~ Grace Slick Presents Monterey Pop ~
| 1. Unknown (Drug Dealer) 2. Marty Balin (*JA singer) 3. Jorma Kaukonen 4. Janis Joplin 5. Ghandi 6. Jack Casady (*JA Bass) 7. Otis Redding 8. (Mama) Cass Elliot 9. Pete Townshend 10. Groupie chick 11. Grace Slick 12. Roger Daltrey *Jeffferson Airplane |
13. Jerry Garcia 14. Alice and White Rabbit 15. David Crosby 16. Keith Moon 17. Neil Young 18. John Philips 19. Jimi Hendrix 20. Ravi Shankar 21. Wavy Gravy 22. Ben Fong Torres 23. Brian Jones 24. Spencer Dryden (*JA drums) |
Over forty years ago, a turning point in rock history took place, the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. This three day concert packed with performances from some of the biggest names in music history, would be the epicenter for the “Summer of Love.”
A full two years before Woodstock, 200 thousand fans would experience an unparalleled event, during a year like no other, before or after. In 1967 our ears heard for the first time; the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding company, Jefferson Airplane and many, many more musicians that would be known as the collective sound of the time.
Of course one of those new rising stars at the festival was our very own Grace Slick. Grace in celebration of the important anniversary has used here talents as a painter to share with us an intimate view that could only come from her.
In Grace’s painting “Monterey” she is telling a story from the performers perspective, by placing the back stage scene in the foreground. She has chosen a unique perspective that only a small group that was there experienced. It was a once in a lifetime meeting of most all of the top musical contemporaries of the day. With the intense tour and recording schedules of the time, to cross paths with just a couple performers of their status was extremely rare. In many cases this was the only time that some of these legendary stars would ever meet during their lives.
After the creating of this important work, Grace took a moment to put some of her thoughts about that time to words:
“Throughout history there have been delightful little blobs of collective hope.
For a couple of years in the late sixties, no matter what was going on in the world, our generation happily assumed that with love and education we could change outdated social systems.
One huge thing that we missed, 90% of the population is genetically imbued with sub mediocre reasoning skills. No matter how much you hug them or read to them, there’s no correcting stupid.”
Monterey – a celebration of youthful naiveté.
– Grace Slick 2007
Source: Grace Slick Paints the Monterey Pop Festival
~ Woodstock Through Grace Slick’s Looking-glass ~
Grace Slick looks back 40+ years, to a concert no one will ever forget…
Can you find them all?
Jack Cassady, Jorma Kaukonen, Marty Balin, Spencer Dryden, Santana, Paul Kantner, Barack Obama, Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon, Pete Townshend, Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, White Rabbit, Jimi Hendrix, Alice, Ravi Shankar, Richie Havens, Graham Nash, David Crosby, Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Buddha, Country Joe McDonald, John Sebastian, Joan Baez, Alvin Lee, John Entwistle, Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, Jesus, Max Yasgur.
| Dear Grace Slick Fan,
Forty (+) years ago history was made on a farmers field in upstate New York. And if your over the age of 10, you probably do not need the likes of me to explain all that happened and what it all meant. I’ll leave that to the countless movies, books, news stories, documentaries, department store theme window displays, historians, and the four million people who say they were one of the four hundred thousand there. Personally, I’d rather hear the story of the historic “3 Days Of Peace & Music” from one of the few remaining voices of a revolutionary generation who gathered together on that stage to create something amazing… Grace Slick. The truth is, Woodstock is not one story at all. It’s the story of each individual who braved the traffic, the weather and the absence of general services, some whose names we’ll never know. |
Grace has perfectly captured this, in her recent painting Woodstock. In one grand single view on canvas, Ms. Slick has offered a sea of people who made up the epic scene. Each with their own experience of the festival. On stage we see a parade of icons (Hendrix, Joplin, Baez, and on), but in the open field she’s painted one by one an endless expanse of people, young lovers, vendors, backpackers, parents and children… each one the center of their own Woodstock tale.
It’s not often that an artist can offer through her own work a historic statement from a firsthand perspective, but in this one particular case, that is exactly what we have. Hog Farmer |
In Grace Slicks Own words:
“At the time (1969), A concert with ½ a million people was unheard of. To be honest we were blissfully unprepared and unmercifully hammered by the weather. As the painting shows, the audience had to slog around in the mud. Young people adapt to that kind of a mess better than old farts.
Saying goodbye on the last of three days, the clump of musicians on the stage is appreciating the audience and vice versa. Everything except murder is happening in the crowd – as it would in any gathering of that size.
I have taken the liberty of inserting some individuals who could not have been there, but maybe they were in spirit – Abraham, Buddha, Mohamed, Jesus, Adam & Eve, Alice in Wonderland, The White Rabbit, My daughter and Barack Obama.
For composition and space, I have simplified the stage gear and the sound towers. If it looks like a cartoon – it was.”
♫ COSMIC DWELLINGS ♫ 