Jimi Hendrix appears, resplendant in a purple ruffled shirt, green bell-bottoms, a silver spangled vest that ended at the shoulder blades, a multicolored headband that trailed down his neck, a bright silk scarf tied to his left arm, and a fringe belt that hung down his right leg. A white guitar with leopard-skin strap completed the ensemble. The Yorktown Light Show paled in comparison...It is ertainly true that during all the frenetic activity onstage, the music sometimes took second place. Yet it was always there...Let's face it, no one is going to upstage Hendrix anyway, musically or visually - he's got the brightest clothes and most of the speakers. And Mitch Mitchell's drumming is a delight: quick, crisp and swingiing. The group was all business, startiing out with t blues and pausing only long enough at the conclusions for Hendrix to acknowledge the beginning of the applause before saying rapidly intot he microphone 'Hello Baltimore, how are you?' before moving on to the next number...Hendrix seems to have given up thee sideshow antics, except for a brief few bars near the end of the concert when he played the guitar with his teeth, and such relatively subtle devices, for him anyway, as falling suggestively on the wah-wah pedal. Perhaps he doesn't need them anymore. Suggestion has replaced overstatement. That doesn't mean tyhat Hendrix isn't still able to conjure up, with a slight turn of his wrist, awesome, searing audial power through his wraparound speaker set-up and then shut it off with a shrug of the shoulder. He is still able with the sullen unsmiling look - heavy business - to draw the fans down in front of the stage as he did at the end of the show at the Civic Center. It's jujst that mujsic is now at the center of the group's presentation which is, of course, where it should be. And regardless of what you think of it, Hendrix music, a combination of tough, bluesy vocal and instrumental delivery mixed wiith speaker feedback, is unlike any sound to be heard in contemporary rock. Hendrix conclused the concert with a tortured instrumentstal version of the Star Spangled banner the likes of which, it's safe to say, has never been witnessed in the birthplace of the national anthem. The audience exhibited a good deal more interest in the song than the usual Civic Center crowd waiting none too patiently for the basketball game to start. Again, it may be that Hendrix is turning more political now. After a fiinal number, one fist raised in the symbol of rebellion, the other giving the peace sign, Hendrix was off the stage as quickly as he had appeared. 'Right on!' shouted several people in the crowd."

Naturally, Hendrix was his clever self, swingling and swaying, grinding to the oft high-pitched whining guitar, plucking with his teeth. But it was not the same dynamic tension of two years ago: the infamous stone rapping that pleased so many, the excitment of his stage theatrics...His guitar dexterity never ceases to amaze me, and his colorful attire has to be seen to be believed, but the man is much more. The people loved him. They clapped and applauded where necessary and generaslly approved of what they saw. I guess that's all that really matters.

Hendrix didn't seem to get overly involved in his music as he used to...It didn't really matter to the starry-eyed crowd, mostly between the ages of 18-21, whose feelings were just about summed up by someone who shouted "Hendrix is God!"

After the flawless Boston Garden gig, the Cry Of Love tour moved on to the great open-air festivals of the summer. Anyone grooving to the molten magic of Jimi's Atlanta (7/4/70) set on the Stages box set will certainly look askance at the next installment of the Hendrix '70 burn-out myth. Atlanta also marks the start of a new sound season. Whereas the spring 1970 tapes record guitar tones as taut as enclosed firecrackers (i.e., Jimi Plays Berkeley), the outdoor summer sets get super-distortion slack resonance (i.e, Isle of White and Maui's Rainbow Bridge gig). It's as if the sound system became congested from open-air acoustics! Still, no matter which tone you prefer, any astute gauge of the playing confirms that right up to the end, Hendrix's guitar licks grew more complex and subtle.

Seattle '70 - Last Hometown Show

Unsuspecting fans might draw a different conclusion from Curtis Knight's book. As the author of the second Hendrix bio, Knight told his readers that when Jimi returned to Seattle (7/26/70) for a summer gig, he "began to play badly; painful sounds were emitted...He was lost as though he had no control; his body was contorted as if possessed by some evil demon; he was clearly in spiritual agony...the people were not responding. They could see that Jimi was very untogether...Jimi snatched his guitar from his back, flung it down onto the stage and walked off in disgust."

This blurb was taken as gospel when Back Street Heroes embellished the tale, saying, "Seattle was an agonizing and pitiful affair, like the last desperate twitches and whimpers of a dying animal...the worse it got, the worse he played, eventually storming offstage with a torrent of abuse from his fans."

Years after reading these accounts, I found an audience tape of the infamous Seattle set. Hearing it, all I could think was: what kind of drugs were these people on who slandered such great music?! Rain fell intermittently throughout the gig, yet Jimi blasted the crowd for over 80 minutes! He didn't have to play that long, and he usually didn't, especially in the rain. Cox recalls wishing Jimi would end the gig - they were getting shocks off their mics - he feared they'd all be electrocuted. But Jimi was in a great groove, and he kept on groovin'. The music speaks for itself. There is no rancor heard from Jimi (except saying "fuck you, whoever put up the pillow [onto the stage]" - to which crowd members are heard laughing in amusement). And his fans certainly didn't jeer him with "a torrent of abuse" after a flawless set! Barbs like this Seattle myth give Jimi's legacy the scenario of a genius hounded by envy, even past the grave.

But what are we to make of Mitch Mitchell's recollection of Hendrix '70? In Inside the Experience, Mitch recalls, "The Forum (L.A. '70) gig was not very memorable. We went in, did the gig and left, and it shouldn't have been that way. A lot of the gigs were like that. I have to say that most of the gigs were unmemorable, the same old places, yet again...if it had been something completely different, like the Miles Davis thing, that would have been great, but this was like the old band, but much less exciting."

In comparison with the excitement of early Experience tours, when so much new ground was being broken, it is understandable that yet another annual tour, even with a new bass player, would seem anti-climactic to Mitch. If the band were at least performing in Japan or Australia, he would have had the advantage of new territory. Added to circuit repetition is the fact that Cry Of Love music was much deeper than past Experience tunes, especially Jimi's "social relevance" and "political" themes of 1970. To Mitch, it must have seemed less exciting, or at least less carefree, than his exploratory heights with the Experience. But something can be new only once; after that it's a matter of refinement. Jimi's finest refinements are heard in 1970. His musical imagination advanced by leaps and bounds beyond past breakthroughs.

Most agree it's the music that's important, and it's the music that comes through clear enough on those concert tapes. There exists loads of great live music with the original Experience, but I hear Jimi having more musical fun at gigs with Cox than he usually had with Redding. That's not saying the earlier music lacked supernormal technique and imagination! It's just that Jimi sounds more concentrated and elaborate with his melodies during his last year of concerts in 1970. And it's the sound that counts.

At the L.A. '70 gig Jimi introduced himself as "Yours truly on video," however no video tape has yet beed found. A photo of Jimi onstage at L.A. '70 appears opposite Mitch's dedication on page 7 of Inside the Experience, where it is incorrectly identified as a Berkeley shot. The error is almost fitting, because in the absence of multi-track tapes of this L.A. set, the crown jewel of Hendrix '70 music is from Berkeley. With the Berkeley professsional recordings, the myth that Jimi was "spent" near the end is shattered, and a new generation of fans can start to explore his legacy with historically correct thinking.

Hendrix '70: Clearing The Haze was origianlly published in GUITAR Magazine in March 1992. The May 1992 issue of GUITAR ran two letters from readers who added more insight:

Dear GUITAR,

Thanks for the article on Hendrix 1970 (March, 1992). I was at the Forum concert in April of '70. It was a different atmosphere from previous rock concerts, very spiritual. Jimi played a few favorites, but mainly jammed. He also made the audience "Stand up for once in your life," before The Star Spangled Banner. Lastly, in reference to whether there was a videotape of the concert, there was a large-screen projection of Hendrix throughout. The camera remained mainly on Jimi. This was delightful to those of us far away. This was the first time I had ever seen this used at a concert.

Dennis Watts
Tehachapi, CA

Dear GUITAR,

Special thanks to Michael Fairchild's article about Jimi Hendrix (Clearing the Haze). I hope it sets a few records straight about this amazing artist. I was fortunate to attend the L.A. Forum 1970 concert. I also possess a copy of the live bootleg. Inferior recording aside, there is no live album that captures the unbelievable guitar sound of Jimi Hendrix than the one that is etched in that vinyl. Drugs plagued his later years, but his playing was always over-the-top, inspired, and way ahead of most guitar sounds, even today.

Peter McKibben
Los Angeles, CA