developed portable 16mm crystal-sync motion picture cameras, that stayed synchronized with double-system sound recording systems. The filmstock was Eastman Kodak's recently released "high-speed" 16mm Ektachrome 100 ASA color reversal motion picture stock; without which, the nighttime shows would have been virtually impossible to shoot in color. Sound was captured by Wally Heider's mobile studio on state-of-the art eight-track tape, with one-track used for the crystal-sync tone, to synchronize it with the film cameras. The Grateful Dead believed that this was too commercial and refused permission to be shown in the film. The screening of the film in theaters nationwide helped raise the festival to mythic status, rapidly swelled the ranks of would-be festival-goers looking for the next festival, and inspired new entrepreneurs to stage more and more of them around the country.
An expanded version of the documentary has been released on DVD by the Criterion Collection.
The audio recordings of the festival eventually became the basis for many albums. Most notable are the 1970 release Historic Performances Recorded at the Monterey International Pop Festival featuring partial sets by Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix. Other releases recorded at the festival included The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Ravi Shankar. In 1992, a four-CD box set was released featuring performances by most of the artists; various other compilations have been released over the years. According to the radio promotional feature that accompanied the '92 box set release: on modified stages, including flatbed {Kaleidscope (LA)} trucks, set up in the surrounding environs, there were several spontaneous jam sessions for the overflow crowds, and erstwhile campers which included at the Monterey Peninsula Community College sports stadium (right across the Hwy. 1 interchange) where Jimi Hendrix flanked by (re: the Axis: Bold as Love cover) Jorma Kaukonen and John Cippolina played for the adoring throng. It was also reported locally that Eric Burdon had checked out the provisions and health care facilities.
Read more about this topic: Monterey Pop Festival
Famous quotes containing the words recording and/or festival:
“Write while the heat is in you.... The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Don’t you know there are 200 temperance women in this county who control 200 votes. Why does a woman work for temperance? Because she’s tired of liftin’ that besotted mate of hers off the floor every Saturday night and puttin’ him on the sofa so he won’t catch cold. Tonight we’re for temperance. Help yourself to them cloves and chew them, chew them hard. We’re goin’ to that festival tonight smelling like a hot mince pie.”
—Laurence Stallings (1894–1968)