Having read multiple biographies and accounts from the time, I believe that Hendrix was very rarely sober when he played. Rarely sober at all in fact. But he was also rarely incapable of playing well either. I don’t think he was any different than many musicians of the period in this respect; that lifestyle was the norm. Read Noel Redding’s autobiography to get an inside account of the constant merri-go-round of uppers and downers that the band lived on through ‘68-‘69. I was of the view that Hendrix did not use Heroin, or at least not regularly, for a long time but in recent years this view has changed. There are quite a few little pieces of circumstantial evidence and testimony that suggest to me that he had been using Heroin habitually for a while before September ‘70. My theory is that the European tour may have been when, in the absence of a supply, his habit caught up with him. This would explain much of his behaviour throughout that tour (e.g. the weird hotel room incident in London, the boozing and downers that affected some of his performances e.g. Aarhus). I think he had a light habit and only suffered light withdrawal symptoms, compared to what a hardcore junkie of 20 years would for example. There’s a story in a Zeppelin biog about Jimmy Page in America about 1976 after recording Presence, feeling ill with flu-like symptoms and realising that they were Heroin withdrawal. Until that point he hadn’t consciously realised that he’d become physically dependent. This story may or may not be true, but I think something similar may have happened to Jimi in Europe in 1970.
Yes I think Chas did so and with no issue from Sue. I can't recall the price but in the bigger scheme of things it was not much.
I remember planning to buy it when hearing it would soon have the bonus tracks so held out. Quite the catch to have a 69' Foxy Lady from LA!
We discussed this earlier and I ran into counter arguments when I launched the old theory that the PPX contract was not valid due to the supposedly exclusive Sue contract that one has seen since Mike Jeffery bought it. And that Warner and Jeffery tried to pay off Chalpin when they could have taken him on instead. Probably a cashflow decision; they didn't want a hold-up on Jimi the cash cow.
High on the 04/01/69 Lulu Tv show. They rescued their joint from the BBC wash basins pipes by (according to Noel) telling maintenance they dropped a ring down there and they would get it out themselves with the tools thank you very much.
Didn't band leaders much prefer high musicians to drunk ones as they could still play in time? At Miami it was Jimi & Mitch majorly tripping, it was in Mitch's book.
Re: 09/01/70 Chas' wife Lotte was Swedish so maybe that had some bearing on him choosing that show to attend?
I definitely read that Jeffrey was savvy enough to realise that if they went to court there was a chance however small that the judge/jury maye find favour with Chalpin and PPX. If so it would be catastrophic to Jeffrey and he knew it!
When was the Chalpin and PPX contract set to expire? Was Jimi suppose to turn out x singles under it?
3 years, expiring October 15, 1968. He was only contracted to "play instruments" for PPX. The Sue contract was 2 years with a 3 year option, expiring in September 1970.
So glad I held off pulling the trigger on buying Castle's L&U for $50 when it showed up a year later from Reprise as Lifelines for the same $50 and an extra disc! And since this was the days of the 90 minute cassette, I spliced the drum solo back into Tax Free from a tape of the radio broadcast (Lifelines was actually more representative of the whole broadcast since the LA concert was aired along with it) and added Foxy Lady in right after.
Why was Killing Floor left in the vaults until 1984?!? The 1970 Monterey album (side) was an odd selection of tracks. Had Can You See Me not just come out on Smash Hits, its inclusion would've made sense. I've redone the side two ways that have it run around 22 minutes (Wildly unbalanced with the Otis Redding set, I know) Version 1 Killing Floor Like a Rolling Stone Rock Me Baby Wild Thing (full 9 minutes with feed back intro) Version 2 Killing Floor Like a Rolling Stone Rock Me Baby Can You See Me Wild Thing (6:18 version) As I mentioned upthread (I think it was in this thread, I'm losing track!), Can You See Me would've been a great choice to make the March BBC session a little longer, it's barely 10 minutes as it is (maybe that's all the time they had for his segment). It does seem like it should have been Fire in its place at Monterey but for whatever reason (foreshadowing? ), he didn't include it. I have the set 3 different ways: the 1986 Reprise, the Monterey box set (is that the 1993 one?) and the EH 2007. Kind of need them all to get the full sound canvas.
Yeah I also think a mild heroin dependency explains Jimi's state of mind and health during the last European tour. There's a lot of circumstantial evidence. Another reason for him not wanting to go besides finishing the new album. In the US they only played weekend gigs during spring 1970 so he didn't risk going cold Turkey. It's been said (can't recall the source) that he broke his dependency in Maui in July, but perhaps he fell off the vagon on returning to New York. So, not a junkie, but playing with fire.
Looks like that would have been the perfect time to have released NINE TO THE UNIVERSE to fulfilled the PPX contract.
I got this as a PRomo, Jimi Hendrix – Between The Lines Label: Reprise Records – PRO-CD 4541 Format: CD, Promo Country: US Released: 1990 Genre: Rock, Blues Style: Blues Rock, Psychedelic Rock Tracklist 1 Jimi Hendrix Narration 0:10 2 Hey Joe 3:24 3 I'm A Man 3:09 4 Pete Townshend And Eric Clapton Narration / Red House 7:32 5 Jimi Hendrix Narration / Drivin' South 5:50 6 The Things That I Used To Do 5:10 7 1983... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be) 4:37 8 Purple Haze 5:48 9 Rainy Day Shuffle 1:19 10 Angel 3:20 Notes Selected highlights from the forthcoming boxed set "Lifelines The Jimi Hendrix Story"
Basically THIS is what people were looking for instead of all that talking and talking and talking! I think I remember seeing this for sale at some point at one of the stores in Greenwich Village.
That Euro '70 tour was about as hit or miss as you can get for Jimi. Goes from his worst (Aarhus) to some of his best (Copenhagen) in the space of 24 hours.
I don't like to sensationalize this aspect, but I've always been fascinated with performances made while on LSD. It was my understanding that Jimi's Monterey Pop was performed with that ingredient, and the timeline always made sense to me. The show gets progressively stranger. I'd like to know if that was corroborated or just another myth. Many artists pull off the acid feat. 13th Floor Elevators made it a rule, Jim Morrison at the Hollywood Bowl. Meat Puppets in the 80s...
Well, there's one thing with always having some smoke going and quite another with acid and pills. I don't know from experience, but despite the havoc it does to one's body, quite a lot of rock and jazz cats have excelled and maintained on H. It's easy to maintain on smoke, especially considering that jazz cigarettes weren't as strong in the '60s as they are today. It's those hardcore psychedelics that growing up I had heard Hendrix was on, but I sort of doubt that was the case. On the other hand, it's been reported that Parliament/Funkadelics was on LSD for a decade, so who knows. All that to say, smoking out probably wasn't detrimental to Hendrix's live shows, but perhaps other drugs were?
