Starting At Zero

by Jimi Hendrix

  It was my plan to change the bass player even back in the days after the Experience when there was no band. It’s nothing personal against Noel. Billy Cox has a more solid style, which suits the new group better. I’m not saying that anyone is better than the other, just that today I want a more solid style. There’s no telling how I’ll feel tomorrow.

  {IN APRIL 1970, STEPPING STONE, WITH BILLY COX ON BASS AND BUDDY MILES ON DRUMS, WAS RELEASED IN AMERICA AS A SINGLE. IT DIDN’T MAKE THE CHARTS AND WAS SOON WITHDRAWN.}

  I haven’t had too many records out for a while. I wanted this out before people forgot about me.

  I’M A MAN, AT LEAST I TRY TO BE,

  BUT I’M LOOKING FOR THE OTHER HALF OF ME,

  I’M LOOKIN’ FOR THAT TRUE LOVE TO BE,

  MY ENDLESS SEARCH FOR MY TRUE DESTINY.

  WELL, I TRY TRY NOT TO BE A FOOL.

  WELL, I TRY TRY LORD TO KEEP MY COOL, BABY,

  TRY SO HARD TO KEEP IT TOGETHER.

  I don’t know how good it is. I can’t tell anymore. Some of the copies out here have no bass on them. I had to go out somewhere and tell the guy to remix it, but he didn’t. Sure it matters. I’d like a hit single. It’s nice to have people hearing your songs all over the world on the radio.

  I did some recording last year, but I flipped out after two days because much of the stuff was recorded in the gap between the time the Experience broke up and the Band of Gypsys. So that stuff’s another age. I’m losing time with myself.

  {APRIL ALSO SAW THE RELEASE OF THE BAND OF GYPSYS ALBUM RECORDED AT THE FILLMORE EAST. IT SPENT SIXTY-ONE WEEKS ON THE AMERICAN CHARTS AND REACHED A TOP POSITION OF #5.}

  The only reason we put out Band Of Gypsys was that Capitol was pressing for an LP and we didn’t have anything ready at the time. So they got that. I wasn’t too satisfied with the album. If it had been up to me I would have never put it out. From a musician’s point of view it was not a good recording, and I was out of tune on a few things. Not enough preparation went into it, and it came out a bit grizzly. We all felt shaky. There were some nice songs on the album, some nice ideas, particularly on side two.

  {CONTINUING FINANCIAL PRESSURES FORCED JIMI TO ABANDON WORK ON HIS NEW ALBUM AND AGREE TO YET ANOTHER TOUR OF AMERICA.}

  I’m calling the tour “Cry Of Love” because that’s what it’s all about. One of the worst statements people are making is, “No man is an island.” Every man is an island, and music is about the only way we can really communicate. It’s a crusade, right?

  A lot of people in America are looking for a leader in the music field. It’ll take somebody like us to get it together. We’ll be on a truth kick. We want to be completely honest and barefaced. We want to be respected after we’re dead. Who doesn’t want to be remembered in history? But regardless of whether it’s going be us, the feeling is there, and that’s what counts. If I die tomorrow, the feeling is there. Forget about brand names. We put across the music. The idea is to do it as strongly as possible, to work out a certain physical change.

  The Beatles could do it. They could turn this world around or at least attempt to. The Beatles can be a positive force, and they could really get the people together. They’ve got power because they are performing for the masses. They should use their power. It might make them a little more uncomfortable in their position, but me, I don’t care about my position. What I have to say I’m glad to say it. I’m trying to use my power. I could buy myself a house in Beverly Hills and retire, but I just want to go on trying to communicate. I am happy enough to spread my thoughts to others, so that’s what I must do.

  {THE “CRY OF LOVE” TOUR OPENED ON APRIL 25 AT THE LOS ANGELES FORUM. THREE DAYS AFTER AMERICANS CELEBRATED EARTH DAY 1970.}

  “Listen, we’re all in this mess together.

  We’re all livin’, tryin’ to grow, little children takin’ steps here and there from home. And some have big dreams, and some of those get killed by all these bullshit old traditional schemes. So just try to dig the message. We already know hang-ups, we already know protest! Now we’re going to try and give a few solutions. Let’s see what kind of world we want to have. It’s up to you all and it’s up to us too, so let’s get our feelings together. Let’s get our hearts together.”

  There’s a whole lot of riots that are still going to happen in the States, and anywhere else for that matter. You sit glued to your TV and you’re seeing the fantasy side of life. But the problems are still there. Out in the street, that’s still there. I try to use my music as a machine to move these people to act, to get changes done. I know we can do it, that’s not the problem. That’s why we’re suffering. That’s why we party hard. That’s why we suffer hard. The problem is, can you keep up?

  I KNOW WHERE THE TROUBLE IS. A lot of it is laziness. On that side there there’s going to have to be some people to get off their asses and try to get theirselves together, instead of sitting around smoke dens saying, “Yeah, man, this is groovy, yeah, protest, protest,” and then come up with no kind of solution. Or if they come up with a solution they realize there might be a sacrifice they might have to make. Like some cat might have to give up his gig, which he calls “security,” which is a slave thing.

  YOU WORK HARD EVERY DAY, COME HOME EVERY NIGHT

  FEED THE CAT AND A DOG,

  TAKE A SMOKE AND EVERYTHING’S ALL RIGHT –

  BUT THEN YOU SEE SHADOWS ON THE WALL,

  VOICES SCREAM FROM 1000 HALLS

  AND YOU KNOW IT’S COMING FROM

  ROUND THE CORNER.

  THE YEARS PASS BY, AND NOW YOU’RE 82 –

  YOU THINK BACK ON YOUR LIFE

  AND IT WORRIES EVEN YOU

  AND YOU SAY TO YOURSELF –

  I AIN’T DID A THING

  AND YOU DRAG OUT YOUR TIME MACHINE

  AND MAKE IT BACK TO THE TIME

  WHEN YOU NEVER WENT

  AROUND THE CORNER.

  We must watch out. Security, the thinking, the reaching for it, is the biggest drug, the worst drug that’s happening today. Once you outlaw that feeling a whole lot of other things will start happening. That’s the way I live now. I don’t have a clear-cut plan. I love the uncertainties of the future. If you know beforehand what is going to happen then, to me, life doesn’t make sense. There are, of course, certain things that I would like to do, and it’s very possible that I will destroy myself in my attempt to achieve these things.

  TODAY I BURN UNDER MY BRAIN’S CONSCIOUSNESS

  OF WHAT PROPELS ME OUT OF TROUBLE,

  AT TIMES INTO TIME ITSELF,

  OUTSIDE INTO THE SPACE OF IT ALL.

  MY BODY CANNOT BREATHE THERE.

  WHAT IS MY MIND DOING THERE?

  WHY IS MY SOUL SURPASSING CURIOUS EGO’S SECURITY ACT,

  GOING FAST AS THE SPEED OF THOUGHT,

  THE FASTEST AND LONGEST FAR-REACHING THING WE KNOW?

  As long as you’re off your ass and on your feet some kind of way. Out of the bed and into the street, blah-blah, woof-woof, crackle-crackle. We can tap dance to that, can’t we?

  If you want to know the truth about it, the best thing to do is listen to the music. When there are vast changes in the way the world goes, it’s usually something like art and music that change it. Music is going to change the world next time. You see, music doesn’t lie.

  I agree it can be misinterpreted, but it doesn’t lie.

  {ON MAY 4, 1970, FOUR STUDENTS WERE SHOT DEAD BY THE NATIONAL GUARD DURING AN ANTI–VIETNAM WAR DEMONSTRATION AT KENT STATE UNIVERSITY, OHIO.}

  “THIS IS DEDICATED TO ALL THE SOLDIERS FIGHTIN’ IN KENT STATE – ALL FOUR OF THEM! AND ALL THE SOLDIERS IN MADISON AND MILWAUKEE. OH YES, I ALMOST FORGOT, VIETNAM AND CAM-BOOH-DI-AAHH! SO MANY WARS GOIN’ ON. WHAT A DRAG ALL THAT SHIT IS! NEXT THING YOU KNOW EVERY ONE OF THESE KIDS’LL BE COMPLETELY WIPED OUT BECAUSE OF SOME SHIT THAT OLD PEOPLE SAID! FREEDOM FOR US ALL!”

  A lot of people want to be written down in war history, written down in money history. This is nothing but child’s play for so-calle
d grown-ups. Countries to me are just like little kids playing with different toys, and nobody can go out on the streets with this little boy, America’s little boy. What a DRAG that America’s guns have made the CRACK in the Liberty Bell their symbol! There’s other ways you can settle things, there’s other ways you can live.

  {BECAUSE OF THE ANTIWAR DEMONSTRATIONS, WHEN JIMI PLAYED AT BERKELEY COMMUNITY CENTER ON MAY 30, THE NEIGHBORHOOD WAS CLOSE TO BEING PUT UNDER MARTIAL LAW.}

  “Hate to say it, but there’s a lot of truth we have to face up to. The idea is solutions, but still we got dedications to all the soldiers in Chicago that are in jail, all the soldiers in New York, Florida, right here in Berkeley – especially the soldiers in Berkeley. You know what soldiers I’m talking about. And dedicate it to other people that might be fightin’ wars too, but within themselves, not facing up to realities. We’re gonna play the American anthem the way it really is in the air in which you breathe every day, the way it really sounds. We’re all in this mess together.

  We’re gonna play OUR American anthem.”

  The kids on the campus are shouting through a keyhole. They’re not being individuals. In American riots you see these masochist kids. They go in there with no shelter, no anything. They get beat. Some of them will say, “We don’t have nothin’ else to live for anyway. This is our scene now.”

  You can see how desperate the whole case must be if a kid’s going to go out there without protection and get his head busted open. But then you look over in Japan. The kids in Japan, they buy helmets and they got their little squadrons and they go in wedges, like this. They got all their stuff together. They’ve got their shields. They’re wearing steel supports. You have to have all these things.

  I’d like to see these American kids with helmets on and big Roman shields and then do their thing. Really together! If you’re going to go in there, you might as well make it together. And you must put this in the book, because I’m tired of seeing Americans get their heads split open for no reason at all.

  {THROUGH MAY, JUNE AND JULY 1970, THE “CRY OF LOVE” TOUR CRISS-CROSSED AMERICA, PERFORMING IN MORE THAN THIRTY AMERICAN CITIES.}

  “I’d like to dedicate this show to the American Deserters Society. So we’ll try to help ’em out and do a song, the International Anthem, bringin’ all the soldiers back from Vietnam. Instead of them marching down the street with big M-60s and big submarines and all this stuff on their backs, how ’bout they march into town with big feedback guitars? Yeah, let’s come on back from Vietnam there!”

  America is inclined to bring out the rebel in me, and I’m not really like that at all. I still love America, naturally, it has so much good in it. But it has so much evil too. The way this country’s being run you can see the badness, you can see the evil, right in front of your face.

  On the one side the people are like pelicans who all think the same. They are striving for dead, useless things. Then we have the American Revolution, fake love for the LIE people who sold their faith. Quite naturally you say, “Make love, not war,” but then you come back to reality. There are some evil folks around and they want you to be passive and weak and peaceful so they can overtake you like jelly on bread. It’s good to be passive and all this, but you have to have something to back it up. You have to fight fire with fire.

  Forget about the mass-love scene. It’s not building understanding. And I wish I could say this so strongly they’d sit up in their chairs, because there’s no such thing as love until truth and understanding come about. In order to change the world you have to get your own head together first.

  {IN MAY 1970, AFTER A YEAR OF STRUGGLING TO BUILD ELECTRIC LADY STUDIOS, JIMI WAS FINALLY ABLE TO BEGIN RECORDING THERE.}

  I have done great things with this place. It has the best equipment in the world. It is capable of recording on 32 tracks, which takes care of most things. There is one thing that I hate about studios usually, and that is the impersonality of them. They are cold and blank, and within a few minutes I lose all drive and inspiration.

  Electric Lady is different. It has been built with great atmosphere. There are lots of cushions and pillows and thick carpets and soft lights. It’s a very relaxed studio with every comfort, so it makes people feel they are recording at home. And you can have any kind of light combination you feel like. I think this is very important. I want it to be an oasis for all the rock and roll musicians in New York. Chuck Berry and Sly have been down there doing a few things, and I am working on a symphony production to be done there in the near future.

  I’M ALSO WORKING ON MY OWN ALBUM, called First Ray Of The New Rising Sun. The First Ray Of The New Rising Sun is my new life. It will be about what we have seen, and will simplify it all to bridge the gap between teenagers and parents. It’s going to be a double set again and have about twenty tracks on it. Some tracks are getting very long, but you see, our music doesn’t pertain to one thing. You don’t have to be singing about love all the time in order to give love.

  I wrote a song called Trashman, which I’ll explain. There’s a physical change coming soon, and the world’s going to go topsy-turvy. It’s neither bad nor good – it’s just true. Because humans forget that they’re part of earth-matter too, they have bad vibrations floating around right now. For instance, you sometimes go into smoke dens and find that nobody is contributing to nothing. It’s nothing but a big negative.

  So there’s going to be this big physical change where you can draw all negative energies that might be around out of people. And from that energy you will be able to talk for about thirty hours straight, talk about something right and true. I mean talk about something that has some kind of foundation. Everybody should play their own parts. Everybody should be actors in their own scripts. All of the script is coming from God in the first place. It’s up to them to play out their parts.

  Then we have Valleys Of Neptune Arising, and we have one called Astro Man. Talk about living in peace of mind, well, Astro Man will leave you in pieces! We have the theme from The New Rising Sun, this little bolero type of thing. It’s kind of nice, but then it breaks down into a very simple pattern, asking this one question, “Where are you coming from and where are you going to?”

  I think we’re going to have this thing called Horizon or Between Here And Horizon, and that goes into certain things like A Letter To The Room Full Of Mirrors. That’s more of a mental disarrangement. It’s a song about when you get real high and all you can see is you, reflections of you here and there. Some of you have undoubtedly been through this at one time or another, in some kind of way or another. Oh boy! I guess I’ll try and get rid of that hang-up. Like they say, on a clear day you can see forever.

  THERE ARE BASICALLY TWO KINDS OF MUSIC. The blues is a reflection of life, and then there is sunshine music, which may not have so much to say lyrically but has more meaning musically. It’s more an easier type of thing with less worries and more meaning to it. I really don’t want to get too heavy. I want to play sunshine music now. I have this saying that when things get too heavy, “Just call me helium, the lightest known gas to man!”

  But music is always changing according to the attitude of the people. When the air is static, loud and aggressive, that’s how the music gets. When the air starts getting peaceful and harmonic, that’s how the music will get. So it’s up to the people how it’s going to be.

  MUSIC GOES BY THE RULES OF THE PRESENT AIR.

  LISTEN PASSIVELY AS MY GUITAR HOWLS

  AND GRINDS AND UNWINDS AND DINES

  UPON THE SPELLING OF YOUR NAME.

  I’d like to get into more symphonic things, so the kids can respect the old musical traditions, the classics. I’d like to mix that in with so-called rock. But I have to get involved in my own kind of way, because I always want to respect my own judgments.

  I don’t plan to just go out there with a ninety-piece orchestra and play two and a half hours of classical music. I plan for both those things to be used without even knowing that it’s rock and classica
l, with it being a whole other thing. It would be just like every step is, a mixture of the past and the future. When I finally get into it the whole world’s going to know about it.

  IT WOULD BE INCREDIBLE IF YOU COULD PRODUCE MUSIC so perfect that it would filter through you like rays and ultimately cure. I’m into this combination of music and color. It’s an extra area of awareness.

  I have plans that are unbelievable, but then wanting to be a guitar player seemed unbelievable at one time. I only regret that I didn’t start singing and playing on my own much earlier. I also regret that I’m lazy. I used to write thousands of tunes, but I don’t seem to get around to it now.

  {ON JULY 30, 1970, JIMI APPEARED AT THE “RAINBOW BRIDGE VIBRATORY COLOR/SOUND EXPERIMENT” ON THE HAWAIIAN ISLAND OF MAUI.}

  When I was in Hawaii I saw a beautiful thing, a miracle. There were lots of rings around the moon, and the rings were all women’s faces. I wish I could tell someone about it ...

  BABY CHILD AS A MAN,

  AS A LIVING GRAIN OF SAND,

  SITTING ON THE EVER-CHANGING SHORE,

  GREETING THE SUNRISE ...

  PICKED UP UPON THE GYPSY WOMAN,

  HAIR FLAMING NIGHT AS RAVENS

  EVEN SLEEP ... RAINBOW CLOTH ...

  TAMBOURINE COMPLEMENTING HER CHANT AND CHOICE OF GRACES,

  AND LOVE HER GOD.

  I ACTUALLY LOOKED UPON HER

  ON MY RIGHT ... COMING FORTH,

  AND BABY CHILD THEN SECONDLY LOOKED

  HIS LEFT TO EYE,

  AND 11 OR 12 WOMEN, MEN

  AND LITTLE ONES APPROACHED,

  THEY CLAD IN THEIR MASTER’S WISH;

  WHITE ROBES SWAYING TO BE BAPTIZED.

  THESE TWO WORLDS CROSSED EACH OTHER

  IN FRONT OF ME, WHEN AFTERWARDS ...

  BABY CHILD SIPPED A HEARTFUL OF OCEAN,