Starting At Zero

by Jimi Hendrix

  There is no such thing as a color problem. It is a weapon for the negative forces who are trying to destroy the country. They make black and white fight against each other so they can take over at each end. That is what the establishment is waiting for. They let you fight, they let you go out into the streets and riot. But they’ll still put you in jail. I wish they’d had electric guitars in the cotton fields back in the good old days. A whole lot of things would have been straightened out, not just for the black and white, but I mean for the cause.

  LOOK AT THE SKY TURN A HELL-FIRE RED, LORD

  SOMEBODY’S HOUSE IS BURNING

  DOWN, DOWN, DOWN, DOWN.

  WELL, I ASKED MY FRIEND,

  “WHERE IS THAT BLACK SMOKE COMING FROM?”

  HE JUST COUGHED AND CHANGED THE SUBJECT AND SAID,

  “UH, IT MIGHT SNOW SOME.”

  SO I LEFT HIM SIPPING HIS TEA

  AND I JUMPED IN MY CHARIOT AND RODE OFF

  TO SEE JUST WHY AND WHO COULD IT BE THIS TIME.

  SISTERS AND BROTHERS, DADDIES,

  MOTHERS STANDIN’ ROUND CRYING.

  WHEN I REACHED THE SCENE THE FLAMES

  WERE MAKING A GHOSTLY WHINE.

  SO I STOOD ON MY HORSE’S BACK

  AND I SCREAMED WITHOUT A CRACK,

  I SAY, “OH BABY, WHY’D YOU BURN

  YOUR BROTHER’S HOUSE DOWN?”

  WELL, SOMEONE STEPPED FROM THE CROWD,

  HE WAS NINETEEN MILES HIGH.

  HE SHOUTS, “WE’RE TIRED AND DISGUSTED,

  SO WE PAINT RED THROUGH THE SKY.”

  I SAY, “THE TRUTH IS STRAIGHT AHEAD,

  SO DON’T BURN YOURSELF INSTEAD,

  TRY TO LEARN INSTEAD OF BURN, HEAR WHAT I SAY!”

  You know where the truth is. The truth is that it’s time to get together now! If people would only stop blaming. You can see how frustrating it is. The black person argues with the white person that he’s been treated badly for the last two hundred years. Well, he has, but now’s the time to work it out instead of talking about the past. We know that the past is all screwed up, so instead of talking about it, let’s get things together now!

  AUGUST 8, 1967, BURNING OF THE MIDNIGHT LAMP RELEASED IN THE U.S.}

  I really don’t care what our records do as far as chart-wise. Burning Of The Midnight Lamp, which everyone around here hated, only made number eleven in the charts. They said that was the worst record, but to me that was the best one we ever made. I think it’s a very groovy record. I’m glad it didn’t get big and get thrown around. A lot of nice records get abused through the charts. They throw them up to the top three, and then they come right back down. It might have been a nice record, but nobody will remember it two weeks from now.

  I don’t think that people really understood Burning Of The Midnight Lamp. Maybe it’s a little murky in there, a bit smoky, but it’s the kind of disc you put down and go back to. When I first heard Procol Harum’s Whiter Shade Of Pale, the meaning was very muddy. I understood about the first verse and that was all. But as you hear it again and again, you begin to put the thing together.

  I wrote part of that song on a plane between L.A. and New York and finished it in the studios in New York. There are some very personal things in there. I was feeling kind of down. But I think that everyone can understand the feeling that when you’re traveling, no matter what your address, there is no place you can call home. The feeling of a man in a little old house in the middle of a desert where he is burning the midnight lamp. You don’t mean for things to be personal all the time, but that’s the way it is …

  THE MORNING IS DEAD AND THE DAY IS TOO.

  THERE’S NOTHING LEFT HERE TO GREET ME BUT THE VELVET MOON.

  ALL MY LONELINESS I HAVE FELT TODAY.

  IT’S A LITTLE MORE THAN ENOUGH TO MAKE

  A MAN THROW HIMSELF AWAY.

  AND I CONTINUE TO BURN THE MIDNIGHT LAMP, ALONE.

  NOW THE SMILING PORTRAIT OF YOU

  IS STILL HANGING ON MY FROWNING WALL

  BUT IT REALLY DOESN’T, REALLY DOESN’T BOTHER ME, TOO MUCH AT ALL.

  IT’S JUST THE EVER FALLING DUST THAT MAKES IT SO HARD FOR ME TO SEE

  THAT FORGOTTEN EARRING LAYING ON THE FLOOR

  FACING COLDLY TOWARDS THE DOOR

  AND I CONTINUE TO BURN THE MIDNIGHT LAMP ALL ALONE.

  I can’t stay in one place too long. It drags me down, regardless of what’s happening. I’m scared of vegetating. I have to move on. There’s so much to see and so many places to go. I wish I could travel all the time. I was in England longer than I’ve stayed in any one place, other than New York. I dig Britain, but I haven’t really got a home anywhere. The Earth’s my home.

  {JIMI FLEW TO LONDON ON AUGUST 10, 1967, AND THE EXPERIENCE RETURNED TO EUROPE FOR TV APPEARANCES AND CONCERTS.}

  Everywhere I go I always try to meet people. People to talk with, to laugh with and to make music with. The one thing that’s very important is people to talk with. But since I first came to Europe I’ve met one in a hundred people who let me talk about what I want to. Everybody asks me how old I am, if it’s true I have Indian blood, how many women I’ve had, if I’m married, if I have a Rolls-Royce, or more of those jokes. The people who dig me don’t want this at all. They want something different. They want to feel something inside, something real – revolution, struggle, rebellion. They know where you’re at without asking questions. They know from the music. But there’s no point in talking like this. I just stand about and wait for the next question, and people usually misconstrue my answers. I know what I mean, but I can’t form the words.

  IT SEEMS LIKE THE PEOPLE IN SCANDINAVIA just aren’t ready for the way we look. In Sweden they moved us out of the hotel lobby just because Princess Alexandra was coming through! I guess the guy at the hotel thought we were a bit scruffy and tried to tidy the place up for the Princess. He was real cool. He invited us to have a drink. We play about ten places here, I guess. I’m not sure because I don’t keep up with that. I just play. We’re going to take a vacation soon, right after this Scandinavian tour.

  We’re working very, very hard now. Once you’ve made a name for yourself, you are all the more determined to keep it up. In any case, I don’t believe you’ve really made it until you breathe your last breath. So what we are trying to do is to be more and more progressive, to make our music and our act more varied and exciting, so that all age groups can enjoy it.

  {IN NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER 1967, THE EXPERIENCE HEADED A PACKAGE TOUR OF BRITAIN, SUPPORTED BY THE MOVE, PINK FLOYD, AMEN CORNER, OUTER LIMITS, THE NICE AND EIRE APPARENT.}

  Although I wasn’t scared starting my first big tour, we did wonder how they would accept us, there being so many different acts and us probably the most extreme of all. In the clubs they would just come to see us, but on this tour you get all kinds and all ages. Like always, we go out to play and please the public, and so far it’s been wild, really wild. In Blackpool the police slipped Mitch and Noel in through side doors and took me ’round the block five times before helping me in. I lost some hair, but I might have lost the lot if they hadn’t been guarding me!

  It’s the best tour I’ve been on. Sometimes, while you’re into your music, you might hear little teeny-weenies – little piglets – squealing out there. Sometimes they scream in the wrong places, like when I cough. I feel funny then. It’s like, “Uh-oh, here they go.” It’s a little hard to explain what really bugs me about that scene. I mean, you don’t perform according to how they scream.

  The Nice are my favorite group on this tour. Their sound is ridiculously good – original, free, more funky than West Coast. You don’t have the West Coast scene in Britain, at least not out in the open. The Underground is where it’s in the groove. And over here if it’s not Engelbert Humperdink, it’s Underground.

  “Strange Brew” (Cream). Oh, I know who that is all right, by the first note! Ooh, that’s nice. Was that a horn in the background? Those voices and the guitar sound so well together. It has a strang
e kind of West Coast and San Francisco sound. Eric’s guitar is sounding funkier and more relaxed. He’s gradually changing, but with a cat like that you can never tell when he’s going to settle down. It could be disastrous if he did. This is a nice blues song that you can dig between Engelbert and Cat Stevens on the radio. I like this record, but I don’t know about the little kiddies. The Cream shouldn’t worry though, because they are playing what they like. Groups like Cream, Traffic and Family are so deeply interested in their music that they are creating a culture. Their music is so important to them.

  “Loving You” (Billy Fury). Is that an English guy singing? It’s not Billy J. Kramer? Not whatshisname – Billy Fury? He sings very nicely, and it’s the sound I used to like when I was a little boy. It could have been a stronger arrangement to help him out. That’s an old Elvis Presley song. At least Billy is getting his name back. It’s nice.

  “Come To The Sunshine” (Harpers Bizarre). That’s an English group too? Weird little voices. Who could it be? Oh, what was that sound? I don’t know, that’s almost like a fairy tale, a theme for a children’s movie. You can take it off now if you want to. That’s not for me, but there’s no telling. It might sell twenty million. It’s one of those goody-goody records with a completely commercial sound, no feeling, no nothing. It’s just made to sell records.

  “What Good Am I?” (Cilla Black). It sounds like a female Tim Hardin. Now it’s changed complexion. God, it must be Cilla Black. Now it makes me think of Sonny and Cher. Yes, I like that. Her voice sounds like controlled feedback, it’s so powerful. Now she sounds like Dionne Warwick! God, what’s happening nowadays? Yes, there’s a nice feeling on this.

  “Here Come The Nice” (Small Faces). I’ve heard these voices somewhere before. The lead singer sounds very nice. That has to be the Small Faces. I was going to ask if they had a girl in the group! Their music is very funky, but it sounded like a girl’s voice at the beginning. This has a very good beat. The backing voices and the drumming give it away. God, what’s happening there? They are doing one of those Mrs. Miller tricks, slowing down the speed. That’s slowed-down soprano! It’s pretty hard to say if that will be a hit. I’ve met the little cats in the group. They’re all so little. When I first came here they were really happening, but now they don’t seem to be doing too much. I hope they come through all right because they are a very good group, especially image-wise. They should feature their lead singer more. I’d like to try and write some songs for them.

  “She’s Leaving Home” (Beatles). Who’s that? It’s not the Beatles, it’s too commercial. The voices are a little more steady, and they’ve got echo on the violins. It’s an English group trying to sound like the Beatles. Sounds like Ringo to me. Ringo hasn’t gone solo, has he? This is one of the most commercial songs on the album. The Beatles LP is standard equipment for all the groups at the moment. Everybody is so worried about the Beatles and where they are going. It’s so silly. Just take the music for what it’s worth. I wish we could end up like them!

  IT SEEMS TO ME LIKE MUSIC GOES IN A BIG CYCLE, and it’s coming back to more of a true form of music now. During a certain age, which was past not so long ago, they started getting really superficial and junky. This was because the music started getting too complicated. In order to get into that you have to be really true to yourself, and none of those cats were doing that. The idea is not to get as complicated as you can but to get as much of yourself into it as you can. I feel everything I play. It’s a release of all my inner feelings – aggression, tenderness, sympathy, everything. Same with Noel and Mitch. It’s a wedding of our feelings in music. We all three have our own little scene as far as music goes. One of us is in a rock bag, another is just jazz, while I’m in the blues. We are all doing our separate things together. This way everything’s a very natural progression.

  Music has to go places. That’s why we make something new. It’s hard for me to think in terms of blues anymore. The content of the old blues was singing about sex and booze. Now people are saying so much more with music. Motown isn’t the real sound of any Negro artist singing. It’s so commercial, so put together, so beautiful, that I don’t feel anything from it. All they do, and this is my own opinion, is put a very hard beat to it, a very good beat. Then they put about a thousand people on tambourines, plus a thousand horns and a thousand violins, and then a singer overdubs his voice millions of times, and to me it comes out so artificial. “Synthetic Soul” is what I call Motown.

  I really don’t like the word “soul” in connection with the Experience. A Spanish dancer has soul. Everybody has soul. Music is nobody’s soul. It’s something from somebody’s real heart. It doesn’t necessarily mean physical notes that you hear by ear. It could be notes that you hear by feeling or by thought or by imagination or even by emotions. I like the words “feeling” and “vibration.” I get very hung up on this feeling bag. The sounds of a funky guitar just thrill me, go all through me. I can get inside it almost. I’m not saying that I play that good; I’m just explaining my feeling towards it and the feelings towards the sound it produces.

  I’ve got about eight guitars, but the two I use are the Fender Stratocaster and a Gibson Flying Angel, which is shaped like a letter A and is extremely rare in Britain. I play a Fender Stratocaster because it gets used pretty hard in the act and it’s the only one which will stand up to it. Everybody’s screaming about the seven-year-old Telecaster and the twelve-year-old Gibson and the ninety-two-year-old Les Paul. They’ve gone into an age bag now, but it’s nothing but a fad. The guitars nowadays play just as good. You know, the salesman is always telling you that Chuck Berry took this one to the bathroom with him and he didn’t have any toilet paper, so watch out for the pick guard. § I tried the Telecaster, and it only has two sounds, good and bad, and a very weak tone variation. The Guild guitar is very delicate, but it has one of the best sounds. I tried one of the new Gibsons, but I literally couldn’t play it at all, so I’ll stick with my Fender. § The Stratocaster is the best all-round guitar for the stuff we’re doing. You can get the very bright trebles and the deep bass sound. I use light-gauge strings, and I put them on slightly higher so they can ring longer. I don’t like to use mikes. To get the right sound it’s a combination of both amp and fretting. It’s a simple trick. I turn the amplifier knob really fast once, twice. That gives the singing, whistling tone – the electronic tone. The trick then is to control this tone with the fingers. It doesn’t make any difference what size the amps are as long as I know I have it. I’m not necessarily trying to be loud. I’m just trying to get this impact.

  “I’d like to warn you now,

  it’s going to be a bit loud,

  a teeny bit loud,

  because these are English amps and we’re in Sweden,

  and the electricity scene is not working out

  with this Australian fuzz tone

  and this American guitar …”

  As long as the equipment holds up, we’re fine. We have so much trouble with amplifiers. We have to get them overhauled after every trip. We’re always playing out of the shadows and ashes of the last gig we did. We’ve just come off a tour, and I think we went through about four Marshalls. This is about the fifth set, and they’ve really had it. They’ve been screwed properly. I’ve got about four speakers left and about three more valve tubes. And Mitch Haze is on his third pair of arms!

  It really brings me down when the amps don’t work, and it makes me twice as mad when a road manager tries to tell me, just because they’re fucked up, that they’re overworking too much. I’m not an amp repair man, but if they begin to buzz or give us any trouble, we do an instant repair job – we kick them in!

  I really like my old Marshall tube amps because when it’s working properly there’s nothing can beat it, nothing in the whole world. It looks like two refrigerators hooked together. When I was in Greenwich Village I had a Fender amp and an old extension loudspeaker, and it made the weirdest sounds. That’s when I first

 
; started using feedback. I fooled with it, and what I’m doing now is the fruit of my fooling around. It’s mostly feedback and the way you control the knobs.

  See, you can take a plate off the back here and tap these little springs, and it makes these weird little sounds. Then we use repeat echo and wah-wah, you know, things like that. The wah-wah pedal is great because it doesn’t have any notes. Nothing but hitting it straight up, using the vibrato. Then the drums come through, and it feels like, not depression, but that loneliness and that frustration, that yearning for something, like something is reaching out.

  The first record I heard with wah-wah was Tales Of Brave Ulysses. Two or three days after Cream came out with that one we released our first LP, and on the track I Don’t Live Today there’s a guitar solo that’s wah-wah like. But we were using a hand wah-wah then. It was coincidental because we didn’t know anything about their record and they didn’t know anything about ours.

  The way I play lead is a raw type of way, and it just comes to you naturally. But the most essential thing to learn is the time, the rhythm. They got millions of beautiful solo guitarists in the world now, playing really beautiful greasy solos, but some of them are forgetting their rhythm section, and it’s getting really monotonous to hear. Eric Clapton is a great guitarist and we think along the same lines, but I’m not sure he’s playing exactly what he wants to. I was jamming with Eric the other day and it was pretty nice, but I wanted to hear him bring out some chords!

  I only heard one record by Jeff Beck, Shapes Of Things. I really dug it, but I wasn’t really influenced by it. I listen to everybody, but I don’t try to copy anybody. Cats I like now are Albert King and Elmore James, but if you try to copy them note for note your mind starts wandering. Therefore, you dig them, and then do your own thing. Other musicians are doing so much in their own way. There’s one cat I’m still trying to get across to people. His name is Albert Collins. He’s buried in a road band somewhere. He’s good, really good, but he’s a family cat and doesn’t want to go too far from home. Ain’t that always the way?