Jimi Hendrix | Talisman worn at the International Monterey Pop Festival

Jimi Hendrix

Talisman worn at the International Monterey Pop Festival

Talisman (70 mm in diameter; chain approximately 600 mm in length). Gold plate, brass, and enamel, central disk hinged, featuring rampant lion and shield motif at center, flanked by two birds, with small crystal attached to chain (added by Hendrix at a later point); some rubbing with loss of gold plating.    

Jimi’s talisman worn at Monterey Pop Festival, his homeland debut, and one of his most iconic performances.

The 16^th through 18^th of June 1967 were chosen as the dates of the Monterey International Pop Festival, officially launching the Summer of Love. It was intended as a non-profit platform for the “New Pop,” and ushered in the flower power and flower children movements. The lineup included Simon & Garfunkel, Janis Joplin, the Animals, Johnny Rivers, The Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, Buffalo Springfield, the Grateful Dead, and a host of other artists who would come to define the era.

On Sunday evening—the third day of the festival—there was a backstage altercation surrounding the order of the lineup. In his biography of Hendrix, Charles Shaar Murray notes that this was largely due to an “intense desire on The Who’s part to avoid a repetition of a London Saville Theatre show were Hendrix had wiped them out before they even got on stage.” The Who did play first that June night in Monterey, “and tore up the house and made the transition from cult band for Anglophiles to a major rock-circuit draw” (48). At the end of "My Generation," Pete Townshend smashed his guitar against the amps and speakers, stunning the audience. As smoke bombs exploded, alarmed concert staff rushed to the stage, in an attempt to rescue microphones other costly equipment. By the time Keith Moon kicked over his drum kit as the band exited the stage, The Who had established themselves as a part of the American mainstream.

After a three-song set by the Grateful Dead (lasting no less than 40 minutes), Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones—who had flown over for this exact purpose—introduced the Jimi Hendrix Experience, calling Jimi out as “the most exciting guitarist I’ve ever heard.” Hendrix immediately electrified the stage and an estimated crowd of 90,000 people, creating a volume of impact the festival had yet to experience. Jimi and his band blasted their take on Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor,” followed by “Foxy Lady” (introduced with a confident “Dig this” by Hendrix), and then a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” which was “dedicated to everyone here with hearts and ears.” The set finished with a salacious rendition of The Trogs “Wild Thing,” but the spectacle was not over. From the moment The Who’s pyrotechnics commenced, Hendrix started to consider how he and his band could engage in that sort of display and crown engagement. “Hendrix began pondering ancient rituals that required sacrifices in order to successfully appease the Gods. With that in mind, Hendrix began hunting around backstage during the Dead’s set for some lighter fluid. As Hendrix would later explain: ‘I decided to destroy my guitar at the end of a song as a sacrifice. You sacrifice things you love. I love my guitar’” (Golsen). Kneeling before his guitar, in an act of worship the that melted the sexual and spiritual, the moment somehow rose above mere gimmick. That night, through Hendrix skill, the likes of which were previously unexperienced in rock, history was made.

While their American debut may have been belated, Hendrix, along with Mitch Mitchell’s jazz-influenced drumming, and Noel Redding’s fluid approach to the bass, had already honed their skills in the UK, and dominated the stage from the moment the first electrified note rang out. To this day, what the Jimmy Hendrix Experience achieved on 18 June 1967 is regarded one of the best festival performances of all time. When one listens to the festival recording, it’s almost difficult to believe that such rich and complex sounds were the product of only three individuals, a testament to the spectacular talent of the band, and to Hendrix’s mystifying technique in particular. “This is peak Hendrixosity, a live performance that has probably never been bettered or was never recorded if it was,” The Guardian’s Lloyd Bradley writes. “The true high point comes midway through, with the run of Hey Joe, Can You See Me and The Wind Cries Mary. Away from the gimmicks, these 12 minutes establish Hendrix as the embodiment of the counter-culture’s musical revolution” (Bradley).

In many respects, Hendrix performance at Monterey Pop was the absolute convergence of power, luck, and inspiration, the attributes of a talisman. The present represents a remarkable survival, a relic of a rock god, and a memento of one of the greatest performances of all time.  

PROVENANCE:

Christie's New York, 21 November 2005, lot 41 (Hendrix presented the talisman to a Brooklyn woman after they met in a discotheque called The Scene about a month after Monterey.)

REFERENCES:

Lloyd Bradley, “Jimi Hendrix, Monterey Pop 1967: a live performance never bettered,” in The Guardian, 3 August 2020: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/aug/03/jimi-hendrix-monterey-pop-1967-a-live-performance-never-bettered; Tyler Golsen, “The historic night Jimi Hendrix set fire to his guitar,” in Far Out, 27 August 2021: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-night-jimi-hendrix-set-fire-to-his-guitar/;  Charles Shaar Murray, Crosstown Traffic: Jimi Hendrix and Post-War Rock ‘n’ Roll Revolution. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989