The Monterey Pop festival was one of the first large festivals to take place in California and America.  There was no Woodstock yet, no Fillmore Music Hall yet, nor any kind of organized outlet for folk and rock music of the time.  Once California did bring together the artist on that stage, music moved forward and never looked back.  There were a lot of things happening in the summers of the 1960s women’s rights, Black rights, and a lot of general politicking about the Vietnam War was starting up.

 In the summer of 1967 one of the most important events in California’s music history took place The Monterey Pop Festival. Monterey was known for its jazz music, being in the San Francisco area there were a large number of hippies and sub culture musicians around the area who not only played in the clubs there, but composed in the cities rich sub hippie culture.   The Mamas and The Papas a band out of L.A., were a mainstream folk rock band of the time.  The bands lead singer had the dream to get a festival together where all the folk, acid rock, and new sound musicians could come together.

When John Phillips and his band set out to put this festival together they never knew that they would be rocketing artist like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Otis Redding to the tops of the music scene.  Jimi Hendrix mixed a sound that topped all the other music around him. Thrilling to the listeners and shocking to mainstreamers Jimi found instant acceptance in America. (Palmer P. 259).  Jimi’s stage performance at Monterey showed the first guitar burning on American soil that took place on stage.  Today there have been many bands including Nirvana and Metallica that have burnt their guitars on stage. When listeners heard the sounds of this new fold acid music they could do nothing but embrace it.  The major success was seen when, on the East Coast over two hundred and fifty thousand people showed up for a far less organized festival of the same style. Monterey was the site of the first and probably the best of the big festivals. (Walker p.216-218)

         Prior to the big festivals and to the sixties rock music was mainly adapting over from Jazz and the Blues.  Many black entertainers were not making the money that they had hoped.  In some cases there would be producer that would take black artist out of little bar stops, pay them a flat fee and bring them to a recording studio.

          Once at these studios the performer would record a Record, which the produce would then sell.  The only catch to this is that the artist didn’t get any profit from the record he would record.  This practice was snuffed out, but many artist that didn’t have good representation did find it hard to get the right amount of money for their performances and their record sells.

The success of The Monterey Pop festival was that it took a large number of performers, gave them a platform to play their music, and advertised it heavily in a commercial style. Monterey did not have a second gathering for their festival like that of its younger but larger brother Woodstock, the mainstream wasn’t ready to have hippies roaming their back yards.  “Monterey brought together a tribe of people that was mind boggling, then that effect went to Woodstock” (Hord, E).

         If there had not been troubles with drugs and member of other bands dodging the draft the festival in California would have undoubtedly turned out a larger venue.  Unfortunately during the time that the festival was scheduled bands like The Rolling Stones and Loving Spoonful where out of the country due to drug problems, and Beach Boys singer, Brian Wilson was ducking his call over to Vietnam (Newsweek p 88).  Besides the artist that were launched at Monterey, groups who were already huge fused their music together with a plethora of talents from other bands like The Who, The Grateful Dead, and Simon and Garfunkel.

         The end of Monterey brought on groups like The Doors who became huge directly from the festival although not playing there.  Many bands took from the sound that was brewed with special care at this gathering.  On one occasion “Light My Fire”, The Doors organist Ray Manzarek said “had a Vaguely Sony and Cher Mamas and Papas sound”. The film of Monterey was watched by many and is still influencing the way music is made.

In 1965 the music scenes of San Francisco and L.A. had a great influx of artist that were pulling people into their art.  The art was a release and a shelter for many bands like the Airplanes and Papas who helped their cities grow in multi-cultural ways.  Bringing together people to experience a bond that wasn’t know through the other forms of social involvements of the sixties.

         Southern rock was fading out and the time of the true blues rock and southern twang was coming to a close. Recording artist like Van Morison, had the big city money to blend there sounds together while San Francisco had the community back and growing hippie culture growing there sound.  It was enevitalable that the two close sounds would cross paths.  With many artist making good money and seeing solid planning in the studio, the L.A. Artists knew that there was more support for there music further north.  Most of the musicians that were being put out in the California region weren’t an accumulative sound, but that of a lot of single musicians without a real directional sound to feed the masses.  I guess what was going on is that there were hundreds of new rock musicians going in a million different directions. 

         When the L.A. and San Francisco music scene was at it’s height there were musicians that were responding to the war, musicians that were responding to the large Hippie movement and just tuning out of society, and their were musicians that were trying to preserve an art all while trying to move it forward.  Group such as Jefferson Airplane were encouraging the Psychedelic scene at their shows where many listeners would take LSD and hallucinate heavily on their intense musical sound.  The more that the sound of San Francisco was taking shape, L.A was also taking shape only in a little different way.  While San Francisco was focusing on the festivals and cultural aspects of the music business, L.A. was keeping with tradition of studio recording, music rights, and club shows alive and well.

         The free love spirit was bringing together musicians in a profound way.  Before this time Black artist and white artist of the time didn’t perform together.  The invitation of black musicians to the Monterey pop festival, and the friendships and musical exchanges between black and white rockers helped bring a new style to the stage.   Jim Hendrix, Otis Redding and members of the Mama’s and Papa’s could be found not only hanging out but also playing together and undoubtedly creating new sounds. 

 

In the sixties L.A. was the place to record your music if you were an artist.  A lot of bands were playing the club scene there also, yet with pressure from the police sunset strip (a major musical hotspot) was catching heat from the police.  There were great numbers of musicians that still choose to focus on the cultivating of the folk sound and commercialization which L.A. was famous for. 

         Bands like Sonny and Cher, The Mamas and Papas, Frank Zappa were all changing the way music was made.  Sonny and Cher had imitated a famous band of prior years, but really focused on L.A.’s commercial power to excel. The two took their music to Hollywood and forged the way for bands to get mainstream attention through television in later years.  Their style was also being seen as a pusher of country rock with their single I Got You.

The Mamas and Papas were recording and doing shows all over the west coast.  There efforts to combine folk rock and acid rock were no doubt some of the more successful of the time.  The Mamas and Papas like other bands, were making way for a new style, but they were doing it with thier intellect.  The band went on to loose there singer, but not before putting on The Monterey Pop Festival and gaining a large amount of respect from their fellow music makers.

         Although the music of L.A was huge for recording, the excitement of the industry was in San Francisco.  Many bands were coming from all over the world to perform live in The San Francisco area.  The reason for this was the culture of acceptance that came from the city’s many Hippies. Haight and Ashbury was a place were many hippies came together.  Musicians like Otis Redding came from Detroit, the Grateful Dead whom only had to travel a few miles north, and Santana who had moved up from Mexico all came to San Francisco for its music culture.

      Janis Joplin, known to many as one of the greatest singers of all time got her start and break in San Francisco (Newsweek, July 67 P.80). Janis made music that women and men alike loved and respected, Janis took charge of her music and drove herself to the peak of rock music. She was one of the only white women of the day that could truly sing in a blues voice with any amount of talent that would be purchased. 

Today Janis’ music is played on the radio in bars and covered by band all over the country.  The style that Janis put across was definitely in the blues field and being white she pioneered for performers like Bonny Rait and Reba Mctire, but unfortunaly died too early to see her success.  Other members of the San Francisco scene also had a style that took charge of their listeners.

         The Jefferson Airplane played a traditional folk rock and changed the music scene in their own way.  While playing shows at one club, they managed another.  Having this control they introduced an acid rage that was only matched by Timothy Leary.  The original members broke apart after their first album. When the guitarist and lead singer were replaced the acid rage that they helped coax with their music blended with the Jefferson’s style, the band found new heights in their performances. (Santelli P. 191-92) 

The more recognized Jefferson became the more that their acid parties were reaching every part of the San Francisco scene.  People were touching outside of the normal realm and finding new peace in the form of mental change that may or may have not lead to a well know chaos that went on toward the end of the sixties in music.

With the change that San Francisco and L.A.’s musicians were making to the musical culture there were still many other aspects that took place to help forge the music we listen to today.  The movies that were coming out of Hollywood were making way for the music video.  Movies Like Head which the monkeys starred in and Twist Around the Clock, which came out in 1961, gave movie goers a picture perfect view of the artist and their surroundings. 

Movies about and around music were produced through the seventies until MTV came to the scene and introduced the music video.  Today rap musicians still produce music based movies, yet they are coming from all over the country.  The Dick Clark and Elvis Presley Hollywood days are long gone. The business that was exchanged during these years in California was really about commercializing the music industry.

In the fifties the money that was made form the music went to the people who already had money; the record studios and the producers were making the money. A lot of these practices stopped when the large festivals gave commercial power to the artist.  Having a hundred to two hundred thousand people watch a performance gave tremendous power to the artist that wasn’t there when they were only selling records or gaining T.V. spots.  Artists started taking control of their own direction and took less directional advice from the studios and producers.

One production man that came out of California’s music scene was Bill Graham.  Bill Graham was more about having a place for the artist to perform than directing them.  Laguna started in San Francisco and many artists came to perform there, but even more successful was The Fillmore.  Graham can be linked to just about any rock performer today, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, and many other performers that played under the famous Bill Graham Presents tours.  Today Graham has left us, but his foundation gives money to performers still.

                  There was also a commercialization that took place with the beach sound. New arrivals like the Beach boys were doing a lot for the grown fields of music.  Taking their music to the mainstream made the sound of California even more impressive to the country.  The beach boys took full success of the business of making money by developing recordings and concerts, The Beach Boys made their way to present.  Bonding rock and roll with the surf sound became the Beach boy’s trademark.  Many artists emulated their style and covers of there song are still done by performers like NOFX and Pennywise.

         Capitalizing on the scene of California and making a sound that matched its beauty, recording artist of the 60s made way for many other performers around the country.   There were times in the sixties when drugs and other issues may have side tracked focus, but never a time when the performers of California were not moving music in a creative and new direction.  The more that the creative effort of musicians is cultivated the more the country get a newer and more bold art, and for that we all get to live with a Grooved out Sound.

Work Cited

Anthony, E.  (July, 1967). Pop Powwow. Newsweek 80.

 

Bill Graham (2004) Story of Bill Graham.  www.thefilmore.com//history-2-2html

Christgu, R. (2000). Any Old Way You Choose It, New York: Cooper Point Press

 

Greenwald, M. (2002).  Go Where You Want To Go, New York: Cooper Point Press

 

Hord, E. (2004) Telephone Interview (2/24/04)

 

Meisel, P. (1999).Cowboy and the Dandy, New York: Oxford Press

 

Monterey Pop (2003) Facts and lists of performers for the Monterey Pop Festival

            www.vcn.bc.ca/sag/history/.com

 

Palmer, R. (1995) Rock and Roll an Unruly History, New York: Harmony Books

 

Santelli, R. (1985). Sixties Rock a Listeners Guide, Chicago: Contemporary Books

 

Szatmary,D. (1996). A Time of Rock: A Social History Of Rock and Roll,

 New York: Schirmer Books

 

Walker, D. (1992) American Rock and Roll Tour, New York: Thunders Math Press