Hendrix: disastrous Band of Gypsys gig at Madison Square Garden

He may not have been physically addicted to drugs, but from everything I've heard, he certainly was psychologically addicted. And that was enough to kill him. Exactly how and wehen he dies, doesn't seem that important to me because, like Morrison and Joplin, he was an accident waiting to happen.

 

Well um that's kinda what I'm saying. You don't care how he died and that's ok. I do, tho nowhere near as much as I care about his life, have explained it to myself to my own satisfaction in a way that fits the few known facts (again NO two scenarios alike) and have similarly moved on. I have zero desire to convince others, all I'll say is that had there been a proper inquiry and investigation of the physical scene then we'd probably all know for sure. Moot. Carry on.

 

Hi Chris,
Merry Christmas to you. Can you give a summation of the conclusions Glebbeek drew in his latest book?

 

E. Barrett eh?
Jimi's road manager?


http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_first_rays/4043367191/

 

I seem to recall an interview with Mitchell where he talks about not doing the BOG stuff because his kid was being born so Hendrix took Buddy Miles to knock it out as soon as possible.

Once Noel was out, it was always planned that it would be Jimi, Billy and Mitch. It was the core of the Woodstock lineup, and the group that Hendrix used for his new album. Band of Gypsys was just a one off for contractual obligations no matter how much Miles tried to convince people otherwise.

 

Didn't know he even had a new book til mentioned. One can see much of his wrapup at the Univibes site. Caesar's a good man, always had strong opinions. Again this really is much like the JFK thing with all kinds of contradictory viewpoints/evidence over the years and it being so far after the fact that it's now up to the individual to simply settle it however they see fit and move on.

 

That is confirmed by Billy Cox in the BOG DVD. He makes it clear that he and Buddy were working with Jimi in the studio during late 1969 and seeing that he had such a problem with the Ed Chalpin lawsuit, they decided to help Jimi get out of the mess by doing the Fillmore concerts. So it's not as if the Band Of Gypsys was on the cards as "Jimi's new group".

 

I think this is wide fetched - i mean smoking pot and trippin was a pastime most rock musicians were busy doing more or less during that certain time frame.

If every Rock star died who took about as much drugs as Jimi there wouldn't be that many around today. I can only guess but if he survived that incdient he probably would have cleaned up his act like most people do once they get older - maybe not - who knows - but that was just real bad luck.
Probably trippin' the days before and drinking too much, when you are on acid and you drink alcohol you only get a bit sleepy, not as drunk as under normal conditions. Then he took a few sleeping pills to sleep the acid off and was physically too exhausted to wake up after vomiting in time to do something about it.

I don't see him in the same line age of true addicts as Keith Richards or Eric Clapton and def. not as off as Janis Joplin, Keith Moon or Jim Morrison who had strong addiction problems with alcohol etc. and a long list of mess-ups due to that.
Jimi was busy leading a band all the time and see how much stuff he recorded in such a short time. If he was too far out most of the time this would not possible

 

You're right. Early 70's Clapton and Richards were both hard-core junkies who could only get through the day with the help of assitants, Moon and Morrison were pitiful alcoholics. Jimi's known consumption kind of pales alongside those guys. Possibly they all had a more supportive organisation, babysitting them, than Jimi though.

 

Well, I guess Jim Morrison and him were kindered souls then. It's kind of funny, people now (many years later...) second guessing what "20 something" kids were doing, thinking, and living back then. I think they would laugh in your face. I really do.

 

Sure, they'd laugh in my face except they're dead and I'm still alive.

 

Which begs the question why the charity gig was accepted to begin with and why Miles was drumming when Mitch was in town.

 

Probably didn't seem like a big deal at the time just to go across town and do it. Who knew it would go that way and then take on such importance after the fact...

 

Maybe Jimi and his management thought that more live recordings might bolster the stock for the contractual album. Or, perhaps Buddy Miles bullied his way into doing the gig, which might explain why Jeffrey finally flipped and "fired" him after the show.

 

As are most of us that were more careful. Part of the creative "process" for many of the 60's/70's rock musicians was to get "out there", and some never came back...

 

I don't know, but I think the BOG trio was the best group Hendrix ever had.
So much soul going on there. The Experience never got that kind of groove going (imo).

 

^I think it was his worst group. Apart from one or two good groove moments, Miles just lacked the musical imagination that Mitch had. Miles just pinned Jimi against the wall.

 

Was this performance multitracked?

The 1 minute of video seems to be all that's ever surfaced aside from audience audio and photos.

 

Miles and Cox had been basically exclusively playing and recording with Jimi during the fall of 1969 through early 1970. It isn't that odd that Miles would be playing an additional live gig with Jimi during the period. Why the charity gig was accepted? Who knows. It does seem to be a somewhat odd period of Hendrix's career. But there also seems to almost be a relief on Jimi's part that the BOG is over and that he can now refocus his efforts on recording and shaping his songs for the studio album owed to Reprise while he compiles a live effort for Capitol/Chapman on the side.

 

There are also quotes I've read to the effect that Mitch was reluctant to work with Jimi at this time, bored with the directionless studio jams and only at the last minute agreed to play at Woodstock. Perhaps other Jimi experts will dispute this.

 

Mitch did multiple rehearsals with the Woodstock band. Though the line in MM's book about getting worse the more they rehearsed was quite amusing.

 

Another classic line was road manager Gerry Stickells saying "Rehearsals, as I believe they called them, mostly consisted of getting stoned and talking about how great it was going to be"! There are some rehearsal recording about but it's true that it was a fairly thrown-together thing. A shame too, because much of the '70 era material would've been more suitable to the larger band (with some time spent on arranging etc natch). Being such a busy player himself I don't think Mitch liked having all the extra percussion, either.

 

There is no such thing as "bad acid".
There are good and bad trips,
but bad LSD? Nope.

 

As far as I'm concerned, there's no such thing as "good acid".

 

There is "bad" anything, and if you think otherwise, you may have some bad surprises comin' your way. Don't kid yourself.