Hodgepodge 231/365 - Monterey Pop Festival

This weekend marks the fiftieth anniversary of the original Monterey Pop Festival: Jefferson Airplane, the Who, Grateful Dead, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Eric Burdon and the Animals, Otis Redding, Ravi Shankar, Simon and Garfunkel, Laura Nyro, Buffalo Springfield, Canned Heat, Country Joe and the Fish, the Butterfield Blues Band, the Byrds, Booker T and the MGs, and more. And for the closing set, the Mamas and the Papas. What a line-up!

Here's Janis with Big Brother and the Holding Company: it was this performance that led to their first record contract.

This weekend they're putting on an anniversary concert (Eric Burdon and the Animals, Booker T, and Phil Lesh of the Dead will be there). Last night included a performance by Regina Spektor, whom I really like. But the tickets are $105 a day (in 1967 they ranged from $3 to $6.50— $22–$47, adjusted for inflation, much more reasonable), so . . . nah. Not for an hour-long set. Tonight we would have been interested in Norah Jones and Jack Johnson, but again: $105, even for three hours, with no in-out privileges? Too steep for us. David suggested we ride our bikes over and listen from outside, but I nixed that idea: the sound wouldn't be very good, and isn't half the fun watching the artists perform? Sure.

So instead, I'll just share a song from each of them. Maybe bring them up on Spotify for the evening. Yep, I'm a cheap date. Or maybe I'm just cheap?