‘Mod Squad’ Star Peggy Lipton on the Monterey International Pop Festival 

In our Peggy Lipton Interview: “We went to hear Ravi Shankar. I remember I left my body. That was it for me.”

Actress/singer Peggy Lipton co-starred as Julie Barnes in the counterculture television series The Mod Squad from 1968-1973, and earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 1971.

Over a 50-year career, Lipton, born August 30, 1946, also acted in numerous movies and TV spots, including The F.B.I., Mr. Novak, The Invaders, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and, in the early ’90s, David Lynch’s Twin Peaks.

Peggy Lipton, who died in 2019, was a big rock fan, and I did this interview with her in 2014 about her experiences attending the June 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Her comments follow.

“I was 21 and went up to the Monterey International Pop Festival with my best friend, who I had known since I was 16, Allen Warnick. He was a renaissance man, a decorator and an actor and tight with Jack Nicholson. He later had a part in Chinatown. We were so much on the same page so I felt safe with him.  He was my biggest supporter and booster. Years later Allen even fixed me up with Quincy [Jones, to whom Lipton was married from 1974-89].

David Crosby (l.) of the Byrds and Richie Furay of Buffalo Springfield at the Monterey Pop Festival

“Allen and I stopped at a motel and Stephen Stills and David Crosby were rehearsing in this room. I loved Buffalo Springfield. I used to see them at the Whisky a Go Go and I loved the Byrds. I saw them at Ciro’s and dated the drummer, Michael Clarke. I adored him. One of the reasons I went was because the Byrds were there.

“Laura Nyro played a night at Monterey. Nobody got her. She was my roots. She was doo-wop. When I look back, Lou [Monterey co-producer Lou Adler] really got her. I met Laura and went to her concert. She was my idol. I saw her musically as something that was incredible. I met Laura in 1968 or ’69 at Clive Davis’ house in New York. The first album More Than a New Discovery had been out.

“Monterey reached its climax for me in the early afternoon and there was a light drizzle and we went to hear Ravi Shankar. I remember I left my body. That was it for me. It was beautiful, peaceful and chilled everybody out. Ravi transported me. It was gently raining and he transported everybody. We were all taken there. It was like we were put on a spaceship and driven to another planet.

Watch Ravi Shankar’s Monterey performance

“[After] Ravi Shankar, I relaxed. I was finished with backstage nerves and I got out there with everyone. That’s when it rained and I released all of it. In the crowd I was like everybody else at Monterey. But on the heels of Monterey things were different for me, starting in 1968. Before The Mod Squad, I was anonymous, [but] I felt like a different person when I came home from Monterey. It changed me. I felt we were all on the same page. We’re all going for the same music. And yet there was a loss of innocence. You would hear Love’s ‘Little Red Book,’ a Burt Bacharach and Hal David song, on the radio, and go to the music shop and pick it up as a single. We can’t even do that anymore.

“Besides Ravi Shankar, the other total thrill we had was Otis Redding. He was electric! I think I forgot about Sir Paul [McCartney] during that performance. I secretly hoped Paul would show up. Maybe that’s why I even went, and maybe that’s why I was such a friggin’ wreck. I was so nervous. It was about Paul McCartney. I loved music my whole life and was into the music, but I was there to see Paul McCartney (laughs). Oh my God, I feel so bad now (laughs).”

The interview with Peggy Lipton continues: “I think with the Monterey Pop international Pop Festival everybody was brought together in a very loving way. It still had the stamp of we love music and we want to be around music and we want all of us to be the same. Yes, we can idolize our people but we’re really all the same. Because we are the music.

“And then after that I felt change. Things were consolidated. Like, OK, every weird person I loved now everybody loves them. That’s what I think changed the most, when it became exposed. Jimi Hendrix, Laura Nyro. That’s when it changed. Even though I came back from Monterey with a feeling of love and music, and we’re all on the same page, it was also like, ‘OK. Everyone knows about this. This was not a hidden thing, just a little concert on a hill.’

“This was a major commercial ‘Let’s put it out there.’ And so I felt both. I felt connected more with the music and also it had changed. And it was different for the people at Monterey and the music of Monterey, too. The business changed after Monterey.”

Lipton recorded a cover of Donovan’s 1967 song “Wear Your Love Like Heaven.”

[Author and music journalist Harvey Kubernik’s books are available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.]

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Harvey Kubernik

Harvey Kubernik is the author of 19 books, including 'Canyon Of Dreams: The Magic And The Music Of Laurel Canyon' and 'Turn Up The Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll In Los Angeles 1956-1972.' Sterling/Barnes and Noble in 2018 published Harvey and Kenneth Kubernik’s 'The Story Of The Band: From Big Pink To The Last Waltz.' For October 2021 the duo has written a multi-narrative volume on Jimi Hendrix for the publisher. In 2015 Palazzo Editions published Harvey’s 'Leonard Cohen: Everybody Knows,' and 'Neil Young, Heart of Gold,' published in 2016. Otherworld Cottage Industries in 2020 published Harvey’s book, 'Docs That Rock, Music That Matters,' featuring interviews with D.A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus, Albert Maysles, Murray Lerner, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Andrew Loog Oldham, Eddie Kramer, Dick Clark, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Robby Krieger, Allan Arkush, and David Leaf, among others. In 2015, the University Press of Mississippi published a Harvey Kubernik Dylan-centric interview with Oscar-winning director and photographer D.A. Pennebaker in their book series, 'Conversations with Filmmakers, edited by Dr. Keith Beattie.' This century Kubernik has lectured and conducted courses on the music business and music documentary films in Southern California at UCLA and USC. In 2017 Harvey appeared at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, in their Library & Archives Author Series. Kubernik’s writings are housed in book anthologies, most notably 'The Rolling Stone Book Of The Beats' and 'Drinking With Bukowski.' Harvey wrote the liner note booklets to the CD re-releases of Carole King’s 'Tapestry,' Allen Ginsberg’s 'Kaddish,' Elvis Presley 'The ’68 Comeback Special' and the Ramones’ 'End of the Century.' During 2020 Harvey Kubernik served as a consultant on the two-part documentary television series 'Laurel Canyon: A Place in Time,' directed by Alison Ellwood. Harvey is working on a documentary about Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member singer/songwriter Del Shannon.

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