Remembering the first concert that rocked the whole world.

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The Fairgrounds will host a significant reunion this weekend as a bunch of aging rockers return to celebrate the 40th anniversary of a momentous event in pop-cultural history. The Summer of Love concert is meant to commemorate the Monterey Pop Festival, and a half-dozen bands that played at the legendary 1967 music fest – including many original members – will be in attendance. So it’s kind of odd and a bit sad that the words “Monterey Pop” could not appear on the posters or in the ads promoting the show. As it happens, those words are owned by a Los Angeles production company.

The fact is, Monterey Pop was a movie. Classic-rock connoisseurs may think of it as a defining moment in the development of American music, and some locals consider it a treasured piece of Peninsula history, but from its conception, the Monterey Pop Festival was made for the screen.

Most of the bands that came here in June of ’67 for the world’s first-ever weekend-long rock ’n’ roll party were unaware that they would also wind up starring in the world’s first-ever rockumentary. Likewise, the thousands of costumed fans didn’t realize that were extras. It’s unlikely that any of them intended to take part in a world-changing cultural event. In the spirit of the era, they all did it for fun – most of the bands performed for free. They’d probably all have been happy to know that they were about to rock the nation. By the end of 1968, 20 million people had bought a ticket to be part of the scene that came together here that weekend.

According to most accounts, the festival’s promoters had hoped all along (somewhat secretly) that they’d be able to turn a buck by capturing the show on film, but there’s no way they could have imagined the throngs of kids who lined up to see it in every town in America. Monterey Pop quickly became the most popular documentary ever made. In its wake, thousands of barbers and bra-makers went out of business and thousands of pot dealers got rich.

thousands of barbers and bra-makers went out of business and pot dealers got rich.

It would be hard to exaggerate the Monterey Pop Festival’s impact on the world of music. Jimi Hendrix made his American debut at the show; Janis Joplin, who hadn’t yet recorded an album, reached her first big audience; The Who made their first West Coast appearance. These artists would likely have have made a big splash even if their performances weren’t brought to the big screen, but with Monterey Pop, they exploded.

The Mamas and the Papas were the headliners, along with Simon and Garfunkel – it’s weird to recall that they were the biggest-drawing stars on hand. Of course Jimi and Janis went on to steal the show. If they hadn’t been there, The Who would have blown the old folkies off the stage, or else Otis Redding would have done it. And if not for them, the cadre of then-unknown San Francisco bands would have grabbed attention from the nominal stars.

Monterey Pop introduced all of these soon-to-be pop icons to America, and also gave the nation its first glimpse of the psychedelic wave that was approaching. Hendrix’s mind-blowing virtuosity, Janis’s heart-piercing wail, The Who’s precise and gorgeous violence – the whole loud feedback-drenched package that was the never-before-heard sound of Monterey was one piece of it. The bigger piece was what was happening in the grandstands and in the streets outside.

Monterey Pop was an inside look at a secret ritual that had rarely been seen outside Golden Gate Park – the sacred rock ’n’ roll dance party of the pot-smoking, acid-eating, wild-dancing American hippie. The nation’s children liked what they saw. And so, practically every summer since the Summer of Love, the ritual has been recreated from coast to coast and around the world.

This weekend’s commemorative concert will likely be a comparatively tame affair. Along with the veteran rockers, I’d imagine that a few brigades of the original hippies will be there. (Word is that folks over 50 get in free.) (?!) Even if it hardly resembles the scene at the Fairgrounds in ’67 (or even the movie), it’ll be a chance for us all to look back and grin wildly.