... which brings us to the Band of Gypsys final concert, 28 january 1970.
You all remember this one, right?
"Machine gun" and all that? Live album that won many prizes, recorded at the Fillmore over 2 nights, 4 shows were played on 31 december 1969 & 1 january 1970. Gone was the psychedelic Jimi of the early Experience group, these kewl guys played funk, soul, blues, anything.
Here's their opening number, "Who knows", Bill Graham's guys filmed it:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAP861ndB8w&feature=relatedSo 4 weeks later the powerful black trio was invited to headline this "Winter peace festival". It was a fucking disaster. This time gonna just copy the info from the booklet I got with the bootleg, interesting read; photos and mp3s of the event by me.
"On January 28th 1970, The Band of Gypsys were to play last their show at Madison Square Garden
for the Winter Festival For Peace. It was organized by the Vietnam Moratorium committee with
Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul, and Mary running the show and getting all the talent to play for free.
Jimi showed up too stoned to play.
Johnny Winter: "When I saw him it gave me the chills. It was the most horrible thing I'd ever seen.
He came in with his entourage of people and it was like he was already dead.
He just walked in and even though Jimi and I weren't the greatest of friends, we always talked, always -
and he came in with his head down, sat on the couch alone and put his head in his hands.
He didn't say a word to anybody and no one spoke to him. He didn't move until it was time for the show.
He really wanted to do that gig, but he never should have."
As he walked on stage a woman yelled out "Foxey Lady!". Jimi responded with "Foxey Lady is sittin' right
over there, in the yellow underpants stained with dirt and blood." People in the audience were mortified!
He then performed terrible versions of "Who Knows" and "Earth Blues", then stumbled to the mike and said
"That's what happens when earth fucks with space, never forget that." He then sat down on the stage near
the drums and refused to continue. Buddy, trying to take control of the situation, addressed the audience.
"Listen it seems as though we are not quite getting it together here. Just give us a little more time because
it has been hard. Give us a few minutes and we'll try to get something together."
Jimi unplugged his guitar, went back to his dressing room, and bent over with stomach cramps.
Sacha Reins: "Jimi picks up his guitar again, and he tries to start another song, but it is even worse.
Then he throws his guitar on the floor and leaves, his body shaking from sobbing. Apart from a few fools who
are booing, everybody is silent. They are getting up and stand in silence, unable to comfort a friend, the idiots."
Billy Cox: "Buddy and I walked over to Madison Square Garden, went into the dressing room, and there was Jimi.
He was not in the best shape. Jimi was sitting next to Jeffery, and we knew it wasn't going to work.
Jimi was in bad shape. We thought about not going out there, because someone was trying to make assholes out of us,
but we did. We thought Jimi might be able to make it, but we only got through that one song before it started
coming apart. What went down was very embarrassing, and it left Jimi angry and disillusioned. It was unfortunate."
From the book Setting the Record Straight : "Buddy Miles claims that Michael Jeffery, in a deliberate effort to
sabotage the Band of Gypsys's performance, slipped Hendrix LSD backstage. "Both my sister and I saw Jeffery slip
Hendrix two tabs of acid, and I personally saw Hendrix take them. He looked so scared.""
We'll probably never find out the truth. Some say Jimi accidentally did it to himself.
After all, this had happened before in Germany.
Others say that Jimi was already high and Mike Jeffrey made it worse by giving him acid before the show.
The popular belief is that Mike Jeffrey gave Jimi bad acid as a "Final Solution" to destroy the band publicly.
This was backed up by Buddy Miles' statement. Whatever the cause, it was the end of The Band of Gypsys.
Backstage Mike Jeffrey confronted Buddy Miles and told him he was fired..."
Hendrix and Winter backstage:
Going onstage:
"that's what happens when Earth fucks with Space, m'kay?"
intro:
www.sendspace.com/file/01pv16who knows:
www.sendspace.com/file/1se6c2earth blues:
www.sendspace.com/file/dzz63w
