First, the really bad harmonica is NOT Pigpen. There are portions where you can hear both the bad harmonica and Pigpen on organ or on vocal faintly in the background. There is some brief good harmonica in Caution, which is Pigpen.

I like to drink a lot of coffee and listen to this show, a great performance despite the sound system problems. A high-energy, primordial Alligator made better when Pigpen's mic kicks in, flowing into Caution. This was still new material at this time, the Dead having recently abandoned a lot of the blues standards they were playing in 1966 for these free-form originals. Viola Lee is also good, but go and listen to some of the 1966 versions for some perspective. I like this Cold Rain and Snow, fast and driving, typical for '66/'67. Yes, a little sloppy, but the whole set is not as tight as some other 1967 shows. In this case, the Dead make up for in artistic interpretation.

There's another version of this hear at Archive. It's basically the same, but without the two interview clips. It has a two-minute stage announcement ("the Beatles aren't here).

But who was there at the historic 1967 Monterey Pops Festival! A great performance from Hendrix, who sets his guitar on fire at the end of Wild Thing. And a great performance from the Who, who smash their guitars at the end of My Generation. It's great to have this recording of the Dead's set.

I could kiss the person who posted this stuff here!1 I have their first album on vimyl and I think i almost played it to death over the years. I love Cold Rain and Snow! One of my favorites! thanks you!!!! this has been awesome!

Short but been waiting to hear this for a while... Viola>Cold Rain not the other way round.

If anyone cares, the video of the Viola Lee Blues is up on youtube.com

Can anyone burn me a copy of this now that I can't download it? Plenty to trade.

Popcorn at a movie theater costs about a quarter to make, and everybody knows it. But hey, I'm not not going to sit there without it, There's the big screen, the little screen and no screen... and Monterey Pop imho is big screen stuff, a moment in time, there will never be another like it.
So what if the signatures and permissions to shoot the hipper than thou San Fran contingent (I grew up in the City during the 60s, and have a right to say shut up to the anti-L.A. bias), I mean, Sunset Strip had a lot of interesting things too in '67, but SF's head honchos were anti-commercial, and on and on, cold potatoes...
Janis went down so well Big Brother and their "holding company" sure changed their mind about being in the film...
good lord, movies make money, try not to think about all the percentages and grosses, people talk too much about box office profits-
If the Sf bands were that concerned about the corporate takeover of the people's music, what were they doing down in Monterey in the first place?
RCA records? Capitol? WARNER BROTHERS? Columbia? Those don't don't sound like garage level DIY labels to me, man!

Monterey Pop featured some pretty great music, and for me the Dead set is right up there, and they looked fantastic, young and not unhappy to be there while 3 cameras were busy catching at least the first number, Viola Lee Blues.

Criterion's DVD box set omits the Dead, yet pulls together much of the material cut from the original running order.
So, why not pull together even more of the "lost" performances from Monterey... there is more of the Byrds set for those that don't mind witnessing the potentially great American group meltdown right on the stage...
And, as can be downloaded for free on limewire, albeit with poor sound quality compared to this hi fi compromise,
The Grateful Dead set-opener "Viola Lee Blues" was filmed ALMOST in entirety at Monterey.
I've retimed it, and compared it to this audio... and while the beginning and ending are there, for some reason the middle is truncated by several minutes.
But that's the circulating version, longer versions of better quality indeed exist... or maybe not.
Hard to watch a clock when your mind is melting and your watching/hearing the Dead at the peak of the hippie love flower child dream.

The 4 song set performance by the Dead at Monterey Pop exists in various audio formats uncut. The 3 songs following the virtually unscathed Viola Lee Blues number have minor technical glitches and unharmonic accompaniment at times, but the overall sound quality of this still unreleased historic set epitomizes what a "live" 1967 show sounds like in sparkling 8-track stereo. Not always pretty, and sometimes like a train wreck but that's what I dig about the early Dead - totally extemporaneous and out of freaking control, for real not just a slogan.
Jerry's guitar is amazing in these breakneck-paced 60s sets, and the sound they got here is unlike any other recording of them live, can you dig it?

Their performance, sandwiched in the no-man's slot between The Who & Jimi Hendrix Experience, was left on the cutting room floor, as perhaps leaving it in would have derailed the intended "can you top this?" momentum between The Who and the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Several previously unreleased performances are either on a seperate "outtake" disc (in the dvd box) or have been added to the sets chronologically.
The additions have been worth paying for or borrowing from Tower Records, yet it [the continuity] is still a mess.
I don't know if there is any more Buffalo Springfield or Quicksilver or gems by Janis and Country Joe waiting on the shelf - there is audio of Moby Grape anyway, a kick-as "Omaha"; but I know for certain there is a nearly-complete 3 camera shoot of The Dead doing Viola Lee Blues...

For what it's worth, this is perhaps the most incredible Viola Lee Blues of the year 1967.
There are contenders, such as March 18 and September 3rd (the legendary Rio Nido VLB jam ends abruptly on LMA, but a more complete version has been added as a bonus on their remastered debut album which is also included with the Golden Roads box set); also, the August 4th '67 version of Viola Lee has a cool vibrato gtr effect compliments of Garcia.
The tune, an old jug band stomper, was the Dead's all-out show stopper during their '66 through '69 shows, and especially evokes their '67 tangle with the establishment if you will.

The outtake footage of the Dead playing VLB at Monterey Pop shows them at their peak, giving it all they've got, paying attention... on the reprise after the jam, Jerry holds up his right hand and jumps up, twice for good measure.
Pigpen appears to have been playing it seriously, not at all smash blocked... with a pair of long feathers tucked into his headband.

Cold Rain and Snow is a blast too, in spite of technical difficulties that only last for a few seconds (don't sweat the small stuff!).
Check out Caution (Do Not Step On the Tracks).
Then there's The Monkees' Peter Tork talking about The Beatles and the audience ambience, and Brian Jones on harmonica...
or was it Davy Jones?
Never mind.
Yes it's all here for free, for now...and could be added to the final edition of the complete revised this time they really mean it Monterey International Pop Festival, 50th Anniversary box set.

Download [stream] it NOW before that day comes around.

Definately some must haves here.

And you won't find it anywhere else. Certainly NOT on any version of the film from this festivle. Why? Because the Dead were pissed at the way they were grabbed right before going onstage for their set and pressured into signing the release form for the filming rights.

You can read about it in pretty much any history of the Dead. They asked about all of this stuff up fron and got blown off. Phil was really upset about it all from the start.

Too bad for the muny-grubing *&@#%) that are trying to sell us our history cause we've got it here. FOR FREE! Sure it'd be cool to see/watch them play, but I know what they looked like. Now sit back and let the music play.

This is fire!

Despite the occasionally muddy sound quality, particularly on Jerry's solos, this is a MUST! "Grateful Dead - The Group" have evolved into "Grateful Dead - The Band." They are tight, musical, and unmistakably innovative. In retrospect, here you'll find the "roots" of The Allman Brothers and all the great Southern guitar bands that followed, some cross-pollination with Santana, and even some of the inspiration for Deep Purple. Amazing just how seminal The Dead were at this stage--the new ideas are like a shower of sparks from a sparkler on the Fourth of July.

is this the dead's set from the monterey pop festival?

funny interview excerpts on the beginning of each song by different dudes {bobby spills the beans on family life prior to cold rain} this is scary that no one has reviewed this show yet !!!! sounds like they came from cutting the slef titled album, had a sip and stepped onstage! balls boys, this shit has balls