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Jefferson Airplane - Live At The Monterey Festival CD (album) cover

LIVE AT THE MONTEREY FESTIVAL

Jefferson Airplane

Proto-Prog


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Sean Trane
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Prog Folk
4 stars For decades, the Airplane's performance at the Monterey Festival (which was part of their legend) was only seen with the movie performance of Today and High Flying Bird, which was only one fifth of their full set. At the start of the 90's, Thunderbolt Records released the full set, which was greatly awaited by fans. Now remember that this recording took place at one single (and legendary) event with all its flaws and lack of experience and technology. So if the recording is not excellent, it is actually quite good, still and quite acceptable for younger generations. Remember that the Monterey Festival took place between their Surrealistic Pillow's release and probably as they were nearing the end of writing the songs of ABA Baxter's.

With the intro presenting the band as "a perfect example of what the world was coming to" and Grace laughing with much of it, the groups launches its set by using their two aces right away: Somebody and Rabbit are first and third in the setrlist and played out faithfully. While Other Side Of This Life and High Flying Bird are both excellent, the gropup is only still getting warmed up and has not yet done any improvisations, playing the songs faithfully. With the superb She Has Funny Cars, they start to digress slightly and by the time of the last track on their set, they were getting warm and gave us ablistering 11-min version of You & Me & Pooneil, with blistering improvs and solos. Sadly the set is a bit too short (always is the case in Festivals) as it was clear that Kaukonen, Casady and Dryden were set for more.

Overall, this live album is just as essential as Bless Its Little Pointed Head and more so than the latter 30 Seconds Over Winterland, which came at the end of the group's life. Somehow, one can hope that one day, the full set that was recorded by cameras will also be available.

Report this review (#87917)
Posted Tuesday, August 22, 2006 | Review Permalink
ZowieZiggy
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars My first contact (it was in February 1971) with the Airplane was "Woodstock". On the first triple album, they only appeared with one track : "Volunteers" which I really liked. Later in the year Woodstock II was released and featured : "Saturday Afternoon/Won't You Try" and "Eskimo Blue Day" which confirmed my first impression : it was quite a good band but little known at that time on this side of the Atlantic.

So, I discovered them first live. And I will always like them more live than in a studio. Therefore their performance at Monterrey in 1967 is very interesting for likes of me. The power of the airplane at its (early) peak. Fantastic Slick vocals (but I admit I am biased ...). The recording quality is very decent.

The version of "Somebody To Love" is absolutely devastating. A wild rendition of this fabulous track.

It tends to appears that the set was rather improvised (or is it organized improv) ? When announcing the second number, Grace will say : "I have no idea what's next". "Other Side" ? "Other Side" ! So here we go to the other side (break on through ?). This was the B-side for their single "Plastic Fantastic Lover". It's a fantastic number that fully deserved to sit on an album. It will be a favourite during their live sets. A great number, superbly interpreted here. Rather long as well (almost seven minutes). The second highlight of course.

The third one is their absolute (but waaaaaay too short) masterpiece : "White Rabit". Grace is of course sensational in her performance. The third highlight ? Yes !

"High Flying Bird" is a number coming out of the "Take Off" sesions and released on the remastered CD version. It is, again, a great track. It is better than most of the album tracks and should have make it, really. Hopefully, it sits on this live album, so everyone can figure out how good a track it is.

The next three songs are somewhat weaker. "Today" is a bit less soporific than the studio version and "She Has Funny Cars" and "Young Girl..." do not belong to their classics.

The completely disjointed "Ballad Of You And Me And Pooneil" from "Baxter" closes the live album brilliantly. This quite long version is really spectacular. The beat is incredible and repetitive (Roxy will produce one like this with "The Bogus Man"). Another highlight of this very good live album. It is a great instantaneous representative of an era.

Four stars.

Report this review (#112249)
Posted Thursday, February 15, 2007 | Review Permalink
Eetu Pellonpaa
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars I'm very fond of real live music, and this album being full of it with good quality was my first introduction to this wonderful band; A great revelation for a teenager sinking to endless fractals of psychedelia. Though the songs are quite simple pop/rock compositions of the 1960's, there's a very powerful spontaneous power shimmering from the performance, and the tune list is a quite nice selection of the band's repertoire. There's an evident psychedelic flavor in their style, Grace's graceful voice dancing upon the scale structures of the songs, and wild electric guitar solos strengthen the strong fuzzy feeling. The rhythm section is also firm, making the group's musical concept working perfectly. Two of their bigger hits "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" worked maybe yet better on their appearance at Woodstock, a singular moment of rock history caught on blessed films. I'm very pleased of the moody interpretation of the mellow "Today" here, which was also captured on a hazy film clip. Other nice bluesy songs blasted out here are "Other Side of This Life" and "She Has Funny Cars". Along with few slower bluesy tunes the performance ends to a long acid epic "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil", being a really powerful trip. Though this fine group had also some not so perfect phases in their career, still the hey-day moments of their repertoire are very recommendable listening for fans of early psych, classic rock and powerful lady singers. In addition of their carefully recorded early studio albums, it's rewarding to check out also their live stuff, which is luckily also present on the films from the early hippie rock festivals, giving visual experiences from the musicians and scenery of their age.
Report this review (#113079)
Posted Thursday, February 22, 2007 | Review Permalink

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