THE TIMES UNION - “Thank You Anyway” by Skip Mylenski :
”Jimi Hendrix has a message for you Rochesterarians, and it has nothing to do with Purple Haze, or Foxy Lady, or Hey Joe. It’s about you as an audience and he don’t like it one bit. “This is the last song and I’d like to say this is the draggiest gig on the tour. Thank you anyway.” WAAAAAAAAwaaaaAAAaaa! He played to about 4,000 of you at the War Memorial last night, showing little of the flair, or the intensity, or the dynamics that have sold him out on his current tour, but rather more content with the biting comments and the sarcastic wit. “This is dedicated to the one out there who’s doin’ all the screamin’ for which he paid good money for something he could have stayed at home and done in the toilet.” Not a real literary chap, but he gets his point across.
Oh sure, he played a little with his teeth, like he’s supposed to, and jumped on the guitar and even once threw it behind his back and, for a moment, it looked like the real thing would come out. But the best action of the night was the gendarmes, with their billy clubs and flashlights, trying to see how many kids they could keep from taking pictures.
The whole thing just didn’t seem right, and Hendrix was right when he said “I wish this here were a funky club, where you were up here by me, instead of back there behind the wall.” For with him the walls are down and the only barriers that are around are for the crossing if you dare.
Hendrix, an American Negro from Seattle, along with his two English side kicks, never really had a chance, getting their biggest reaction during the final number when he called you dirty names and made all those suggestive motions.
Which should have been expected, but wasn’t, and that’s why he thought this was the draggiest gig.”
Sujet: Rochester (Community War Memorial) : 21 mars 1968 
Mar 13 Juil 2010 - 20:59
