10,000 electric guitars were groovin' real loud

So sang Eric Burdon in his (pretty cheesey, but whatever) tribute to the Monterey Pop festival.
Next weekend will mark 40 years since that festival, the coolest festival ever (except maybe 1995 Lollapalooza), and the Academy of Music in Noho will be showing it!!! Woooo!!!
In fact, those who really want to learn 60's rock history (so you're not doomed to repeat it) can see a bunch of historical documents next weekend.

Rock School 101

I've seen Monterey a hundred times, and own the 3-dvd expanded set, but never on the big screen, so I'd love to try and go. maybe the Sunday showing. But, maybe Friday. Dunno.

reasons why Monterey Pop rules:

everyone is so colorful and cool.

as opposed to the buckskin and mud-coated beards of Woodstock, Monterey is green mini-skirts, purple turtlenecks, beads, short bangs and sideburns.

no one is a drug casualty (yet)

Yes, folks are high and tripping and stuff, but they just all look so happy and healthy--musicians and fans alike. And watching the audience shots is just as entertaining as the music. Those who would be dead (Hendrix, Keith Moon, Janis Joplin...) still seem to have a lot of life and ambition left in them.

other fave things:
--Nico and Brian Jones walking through the crowd together.
--Micky Dolenz ecstatically applauding Ravi Shankar at the end of the film
--Simon and Garfunkel feeling so groovy and sounding great in 90 seconds.
--Otis Redding leaving himself, his band and everyone watching totally breathless in 90 seconds. --The Who's "My Generation" is a decent into a psychedelic war scene. One of my favorite pieces of musical footage ever. Roger's hair is absurd, Pete's guitar speakers are on their last legs, making it sound not even like a guitar and Keith is defying physics on drums. Plus the soundguys almost get killed trying to get all the stuff off the stage before the Who smashes it all.
--the Jefferson Airplane's "High Flying Bird" is one of their finest moments. Plus, I used to have a crush on Grace Slick--but only in that performance.

Ways the festival could have been better:
had the Monkees, Pink Floyd, the Doors and the Velvet Underground play. None of them were invited for various reasons. And I wish they included some of the Grateful Dead's performance in the movie (you can see some on YouTube and it's shocking to see a young, beardless Jerry Garcia jumping around the stage rocking harder than he ever did later on).