“We were shocked”: the two artists David Crosby said destroyed minds
Rock and roll was never designed to have listeners take in a performance from the comfort of their seats. From the minute that the first power chords rang out, there was an insistence to all great rock and roll, with millions of players practically daring the audience to come along on the journey through their set. Although that dare became more like a warm invitation whenever Crosby, Stills and Nash took the stage, even David Crosby had those times when he could be knocked on his ass by the right band.
Then again, they would have to be a band of great taste to catch his eye. As much as Crosby loved the idea of rock and roll changing the world, he had grown up in the same era when The Beatles were the biggest thing in the world, so an average singer-songwriter writing from the heart may not have cut it. It was about musical sophistication, and many of Crosby’s favourite artists usually had more up their sleeves.
Let’s look at the people that he grew up listening to. Outside of pure rock and roll, he had always been interested in what people like Miles Davis and John Coltrane were doing in the world of jazz, so he was aware that fans could use a little bit of a jolt even in the most raucous jazz club. And judging by his later affinity for people like Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell, he never lost his love of jazz harmony, but Jimi Hendrix seemed to be from another musical galaxy when he debuted.
From the minute he started playing the guitar behind his head and with his teeth, people were stunned by what they were looking at. Hendrix was a true freak of nature in the best possible sense of the word, and he knew that he could take things to the next level, but when he descended upon the Monterey Pop Festival with The Who, it was enough to shatter everyone’s illusions of music.
“We’d never seen anything like that. We didn’t know anything like that existed.”
David Crosby
As much Hendrix was on another level, The Who taking the stage was like watching an all-out war going on. Hendrix was making love to his instrument half the time, but if that was love, Pete Townshend was looking to tear his to pieces, with everyone being in a haze when looking at him decimate his instrument to matchwood.
While Crosby was more than willing to tell someone off when they weren’t up to his standards, all he could do was respect the hustle of what both bands brought to that festival, saying, “We were all kind of shocked at Jimi Hendrix and The Who. We’d never seen anything like that. We didn’t know anything like that existed. Hendrix just blew our minds with being able to play like that, let alone having all that great showmanship to go with it. And The Who just completely destroyed our mind along with all their equipment.”
Then again, delivering a great show wasn’t the sole purpose of what Townshend wanted to do. He had gone from making heavy music to rock and roll spectacles, and whenever he got onstage, he wanted to make sure that an epiphany went off in your head by the time they walked out of the arena that night.
Even though Hendrix technically won the day every time he stepped on the festival stage, it was a means of trying to one-up the next person. It was all done out of reverence for each other, and while it might not have been solely for the peace and love sentiment that everyone preached about, it did at least show that this new movement had the power to truly change the world.
