Wednesday, March 2, 2011

If Not Exactly a "Trips" Festival/Now Go Listen to Charlie Patton/"When Rock Implied Danger"

Richard Meltzer is going to be 65 this year. When the oracle chooses to write about music, one needs to pay close attention. Even his toss offs are great. Case in point is this column for the San Diego Reader from June 1999. Too late for inclusion in "A Whore Just Like the Rest," Richard still riffs on his favorite Doors, Monterey Pop versus Woodstock, the Byrds and the Association. He is a bit too harsh on the Monkees for my liking - their records have aged nicely. As Eddie Flowers has said (or a paraphrase as such): "Headquarters"= summer! Growing up those lps were some of the only "rock" lps in the house. But what the fuck do I know - I wasn't at Monterey. I came across this barn archival piece in connection with research on Meltzer's take on the Jefferson Airplane. According to Tamarkin's book, the Monkees' "Headquarters" was firmly lodged at Number 2 on the charts after the Beatles "Sgt. Pepper" in '67, thus keeping "Surrealistic Pillow" blocked permanently from the top spot. Though a no show at Monterey, Macca did head to SF in '67 and spent a day being shown around SF by Marty, Jack and Jorma, and also did acknowledge the incredible playing of Jack - did Jaco Pastorius copy prime Casady or what. Apparently, Jack jammed with Hendrix till dawn the night of Monterey whilst both were tripping. Meltzer where were you and Pearlman hanging out? Anyone sat through the entire Moneterey Pop Pennebaker dvd box set to report whether it is worth seeking out?

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