Recollections of Jimi Hendrix and so much more! (cont.)

Buzzy: So anyway, Muruga ran up to ME, exclaiming: "You Gotta hear this guy! You GOTTA hear this guy on the guitar RIGHT NOW, downstairs! He's playing guitar RIGHT NOW...go in there!" So I said: "Okay, I'm going in there anyhow! I WORK there, so I'm going in there! So he said "You GOTTA HEAR HIM!" and AGAIN I said "OKAY! I'M GOING, I'M GOING already!" Later, Muruga and I were doing a live interview on the radio, and discovered that WE were indeed "the other guy" in our stories! When people would ask me "How great was Jimi Hendrix?" I would always say: "Jimi was SO great that as I approached the club that he was rehearsing in, a guy came RUNNING out of the club (The Cafe Au Go Go, in Greenwich Village) telling EVERYONE to get in there and hear this guy!" And Muruga – when he would tell the story of how he first met Jimi Hendrix – Muruga would say: "He was SOOO great that I went screaming up the stairs to find people to tell them to hear this guy on guitar!" So THAT is how I remember Hendrix-how GOOD Hendrix was! So unbelievably incredible!   It was like watching a guy doing magic tricks!

Shirley: Wow!

Buzzy: And he could honestly toss a guitar through the air and play it as it came by! You know? REALLY! REALLY! There's actually a CURRENT guy who can do the same thing now!   I'll give you his name at the end of this interview, so you can recommend him!

Shirley: Oh yes!

Buzzy: Cause it CAN be done! So I went downstairs, and saw Jimi Hendrix and his band "Jimi James & The Blue Flames" and they were just rehearsing at 5 P.M. in the afternoon with John Hammond (noted Folk singer and son of the late John Hammond Sr.). They were just REHEARSING, with Jimi's band backing John! So that's how impressive Jimi was! So...next thing that I remember, his first album came out and somebody brought it to us to listen to!   At that time, our band had a set up that was a 28" color t.v. oscilloscope that would "translate" whatever music you were listening to into a color oscilloscope signal. Do you know what I'm talking about? Do you know what that would be like? 

Shirley: Umm...that would be...as I recall...similar to when you're using Windows Media Player and the colorful design comes on and it moves and pulsates. 

Buzzy: They make it EASIER now, huh! Oh! Thank you for telling me about that! It was one of my most FAVORITE things! Now you can get a linear set up where it's just a straight line. Or you can put the line into a round circle...like an eggy circle. I remember we used to be able to set it up so it would actually show the spectral colors! 

Shirley: So how did you and Jimi get together-doing your first rehearsals? 

Buzzy: OH! But it WASN'T like that, though! 

Shirley: Oh. 

Buzzy: First of all, we took his album and the first time we ever heard it, we WATCHED it too! So that's one of the things I'll always remember! I was part of a band called "The Seventh Sons" who were a communal type thing. Most of us lived in the same space: a BIG loft we had downtown. It became a famous place, because Jimi and (Bob)Dylan and Mike Bloomfield and a whole bunch of real important geniuses did some jamming there and some performing there that we think actually CHANGED music, you know? Some of it! 

Shirley: Wow! I WON'T disagree! 

Buzzy: Well at the loft, we heard and watched Jimi's first album on those 28"! Next thing that happened was the phone rang and our drummer Serge answered it. He then hangs up and says to his wife: "Babe, get some food!" He then turns to US and says: "That was Buddy Miles! He's coming over and he's bringing JIMI! So we wanna clean this place up and have it looking GOOD!" So Buddy brought Jimi over and we played for a good, long time! And this happened on MANY occasions! And a couple of the times...well, ALL of them were memorable!   But there was one in particular when he came over and dropped acid pretty near to the beginning of the visit and spent EIGHT hours with us ... NEVER stopped playing even long enough to take a break to pee or take a drink! 

Buzzy: He (Jimi) never stopped playing his guitar all that evening! It was some AMAZING thing to watch! He was GREAT: like watching some great baseball player or something like that...like watching a magician! You would have been interested is ALL I can say!   And he was SO NICE! He was SO KIND! You know, you can be sitting there watching the Late-Night News and they're gonna mention Jimi and say: "The GREATEST guitarist in the WORLD, blah blah blah" and you KNOW that they're gonna pull out one of those two file things where he lights his guitar on fire, right? Well, Jimi only did that TWICE, did you know that? And it was like … practically a BET! Part of it was SO funny, because he WAS being funny! There wasn't a violent bone in his heart! What in particular did you want to stress about Jimi? 

Shirley: I think you've covered very well what I've always heard about Jimi by folks who REALLY knew him: that he was a GENUINELY kind and gentle man-very caring! 

Buzzy: You know, at Harvard, two very respected doctors...they were Albert and Leary...were doing experiments with LSD. At that time, it wasn't yet cited to be a BAD substance … not until 6-6-66! Did you know that? So some of us kept going AFTER the war was over ... over after the war had BEGUN ... but ALOT of us didn't consider it to be a dangerous substance and were using it for what WE felt were very, very spiritual reasons ... we were having these experiences! One day, Richard Albert – who's now know as Baba Ramdas – came over to talk with me 'cause he was on a team who were translating some of these great new passages that were portions of The Dead Sea Scrolls!   It was pretty much nothing more than beatitudes … you know, like ... umm … like "The frog of life is under the wastebasket in the dirt!" 

Shirley: (Laughs) 

Buzzy: You know - THAT kind of thing, LOL! Hell, I don't know what it was! But apparently, I was really RIPPED when entertaining a house FULL of people and kinda maybe channeling things WITHOUT knowing it: just letting my mind be open and then saying things and writing a song-writing things off the top of my head! Maybe just 25 or 30 people there at our beautiful "jamming" loft. So, a few nights later, they completed a translation from a line from The Dead Sea Scrolls. It was a really cool little thing-a little Benjamin Franklin type of thing ... maybe a Mark Twain kinda thing! So they completed this translation and it was real CUTE and they were shaking hands and saying: "Now THAT makes sense! That MUST be it, blah blah blah!" And then one of the guys there at the loft speaks up and tells them: "Hey guys! BUZZY said that at a party last Saturday!" 

Shirley: (Laughs) So SEE! You didn't know you were channeling GOD! That's where the LSD came in, right? 

Buzzy: I thought I was just trying to get LAID! I didn't know! I didn't know!  

Shirley: (at this point STUPID with laughter) 

Buzzy: So, I don't know if, where or when it all came together but Ramdas came over to meet me. And I don't know what it meant completely yet-totally-in the end. But they were very MAGICAL years back then! And if somebody asked you a question, you could say: "Hey! I DON'T know!" or "I'm not SURE I don't know!" or "I THINK that I'm not sure!" Whatever you want! But to assure somebody that you had the undeniable answer to ANYTHING seemed SOOO important when you were on acid...that is, to CERTAIN types of people! Certain types of people would see that as their chance to....you know...if somebody KNOWS the world is NOT flat then HEY! They're YOURS! Do whatever you want to with 'em! But Hendrix ... he was too ... Dylan handled it differently! Dylan would get really, really aggravated at DEEP questions! He would sometimes be VERY rude! 

Shirley: I can easily believe that! 

Buzzy: I was sitting at a table with Dylan and Albert Grossman, and a woman came in the door and it seemed to me that she was obviously on ACID: she almost CRAWLED across the floor to the table where we were at! She GENUFLECTED: almost like something from Mecca! SOMETHING was going on! She FINALLY got over-finally reached the table-and said: "Bob, blah blah blah …!" Well, it was OBVIOUS by the time she reached there HOW she felt about him! It was almost unnecessary to go into part of it, but she started on page TWO-rather than cut to the chase! When she finished her ONE statement, Dylan said: "Yeah, well why don't you just get under the table and give us ALL head?!" 

Shirley: JESUS! What a CHARMER! 

Buzzy: Well, it WOULD seem like just a RUDE statement. But what he was saying when you listened CLOSELY was that she was giving up herself and her soul, you know? It was very deep! But the people at the next table DID NOT understand all this! They went and told somebody that "Dylan is THE RUDEST guy we've EVER seen!" Now, I KNEW what he was saying. But I was HORRIFIED! I was really horrified and embarrassed!

Shirley: I can imagine! 

Buzzy: Well, we had NEVER ... I did say "Poo" in front of my Mom ... ONCE! 

Shirley: You sound like ME, Buzzy! I was the same! 

Buzzy: Ahh ... but I was in ALOT of trouble for that "Poo"! It was the WRONG poop! 

Anyway, Jimi was SO concerned about exactly HOW he answered every question that I saw him go for WEEKS without speaking! If/when he DID speak, he might talk about something but certainly not OTHER things! He had a really gentle heart and sarcastic wit! Bless him for trying to be SO specific, but he got asked THE SAME questions that Dylan did!