Customer Reviews

Live at Monterey Festival

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I consider myself someone who appreciates fine music, especially bands that change the ideals of music for a generation. Jefferson Airplane has made an impact, and in the memories of the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival, they still are great. The CD begins with the introduction of the band, set up as "a perfect example of what the world's coming to." Little did the public know that they would definitely live up to that statement, even 33 years after Monterey Pop.

I ran out to buy this CD after watching (for the... well, to many times to count) Monterey Pop: the Movie. The whole festival is just surreal to see such great groups in their prime, and especially seeing Grace and the crew belt it out. Unfortunately, for as much as I loved the movie and seeing Jefferson Airplane perform live, the CD is a disappointment. The songs are Jefferson Airplane classics, but the sound quality is not that hot. Between the voices of the band fading in and out and the instruments drowning out the voices... it's just not a good recording. However- there are the songs: The songs that everyone knows, Somebody to Love and White Rabbit are done without anything extra- sounds just like the studio recordings. High Flying Bird and The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil really are a treat- but as said before, the recording is just so bad that you can't make out exactly what they are singing (or is it possibly the "experience" that the whole band was having on stage at the time- remember, this was California 1967). Today stands out as the albums best, but sadly, the recording doesn't do it justice.

Overall, this is a good CD for a Jefferson Airplane fan who has it all (or whould like to add a live CD to their collection), but there are many more of their studio CDs I would recommend before the purchase of this live one.

I strongly disagree with the two reviews already posted here. This superb record is 'bona fide'Jefferson Airplane in full flight, not only playing ferocious live versions of classic's like "Somebody to Love", "White Rabbit" and "She Has Funny Cars", but also delivering an electric storm of scorching, freakin' psychedelic mayhems: an overwhelming, madly fierce cover of Fred Neil's "Other Side of This Life" and, mainly, a thunderous, earth-shattering live rendition of "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil",that is, for my money, simply the BEST single live track ever issued by the Airplane, full of feedback-drenched acid guitar assaults (Jorma Kaukonen), menacing bass explosions (Jack Casady), pounding drum beats (Spencer Dryden) and spaced-out, eerie howls by the Almighty Grace Slick!!!

I partially agree with the first reviewer of this CD here that purchasing JA at Monterey would be lower on the priority list for the casual or new fan of JA and late 60's era San Francisco based music in general, but as a deeper fan this is certainly a worthy addition, something I wish I had a copy of back in 68.

This recording was not readily available during that era, and release material only consisted of 5 albums and few singles (other than Somebody To Love). A new listener to JA would want to start with one of those first (especially Baxters and/or Bless It's pointed Little Head).

What makes this recording important is 1) a maturing of Jorma's guitar stylings from Surrealistic Pillow, 2) the only other recorded version of "Young Girl Sunday Blues" (that I know of), which they pull off quite well, 3) great rhythm playing by Kantner (I think) on "Other Side" and elsewhere, showing that he was an integral part in the collective improvisation that took place, 4)the historical significance of this performance. There are places where one would wince (Grace's vocals on Rabbit, though she was never in tune on this one live anyway, I think), and JA live performances were not always error free, but overall, this CD fills an important gap in JA's history, between Pillow and Baxter's.

As the other other reviewer pointed out, the recording is not the greatest, but this alone should not deter one from purchasing this CD. Given the technology of the day, this recording is not THAT bad. Certainly the recording compares with that of the recordings of Hendrix, Otis Redding, and whoever else has released recordings from Monterey (obviously all recorded on the same equipment). Generally, all that you need to hear is there, with decent balance and tone, and the performance comes thru; for a recording of that era this was pretty good.

Actually it was console mix during the performance that was the problem in two places (Balin not heard in the first half of "Other Side", two seconds of monitor feedback somewhere else), but heck, stuff happens, plus I don't think the sound techs considered (or dreamed of..., well maybe they were) the high sonic demands that this recording would be judged against in the coming digital age 20+ years hence.

In closing, the casual JA fan could pass on this one, otherwise this is good to have.

This was taken from the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival. It is about 38 minutes long.

The sound quality is fair to poor (although it is better than some of the other recordings from Monterey Pop). It is taken off of the tapes done for a TV special.

DON'T BELIEVE THAT CRAP THAT THE SOUND QUALITY IS GOOD FOR THE ERA. GREAT SOUND QUALITY RECORDINGS OF LIVE MUSIC HAVE BEEN MADE FOR DECADES BEFORE THIS. The sound quality is poor because the recording was never meant for an album release. It was recorded for a TV special.

This CD was released as a result of Ryoko unearthing the Monterey tapes and putting together a Monterey boxset, to capture flavor of that groundbreaking festival. About half of the music on this CD is also on the Monterey boxset.

The performance of the band is interesting, but not their best. However, I think the poor mix makes the band sound more out of sync than they really were. It is an interesting snapshot of the band, but I think there are better live albums out there. what is nice is that there are some songs done here that aren't on any other live albums.

Think maybe I've seen this hard-to-find import CD twice in independent music stores, before. This somewhat historic archive performance was recorded live at the second most famed major '60's music festival-Woodstock of course, being the first on June 17, 1967. Thought the sound mix was great, specially for a real 'live album' nut, like myself. Several of these old cuts I don't seem to remember that well. But tunes I was really getting heavily into were "Somebody To Love", "Other Side Of Life", "White Rabbit", "She Has Funny Cars" and the eleven-minute "Ballad Of You And Me And Pooneil", a true psychedelic folk-rock classic in every sense of the word. I never knew they played THIS lengthy a version of this song during a live concert before. A must-have.

Well, it only took forty years and a few months for this performance to be available to a mass audience. Gosh. Maybe Matthew Katz had a hand in this travesty. Who knows for sure? What is for sure is that this is a true blue classic-regardless of the less-than-perfect analog engineering; Owsley and the Dead's crew can probably take credit for that-and most-if not all- of the electric ambience at Monterey. This performance allowed the masses outside of the City to experience what only the tribes and wannabe tribal members had the fortunate luck to see on a week end after weekend basis: the triple Scorpio intensity of Gracie, Casady and Kaukonen and Dryden fusing professional musicianship with early psychedelic improv, the voice of Marty Balin-and that other guy, Paul Kantner. A cast of real characters: charismatic, intense, creative, unafraid, striking, LOUD. What's really nice is that there was still in existence, at this time, a palpable rapport between the Airplane and the audience best characterised by the expression, from either perspective that is, "My God Martha, these folks are having a real good time; look at that over there!" 1967: the acid age peaked and folk rock became transformed. This record reflects that shift as paradigmatically as you can get. Personally, it's nice to know that except for Spencer Dryden, all the principals are actively pursuing their muses. And that's what makes it a real special classic...in the beginning...