39 years ago Friday

[Paul Sylvain]

Jimi Hendrix died of a drug overdose on Sept. 18, 1970



I saw him (along with Canned Heat, Procol Harem and Ten Years After) at the Berlin Superfest, West Berlin, Germany, on Sept. 4 that year, just two weeks before. The Berlin concert was Jimi's last live performance.

The Berlin Superfest was such a strange event in so many ways. Procol Haren featured a young guitarist who later said he watched Jimi's performance that night and decided at that moment that he had to leave Harem and do his own thing. The Guitarit's name was Robin Trower.

Canned heat followed Procol Harem. Ironocally, the news earlier that day stated that Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson, who sang so many of Heat's biggest songs, played rhythm guitar and blues harp, had been found dead in a sleeping bag in California. I figured the band was not going to make it to Berlin, but it turned out they wre already in town. Bob "the Bear" Hite came out, said a few words about the loss of their "brother", then dug into some of the deepest blues I had ever hear up to that time. I remember Hite calling his blues harp a "Mississippi saxophone."

Ten Years After followed the Heat, and Jimi came out after TYA to close the show. Sadly, it was late, and as it turned out Jimi was not up to his best. About half the place (Deutchlandhalle) left after the first song or two. Hendrix was the only act not to draw an encore that night! I knew a guy who worked stage hand for that show, and he told me afterwards that Jimi and the band went back stage behind the current, waiting to get called back out ... but in never happened. Sad to think that a guy who still has such an influence on music to this day, suffered through such a bad set and response on what would be his last-ever concert.

I still remember it all well, though. I met Alvin Lee and the guys in Ten Years After a couple of times since the Superfest (most recently about seven years ago), and when I mentioned "Berlin" the first response was "the Jimi concert?" TYA bassist Leo Lyons told me that he and the guys in his band were shocked to disbelief when they heard that Jimi had died.

I'll bet Jimi never dreamed he would still be so influential almost four decades after his death.

Paul



Paul

[TRK]

Paul:

Thanks for your interesting account. You're lucky you got to see Jimi. All accounts say he was tired and burned out toward the end. He was always battling with malfunctioning equipment, partly because he was pushing the limits of current technology, and he was wasted from overwork and constant intake of drugs.

I remember the day he died; it was a low blow, because he was my favorite. A lot of players subsequently surpassed him in terms of technique and possibly accomplishment, and it can be argued that there are some "bedroom player" kids today who can play better, but he mapped new territory, and nobody had heard anything remotely like him up to that time.

BTW, his last concert was actually two days after the Berlin one you attended; at a festival on some island off the coast of Germany, IIRC.

[Paul Sylvain]

Interesting comments, and I guess I'll stand corrected on the "last" concert. I know he followed his final Isle of Wight Festival appearance with a mini-swing through Europe, stopping in Berlin. Didn't know about the other, though, and had heard in several interviews (including some with Robin Trower, who was with Procol Harem at the Berlin show) that Berlin was his last.

It's really "macht nichts", though. Whether you loved Jimi or hated him, he was an innovator and a master showman. He took the guitar to places no one ever imagined, and for those of us who were wet-behind-the-ears wannabe rock stars back then, it was an exciting time. He managed to do most of his sounds with few effects (heck, there wasn't much back then -- wah-wahs and fuzz-tones, perhaps), and he tortured his Strat with the tremolo ("whammy bar").

What drives me nuts is to hear some kids today saying things like Jimi Hendrix (or Jimmy Page) or any of these guys who broke new ground "suck". In the 30 or 40 years since we first heard these incredible sounds for the first time, the songs have been played and played to where they sound as simple as basic as "Twist & Shout". But if these kids would imagine for just one moment a time before Eddie Van Halen and all the clones since then, and try to think about what it would have been like to hear the "Are You Experienced" or "Electric Ladyland" LPs for the first time. That's where the magic was.

Those were the days.

Paul

[TRK]

Yeah, Paul, some of these players have chops and technique all day and night long, but what they lack is the groove, soul, and compositional genius. Jimi had those things galore.