Starting At Zero (23 page)

{AFTER THE ABORTED MADISON SQUARE GARDEN CONCERT, MIKE JEFFERY FIRED BUDDY MILES AND TRIED TO REFORM THE ORIGINAL EXPERIENCE. JIMI HAD OTHER PLANS.}

The Experience got into a cul-de-sac. We played for three years and had reached the stage where we were just repeating ourselves. Mitch will be playing with me. He’s never been better than
he is now. Noel is definitely and confidently out.

It was my plan to change the bass player even back in the days after the Experience when there was no band. It’s nothing personal against Noel. Billy Cox has a more solid style, which
suits the new group better. I’m not saying that anyone is better than the other, just that today I want a more solid style. There’s no telling how I’ll feel tomorrow.

{IN APRIL 1970,
STEPPING STONE
, WITH BILLY COX ON BASS AND BUDDY MILES ON DRUMS, WAS RELEASED IN AMERICA AS A SINGLE. IT DIDN’T MAKE THE CHARTS AND WAS SOON
WITHDRAWN.}

I haven’t had too many records out for a while. I wanted this out before people forgot about me.

I don’t know how good it is. I can’t tell anymore. Some of the copies out here have no bass on them. I had to go out somewhere and tell the guy to remix it, but he didn’t. Sure
it matters. I’d like a hit single. It’s nice to have people hearing your songs all over the world on the radio.

I did some recording last year, but I flipped out after two days because much of the stuff was recorded in the gap between the time the Experience broke up and the Band of Gypsys. So that
stuff’s another age. I’m losing time with myself.

{APRIL ALSO SAW THE RELEASE OF THE
BAND OF GYPSYS
ALBUM RECORDED AT THE FILLMORE EAST. IT SPENT SIXTY-ONE WEEKS ON THE AMERICAN CHARTS AND REACHED A TOP POSITION OF
#5.}

The only reason we put out
Band Of Gypsys
was that Capitol was pressing for an LP and we didn’t have anything ready at the time. So they got that. I wasn’t too satisfied with
the album. If it had been up to me I would have never put it out. From a musician’s point of view it was not a good recording, and I was out of tune on a few things. Not enough preparation
went into it, and it came out a bit grizzly. We all felt shaky. There were some nice songs on the album, some nice ideas, particularly on side two.

{CONTINUING FINANCIAL PRESSURES FORCED JIMI TO ABANDON WORK ON HIS NEW ALBUM AND AGREE TO YET ANOTHER TOUR OF AMERICA.}

I’m calling the tour “Cry Of Love” because that’s what it’s all about. One of the worst statements people are making is, “No man is an island.” Every
man is an island, and music is about the only way we can really communicate. It’s a crusade, right?

A lot of people in America are looking for a leader in the music field. It’ll take somebody like us to get it together. We’ll be on a truth kick. We want to be completely honest and
barefaced. We want to be respected after we’re dead. Who doesn’t want to be remembered in history? But regardless of whether it’s going be us, the feeling is there, and
that’s what counts. If I die tomorrow, the feeling is there. Forget about brand names. We put across the music. The idea is to do it as strongly as possible, to work out a certain physical
change.

The Beatles could do it. They could turn this world around or at least attempt to. The Beatles can be a positive force, and they could really get the people together. They’ve got power
because they are performing for the masses. They should use their power. It might make them a little more uncomfortable in their position, but me, I don’t care about my position. What I have
to say I’m glad to say it. I’m trying to use my power. I could buy myself a house in Beverly Hills and retire, but I just want to go on trying to communicate. I am happy enough to
spread my thoughts to others, so that’s what I must do.

{THE “CRY OF LOVE” TOUR OPENED ON APRIL 25 AT THE LOS ANGELES FORUM. THREE DAYS AFTER AMERICANS CELEBRATED EARTH DAY 1970.}

There’s a whole lot of riots that are still going to happen in the States, and anywhere else for that matter. You sit glued to your TV and you’re seeing the fantasy side of life. But
the problems are still there. Out in the street, that’s still there. I try to use my music as a machine to move these people to act, to get changes done. I know we can do it, that’s not
the problem. That’s why we’re suffering. That’s why we party hard.
That’s why we suffer hard. The problem is, can you keep up?

I
KNOW WHERE THE TROUBLE IS. A lot of it is laziness. On that side there there’s going to have to be some people to get off their asses and
try to get theirselves together, instead of sitting around smoke dens saying, “Yeah, man, this is groovy, yeah, protest, protest,” and then come up with no kind of solution. Or if they
come up with a solution they realize there might be a sacrifice they might have to make. Like some cat might have to give up his gig, which he calls
“security,”
which is a slave
thing.

Y
OU WORK HARD EVERY DAY, COME HOME EVERY NIGHT

T
HE YEARS PASS BY, AND NOW YOU’RE
82 –

We must watch out. Security, the thinking, the reaching for it, is the biggest drug, the worst drug that’s happening today. Once you outlaw that feeling a whole lot of other things will
start happening. That’s the way I live now. I don’t have a clear-cut plan. I love the uncertainties of the future. If you know beforehand what is going to happen then, to me, life
doesn’t make sense. There are, of course, certain things that I would like to do, and it’s very possible that I will destroy myself in my attempt to achieve these things.

T
ODAY
I
BURN UNDER MY BRAIN’S CONSCIOUSNESS

W
HY IS MY SOUL SURPASSING CURIOUS EGO’S SECURITY ACT
,

T
HE FASTEST AND LONGEST FAR-REACHING THING WE KNOW?

As long as you’re off your ass and on your feet some kind of way. Out of the bed and into the street,
blah-blah, woof-woof,
crackle-crackle
. We can tap dance to that, can’t we?

If you want to know the truth about it, the best thing to do is listen to the music. When there are vast changes in the way the world goes, it’s usually something like art and music that
change it. Music is going to change the world next time.
You see, music doesn’t lie.

I agree it can be misinterpreted, but it doesn’t lie.

{ON MAY 4, 1970, FOUR STUDENTS WERE SHOT DEAD BY THE NATIONAL GUARD DURING AN ANTI–VIETNAM WAR DEMONSTRATION AT KENT STATE UNIVERSITY, OHIO.}

“THIS IS DEDICATED TO ALL THE SOLDIERS FIGHTIN’ IN KENT STATE – ALL FOUR OF THEM! AND ALL THE SOLDIERS IN MADISON AND MILWAUKEE. OH YES, I ALMOST FORGOT,
VIETNAM AND CAM-BOOH-DI-AAHH! SO MANY WARS GOIN’ ON. WHAT A DRAG ALL THAT SHIT IS! NEXT THING YOU KNOW EVERY ONE OF THESE KIDS’LL BE COMPLETELY WIPED OUT BECAUSE OF
SOME SHIT THAT OLD PEOPLE SAID!
FREEDOM FOR US ALL!”

A lot of people want to be written down in war history, written down in money history. This is nothing but child’s play for so-called grown-ups. Countries to me are just like little kids
playing with different toys, and nobody can go out on the streets with this little boy, America’s little boy. What a
DRAG
that America’s guns have made the
CRACK
in the
Liberty Bell their symbol! There’s other ways you can settle things, there’s other ways you can live.

{BECAUSE OF THE ANTIWAR DEMONSTRATIONS, WHEN JIMI PLAYED AT BERKELEY COMMUNITY CENTER ON MAY 30, THE NEIGHBORHOOD WAS CLOSE TO BEING PUT UNDER MARTIAL LAW.}

The kids on the campus are shouting through a keyhole. They’re not being individuals. In American riots you see these masochist kids. They go in there with no shelter, no anything. They
get beat. Some of them will say, “We don’t have nothin’ else to live for anyway. This is our scene now.”

You can see how desperate the whole case must be if a kid’s going to go out there without protection and get his head busted open. But then you look over in Japan. The kids in Japan, they
buy helmets and they got their little squadrons and they go in wedges, like this. They got all their stuff together. They’ve got their shields. They’re wearing steel supports. You have
to have all these things.

I’d like to see these American kids with helmets on and big Roman shields and then do their thing. Really together! If you’re going to go in there, you might as well make it
together. And you must put this in the book, because I’m tired of seeing Americans get their heads split open for no reason at all.

{THROUGH MAY, JUNE AND JULY 1970, THE “CRY OF LOVE” TOUR CRISS-CROSSED AMERICA, PERFORMING IN MORE THAN THIRTY AMERICAN CITIES.}