STORY
There was a before, there was an after. Fifty years ago, the Woodstock wave swept the world. The 1969 "Summer of Love" was to revolutionize the world of music, but also society as a whole. But to understand the after, we must first seize the front. Returning two years earlier, in June 1967. In Northern California, Monterey, another festival was held. With on stage, already, those who were going to Woodstock.
Beatnik, antimilitarism, rejection of capitalism and civil rights
The first major American festival of pop music in the broadest sense of the term, Monterey already brings together artists who are riding on the ideals of Woodstock, a mix of Beatnik culture, legacy of Jack Kerouac and Bob Dylan, but also antimilitarism in these times of history. Vietnam war, rejection of the capitalist model and combat support for the civil rights of African Americans. Everything is mixed, it must be said, commercial opportunism for boomers born after 1945.
In June 1967, then, the great producer of the time, Lou Adler, brings together dozens of singers over three days, in front of a hundred thousand spectators. The Beach Boys and Beatles, even if they do not play, are the sponsors of the festival. And Lou Adler has the support of John Phillips, leader of the Mamas and Papas, the group famous for its California Dreamin tube.
The Mamas and Papas are closing Monterey. The rest of the poster is up. Jimi Hendrix, whose shamanic guitar firing at the end of the concert marked generations. The Who, unleashed as ever and breaking all their equipment ($ 20,000 damage all the same). The late Otis Redding, who was going to die six months later in a plane crash. The Byrds, equivalent of the American Beatles, then at the peak of their celebrity.
The sensation Janis Joplin
And then, too, the one that was going to change everything. A shaggy 24-year-old singer, accompanied by her band Big Brother and The Holding Company. This is one of Janis Joplin's first major public appearances, and she will immediately become a star. Notably thanks to a great recovery of a Big Mama Thornton blues, Ball and Chain.
This incredible vocal performance will be captured notably by a film, directed on Monterey by Arthur Pennebaker. The documentary filmmaker, who is still famous for his work on the counter-culture of the 1960s, also immortalized the mesmerized gaze of Mama Cass, one of the Mamas and Papas singer, who was speechless for long seconds before the performance of Janis Joplin. . The latter immediately becomes an icon of the time. It openly promotes free love, the use of soft drugs (which will become hard enough quickly), and excesses of all kinds. She will be back in Woodstock but will only have three years to live.
Building a community
Among the groups present at Monterey this weekend are the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. This little world lives in Laurel Canyon, on the heights of Los Angeles. David Crosby of the Byrds and Stephen Stills of Buffalo Springfield will soon be joined by Graham Nash of the British group The Hollies to form the Crosby Stills and Nash trio. A "super group", it was said then ... who will become a "mega-group" with the contribution of Neil Young.
Two years after Monterey, they will be in Woodstock and sing on their second album the anthem of the festival, written by Canadian Joni Mitchell, muse and muse of this small community about to gather half a million people in a northern field -is from the United States.