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Hendrix Story

 
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Christopher X



Joined: 07 Jul 2006
Posts: 236
Location: New Zealand

PostPosted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 3:51 am    Post subject: Hendrix Story Reply with quote

This is a story posted by jeffreymhort... on the texas flood yahoo group,it came from another yahoo group he is on,and is about a fan meeting hendrix,great read and one lucky guy, its real long too. Cool
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The story below was posted on our local blues site by one of our Dallas
old-timers. It is strikingly similar to stories we've all heard about chance
encounters with Steve.

Jeff in Dallas


Okay, here's a Hendrix story for you. Late '60s, I was a Dallas high
school hippie. I was involved in this thing called the "Dallas
Family", which was a bunch of hippazoids who volunteered to do stage
and door security for Dallas rock concert promoters. Basically, you
made a day of it and in return got to watch the shows for free, often
from right on stage. You got there early and did the grunt work,
loading in the amps and PA stuff, helped with stage setup, did various
door security assignments, saw the show, then stayed until the wee
hours tearing down and loading out.

I got up close with a lot of big acts -- Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck
Group, Spirit, Steppenwolf... well, heck with the list, this is about
Hendrix.

I worked the first Hendrix show at Fair Park, but didn't meet any of
the band. I did load in a half dozen large Sunn 200S bass cabinets
delivered for Noel Redding from a local music store new in Sunn
shipping cartons, and took one of the cartons home, which, decorated
with day-glo paisley art, became my bedroom dresser for a couple of
years. I was run off the stage after the set up on that show and
watched the gig from out front and had my mind blown.

Then The Experience came back some months later for a concert at Moody
Coliseum on the SMU campus. I helped grunt the Marshall and Sunn boxes
off the semi trailer again, helped set the stage, and then was just
goofing around while the techs were tuning up the PA system.

I was roaming the halls backstage, and stuck my head into a door and
holy s**t there was Jimi sitting by himself in a dressing room with a
half dozen guitars on stands, and just quietly picking on one.
Embarrassed, I said, "Oh, excuse me, man..." and made to back out,
only he says, "No, man, come on in... what's happening?"

I was terrified and quite speechless, but he instantly made me feel at
ease, offered a chair, and started shooting the breeze like just one
of the cats. It was, "You look like a musician, you in a band...?" --
asking ME about MY gig as if it was no different from HIS gig. He
seemed honestly friendly and curious about my deal, so I told him
about my rock & roll / blues band and we talked about what tunes we
played and of course he knew them and, oh man, it was very uplifting,
and he knew it, he knew he was inspiring me.

"here, check out these guitars," he says and hands me a white Strat
and then his black Flying V... I notice the fairly heavy strings and
fairly high action and he says "oh yeah, I finally got me some good
guitars and this cat travels with us and keeps them set up just
perfect, man you ought to see the shit I used to have to play...", and
I am scared to death I am going to drop or damage one, but no worry
from Jimi, he is going out of his way to show me that the whole star
thing is just BS, he is just one of the cats, just like anybody.

"Sonny, where is the good cheeseburger around here, I am dying for a
cheeseburger..." So I was ready for that and told him he's a block
away from the killer burger at Koustoubardis Burger House on
Hillcrest. He runs out in the hall and yells at one of his crew, comes
back in and gets me to tell the guy exactly how to get there and 30
minutes later there is a box of about 20 K-burgers and fries back
there with everybody wolfing them down and Hendrix winking at me and
saying, "you ain't shittin' man, these are FINE..."

So, then things were starting to happen, customers were coming into
the hall and I cleared out and watched the show from on stage and it
was great, and very different from the Fair Park show in the feel of
it. The band was not that loud on stage. There were a lot of speakers,
you could hear everything great, but it didn't hurt the ears at all.
It was very comfortable and musical.

I also said hi to Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding that night, but
neither of them had much to say and they were self-absorbed and seemed
like they were not having that good of a time. Who knows what was
going on in that band. It was endless weird politics and drugs and the
band pissed about the money and etc.

Well, that day was a peak life experience for a dumb high school kid
like me. In one way it was sad, because it shattered my illusion about
Hendrix, the illusion gained from Are You Experienced and Axis Bold As
Love, which I think might have just come out. I pictured Jimi as ten
feet tall and glowing and levitating on a cloud of purple smoke with
paisley patterns of light floating around his head, an alien god of
some kind. Well. Not so. He was an ordinary guy, a musician like any
other musician, and humble about his situation, which he knew would
pass and some day he would be right back down scuffling like any other
player. I was a player and he didn't want to see any difference
between us, even though there was a BIG difference right then.

That day, at least, I can tell you he was NOT messed up on dope, he
was not crazy, he was not full of himself, he was not a jerk or a star
tripper, he was just a great, friendly, unassuming cat. Maybe he was
lonely from all the hype and celebrity and just wanted to feel like a
nobody hanging with another nobody, I don't know. But that day I
learned that playing rock and roll was something you could do if you
really wanted to, and it was all about ordinary people putting on a
magic show and trying to have a good time -- a lesson I have applied
all my life since. And I have always loved that cat since that day. He
was real. I hated it in the worst way when he died.

I hope y'all liked my story. It is all true, and it could have
happened to anybody, and it probably happened to a lot of people like
me as Jimi went around being a big superstar. And I got a free
Koustoubardis burger out of it, too. What a deal.
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Christopher


Last edited by Christopher X on Wed Nov 01, 2006 11:51 pm; edited 2 times in total
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blahblahwoofwoof



Joined: 28 Apr 2005
Posts: 171

PostPosted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 9:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That was a great story, thanks for pasting it. Now I want a burger. Laughing
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Christopher X



Joined: 07 Jul 2006
Posts: 236
Location: New Zealand

PostPosted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 11:45 pm    Post subject: Thanks Reply with quote

Thanks for the coment,wish i had a meeting like that,would have been cool. Cool
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