June 18, 1967. One of the most explosive rock performances ever occurred on the final night of a three-day festival at the Monterey County Fairgrounds. The Jimi Hendrix Experience almost wasn’t even included on the bill. Paul McCartney had lobbied for their inclusion as he was on the fest’s board of directors.
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It was only two weeks before that Hendrix famously opened a Saville Theatre show in London with “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band.” The Beatles album of the same name had only been released the Friday before the Sunday performance. Hendrix had learned the song, worked up an “Experience” arrangement, and blown the room away. That room included McCartney and Fab Four bandmate George Harrison.
A Lot at Stake
Hendrix had yet to make an impression in America. “Hey Joe” had been released in the U.S. in May and failed to chart, even though it had reached the Top 10 in England. The Monterey International Pop Festival was going to feature some of the biggest names in rock, and would be the site of the first major American appearance by The Who and Ravi Shankar in addition to the Jimi Hendrix Experience. It would also provide a “coming out” for Janis Joplin and Otis Redding.
The festival’s first night featured The Association, The Paupers, Lou Rawls, Beverley Martyn, Johnny Rivers, Eric Burdon & the Animals, and Simon & Garfunkel. Burton would go on to write the song “Monterey” about his experience over the weekend.
The second day featured Canned Heat, Big Brother and the Holding Company (featuring Joplin), Country Joe and the Fish, Al Kooper, The Butterfield Blues Band, The Electric Flag, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Steve Miller Band, Moby Grape, Hugh Masekela, The Byrds, Laura Nyro, Jefferson Airplane, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, The Mar-Keys, and Otis Redding. (Six months later, Redding would die in a plane crash in Wisconsin.)
The third and final day featured Ravi Shankar, The Blues Project, Big Brother and the Holding Company again (since their first appearance was so well-received, a second appearance was arranged for to allow them to be filmed for an accompanying film), The Group with No Name, Buffalo Springfield, The Who, the Grateful Dead, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Scott McKenzie, and The Mamas & the Papas. Shankar performed for three hours. The other performers all did about 40 minutes apiece.
The Who had played a few shows on American soil before the Monterey Pop Festival. Hendrix had seen them in England and knew of their theatrics and instrument-smashing exploits. Before the festival commenced, The Who’s Pete Townshend and Hendrix discussed who should go on first. Both guitarists wanted the earlier slot, so it was decided that a coin flip would determine their fate. Townshend won, and selected the earlier time slot. Now Hendrix had to follow the pending madness The Who would no doubt inflict upon the Northern California crowd.
A Friendly Game of Oneupmanship
Eric Burdon recalled the afternoon before the Experience show in his book I Used to Be an Animal, But I’m Alright Now. He noticed Hendrix in the courtyard of the hotel that day, painstakingly hand-painting his guitars. Little did he know Hendrix was preparing to utterly destroy one of them.
The Who played their set and, as expected, wreaked havoc onstage as they closed with “My Generation.” Smoke bombs enhanced the chaos as Townshend smashed his guitar into his amp, always-nutso drummer Keith Moon knocked over one of his bass drums, and bassist John Entwistle…stood out of the way as usual, side-stepping the big bass drum rolling around the stage.
Three songs by the Grateful Dead followed The Who’s performance, and then it was time for the crowd to experience Jimi Hendrix. Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones introduced the band, and they ripped into “Killing Floor.” Hendrix pulled out all the stops: he played with his teeth, played the guitar behind his head, used distorted feedback as an instrument. The band played nine songs in total, including “Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan and several of the songs from their debut album, Are You Experienced.
Before his final song, Hendrix addressed the audience and spoke about moving to England and “picking up these two cats,” referring to bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell. He continued, “It’s so groovy to come back here this way, you know? To get a chance to really play. I wanna grab you all and just,” and he made some kissing noises and motioned as if he was hugging someone. “I’m gonna sacrifice something here that I really love. Thank you very much.”
Goodbye, My Love
A few moments of dive-bomb feedback followed, controlled by utilizing the guitar’s tremolo bar. Out of the controlled chaos emerged the opening strains of “Wild Thing” by The Troggs. Hendrix urged the crowd to sing along and join in. The song continued as Hendrix led the way, playing behind his back, playing from his knees, and grinding his guitar strings into the front of his amp.
He turned back around to face the crowd and removed his guitar from his shoulder. He laid it down, the neck facing away from him as he continued stroking the strings and rather suggestively tugging at the tremolo bar to keep the feedback loop going. He rocked back and forth as the sound grew. Mitchell and Redding kept playing their furiously cacophonous free-form jam behind Hendrix as the guitar feedback swelled.
Hendrix stood up amongst the chaos to walk to the backline to grab something. He returned to spray a generous amount of lighter fluid all over his wailing instrument. He knelt back down, kissed the neck of the guitar, and pulled out a match.
As soon as that match hit that guitar, Jimi Hendrix became an American superstar. A perfect lap of flame ignited. Hendrix continued to gesture—encouragingly, lovingly—toward his axe, gently coaxing it to fulfill its destiny. The moment would go down as one of rock’s most infamous happenings. He was destroying the thing he loved. His one-of-a-kind, hand-painted Fender Strat was being sacrificed. For what? For rock ‘n’ roll, that’s what.
Hendrix urged on the flames for a few more moments, and then jumped to his feet to (no longer lovingly) smash the guitar. After a few blows, the flames were extinguished and the neck separated from the body while the feedback continued—even as the singer threw the neck into the first few rows of the crowd.
It’s fun to watch the faces of the audience shown in the D.A. Pennebaker documentary Monterey Pop while this was going on. Some are titillated. Some are horrified. Mama Cass Elliot of The Mamas & the Papas—who, incidentally, were scheduled to somehow follow all this—could only shake her head and say, “Wow.” Clearly, no one knew quite what to make of what the hell just happened.
Photo: YouTube screen shot from “Wild Thing (1967) (Monterey Pop Festival)” posted by user DcheJ
