Jimi Hendrix
September 7, 1968
Pacific Coliseum
Vancouver, BC
01. Intro
02. Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)
03. Hey Joe
04. Are You Experienced
05. Come on Pt. 1
06. Little Wing
07. Foxy Lady
08. Red House
09. Fire
10. Spanish Castle Magic
11. Purple Haze (cut)
Here are some comments and reviews of the show (thanks to stplsd over at Crosstown Torrents):
The Province (09 September) ‘ENTERTAINMENT AND THE ARTS’, ‘Popscene‘, ‘Jimi Hendrix Provides Experience, with wait’ - review by Brian McLeod: “From an eyrie in a darkened backstage corner of the Pacific Coliseum Saturday night, the milling crowds below looked to be on the brink of violent revolt. Stretched the entire width of the floor area was a cattle fence supported by shoulder to shoulder policemen. On the other side of the barricade was a heaving mass of humanity, anxiously at first, and then angrily awaiting the arrival onstage of Jimi Hendrix.
A harassed and embarrassed disk jockey alternately placated and incited the crowd, and still the lights did not fade for the entrée. Finally someone, anonymous in his long hair, a bohemian of the masses placed a rebel flag on one of the countless amplifiers. A pause. Then the Experience.
Hello Canada, how are you?’ Sardonically spoken to the mass of patient adulation extending on all sides from his towering stage. Hendrix performed erratically at first, although this may not have been as glaringly apparent as usual due to the deadening effect of fatigue on the audience’s senses. He ran through the standard recording star pattern of short renditions including ‘Foxy Lady,’ ‘Fire,’ as well as introducing the blues situation of the ‘Red House.’
On the latter I felt he reached his peak, both vocally and instrumentally. This is a cat who is obviously a sheer tower beside the mediocrity surrounding him. He does not rely on segmented and prolonged periods of interpolation. He is more of a showcase than a pseudo-inspired oracle. In fact, Hendrix glides…”
The Vancouver Sun (09 September) ‘4--Group Rock Bonanza’ - review by Lloyd Dykk: “Granted the man and the myth have blended into one, but even the most cynical efforts to separate the two would have resulted in strong endorsement of the thunderous reception Jimi Hendrix got. He has a special magnetism that draws an audience into the lines of force he generates around him, an embodied spirit of sex, violence and animalism.
Their material ranged from pop-rock to hard-rock to blues and in everything, all improvised, they were an incredibly tight unit with the sort of prescience for what the other was going to do and when, superb bassist Noel Redding arranging simple or complicated riffs around the structures formed by Hendrix and drummer Mitch Mitchell”
The Vancouver Sun (09 September) report by unknown: “Scuffles occurred between police and several members of the audience Saturday night at an electronic music concert at the Pacific Coliseum. Six persons were arrested during the Jimi Hendrix Experience concert which attracted a crowd of more than 10,000.”
Vancouver Free Press (07-13 March 1969) review by Brad Robinson: “To dance. Just under and all around there is concrete, well what did you expect, Jimi Hendrix in Strawberry Fields? Just to dance. The eye does dance when there is nothing else left to dance with, if you just wait long enough.
We all did wait. Just as we all did get stoned, so very stoned merely to see Jimi – that’s spelled with two eyes and he got stoned just to see us. Vancouver, and what he saw with his two eyes, as he did his standard show....
And so he comes on as the bluesman - the first I’ve really seen; the first most of Vancouver has seen. Look, the best thing about the blues is that they collect sadness and maybe that’s why I say these things about Hendrix because sorrow goes with the magical application of his fingers
Georgia Straight (late 1970) article by Brad Robinson: “He wore white, with the white Fender, and a red scarf around one of his legs. He was getting past the showman trip then, he wanted to play music. A lot of us didn’t understand, a lot of us never will. Hendrix and his guitar were not man and machine but much more of a fusion: life and music were made one in the electric heat of his amps....
So when he arrives in Vancouver in September ‘68 he is beginning to forgo the theatrics. He tells all the teeny-boppers and sentimental freaks who scream for the ‘big Hits’ to shove it. ‘Whadya want me to be? A slave to my public? Look, me and my boys have been playing that Mickey Mouse stuff for two years and right now we’re just three guys trying to play a little music together. Dig? And if you don’t dig it, you can leave. That way nobody’s a slave to nobody.’
The ballet of his body is reduced and the ballet of his music increases. A wild new adventurousness sets in as he further explores the music that instructs his fingers, his heart, his head.”
Janie Hendrix: “We rode in the car [‘68 Chrevolet Malibu] that he bought for my parents the first time he visited [12 February 1968]. He was so excited to ride in the car with us” [Jimi Hendrix: Voices From Home by Mary Willix, p. 130].
[June had packed home made food for the 158 mile journey. When Jimi wanted to drive for a while, both June and Al wouldn’t let him - they probably knew about Jimi’s poor eyesight!]
Al Hendrix: “Mitch and Noel went up to Vancouver in the van, and Jimi went with us... Jimi sat beside me in the front seat. My mother and Pearl, my brother Frank’s first wife, were living together in Vancouver at that time, and we stayed at their place. My mom was going with Doug Shawcraft at the time. He was a Britisher, and they came to the show together”
[My Son Jimi by James A. Hendrix, p. 159; p. 161].
Al Hendrix: “Jimi got us good seats and backstage passes - no sweat. There wasn’t any smoking allowed in the Vancouver Arena but I didn’t know that. I had on one of Jimi’s African shirts -he wanted me to wear that - and I put a cigarette in my mouth. A police man started to come up to me to say something, and then he stopped and didn’t bother me. Later on I found out there was no smoking allowed. I said, ‘Ooh, damn. Now why didn’t that guy stop me?’ Shoot, I guess it was because of who I was.
Whoever gave my mom and Doug tickets placed them right in the center, just a little ways back from the stage. Somebody sent word to me that my mother wanted to see me, so I ran down there. ‘Al, this is too close for me,’ she said. ‘I know them guys are going to be loud!’
So we went way up into the rafters... My mother covered up her ears during part of the show... At one point mom was dancing in the aisles while Jimi played. She said, ‘Let me cut the rug,’ and she got up and cut a couple of steps.
When he played a blues song, Jimi said something like, ‘My grandma and my aunt are in the audience, and they don’t really like this other kind of music, so this song’s for them.’ He also dedicated ‘Voodoo Child’ to Pearl... Mom enjoyed the show, of course, but she said to me, ‘Jimi doesn’t have no voice.”
[My Son Jimi by James A. Hendrix, pp. 161-162].
Al Hendrix: “Afterwards the whole entourage went over to where Pearl and my mother lived. Pearl was a good cook, and she had all kinds of food there... We sat up all night at Pearl’s.
[My Son Jimi by James A. Hendrix, p. 162].
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