Before I get to describing the musical acts and songs on this particular album, let me discuss the festival in general. It has a rather strange history, probably mostly due to its unusual location, in Puerto Rico. It was the only big rock festival in that country in that time period. There are some reasons for that, as we shall see.
After the massive success of the Woodstock Festival in 1969, many promoters decided to try to organize their own big rock festivals and possibly make a lot of money. There wasn't enough of a local audience to justify a rock festival with famous names, so the idea was to hold a festival during a time people from the U.S. could come during a vacation. The appeal of beach, tropical jungle, and sunny weather could be combined with rock music to hopefully have a successful, well-attended festival.
The original plan was for the festival to take place during Thanksgiving break in 1971. Artists like Santana, Jose Feliciano, Ray Charles, the Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder, Ten Years After, Richie Havens, and the Chamber Brothers were booked to perform. But the planners ran into financial troubles, and the festival was postponed, or possibly cancelled altogether. Then Alex Cooley agreed to take over the management. He had already successfully organized two Atlanta International Pop Festivals and the Texas International Pop Festival. So his involvement added credibility, allowing the festival to be rescheduled for April 1st to 3rd, 1972.
Unfortunately, Cooley and others managing the festival didn't understand local culture. Those dates meant the festival would take place during Holy Week, and Easter. That was a good vacation time to get Americans to fly there. But Puerto Rico was heavily Catholic, and many people there didn't like how this created a conflict with religious activities. Cooley also relied on a friend of a friend who was a high ranking official in the military there, and promised to take care of all the necessary permits and such. Unfortunately, that friend failed to follow through. The festival took place anyway, because so many people arrived from out of the country that it would have been a bigger debacle for the local authorities to not allow it. But Cooley found himself in hot water. Ultimately, he had to get smuggled out of country to avoid possibly serving prison time.
The festival was held on a beach near the main city of San Juan. Somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 people attended, most of them from the U.S. But there were many problems. The weather caused a lot of problems. At times, it was very rainy. At other times, it was too hot, over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. A review in Creem Magazine reported, "Quite ironically, the festival's major drawing card, old sun, readily proved to be one of its most formidable villains. Even the most fanatical sun-worshipers soon found themselves crawling for cover after only minimal exposure; the medical tent reported that a vast majority of cases handled related directly to this torturous sun blaze."
There was a crazy amount of drug use. That lead to four deaths. One person was hacked to death while sleeping, possibly due to a bad drug deal or a romantic dispute. A couple other people drowned in the ocean. Creem Magazine also reported, "The dark eyes of violence were always staring over your shoulder. Gangs of Puerto Ricans roamed the grounds in varying shades of belligerence, many carrying knives and apparently itchy fingers. It was like an ugly New York City against a postcard backdrop."
A local newspaper, the San Juan Star, reported, "Mar y Sol was Puerto Rico's Woodstock Nation, except that by 1972 people were beginning to lose faith in the peace and love schtick."
The title of a review in the New York Times was "Mar y Sol: Unhappy and Unsuccessful." You can read the entire review here:
https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/05/archives/mar-y-sol-unhappy-and-unsuccessful.html
So while the festival had many serious problems, there also was a lot of good music. And experiences varied. I was looking up some YouTube videos of performances from the festival, and many commenters said they had a great time, with some saying it had been life-changing. So it was a mixed bag. But there were enough problems that there never was another festival like that allowed in Puerto Rico in that era.
There had been a really nice website dedicated to the festival. Unfortunately, it appears to have died a few months ago (as I write this in April 2026). However, one can still find links to pages from it using archive.org. Here's the main page describing what happened, with links to other pages:
Now, let me address the music. There were plans to make a movie out of the festival, but the filming never happened due to all the legal troubles related to the festival. I did find a few minutes of footage from a home movie, however, which you can see here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhS5t_zx53k
While the movie didn't happen, a double album of highlights from this festival was released. But it didn't do very well, and it eventually went out of print. It's never even been released on CD. Here's a Wikipedia entry about the album, with a list of the songs from it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar_y_Sol:_The_First_International_Puerto_Rico_Pop_Festival_(album)
I wouldn't be posting this festival if that's all the recordings that survived. Luckily, there's more. A couple of the sets were later officially released in full, such as the sets by Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Alice Cooper. I'll explain the sourcing for each album. But a majority of what I found comes from a bootleg recorded by two locals, Pedro Collazo and Oscar Mandry. They only made an audience recording. But the sound quality is really damn good. One would easily think it's a soundboard instead. However, only parts of their recordings have made it to the Internet, and it seems they only recorded parts of the performances. Most sets are incomplete, and sometimes some songs are incomplete. I put together everything I could, combining all the official and bootleg sources I could find.
Before putting these albums together, I had never heard of Nitzinger. Turns out that was a band led by lead guitarist John Nitzinger. You can find his Wikipedia entry here:
Some time in 1972, his debut album was released, also called "Nitzinger." He went on to have a long, though relatively low profile, music career. Just two of his songs here made it onto the official album from the festival: "Texas Blues - Jelly Roll."
Brownsville Station is best known for a single hit. That hit, "Smokin' in the Boys Room," went all the way to Number Three on the U.S. singles chart in 1973. However, that was still a year away at the time of this festival, so you won't find that song here. In 1972, the band released its second album, which just barely made it into the Top 200 U.S. albums chart.
Here's their Wikipedia entry:
Brownsville Station (band) - Wikipedia
So, I would guess not a lot of people are going to be that keen about either of the musical acts here. But don't worry, there's a lot more to come from this festival. And I was to gather up all the music I can find from it, not just the most famous acts.
This album is 44 minutes long.
01 I'm a Steamroller, Mama (Nitzinger)
02 Ticklelick (Nitzinger)
03 Jam [Instrumental] (Nitzinger)
04 Louisiana Cock Fight (Nitzinger)
05 talk (Nitzinger)
06 Texas Blues - Jelly Roll - Dr. Feelgood (Nitzinger)
07 Mister Robert (Brownsville Station)
08 talk (Brownsville Station)
09 Wanted Dead or Alive (Brownsville Station)
10 talk (Brownsville Station)
11 Blue Suede Shoes (Brownsville Station)
12 Johnny B. Goode (Brownsville Station)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/iF1P2hz9
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/uBGhj7A7zu1j6FK/file
The cover photo is from this exact concert. It shows the band Nitzinger, with the crowd in the background.
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