Live at Woodstock, Jimi Hendrix’s headlining appearance at the most famous festival in rock music history, is rivaled only by his set at Monterey Pop for sheer legendary status. But the two are very different. The rock guitarist was a virtual unknown in America when he delivered his literally incendiary performance at Monterey in 1967. A little more than two years later he was an established star, picked to close this mammoth three-day show (he was slated to appear on Sunday night, but weather and various snafus pushed that to Monday morning). Introduced as the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Hendrix quickly corrects that to Gypsy Sun and Rainbows, with original drummer Mitch Mitchell and new bassist Billy Cox augmented by two percussionists and a second guitarist (all three are for the most part inaudible, subsumed in the great sonic wash of Hendrix’s wailing guitar and Mitchell’s thrashing drums). The music had changed, too. Hendrix had started moving away from the format of short, poppy songs with the Electric Ladyland album, and while he still plays "Purple Haze," "Foxey Lady," and "Fire," much of the emphasis in this lengthy set is on extended jamming. Not all of it works, but when it does--as on "Spanish Castle Magic" and a sped-up "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)," which leads into the feedback-drenched re-imagining of "The Star-Spangled Banner"--the performance takes off. Little more than a year later, Jimi Hendrix, still regarded as the greatest rock guitarist ever, would be dead. --Sam Graham

Still one of the most famous rock festivals of all time, Monterey Pop brought together much of the music that was striking chords with young people all over America- some of the talent that had been obscure or small time in the US (Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix), while others were huge smash bands (The Who, Simon & Garfunkel, Mamas and the Papas), not to mention a breakthrough performance for Ravi Shankar. With this accompaniment to the feature film, which was released twenty years or so before this, Hendrix and the Experience brought their sound for the first time after being the cult favorites in the UK. It's not a long concert, but it can certainly be counted as one of his most notorious.
There were allegations, which perhaps could or could not be true (I haven't read any biographies about the concert, but I heard the rumors), that Hendrix was on acid during the set. Whatever he was on or wasn't on, the songs that come through (filmed with superb documentary detail by DA Pennebaker, with assistance from Albert Maysles) are none-the-less mesmerizing. Aside from what has been played over and over to show the insane magnitude of Hendrix (burning his guitar after a crazed rendition of "Wild Thing"), there's also a turn of "Like a Rolling Stone", "Hey Joe", and a beautiful bit with "The Wind Cries Mary". There could've been more in the way of interviews, but as it is, Jimi Plays Monterey is a fine little companion piece to the film.

A documentary portrait of the backstage efforts to stage the play Moon Over Buffalo on Broadway.