| Interview With Jimi |
| The following text is from a press conference given by Jimi Hendrix on12/15/69. He is speaking at a gathering in Harlem. I think that you will find the words of Jimi Hendrix in this context to be quite interesting. |
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| JIMI HENDRIX: It seems to me that,uh..music has a lot of influence on young people today,you know.Politics are getting..well I don't know,you know how they do, you know. A cat was talkin' on TV,a cat from Mississippi, a former Mississippi cat, you barely understand him, except when he says, "America", you know, so then he's gonna..., and vote for him. But in music it's all true, either true or false.You know,and like uh,with a large gathering of people with music, it shows that music must mean something It breaks down to the arts of earth, you know the earth arts. |
| The success was that it was one of the largest gathering of people, and the musical sense of it, you know. And ,uh, It could of been arranged ,you know. a little more tighter, but it was a complete success compared to all the other festivals that everybody tried to knock it. I'd like to see the same thang happen, and have some kind of trolley or bus thing from other areas of town. Some kind of..'Cause I'd like everybody to see these kind of festivals with everybody mixed together. You wouldn't believe it, you really wouldn't. |
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| QUESTION: Well, do you think, ah, that anything significant was stated by this gathering. |
| JIMI HENDRIX: It seems to me that.(questioner says inaudible addition)Oh yeah, yeah, it's true. And it just spread harmony and communication, and there was no violence at all out there which is completely different. For a mixed group or whatever you want to call it. |
| QUESTION: Do you think this is gonna have an influence on uh..future festivals? |
| JIMI HENDRIX: Well,the idea of nonviolence, and the idea of when your attendance is over the thing, you should let everybody else in free. Yeah, that idea, yeah, and the idea of people really listening to music over the sky, you know,in such a large body.Everybody think that something is gonna go haywire or somethin'.But that's always brought on by the police. Always, you know. |
| QUESTION: You say that this is a success. But,theres 300,000 people isn't that pretty large to really be a success. |
| JIMI HENDRIX: It sure is,and I'm glad it is a success. Pardon?"Anything I wanna say? "Yeah,I' can hardly wait 'til the gig comes,' cause I'm more conformable with a guitar in front of people. This whole theng is done in the benefit of UBA .And we hope to do some more gigs, for it, you know some more benefits. Matter of fact we're trying to stress also that music should be done outside in a festival type of way. Just like they do it anywhere else. And like, if they can,uh, have more gigs like this in Harlem. Where you play outside, for instance three days, and the fourth day you play half the day outside, for instance ,and maybe the other time in the Apollo, four shows or whatever, you know. 'Cause a lot of kids in the ghetto, or whatever you want to call it, you know, don't have the money to travel across country, to see these different festivals, what they call festivals. I mean, seven dollars is a lot of money. So, ah, I think, more groups that are supposed to be considered heavy groups should contribute more to this cause. |