A few months ago, when Criterion was running a sale, I got this boxed set. It’s beautifully done, like all of Criterion’s editions, and the films come accompanied with informative essays, images, and videos.
But the interest here (while pretty intense, for me anyway) is almost purely historical and sociological, because the music … well, it’s largely really bad. Otis Redding is fantastic, and the pop acts — though they often seem out of place in this environment, Simon & Garfunkel especially — tend to sing on-pitch and play with some semblance of rhythm; but the rock acts are almost uniformly inept. Even Jimi Hendrix appeals largely as a showman rather than a musician. The group that sounds the best is probably the Byrds, and they’re more of a pop group than a rock band.
This shouldn’t have surprised me, because my friend John Wilson, who was living in California in this period and saw almost every famous performer, said that they often weren’t very good. Too many drugs, too much alcohol. Still, because the festival is such a famous one, I was a bit surprised by just how poorly almost everyone played and sang.
But: I don’t believe many of them were trying very hard, and if they had been, no one would have noticed. This was a classic Happening, an event conjured from vibes, pheromones, and bong hits. You had to be there, as the saying goes, and being there was the whole and the only point. The music was barely relevant: even when you see people swaying and dancing they’re almost never on the beat. They’re dancing to their own inner festival.
Otis kills, though.
