:01:24. > :01:26.Is Jimi Hendrix mixed genealogy included arch American, Irish,
:01:27. > :01:29.Cherokee Cherokee che key key so there Zenora so there Zenora so
:01:30. > :01:33.there full-blooded Cherokee from Georgia who married an Irishman
:01:34. > :01:35.named Moore. They had a son Robert who married an African-American
:01:36. > :01:36.fanny. In rot sudden nor Nora pat terrible fanny. Overseer. Bertran
:01:37. > :01:38.philander so there Bertran so Bertran Johnny Allen Hendrix so
:01:39. > :01:40.there Johnny Allen so there this something Al James Marshall Hendrix
:01:41. > :01:42.in honour of Al. So and his late reon Marshall. Staged in Alabama at
:01:43. > :05:43.the time of Hendrix's A friend of mine, he had this
:05:44. > :05:48.acoustic guitar. He wanted it sell it for dive dollars. Jimi told me
:05:49. > :05:58.about it, and I said, OK, he used to be working and we had all the time.
:05:59. > :06:02.He used to be playing all the time on his guitar. After he got good on
:06:03. > :06:19.that, I went and got him an electric guitar.
:06:20. > :06:28.When Jimi first started listening to music, he started listening to his
:06:29. > :06:35.dad's collection. He listened to B. B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters,
:06:36. > :06:38.all these great blues guys. Jimi would pick up what he was playing.
:06:39. > :06:43.And he would practise for hours. We knew he was talented for him to be
:06:44. > :06:51.able to play the guitar by just listening and picking it up without
:06:52. > :06:56.having to read music. We knew that. He started coming to my house after
:06:57. > :07:01.school because I had a piano in my little play room, and I would play
:07:02. > :07:08.the piano and he would play the guitarist. He said we could be a
:07:09. > :07:11.band. We started a band. We used to harmonise and play songs together
:07:12. > :07:16.and play songs together we had heard on the radio.
:07:17. > :07:19.Rock and roll was starting then, and it was new music, it felt good, and
:07:20. > :07:24.it was so different than what you're parents would listen to, that it
:07:25. > :07:29.just suddenly took us over. We loved chuck berry. That was his
:07:30. > :07:40.love because of the hair, and the flamboyant clothes, and Jimi loved
:07:41. > :07:42.that kind of stuff. The hair, and the flamboyant
:07:43. > :07:44.clothes, and Jimi loved that kind of stuff.
:07:45. > :07:46.Due to our poor economic conditions, we didn't have that many clothes and
:07:47. > :07:50.things, so we had to makeshift stuff. In his early days, you could
:07:51. > :07:54.see him sometimes he would have a hat with an ostrich feather coming
:07:55. > :07:58.out of it. People that you want he was so weird and stuff, but he was
:07:59. > :08:05.already setting the tone for what he was going to do in the future.
:08:06. > :08:06.Setting the tone for what he was going to do in the future.
:08:07. > :08:19.# Go, Johnny, go! Go! I remember him telling his dad one
:08:20. > :08:24.time we were over there, go he said, "You know, tad, I am going to make
:08:25. > :08:34.you proud of me one day. I am going to be very famous. I am going to
:08:35. > :08:41.make it." I bet you didn't wear this in the
:08:42. > :08:48.paratroops? Not necessarily. What is it a - It's 101st airborne in
:08:49. > :08:51.Kentucky. Part of the thing that most young black men did at the time
:08:52. > :08:56.was if you couldn't go to college and get an education, then the next
:08:57. > :09:00.best thing was to join the service. It was very fortunate that, when
:09:01. > :09:05.Jimi goes into the service, that he meets almost immediately a fellow
:09:06. > :09:14.musician that he will have then a life long relationship with, and
:09:15. > :09:19.that he bas bass player Billy Cox. I went in, introduced myself and
:09:20. > :09:23.told him I played the bass. So we jammed, and there it was. We
:09:24. > :09:27.clicked. He didn't have a lot of idle time
:09:28. > :09:36.where he sat around Did nothing. He sat around and played his guitar.
:09:37. > :09:38.He walked down the street, go to a movie, he was playing a guitar. He
:09:39. > :10:02.was on a mission. Who would have known that, on his
:10:03. > :10:06.25th jump he breaks his ankle, gets booted out of the service on a
:10:07. > :10:10.medical, honourable medical discharge, but he's out of the
:10:11. > :10:16.service. Now, what is he going to do?
:10:17. > :10:20.I remember it's liking get out of the army and then trying to get
:10:21. > :10:24.himself together, and then I was playing in different groups all
:10:25. > :10:26.around the States, you know, and Canada, playing behind people most
:10:27. > :10:43.of the time. He hits the Chitlin' Circuit
:10:44. > :10:46.circuit. The Chitlin' Circuit circuit is really nothing more than
:10:47. > :10:50.a series of African-American clubs where you could maybe make a meagre
:10:51. > :10:54.living but at least enough to survive and call yourself a
:10:55. > :10:58.professional magician. He does that with Wilson Pickett; he does that
:10:59. > :11:02.with Little Richard. It was like going to college for him, because
:11:03. > :11:05.not only did he go on stage and watch how audiences reacted to the
:11:06. > :11:07.music that was coming off the stage, he also got to basically learn how
:11:08. > :11:35.to be a performer. Most groups I was with, they didn't
:11:36. > :11:39.let me do my own thing. When I was with the the Brothers, the Isley
:11:40. > :11:48.Brothers, they used to make more bucks, I don't know.
:11:49. > :11:57.You got to remember, he was n Jimi Hendrix at that time. He was still
:11:58. > :12:03.playing everybody else's stuff because that's what the clubs
:12:04. > :12:06.wanted. He was real fun, and he was so
:12:07. > :12:13.painfully shy. He was such a shy baby.
:12:14. > :12:17.Every time we went out in Harlem, he had that guitar with him, all the
:12:18. > :12:24.time. Never went anywhere without it.
:12:25. > :12:31.When he was playing blues, he got my undivided attention, but most people
:12:32. > :12:34.did mind him to play any blues, so he was reduced to playing top 40
:12:35. > :12:52.stuff. Do it the dance, baby! I knew a lot
:12:53. > :12:57.of side men. They were going to be side man. They weren't trying to go
:12:58. > :13:03.somewhere, but Jimi was trying to do something else.
:13:04. > :13:14.Many nights, I had to prop my eyes open to listen to him try to do
:13:15. > :13:19.mm-mmm. He wanted vibrato in his voice like James, like Howlin' Wolf,
:13:20. > :13:29.he wanted to do the blues, and he wanted to do his special stuff.
:13:30. > :13:33.In 1966 I was going out with Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones. I
:13:34. > :13:40.was in New York hanging out, and we ended up in a club.
:13:41. > :13:43.The guy on guitar completely blew my mind.
:13:44. > :13:48.I definitely had the impression that he had desires where he wanted to
:13:49. > :13:51.take his music but was incapable of actually putting those steps
:13:52. > :13:58.together to attain that. He wanted to be a rock star. He
:13:59. > :14:02.didn't want to be a blues - a struggling blues artist drinking gin
:14:03. > :14:07.in these little clubs trying to catch the next greyhound.
:14:08. > :14:11.He never let on that he was broke, but he certainly was scuffling in
:14:12. > :14:15.the Village. Just for him to have an apartment would have been a delight
:14:16. > :14:21.for him at that point. He needed to be looked after, and
:14:22. > :14:25.that's why he always had one or two, or three women dotted around for his
:14:26. > :14:30.every need, and he used to go up to Harlem at least once a week. He
:14:31. > :14:34.would say he to see his auntie Faye but he said it not like a big lie or
:14:35. > :14:39.something, he said it with a twinkle in his eye.
:14:40. > :14:47.There were no obligations to me, and there were none to him, but he came
:14:48. > :14:53.and went as he wanted to. I never knew what was going on until he told
:14:54. > :15:05.me. He was forming his own band, the Blue Flames, and he had got a gig at
:15:06. > :15:10.Cafe Wah. Two producers passed me, which I can't believe it. I thought
:15:11. > :15:15.maybe we were all mad after the second guy passed. I was introduced
:15:16. > :15:20.to Chas Chandler from the Animals. He was saying how he wanted to get
:15:21. > :15:23.out the Animals, wanted to get into production and management. I said I
:15:24. > :15:36.happen to have an artist that you would be very, very interested in.
:15:37. > :15:41.Come on down to Cafe Wha? And check him out. He had been out about ten
:15:42. > :15:51.months I think in America at the time. It was very folky, a great
:15:52. > :15:54.song. He had been out about ten months I
:15:55. > :15:56.think in America at the time. It was very folky, a great song.
:15:57. > :15:59.# Hay Joe, where are you going with that money in your hands?
:16:00. > :16:03.I said at the end I am going to go back to England, find an artist and
:16:04. > :16:08.record this song. I made arrangements to go down and
:16:09. > :16:19.see this Jimi Hendrix. The very first song he played was played was
:16:20. > :16:26.played Hey Jo. # Hey, Jo, where are you going with
:16:27. > :16:30.that money in your hand? I wanted to take this guy to England. I knew he
:16:31. > :16:33.was going to be a sensation in England. The universe opened the
:16:34. > :16:39.doors. You know, it just happened that he got on the path where he
:16:40. > :16:43.supposed to get on, and did what he was supposed to do.
:16:44. > :16:47.I wasn't thinking about nothing but the idea of going to England. That's
:16:48. > :16:52.all I was thinking about, because I like to travel. One place bores me
:16:53. > :16:54.too long, so I have to I can I can get something together by moving
:16:55. > :16:58.somewhere else. The idea of England was the idea of England itself, I
:16:59. > :17:07.said, wow, you know? I had never been there before.
:17:08. > :17:15.This was actually very smart move on Chas's part, because unlike America
:17:16. > :17:20.where you had a music scene in New York, a music scene in Nashville, a
:17:21. > :17:30.music scene in LA, a music scene in San Francisco, in England, everybody
:17:31. > :17:36.finished up in one place: London. There was this revolution happening
:17:37. > :17:39.in London. In style, in clothes, in music, so we were all converging on
:17:40. > :17:53.London. I think if Jimi had arrived on his
:17:54. > :17:59.own with some manager who was just some guy, there wouldn't have been
:18:00. > :18:06.the in that Jimi was afforded by Chas because Chas knew all of us.
:18:07. > :18:12.We all used to go down to a club called the Scotch, the Beatles and
:18:13. > :18:19.the Stones in St James's. Jimi sat in there with a band by the name of
:18:20. > :18:33.VIPs, later known as Humble Pie. Jimi sat in there with them. It was
:18:34. > :18:38.like woah, wait a minute, this guy knows his way around a guitar. There
:18:39. > :18:39.wasn't hardly anyone in the club. It was like, "Where is everyone?
:18:40. > :19:00.They've got to see this." He didn't just sit in and play, he
:19:01. > :19:03.sort of did his act, you know? The teeth, behind the neck, the whole
:19:04. > :19:18.nine yards. I get very emotional just
:19:19. > :19:33.remembering it and just thinking I was there. That was the great
:19:34. > :19:43.Kit Lambert and Chris stamp were the producers of the Who, they were on
:19:44. > :19:49.the verge of making a deal on a label known as Track Records. Imy
:19:50. > :19:53.over here with Chas. We said we would love to produce Chas said
:19:54. > :19:57.said, "I am going to produce him." We looked at each other a said, "Has
:19:58. > :20:00.he got a record label?" He didn't have a record label so we
:20:01. > :20:07.immediately created, got into the machinations of creating the record
:20:08. > :20:13.label because of Jimi. We sat at the table and literally did a deal on a
:20:14. > :20:18.beermat for Jimi to be on Track Records. I am surprised to get this
:20:19. > :20:25.call from my Nan, and wondered who that be coming from, here, Jimi said
:20:26. > :20:29.to me, dad, I think I am on my way to big time. He said, I am over here
:20:30. > :20:43.in England now, and they're building up a group around me, and I am going
:20:44. > :20:58.to name it the Jimi Hendrix Experience. # Hey, Jo, where are you
:20:59. > :21:09.going with that money in your hand? Hey, Jo, I said where are you going
:21:10. > :21:14.with that gun in your hand? We are going back to, what,
:21:15. > :21:20.September 1996 when I went to do an audition as a fit tar player for
:21:21. > :21:25.Eric burden and the Animals. I was handed this bass. We played three
:21:26. > :21:30.tunes. The American gentleman told me the chords. We went through them,
:21:31. > :21:37.and the American bloke said, "Do you want to join group?" That was it.
:21:38. > :21:42.He comes down expect ing to play guitar, you know? He was trying for
:21:43. > :21:52.the Animals. I dug his hair style, so I asked him to play bass. I got
:21:53. > :21:55.the phone call from Chas Chandler saying, "I've got this guy coming
:21:56. > :22:02.over from America, do you fancy having a play with him?
:22:03. > :22:08.Him? Him?
:22:09. > :22:16." was the first person who ever knew how to may that Curtis may field
:22:17. > :22:33.style Our first gigs were in France on 13
:22:34. > :22:34.October 1966, and then we started doing
:22:35. > :22:38.Our first gigs were in France on 13 October 1966, and then we started
:22:39. > :22:53.doing what we call "the club scene" in London.
:22:54. > :22:58.I don't want to be right now... You knew people in America, people like
:22:59. > :23:04.James Brown, but he was a guy, he was in London, and he was now kind
:23:05. > :23:10.of one of ours, and he was just phenomenal.
:23:11. > :23:14.-- he was just being phenomenal. It was a ready audience, a lot of
:23:15. > :23:19.people thought was the source, what people wanted to see, black artists
:23:20. > :23:24.in Britain, because they were the inspiration for all our young
:23:25. > :23:30.musicians. People are grown up listening to B. B. King, Muddy
:23:31. > :23:42.Waters, Chuck Berry, and Bo Diddly. When Jimi appeared, he seemed much
:23:43. > :23:50.younger, cooler, and hipper. People had started off doing chords
:23:51. > :23:54.like he had. He did Hey Jo, the Stones did, Little Red Rooster,
:23:55. > :24:06.everyone was coming out of the world. There was a germ in the air,
:24:07. > :24:14."We could write this ourselves," you know?
:24:15. > :24:25.# Things just don't seem the same. Acting funny, but I don't know why.
:24:26. > :24:29.Excuse me, while I kiss th guy. It was essential that Jimi be there
:24:30. > :24:45.in London at that particular time to soak it up and create this hybrid
:24:46. > :24:49.sound of blues, R, rock, and psychedelia all in one. Cleverly, he
:24:50. > :24:54.made the connection with the English rock and the way English people were
:24:55. > :25:01.interpreting blues. That was the genius of it.
:25:02. > :25:05.So Jimi's solo is about to come up. This is amazing, this thing. It
:25:06. > :25:17.freaked everybody out because this is one of the great classic initial
:25:18. > :25:34.solos where psychedlia and blues all rolled in together.
:25:35. > :25:41.He was accepted by the English audience with a reverence that the
:25:42. > :25:47.Beatles had. He was loved immediately and appreciated as the
:25:48. > :25:52.great artist that he was. The reason he took off so quickly in
:25:53. > :25:58.England was because of the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. You've got
:25:59. > :26:03.to go to see Jimi hidden driven. I put another thousand on the door the
:26:04. > :26:10.next day when Mick Jagger, John Lennon, or Paul McCartney was
:26:11. > :26:23.saying, "This guy is great." We got Jimi to the theatre. Jimi decided to
:26:24. > :26:35.come and play Sgt Pepper: that had been released literally that week.
:26:36. > :26:42.# The man has done to you, better get on, Sgt Pepper.
:26:43. > :26:48.Jimi had learned Sgt Pepper, and opened with it, so, for me, that is
:26:49. > :26:52.one of my proud moments. That is, that someone I loved at much as
:26:53. > :27:03.that, and someone who was destined to be one of the grates, would open
:27:04. > :27:14.with one of our songs. -- one of the greats.
:27:15. > :27:18.We had been tipped off actually by John Lennon, said, "You've got to
:27:19. > :27:22.come and see this guy, and I think we all got li limos about four
:27:23. > :27:26.o'clock in the morning, which was did he rig Gurth in London at that
:27:27. > :27:30.time. We had never seen anything like that before or heard anything
:27:31. > :27:34.like that before what he did with the guitar, and so then began the
:27:35. > :27:38.negotiations, and we met Jimi, but he didn't get involved in the
:27:39. > :27:47.business at all, and so we did our deal for North America, but that's
:27:48. > :28:02.the first time I became really aware of him.
:28:03. > :28:12.Monterey Park was the first major rock festival and the first major
:28:13. > :28:18.festival to include pop music from many different many different
:28:19. > :28:27.genres. Everyone was encouraged to submit names that they thought would
:28:28. > :28:37.be interesting and a good reflection of the Monterey International Pop
:28:38. > :28:42.Festival. John from the Mamas and the Papas said, "Would you play with
:28:43. > :28:46.the Beatles?" We were very involved in the studio saying we wouldn't be
:28:47. > :28:53.able to come over, but I said, "I tell you who you've got to get -
:28:54. > :28:56.Jimi Hendrix." They mi Hendrix." They said, "Who?" "Yes, must look
:28:57. > :29:01.into it." I said, "Yes, you must look into it." And they booked him.
:29:02. > :29:04.If you're an American, and you play in and around the Village, and you
:29:05. > :29:08.play a bunch of small clubs, you never really make it, and then you
:29:09. > :29:12.go to England, and you're starting to become a success, and you've got
:29:13. > :29:21.a chance to go back to America, and say, "I told you so," I mean, it's
:29:22. > :29:25.really important. I sat next to him on the plane going
:29:26. > :29:31.over. He said he was a bit frightened because he didn't really
:29:32. > :29:39.know whether he would be able to sort of get across what he was
:29:40. > :29:43.trying to do. This was the summer of love, so you
:29:44. > :30:10.couldn't do anything that was too outrageous for that crowd.
:30:11. > :30:31.Long time ago. I should put you in one of those down to Mexico.
:30:32. > :30:52.But you got me here, that's why, baby, I am feeling low, yea!
:30:53. > :30:57.It was a thin line-up, just three, but, when the music started, it was
:30:58. > :31:06.ten. It could have been 20. It was that powerful.
:31:07. > :31:09.Mitch Mitchell, these tiny frail Englishmen, with this wild man
:31:10. > :31:40.fronting the act. I went to England, picked up these
:31:41. > :31:44.two cats, and here we are. Really, to come back here this way, and
:31:45. > :32:03.really get a chance to really play, you know?
:32:04. > :32:13.Thing, oh, wild thing. I can't imagine what it was like to
:32:14. > :32:20.see that first time out. He arrived without a great deal of fanfare,
:32:21. > :32:25.without a great deal of advance notice, and basically blew that
:32:26. > :32:30.crowd away. You can say the stars were in
:32:31. > :32:34.alignment. I would actually say he had everything he needed, he showed
:32:35. > :33:04.up, and he didn't waste a single bit of it.
:33:05. > :33:11.When you watch the Penny Baker film and he goes to the audience and
:33:12. > :33:18.captures the look on a couple of the girls in the audience, it is like
:33:19. > :33:25.astonishmet. "Is this t. "Is this really happening?" . I was in the
:33:26. > :33:30.audience, and I was appalled. It wasn't the sexuality of the show
:33:31. > :33:37.that appalled me, it it was what he did to his instrument. Here he was
:33:38. > :33:43.throwing lighter fluid on his guitar and setting it on fire.
:33:44. > :33:49.I had never seen anything like this in my life.
:33:50. > :33:54.I can imagine somebody coming home from that and trying to describe it
:33:55. > :33:59.to their friends, he was really loud and he set his guitar on fire. What?
:34:00. > :34:07.Why? I don't know, but it was amazing.
:34:08. > :34:12.People take it for granted now because they've seen it, they've
:34:13. > :34:15.seen the DVD of it, and it's not the same as, well, before that day,
:34:16. > :34:35.there was nothing like that that ever happened in the world.
:34:36. > :34:43.There is a kind of contention that Monterey broke Jimi Hendrix. It
:34:44. > :34:46.didn't t was the foot in the door for Jimi Hendrix. Monterey proved to
:34:47. > :34:52.all the music critics that were there that this guy was something
:34:53. > :34:57.special. The reaction to him in Monterey reached the promoters, the
:34:58. > :35:03.concert promoters around the country, so Jimi started getting
:35:04. > :35:10.dates. He went straight from Monterey to
:35:11. > :35:17.play for Bill Graham in San Francisco.
:35:18. > :35:22.He did the Fulmore and somebody had the brain-storm to put him on tour
:35:23. > :35:27.with the Monkees. A logic I kind of understand, it's a huge audience,
:35:28. > :35:32.the Monkees are super popular, but the reality that audience isn't
:35:33. > :35:43.pre-disposed to liking anything as jarring and as ground-breaking as
:35:44. > :35:57.that. Dick Clark and I sat down and worked
:35:58. > :36:01.out a tale that there was objecting to Jimi's obscene act. They played
:36:02. > :36:04.three or four dates, I guess. We got the call right away fr Atlanta, "Get
:36:05. > :36:13.him off the tour. Get him out of there."
:36:14. > :36:17.It was - he was such a sweetheart. He was so conservative, and he was
:36:18. > :36:22.shy and reserved, and stuff, and they had him out as this wild man
:36:23. > :36:30.from Borneo or something, and he wasn't any of that.
:36:31. > :36:35.You only would have seen himming flashy and extrovert when he was
:36:36. > :36:38.playing. Are there interviews where he is flashy and extrovert? I doubt
:36:39. > :36:43.it. He was too different characters. When he was playing, he was super
:36:44. > :36:49.confident. He was in total control. His focus was immaculate.
:36:50. > :36:54.But when he wasn't playing, he desperately insecure.
:36:55. > :36:58.I think like a lot of artists, he would be unsure of his own worth.
:36:59. > :37:02.You know, you never got the feeling that this was something who was
:37:03. > :37:07.going to show off until he got on stage, and then - but that's like a
:37:08. > :37:12.lot of artists. They can They can be quite quiet, and then they get on
:37:13. > :37:21.stage, and now they're let out of jape. Like, yes, boof!
:37:22. > :37:25.-- let out of jail. When I am on stage, I am a complete natural, more
:37:26. > :37:28.so than talking to a group of people or something. When I feel like
:37:29. > :37:35.playing with my teeth, I do it because I feel like it.
:37:36. > :37:40.The audience that was being exposed to what Jimi was doing had probably
:37:41. > :37:46.never seen it before, playing guitar with his teeth, back behind his
:37:47. > :37:53.head. Those were old tricks that had been around since the 1950s. That
:37:54. > :38:01.was stock-in-trade showmanship of the guitar trade.
:38:02. > :38:07.The guy used to be an older guy called T Bone Walker who used to
:38:08. > :38:12.play the guitar on the back of his head. The biting of the guitar and
:38:13. > :38:18.playing like he was having some sort of love affair was, like, basically,
:38:19. > :38:23.that was his original. Jimi, how much do you rely on gimmicks? I am
:38:24. > :38:28.tired of people saying gimmicks. The world is nothing but a big gimmick,
:38:29. > :38:34.wars, napalm guys, and others. People get burned up on TV, and it's
:38:35. > :38:38.nothing but a gimmick. He hating referred to as having gimmicks and
:38:39. > :38:56.all that stuff, but it wasn't a gimmick, it was who he was, period.
:38:57. > :39:03.He looked like an exotic bird at that point. He had the big hat on,
:39:04. > :39:09.the feather coming out the back of it, and had the chain, and nobody
:39:10. > :39:13.else looked like that. He was very clever. I don't think
:39:14. > :39:17.this is just smoke a little weed and decided that he was going to dress
:39:18. > :39:28.this way, I think he definitely wanted to look as original as his
:39:29. > :39:34.music was. He wanted to look like that all of the time because that
:39:35. > :39:39.was who he was, not somebody who is going to put this on right now and
:39:40. > :39:46.take this off and go into the street. It was him; he was
:39:47. > :39:58.expressing who he was, and that didn't sit well with everybody, you
:39:59. > :40:04.know? I tried to get him on to Ed Sullivan. I got to see them perform
:40:05. > :40:17.at one point. He said, "That's too far for us. We're not going there."
:40:18. > :40:22."Ed won't like that." So imhad to make it without the help
:40:23. > :40:26.of the Ed Sullivan show, which the Beatles, the Stones, the Doors, all
:40:27. > :40:31.these different people, did their turn on the Ed Sullivan show. Some
:40:32. > :40:44.people don't need it. A lot of what success is for some people is just
:40:45. > :40:52.word of mouth. # If you can just get your mind together. Then come on
:40:53. > :40:58.across to me. Although music was cast in terms of
:40:59. > :41:02.racial context, you know, R is black music, rock is white music,
:41:03. > :41:08.but what he didn't see is a black man fronting a rock band. It just
:41:09. > :41:17.didn't happen before. -- what you didn't see... A month
:41:18. > :41:20.after Monterey the Jimi Hendrix Experience came out. You had
:41:21. > :41:25.graphics. You could see what the Jimi Hendrix Experience looked like.
:41:26. > :41:29.When I saw that cover, I knew I wanted it.
:41:30. > :41:34.The fact that he was a black guitar player for someone who was into rock
:41:35. > :41:39.and roll, who knew Motown, who knew soul, for this to be a black
:41:40. > :41:41.American rock guitarist was really something that I really wanted to
:41:42. > :41:49.know about. # Have you ever been experienced?
:41:50. > :42:06.Well, I have... # Have you ever been experienced?
:42:07. > :42:09.Well, I have... "Experience as the first album blew
:42:10. > :42:13.people's minds. We tried anything and everything to make the sounds
:42:14. > :42:14.different, because we could. We were given that freedom to do that. I
:42:15. > :42:40.think the album represents that. What set it apart was everything.
:42:41. > :42:43.There was the lyrics, which seemed - they seemed very psychedlic, but
:42:44. > :42:53.when you look at it now, they're actually very, very rounded and
:42:54. > :42:58.blues. When he sings about the Wind Cries Mary, that's not like the old
:42:59. > :43:07.bluesmen saying the blues fell down like rain.
:43:08. > :43:19.The broken pieces of yesterday's life.
:43:20. > :43:34.Somewhere, a Queen is weeping. Somewhere, a king has no wife.
:43:35. > :43:42.You have to wrench your mind back to a time before the social network -
:43:43. > :43:45.no Twitter, no Facebook. When something new like that would come
:43:46. > :43:51.along, it was very organic, it was word of mouth, and the people on the
:43:52. > :43:55.radio, we would hear this, you the West Coast stations starting playing
:43:56. > :44:03.him, and then it worked its way back across the country. The underground
:44:04. > :44:09.radio has been so nice, with the stereo, and soforth, so that makes
:44:10. > :44:12.makes everybody makes better records, meaning music is being
:44:13. > :44:20.presented to the public in a better way.
:44:21. > :44:27.Are you experienced? The record was fantastic. The ones
:44:28. > :44:32.who got it never stopped talking about it. FM radio was starting to
:44:33. > :44:40.play it. By February of 1968, he is on a major US tour. The 1968 tour
:44:41. > :44:49.was the best described as complete madness. The gigs were far and wide.
:44:50. > :44:54.We would do Virginia Beach, and then we would do Quebec, Cleveland, New
:44:55. > :45:00.York - we were all over the place. The Jimi Hendrix Experience comes to
:45:01. > :45:08.Tampa. Jimi Hendrix Experience at Rhode Island. Two shows at the
:45:09. > :45:14.Anaheim Convention Centre. You would listen to him on the
:45:15. > :45:17.radio, but not see him on TV. If he was going to be at your town, you
:45:18. > :45:21.had to be at that concert because that was the only chance you would
:45:22. > :45:27.get to see him. The number one progressive rock act in the world.
:45:28. > :45:33.The Jimi Hendrix Experience on stage in Britain with the most dynamic
:45:34. > :45:37.experience of a lifetime. We did 57 in 55 days or something. That's when
:45:38. > :45:48.we noticed we were playing to bigger things. We were now doing 20,000 to
:45:49. > :45:52.to 30,000 people. He had come home to Seattle. We went
:45:53. > :45:56.down to where he was playing, and we went backstage. You must remember I
:45:57. > :46:01.got out the service, I had got this crew cut, and I am very supervisor
:46:02. > :46:05.looking, I look at Jimi, I said, "What have they done to you?" He had
:46:06. > :46:18.this great look at you, we're looking, and he is going,"Bobby,
:46:19. > :46:22.what have they done to you!" He laughed in 1961, just a Parkhead
:46:23. > :46:26.from Seattle joining the army so he could serve his time. Though he
:46:27. > :46:30.contacted my daddy, kept in contact with letters, they really hadn't
:46:31. > :46:33.seen each other. The meeting, the homecoming, he was so excited to see
:46:34. > :46:39.him. Jimi was the last person to come off
:46:40. > :46:43.the plane. He had his big hat. My dad had shaved all the hair off his
:46:44. > :46:47.face. My dad had never been without a moustache, so here he was, an-
:46:48. > :46:52.clean-shave, even had a tie on. If you knew my dad, he didn't wear
:46:53. > :46:57.ties. I can count on one hand how many times he wore a tie. He was so
:46:58. > :47:04.proud of Jimi and excited to see him. After all, it was seven years.
:47:05. > :47:10.No longer was he little im, Buster, whatever other names our family had
:47:11. > :47:16.for him. He didn't do the big limos and the big hotels, he stayed at
:47:17. > :47:20.dad's house, he drove his dad's car around town. He was always the same
:47:21. > :47:26.kind of guy. He was very humble, and he was a
:47:27. > :47:31.gentleman, and he was very caring for his friends and people that
:47:32. > :47:36.worked for him. The only thing he wanted was to be able to play his
:47:37. > :47:39.music. He was so concentrated on music.
:47:40. > :47:42.Really, there wasn't a sport he liked, I never heard him talk about
:47:43. > :47:49.a sport. He didn't read the papers. He really had no interest for
:47:50. > :47:56.anything other than music and women. So Jimi had two areas of expertise.
:47:57. > :48:03.He had his guitar-playing, and then he had an immaculate and intense
:48:04. > :48:07.sexuality. He was usually pretty polite, and you could see he was a
:48:08. > :48:13.real player and walk up to a chick and whisper something, and they
:48:14. > :48:16.would go off. I get up at seven o'clock in the morning, I am really
:48:17. > :48:22.sleepy, but then I open the door and see somebody that appeals to me, you
:48:23. > :48:27.know, I am like first of all, thinking about what in the world is
:48:28. > :48:31.she doing here, you know? What does she want? Then she says, "Can I come
:48:32. > :48:36.in?" I am standing there and really digging her, she's really
:48:37. > :48:41.nice-looking, you know. She's about 19, 20, or beyond the age of so and
:48:42. > :48:43.so, and so I say, "Well, I will probably stand there." And then,
:48:44. > :49:21.there I go, invite me in, maybe." Acts As Bold Love was out another
:49:22. > :49:25.six to seven months after Are You Experienced. The album became a lot
:49:26. > :49:32.more complex, and I think a better sound. The rawness is there, but it
:49:33. > :49:36.is a much more refined sounding album than we are bringing in the
:49:37. > :49:40.phasing in the special effects which we had refined between the first
:49:41. > :49:46.album and the second album. You can hear the changes from Are You
:49:47. > :49:51.Experienced, loud and brash, and from us traded -- frustrated, you
:49:52. > :49:55.know? And then, maybe with the axis try and cool everything down a
:49:56. > :49:58.little bit and bring some beautiful stories together, maybe save certain
:49:59. > :50:02.things here and there, you know? He would have bits and pieces of paper
:50:03. > :50:07.like hotel stationary, backs of envelopes, match books, whatever, he
:50:08. > :50:12.would be always scribbling, have a bag full of bits and pieces of paper
:50:13. > :50:15.which he would bring out and then start reassembling the lyrics for
:50:16. > :50:33.the final time and then go into the studio, and then he would sing it.
:50:34. > :50:40.Mellow in this case is not so mellow. It's frightened like me, and
:50:41. > :50:49.all of these emotions of mine, giving my life to a Rainbow like
:50:50. > :50:55.you. We had a constant row in the studio
:50:56. > :50:58.- when in the studio - when I say "row", with was disagreement, it was
:50:59. > :51:01.where his voice was in the mix. He always wanted to have his voice
:51:02. > :51:04.buried, and I wanted to bring it forward. I said, "I've got a
:51:05. > :51:08.terrible voice." I said you might have a terrible voice but you've got
:51:09. > :51:14.great rhythm in your voice, your diction, and the way you deliver the
:51:15. > :51:20.words, and it was always a controversy between us.
:51:21. > :51:25.It was I always won by pulling his voice forward!
:51:26. > :51:30.For a guy who really didn't like the sound of his own voice, his voice
:51:31. > :51:39.was incredible. Absolutely phenomenal on this.
:51:40. > :51:40.Beautiful soft tones. Phenomenal on this. Beautiful soft
:51:41. > :51:45.tones. # Well, she's walking through the
:51:46. > :51:54.clouds. With the circus mind that is running
:51:55. > :52:00.round. Butterflies and zebras and moon
:52:01. > :52:09.beams, and a fairy tales, that is all she ever thinks about. Writing
:52:10. > :52:15.with the wind. He would put his head round the booth because we would
:52:16. > :52:19.construct this booth for him, but he would say, "How was his booth for
:52:20. > :52:22.him, but he would say, "How was that?" "That was great, "That was
:52:23. > :52:27.great, Jimi." "I've got to do another one." There was this desire
:52:28. > :52:32.to be better, that all great artists have in them, whether you're a
:52:33. > :52:39.parent or a poet, or a playwright, or a musician, that you are very
:52:40. > :52:43.rarely satisfied with your work. The whole LP means so much. Every little
:52:44. > :52:47.thing means something. It's not a game we're playing trying to blow
:52:48. > :52:51.the public's mind and soforth, it's a thing that we really, really mean,
:52:52. > :53:01.it's a part of us, another part of us.
:53:02. > :53:07.During Little Way, there are three rhythm guitars. Here is one of them,
:53:08. > :53:12.slightly dirty guitar, and not that during the. And then there is this
:53:13. > :53:20.one, a really clean one. And then in addition to that one,
:53:21. > :53:25.there is also a Lesley guitar. When you put them all together, you
:53:26. > :54:03.get this rest of it. He was anything but
:54:04. > :54:07.that. If I think of Jimi, I think of him with a smile on his face. He was
:54:08. > :54:10.pull of fun all the time. If you really look at the bunch of
:54:11. > :54:14.pictures, apart from when he is actually on stage playing, you see
:54:15. > :54:18.all the players, nine out of ten of them, he's got a smile or a secret
:54:19. > :54:23.grin on his face somewhere. He was a very funny guy. He was very funny.
:54:24. > :54:29.He was just so lovable. He was such a sweetheart. His friendliness just
:54:30. > :54:39.drew people to him like a magnet. He's just likeable, and you wanted
:54:40. > :54:46.him on your friendship He connected with people, and he connected in his
:54:47. > :54:55.faith that the guitar could take you someplace you had never been before,
:54:56. > :54:59.and he made you believe it. He embraced the counter culture. He
:55:00. > :55:05.dressed like a hippy, he spoke like one. He took the same kind of drugs,
:55:06. > :55:10.so he infiltrated the counter culture in a way that instantly
:55:11. > :55:22.brought him attention, mostly from young, whiled kids.
:55:23. > :55:25.-- white kids. He's like the big star now. He has had two records
:55:26. > :55:28.out, been touring America, and he is the big cheese. Everybody comes to
:55:29. > :55:34.see Jimi. In less than a year from the time
:55:35. > :55:40.that imand Jimi Hendrix Experience came over to do Monterey Pop
:55:41. > :55:46.Festival to the time he was headlining Miami pop, he became the
:55:47. > :55:58.biggest concert attraction in the country. That's fast.
:55:59. > :56:03.His arrival was interesting. We were waiting to show him up. He wasn't
:56:04. > :56:10.showing up. He was getting late. I said, "Go and find a helicopter. Get
:56:11. > :56:14.over here." Somebody had slipped him some STP on the way over,
:56:15. > :56:25.apparently, so they were blasted, but played an unbelievable set. He
:56:26. > :56:30.literally took off like a rocking. # You know that you are little
:56:31. > :56:37.heartbreaker. -- he took
:56:38. > :56:55.# You're a sweet little love maker. I want to take you home. I won't do
:56:56. > :57:01.you no harm, no. It's going to be all right.
:57:02. > :57:03.All right. It's going to be all right.
:57:04. > :57:24.All right. # Oh, Foxy Lady.
:57:25. > :57:30.There's no question about it, Jimi was tremendously gifted, he was
:57:31. > :57:34.meant to play guitar, but, by hell, he worked at it, more than anybody
:57:35. > :57:39.I've ever seen. Thinking about it, I never saw that guy without a guitar
:57:40. > :57:46.in his hands, in our out the studio. Or sitting around the apartment.
:57:47. > :57:53.Jimi used to get up in the morning and put a guitar on before he made
:57:54. > :57:57.breakfast. He had a guitar on eight or nine hours a day.
:57:58. > :58:03.He was constantly about making music. Whatever else might be said
:58:04. > :58:09.about the drugs and the ladies, his prime focus was on making music.
:58:10. > :58:15.Everywhere he went, he had a guitar with him. Everywhere he went.
:58:16. > :58:20.If music was not happening, then he would go somewhere else to try to
:58:21. > :58:24.find where music was happening. Whenever he did jams in places like
:58:25. > :58:30.if we went to clubs after a gig, he would get a bass guitar, turn it
:58:31. > :58:36.upside-down and play it. He can do that with a guitar as well. A
:58:37. > :58:39.right-hand, play it backwards. I know a few people who can do that,
:58:40. > :58:42.but not many people can do that, because you have to think backwards.
:58:43. > :58:47.He would know someone around a corner that was playing, and, at the
:58:48. > :58:51.drop of a hat, go and play. His whole life was either playing with a
:58:52. > :59:12.band he was in, or other people, or going in a studio.
:59:13. > :59:21.When we record Electric Ladyland, we had to Strachans Kuyt on two -- we
:59:22. > :59:26.had to do two things. We had to do a good show and then go into the
:59:27. > :59:31.studio at six o'clock in the morning.
:59:32. > :59:41.# The night I was born, I swear the moon turned red.
:59:42. > :59:44.By the time we got into middle of Electric Ladyland songs almost
:59:45. > :59:51.became written in the studio. It takes an awful long time. It's very
:59:52. > :59:54.boring for a producer! Jimi was a manager's worse nightmare because he
:59:55. > :00:03.would live in the studio given half the chance of the either people like
:00:04. > :00:08.that atmosphere or they don't. Hen driven was into the unthen of
:00:09. > :00:12.doing 39 takes, and the first one was just as good, by which time we
:00:13. > :00:17.were all getting a bit, you know, anxious, as they say.
:00:18. > :00:22.People start picking on us all the time. They say, "Why don't you do
:00:23. > :00:27.this or that?" Give us a chance. Things happen in time. We are
:00:28. > :00:32.learning the the studio. We want to learn it ourselves. They listened to
:00:33. > :00:36.the same song 50 times played in the studio isn't something I want to do.
:00:37. > :00:42.That's trainspotting. It's not reporting. Chas came from this
:00:43. > :00:47.school of, we've got to get a three and a half minute or four-minute
:00:48. > :00:52.song, all these jams are all very well, but where's the bloody songs,
:00:53. > :00:57.you know? You could really get the sense that Chas and Jimi were
:00:58. > :01:03.getting further and further apart. I walked, I just says, "Well, you
:01:04. > :01:12.know, give us a ring when you come back to your senses, you kno?" I
:01:13. > :01:24.definitely got a sense that Jimi felt now, this is my record, I am
:01:25. > :01:27.going to do it my way. I definitely got a sense that Jimi
:01:28. > :01:30.felt now, this is my record, I am going to do it my way.
:01:31. > :01:35.# The war is here to stay. We decided to take our last walk
:01:36. > :01:49.through the noise to the see. Not to die, but to be reborn.
:01:50. > :01:57.The wait between Bold is Love and Electric Ladyland it seemed like
:01:58. > :02:01.where is this thing? When it showed up, it's like, "You've got home
:02:02. > :02:04.work." It is four sides. There is all kinds of stuff in there. You've
:02:05. > :02:30.got studying to do. It went to number one. It was his
:02:31. > :02:34.first number one album, but that was just part of the story, because
:02:35. > :02:38.previous two albums were pulled back into the charts, so he had three
:02:39. > :02:43.albums in the top 20 at the same time.
:02:44. > :02:51.There must be some way out of here. Said a joker to the thief. There's
:02:52. > :02:57.too much confusion. I can't get no relief.
:02:58. > :03:04.He had a hit single. He had a hit single of a Bob Dylan song. It just
:03:05. > :03:08.showed that he was a fantastic instrumentalist, a much better
:03:09. > :03:12.singer than anyone ever gave him credit forking, and an interpreter
:03:13. > :03:21.of other people's music. He checked every box. You've got it.
:03:22. > :03:28.I think we were like the highest paid act in America at that
:03:29. > :03:32.particular time. We put tickets on sale, they would
:03:33. > :03:38.be gone in a couple of hours. People were so tremendously big.
:03:39. > :03:44.He was aware of how big he was. I just don't think that that mattered
:03:45. > :03:46.to him. What mattered to him was how good he was, and he wanted to be
:03:47. > :04:04.better. My friend and I went out, and we
:04:05. > :04:08.would find a lovely apartment on twelfth Street between fifth and
:04:09. > :04:11.sixth. It was his first home in New York, and he really, really loved
:04:12. > :04:17.it. He had dinner parties, he had
:04:18. > :04:28.friends come up and jam, he loving in the Village. The Village was fun.
:04:29. > :04:33.The first time I went down there, I said, "WOW, this is nice. I really
:04:34. > :04:37.like this place." It's big, it's roomy, and he was showing me look at
:04:38. > :04:45.this, that, the little kitchen stuff, I w like, "Yes, you're going
:04:46. > :04:48.to cook!" The frustration to his neighbours, he had an apartment, we
:04:49. > :04:51.used to get an occasional call from the police saying he was playing
:04:52. > :04:55.guitar at four o'clock in the morning and everybody was on the
:04:56. > :05:00.street complaining. He was going from room to room,
:05:01. > :05:05.there were lots of girls there, he was just flush with excitement.
:05:06. > :05:12.He was still - there was a sweetness to him still. He wasn't crock, he
:05:13. > :05:17.was just having fun with his fame. He had fame and was recognised. In
:05:18. > :05:21.those days you could walk around the village without the paparazzi. You
:05:22. > :05:26.could walk around without body guards and an entourage. He felt
:05:27. > :05:32.free and it was a good time for him. Those days were a very good time for
:05:33. > :05:37.him. It was still sweet Jimi, kind, considerate, funny, tremendous sense
:05:38. > :05:42.of humour. You know, his ego was still the right size. And I don't
:05:43. > :05:58.think he was really bitten by the serpent of fame.
:05:59. > :06:09.We have an interesting guest tonight, Jimi Hendrix. I don't think
:06:10. > :06:26.he has ever been on television like this before. Here is a naive and
:06:27. > :06:31.innocent Jimi hen driven! What do you like to hear if somebody comes
:06:32. > :06:35.up after a concert. What kind of compliment do you like? I don't
:06:36. > :06:39.really live on compliments. As a matter of fact, it has a way of
:06:40. > :06:44.distracting me. A lot of other musicians and artists out there
:06:45. > :06:48.today, they hear the compliments, and they forget about being lost,
:06:49. > :06:52.and they forget about the actual talent they have. The problem of
:06:53. > :06:55.succeeding is a hard one for you if your basis is say in the blues or
:06:56. > :06:58.something like that and you make hundreds of thousands of dollars a
:06:59. > :07:02.year, someone said it's hard to sing the blues when you're making that
:07:03. > :07:06.kind of money. Yes. This assumes you can't be unhappy and have a lot of
:07:07. > :07:09.money. Sometimes it gets to be really easy to sing the blues when
:07:10. > :07:13.you're supposed to be making this much money, you know. You know, like
:07:14. > :07:17.money is getting to be out of of hand now. Like musicians, especially
:07:18. > :07:21.young cats, they get a chance to make all this money, and it's
:07:22. > :07:25.fantastic. They lose themselves, and the feel about the music themselves.
:07:26. > :07:28.They forget about their talents, the other half of them. Therefore, you
:07:29. > :07:42.can sing a whole lot of blues. The more money you make, the more blues
:07:43. > :07:47.you can sing. Freedom
:07:48. > :07:56.I think he fended off the myth of his vulnerability and that he was
:07:57. > :08:01.the world's greatest guitarist. This is something he wanted, truly, but
:08:02. > :08:10.what he really wanted was not to be distracted by that.
:08:11. > :08:19.You're considered one of the best guitar players in the world. Oh, no!
:08:20. > :08:25.APPLAUSE Certainly, well, one of the best in
:08:26. > :08:30.this studio, anyway. How about - How the best sitting in this chair! He
:08:31. > :08:32.didn't liking flattered. He fended it off. He actually found it
:08:33. > :08:45.corrosive. He wanted to stay hungry.
:08:46. > :08:48.We're going to play Purple Haze, Hey Jo. We've been playing these songs,
:08:49. > :08:52.but we've been playing these r two for two years, so, quite naturally,
:08:53. > :08:56.we start improvising here and there and there are other things we want
:08:57. > :09:02.to turn to the people, you know? He really liked playing the blues, but
:09:03. > :09:07.the audience in an arena arena isn't into listening to the blues that
:09:08. > :09:11.much. I remember him saying to me, "All I've got to do is smash my
:09:12. > :09:18.guitar and the crowds are fine with that. All I want to do is play the
:09:19. > :09:24.guitar." Guitar." He was a consummate blues musician. There
:09:25. > :09:28.were marketing concerns where he wanted more Jimi Hendrix. He was
:09:29. > :09:31.getting disgusted with the whole carnival of gimmicks that he was
:09:32. > :09:37.happy to use in the beginning as part of his stage craft, but he felt
:09:38. > :09:42.creatively hemmed in by that. He wanted something new.
:09:43. > :09:46.As you get older, you do want to drop some of the showy things
:09:47. > :09:48.behind, and get down to the more serious things, so perhaps that was
:09:49. > :10:35.going on with him. Jimi and myself had discussed about
:10:36. > :10:40.other people coming into the wanted. There was quite a bit of pressure
:10:41. > :10:44.from Mike Jefferies as a manager who could probably see the writing on
:10:45. > :10:52.the wall. Jefferies was still in the back of his mind, I think, trying to
:10:53. > :11:01.keep the experience as such with Noel and myself together, whereas
:11:02. > :11:08.Jimi had just other ideas. He reached out to me in 1969 through
:11:09. > :11:17.a friend, saying Jimi is going to be in Memphis at the concert. After the
:11:18. > :11:22.gig, we went to his hotel room and discussed some things musically.
:11:23. > :11:27.There was a really special bond between Billy and Jimi. I think the
:11:28. > :11:30.fact that they were in the army, really Billy was there at the
:11:31. > :11:36.beginning. He trusted Billy, he trusted him musically, and he
:11:37. > :11:40.trusted him as a human being. We were playing in Denver, and prior
:11:41. > :11:43.to the gig, someone in the hotel h said, "Had you heard that Jimi had
:11:44. > :11:50.said to the press about extending the band?" I said, "Well, he didn't
:11:51. > :11:56.tell me." The next time I got on to play, I said, "I couldn't handle it
:11:57. > :12:00.any longer", Do super groups break up, Big Brother broke up? Probably
:12:01. > :12:03.because they want to do individual things on their own, or maybe you
:12:04. > :12:08.might want to get into other things like music. Like he is into more
:12:09. > :12:13.Harmonic things, when you sing and so forth. He went to England to get
:12:14. > :12:18.his own group together. Who is this? Noel Redding, the bass player. We
:12:19. > :12:32.have Billy Cox playing bass this time.
:12:33. > :12:43.I see that we meet again! Dig! Let me get something straight.
:12:44. > :12:51.We got tired every once in a while, so we decided to change everything
:12:52. > :12:57.around, and call it Sun and Raine bows.
:12:58. > :13:01.At Woodstock, he showed up with one guy from the Experience and a bunch
:13:02. > :13:07.of other guys, most of whom I had never heard of, but it was movement.
:13:08. > :13:10.The band that did the Woodstock gig was really a kind of makeshift band
:13:11. > :13:16.just to see what direction anything could go into.
:13:17. > :13:18.Woodstock gig was really a kind of makeshift band just to see what
:13:19. > :13:23.direction anything could go into. # Well, I travel, so I got to give a
:13:24. > :13:29.message. He was growing musically like all
:13:30. > :13:37.artists do. He had a concept that he wanted to wanted to present, and
:13:38. > :13:45.that was with two guitars. I found Larry Lee, Mitch was there.
:13:46. > :14:01.We were just friends having fun, doing music. # I am what I am. I
:14:02. > :14:07.said, buy yourself, and then you too. #
:14:08. > :14:10.We were scheduled to go on at midnight but they were that far
:14:11. > :14:15.behind schedule and couldn't go on. We went on in the morning. There
:14:16. > :14:31.were still thousands of people there at the time that we played.
:14:32. > :14:36.) Banner) What
:14:37. > :14:41.was the controversy about the National Anthem? I don't know, all I
:14:42. > :14:46.do is play it. I am American, so I played it. I sang it in school. They
:14:47. > :14:55.made me sing it in school, so it was a flashback.
:14:56. > :14:58.The first six, sev, eight notes, I am right with him. And then
:14:59. > :15:02.something inside me said, wait a minute, you've got - you had better
:15:03. > :15:07.lay off. Then it was one of the greatest
:15:08. > :15:19.renditions I've ever heard in my life.
:15:20. > :15:48.) Banner) That rendition of the star-spangled
:15:49. > :15:51.banner was so resonant in terms of what our lives had been for that
:15:52. > :15:57.decade, all those images to mind, about what America was about, what
:15:58. > :16:02.we were doing in all these wars and those kinds of things and the civil
:16:03. > :16:09.rights movements and the struggles that were going on. It really was a
:16:10. > :16:19.soundtrack to the country, a country divided, a country at odds dealing
:16:20. > :16:23.with an ongoing Vietnam War. He essentially - we scored -- he
:16:24. > :16:28.essentially rescored the National Anthem.
:16:29. > :16:33.We don't play it to take away this greatness that America is supposed
:16:34. > :16:35.to have, we play it the way the air is in America today.
:16:36. > :17:12.The air is slightly spaddy. That performance has a light to it
:17:13. > :17:20.that he could never have envisioned and certain no-one would have known.
:17:21. > :17:24.The great artist of the 1960s in particular had this ability to
:17:25. > :17:31.reinvent themselves very, very quickly, very effortlessly, and very
:17:32. > :17:40.much on tune and on track. After Woodstock performs Band of
:17:41. > :17:50.Gypsys. The Band of Gypsys was a strong
:17:51. > :17:53.statement from three bothers. Performs Band of Gypsys.
:17:54. > :17:55.The Band of Gypsys was a strong statement from three bothers. # With
:17:56. > :18:01.the power of soul, it is possible. With the power of soul, it is
:18:02. > :18:06.possible. We all this intimacies and love, and we also have a feel for
:18:07. > :18:10.what we thought was right and what we liked and what we enjoyed
:18:11. > :18:13.playing. Everyone had contributed in some kind of way, so all experience
:18:14. > :18:18.we had, everybody threw in something into this pot, and it came out the
:18:19. > :18:51.Band of Gypsys, and we had a very, very unique sound.
:18:52. > :18:58.It was short-lived because, right after the album, the band was
:18:59. > :19:02.dismantled. Unfortunately, that's not what was wanted from the
:19:03. > :19:09.handlers. Is Eric around anywhere? After doing
:19:10. > :19:12.the Band of Gypsys with Buddy and Billy, I think there was a band
:19:13. > :19:15.meeting. The band was going to be reformed with Noel and myself, and
:19:16. > :19:22.we were going to do like one more tour, you know, that kind of deal.
:19:23. > :19:28.Jimi put his foot down. He wanted me as bass player, so I guess myself
:19:29. > :19:33.and Mitch, Jimi got together, and I started touring as with the
:19:34. > :19:37.Experience. When we were out on the road, we
:19:38. > :19:48.were on the road, but when we were back at home or in town, we spent
:19:49. > :19:51.all of our time in the studio. I am sure you're spending about
:19:52. > :19:57.300,000 a year, which was a hell of a lot of money in those years, and
:19:58. > :20:02.Jimi is jamming down this club in the Village called the Generation,
:20:03. > :20:07.and said, "Why don't I just buy this, and I can jam here and have a
:20:08. > :20:12.tiny studio in the back." I said to the guys, are you crazy, you want to
:20:13. > :20:18.make a nightclub? Let's build Jimi a recording studio. We will make the
:20:19. > :20:23.best recording studio in the world. Jimi was very simple. He needed very
:20:24. > :20:29.little. What he needed was his music, a few friends, his recording
:20:30. > :20:34.studio was his biggest luxury. And he deserved it.
:20:35. > :20:41.And so he would leave the apartment and go to the studio every day.
:20:42. > :20:47.Electric Lady was a safe harbour for him, a place to recover from the
:20:48. > :20:50.stress of life. It was part of his vision of how he wanted to make
:20:51. > :20:55.music, without the distractions of the industry and the partying.
:20:56. > :21:02.For a man like Jimi, who is a creative artist, he had to have a
:21:03. > :21:22.place like Electric Lady Studio, so it became his and our laboratory.
:21:23. > :21:25.The time period from when he first entered Electric Lady, which was
:21:26. > :21:30.roughly May of 1970 to the end of August, there was a tremendous
:21:31. > :21:35.amount of material that he had recorded.
:21:36. > :21:39.This is Dolly Dagger that Jimi and I were working on before he left for
:21:40. > :21:45.Europe in August of 1970. We actually finished mixing this just
:21:46. > :21:51.before he left for Europe for his tour. Part of the frustration going
:21:52. > :22:15.to Europe was he was happy with what he was writing.
:22:16. > :22:20.Before he left for London, he said he was going to die before he - he
:22:21. > :22:41.just had a premonition. He said, I know I am going to die before I am
:22:42. > :22:44.30, but that's OK. The only thing I am sorry about is that - there is
:22:45. > :23:00.much that I want to do. # Drifting
:23:01. > :23:07.He gets to the Isle of Wight. I don't know Jimi's state of mind at
:23:08. > :23:13.that time. I would imagine it meant a fair bit, the first time he had
:23:14. > :23:27.done the concert in England for some years. Obviously, I mean, that was
:23:28. > :23:36.the starting point for us. The act that everybody wanted to see
:23:37. > :23:41.impatiently was imand back with Mick and Jimi Cox on bass. He came on
:23:42. > :23:51.late. At this time, everybody was pretty tired and exhausted.
:23:52. > :24:01.Are we ready? Tell the MC to go, then. The man with the guitar, Jimi
:24:02. > :24:04.hen driven. Hello, how are you doing? Glad to see you. We will do a
:24:05. > :24:20.thing called Freedom. The Isle of Wight, well, you know,
:24:21. > :24:25.it was a festival. I don't think he was that keen to do it. It was very
:24:26. > :24:29.disorganised. We did it, and we figured we will do the other shows,
:24:30. > :24:43.get it over with and go back to New York.
:24:44. > :24:50.A long tour in Germany, Billy got sick and had to go back to America.
:24:51. > :24:53.Jimi then went to London and was hanging out there. He didn't really
:24:54. > :24:59.know what was happening or what he was going to do or what was to, or
:25:00. > :25:09.where the group was going, and so he hung out in Londonment He called me
:25:10. > :25:12.from England. He was saying,"Hey, man, can you bring those tapes over
:25:13. > :25:18.to London? I want to start working on them over here." I said, "Jimi,
:25:19. > :25:21.we just built you a million-dollar ilt you a million-dollar studio."
:25:22. > :25:23."Yes, but, I mean, don't worry about it. I will see you in about a week.
:25:24. > :25:41.Everything is cool, now know?" Jimi called me. He said, "I need
:25:42. > :25:45.you. We've got to finish up, get some words and things straightened
:25:46. > :25:52.up in the studio." Said, "OK, I will make it." He said, "All right,
:25:53. > :25:55.great." Words and things straightened up in
:25:56. > :25:56.the studio." I said, "OK, I will make it." He said, "All right,
:25:57. > :25:59.great." # Gold is the colour of the dream I
:26:00. > :26:08.had not too long ago. A misty blue a the lilac too, I
:26:09. > :26:12.never to grow old. The Jimi Hendrix Experience is over.
:26:13. > :26:23.The acid rock musician died today and a London hospital during his
:26:24. > :26:26.short career he played his electric guitar into some of the most unusual
:26:27. > :26:31.sounds in an unusual music. The night before Jimi died, he went to a
:26:32. > :26:34.club and sat in on guitar with the band, and then went out with his
:26:35. > :26:39.girlfriend, and they went back to her flat later.
:26:40. > :26:43.He always had problems sleeping, so she gave him some sleeping tablets
:26:44. > :26:48.which were actually of stronger than the ones he normally took, so, come
:26:49. > :26:53.the morning, she woke up and found Jimi was still asleep, he was
:26:54. > :26:56.unconscious. She couldn't rouse him, so she immediately phoned for an
:26:57. > :27:01.ambulance. They took him to hospital. They tried to revive him,
:27:02. > :27:11.but, sadly, Jimi was dead. What a terrible waste, just at the
:27:12. > :27:16.age of 27. Talk about stars being in alignment
:27:17. > :27:22.when he shows up at Monterey. Where the hell were the stars in September
:27:23. > :27:38.1970? Iished I knew. -- I wished I knew.
:27:39. > :27:46.Well, I waiting on train station. Waiting for the train.
:27:47. > :27:55.Station. Waiting for the train.
:27:56. > :28:03.# Waiting for the train, yes. Take me from this lonesomeplace.
:28:04. > :28:12.-- lone lonesome place. A whole lot of people put in a
:28:13. > :28:20.train, yeah, my burden called me a disgrace.
:28:21. > :28:27.I talked about him to my grandkids. I show people the letters and stuff.
:28:28. > :28:37.I like my letters. I am constantly reminded of him.
:28:38. > :28:50.A great guy, one of my best friends. I miss him even today 40 years
:28:51. > :28:56.later. Yes. Like a brother. I lost this wonderful musician
:28:57. > :29:07.friend, if you will, but the world of music lost a genius. It was
:29:08. > :29:10.tough. It was really tough. Even today, nobody comes close to
:29:11. > :29:28.Jimi. He was very, very special.
:29:29. > :29:31.You think I would do