Quotes from "Jimi Hendrix: In His Own Words"
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I read Jimi Hendrix: In His Own Words by Tony Brown again this weekend for like the 1,000th time. I decided to post some passages that may suprise you. Since these are word for word excerpts from Jimi, they may seem erratic but that's just how Jimi talked. Please post your opinions and comments. If you like these I’ll post some more in the future.
Check out the picture also... it cracks me up every time!
-trem
INFLUENCES
“I listen to everything that's written. It keeps my interest. From rock to The Beatles to Muddy Waters to Elmore James which is a blues guitar and singer. And I listen to Bob Dylan.” -London, December 1967
“There is no best guitarist. There are so many different styles in music. It's a matter of taste. Everybody should have his own example. I like the style of Muddy Waters, because he plays the `blues'”. -Munich, May 1967
FIRST BAND
"Well it's so very hard to me, 'cos at first man I was so scared, I wouldn't dare go on stage, no, you know, like I joined this band, I knew about three songs and when it's time for us to play on stage man, I was like this shaking gesture, you know, and then I had to play behind the curtains, you know, I couldn't get up in front... then plus you get very discouraged; you hear different bands playing around you and the guitar player seems like he's always much better then you are, you know. Then most people give up at this point because, you know, they get very discouraged, but it's best not to, you know, just keep on, just keep on, if you're very stubborn you can, you know, make it; that's the only way I, you know... try to make it is being very persistent," -Frankfurt, March 1967
GUITARS
"I use a Fender Stratocaster. 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 right 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 no toilet paper, so watch out for the pick guard. The Stratocaster is the best all around guitar for the stuff we're doing. You can get the very bright trebles and the deep bass sound. I tried 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 Fender." -Hollywood, August 1967
PRACTICE
"Yeah, well I like to, like play to myself, unlike a minute ago. In a room or before we go on stage or something like this; or whenever I feel like... or whenever I feel down or depressed or whatever, you know. I just go and play and... I can't practice though - It's just always constantly; what do you call it? Like a jam, you know. It's hard for me to remember any notes 'cos I'm constantly trying to create other things. That's why I make a lot of mistakes." -New York, September 1969
RECORDING COSTS
“The money doesn't make any difference to me 'cos that's what I make the money for, is to make better things, you know, happen. That's why, I don't have no value of money at all. That's only... my only fault, 'cos I just get the things that I see and want and try to put it into music. I wanna have stereo where it goes up: the sound goes up, and behind, and underneath, you know. But all you can get now is across and across. I'm willing to spend every single penny on it, if I thought it was good enough. But there you go, you know! I do that and then they leave me out there.” - London, October 1967
COMPLIMENTS
"Compliments are not absolutely necessary for me, because mostly they are dishonest. I know myself what's good and what's bad. So I know what to make of compliments." -Berlin, September 1967
"I don't really live on compliments. Matter of fact it has a way of distracting me. I know a whole lot of other musicians and artists that are out there today, you know, they hear all these compliments, they say `Wow, I must have been really great!' So they get fat and satisfied and they get lost and they forget about their actual talent that they have and they start living into another world." -New York, July 1969
DRUGS
"Many say they can understand themselves better, when they take LSD. Rubbish! They're idiots, who talk like that. If I were to take LSD, then only for my personal entertainment; for fun or just because it pleases me. " -Berlin, September 1967
"Music is a safe type of high. It's more the way it's supposed to be. That's where highness came I guess, from... anyway, it's nothing but rhythm and motion." -New York, December 1969
FESTIVALS
“It's like the money thing of it. Everybody wants to get on the bandwagon. They don't give a damn about those kids out there. If it rains, well it rains. If it does this, well it does this. The way I could see a festival is have a little circus thing over there, have a little tent area, where you have tents you can rent out to folks or whatever. You have music going on at certain times, and then you show films at certain times. You have dances and arts and maybe even a play. Yeah, exhibits and so forth.” -New York, December 1969
RACISM
“The race problem is something crazy. The black riots in American cities, that you can read so much about in the papers currently, are just as crazy. What they are doing is irresponsible. I think that we can also live quietly, side by side. With violence; a problem like that has never been solved.” -Berlin, September 1967
“I wish they'd had electric guitars in cotton fields back in the good old days. A whole lot of things would have been straightened out. Not just only for the black and white, but I mean for the cause!
Well, it's so funny, because even some Colored people look at my music and say, `Is that white or black?' I say what do you want it ...you know, what are you trying to dissect that for? Try to go by the feeling of it. Just because it's loud.
All those are things that we have to wipe away from the face of the earth, before it can live in harmony.” - New York, January 1968
JAMMING
“It's fun to play at little funky clubs, because that's like a work house. It's nice to sweat. I remember we used to play sometimes, even the amplifiers and guitars actually were sweating, everything is sweating. It seemed like the more it got sweaty, the funkier it got and the groovier. Everybody melted together, I guess! And the sound was kicking 'em all in the chest. I dig that! Water and electricity!” -New York, December 1969
“Far as I like, I like after hour jams, like in a small places, like at a club or something. Then you get another feeling and you get off in another way, you know, with all those people there, you know? You get another feeling and then you mix it in with something else that you get. I don't know. I get more of a dreamier thing from the audience, you know, it's more of a thing that you go off into. You know, you get into such a pitch sometimes that you go off into another thing and, you don't forget about the audience, but you forget about all the paranoia that, you know, you said, `Oh gosh, I'm on stage , what are we gonna do now?' Then you go off into this other thing. Then it turns out to be like, almost like a play, only in certain ways though, you know, you have to look at it in different ways for instance.
That's what being a musician's about, it's just playing. Playing anywhere. That's why we can play Madison Square Garden and come down and play at the Experience, then go back over and play the Whiskey and then play Hollywood Bowl. See, once they get all those ideas about what building is which, they're saying, `Oh, they'll play down there, it might not be very good because they're not known to play there!' That's silly. It's fun anyway to mc. It's groovy that we get paid. All the kids have to remember is regardless of where you're going, just check it out. You've gone there to hear the music. It's terrible to have to rely on the Madison Square Garden all the time, 'cos those places are not for real good rock music. Then you have to go to the small clubs and get your cars blasted away. I think that they should make special buildings, like they make special buildings for restaurants and hotels. They should make special building for loud, or whatever you want to call it, electronic rock music.” New York, December 1969
PERFORMING LIVE
“There's so many different things we do and nothing is never the same each night, even if it's a bad night or a good night, it's... everything's always different 'cos it's more improvised, you know, almost like a free feeling, you know, free feeling, and everything we do, like playing with our teeth or with our elbows and all that. It's just like, 'cos we feel like it at right at that particular moment” - London, February 1967
“Our show is not stolen. It is never the same. Different with every performance. I haven't rehearsed anything. Everything comes out the way I feel it.” - Munich, May 1967
