The extras for this set are spread out across the three discs as follows:

Disc One: Monterey Pop:

Carried over from the older release is the commentary track featuring the Monterey Pop Festival's producer Lou Adler and director D. A. Pennebaker. As this track plays out they talk about the different artists that performed, what went into documenting the festival, various highlights captured in the footage, the importance of the cultural movement documented in the film and much more.

There are also some interviews here, the first of which is a new twelve-minute piece with Adler in which he talks the celebration that took place to celebrate the festival's fiftieth anniversary. A second new interview gets Pennebaker in front of the camera for fifteen minutes to look back on what it was like documenting the concert. An archival interview with Adler and Pennebaker from 2001 is also included here, running half an hour and covering the origins of the festival, securing the location, getting the roster of talent assembled and a fair bit more.

Also found on the disc is a short film called Chiefs that played with the feature presentation when it was originally released to theaters, a handful of radio spots, a theatrical trailer, a reissue trailer, and a pair of still galleries.

Disc Two: The Outtakes:

The second disc in the set contains a massive selection of over two hours' worth outtakes categorize by date of performance. First up is a selection shot on June 16. Here we find The Association doing Along Comes Mary and Simon & Garfunkel doing Homeward Bound and The Sound Of Silence. In the June 17 section we get Country Joe & The Fish doing Not-So-Sweet Martha Lorraine, Al Kooper performing I Heard Her Say Wake Me, Shake Me, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band doing Driftin' Blues, Quicksilver Messenger Service playing All I Ever Wanted To Do Was Love You, The Electric Flag tearing through Drinkin' Wine, The Byrds playing Chimes Of Freedom, He Was A Friend Of Mine and Hey Joe, Laura Nyro playing Wedding Bell Blues and Poverty Train and then the day closes out with Jefferson Airplane's seminal Somebody To Love. The June 18 performances include The Blues Project playing Flute Thing, Janis Joplin With Big Brother And The Holding Company playing Combination Of The Two (we get stereo and 5.1 options for this track), Buffalo Springfield performing For What It's Worth some great footage of The Who ripping up Substitute, Summertime Blues and A Quick One While He's Away (again, with stereo and 5.1 options and The Mamas And The Papas doing Straight Shooter, Somebody Groovy, I Call Your Name, Monday, Monday, San Francisco and last but not least Dancing In The Street.

Also included here is footage shot at The Hunt Club wherein Tiny Tim plays King For A Day, Laugh, Clown, Laugh, May God Be With Our Boys Tonight and My What A Funny Little World This Is. This material, which is about ten minutes in length, was lit using only a Zippo lighter so the quality is less than perfect but it's genuinely interesting to see.

Disc Three: Jimi Plays Monterey And Shake! Otis At Monterey:

The main extra for Jimi Plays Monterey is an audio commentary with music critic and historian Charles Shaar Murray originally recorded for the past DVD release from 2002. Murry's input is complemented nicely with various audio excerpts that help to expand on Hendrix's story and his performance here. As the track plays out we learn about how he got into music, the impact that his playing and his unique style had on audiences of the day, his influence on pop and rock music and his theatrical style.

There's also a five-minute interview with Pete Townsend that runs five minutes and was shot in 1987. Here Townsend tells a story about his experiences meeting Hendrix at the festival. A trailer for Jimi Plays Monterey is also included.

As for Shake! Otis At Monterey, we get two separate audio commentaries from music historian Peter Guralnick, also pulled over from the earlier release. Both of these tracks have quite a bit of merit. The first talk is essentially Guralnick giving a scene specific, song by song break down of Redding's work here, going into some detail about the songs themselves and the performance. The second commentary is more of a biographical talk that sees Guralnick going into a lot of background detail about Redding's life and times and his career leading up to his performance at the festival.

We also get a nineteen minute long interview with Phil Walden, who worked as Redding's manager during this period. He talks about the early part of their work together in the late fifties, Redding's rise to fame and influence on R&B, what he was like as a person, his popularity abroad and of course, the performance included here on this disc. This is also carried over from the DVD release.

All three discs in the set includes menus and chapter selection.

Criterion has also include a full color seventy-two page booklet that contains a few essays such as Pop: Ancient And Modern by Michael Chaiken, Monterey Pop: People In Motion by Armond White, Jimi Plays Monterey And Shake! Otis At Monterey: Bold, Beautiful And Black by David Frickle, The Meeting Of The Twain: Monterey And The Great California Divide by Barney Hoskyns and Monterey Pop: The First Rock Festival by Michael Lyndon. Alongside these essays are information on the different artists that played the festival as well as technical information and credits for the restoration and Blu-ray release.

The Criterion Collection's Blu-ray release of The Complete Monterey Pop Festival presents this important documentary of a cultural milestone in excellent shape, with fantastic sound quality and a strong array of supplements. Highly recommended.

Ian lives in NYC with his wife where he writes for DVD Talk, runs Rock! Shock! Pop!. He likes NYC a lot, even if it is expensive and loud.