Jefferson Airplane - Live at the Monterey International Pop Festival (2022 RSDBF and other official releases)
For Record Store Day Black Friday 2022, an LP containing the Jefferson Airplane's full live set at 1967's Monterey International Pop Festival will be issued in a 2,500-copy limited edition, on the Monterey International Pop Festival Foundation imprint (catalogue number MIPF 1967-8). The LP was remastered from the original analog tape and pressed in "blue-smoke" colored vinyl. The Record Store Day website states:
First off, the "Rhino box set" they are referring to is the 4-CD (or 4-cassette) various artists set titled The Monterey International Pop Festival (Rhino 70596), which contained five of the eight songs from the Airplane's set at the festival.
Secondly, while it may be true that the Airplane's Monterey set has never before been officially issued on vinyl in the U.S. (disregarding one known bootleg), it was issued on vinyl (as well as CD) in the U.K. on the Thunderbolt reissue label in 1990. The set was also issued on CD in Europe at least two other times: as a German CD simply titled Jefferson Airplane, released on the budget label Universe Gold (with laughable Starship-related cover art), and as a Belgian CD titled High Flying Bird: Live At The Monterey Festival (Music Avenue 250150). Beware of an unauthorized 2001 CD titled Live In Monterey (Park South 757667058423), which contains a scattered assortment of studio and live tracks which, contrary to the CD's title, were mostly not recorded at the Monterey Pop Festival.
The Airplane's 38-minute set was performed on Saturday, June 17, 1967, the second night of the legendary rock festival held at Monterey County Fairgrounds in California. The set was performed by the Airplane's -- not to be confused with the Starship's -- most famous lineup, consisting of singers Grace Slick and Marty Balin, Paul Kantner (rhythm guitar), Jorma Kaukonen (lead guitar), Jack Casady (bass), and Spencer Dryden (drums). This festival took place between the releases of the psychedelic rock band's two 1967 studio albums: Surrealistic Pillow (which contained the band's Top 10 hits "Somebody To Love" and "White Rabbit") and the less commercial follow-up After Bathing At Baxter's. The band's performances at the festival were more reflective of the former album's control than the latter album's chaos.
The set is a good showcase for the different talents of the band members, before those differences began to make the full band sound sloppy and incongruous. Slick shines brightly, though not perfectly, on the two aforementioned hit songs. Balin shows tenderness on the gentle love ballad "Today", then lets himself loose for the wilder psychedelia of "She Has Funny Cars" and "Young Girl Sunday Blues". When Slick, Balin, and Kantner vocalize together here, they sound more harmonious than they did on many later live and studio recordings. The Airplane serves up gritty rock renditions of Fred Neil's folk song "The Other Side Of This Life" (complete with a good extended instrumental jam) and Billy Edd Wheeler's country tune "High Flyin' Bird". The set ends with an eleven-minute version of "The Ballad Of You and Me and Pooneil", on which the band felt free to delve into the more freeform psychedelia of the Baxter's album. It's a gloriously tumultuous finale to an otherwise fairly coherent set, sounding as if the band were suddenly tossing aside their commercial concerns and giving the audience an introduction to the rawer psychedelic rock that was to come -- not only from them, but also from other bands of their time period. Just as the Monterey Pop Festival was the first commercial American rock festival of its kind, it also helped to mark the surge of the hippie counterculture during the year of the Summer Of Love.
Jefferson Airplane "Captured Live At The Monterey International Pop Festival" (Monterey International Pop Festival Foundation MIPF 1967-8) 2022
Jefferson Airplane "Live At The Monterey Festival" (Thunderbolt THBL 074) 1990
Jefferson Airplane "Jefferson Airplane" (Universe Gold 3506) 1999
Jefferson Airplane "High Flying Bird: Live At The Monterey Festival" (Music Avenue 250150) 2006
Track Listing (accept no substitutes):
1. Somebody To Love
2. The Other Side Of This Life
3. White Rabbit
4. High Flyin' Bird
5. Today
6. She Has Funny Cars
7. Young Girl Sunday Blues
8. The Ballad Of You and Me and Pooneil
"In 1992, part of this set was released on a Rhino box set, on CD and cassette. This RSD Black Friday release marks the first appearance of this set on vinyl".
First off, the "Rhino box set" they are referring to is the 4-CD (or 4-cassette) various artists set titled The Monterey International Pop Festival (Rhino 70596), which contained five of the eight songs from the Airplane's set at the festival.
Secondly, while it may be true that the Airplane's Monterey set has never before been officially issued on vinyl in the U.S. (disregarding one known bootleg), it was issued on vinyl (as well as CD) in the U.K. on the Thunderbolt reissue label in 1990. The set was also issued on CD in Europe at least two other times: as a German CD simply titled Jefferson Airplane, released on the budget label Universe Gold (with laughable Starship-related cover art), and as a Belgian CD titled High Flying Bird: Live At The Monterey Festival (Music Avenue 250150). Beware of an unauthorized 2001 CD titled Live In Monterey (Park South 757667058423), which contains a scattered assortment of studio and live tracks which, contrary to the CD's title, were mostly not recorded at the Monterey Pop Festival.
The Airplane's 38-minute set was performed on Saturday, June 17, 1967, the second night of the legendary rock festival held at Monterey County Fairgrounds in California. The set was performed by the Airplane's -- not to be confused with the Starship's -- most famous lineup, consisting of singers Grace Slick and Marty Balin, Paul Kantner (rhythm guitar), Jorma Kaukonen (lead guitar), Jack Casady (bass), and Spencer Dryden (drums). This festival took place between the releases of the psychedelic rock band's two 1967 studio albums: Surrealistic Pillow (which contained the band's Top 10 hits "Somebody To Love" and "White Rabbit") and the less commercial follow-up After Bathing At Baxter's. The band's performances at the festival were more reflective of the former album's control than the latter album's chaos.
The set is a good showcase for the different talents of the band members, before those differences began to make the full band sound sloppy and incongruous. Slick shines brightly, though not perfectly, on the two aforementioned hit songs. Balin shows tenderness on the gentle love ballad "Today", then lets himself loose for the wilder psychedelia of "She Has Funny Cars" and "Young Girl Sunday Blues". When Slick, Balin, and Kantner vocalize together here, they sound more harmonious than they did on many later live and studio recordings. The Airplane serves up gritty rock renditions of Fred Neil's folk song "The Other Side Of This Life" (complete with a good extended instrumental jam) and Billy Edd Wheeler's country tune "High Flyin' Bird". The set ends with an eleven-minute version of "The Ballad Of You and Me and Pooneil", on which the band felt free to delve into the more freeform psychedelia of the Baxter's album. It's a gloriously tumultuous finale to an otherwise fairly coherent set, sounding as if the band were suddenly tossing aside their commercial concerns and giving the audience an introduction to the rawer psychedelic rock that was to come -- not only from them, but also from other bands of their time period. Just as the Monterey Pop Festival was the first commercial American rock festival of its kind, it also helped to mark the surge of the hippie counterculture during the year of the Summer Of Love.
Jefferson Airplane "Captured Live At The Monterey International Pop Festival" (Monterey International Pop Festival Foundation MIPF 1967-8) 2022
Jefferson Airplane "Live At The Monterey Festival" (Thunderbolt THBL 074) 1990
Jefferson Airplane "Jefferson Airplane" (Universe Gold 3506) 1999
Jefferson Airplane "High Flying Bird: Live At The Monterey Festival" (Music Avenue 250150) 2006
Track Listing (accept no substitutes):
1. Somebody To Love
2. The Other Side Of This Life
3. White Rabbit
4. High Flyin' Bird
5. Today
6. She Has Funny Cars
7. Young Girl Sunday Blues
8. The Ballad Of You and Me and Pooneil
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