The concert commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Monterey Pop Festival took place over the weekend at the same fairgrounds as the first -- and served up lots of memories.
A handful of survivors of the original festival were on hand:
- Eric Burdon, with his current crop of Animals
- Booker T., who'd backed Otis Redding at the first fest and led his Stax Records Revue at this one
- Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, who closed the show with his current outfit The Terrapin Family Band
- Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas, who guested on "California Dreamin'" with The Head and the Heart
A roster of contemporary artists included Jack Johnson, Norah Jones -- who surprisingly didn't mention her father, Ravi Shankar, who'd famously played the original festival -- Leon Bridges, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Gary Clark Junior and Father John Misty. They covered such classics as:
- Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth"
- Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love and "White Rabbit"
- Otis Redding's "(Sittin' on the) Dock of the Bay," "I Got Dreams to Remember" and "Pain in My Heart"
- Canned Heat's "Goin' Up the Country"
- Jimi Hendrix's "Foxy Lady"
During his closing set, Lesh revealed that he'd recently undergone a liver transplant and "almost didn't make it." It was the 77-year-old's second such operation, his first having taken place in 1998. He called being back on stage at Monterey "just a rare honor and privilege." (Rolling Stone)