PENNEBAKER HEGEDUS FILMS

In 1967, Jimi Hendrix’s electrifying performance at the Monterey Pop Festival launched his musical career in the States. This film showcases Hendrix’s complete festival performance with archival footage of his debut in the U.K.with his new band The Jimi Hendrix Experience. John Phillips of the Mama’s and Papa’s narrates Jimi’s rise from Jimmy James and the Blue Flames to his shocking performance at Monterey.

“The American debut of the Jimi Hendrix Experience at Monterey on June 18th, 1967, is still a revelation, an orgasmic explosion of singing feedback, agitated stretches of jazzy improvisation and recombinant R&B guitar. Sucking the crowd into his hurricane sound, Hendrix dragged Dylan’s ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ through Mississippi-blues mud, attacked his own ‘Can You See Me’ with amphetamine impatience and, egged on by Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell’s rhythmic frenzy, drove ‘Wild Thing’ head-on into a wall of white noise. Hendrix’ death in 1970 was an incalculable loss to music. But the wondrous ferocity and impish cosmic humor of his performances live on here. As he said before he doused his guitar with lighter fluid, ‘There’s nothin’ I can do more than this.’ You can still feel the heat.”

— David Fricke, Rolling Stone Magazine