Starting At Zero (21 page)

I don’t like classifications, regardless of the scene. Why put yourself in a category when you can start your own little groove happening? You have to be a freak in order to be different,
and those freaks are very prejudiced. You have to talk in a certain way in order to be with them, and in order to be with the others you have to wear your hair short and wear a tie. We
shouldn’t have to keep carrying the same old burdens around. So we’re trying to make a third world happen ...

A
ND YOU LOOK OUT OF YOUR WINDOW

IT IS NOT SCREAMING FOR TODAY, IT IS NOT MADE FOR TODAY
.

{AFTER THE WOODSTOCK FESTIVAL, JIMI TOOK HIS NEW BAND INTO THE RECORDING STUDIO, THE HIT FACTORY IN NEW YORK.}

There’s a lot of groups that are trying to keep harmony amongst the people. I’ve seen Crosby, Stills and Nash burnin’ ass. They’re groovy. Western Sky Music, all delicate
and ding-a-ding-ding. I like the Impressions. I like that touch. I like that flavor. It’s like an enchanted thing if it’s done properly. I almost cry sometimes when I hear Otis
Redding’s stuff. You get that real good feeling, and then you get lumps in your throat, and shit – yeah, that’s when the stuff is poppin’. If they keep on going I know
I’m going to be embarrassed, because I know I’m going to cry.

See, these are classical composers. These are the people that need to be really, really respected. They give the people good-time music so they can release their frustrations and so forth, like
black and white standing next to each other with hammers ready to hit each other. People really have to start learning the value of things as they’re living today. That’s what’s
going to pull America out.

Music is a universal language, and if it were respected properly it would have a way to reach people. There should be no barriers. I think it should be brought outside – almost like the
evangelists.

The other music should stay in clubs. They should just stay in their pretentious bag in clubs and cabarets and all that. There’s only certain groups trying to get across a harmony message
anyway. And we’re one of them ...

{ON SEPTEMBER 5, 1969, JIMI GAVE A FREE CONCERT AT THE HARLEM STREET FAIR IN NEW YORK.}

This whole thing is under the benefit of United Block Association, and we hope to do more gigs for them. I think more groups that are supposed to be considered heavy groups should contribute to
this cause. As a matter of fact, what we’re trying to stress is that music should be done outside in a festival type of way, because a lot of kids from the ghetto, or whatever you want to
call it, don’t have enough money to travel across country to see these different festivals. They don’t even have the six dollars to go to Madison Square Garden.

I always wanted a more open and integrated sound, and it bothers me that some black people can’t get into our music. But they are so hung up about other things. Sometimes when I come up to
Harlem people look at my music and say,
“Is that white or black?”
I say, “What are you trying to dissect it for? Try to go by the feeling of it.” People are too hung up on
musical categories. They won’t listen to something because it sounds completely alien.

I wanted to release a special cut of
House Burning Down
for the R&B stations. We’re not played on R&B stations because we haven’t been exposed in this area as much as
we have in others.

It’s like, if a colored actress wants to make it in Hollywood she has to be ten times as good, so we have to be ten times as good for the soul people to even notice us. Not fakey good, I
mean actually, naturally good.

Color just doesn’t make any difference. Really, some people seem to think from their kneecaps! Look at Elvis. He could sing the blues, and he’s white. He used to sing better when he
sang the blues than when he started singing that “beach party” stuff. And look at the Bloomfield band, which is ridiculously outasight, and they really, really feel what they are doing,
regardless of what color their eyes or armpits might be.

One time I said, “OK, let’s go, we got this white cat down in the Village, man, playing harmonica really funky.”

So we all go down the Village and hear Paul Butterfield, and WOW,
WOW!
It turned me on so much.

He was really deep into it. Nobody could touch him there, because he was in his own little scene and he was so happy. I always say let the best man win, whether you are black, white or
purple.

Black kids think our music is white now, which it isn’t. They say, “He plays white rock for white people. What’s he doing here?” It just happens that the white people can
dig it all of a sudden because some of them are very freaky and have imagination as far as different sounds are concerned. But the black kids don’t have a chance too much to listen.
They’re too busy trying to get their own selves together. I want to show them that music is universal, that there is no white rock or black rock. There are only two kinds of music –
good and bad.

{OTHER THAN AN APPEARANCE AT THE SALVATION CLUB IN NEW YORK ON SEPTEMBER 10, 1969, JIMI GAVE NO PUBLIC PERFORMANCES FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR. HE SPENT MOST OF THE TIME
RECORDING AT THE RECORD PLANT.}

I’ve been going through a lot of changes in the last two years. That’s why I haven’t released anything for a while. I’m very inconsistent, you know. It all depends on how
I feel. There are no certain patterns I go by. Sometimes I write in a rush, but the things I’m writing now take a little longer to say.

I’ll tell you the truth. I heard
Are You Experienced?
recently, and it seemed like I must have been high or something. I thought, “Damn, I wonder where my head was at when I
said all those things.” Ha, ha! The mad scientist! Honest to God’s truth, I didn’t know what I was writing about then. I don’t consider it the invention of psychedelic
music. It was just asking a lot of questions.

Albums are nothing but personal diaries. When you hear somebody making music, they are baring a naked part of their soul to you, and
Are You Experienced?
was one of the most direct albums
I’ve done. What it was saying was “Let me through the wall, man. I want you to dig it.” But later, when I got into other things, people couldn’t understand the changes. The
trouble is, I’m schizophrenic in at least twelve different ways, and people can’t get used to it.

There’s so many things I want to say and so little time that I get almost like a frustrated old maid. That’s why I go into these different moods, and I’m sometimes very
temperamental. I can’t help it. I don’t think I’ll ever get the chance to do all the things I really want to do as far as music is concerned. But I can’t stop thinking about
music. It’s in my mind every second of the day. I can’t fight it, so I groove with it.

I
’VE BEEN WORKING HARD ON MY NEXT ALBUM. It will be called
Shine On Earth, Shine On
or
Gypsy Sun
. We have about forty songs in
the works, about half of them completed. A lot of it comprises jams, all spiritual stuff, very earthy. I am having a string section and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It’s going to give a lot
of people the answers to questions they are searching for. It’s going to straighten a lot of people out.

There’s a great need for harmony between man and Earth. I think we are really screwing up that harmony by dumping garbage in the sea and air pollution and all that stuff. It’s not
just a fad, it’s very serious.

They talk about some kind of earthquake. Dig! Where all the earthquakes stem from is bad vibrations! They get very heavy sometimes. Some of the vibrations people claim they are getting now are
true, considering the fact that the earth will be going through a physical change soon. The solar system is going through a change, and it’s going to affect the earth itself in about 30 years
from now. Since the people are part of Earth, they are going to feel it too. In many ways they are a lot of the reason for causing it. This room is just a crumb from the crust of the pie, and
there’s no moving from any one land to another to save yourself.

Do not ignore the SUN ... for the sun is the truth shining to be seen.

I HAVE LIVED HERE BEFORE THE DAYS OF ICE,

A
ND
I
COME BACK TO FIND THE STARS MISPLACED

We must prepare for the amazing way that the truth will be presented. What’s sometimes more amazing is how people miss the warnings of tidal waves, volcanoes, earthquakes, etc. I know
inside they pretend to miss the message. We really don’t seem to care for our children. How can you push it off when eventually, in the long run, we shall be our own children?

EVEN THE SUN IS HESITANT

THROUGH SLAG-FILLED CLOUDS

THAT COME FROM CROWDS

OF FACTORIES COUGHING

THE AIR COULD BE CLEARER BUT,

WHO WOULD DARE THINK OF ALL

BLESS ITS LITTLE PAPER HEART,

JUST TO KEEP FROM

BREATHING
FILTH
AND

GASEOUS SLIME?

{TOWARD THE END OF 1969, NUMEROUS PROBLEMS WERE BUILDING UP IN JIMI’S LIFE: A LAWSUIT OVER AN OLD CONTRACT WITH PPX ENTERPRISES; FAILURE TO DELIVER A NEW ALBUM TO WARNER
BROS. FOR OVER A YEAR; FINANCIAL PROBLEMS DUE TO THE BUILDING OF ELECTRIC LADY STUDIOS; AND PRESSURE FROM HIS MANAGEMENT TO KEEP ON TOURING.}

I don’t know what’s happening. I’m so exhausted, you know. I get destroyed by all these press conferences, by all unnecessary disturbing things. I have no
time for my music. I just want to relax and think about myself and my music for a while. I want to bring my guitar, walk onstage and play, and then vanish, away from questions and
people.

I haven’t had time off by myself since I’ve been in this scene. I couldn’t even save up some money and go to the hills because there’s always problems,
always hang-ups. I am very tired. Not physically. Mentally. My head’s in a position now where I have to take a rest, or else I’ll completely crack up pretty soon, in the next few hours
or days. Seems like a – what do you call those things? Nervous breakdown. I’ve had about three of them since I’ve been in this business.

When you first make it the demands on you are very great. For some people they are just too heavy. You can sit back, fat and satisfied, or you can run away from it, which is
what I did. I don’t try to live up to anything anymore. If I’m free, it’s because I’m always running.

I tend to feel like a victim of public opinion. They want to know about these girls, kicking people in the ass, doing the power to the people sign. I cut my hair, and they
say, “Why’d you cut your hair, Jimi?” It was breaking up. They say, “Where’d you get those socks? What made you wear blue socks today?”

Then I started asking myself questions. Did I take too much solo? Should I have said thank you to that girl? Maybe I should grow my hair back. It’s something to hide
behind.

I
GET STONED AND
I
CAN
’
T GO HOME
,

B
UT
I’
M CALLING LONG DISTANCE

FEEL LIKE
I
GOT RUN OVER BY PUBLIC OPINION

AND THE PAST
.

I can’t help isolating myself from the world. Sometimes I just want to be left alone. Most people would like to retire and just disappear from the scene, which I’d LOVE to do, but
then there’s still things I’d like to say. There’s so much rubbish going on by. I wish it wasn’t so important to me. I wish I could just turn my mind off, you know, forget
about the scene. But I worry about my music. You worry about anything you’ve built your whole life around.

I’m here to communicate. That’s my reason for being around, it’s what it’s all about. I want to turn people on and let them know what’s happening. Even if they have
nine-to-five jobs and come back to the TV, that’s what counts, to keep turned on.

{ANOTHER PRESSURE ON JIMI WAS THE IMPENDING TRIAL FOR DRUG POSSESSION I N CANADA. CONVICTION COULD MEAN UP TO SEVEN YEARS IN JAIL.}

{ON NOVEMBER 11, 1969, JIMI RECEIVED A LETTER FROM HIS ATTORNEY HENRY STEINGARTEN.}

Dear Jimi,

I was disappointed that you did not show up yesterday for our meeting. I tried to get you at the hotel but you were out. There are several things we have to straighten out and soon. These are
as follows: 1. The Toronto case is scheduled for trial on Dec. 1st. We are all to meet at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto the evening of Nov. 29th. We will spend the following day with O. Driscoll
preparing the case. Sharon Lawrence, Leslie Perrin, Bob Levine, Mike Jeffery and possibly Chas Chandler will all be there. I want to talk to you about this before we all go up to Toronto.