Classic Rock and Cheap Wine: Jimi Hendrix, Love Beads, and My First Concert
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RHTqFlOP0NM
If you ever want to start a lively conversation among aging baby boomers just ask the question, “What was your first rock concert?”
There is a definite pecking order of impressive answers.
First, is the Beatles. (I have a close friend who wins this prize.) Second, is Led Zeppelin and then there are many possible answers for third place.
For example, my husband’s first concert was The Who, an acceptable contender. Mine was Jimi Hendrix and if you continue reading you might decide to award me the bronze medal for third.
It was June of 1970, and to celebrate our graduation from Newman Junior High in Needham, Massachusetts, three girlfriends and I went to see Jimi Hendrix.
Hendrix was performing at the now iconic Boston Garden, torn down in 1997, but then the home of basketball’s Boston Celtics and hockey’s Boston Bruins.
As we left the subway station and walked towards the concert, a store with the name Now Shop caught our attention. As 15-year-olds we were attuned to all the social and cultural changes taking place, but this store actually offered us the opportunity to change our look from suburban school-girls to “now.”
Shelves were lined with everything needed to dress like a hippie. There were tie-dye shirts, headbands, sandals, peasant blouses, fringed vests, peace symbols and of course piles of love beads. We all were salivating at the merchandise and bought as much as our meager budgets would allow.
My purchases included a small suede pouch with rawhide ties and two love bead necklaces. Now that the Now Shop transformed our look and our attitude, we were ready for Jimi Hendrix.
On stage he lived up to his reputation playing all his great hits including my two favorites, Foxy Lady and Purple Haze.
Hendrix was an amazing performer, but it was the entire rock concert experience that blew me away. The smells, (you know what I mean) the energy of the crowd, and above all, the excitement of being 15 and feeling a part of something that was so hip, cool and “now.” Yes, the times were a changin’ and we were part of that change.
Just seeing Jimi Hendrix would have been memorable enough, but, as fate would have it, this Boston Garden concert on June 27, 1970 was to be his last.
Less than two months later on September 18th, Jimi Hendrix died at the age of 27 of a drug overdose.
Throughout my life I have felt an emotional connection to Jimi Hendrix since his last concert was my first. In fact, I even mentioned this concert as one of my classic rock credentials in the first installment of this silly series.
Now, what shall we drink as you listen to the actual recording of Jimi’s last concert, showcased at the top of this piece?
Since you are reading about an event that happened to me 42 years ago, that means I am old and old people must drink lots of red wine to sustain their heart health.
The cheap wine recommendation this week is Acacia Pinot Noir. The label reads: “An elegant wine with strong black cherry flavors and an unexpected hint of violet and spice that we believe conveys the essence of California Pinot Noir.”
Yea, yea, who writes this label dribble? I just like the stuff, especially when it is on sale, but can never taste the flavors the label says I am supposed to taste.
So let’s raise our glasses to the legendary music of Jimi Hendrix and a group of once “hip” 15-year-olds who wore love beads to their first rock concert that turned out to be both historic, tragic and unforgettable.
You were 15 and old. I had already been to war and back. I know the smells you’re talkin of.
Don’t know about the wine but Jimi Hendrix was an amazing musician. He, unlike so many classic rock figures, has had staying power over the years. Even in today’s time many aspiring guitar players look to Hendrix for inspiration.
My first concert was Elvis Presley in 1972. He was at his peak then, and to this day I’ve never seen a better performer.
My second concert was Kiss in 1977. My third concert was Black Sabbath in 1978.
After those three, the only comparable bands I’ve seen were the Grateful Dead and the Rolling Stones. U2 and the Talking Heads were pretty good, but not on the same level.
I never got to see Hendrix, but I did see Stevie Ray Vaughan on numerous occasions, mostly at nightclubs, and he could play Hendrix like no one but Hendrix.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S54ieVte77s
Elvis scores you a solid third place after Beatles and Zeppelin.
Is that OK? Or should you rank higher? My pecking order of impressive bands for first concert is totally up for discussion.
Jimi died from inhaling his vomit, which basically drowned him, not from an overdose.
Stevie mostly played one aspect of Jimi, the blues side. Listen to May This Be Love from Are You Experienced, or for that matter anything from that album. Stevie probably could have and did cop some some of that. Along with many. But no one to date has copped that vibe.
Time and place. Jimi was first with so many things.
Heh. My parents took me to my first concert when I was about 13. It was Chicagofest (under Mayor Jane Byrne), and the headliner was Alice Cooper! The show wasn’t very interesting to me, but I remember running around trying to get into the background of a local TV broadcast.
Second concert (with them) was Simon and Garfunkel at County Stadium in Milwaukee on the “Concert In Central Park” followup tour. We were way back and the sound was extremely muffled, so I wasn’t very impressed by the whole experience.
First concert without my parents was Pink Floyd at County Stadium in 1987. I was with my sister and four other friends. We got the time wrong and showed up hours early — about when the parking lot opened. Since we had nothing else to do we went in right when the gates opened, realized that virtually no one was there yet, and ran right up to the front of the lawn, maybe 15 feet back from the rail. We were absolutely blown to pieces by the amazing power and intensity of the music, sound system and light show as seen right up front. We didn’t have any drugs but none were needed. That was when I first realized how amazing a rock concert could be. So I consider that my first “real” rock concert.
Nice topic for reminiscing!
First concert was Rolling Stones at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, NY in 1981. Was going to SU at the time too. The acoustics weren’t too bad, either.
from what i have heard (from witnesses and recordings)- many of hendrix’s live gigs were totally hit or miss
the spinal tap scene where nigel was getting air force radio traffic through his rig was a common ordeal for hendrix and it drove him (jimi) nuts
his technique was/is nearly unrivaled (playing rhythm and lead simultaneously)
his stage presence was indomitable but also a bane (most people wanted “wild thing” and guitar burnings and could not handle the sonic conjourings which became the trademark of the hendrix sound)
congrats if you got to witness a solid gig
I saw Led Zep on what was I think their third US tour, April 3 1970 in the Macon GA Coliseum as my first rock concert.
Congrats David Avera! You are a solid #2 on my impressive first concert list.
Now, is there anyone out there who can capture the #1 spot? Someone who saw the Beatles as their first concert?
(Besides you Mr. J.W. from Virginia. You are the person I am referring to as my friend in the piece. And Mr. J.W. also had the distinction of attending President John Kennedy’s inaugural parade as a Boy Scout.) Obviously J.W. is a walking history book!
In August of 1965, I paid the then-princely sum of $5 to see the Beatles at Atlanta Stadium, their first and only appearance in ATL and my first concert. Rode “The Dog” to ATL, took the bus from the old downtown Greyhound station to the old Atlanta Stadium down next to where Turner Field is now. Walked and took the bus to a cousin’s house for the night and took The Dog back home the next day. Either I was just young and dumb – and lucky, just shy of 16, or it really was safe for a white kid to walk and ride the bus in that part of ATL in those days. There isn’t enough money in the World to get me to walk and ride the bus from the old Greyhound Station to the old stadium site today. That was the only concert I ever went to where there wasn’t “that smell.” In fact, it was an amazingly straightlaced, even wholesome affair and most everybody was dressed like they were going to school or some such; those were still the days of dress codes, after all, and hair that touched your collar was long and skirts that didn’t touch a girls knees were short.
Your Hendrix concert may have been his last in Boston but it wasn’t his last concert. I saw him at the Second Atlanta Festival in Byron, GA a few days later on July 3 or 4, 1970, can’t remember if it was the evening before July 4th or the 4th itself. In fact my memory of the whole thing is pretty “hazy.” I remember he and the bass player, think Noel Redding was gone by then, each had a wall of Marshall amps and Hendrix had a purple headband. They sent up big red parachute flares as Hendrix had sex with his Strat to make it produce The Star-Spangled Banner, or at least it seemed like that.
Saw Zeppelin on their first US tour at the First Atlanta Festival the year before and was also at the Macon concert David Avera refers to; damn was that loud; I thought Zeppelin was loud outdoors. I’m talking music you feel at a cellular level! The year before, Zeppelin closed with “Dazed and Confused,” at Macon they opened with it and it went from there. Again, very “hazy” memories, but I remember Page had on red boots and sat on a stool for some solo guitar.
Jethro Tull @ Newport Jazz Festival. 9th Grade, jumped the fence, we kept asking which one is Jethro?
Late winter of ’64 we were still in a funk caused by Kennedy’s Assassination and not yet into the hoopla of the Johnson-Goldwater campaign. Saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan’s in NY, and they were to entertain down the East Coast: Washington and Miami. Manage to get tickets to sold-out Washington show in the round. Ringo was in the middle and on an elevated, rotating platform. They had made the mistake of saying that they like jelly-beans, so we all brought a supply. When the music started the crowd pelted the stage with jelly-beans trying to hit any of the Fab-Four, though Ringo was the principal target. He was up there turning on the platform, dodging the beans. Kids in the lower rows were pelted by the incoming from the other side. It was a blast!
Hate to steal any of your thunder but Jimi was yet to play the Isle of Wight festival when you saw him, and his last concert was in Amsterdam, a few weeks later and his positively last stage appearance a jam with Eric Burdon’s War at Ronnie Scott’s club in London on September 17th.
As for me I was 14 when I sneaked away to see Don McClean play in London’s Hyde Park. Don’t recall the smells but I was struck that the folk in front of me put cardboard filters into their roll-your-own cigarettes. I’d never seen anybody do that before.
Myra, love this series. My first concert was Frank Zappa, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show and The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, 1973, Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke University. All I can remember is Zappa’s red guitar, and I’m not even too sure of the veracity of that memory.
Gaelic park in the Bronx. Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead in one show 1969, 12 years old (yeah, it took some lying to the parents). What do I remember? Grace Slick showed her breasts, I took my first hit of marijuans from a joint being passed around, and I felt like I really “arrived” as a wanna-be hippie kid from Yonkers. Subsequent years saw a lot of shows: Zappa, Stones, a very early Aerosmith (playing warm up for the Kinks at Fordham College!), the Tubes, King Crimson and later Blondie, the Ramones and the Dictators when CBGB’s was just getting underway. Perhaps the two all time greatest for me where Alice Cooper on the Killer tour (at the old Academy of Music) and, I guess hands down, Bowie on the Ziggy Stardust tour at Radio City Hall without ANY idea of what to expect going in. I too, love this series. Amazing times!
Really appreciate you all “loving this series.” Every week I am searching the bowels of my brain trying to figure out what to write!
I witnessed my first concert, also performed by Jimi Hendrix on the same national tour as Myra witnessed, and no more than six months before his passing. It was at Cobo Hall, in Detroit.
I was an early 15 year old and my older brother drove me, and used the ticket I had purchased for a particular girl I failed to make ‘a real first date’ with.
I was never the ‘same old guy’ again, and was astounded by this performance.
After that there was a gap but the 70′s was a joy in many different venues.
Iggy and early Springsteen at The Michigan Palace, Alice Cooper, Steppenwolf plus Pink Floyd doing D S O T Moon at The Olympia, Guy and Wells with Steve Miller headlining at Pine Knob, Jethro Tull at Cobo, and ‘a few others’ besides.
But Jimi was The First and I damn near went into shock upon hearing of his passing and the pointless, kinda’ stupid manner of it all.
Driving it was one of the First FM stations, WABX here in Detroit.That part of the dial plays New Country now, and it’s painful to think of,as it cannot and will not ever come around again, in my lifetime.
We had Public WDET/Wayne State to listen to and enjoy (really hard to believe that it ever was here} and That Vanished {replaced by non-stop Blather} a very few years ago.
Thanks for the jump start, Myra.
Keep searching and know, you’re doing just fine…….[need suggestions?]