As a companion piece to the 1968 movie "Monterey Pop", this relatively short film of Jimi Hendrix performing his entire act often comes across better than it's predecessor. It starts out oddly enough, with a manically crazed street artist flinging paint up against an alley wall that magically turns into a portrait of Hendrix by the time he's finished. I really have to admire someone with that kind of skill, who looks like he's about to ruin a decent painting and winds up taking it into an entirely different but effective direction. So that was interesting. Hendrix himself is about the most colorful entertainer you're ever liable to come across. Try to picture a black artist wearing red pants, orange ruffled shirt, multi-colored jacket topped off by a huge pink feather boa. Later on, Jimi removes his jacket to reveal a studded black vest to go with the rest of his ersatz outfit.
Jimi's play list included a nice mix of his own songs and familiar tunes written and originally introduced by other artists, among them 'Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' and Dylan's 'Like a Rolling Stone'. His virtuosity on the guitar is demonstrated by playing with his teeth and behind his head on 'Hey Joe', but you could tell the audience wasn't quite prepared for the theatrics demonstrated by his humping the giant speakers with his guitar, and lighting it on fire during a scathing performance of 'Wild Thing'. You know, I've seen the clip of 'Wild Thing' any number of times over the past half century and it still amazes me with it's sound and Jimi's showmanship. You really owe it to yourself to see it if you're a Hendrix fan, and even if you're not.
Among the Monterey crowd, you can catch occasional glimpses of music legends like Janis Joplin, Mama Cass, Michelle Phillips, Art Garfunkel, and Ravi Shankar, all of whom are about as perplexed with Jimi's style as the regular audience. Their looks of awe say it all. The brief film is narrated by Papa John Phillips, he of The Mamas and The Papas who enjoyed notoriety during the era, and as an added bonus, if you're quick you can catch all four Beatles and Mick in spot cameos as the camera caught them in the crowd.
Jimi's play list included a nice mix of his own songs and familiar tunes written and originally introduced by other artists, among them 'Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' and Dylan's 'Like a Rolling Stone'. His virtuosity on the guitar is demonstrated by playing with his teeth and behind his head on 'Hey Joe', but you could tell the audience wasn't quite prepared for the theatrics demonstrated by his humping the giant speakers with his guitar, and lighting it on fire during a scathing performance of 'Wild Thing'. You know, I've seen the clip of 'Wild Thing' any number of times over the past half century and it still amazes me with it's sound and Jimi's showmanship. You really owe it to yourself to see it if you're a Hendrix fan, and even if you're not.
Among the Monterey crowd, you can catch occasional glimpses of music legends like Janis Joplin, Mama Cass, Michelle Phillips, Art Garfunkel, and Ravi Shankar, all of whom are about as perplexed with Jimi's style as the regular audience. Their looks of awe say it all. The brief film is narrated by Papa John Phillips, he of The Mamas and The Papas who enjoyed notoriety during the era, and as an added bonus, if you're quick you can catch all four Beatles and Mick in spot cameos as the camera caught them in the crowd.