What Jimi's Death Did... By Alvin Jackson

One day, before my father and mother are old and ready to pass, I must capture their rock'n'roll heydey memoirs. My parents were THERE, participating and in the middle of the British scene. In this piece, my father, Romain (pen name Alvin Jackson) reminisces on the impact of Hendrix's death. Today is 39 years since Jimi left. Read on:

In September 1970, after the Isle Of Wight Festival, I was living in London, in Faraday Road. A hippie safehouse called PinkWind where lived members of two groups, The Pink Fairies and Hawkwind. That was bassist Duncan Sanderson, Twink the drummer who briefly played with The Pretty Things, Uncle Nick Turner the sax and Stacia the Dancer. I had a room at the top of the 3rd floor. Lemmy was only a roadie of Hawkwind, then, he did not play bass with them yet, and was often in and out of the house, buzzed on speed.

Everybody who was someone in the Area knew that Jimi (& girlfriend Monica Dannemann, a danish champion ice skater ) had rented a whole cottage in leafy Lansdowne Crescent, only a short walk from Portobello Road. A flat-hotel where rooms were in fact cottage pavilions. The last 3 or 4 days since his arrival, Jimi had been in Portobello Road and Notting Hill Gate or Kensington Market shops, also in some of the local pubs and hang-outs and the number of cats he had given a psychedelic shirt to, was amazing. Black or white, they all boasted about it at Finch's pub in Portobello or at the Mountain Grill, just up the road from The Electric Cinema....

I kept hoping, I would bump into Jimi and we'd talk...I had seen him two weeks ago at The Isle Of Wight, with Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell, and I had so many things to ask him about the new songs he had played which NOBODY knew about yet ("Freedom", "In From The Storm", "Ezy Rider", came out a year later on the Cry Of Love album) I did not know the titles, but I thought it was rock directly coming from the 21st century already and nobody else at all was able to play like this. Not Clapton, Page, or even that guy with Free, Paul Kossoff, not even Freddy King, Albert King or Jerry Garcia or John Cippollina...well maybe John Cipollinna but that's another kettle of fish!

But I never crossed Jimi's path and very shortly later, one sad morning on the 19 bus downtown to Marble Arch, I saw a pavement newsvendor's sign announcing simply these three words "Pop Star Dies !" Wether it was telepathy or not , I knew right away it WAS Jimi. When I got back home in Faraday Road, everyone was talking about it. Some black cat dealer we knew was saying he had sold him extra-powerful Tuinal pills but it was probably not true (many years later I found out Jimi had in fact taken Vesperax).

That fateful day, we listened together to his music,with the sound tuned up real loud. I still remember "House Burning Down" and "Gypsy Eyes" from the Electric Ladyland double LP. But then, it seems the vibe was much too sad to bear and everybody went finally their own way. I went up to my room , took off my boots, got in bed, and did not come out for a week. In time I found other people had the same reaction at the same moment, Johnny Winter, Steve Stills...That's because, Jimi was truly the future ,OUR future, call Him the Messiah of the Electric Guitar, or anything else you care to. But now he was gone. It's impossible to describe accurately what it did to rock music at the time. Many say it downgraded the music back to a minor art of smaller dimensions and prospects, just entertaining after all, not messianic or prophetic anymore. After Jimi came only copycats, glamour, homosexuality(72), and finally a rock reaction in the guise of punk (75/76).

Michael Moorcock & Robert Calvert, writers within the Hawkwind circle imagined a time travel trip back in time, to save Jimi's life just before he od'd , but that was only poetic license, wishful thinking and taking too much LSD.

Me, I still miss him, and no argument about "What if He had lived, and played jazz ,blues, gospel ? etc" will bring him back. Bless all those who love his music and damn the vultures who still try to make a buck out of him.

Romain "Alvin Jackson" Decoret