Wellllll, what to do NOW?

I had a plan, this Pebbles thing was gonna take all week, BUT thanks to the efforts of Francois and
Psyclist, two great friends of the blog, it would be a serious redundancy to post the remainder of the set.....if YOU need a disc or two, simply look under the comments section of the first (only) Pebbles post, and you'll be able to find anything you need by following the links, including The Trash Box Sets, and the Essential Pebbles sets......the blog friends have done an excellent job this time (as ALWAYS!)  as I have captured the volumes that I needed as well.......but.....

What am I to do now? I usually (believe it or not) think these things out ahead of time a little bit at least....I have PLENTY more sets of this nature, but it takes me a minute to go sort/organize them, and in all honesty, I had I think two or three of the remaining Pebbles posts already written and some even uploaded.......I don't want to alienate the Pebbles/Nuggets crowd by switching gears TOO much TOO quickly, but I kind of got trapped in.....trust me there will be PLENTY more 1960's garage/psych sets yet to come, I am even amazed myself as to how many I have yet to post.

But, again, what to do TODAY? Be like Andy Kaufman, I guess, and
delight in giving the audience what they DON'T want? Well, hopefully not.....but I am going to COMPLETELY change gears just for today at least,  bringing you the amazing nine-disc unabridged Monterey International Pop Festival Set.....why? Oh, I don't know.....it's damn good, for one thing, a friend and I were just listening to some of it the other day for another, and I think it's (in this format) FAIRLY rare, I've seen a few of them.....I mean there were a few official releases from the festival, the most notable being the great Hendrix/Otis Redding album, couple of others too I think, but I think that THIS set is as close as we can get to the ENTIRE Festival. Hope you guys enjoy this, it's a change of pace, and if you DON'T go for this, please don't abandon me, I got LOTSA

more bullets in the chamber.

Disc 1 is a dandy, actually, the first songs we hear are from, of all people, The Association, with a stellar version of "Along Comes Mary" and a decent "Windy" as well....next up Lou Rawls gives a few numbers, including "Tobacco Road", one that I nearly always enjoy no matter who is doing it. After a Johnny Rivers "Memphis", we get a set from the Animals, wish they'd have worked my fave "Sky Pilot" into the set, but it's not bad.....highlighting disc one (other than, for my money, The Association) is a long set from Simon and
Garfunkel, they were on their game on that day....again, maybe this is not for you guys who've been so into the Nuggets things, but expand your horizons for a minute, OK?

Second Disc brings us a bluesy set from Canned Heat, and then a fabulous set from Big Brother & the Holding Company (including a blistering, maybe best ever version of "Down on Me")....we get hilariously dated nonsense from Country Joe & the Fish "....be the first one on your block to have your boy sent home in a box....", and a closer from Al Kooper....well, they can't ALL be winners....

Disc Three is dominated by the underappreciated
Paul Butterfield Blues Band who turn in a fine set, followed by single tracks from Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Steve Miller Band, closing with a fairly good set from Electric Flag. Could have used a little more Steve Miller in his pre-fame days myself, but that's just me.....

Moving on to Disc 4, Moby Grape turns in a decent set (capped by a smoking "Omaha"), the Byrds give a fine performance as they always seemed to, including a reading of that rarely covered, often overlooked chestnut, "Hey Joe", and in closing we get some Laura Nyro, who I also always kind of liked a little bit at least.

Disc Five gives us a bad-ass set from Jefferson
Airplane, they are in excellent form and tear through a set of some of their greatest tunes, Booker T & the MG's provide an interlude before Otis Redding's famous (from the Hendrix/Redding recording) set.

The sixth disc defines acquired taste, if you want a whole disc of Ravi Shankar, HERE is your chance, the only artist in the set to merit a full disc.......enjoy. Disc 7 more than makes up for the slack time though, although Big Brother & the Holding Company's SECOND version of "Combination of the Two" is more than a little redundant, we get two excellent (and too short) sets from Buffalo Springfield and the Who, who were maybe the best live act on the planet at the time.

Disc eight starts off with a mercifully short Grateful Dead showing, before the Jimi Hendrix set tears
up the speakers, MAJESTIC versions of "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Wild Thing", as well as a bunch of his standards, (are ya REALLY gonna do it BigScott? Ah, why not?) including his version of that rarely covered, obscure chestnut, "Hey Joe" (I'm sorry, kind of), all of it  sounds great as most live Hendrix sets do, I wish I could have seen him, what an incredible stage presence he must have cast....as I said before, most likely you are familiar with this Hendrix set, but it is obviously worth hearing in this context as well.

And the final disc....one track from Scott McKenzie gives way to the Mamas and the Papas, who fill out the rest of the disc....never was a HUGE fan, but they turn in a pretty good set themselves, finishing with a fairly rowdy "Dancing In the Streets"

For a two-day festival, I think the nine discs here capture the essence of the era as well as we could reasonably expect.....I understand that Big Brother played a set each day, but REALLY two versions of the same track? Well, I don't know, wish I'd have been there though, because the sets from Hendrix, The Who, Butterfield, Jefferson Airplane, and the Byrds are all fantastic to these ears at least, most of the filler is at the very least interesting, and hey, at least they didn't give us a whole disc of the Grateful Dead (although I think there may be an official recording of their entire performance from the Festival, unsure and won't be seeking it out)

So, enjoy this set, and don't be a snob.......there was more music out there in the late 1960's than the
obscurities we've been devouring of late. This is really worth owning, unless you have some kinda "mainstream phobia" or something, it's a TRULY good set, and I THINk it's fairly hard to find although I could be wrong about that.....and remember, go to the COMMENTS SECTION of the PEBBLES post, follow the proper links and get ANY of the 28 discs you may be lacking, also the "Trash Box" set, and the "Essential" set......and thanks a million to both Psyclist and Francois for cutting my work down by so much......just had to give some extra thought as to what I was going to do today......hope it's not too much of a switch, it's for all my "hippies" out there!

DISC 01-01 JOHN PHILLIPS-Festival Introduction/02 THE ASSOCIATION-Along Comes Mary/03 Windy/04 LOU RAWLS-Love Is a Hurtin Thing/05 Dead End/06 Tobacco Road/07 JOHNNY RIVERS-Memphis/08 ERIC BURDON & THE ANIMALS-Paint It, Black/09 San Francisco Nights/10 Gin House Blues/11 Hey Gyp/12 SIMON & GARFUNKEL-Homeward Bound/13 At the Zoo/14 Feelin Groovy/15 For Emily Wherever I May Find Her/16 Sounds of Silence/17 Benedictus/18 Punky's Dilema

DISC 02-01 CANNED HEAT-Rollin and Tumblin/02 Dust My Broom/03 Bullfrog Blues/04 BIG
BROTHER & THE HOLDING COMPANY-Down On Me/05 Combination of the Two/06 Harry/07 Road Block/08 Ball and Chain/09 COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH-Not-So-Sweet Martha Lorraine/10 Feel Like I'm Fixin To Die Rag/11 Please Don't Drop That H Bomb/12 Section 43/13 AL KOOPER-(I Heard Her Say) Wake Me Shake Me

DISC 03-01 BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND-Look Over Yonders Wall/02 Mystery Train/03 Born In Chicago/04 Double Trouble/05 Mary Ann/06 Droppin Out/07 One More Headache/08 QUICKSLIVER MESSENGER SERVICE-All I Ever Wanted To Do/09 STEVE MILLER BLUES BAND-Mercury Blues/10 THE ELECTRIC FLAG-Drinkin Wine/11 Groovin Is Easy/12 Night Time Is the Right Time

DISC 04-01 TOMMY SMOTHERS-Intro/02 MOBY GRAPE-Indifference/03 Mr. Blues/04 Sittin By
The Window/05 Omaha/06 HUGH MASEKELA-Bajabula Bonke/07 THE BYRDS-Renaissance Fair/08 Have You Ever Seen Her Face/09 Hey Joe/10 He Was a Friend of Mine/11 Lady Friend/12 Chimes of Freedom/13 So You Wanna Be a Rock n Roll Star/14 LAURA NYRO-Wedding Song/15 Poverty Train

DISC 05-01 JEFFERSON AIRPLANE-Somebody to Love/02 The Other Side of This Lie/03 White Rabbit/04 High Flying Bird/05 Today/06 She Has Funny Cars/07 Young Girl Sunday Blues/08 Ballad of You, Me, and Pooneil/09 BOOKER T & THE MG'S-Booker-Loo/10 Hip Hug-Her/11 Philly Dog (W/the Mar-Keys)/12 OTIS REDDING-Shake/13 Respect/14 I've Been Loving You Too Long/15 Satisfaction/16 Try a Little Tenderness

DISC 06-01 RAVI SHANKAR-Raga Bhimpalasi/02 Tabla Solo In Ektal/03 Dhun (Dadra And Fast Teental) (this 22 minute track was damaged and somehow would not completely upload for me.....you get "only" about 15 minutes of it, from which I certainly hope you get the general idea.....sorry, but I'm not aborting this project over THAT!)

DISC 07-01 THE BLUES PROJECT-The Flute Thing/02 BIG BROTHER & THE HOLDING
COMPANY-Combination of the Two/03 BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD-Intro/04 For What It's Worth/05 Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing/06 Rock N Roll Woman/07 Bluebird/08 THE WHO-Substitute/09 Sumemrtime Blues/10 Pictures of Lily/11 A Quick One/12 Happy Jack/13 My Generation

DISC 08-01 THE GRATEFUL DEAD-Viola Lee Blues/02 Cold Rain and Snow/03 JIMI HENDRIX-Killing Floor/04 Foxey Lady/05 Like a Rolling Stone/06 Rock Me Baby/07 Hey Joe/08 Can You See Me/09 The Wind Cries Mary/10 Purple Haze/11 Wild Thing

DISC 09-01 SCOTT MCKENZIE-San Francisco/02
THE MAMAS AND THE PAPAS-Straight Shooter/03 Got a Feeling/04 California Dreaming/05 Spanish Harlem/06 Somebody Groovy/07 I Call Your Name/08 Monday Monday/09 Dancing In the Street/10 Outro

Pretty big undertaking for a level of acceptance I am unsure of......please leave comments! Please! Would you like to see more off the wall shit MIXED IN with the Nuggets comps (and beleive me, they are going nowhere for a while), or should I paint myself into a Nuggets/Pebbles/Gravel/etc niche? On the one hand, I'd LIKE to get some more variety on this thing, but the numbers for the comps are SO HIGH that I'd feel like I'm alientating the part of my audience that put this blog on the "map" so to speak.......PLEASE speak up and let me know how you feel, I might even listen to ya!